the new yorker.....

ok, so i just love the new yorker cartoons........

states rights.....

ok, so the conservative right, who claim to value states rights over that of 'big government' may have to swallow the potential loss in issues opposed by said right-wingers........today the supreme court declined to hear a challenge to massechusetts gay marriage situation.........and has taken up a california suit by 2 women who claim that their quality of life is dependent on medicinal marijuana......allowed under state law in california.........npr reported this morning that right-wing scholars believe that the supremes will let stand the california law, citing the lack of juristiction for the us govt to be involved at all......there is no state to state commerce involved if ill-people grow-their-own.......just like there is no interstate commerce involved if people legally grow their own petunias........it would be really rich indeed if the first major supreme court decision of the new bush term allows california, and the other 9 states who have legalized medicinal marijuana to continue.........i have disclosed this before, but it is worth mentioning again.....my great grandmother crown...in tiny nashport, ohio.......was prescribed marijuana for control of her asthma....and my dad remembered her burning hemp in a jar lid.....and draping a towel over her head for full inhaled effect.........wow............that will cure what ails you.................here's hoping that states rights prevail.......

Phinnaeus Walter Moder and Hazel Patricia Moder

ok, so julia roberts had her babies.....and the topic of conversation at work was the names.....and our conclusion was......they are family names.....each and every person had an aunt or uncle with crazy names........like cletus, hettie, and the like............so hazel and phinnaeus probably walked this earth at some point......or so i would hope..........

ok, so this is the newest s.i. cover....... 

lemonde.fr

ok, so i humor myself on occassion and attempt to 'read' en francais, despite a decided lack of talent......and today i especially enjoyed what little i could understand of this.......Le goût divin de l'épluchure
Ce week-end, petit tour au Salon du livre de la jeunesse, à Montreuil (93), qui honorait cette année la "gourmandise". Au hasard de la balade dans le Salon, une trouvaille : Les Epluchures, dix façons de les accommoder, de Sonia Ezgulian (éditions de L'Epure). L'auteure explique dans sa préface comment quelques fins de mois difficiles et la lecture de vieux bouquins l'ont convaincue de ne pas dédaigner les noyaux d'olives, les fanes de radis ou les pépins de courgettes en cuisinant. Un vrai crime de lèse-dictionnaire ! Car, écrit-elle, "contrairement à ce que décrit le Larousse encyclopédique, les épluchures ne sont pas toutes 'des parties non comestibles ou moins bonnes d'un légume ou d'un fruit'". Dommage que le père de San Antonio ne l'ait pas su plus tôt, lui qui qualifiait les poumons malades d'"épluchures d'éponges"....

sad tales.......

ok, so this has got to be one of the saddest tales i have ever read.......it would seem that everybody failed this child..........

ok, so the only reason i can see to go to the new movie closer...is to see clive owen.......who we watch die in the bourne identity over and over....he was the assasin who tried to kill bourne when he was at the house in the alsace.......he was wearing glasses......i think he would make a great bond.....certainly a more believable bond than colin firth........ 

flannel......

ok, so we have broken out the flannel sheets........now that the temperature at night is consistently below 40 or so.....and the domino effect has kicked in.......my current favorites pajama bottoms are flannel.......and there is the rub.....flannel on flannel doesn't move.....at all.......and thus i was forced to craft a classy pair of smooth cotton bottoms.......out of a remnant found at my favorite home decor store.......i am sure that this fabric was intended for lightweight drapes......but the red and green paisley print is quite nice as pajamas go........the fabric that appears in boxers.....from the gap, for example......is not readily available to martha stewart wanna-be's..........so we have to make do with what we have got........the trip to the fabric store has inspired me.....i think i might make another duvet cover for the feather comforter........there was a really nice past season ralph lauren with big earthtone roses on a black background............that is the nice thing about sewing......that duvet cover will cost me about $30.....not including my time...which is priceless, by the way.......but such minimal expense allows for more frequent change of home decor........as long as i stay within the confines of the exisiting paint/wallpaper/carpet.........

ok, so i am thinking of this picture was my newest mm icon........ 

manchurian candidate....

ok, so i borrowed several movies from the library....for backdrop purposes while i bake/sew/clean this weekend.......i wept at the end of the julia roberts movie mona lisa smile.......not because the movie was all that good...but because of the reality of the setting........there was a time that women went to college for the sole purpose of finding the right husband........and once the main mission was accomplished.......well.....they settled right into the housewifely duties complete with heels and frilly apron even if the spouses in question allowed them to continue to attend class......sadly, there are far too many women these days who buy into the 'husband rules the roost and the wife obeys' model.......especially in venues where i spend my time.....like work and church........thankfully, the running community tends toward these liberal notions of marriage as partnerships rather than dictatorships.........but i digress.........i also watched calender girls.......which was predictable but sweet.....and lastly the original manchurian candidate.....omg......angela lansbury was tremendous as the meanest of mammas........she could be the ultimate poster girl for the genre........omg....i was chilled to the bone when the russian operative was identified........the karate scenes were laughable given current standards, but i am sure that frank sinatra worked very hard to make them seem real enough for the 50's......and then there was janet leigh, who seemed to have no plausible reason to be in the movie at all except to be janet leigh in a frank sinatra movie........having watched all 3 movies yesterday... i will take them back and borrow three more today......gosh but i love to watch movies.......

title town

ok, so i would be remiss if i failed to mention that both local high schools will play for their respective state championships ..........danville will play beechwood in single A....and boyle county will play highlands in triple AAA........both playoff games were home games....and we assumed boyle won because they fire a cannon after each td.....and the cannon went off numerous times.......danville we waited to read about in the paper.......none of us went to the danville game........at this late date our attendence would probably be a jinx........the final games will next friday.....i think in louisville again.........and that means that school will let out early to not happen at all....for either district.......since danville downgraded to single A and Boyle upgraded to triple AAA.....they have both won similtaneous titles for several years in a row.......the game played between the 2 teams is the really big game in town........historically danville has the edge, but boyle has beaten danville badly in recent seasons.......so........the buzz for the next 7 days will be about the games......and about little else.........certainly not about academics.........

ok, so i read this article because i thought it really was a sequel to amelie, but it is merely a curious 'companion piece' with the same actress that isn't even set inthe same time period.......but the part about the movie not being french enough is especially interesting........................... .Amelie follow-up not French enough for funding, court rules

Jon Henley in Paris
Saturday November 27, 2004
The Guardian

A Paris court ruled yesterday that the latest hit film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou, the director-actress duo responsible for the blockbuster Amelie, was too American to compete in French film festivals or win a French prize.
The ruling followed complaints by French producers' associations that "Un long dimanche de fiancailles", or "A very long engagement", a first world war love story described by some critics as "Amelie in the trenches", had obtained generous French and European film subsidies under false pretences.
The ?45.8m film, a huge domestic success, employed 600 French technicians, 80 French actors and 1,500 French extras for more than two years. But the local producers said 2003 Productions, the film's French production house, was a front for Hollywood studio Warner Brothers. The tribunal agreed, ruling that the company, which is 34% US-owned, had been created specifically "to allow the company Warner Bros France ... to benefit from financial help ... reserved for the European cinematographic industry". The French national cinema centre CNC, which last year distributed ?475m in subsidies and had earlier ruled that the film could qualify for aid, said it was "carefully studying this judgment and its consequences". It could yet appeal.
 

a new twist on an old recipe....

ok, so i made potato pancakes this morning....aka latkes.......with half shredded sweet potatoes.....omg....these were so wonderful.....and more for the rest of us since cayle wouldn't even try them.......i am certain that the fine dining establishments thought of this variation years ago, but it is new to me.......

ok, so this photo was taken by my sisterinlaw barb just moments before we drove away from her tennesee home on thanksgiving........ 

who ya gonna call?

ok, so this guy is from the geek squad.......an on-call group that can install and/uninstall i suppose and troubleshoot all of your computer woes away........a sure sign that the do-it-yourself days are over in some areas of household chores......Geek squad to the rescue
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Posted: 11:04 AM EST (1604 GMT)
SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- The first time Bruce Dougherty tried to get his home wireless network up and running, it was a bust. The former marketing executive had to enlist his son's help, and still there were problems.

So who did he turn to when he wanted a network upgrade?

"That's my geek, Johnny," Dougherty said happily outside his local Best Buy store, gesturing toward a young man in a snappy black-and-white Volkswagen Beetle emblazoned with a "Geek Squad" logo.

Best Buy's Geek Squad employs white-shirted men and women with snap-on ties whose mission, for a fee, is to convert consumer wrath about complicated gadgets into warm and fuzzy feelings.

Like Dougherty, many consumers are warming this holiday season to expanded tech house call services offered by Best Buy Co. Inc., Circuit City Stores Inc., CompUSA Inc., and Dell Inc.

The retailers' traveling alpha geeks help customers with everything from home theater installations to virus removals to setting up gaming consoles. They even program remote controls.

"It's less of a do-it-yourself and more of a do-it-for-me marketplace now," said Sean Skelley, a senior vice president of services at Best Buy. His company, the nation's largest electronics retailer, acquired Geek Squad in 2002 and turned the 60-employee company into a 6,200-strong 24-hour service.


. 

in search of simplicity.....

ok, so holidays tend to be a time of collected family indulgence and excess.......but it is usually the simple things that come to mind in retrospect.......like the christmas lights that were in abundance on the trip down and back....already.....the most visually pleasing displays are the ones that are not displays at all......we saw from a distance a clearing in the trees...with a few lighted deer twinkling against the darkness.......which says peace on earth much louder than most chaotic jumbles of candycanes, crosses, santas, et all........crowding front lawns.......nothing quite prepared us for the landmark that was to prepare us for a right hand turn.....a junkyard with a lighted 'jesus'.....the spelled word not the outline.......i kind of like the sentiment....junkyard jesus.....sounds like a shrine of sorts........the ride down to tennessee was spirited...like our children saved up things to say jut for the time in the car........at one point the subject of nicknames was on the table.....and our oldest shared that his friends call him c-dub...and it was then suggested that we could have been more ambitious in coming up with our combined last name......that we could have taken the letters and formed a new word..........like cornbrew ...there were other missed opportunities put forth.....but that one is the only one i remembered.......2 syllables rather than 3....8 letters rather than 10....we'll think about it......now if we could come up with a single syllable word that streamlines the family down to the bare bones.....now that would be something to really consider........

a rivalry taken too far....

ok, so eveni agree that the rivalry was taken too far....

In the doghouse
Carr upset about dogs sniffing Wolverines players at Horseshoe
Posted: Wednesday November 24, 2004 1:57PM; Updated: Wednesday November 24, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The intense rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan has gone to the dogs -- bomb-sniffing ones.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr is upset that Ohio State subjected the Wolverines' players and coaches to searches by drug and bomb-sniffing dogs upon their arrival at Ohio Stadium on Saturday.Carr vented about the search to reporters on Monday and said he wants the Big Ten commissioner to look into what he called harassment by OSU fans who watched police dogs taking a whiff of every player and their personal belongings.

"If it's going to be the greatest rivalry in college athletics, which so many of us believe it is, then I don't think it is too much to say, 'Let's have great respect for each other. Let's treat each other like we would want to be treated,"' Carr said. "I guarantee you that the athletic director at Ohio State doesn't want his son treated the way that they treated our players."

A message left Wednesday at the Big Ten office in Park Ridge, Ill., was not immediately returned.OSU athletic director Andy Geiger, OSU assistant chief of police Richard Amweg and sports information director Steve Snapp all contend Michigan was subjected to the same search as other opponents who played in Ohio Stadium this year."This is all controlled by homeland security. Every team that comes in is checked," Snapp said Wednesday. "Every team was absolutely checked. Penn State was also checked by dogs because like Michigan, they got there late."

Penn State and the other three OSU visiting opponents _ Marshall, Wisconsin and Indiana -- told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer on Tuesday that their players weren't searched by dogs upon exiting their team bus.Brian Siegrist, assistant director of sports information at Penn State, said Wednesday that players were not sniffed by dogs but equipment from the team truck was before the team arrived at the field.

Marshall University said its locker room was sniffed by dogs but that players breezed into Ohio Stadium on game day.Other teams were searched "they just didn't know it," Geiger said. "They were searched at their hotel. What happened in this case was, Michigan was late, and therefore it was sniffed and searched at the stadium."

Carr said an Ohio State police officer told him the athletic department was behind the sniffing."He said, 'Coach, I want you to know that we were only following orders and they were not the orders given us by our superiors.' I said, 'Well, who decided it then?' He said, 'The athletic department,"' Carr said.Snapp denied that the athletic department had anything to do with the smell test."Our own team is checked in a similar fashion every game so it's not out of the ordinary," Snapp said.

Amweg said the decision to use dogs was made by the Ohio State Department of Public Safety. "It was not a mandate of either state or federal homeland security," he said.

Ohio State won the game 37-21, upsetting the No. 7-ranked Wolverines.

___

have a happy thanksgiving....

ok, so i am wasting time, counting down the minutes before i leave work.....so here are a few new yorker cartoons too funny to pass up.......travel safely.....and eat well......

family phrases.....

ok, so today in the midst of a client consultation, the client said a few words that made no sense to me as she described her child's eating habits, then apologized, and said that it was a family phrase.....and she went on to use recognizable terms from then on.......i cannot quite recall exactly the phrase she used...only the notion that it was particular to her family.....and that i can appreciate....as we have numerous family phrases......some that require lots of explanation.....like
b-29nodamngood.......or young whippersnapper........or imgoingdowntownandiamnottakingmyhatoff........or meanmamma/meandaddy.....or i'm old.....youdon'tknowhowoldiam......to explain is fruitless.....really...because things one says at home to one's closest kin rarely stand up to public scrutiny........eventually i may change the title of this blog.....as i have grown tired of the moniker.......despite the humor surrounding it's inception.......i guess without actually being there to see the meanmamma/meandaddy dance that went along with the chant.......it just loses something in translation.........

technology.........

ok, so i found this article fascinating...

Software to hunt down faked masterpieces
Monday, November 22, 2004 Posted: 6:56 PM EST (2356 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- True art would never be mistaken for a crude, paint-by-the-numbers copy. But a researcher has developed a statistical tool for determining whether a purported masterpiece is only a skilled imitation, suggesting that art may be a numbers game after all.

Using high-resolution digital images and complex mathematical formulas, associate professor Hany Farid of Dartmouth College analyzed works by Renaissance artists to determine their authenticity.

His computer program was able to accurately separate eight drawings by 16th century Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder from five drawings by imitators. It also found that portions of a painting by Italian artist Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, known as Perugino, were probably done by Perugino's apprentices.

Farid described his work, presented Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as "simply another tool that is contributing to the dialogue of art authenticating" and said more work is needed before digital analysis of art could be done on a wider scale.

the last mystery novel i read dealt with the forging of masterpieces....this sort of technology could put forgers...or at least mystery writers who dable in forgery..out of business.......

nostalgia.....

ok, so we will be with my spouse's next oldest brother, and his youngest sister for thanksgiving.......we being all of us plus my mom.......with all of their children and extended in-laws......they are a nice group......but their traditional foods are not exactly ours.....so i am trying to bring enough of the familiar to make it the best of both sides of the family.......it is the small things.....like olives on the relish tray...and pickled onions......and lima beans........my in-laws prefer germanic side dishes like creamed spinach and sweet/sour red cabbage......which i thoroughly enjoy,...but i still like to have lima beans on thanksgiving.......and i am certain that the family members i used to share my thanksgiving with (in cleveland) will be having olives and pickled onions on the relish try, and lima beans..........blest be that tie that binds........and a special message to the mystery reader in central european time/interbusiness.it.......hopefully you can find a bit of 'home-cooking' this thanksgiving as well........

synchronize those watches.....

ok, so i have been plagued of late by a series of minor tardinesses.....enough to go to the trouble of comparing the times on are clocks at home, in the cars, and at work......and all are different.....our alarm clock is 2 minutes slow, the honda's clock is 2 minutes fast, the clock on the stove appears to be 5 minutes slow..the phone at work is nearly 15 minutes off......not just mine...all of them.....and so forth......that would be a useful goal for a clever inventor....a gps that corrected time.....just automatically synchronized clocks and watches, especially for those of us unsteady enough with compressing buttons and dials in search of perfect time.......just a thought......by one who hates to be late......

clemson.......

ok, so i read the article about lou holtz's last game saturday.....south carolina against clemson....where a minor riot broke out...a riot which received much less attention than its due because of the pacers/pistons minor riot.......holtz commented that he hated for his career to be marred by such an incident at the very end......just like what happened to his mentor woody hayes..(holtz, like many top coaches, got their starts at osu as assistants under hayes)..i had forgotten about that.......hayes was nearing the end of his career with osu, and they were playing clemson at clemson.....and a near-riot broke out, and woody got involved and ended up punching a clemson player........and that was it for his career........he was retired and that was it.......it nis easy to ask 'what is it about clemson?'.....but that is far from the point......the major issue is testosterone and adrenilin.......which fuels the intensity on the playing field, but intensity cannot so easily be diffused before the players, coaches, and sometimes fans walk off the field and back into the real world.......i grew up in an osu household, and therefore i grew up at the alter of the hayes legend....3 yards and a cloud of dust........archie griffin won 2 heisman's for woodie when i was at osu.....and i actually saw him once on campus coming out of the history building........he taught classes on the history/strategy of combat.....of which he was a lifelong student......in ohio many believe that he did and he still sits at the right hand of god.......and so i feel doubly sorry for lou holtz.........

dump cake

ok, so i am not much of a sweet(s) person....go figure, but one of hte nurses brought this to work friday....and it is outrageously good...

Cherry Dump Cake

1 large can of crushed pineapple
1 can of cherry pie filling
1 package of yellow cake mix
One 3 1/2 ounce can of flaked coconut
1 cup of pecans, chopped
2 sticks of butter, melted

Dump the pineapple, including the juice, into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Spread evenly. Spread the cherry pie filling over the pineapple. Spread DRY cake mix evenly over all. Then sprinkle coconut and nuts over that. Pour melted butter over all. Bake for 1 hour in 325ºF. oven. Serve with whipped cream.

oh my...............

holiday.....

ok, so i am anticipating my 4-day weekend, which includes 2 holidays thanks to the state of Kentucky.......these 2 days represent the 3rd and 4th holidays of this month alone.....i feel so spoiled to have had so much paid time off that i didn't have to beg/borrow/cajole for..........we will not stay long in tennesee.....but it will still be special to see family......i have been thinking of family today.....i have a workmate who looks like my late cousin debbie on my dad's side.......i have not shared the 'late' part with this person....as it doesn't seem especially complementary to comment on how much somebody looks like your dead cousin.......but she really does have a strong resemblence.....there is somebody somehwere who purports a theory that there are just so many facial types.....and that may be true.....that would explain why unrelated people can look similar.....ah well....4 days off....i will figure out what to do with the bonus time.......

ok, so my friend gail called this afternoon,...and we must have chatted for 2 hours, because it was dark when i hung up......that is a lot of catching up.......i really miss gail............she was the perfect blend of wonderful workmate, and clever conversationalist....... 

ok, so the christmas commercials are in full force......and when i chance to sit and watch televsion with my 11-year old, the refrain is always the same when commercial time comes.....'i want that for christmas'........sorry, but we went with her first christmas 'list', voiced months ago......and shopping is essentially done.....and it is none of these consumer items.......frankly, for as little as she plays with her gameboy, why would we buy an entire new system, even if it is 'advanced' in technology.......this will be obselete by february as it is........ 

sunday school

ok, so today's lesson is on fear........and that is what i am about, it seems.....i can name off personal fears on both hands, and move on to the toes if need be.......i think my biggest fear is early senility.......a fear made all the more fearful because i cannot do anything to prevent it.....all i can do is to make the best use of the time i still have as a semi-lucid person.........my other fears seem to spin off from this core fear.....but then fears need not be rational....in the printed teacher's material there are references to biblical fears....including the oft quoted reaction of the sheperds watching flocks by night, when the angels appears......'and they were sore afraid.....'not what one would expect when one sees an angel......to be afraid.....there are degrees of fear, of course........ranging from apprehension to utter terror.........i was nervous last week when i ventured out for my first blood glucose screening event...which made no sense in that i have done things like this for years.......but not in a long time...so i was uneasy.....not afraid.....i do not know if i have ever known utter terror......when i worked at the group home for mentally retarded adults, while in graduate school, i was once accosted by a resident with a kitchen knife......i never really believed that he would actually do me harm....and so i talked down the episode rather calmly.....knock on wood that i never know intense fear......ah well.......time to write down a few notes so that i need not fear appearing unprepared.......

joy

ok, so i have had so little cause for joy of late that this vicarious osu win has really made my day.........pitiable in the greater scheme of things......as i am fully aware that osu as well as numerous ncaa schools run their football teams like a business, and individual players are treated like cattle on the hoof.....and rewarded with stuff like new cars from wealthy supporters........i believe that every allegation made by the ex-osu star is true......and worse.....but this very moment i am still elated....so i am as much a part of the problem as i may be aware of the solution.............one last quote from sports illusrated's article..... it's never a bad day in Columbus when Ohio State beats Michigan...yep...that's just about it.......

Go Bucks!

ok, so i thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon of football.....watching the OSU Buckeyes beat the Michigan Wolverines 37-21......and dash Michigan's hope for an automatic bid for the Rose Bowl......that sounds mean, but consider the source........i also enjoyed all the stuff that goes along with OSU football.....the band....the incessant playing of the fight song.....or Hang On Sloopie as the tnesion risies at the end of a close game.......my mother called as soon as it was over....she was overwrought with jubilation....for a school she never actually attended, she is a huge fan because my dad worked there....and because most of the Crown family either attended or graduated at some point.......she graduated from Ohio University, which has beaten U.K. several times in football since we have lived here...but that is just not the same as OSU beating Michigan............joy.........maybe not enough to counter a wretched election...but joy still..................

ok, so the recent rennovation of moma in nyc cost 425 million dollars....and i cannot wait to see it, but only on a friday from 4-8 when the $20 entrance fee is waived.......... 

ok, so wacko-jacko continues to be in hot water over his finances...MICHAEL Jackson is being sued for $229,000 over an unpaid antiques bill.


Just days after being hit with a $3.8 million bill by a gay porn producer, the pop star is now being chased by a Hollywood gallery over an outstanding debt.
The Mayfair gallery says Jackson bought $480,000 worth of fine objets d'art in May but failed to pay almost half the bill.
Among the 20 items bought by Jackson are a malachite urn, a Louis XVI-style bust clock and an Austrian gold-painted dancing girl.
Legal papers were lodged in Los Angeles this week and follow a separate action by gay porn producer Marc Schaffel who is suing Jackson for more than $3.8 million in unpaid fees and loans.




Schaffel, a former business associate of Jackson, claims the embattled pop star spent the money on an extravagant lifestyle.
Schaffel has also claimed Jackson used drugs and would demand money in the middle of the night.
"When Michael would be on drugs, he would call two, three, four in the morning, very distorted," Schaffel said.
"And he would say, `Oh, can you give me $70,000 tomorrow? There's this table I saw. I gotta have it for my living room'."
In court documents Schaffel has detailed the reasons he lent Jackson money, including:
$1.2 MILLION to pay Marlon Brando to appear in a music video and concert.
$767,000 FOR a piece of jewellery for Elizabeth Taylor.
$639,000 FOR Jackson to live underground in the event of a post-September 11 attack.
Schaffel claims he lent Jackson $11.3 million from 2001 to June, 2004, and was repaid some $8 million but repayments stopped when Jackson's brother Randy recently took over the singer's financial affairs.
Schaffel also says he is still owed $1.02m for two television shows he produced for Jackson to rebut the damaging BBC documentary that showed the pop star holding hands with a 12-year-old male cancer victim whom Jackson has now been charged with molesting.
 

alias...

ok, so alias comes back to nbc in the first week of january........

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) -- ABC is moving its ratings-challenged spy drama "Alias" to Wednesday next January, in the 9 p.m. slot following its rookie hit "Lost."

The opening January 5 episode of the fourth season will be a two-hour installment; the midseason introduction will allow the entire season to unspool without interruption week to week.

The move marks the first time the series has strayed from Sunday, where it has experienced mostly middling ratings, since it premiered on the network in 2001.

midling reviews.....ha! just shows that the american public has no taste......the show is a classic.......

like a rolling stone?

ok, so i read the rolling stone top 100, and was surpised at the list...

Rolling Stones Top 50 Songs
1. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
2. Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
3. Imagine - John Lennon
4. What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye
5. Respect - Aretha Franklin
6. Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
7. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
8. Hey Jude - The Beatles
9. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
10. What'd I say? - Ray Charles
11. My Generation - The Who
12. A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
13. Yesterday - The Beatles
14. Blowin' In The Wind - Bob Dylan
15. London Calling - The Clash
16. I want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
17. Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
18. Maybellene - Chuck Berry
19. Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
20. Let It Be - The Beatles


so, where is Stairway to Heaven? # 31.......ha!.....it will always to #1 on my personal playlist........

more on malaysia....

ok,so last night at book club....the three members who are also in my sunday school class got to talking about the service that i skipped.....and lo.....the others felt the same way , but had not voiced their concerns for fear of being 'the only one'......i felt so much better after we chatted.......one even suggested that it is arrogance on the part of christians to assume that our way is better than their way.......in cases like malaysia where the population is 99% muslim......we didn't come to any conclusions on how we will go forth with our concerns......but it is comforting to find affirmation of our personal stances.....

recognition...relief......regret

ok, so yesterday afternoon, as i was pulling out of the back parking lot, i glanced in my rearview mirror, and recognized, with horror....2 'young people' of my aquaintance........pulling out of the front lot......it all made sense...one of the nurses had commented how she had just provided birth control to a lovely high school girl .....well, there she was in my rear view mirror, with someone i have known forever hanging all over her.....and then i felt relief.......because they had the sense to take precautionary measures...........but the more i thought about it, i did feel a sense of regret...for the woman in question....who has so much potential (it would be mean to say that the young man in question has less potential, so i won't say that).....just know that this young lady has unusually promising qualities......and could be utilizing her time so much more wisely than on this young man.....ah well....suffice it to say that confidentiality covers their privacy......but not the sadness in my heart that i feel for this girl, and for her parents who have no clue

it's official.....

ok, so this news release should help me sleep sounder at night...i have been so worried...

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have filed their marriage license with the county registrar's office, an agency spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The "Oops! ... I Did It Again" singer, 22, married Federline during a September 18 ceremony in a Studio City home, but didn't immediately file the license with the county, raising questions about whether they were legally wed.

Kathy Tacawy, a county registrar's spokeswoman, confirmed the documents were filed in Los Angeles County within the 10-day legal window. She said the marriage was official, but declined to comment further and wouldn't say when the documents were filed.

coffee....

ok, so yesterday i sat through 8 hours of training on diabetes....nothing i had not heard before....but free continuing education that meets requirements....anyway....after driving over 1 hour, i was aghast to discover that the organizers.....state-employees all.....hadn't bothered to supply coffee..or any beverage for that matter......and because this meeting took place in a basically rural locale, there wasn't even a place to obtain any......not that i came emptyhanded.....i had a travel mug-full, but it had gone cold during the drive in the driving rain/dark/traffic.....and this meeting place had no microwave to use in rewarming it......fastforward to lunch.......presented as some sort of advertisement for uk's new health weight loss program.......by a rather hefty ph.d. dietitian who made some feeble comment about how success in weight loss should be judged not on reaching ideal weight, but on keeping off a set amount of weight.....implying that she is keeping off the 50 pounds that separate her from 300 pounds........frankly, 250 pound dietitians should not present weight loss pitches.......she did bring lunch.......a cupful of caeser-style salad that had a bit of tuna in it....a tiny soy flour muffin, and a 1/4 cup of a yogurt/berry combination........and nothing to drink because beverages were not a priority to the planning group.......by 4:30 i could have eaten my right hand.......at some point last nightmy spouse finally asked me the important question of the day...at what point would i/could i get over it?...........now that my experience has been blogged.......i am over it as of now.......coffee in hand makes getting over anything easier........

ok, so this may be the secret flavor of calamari.........think coca cola's original recipe...LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- Peruvian police say they have seized nearly 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of cocaine hidden in frozen giant squid bound for Mexico and the United States.The drugs were covered in pepper to divert sniffer dogs and sealed in several layers of plastic and other wrappers, Peruvian police said on Monday.
Police had been on the trail since August. Seven people were arrested in the drug seizure. Police said the haul would have a street value of about $17.5 million (euro13.5 million).  

closet liberals......

ok, so today i did a diabetes screening at a store in harrodsburg, at the request of the head pharmacist.....and we were not 'busy' the first hour i was there.......and so i spent the time chatting with her......only to discover that she is a closet liberal.......who not only voted for kerry but also voted against the gay marriage election.....and is looking for reasons not to send her oldest daughter to the christian school.......this child seems perfect for montessori.......anyway........she (the pharmacist) is also suffering from post-traumatic election syndrome......which, as a pharmacist, she cannot suggest a cure........but such a chance meeting is good for my soul.....in these dark days when it seems that all i meet are ready and able to gloat.......

holiday shopping......

ok, so the thanksgiving holiday weekend looms.......and our plans are set......a gathering with one of my spouse's brothers and one of his sisters...and assorted children, grandchildren, and parents........the age spread of my spouse's family is broad.....my sister-in-law has a child younger than my brother-in-law's grandchild.......and we, happily, have only children and no grandchildren.....we are not ready for that yet......my spouse's other siblings, and my brother will be elsewhere.......all of my children will be in attendence.....though i am aware that this may not continue to be the case........with children away at school or in relationships......one can not always get home for the short holidays.......i can recall having to work one thanksgiving holiday when i was in college.....i was in tears over the loss......and then there was the first time i had thanksgiving with my spouse's family.......in 1980......wow......such a long time ago......i was also somewhat tearful....as they did not do things the same way.....no mashed potatoes, and no pickled pearl onions/olives/sweet gherkins........no lima beans........that means that i have not celebrated thanksgiving with my side of the family in nearly 25 years.........and i digress.....because i am really blogging about shopping.....which is the traditional post-thanksgiving pasttimes for millions of americans......but not for me.....as i am nearly done...and what i lack can be gotten in a late afternoon sweep of danville stores.....even the stocking stuffers.....which my children must suffer until i am feeble and in the bed permanently............

ok, so tom hanks will probably star in the film version of dan brown's the davinci code.....directed by ron howard, screenplay by akiva goldsmith.......and ron howard has the sense to hire a french actress to play the supporting role........rather than an american actress trying to 'be' french.......i anxiously await this film........should ti go well, hanks could then do angels and demons (same character) and then dan brown could just go ahead and write a third book so hanks could have a box set, just in time for christmas..........  

the smallest things can make my day.......

ok, so this little item on-line brought a smile to my face....i can just picture it...

Beavers weave stolen cash into dam
Monday, November 15, 2004 Posted: 1:59 PM EST (1859 GMT)
GREENSBURG, Louisiana (AP) -- These eager beavers had a whole new slant on money laundering.

A bag of bills stolen from a casino was snapped up by beavers who wove thousands of dollars in soggy currency into the sticks and brush of their dam on a creek in eastern Louisiana.

"They hadn't torn the bills up. They were still whole," said Maj. Michael Martin of the East Feliciana Parish sheriff's office.

The money was part of $70,000 to $75,000 taken last week from the Lucky Dollar Casino in Greensburg.

St. Helena Parish deputies searched for the money for days until a lawyer, hoping to make a deal with prosecutors for a client, called and said the money had been discarded in the creek, Police Chief Ronald Harrell said.

Officers searched the creek during the weekend, finding one money bag right away and spotting a second downstream against the beaver dam.

The third bag of cash couldn't be found, Martin said, so deputies started breaking down the beaver dam to drain the pond it was holding. That was when they saw the dam's expensive decoration. They eventually found the missing bag, which the beavers hadn't completely emptied.

"The casino people were elated" to get the money back, even if some of it was wet, Harrell said.

Altogether, deputies found about $40,000, and they expect to find the rest in a safety deposit box at a bank in Mississippi, authorities said.

skipping out of church.....

ok, so there may yet be an issue that splits me/us from our church.......the service yesterday focused on our support/partnership of baptist missionaries in malaysia....which is 99% muslim.......i have a problem with trying to convert people who already have a faith, especially when there are so many people who have none at all.......and considering that at some point the muslims, jews and christians can trace their faith to the same roots......no wonder there are so many muslims out there who hold 'us' in low esteem.....when it appear to hold their religious traditions in comtempt.......we as a family handled it all diffferently....cayle and i went to sunday school and skipped out before church started....ecw and scw went to mass..............we shall see how this all turns out.......

god gene?.....

ok, so whether thsi is true or untrue....it gave my day a great belly-laugh start.....

Religious fanatic? Blame it on 'god gene':
[World News]: London, Nov 15 : "God genes" are responsible for creating religious fanatics, says new scientific research - much to the chagrin of church representatives.

The findings of Dean Hamer, director of the US National Cancer Institute's Gene Structure and Regulation Unit, also claim that Jesus, the Buddha and Prophet Mohammed are likely to have carried the gene.

The research has, however, been strongly criticised by members of the church, reported the Scotsman newspaper published from Edinburgh. They said the idea of people having a predisposition to faith simply displays a failure to understand it.

Hamer, who attracted controversy in 1993 when he claimed to have found a DNA sequence linked to male homosexuality, now says the presence of the gene VMAT2, or the "god gene", explains why some people are more spiritual than others.

The findings based on a study of 2,000 DNA samples and interviews with volunteers, who answered 226 questions aimed at finding out how spiritually in-tune they felt, have been published in a book named "The God Gene: How Faith is Hard-Wired into our Genes".

According to it, the greater the volunteer's ability to believe in a higher spiritual being, the more likely they are to have the VMAT2 gene. The research also claims that being brought up in a devout environment has little effect on belief.

"Buddha, Mohammed and Jesus all shared a series of mystical experiences or alterations in consciousness, and thus probably carried the gene," Hamer said.

"This means that the tendency to be spiritual is part of genetic make-up. This is not a thing that is strictly handed down from parents to children. It could skip a generation - it's like intelligence."

But Donald Bruce, director of the Church of Scotland's Society, Religious and Technology Project, Sunday called the research findings a "publicity stunt".

"I regard his claims as scientifically ridiculous. There is absolutely no such thing as a god gene. The whole point is that god makes himself available to all equally."

According to him, Hamer had admitted this to him a year ago. "We were both on the advisory board at the conference and I asked him if he thought the book's title was irresponsible. Hamer agreed the words 'god gene' as well as the book's title were misleading."

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said: "Religion is not specifically restricted to one era, race or continent, and the fact that it is so all-encompassing and widespread tends to suggest it is not specifically related to our physical make-up."

ok, so i took a few minutes to go through my saved pictures...and to weed out ones that i have no use for...like the arnold picture below......and i came across a few that had not been saved as jpeg files......so they do not show up when i am searching for picutres......this is a photo that my brother emailed...of my grandpa george broughton...the cleveland indians fan...and his little brother ernie broughton.....at ernie's home in cottonwood, arizona..........i do want it noted that my grandpa has on a plaid shirt with his plaid pants.......and that his glasses have a magnifying glass attachment.....i hadn't realized that his eyesight had already started to fail during ernie's lifetime......i had also blocked out that mny grandpa had a belly.....which, of course...explains the development of diabetes that was to come later on........ah well......old pictures can tell us so much...... 

ok, so arnold claism he is not lobbying for a constitutional change....but i do not believe it......there are television ads circulating that promote the notion that our forefathers were wrong when they determined that those not born on united states soil could grow up to become president.......i have mixed emotions about this.....for starts, i do not want to change the constitution just for arnold.......i do not think we need to change the consitution for anything less than a really good reason.....like the right to vote for blacks and women...the end of slavery.....big stuff.........on the other hand, i consider the change in the consitution to end the electoral college as big stuff.......technology/immediacy of information available has replaced the need for voters to send designated electors to washington to cast a final vote.......it may have made sense in the 1770's but it does not now....anyway, given that california is in more debt now than when arnold took office, the tide may yet turn against him....and here's hoping it turns before he and his cronies meddle with the constitution....... 

ok, so the following news note amuses me....Coca-Cola's new chairman and chief executive Neville Isdell laid out a grim explanation as to why Coke is struggling as the company's shares fell Thursday. Coke has been slow to push the water, juice and other non-carbonated drinks health-conscious consumers want, he acknowledged, and has let its marketing slip.....did it not occur to these people that eventually the company would run out of people who wish to buy sugarwater........or could afford to buy it even if they wanted it.........they have gotten into the bottled water business...which could make for humerous ad campaigns......i'd like to buy the world a bottle of water....somehow falls flat......... 

even closer to doom......

ok, so here is a game that i did not watch......as i had bigger fish to fry.....

FINAL
OHIO ST.17
PURDUE 24

Box Score
Pass: B. Kirsch (PUR) 22-34, 211, 2 TD
Rush: B. Jones (PUR) 21-79, 0 TD
Rec: T. Stubblefield (PUR) 10-77, 0 TD

i say take the poison pill with the ncaa and start over....after michigan...who beat northwestern bigtime........the michigan game is really theonly game in the ncaa collective season that counts to use who wear scarlet and grey.......

ok, so i was near to tears as i watched my middle child compete for the last time...at the state cross country meet, where he finished in the top 25%....perfectly admirable for a child who has long focused on things other than running.........but running is a pasttime i can see him pursuing........especially since he turns 18 in december, and he will be elligible for long runs like marathons.......i can see him as a marathoner.....he has always tended toward the low and slow.........regardless......we are so proud......... 

ok, so there is some doubt in my mind that he did it.....given that most evidence against him was circumstantial, but the jury of his peers says he did.......and that is the system we call democracy.......what would henry fonda have done were he on that jury........would he have methodically picked apart each shread of circumstance.........and then walked away from the courthouse after it was all over.......gosh, 12 angry men was such an intense movie.......but then, scott peterson did some mighty curious and damning things for an innocent guy.............. 

ok, so more about columbus, ohio.......where the scandal just keeps growing......here is an excerpt from sports illustrated... 
Enough is enough
Time for Ohio State president to take bold stance: one-year death penalty
Posted: Thursday November 11, 2004 3:04PM; Updated: Thursday November 11, 2004 3:35PM

Maurice Clarett (seen here in '02 ) is involved in verbal sparring with his former coach Jim Tressel (left).
AP

Successful academic reform ... requires presidential leadership. There are strong forces driving athletics programs toward better and better athletics performance. That is understandable and good: athletics is about winning. But it is essential that the response to these forces be made in a wider context of the mission of universities and colleges, which first and foremost are academic institutions.

The champion for this mission must be the university president ...

-- NCAA president Myles Brand, State of the NCAA speech, Jan. 11, 2004

Question for Dr. Karen Holbrook, president of The Ohio State University, in light of this week's ESPN the Magazine report about alleged improprieties involving Maurice Clarett and the Buckeyes' football program: When will enough be enough? When will you heed Brand's directive, step in and do something about an athletic department that continues to bring more shame and embarrassment to your otherwise reputable university than any glory it may have achieved on the playing field?

Whether or not you believe Clarett's tale of cash-wielding boosters and free-wheeling car dealers -- the guy's credibility is more than a little suspect -- I can only presume that someone like you, Dr. Holbrook, who's devoted her life to the pursuit of higher learning, would be more incensed by some of ESPN's other findings.

In addition to Clarett, four other former players describe being steered by academic advisers to the easiest possible courses with the football-friendliest professors. One, ex-cornerback Curtis Crosby, left OSU in '02 and tried transferring to Grambling only to find out half his credits, which included courses called Officiating Basketball and Officiating Tennis, would be denied. "What are they doing up there at Ohio State?" he says a Grambling adviser asked him. Former running back Sammy Maldonado showed up at Maryland in '02 with a transcript that included four credits for playing football, three for Issues Affecting Student Athletes, 10 for remedial reading, 10 for remedial math and three for Jim Tressel's Coaching Football class.

Tressel is teaching his players in a football coaching class? Are you familiar with Jim Harrick Jr., Dr. Holbrook? I'm guessing you are, considering you came to OSU in '02 ... from Georgia.

not much has changed since i graduated from osu in 1978......in my day, the football players all had new cars...and did not have to attend class.......and supposedly woody hayes said it was ok.....and now supposedly jim tressel says it is ok......but young mr claret has blown the whistle, and now the rich alums who provide these cars and the profs who look the other way when football players fail to attend class have nowhere to hide......i say....throw yourselves at the mercy of the NCAA, but wait until michigan clobbers you......just to punctuate that cheaters may win but they tend to get caught.......

ok, so now that i have finished my latest book on tape.......i am at an impasse.....i have obtained 2 from the library....and also have one that i bought as a christmas gift.........the dilmna...should i listen to the christmas gift one first.......yes, i am that mean when it comes to books........or wait it out until after christmas and hope that the recipient is generous enough to let me listen.........while i come to a decision, i am reading the latest elizabethan murder mystery be karen harper......an ex-enlgish teacher who taught at a columbus, ohio high school about the same time i was in college.....i believe that i actually dated someone who was in one of her classes.......not that it makes a difference.........because the mostly writes the bodice-ripping type of book.......but there is this little series of elizabethan novels.......that she writes very well..........if i am nearly 50, she must be nearly 60 at the youngest.........i say she has had a facelift......because if i had written 30 books, i would spring for a facelift....... 

popeye had it right....

ok, so i 'cabbaged' this article from the loyal opposition...

Spinach Power Adds Muscle to Batteries
By KATIE ZEZIMA

Published: November 11, 2004



CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

PARENTS and doctors have long talked up the powerful properties of spinach.

Now an unlikely group has joined the chorus: researchers seeking to put more oomph in batteries.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee, the United States Naval Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have found a way to harness the energy that plants use during photosynthesis to convert light to energy. They are using the process to extend the life of batteries in cellular phones, laptop computers and other portable electronic devices.

While the research is still at an early stage and scientists say commercial applications are years away, they add that the discovery chips away at the barriers between nature and technology.

"This really shows that there is a way of using biologically produced molecules and coupling them directly into applied electronic circuitry," said Barry Bruce, an associate professor of biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and one of the scientists working on the project. "This opens up a gateway for applied application, whether you want to make DNA wires or enzymatically based reactor cells."

This is the first time scientists were able to extract "something as fundamental as an electrical current" from photosynthesis, Professor Bruce said. While previous efforts have produced currents that lasted for a few hours, this group of scientists produced an electrical current that lasted for three weeks.

Earlier efforts to extract a current from photosynthesis failed because the proteins that capture energy from sunlight died without water. But Shuguang Zhang, associate director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at M.I.T., was able to create a peptide detergent from amino acids that stabilized the protein and allowed it to channel energy.

Professor Zhang said the researchers liquefied spinach in a centrifuge. They extracted the protein and placed it, heads up and with spaces between each protein, on the chip. The peptide detergent was inserted in the spaces, and in an example of a process known as self-assembly, the two parts locked like fingers holding hands, Professor Zhang said.

The mixture was wedged between layers of plastic, gold and indium-tin oxide, a transparent semiconducting material. The resulting chips are durable and easy to repair: more protein can easily be injected if one stops working.

So far the chips have been built with only one layer of the spinach solution, and thus can produce a negligible amount of electricity. But scientists are planning to add additional layers to harness more power.

"It's like building a building," Professor Zhang said. "It gets more complete with each floor."

The device, which looks like a square microchip about a half-inch on a side with green liquid visible inside, won't be able to power electronics on its own, Professor Zhang said. Rather, it will wrap around a battery much like a leather case envelops a cellular phone, using the power of light to prolong the life of the battery.

"If we can put it on three dimensions, we can get some use from the juice," Professor Zhang said.

Scientists chose spinach both for its high chlorophyll content, which makes it dark green, and its low price. Green peas would have served as well, but spinach is cheap, plentiful and readily available. Scientists usually have to grow and fertilize their own fresh peas.

"You can buy nice bags of washed baby spinach, and you can get that year-round," Professor Bruce said.

Scientists also hope to use the chips for transistors and memory elements, according to Marc Baldo, a professor of electrical engineering at M.I.T. who worked on the project. Professor Zhang said, however, that devices based on the group's discovery will not be available commercially for about a decade.

There may be a better detergent to be found, and scientists must figure out how to build chips with additional layers of spinach matter, among other things. But vegetables could eventually power your electronics.

"It will take some time," Professor Zhang said, "but we have broken the barrier for the concept."

when i am really old......

ok, so i am ready to make the pledge here and now......when i am really old, i will not do any of the following....

i will not read aloud signs that i see while driving/riding in a car......like kroger, target, mcdonalds............petsmart.......unless the sign is really funny or innovative.....like the one at the u of cincinnati exit for hanger's artificial limbs......

i will not attempt to buy more than 1 item that lacks a price, especially when the line is backed up and the sales force is lacking......

i will not regale wait-staff with stories about my children's food fetishes, no matter how sorely i am tempted......

i will not read aloud signs for gas prices, nor make attempts to stop the driver from buying gas at a slightly higher price than can be gotten elsewhere.......

you may cite this blog should i fall off the wagon at some point in the future..........

ok, so this movie has been shown on national television in 2001 and 2002 without contraversy, but his year, in the midst of a war-mandating election, we do not seem to have the stomach for televised war.....at least not the violence part of war........the world is certainly turned upside down.....how do these voters think we won that war......by random acts of kindness with pg-13 language........ 

10 stops........

ok, so i am finally back from my veteran's day excursion......we stopped at 10 different places.....ten.......mostly in the rain......and mostly to look.......i did find 5 x 5 picture frames.....and a sage-colored fall weight brooks brothers sports jacket that looks just spiffy on the middle child....that was the bargain of the day, by the way.......especially since it needs no alteration.....i attempted to alter the lunch plan...to no avail....my mother considers red lobster the ultimate destination, despite their decided lack of peel-and-eat shrimp.....she must have mentioned this lack to 4 separate persons while we were waiting for our table, while we were eating and as we were leaving.......i opted for a glass of wine with lunch, risking censure from one who does not ever drink spirits...................the singular laugh i had all day involved the sign to a new housing development off of nicholasville road, somewhere in the hinterland between nicholasville and the lexington/fayette county line........tuscany valle (imagine that the e has an accent mark........)...wow...imagine my surprise that there are valle's in central kentucky that bear any resemblance to tuscany.......and isn't it french rather than italian that uses the accent over the e.........and if it was french, wouldn't it be val de (du?) tuscany.....rather than valle?........ah well.......i am back home, and ready for another glass of wine........

ok, so veteran's day was a good day to visit the new headstone....... 

another day off.....

ok, so did i mention that i have the day off.....that all health departments in the state are closed in observance of veteran's day.......which for some reason must be ont he correct day rather than a monday or a friday...which i would have preferred.....and most people i work with are taking vacation time tomorrow so they can have a 4-day weekend.....but without such time coming i will be at my desk at 8:00 tomorrow pretending that i am being productive......as for today....i am going to switch banks.....to one that has a branch in harrodsburg so i can get cash without paying a service fee..........and then i am going with my mom to visit my dad's grave at the veteran's graveyard in nicholasville....and then we are going out to lunch.....she likes red lobster but i am hoping to sway her to other options........something over at hamburg place so i can go to garden ridge.....one of those huge home decor kind of places...i need frames for scw's senior picture originals.....5 x 5 ...not an easy frame to find........acw's were framed by the photographer's dad,....but i really didn't care for them........if not found today i will simply buy them on-line.......gosh.......a free day off.......wow........too bad i am spending it in central ky- i have been in paris on at least 2 veteran's days in the past.....it is much more meaningful to consider the sacrifice of our troops whilst sitting in a service in a parisian cathedral........can't have everything.......

ok, so we sat and watched the cma music awards the night before last, mostly to amuse ourselves by trying to catch the 'artists' lip-synching....we are not the fans of country music that we have been in the past.....with few exceptions (like allison krauss) they look like republicans who happen to sing a bit and strum guitar whilst wearing torn or sequined clothing and cowboy hats.......we do like the dixie chicks, because they took a stand against the war......we also watch these award things because it is amusing to catch a glimpse of tracy montgomery, wife of the montgomery of montogomery gentry.....i used to work with her when she was the nurse at the children's home, and she used to eat at the restaurant regularly, and she does business at the bike shop.....the song they performed was quite lame.....and we went to bed because there was not much more other than the performer of the year award......won by this hatted guy kenny chesney....who appears to be basically bald under the hat, and sings songs eerily similar to jimmy buffet........ah well....isn't amusement the only game in town.......... 

ok, so my latest book on cd is by robert parker, who writes the books that inspired the old series spenser for hire, which starred robert urich and took place in boston.....the plot thickens....i'll keep you posted....... 

lucky me.....

ok, so this sunday it was supposed to be my turn to teach sunday school.....and the subject was happiness....some verse from ecclesiastes......but i lucked out and my teaching partner cynthia needed to teach because she cannot be in town next weekend......and so i do not have to dwell too long on the subject........which is good.......given the ....Definition: [n] emotions experienced when in a state of well-being [n] state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.........i have so much on my mind that it seems irrational to describe this as a state of happiness......not that i am unhappy...it is just that to say that i am happy seems a bit much....a jinx if you will.........contented...yes........i can even go so far as to say that i have a feeling of well-being......maybe i just need for some loose ends to be tied up....early decisions.....parental situations......sales of past businesses.....and then i will be happy.....i know....one's happiness should not be conditional, but there you have it..........lucky me.....

great quotation....

ok, so this was part of a letter to the editor in the danville paper.......basically reminding gloating republicans that they are now responsible for carrying out all of bush's promises to the electorate....

Thomas Jefferson said it best: "A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve and the people recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

martin luther

ok, so today would have been the birthday of martin luther, one of my heroes....for sheer courage and strength of faith.....this is from writer's almanac.....

It's the birthday of theologian Martin Luther, born in Eisleben, Saxony (1483), which is now located in Germany. He's best known as the man who sparked the Protestant Reformation, but he was also an extraordinarily productive writer. Between the years of 1516 to 1546, he published an article on religion every other week, totaling more than sixty thousand pages. It has been estimated that during his writing life, his published writings made up twenty percent of all the literature being published in Germany at the time.

In addition to his own writing, Luther spent much of his late life working on a translation of the Bible into German. There had been a few German translations before his, but they were purely literal translations. He wanted to appeal to average people, and he tried to use words that would be understood by common Germans. He said, "[The translator] must ask the mother at home, children in the street, the common man in the market and look them in the mouth, and listen to how they speak, then translate accordingly."

Toward the end of his life, Luther began to regret how many books he had written. He said, "The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing. . . . I wish that all my books were consigned to perpetual oblivion."

Today, most of Luther's writings are only read by theologians, but his words survive in his popular hymns. He knew that many people couldn't read, and he believed hymns could communicate ideas more broadly. He also just loved music. He said, "My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary." His hymns are sung in churches throughout the world.

Martin Luther said, "God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars."

martin luther had the gumption to take on the status quo with regard to how religion was 'managed' by the church....he believed that one's religion shouldn't be controlled by anybody except individuals.....and really pushed toward a personal relationship with god rather than one mediated by priests.....not popular at the time.......though i see the religious right as heading back in that direction...they liek to tell us all how to worsip.......

ok, so i have had it with the renee z. interviews about how hard it was to gain weight for this role.....How did you handle the weight gain this time?
It was a little bit different because I knew where I needed to go. And again, it was a question of, ?Can we do it in time?? And again, I had a lot of help to get there. Somebody else doing the math and putting the plate in front of me and saying, ?Here, eat this.? And ultimately, it worked out.
can we do it in time?......ha! these women live in a fantasy world, of eating so little on a regular basis they have no idea what it is like to eat normally, let alone enough to gain...i am sure she deserves an oscar for that effort alone......ha...... 

ok, so this is not as good as bush loses, but ashcroft resigning is better than nothing.......he was much too mean to be the guy safeguarding my freedom.......i don't know anything about the evans guy.......i did hear some commentator yesterday defending bush's record on compassionate conservatism......and spoke of bush's plans for the next 4 years...he fucused on bush's plan to allow people to invest their social security deposits (at least part) in the stock market.....which is crazy, as my personal retirement accounts have taken such a beating during bush's white house years....i fail to see how this is compassionate........