Blogaversary

I just realized that I missed my one year blogaversary. I started this blog on January 19th, 2005. So HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY to me.

I really don't know how much longer I will continue with this blog. I know my 3 loyal readers will be disappointed, but I'll just have to see how things go.

I wanted to take this time to say Congratulations to the Queen. Queen Latifah that is. My girl has made history as the first hip-hop artist, male or female, to land a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Latifah's star is the 2,298th to be awarded.

If you would like some words to live by or words to help you get through your day check out the Puritan Quote of the Week.

"I have heard it said that the architecture of Atlanta is rococola."
-John Gunther

Doglopedia

Over the weekend I was reading Planet Dog: A Doglopedia by Sandra Choron and Harry Choron. I got this from the library, but I can see purchasing this very charming book in the future.

This highly entertaining book has absolutely everything you want to know about dogs and then some. It's chock full of doggie quotes, over 300 dog-centric lists to include 8 Weird Laws About Dogs,66 Great Dog Movies and 25 Poor Excuses for Giving Up Your Dog. There are book recomendations, dog factoids and website recommendations. There is information on breeds, life expectancy of each breed, nicknames for different breeds and dog show terminology.

I especially enjoyed the dogs in literature section and all of the information on why not to buy your puppy from a pet store. (i can't believe this is still done). This book also contains a guide to how to say "dog" in 131 languages (kringmerk is Inuit for dog), tells about children raised by dogs, a list of the gassiest and noisiest dogs and discusses the many jobs performed by dogs-my favorite- bovine estrus detector. You guessed it, these dogs sniff out the cows ready for mating.

This book is an absolute must for those who love our furry friends or for those who enjoy trivia presented in an easy to read, entertaining format.

"The poor dog, in life the firmest friend, the first to welcome, foremost to defend." Lord Byron

Friday Round Up

One of my favorite products is WD-40. Now it comes in a convenient no mess pen form. Whoopee!!!!

Oxford University Press, the world's largest university press in has a blog.

Check out these ultra-cool thermoses at Flax Art & Design. Little steep for my pocket, but nevertheless nice.

An online source for all sorts of recalls.

Laptop lunches has some nice lunchboxes, lunch sacks and bento boxes.

I don't know how many of you out there remember the singer Lesley Gore, but she's back. She actually never left. Oh, how I adored her. I can remember listening to It's My Party and Sunshine,Lollipops and Rainbows and thinking I want to sound just like her when I grow up. But, the song that one song that she recorded that gets me every time is You Don't Own Me. Apparently she is still recording and still performing. I would love to see her perform.

Everyone enjoy the long weekend. Happy Birthday Dr. King!!!

"We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you. Then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword. And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations that failed to follow this command. We must follow nonviolence and love." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nom de Guerre

I was perusing an old copy of a World Almanac the other day and thinking what a nifty little print resource it is. One of my favorite sections is the Original Names of Selected Entertainers section. With my fascination with names this section has always been fun for me to read.

Now I think most people know that John Wayne's birth name was Marion Morrison and that Twiggy is really Leslie Hornby, but what about these:

Alan Alda/ Alphonso D'Abruzzo
Julie Andrews/ Julia Wells
Anne Bancroft/ Anna Maria Louisa Italiano
Orson Bean/ Dallas Frederick Burrows
Pat Benetar/ Patricia Andrejewski
Bono/ Paul Hewson
Michael Caine/ Maurice Mickelwhite
Dyan Cannon/ Samile Diane Friesen
Diahann Carroll/ Carol Diahann Johnson
Arthur C. Clark/ E.G. O'Brien
Samuel Coleridge/ Nehemiah Higginbottom
Peter Coyote/ Peter Cohon
Tom Cruise/ Thomas Mapother IV
Bo Diddley/ Elias Bates
Kirk Douglas/ Issur Danielovitch Demsky
Jenna Elfman/ Jennifer Mary Butala
E.T.'s voice/ Patricia A. Welsh
Gerald R. Ford/ Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
Jodie Foster/ Alicia Christian Foster
Kathie Lee Gifford/ Kathie Epstein
Whooopi Goldberg/ Caryn Johnson
Susan Hayward/ Edythe Marrener
Heloise/ Eloise Cruse Bowles Reese
Heloise II/ Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans
Billie Holiday/ Eleanora Fagan
Ice-T/ Tracy Morrow
Wynnona Judd/ Christine Ciminella
Joyce Kilmer/ Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Hedy Lamarr/ Hedwig Kiesler
Queen Latifah/ Dana Owens
Elle Macpherson/ Eleanor Gow
Chico Marx/ Leonard Marx
Groucho Marx/ Julius Marx
Gummo Marx/ Milton Marx
Harpo Marx/ Adolph Marx
Zeppo Marx/ Herbert Marx
Demi Moore/ Demetria Guynes
Chuck Norris/ Carlos Ray
Notorious B.I.G./ Christopher Wallace
Old Yeller/ Spike
Queen of Voicemail: Marsha Graham [aka The Voice] (actress/official voice of many commercial voice-mail systems
The Rock/ Dwayne Johnson
Meg Ryan/ Margaret Hyra
Vangelis/ Evangelos Papathanassiou
Senor Wences/ Senor Wenceslao Moreno
Jane Seymour/ Joyce Frankenberg
Snoop Doggy Dog/ Calvin Broadus
Ringo Starr/ Richard Starkey
Sigourney Weaver/ Susan Weaver
Zorro/ Don Diego de la Vega


"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut

Deadly Dog Food ad New Foodstuffs

For those lucky folks out there that have dogs:
"Cornell University scientists say that at least 100 dogs have died nationally in the past few weeks from tainted dog food. Some 19 brands of Diamond, Country Value and Professional dog foods have been recalled. But many pet owners are not aware of the recall, the Cornell researchers said Friday. ... The dog food is tainted with deadly aflatoxins that waste the liver away. ... About two-thirds of dogs that show symptoms from the toxin have died."

A LiveScience.com article reports that dogs have refused to eat the food but their owners have enticed them to eat it with gravy and other mixers.The states affected by the Diamond recall are all in the East: MAINE, Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

On a lighter note here's a product for all of you lip balm lovers. Cheetos Flavored lip balm. I think I'll stick with my Kiehls or my cherry chapstick. I am very curious as to what this tastes like. It just won't be the same not having that orange dust all over my fingers. Why not ketchup-flavored lip balm or mustard-flavored lip balm. How about Vicks Vaporub-flavored lip balm? Then you could moisten your lips and clear your sinuses at the same time.

January 17, 2006 is the 300th anniversary (tercentenary) of my favorite patriot Ben Franklin's birthday. Why not raise a toast to Ben with Poor Richard's Ale?

Why didn't they think of this sooner? Peanut butter in small, easy to transport containers. I love peanut butter in things. I love peanut butter in things. I was never a lover of pbj sandwiches, but that could also be because I am not a lover of bread. There are a few things in this world that if they disappeared from the face of the Earth I wouldn't care. Peanut butter is one of them, that,bread, cereal,milk,potato chips and any sort of pudding can be added to the list. Now if chocolate disappeared I would have to be tranquilized.

Lastly for you cereal lovers out there Betty's Breakfast Cereals are offering a new line. WARNING-If you are easily offended you probably don't want to link to this site. Now I doubt if you can buy these in a grocery store, but I just think these are a hoot. When I first read Betty's Breakfast Cereal I was thinking please don't tell me someone coerced the fabulous Betty (Bettie)Page into endorsing something like this. I'm glad I was wrong. Even though the character on the Porn Flakes sort of favors her.

Friday Round Up

First I would like to say how completely appalled I am that Lynn Swann is running for governor of Pennsylvania. Now I thought Lynn Swann was a great wide receiver when he was a Steeler-granted I really don't like football, but I thought it was cool when he performed this graceful leap over a car that was in the endzone for some strange reason. He was taking ballet to help with his flexibility and I thought that was very cool at the time. Now he's not only running for governor of my home state, he's running as a Republican. I AM CRUSHED!!!!

Now to the round up.

I can recall some of the crazy inquiries we used to get at my previous employer, and also some of the inquiries that were always asking for lists of things. If memory serves this list of inspector generals would have come in quite handy.

Check out these necknooshes. Cool idea and something to do with leftover yarn.

After taking a look at other countries paper money I wonder why America's paper money is so boring.

This is so interesting. A project that is investigating an obscure phenomenon of the Celtic ecclesiastical world-the places in the Northern and Western Isles, and Iceland, where names containing the word papar (priests or monks) occurred.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has published a Directory of Persecuted Scientists, Engineers and Health Professionals. (the link will take you to the Adobe document) These are the same folks who publish the wonderful Science magazine.

And last,but not least visit Alan's Mojave Weblog. Apparently the Mojave Desert is full of folks who are crazy about planes. And it appears quite a few planes go there to die. Check it out.

"Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both." - John Andrew Holmes

Resolutions

I don't usually make resolutions. I think there are always things in the back of my mind that I would like to accomplish for the new year. Of course for this year there's the biggies-lose weight, definitely find another job. I am going nowhere in this one, I'm bored by job, and it's way past time that I did something else with my life.

What I have been doing for the last few years is try and think of something fun for me to do. Last year I tried not using acronyms. My rules were that I would say the entire word and that it had to be a natural occurance in the course of the conversation. This lasted for a few weeks, but then I noticed that I kept creating conversations where I would have to say Consumer Value Store (CVS) and automated teller machine (ATM) or my favorite deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). So after that started to occur I had to quit my game.

This year I am trying to memorize all of the counties of Maryland. I'm getting better. Yesterday I remembered 20 out of 24. I am also trying to learn all of the countries in Africa. A. is so good at this one. He named almost all of them. I believe there's 66. I am going to try to learn the countries and their capitals.

Other than that I think the only other thing that I will do this year that I haven't been doing is to play my cards closer to my chest. In other words I won't be as free with information about myself as I have been.


"Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others". H. Jackson Brown