Living In the World, Not on It

I watched a particularly effective episode of Harry's Law , a show that airs on Wednesday nights on NBC at 21:00. This is not your typical offering and I will also admit to being a big fan of David E. Kelley's shows. This is another law show, but not just another law show. It has its serious topics and its less serious topics but it is a lot more interesting... the scenarios posted and the responses to them. Last Wednesday, on 9 November, the episode centered around two things. Harry goes on vacation in a Mercedes Benz truck where in the town of Langford, she is pulled over. The reason? The mayor of the town (well played by George Wendt) made an ordinance that no one shall own, operate or otherwise bring a foreign-made vehicle into their town. They wanted her to pay $1,000 fine for this ridiculousness and she wouldn't. This is not where I am going with this. The second case that comes to the office is the less amusing side of the story. A couple from China c...

For Luis: Golden leaves looked brown to me. The world had less color without you Shapes in the sky looked plain to my eyes The world had less color without you I... know... plenty of people with eyes... closed they don't see you like I do Darling I do Notes on the keys meant nothing to me The world didn't sing without you Birds in the trees fell silent for me The world didn't sing without you Without you... Oh I... know... plenty of people with eyes... closed they don't see you like I do Darling I do Darling I do See you I.. know.. plenty of people with eyes.. closed.. They don't see you like I ... I.. know.. plenty of people with eyes.. closed.. They don't see you like I... I.. know.. plenty of people with eyes.. closed.. They don't see you like I do Darling I do Darling I do Darling I do I do Darling I do Darling I do See you. By Landon Pigg and Lucy Schwartz

This was the last periodical prior to the United States Civil War. On page 3: 'HINTS AND HOME THOUGHTS FOR 1860. The matter of insurance against fire is so important, and so apt to be neglected, that I would ask if you have attended to it ? Is the policy all right, and at a responsible office ? --I suppose you are aware that the surest way to destroy your own health is to constantly be drinking of other people.-- The exercise of prudence, perseverance, and manly energy, will prevent you from having to read, as Jerrold says, "those hard words, want and poverty, in the iron book of daily life."-- Keep your soul open to the sunshine, for if your heart gets clouded with discontent and impatience, you will find the pleasantest place on earth dark and disagreeable.-- Never open the door to a small vice, lest a large one enter.' This goes on for quite sometime... As this was printed in 1859, James Buchanan was still in office from 1857. He didn't know at the time that Ab...

When I was A little baby A mamma's boy No one could save me From those kids at school They would bully They would tease They would taunt me Haunt me "You're such a pretty boy" "You're such a pretty boy" "You're such a pretty boy" "You're such a pretty boy" Fear I grew up so scared The bible belt Redneck lifestyle One day I'll fly free In the airplanes "Where's my seat? Where's my champagne?" Champagne ... I'm such a pretty boy I'm such a pretty boy I'm such a pretty boy I'm such a pretty boy Heaven knows the lengths I'd go To please them every day They don't even notice when I'm Down Such a pretty boy Such a pretty boy Such a pretty boy I'm such a pretty boy Hotels were closed And the airport was clean I was stranded alone In my southwest dream Hotels were closed And the airport was clean I was stranded alone In my southwest dream I love this...

When one saves a life, the last thing one wants to find themselves asking is, "Was this worth it?" I find I ask more often than I like. It is one thing to bring back someone who had a heart attack that was a freaky thing. It is entirely another to bring back people who are 20-something or 30-something who helped themselves to get to this point with drugs. (Sadly, the drug of choice in Parsippany is heroin. This is a bigger death sentence than the usual drug choices.) When you walk into a room to find a young person receiving CPR, it is shocking. When I did CPR on people who were in their 50s and up, it is fairly cut and dry. Overexertion leads to too much stress on the heart and someone who has been ignoring their health goes down. When we have a positive outcome, that person almost always goes on to use that second chance to really turn their lives into healthy, active living. It's amazing. And if you run into them on the street, you see a wholly different person. The de...

By Robert Frost TWO TRAMPS IN MUD TIME Out of the mud two strangers came And caught me splitting wood in the yard, And one of them put me off my aim By hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!" I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind And let the other go on a way. I knew pretty well what he had in mind: He wanted to take my job for pay. Good blocks of oak it was I split, As large around as the chopping block; And every piece I squarely hit Fell splinterless as a cloven rock. The blows that a life of self-control Spares to strike for the common good, That day, giving a loose my soul, I spent on the unimportant wood. The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March. A bluebird comes tenderly up to aligh...

This morning: "Mexico's Newest Icon: 22-Year-Old Miss Universe From flags to Facebook, 22-year-old Jimena Navarrete has quickly made it clear what she plans to promote as the world's newest Miss Universe — her home country of Mexico. "I want the whole world to know about my country and my people," the Guadalajara native said after beating 82 competitors for global bragging rights at the pageant in Las Vegas. "I imagine that they're all going crazy in Mexico right now," she said through an interpreter. "I'm extremely proud and I'm sure they're very proud, too." She donned a flowing red dress, strutted confidently in a violet bikini, and said onstage that the Internet is indispensable and requires parents to impart family values. The model-turned pageant queen then posed for pictures with a Mexican flag and Mexico's last Miss Universe as congratulations from her countrymen came pouring in. "Her triumph is a s...

Yes, I'm up too late. And I'm shakey, so I'm bolting some food down so I can be unshakey enough to get in the shower... In the month of April, I have posted 25 separate posts. Of those 25, eight of them are articles. So the question before me is this: can I put up a minimum of 5 original posts for the rest of April? Or can I pull the rabbit out of my hat and put up 13 original posts so that the eight articles are just interesting extras and truly on average I will have posted 1 posting a day? I like the latter myself. Rules: no posts about work; no posts that are less than a goodly length paragraph. I have a post from Boston that was a little short... but maybe I can (or already have and forgotten) beef it up a bit; no posts comprised solely of images - the images must fit with enough text that they are not touching. If you, my crazy and dedicated readers feel there should be more rules or something I have not covered yet, you can e-mail me at emt.wench@yahoo.com . Thanks! ...

I concede that you were right about this place I can make a perfect likeness of your body if I trace I can hold you until you turn out the light and I can't see Do you believe that we are all innately good Do you think that you would love me until tomorrow if you could Would you please turn down the radio so we can speak I put my hands around your neck You wrap your arms around me Put my hands around your neck You wrap your arms around me I put my hands around your neck And you wrap your arms around me I regret every time I raised my voice And it wouldn't be that bright of me to say I had no choice. I can kiss your eyes your hair your neck until we forget I concede that you were right about this place I can make a perfect likeness of your body if I trace I can hold you until we turn out the light and I can't see I can't see.

After I finished listening to Bill Engvall this morning, I put on Barenaked Ladies (yes, that is the name of a musical group). I love Barenaked Ladies and I haven't really listened to them in some time. I'm happy I did. I know the lyrics to a huge percentage of their songs, and I remembered them all. It's amazing what the brain holds on to. What is more amazing is how memories are evoked by certain songs or odors or visuals - although more often than not visuals do not actually stir memories. The song that really got me today was When I Fall . I was listening to that song when I pulled up to this house around 0700 the morning of 1 October 2002 with my parents van loaded with two cats, their things, and all the kitchen stuff. Talk about a big moment. We had sold our house on the other side of town and bought this one. I sat in the van with this song playing and cried... not sad crying, just a strong emotional response to this. I know, we moved four miles away but it is still...

I'm watching a charming British movie, Kinky Shoes . I find these movies and they sound good. This one certainly did not look like anything else I've seen, but then, neither are Blow Dry , The Full Monty , Bridget Jones' Diary , and Calendar Girls . These are all wonderful movies and not so predictable as are American movies. (I will note that Bridget Jones' Diary appears to be an American made movie, but it is not. It did make a splash here, with American actress Renee Zelleweger, who did an excellent job in this movie and reprised the roll in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason .) The shoe company, which originally made mens shoes, was founded in 1895. Must have been a good year. I was in the loo, reading about the making of t-shirts, and there was a reference to James Dean wearing a skin-tight tee in Rebel Without a Cause , and I was thinking that I had a thing for James Dean many years ago. And people would say to me, "Oh, James Dean was before your time." ...

This was the most thoroughly amusing - and abjectly frightening - article: 'Bush tops English Gobbledegook Poll Posted Wed Sep 9, 2009 11:45pm AEST Former US president George W Bush topped a poll of the worst examples of mangled English, followed closely by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Rumsfeld. French footballer-cum philosopher Eric Cantona and former US president Bill Clinton also produced prime examples of gobbledegook, according to the online poll of 4,000 people inspired by the Plain English Campaign. Notoriously language-challenged Mr Bush romped to the top accolade for his: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." Second came bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-California governor Schwarzenegger, who during an election campaign in 2003 minted the puzzling: "I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman." The rest of the top 10...

Yes, I know, not my usual flavour of show. But, as with so many shows, this is all Luis' fault! A few Sundays ago, a new off-season show (guaranteed to keep people as television junkies throughout their days) started called Drop Dead Diva . At first I thought this is some wierd teenage depressing soap opera like The Life of the American Teenager (total garbage) or 90210 but this surprised me. Luis liked the premise and when he told me about it, I could not miss the opportunity. A young, cute, perfectly figured woman is killed and in a mix up where she thought she'd be going to heaven, she reached forward, hit the enter key on a keyboard and ended up alive again... in the not perfectly figured, young or cute body of another woman. The person she becomes? A successful lawyer who earns big money, has quite the brain, weighs more than I do and is not fast-tracking it to becoming a model. Here is the fun part: the diva, Deb, cute, sexy, brainless and vacuous, now has Jane's ov...

READ THIS: LET IT REALLY SINK IN - THEN CHOOSE. John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing,he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or... you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or... I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their c...

It was gratifying to find this article, as both my husband and I had watched that episode and found him to be abusive, and not merely someone defending his way of life when a stranger comes into the fold to impose their views - the more typical reaction. This man seemed to lump all middle Americans into the same mold. And of course, the producers of Wife Swap were perfectly happy to exploit that by finding the epitome of what his idea of middle America is. While normally the shows have a "all's well that ends well" mentality and the outcome generally shows the promise and adaptability to new ways of thinking, see the world, seeing your kids and how you react to situations, in this case it was an abyssmal failure. Even myself, normally quite the anglophile, found myself wanting to forcibly send Fowler back across the pond. I was moved enough to post something about this... I'll find that posting and put it in here. --Aislinge It's 2009, the end of a decade which...

Sunday, January 25th, 2009 New meme from this site . I know it’s not real content, but in a way, it can be. It depends on how you answer these. Some of the questions on memes can be prompts for real content, albeit short content. Anyway… 1. If you could say anything you wanted to say to George Bush, what would you say? Thank the gods you are done in the White House, and what were you thinking? Or were you? 2. If you had to be the mother of Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan, who would you choose and why? Oh, ye gods. You have some really hard questions... they are both awful. I would have to disown them. OK. Seriously... I would have to pick Lindsay Lohan... for all her fuck-ups, which are considerable, she has not had any children. I'd recommend she'd get her tubes tied. I'd feel that at least while she doesn't have a good place in her life, at least she is only responsible for hers and can take the time to get it all in a better state. Britney has missed that boat and sh...

Nothing can survive in a vacuum No one can exists all alone We pretend things only happen to strangers We've all got problems of our own It's enough to learn to share our pleasures We can't soothe pain with sympathy All that we can do is be reminded We shake our heads at the tragedy Every day we're standing in a time capsule Racing down a river from the past Every day we're standing in a wind tunnel Facing down the future coming fast Looking at the long range forecast Catching all the names in the news Checking out the state of the nation Learning the environmental blues Truth is after all a moving target Hairs to split, and pieces that don't fit How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is after all so poorly lit It's just the age It's just a stage We disengage We turn the page Every day we're standing in a time capsule (It's just a stage) We disengage, we turn the page Racing down the river running fast Every day we're standing in a wind tunnel...

Scared of losing all the time He wrote it in a letter He was a friend of mine He heard you could see your future Inside a glass of water The ripples and the rhymes He asked Will I see heaven in mine? That is just the way it was Nothing could be better And nothing ever was Oh they say you could see your future, Inside a glass of water With riddles and the rhymes Will I see heaven in mine? Oh Oh Oh Ah Son, don't ask, Neither how full nor empty is your glass Cling to the mast Spend your whole life living in the past Going nowhere fast So he wrote it on the wall The hollowest of halos Is no halo at all Televisions said and past In figurines and leaders saying nothing at all And he chimed stars in heaven aligned Oh Oh Oh Ah Son, don't ask, Neither how full nor empty is your glass Cling to the mast Spend your whole life living in the past Going nowhere fast What are we drinking when were done? Glasses of water...

Smoke is rising from the houses People burying their dead I ask somebody what the time is But time doesn't matter to them yet People talking without speaking Trying to take what they can get I ask you if you remember Prospekt, how could I forget? Drums, here it comes Don't you wish that life can be as simple As fish swimming round in a barrel? When you've got the gun Oh when I run, here it comes We're just two little figures in a soup bowl Trying to get to any kind of control But I wasn't one Now here I lie on my own in a separate sky Here I lie on my own in a separate sky I don't wanna die on my own here tonight But here I lie on my own in a separate sky

You won't believe me... it makes me think of Chef. He told me that these things are called Amusez la bouche - it translates into "amuse the mouth" and I see the apprentices do it all the time. This is not the best image, but it looks just like any of the little one or two-bite teasers that our kitchen produces for fine dining events. They are really amazing, and I do take images when I can. I'll have to fish around for a better one. This one was on the meme here. I know I drive the Chef a little nuts... but I love learning, and this is how to do it - by asking. I have to say that when I get him at the right time (as in not during the dinner rush - he seems to enjoy teaching as much as I enjoy learning. I'll never be a cook, but maybe that makes it all the more enjoyable for him - I'm learning just for the sheer joy of it and not for some culinary gain. That has to be appealing. Shockingly, I can pronounce a lot of the below listed terms: Kitchen brigade Chef ...