Paris Hilton's Prison Purchases

Even with the daily news of the wars in Iraq and Afgahnistan, the wild fires raging out of control, the heavy rains and floods, and yesterdays news of the terrorist plots in London, somehow we still managed to get the news this week that Paris Hilton got out of jail.  Unfortunately, most other news stories took a back seat to her release from jail this week.  In case you hadn't heard, as with most other convicts, she found religion in jail, and will probably be writing a book soon, giving us all of the sordid details of her 23 days in jail.  Personally, I'd like to hear her thoughts on the little steel toilets.  But I digress.  On the MSN home page yesterday, they mentioned an interesting fact about her jail time that somehow the media had overlooked:  the snacks and other items  that she was able to purchase while in jail.  It was an intersting array, but the article left some questions: mainly, how did she pay for the food?  I'm sure she wasn't able to keep any cash with her in jail.  Did they give her a bill for the food that she had to pay when she was released, or will she get a bill in the mail for it?  Incidentally, the total for the snacks and etc. she bought was $145.32.  Here's a list of Paris Hilton's Prison Purchases:

1. chicken noodle soup
2. toffee peanuts
3. fruit punch mix
4. chicken broth
5. banana nut muffins
6. a jar of Vaseline
7. mustard
8. soy sauce
9. trail mix
10. Cheerios cereal bars
11. granola bars
12. Gardetto snack mix
13. blueberry muffins
14. pretzels
15. tea bags
16. cotton swabs
17. skin cream
18. brown eyebrow pencil
19. emery board
20. drawing tablet (qty 3)

Flashback Friday

                    

I've yet to meet a person who didn't like popsicles -  especially in the summertime.  My personal favorite is the red, white and blue astro pops that we could only get from the ice cream man back in the day.  I was fortunate as a kid - for those times when the ice cream man wasn't around, the neighborhood store was half a block away with a fully stocked freezer full of popsicles.  Store bought popsicles were good, but as with most other foods, homemade ones tasted better.  That's where the Tupperware popsicle molds came in.

As far back as I can remember, we only had 5 out of the set of 6 molds.  I don't know what happened to the sixth one - my guess is that I probably took it outside and lost it.  But I was an only child, so one less popsicle mold wasn't an issue.  Grandma or Mom would pour Kool-Aid or juice into the molds for me, and then stick them in the freezer.  Of course, I could never wait till they were frozen solid; I would usually eat (or should I say drink) my pop before it had a chance to freeze. 

I asked Mom tonight if we still had our Tupperware popsicle molds.  She said she wasn't sure, but added that if I had anything to do with it, they were probably in the house somewhere given the fact that I have a problem throwing things away.  I'll have to see if I can find them and start making popsicles here at home. 

Get A @#$% Battery Already

Our cubicle at work is in the corner of the building, just feet away from the door that goes out into the factory.  They chose our strategically located area to hang the company defib machine.  There's an alarm on the box, and whenever someone opens the door, which they do once or twice a week as a prank, a loud alarm blasts out.  It's pretty annoying to be working at your desk and then hear something that sounds like a fog horn blowing.  But I digress. 

When I got to work Monday morning, I heard a beeping noise and then a woman's voice coming from an area by our cubicle.  I didn't think anymore of it, but a few minutes later I heard it again.  And again and again and again.  I got up and walked around the area, trying to find where it was coming from but I couldn't figure it out.  It was well into Tuesday when we finally found out what it was -- it was an alarm on the defib machine making the beeps and then a woman's voice saying "Please replace the battery."  This has gone on since Monday morning at about 8:10 every 20 minutes on the dot.  My co-workers can vouch for me if you think I'm exagerating because I tell you the truth.  I just hope that nobody needs to use the defib machine until the new battery gets here. 

 

Farewell, Liz Claiborne

                                    

I'm sad to report that Liz Claiborne has died.  The fashion designer was 78 years old,and had battled cancer for several years.  She founded Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1976 with her husband Art Ortenberg.  Their goal was to create a collection of fashions aimed at the growing number of women entering the work force.  The new approach to dressing revolutionized the department store industry, which had only focused on stocking pants in one department and skirts in another.  Her Liz Claiborne collection could be found in its own department in stores - a trend that department stores followed with other designers. 

Her clothes became an instant hit, and the company went public in 1981. By 1985, Liz Claiborne Inc. was the first company founded by a woman to be listed in the Fortune 500. The company, whose brands now include Ellen Tracy, Dana Buchman and Juicy Couture, generated sales of almost $5 billion last year.   Liz Claiborne retired from the day-to-day operations in 1989.

Back in the day, I believe I was Liz Claiborne's best customer.  There was a period in my life when I wouldn't wear a blouse or sweater unless it had the Liz Claiborne tag sewn in it.  I even had a couple of Liz Claiborne purses, too.  She was the first of the designers to use shoulder pads, and the ones in her blouses and shirts were attached by Velcro.  Many a time I would forget to pull the pads off before I washed the shirts, only to have the pads end up being squished and out of shape. 

It's been a long time since I've worn or bought any Liz Claiborne, but I still have hung on to my most prized piece of Liz Claiborne clothing - a gray and white cotton sweater.  Maybe I'll wear it when it gets cooler.

You'll be missed, Liz Claiborne, but your legacy will live on.

Way To Go, Junior Girls

TWIT would like to congratulate the Mill Creek Post VFW #5421 Junior Girls unit on winning all of the awards at this past weekend's state convention.  They truly won every award that they were eligible for.  The Junior Girls are few, but what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in heart and soul and commitment. 

TWIT would also like to tip our hats to Tammy Scott, the fearless leader of the Junior Girls unit.  Tammy is also an officer in our Auxiliary, and is employed by the state VFW.  Needless to say, she's the one I go to first when I have a question or am confused about something.  She also is very active in her mother's campaign for state Auxiliary President in 2008.

Way to go, Junior Girls - you've made us very proud. 

A Prowler At The Compound

                   

I'm almost embarrassed to bring you news of a prowler that has infiltrated The Compound.  We have a crazed raccoon wreaking havoc.  He first appeared two weeks ago, when Dad discovered that some varmint had been into the galvanized garbage can in the barn where we keep the grain for the donkeys.  He thought it was probably a raccoon, and he put bungee cords on the can to keep the lid on.  Last week, he noticed that something had chewed on the cords.  The same day he saw this, a neighbor said he actually saw a raccoon out in our back yard. 

Flash forward to this weekend.  Saturday night when I came home, I parked the BMW behind the Blazer, which was under the carport.  Yesterday afternoon, when I got in the BMW I noticed it was covered with leaves, twigs, and tree gunk.  The ground around the front of the BMW was also covered with leaves, twigs and tree gunk.  I didn't pay too much attention to it, and just thought that maybe the wind was blowing during the thunder shower we had during the night, and a squirrel's nest blew down.  Then this morning, Mom discovered that something had been into the garbage can.  Put all of these clues together and you come up with a crazed raccoon on the loose.  

When I got to work this morning, I called a friend that works in the Receiving department who is an avid coon hunter, and enlisted his help.  As we speak, he's on his way over to The Compound with three traps to set out in the yard to hopefully catch the raccoon.  If it weren't for the neighbors complaining, I'd have him bring his best coon dogs over here and have them go at it.  But for now, we'll try the quiet approach.  I'll keep you posted. 

Link Of The Week

This week's Link Of The Week is brought to us courtesy of one of my most faithful readers, my dear friend Big Mama.  As I've mentioned before, she's the the number Roy Orbison fan in the world.  She's been working overtime this week online, along with other Roy Orbison fans, to get The Travelling Wilburys voted in as the Artist Of The Month at MSN.   Visit http://music.msn.com/music/artistofthemonth and cast your vote a time or ten for the Travelling Wilburys.  Big Mama thanks you, and I thank you.

It's Good To Be Home

It's been a rough few months for me.  I've been so busy, and as I mentioned earlier this week, it was at the point where I felt like I was being pulled in 47 different directions.  I decided that it was time for me to learn to say "no", so I cleared my calendar for last night and today.  I had a very relaxing Friday night - I crashed and took an hour and a half nap after supper, and had no problem going to sleep at my regular time last night.  I slept great and felt refreshed this morning.  The 'rents had already planned to take our dear old friend Lenora up to beautiful Starlight, Indiana for lunch, and I told them I wanted to tag along. 

We headed downtown and picked her up, and made a detour onto I-65 because part of I-64 was closed for reconstruction.  The route we took was scenic, and very hilly, and I said a quick prayer of thanks that I didn't have to travel that road during snow or ice. We made it to Huber's Family Restaurant, had a great lunch, and walked around a bit before heading back home.  I had our route home planned out, but just as we got on a road that would take us to a part of I-64 that was still open, all we could see for miles ahead of us were tail lights.  Not a good sign.  The very busy 4 lane road was closed down for the funeral of the police officer that was killed earlier this week.  If it had been a week day, I would have simply called Diva Stacy down at AAA and asked for directions on how to get back home, but being a Saturday, we were on our own.  Thanks to Dad's keen memory, we were able to make it to where we needed to be to continue on our alternate route back across the bridge.  We got back on I-65, only to once again see nothing but tail lights ahead of us.  At this point, I wished we had Speed Racer's Mach V car, that would have turned into a helicopter so we could have flew over the traffic back to the Kentucky side of the river.  After what seemed like an eternity (but in fact was only about 35 minutes) we were able to finally make it across the bridge back into Louisville.  If there hadn't been traffic in front of and behind me, I would have stopped the car and gotten out and kissed the ground.

What was supposed to have been a relaxing, stress-free time could have taken an ugly turn given the fact that Dad and I have zero patience, especiallywhen it comes to traffic, but we made it through fairly well.  Thanks to Lenora being there with us, we kept our cool and didn't drop the F-bomb on the cars cutting in front of us.  In fact, I think we only let one little word slip out, and I don't think Lenora heard it. 

Flashback Friday

                                                       In keeping with the theme of dangerous toys from back in the day, this week's Flashback Friday is all about Clackers. 

Clackers had a bizillion names, some of which I refuse to repeat in TWIT.  They were also called Bonkers, Clack Clacks, Knockers, Klick Klacks, Quick Clacks, Whackers, etc.  It was essentially two large marbles attached by a sturdy string with a ring in the center. You would put your finger in the ring allowing the marbles or balls to hang below.  This is where the fun begins. The idea was to get the two balls tapping (or clacking, if you will) against each other by pulling up on the ring lightly. Once you got the hang of it, you could get them going faster and faster until they were smacking each other above and below your hand instead of smacking your hand.

These toys are now legendary. They were popular in the early 70s, when they started finding their way into the schoolyards, and were quickly yanked from the store shelves because kids were suffering eye injuries when the fragile, glass-like balls were shattering from the constant clacking.  They were banned in Greenwood Elementary School, and on my school bus.  I believe a plastic version may have been released after the original and the more menacing version was pulled, but I don't think that it enjoyed the same popularity.

I had a purple set of Clackers made of very hard glass, and I think I played with them for about one day until I cracked the crap out of my knuckles and then threw them in the toybox.

Special Request Thursday

I was chatting with one of my faithful readers, SH, at work today, and the conversation turned to music, like it frequently does, and I mentioned that I'd been listening to my Fergie CD alot lately.  After we discussed the song "Fergielicious", SH said that she heard that Fergie used to be the voice of Sally on the Charlie Brown TV cartoons.  I told her that was the first I'd heard of that urban legend, but that I would research and post the findings in TWIT. 

I did some online research, and quickly discovered that my friend SH was right, to an extent.  As a young child, Stacy Ferguson, aka Fergie, began a career as a child actress appearing on the TV show Kids Incorporated. Among her co-stars were actress Jennifer Love Hewitt and singer Martika. Stacy Ferguson in deed performed as the voice of Charlie Brown's sister Sally in the TV specials It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown and Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown.

If you have any similar trivia mysteries you'd like solved, please leave comments or send me an email and I'll be more than happy to research and find the answer.

What A Great Day This Turned Out To Be

When I woke up this morning, I knew this was going to be a sucky day. I woke up in the middle of the night and had a quasi-anxiety attack, and couldn't get back to sleep for at least an hour or two.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm feeling pretty helpless right now trying to deal with an on-going problem of not being able to say no.  For the past few weeks, I've been on the go almost 24/7 doing things for other people and organizations.  Don't get me wrong - it's not that I'm selfish and don't want to help; that's not the case at all.  It's just that right now with everything that's going on, it feels like I'm being pulled in 47 different directions.  Add to that anxiety the fact that I had to put the BMW in the shop yesterday to get new brake$, and you've got one stressed out Puddin. 

I went through the day at work, thinking of all of the things that I have going in the next few days, and felt overwhelmed all day long.  But I knew that once I got home tonight, I could retreat to the safe haven of my bedroom and get away from everything for a couple of hours.  Wrong.  At about 3:00 this afternoon, something hit me - I wasn't going to be able to crash as soon as I got home, because this was our monthly trip to the nursing home.  I'll confess that I'd secretly hoped that Mom would have forgotten, too, and we could just stay home tonight.  Wrong.  I got home and she had already changed clothes and was ready to go.  It only took her saying "Now, you don't have to go if you don't want to" to make me feel guilty about not wanting to go. 

We ate supper, and after I threw on some shorts, it was time for us to head on over.  But just like those times before, a magical transformation happened as soon as I walked through the doors of Rockford Manor nursing home. There weren't as many residents there to play bingo tonight, but it worked out good because there weren't many Auxiliary members there to help out, either.  The activities director started the bingo calling, but she was just getting over strep throat and still had laryngitis and could barely talk above a loud whisper.  I new the show had to go on, so I told her to take my spot at the tables helping the residents watch their cards and I would do the calling.   It was a blast.  It sure turned my sucky day into a great day after all. 

Then reality hit me like a ton of bricks.  The activities director had to leave during our games to go back to a resident's room.  The gentleman was dying, and wasn't expected to make it through the night.  His wife was there with him, but her daughter was mad at her and didn't come.  He had a living will that gave detailed instructions, and per his will, his wife had the nurses disconnect his feeding tube today.  Their daughter was mad over this and refused to come to the nursing home to be with her father in his last few hours and to be with her mother to help her through this.  The activities director came back out after about 20 minutes, and Mom and another Auxiliary member who knew the couple went back to their room to have prayer with them.  While they were gone, the director and I talked about how much we loved our Grandmothers, and she told me the story about how her Grandmother was the reason she got into nursing and was why she wanted to work at a nursing home.

After thinking about that gentleman and his wife and what they were going through right now, little things like having to fork over $400 for car repairs, and being stressed over trying to be three places at one time on Saturday didn't seem so stressful after all.  Once again, it's another case of how I believe God uses something bad around us to make us realize how good we have it.

Let's Party With Steve-O

As I've mentioned previously, our filters and software at work keep out about 99.9% of the spam. But I still enjoy looking in my Spam folder in our email program just to see what spam emails it caught.  I still get the emails advertising prescription drugs, fake Rolex watches, and dating services. When I looked today, the spam filter said it had caught 21 emails, all with the same subject line of "Party With Steve-O."  I was intrigued.  Not intrigued enough to unjunk the emails and send them to my inbox so I could read them, but intrigued at the names of the senders of the emails inviting me to party with Steve-O, whoever the hell that is.  Here's a list of people, mostly men, that invited me to party with Steve-O:

Sid
Nickolas
Augustus
Ward
Everett
Doyle
Rodney
Samuel
Oswald
Dewey
Jordan
Garfield
Franklin
Jermaine
Devin
Elliott
Cary
Jerry Gee
Coy
Leon
Jorge

New Product Review

                  

You should know by now that I love Reese's Cups, having written about them repeatedly in New Product Review.  Well, the good folks at Hershey's have brought us another awesome Reese Cup -- the limited edition Elvis Peanut Butter and Banana Creme Reese's Cup to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death.  In case you didn't know, peanut butter and banana sandwiches were a favorite of The King.  This is the first time that Hershey has made a limited-edition product, and what better to have - a union of two American icons. 

I'd read about the Peanut Butter and Banana Creme Reese's Cups last December, and was pleasantly surprised to find them at my local Dollar General Store last week.  The official press release said they would be on the market at the end of July, a few weeks before the actual 30th anniversary of Elvis' death on August 16.   I could imagine a fancy, big grocery superstore having these limited edition Reese's Cups, but my little neighborhood Dollar General Store having them before they're introduced to the rest of the country?  Who would have thought it.

I couldn't wait to try these, and for once I wasn't hesitant like I usually am when I try a new flavor of my favorite candy bar, Reese's Cups.  After the first bite, I was hooked.  It was awesome.  Hershey's has the right ratio of peanut butter to banana creme.  Neither of those two flavors were overpowering; as I said, it was just right.  Add to that the rich Hershey's chocolate covering the cup and you've got one of their best special versions of the Reese's Cup ever made. 

As I said earlier, these are a limited edition, so they'll only be in the stores for awhile, so stock up on them while you can.  Peanut Butter and Banana Creme Reese's Cups proudly receive the TWIT Seal Of Approval.  To Hershey, all I can say is thank you, thank you very much.

Link Of The Week

I normally don't have sites in Link Of The Week that are commercial - meaning, you have to pay for their product or service.  But this week, I'm making an exception.  I came across a pretty darned cool site that will make a small doll from a picture you send them.  Visit the folks at http://www.tinypocketpeople.com and you, too, can have a thin, small doll made from any photo of a person you'd like.  Just think - for a few bucks, we can get a tiny pocket people Puddin made.  How cool would that be?

What Will They Advertise Next?

Unlike last Saturday when I ran errands and was gone all day long, I decided that today would be different.  So far, the only errand I've ran was up to the local Subway to get sandwiches for lunch.  It's been very relaxing just sitting on the couch or laying across the bed watching TV in air conditioned comfort.  Yes, I've been a slug today.  And I'm proud of it. 

As with most Saturdays, you can usually catch an infomercial in the afternoons.  In fact, you can usually find 4 or 5.  As I was laying on the bed reading, I watched one of my favorite infomercials for the Magic Bullet blender/chopper/mixer machine.  As that show ended, I waited in anticipation of what wonderful must-have product would be advertised next in the next thirty minute TV slot.  I'd flipped the channels during the commercials, and when I got back to the infomercial channel, I was confused.  Instead of seeing Ron Popeil or someone else hawking a product, I saw a scene that looked like it was from a primetime crime show.  It was a women in her pajamas standing in the middle of her darkened bedroom at night, holding what appears to be a giant Maglite flashlight as she is shining the bright beam on two armed intruders.  While the beam of light is shining on them, you also see a red laser beam aimed at one of the intruders' heads.  The guy thinks the woman has a gun with a night laser on it and says "Oh, she won't shoot" and then he pulls out a big hunting knife.  The next thing you see is the woman pressing a button on the giant flashlight and suddenly a strong stream of pepper sprays shoots across the room and hits the intruder square in the face.  He drops to the floor in apparent pain while his partner in crime runs from the house, only to be pepper sprayed by the police who are also using this flashlight contraption. 

After watching the opening of the infomercial, I was hooked.  I had to watch the rest of the show.  It was filled with testimonials from current and former law enforcement officers, not to mention a few military personnel.  They also had several senior citizens and women, all of whom said they felt much much safer now that they had the Cobra Stunlight.  They even called the Stunlight one of my favorite phrases - a personal protection device. 

During the infomercial, they never told the price of it, which led me to believe it was pretty $$$.  As soon as the infomercial went off moments ago, I came here to the computer and found the website and was surprised to see the Cobra Stunlight personal protection device was $249, plus shipping and handling.  Yes, a little high, but you're paying for a device that will shoot pepper spray with "balistic" force.  I guess you get what you pay for.  As for me and my house, we'll stick with Smith & Wesson protection.

Flashback Friday

                 

Long ago and far away, in a world where there was no FDA, Surgeon General, FBI, CIA, ACLU, etc to warn us, there was Jarts.  I'm sure you all remember Jarts - the extremely dangerous yard game where we took turns throwing large dart-like instruments with sharp metal tips inside a plastic ring that was just inches away from usually bare feet.  You get the picture.  But the thing is that back in the day when we played Jarts, nobody was worried about getting speared by them.

Today, I'm sure that we all can think back and come up with at least one Jarts horror story to tell.  My Jarts horror story involved a good friend named Adam, who I witnessed getting a Jart straight through his foot. Yes, straight through his foot - as in, it entered the top of his foot, and exited underneath his foot close to his arch.  That little incident required a few stitches, but if my memory is correct, I got him to the hospital fairly quick in my Dad's very cool old black Silverado. 

We had a set of Jarts, but we never played them much at my home; not because the adults were afraid that the kids or more importantly they would be impaled by a Jart - but because nobody in my family was good at throwing Jarts.  I come from a long line of expert horseshoe throwers, and even they had trouble with the Jarts.  So I honestly have to say that they weren't played much at my home, but we had lots of friends who loved Jarts. 

The old school metal-tipped Jarts have long been replaced by the "safer" plastic-tipped Jarts, but I think they just aren't the same.  They're not nearly as heavy as the old school Jarts, and their trajectory is way different than the heavier metal-tipped Jarts.  But at least they still have them, though I have to say I've never actually witnessed anyone playing the plastic-tipped Jarts.  I'm pretty sure my friend Adam will never let his children play with the new improved Jarts. 

Good Luck, PRP

TWIT would like to wish good luck to the Pleasure Ridge Park (PRP) Panthers mens' baseball team as they compete in the state tournament.  The Panthers (33-6) play Shelby County (19-15-1) in the semifinals tomorrow night in Lexington.  The 3rd ranked PRP won their fifth district title in seven years to advance to the state tournament.  PRP won the state champion ship for three consecutive years from 1994 to 1996, and have an excellent chance at adding another state title. 

I never attended PRP high school, but it is in my neighborhood, and had I not attended  a private school, I would have been a Panther.  But I have cousins and lots of friends and neighbors who went to PRP, so I like to think of it as my adopted high school. 

Good luck tomorrow, boys.  You've already made our neighborhood proud.  Get out there on that diamond tomorrow night and get us one step closer to being the state champs again.

Good Luck, U of L

TWIT would like to wish the U of L Cardinals men's baseball team good luck as they play in the College World Series.  The number 8 ranked Louisville (46-22), which had never won a game in the NCAA Tournament before this season, moves into the World Series to play number 2 ranked Rice (54-12) in the opening round. The Cardinals' first game in the eight-team, double-elimination event will be at 7 p.m. EDT Friday in Omaha.  The game will be televised on ESPN2. This is pretty impressive from a college  who is usually thought of for its basketball and football programs. 

I don't know any of the players nor coaches on the team, nor have I heard anyone mentioning that they know any players, but I can only imagine that the farther along the Cardinals go in the World Series, more people in Louisville will suddenly know someone who knows someone on the team.  For instance, my hair stylist's daughter's friend was in class with one of the pitchers.  Anyhoo, good luck U of L in the College World Series.  You've already made us proud. 

A Little Bit Of Irony

It's not often that I actually use the white pages or the yellow pages phonebooks any more, since it's usually easier and quicker to use the white pages or yellow pages online.  But today, I decided to let my fingers do the walking and look at the real Real Yellow Pages to get the phone numbers and addresses of local bookstores. I quickly found the store I was looking for, but as something caught my eye on the page.  Not once but twice were listings for a Christian bookstore and an adult bookstore by each other.  The first was Lifeway Christian Bookstores with a listing for Lion's Den Adult Bookstore right after it alphabetically.  The second was Pure Pleasure Megacenter listed above the Religious Supply Center.  There really isn't much I can say about this, other than isn't it ironic. 

Top Ten Celebrity Perfumes At Wal-Mart

1.  Beyonce
2.  Elizabeth Taylor
3.  Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
4.  Shania Twain
5.  Celine Dion
6.  Antonio Banderas
7.  Susan Lucci
8.  Jeff Gordon
9.  Orange County Chopper father and sons
10. Britney Spears

Honerable mention:
Paris Hilton
Derek Jeter

Link Of The Week

As you already know, I'm very active in the VFW Ladies Auxiliary.  Something you might not know is that I'm a member of the NRA.  I was reading this month's issue of the NRA magazine the other week, when an article really hit me hard.  No, it wasn't about gun control; in fact, I don't think the article even mentioned the word "gun." The article was about the Wounded Warrior Project.  A young soldier, seriously wounded in Iraq, started the organization after he had completed his lengthy rehabilitation in the hospital.  He realized that our young veterans returning stateside for their rehab in military hospitals were often returning home with nothing more than the clothes on their back.  With the help of his family, they started filling backpacks with things like a portable CD player, a change of clothes, games, books, phone calling cards, etc., to give to these wounded young veterans to help them through their often lengthy rehab in the hospital. 

After reading the article, something just stirred inside of me and I decided I wanted to help the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).  I went to the website, http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org, and read about the organization and all that they do for our wounded warriors.  After showing the article to our VFW post Commander and the auxiliary President, I received their blessings and pledges of help to have fundraisers for the WWP. 

Please take a few minutes to visit the WWP website and read about the awesome ways that they are helping the young veterans returning home to begin their rehab and to adjust to life with their injuries.  If you have a few extra bucks, you can donate to the WWP through the website.  If you're a friend, family member, or co-worker who see me on a regular basis, you can just sit back and hold onto your money and buy some raffle tickets from me in a few weeks when I hit you up to help this very worthy organization.

Will Work? I Don't Think So

I've been on the road since about 9:30 this morning running all sorts of errands and taking care of business.  I passed through a major intersection where teenagers from a local Christian school were asking for donations for a mission trip to Mexico.  At another intersection, some Shriners were asking for donations.  At one more major intersection, I saw a guy wearing camo pants, a sleeveless t-shirt and a ball cap holding a cardboard sign saying "Will Work For Food."  I wish I'd had my camera with me, because if I'd held up a camera to take a picture of this guy and his sign, in the picture you would have clearly been able to see a fast food store marquee sign saying "Now Hiring."

Yep, in the background was a Dairy Queen with "Now Hiring" on their big sign.  The guy could have walked about 100 yards to the DQ and gotten a job.  If he really wanted one.  But yet he chose to stand out in a busy intersection and hold a handmade sign in hopes that people would stop and give him money.  I could be entirely wrong, but I really don't think the guy was holding that sign with the hope that someone would see it and offer him a job. 

The guys arms and face were tanned, so I'm guessing he'd been out in the sun doing this for a while.  And his clothes didn't look all that bad nor were they tattered.  He had a nice backpack leaning up against a road sign; he didn't have his belongings tied up in a bandana at the end of a stick like the hobos carry on the cartoons.  He wasn't skinny from not eating; in fact, he looked pretty buffed to me.  But for some reason, I guess he just didn't want to work at Dairy Queen.

Flashback Friday

This week's edition of Flashback Friday discusses something that we can't wear, listen to, eat, drink, drive, watch, etc.  It's something intangible, but it is definitely becoming a thing of the past.  I'm talking about summer naps. 

The tradition of summer naps originated from our ancestors who worked out in the garden or fields all day long.  They would start at the crack of dawn, have a big breakfast and work until noon when they would come in for dinner, the biggest meal of the day.  After eating awesome food like fried chicken and biscuits, they would of course be ready to crash for a couple of hours. They sure as heck didn't want to be working outside during the hottest part of the day, so they would take a nap for an hour or two.  Our grandparents who witnessed this firsthand passed on the tradition to us.  I remember my grandmother making me take a nap in the summertime at about 1:00.  It was in deed the hottest part of the day, so she said nobody had any business running around outside when it was so hot.  She would fix a pallet on the floor in the hallway underneath the attic fan, and with the windows opened and the doors in the house closed, a pretty good breeze would come through.  I would sleep for an hour or so, and then get up and go back outside to play until Mom and Dad got home from work and we we had supper.  The daily naps were an unspoken rule. 

Now with almost every home having central air conditioning, we don't really need to make the kids of today stop what they're doing at 1:00 in the afternoon and take a nap.  However, I sure wish upper management would consider it.  But I digress.  As I said, naps are a thing of the past, but I wish they would make a comeback with the younger, moody generation.  This brings me to something my Grandma would tell people when I was being a bit cranky - she would tell them in an almost whisper "She didn't get her nap out."  Yep, I sure wish we had afternoon naptime at work. There's a lot of people acting like they didn't get their nap out.

Convict Watch

In case you weren't near the internet, TV nor radio today, here's breaking news:  Paris Hilton is out of jail.  Yes, after spending only three nights in jail, Paris got her get-out-of-jail-free card early this morning because of an undisclosed medical problem and was ordered to serve the rest of her sentence in home confinement.  There's much speculation about her medical problem; we don't know if it's physical or psychological.  My guess is that it's heart problems:  I bet she went into cardiac arrest the first time she had to go to the bathroom in jail and had to sit on the cold metal toilet. 

The court ordered Paris to spend the next 40 days in confinement under house arrest.  She'll have to wear the little monitor on her ankle, and can't leave the house.  Now, I ask you - does being forced to stay in a luxurious Hollywood mansion for 40 days sound so bad to you?  I didn't think so.  If they really want to make her suffer during her home incarceration, they could take away her servants, cell phone, Blackberry, computer, and her hair extensions.  That would really seem like prison. 

I Want One Of These

If you watched any of the morning news shows as you were getting ready for work this morning, than chances are you saw the news article about some fool that tried to jump into the Popemobile yesterday.  A German man jumped over the barricade from the second or third row back, and grabbed onto the back of the Popemobile.  Pope Benedict XVI didn't even notice it, and kept on waving to the crowd as the security people wrestled the guy to the ground.  The guy didn't have any weapons, so the Vatican officials don't think he was trying to harm the Pope; they think he just wanted to get into the Popemobile with the Pope.

What fascinated me about this story is not the fact that they had excellent video footage of the guy jumping over the people in front of him and grabbing onto the back of the Popemobile before the security people took him down; I'm fascinated over hearing the news guy on "Good Morning, America" refer to the Pope's car as the Popemobile.  Until then, I thought that only people like us called the little car the Popemobile; I had no idea that the term was universally known.

When I got to work, I asked my co-workers if they'd heard about the incident, and then we got into a discussion about the Popemobile.  A co-worker did a quick search on Wikipedia, and lo and behold, there was a lengthy entry about the Popemobile.  I just had no idea that was what it was officially called.  In case you're wondering, the current Popemobiles used at the Vatican are converted Mercedes-Benz SUVs. Most have bulletproof glass, but the one the Pope was in yesterday was open. 

You Can't Call Nobody?

I read today that a Guinness world record was broken on Sunday afternoon, and nobody called to ask me to participate.  Yes, I could have been a world record breaker if only I'd gotten the memo.

On Sunday afternoon at Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas, 1,683 guitar players gathered together and played a world record version of a song that was the first many of them learned to play.  The players, ranging from kindergarten kids to folks in their 80s, played Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water".  The previous record for the most people playing the same song simultaneously was 1,323, set in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1994.   If only I could have been there. 

Kansas isn't all that far, and if I'd known about this ahead of time, I would have tried my best to be there and be a record breaker.  Thank goodnes they didn't all play "Stairway To Heaven" or else I wouldn't even considered it.  But "Smoke On The Water" is a different story.  People that don't even play the guitar, nor have any desire to play, will pick up a guitar and attempt to play the opening riff of the song.  I beg to differ.  The first time I picked up a guitar, I tried to play the opening riff to Heart's "Barracuda".  After learning that, then I decided I wanted to play the opening to "Long Cool Woman."  But you can still visit music stores all across America today, and kids who've never heard of Deep Purple will be holding a guitar and playing the opening of "Smoke On The Water" - the same way that people who can't play the piano will sit down and start pounding out their version of the ever popular "Chopsticks."   

 

Mullet Watch

We've had a dry spell with mullet sightings for the past month or so, but the warmer weather is bringing them out in public.  The latest sighting is brought to us by my friend, co-worker and faithful reader JMc. 

As my family and I were walking into the redneck mecca, aka Casa de Wal-Mart (the Outer Loop and New Cut Road location), I told my wife to look to her left at the fluffy mullet this dude was sporting.  It was light brown with a little gray, but it sure was fluffy; full and fluffy like he'd just washed and conditioned it with Pert. 

Mullet count: 18

Thank You, AOL

I'm very happy to report that the photos posted in TWIT are back to their normal status - no more having the pictures moving all over the page, zooming in and out and messing with your mind.  TWIT would like to thank AOL and their technicians for giving us bloggers the option of posting photos the old way.  TWIT would also like to thank the faithful readers for putting up with the craziness while the pictures were moving all around. 

Link Of The Week

If you're fortunate like me and have your own blog, you can write anything you want to.  You can write about anything - what you like, what you don't like, what hacks you off, etc etc.  You can even write about anything that you think is the Best Of, which I've done on occasion in TWIT.  If you don't have a blog, never fear - because I found a website this week where you can post your very own Best Of.  Just vist http://bestof.com and start posting.  You can post your own Best Of, or if you want you can post your comments about someone else's Best Of.  I'll be checking the site frequently to see if any of my faithful readers has TWIT listed in The Best Blog. 

Hog Wash

I'm sure by now you've heard either on the news or read online about Hogzilla II being caught. Yep, yet another story about rednecks paying to hunt at a commercial hunting preserve.  This time it was a redneck boy that killed the gigantic hog.  An 11-year old boy used a $1500 .50 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver to kill the hog, which weighed an impressive 1,051 pounds and measured 9 feet 4 inches long.   This one is even bigger than Hogzilla.   If the claims are accurate,  this boy's hog would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.  Hogzilla originally was thought to weigh 1,000 pounds and measure 12 feet in length. National Geographic experts who unearthed its remains believe the animal actually weighed about 800 pounds and was 8 feet long.

Now we find out that Hogzilla II, aka Monster Pig, was not a mutant gargantuan feral hog, but just a giant hog that was raised on a farm and was named Fred.  Fred was owned by a couple from Anniston, Alabama, and they sold him along with all of the hogs on their farm to the owner of the hunting preserve where Fred was killed.  Fred and the other hogs were sold just 4 days before he was killed by the redneck boy.  The couple said they didn't want wrong information being told about Fred.  "He wasn't a wild pig," they said. 

I looked at the photos on the internet of Fred, and I'm sorry to disappoint you, faithful readers, but I just can't bring myself to post the photos.  No matter what the redneck boy, his father, or the Alabama Department of Fish and Wildlife say, I still think the pictures have been Photoshopped.   You can do a search and find the pictures easily.  The one in question is the main photo making the rounds in the newspaper and websites.  It shows the redneck boy standing behing the hog, apparently leaning against it.   The redneck boy's website said that he is 5 feet 5 inches tall.  I'm sorry, but given that information, then based on that picture the hog should be about 20 feet long.  I'm not buying it. 

Flashback Friday

I grew up in a house with a grandmother who crocheted.  She could make anything with her crochet needle and some yarn.  One winter, she even got a contract from a local sporting goods store to crochet ski caps for their stores.  She made all kinds of things, but one thing that really sticks out was the year she made hats from aluminum beer and pop cans.  I wish I could have found my awesome white and red Coca Cola can hat, but it's somewhere down in the basement, but from the photo above, I'm sure you remember what I'm talking about. 

I don't remember her getting many orders to make the can hats, but I do remember she made a few of them for Mom to take to work to sell.  Being the Baptist that she was, I don't believe she ever made the hats from beer cans, but I remember seeing quite a few beer can hats when we would go to the Catholic church picnics to collect the aluminum cans for recycling. 

If I could crochet, I'd get a pattern for the hats and make them.  I bet I could sell some on eBay.