Monday morning friends report.

As always, lots is happening in our world with our friends and family.

Keep us informed!
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BRENDA and STEVE - have set the date! It's to be in August.

JIM T from Minnesota - is a new father. This time, it's a son who calls himself Oliver James, and according to the father: "His interests are breastfeeding, sleeping, and, if I may be frank, crapping." You can see the picture and leave your congratulations at his website CLICK

BILL from WNNCO - brought to light a controversy that's going on in Congress (and elsewhere) about whether the Tomb of the Unknowns (Soldiers) should be replaced or should be repaired. It is made of Colorado marble and has cracks in it. Some people think it's an effort to destroy the monument by replacing it with an atheistic slab with no reference to God, and others think it's time to make it beautiful. You can read about the controversy here: CLICK



Bill also passed along a sample of "Idiot Sightings" that was sent to him. These tell of experiences with real live fools, which we are warned "Walk Among Us!" One I really liked was this one:
IDIOT SIGHTING :
I live in a semi rural area.
We recently had a new neighbor call
the local township administrative office
to request the removal of the
DEER CROSSING sign
on our road. The reason: "Too many deer
are being hit by cars out here!
I don't think this is a good place
for them to be crossing anymore."
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PAT W - has decided to "re-do" her kitchen and is up to her neck in planning and pricing and sampling and ordering. As Bill from Wnnco would say, "she is working on her nest."

GIGI - has become the official kitchen redecorating adviser because she has recently done the same and knows all the secrets.

IRENE - after last week's Friend's Report, she admits that once again, she backed the fourth place horse in the Melbourne Race. So, she is thinking of turning her talents to making a profit: "... maybe people could pay me to divulge my pick so they know to stay clear of it."
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JERRY - sent a picture of his new computer keyboard. Look carefully.


MIKE CARROLL almost from Carrollton - on a similar subject, sent a picture of a bear squatting in the woods. He says it answers an age old question. (The picture was not in a copy-able format.) I was wondering, does any bear out there happen to have a similar picture of Mike?
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JERRY - sent a selection of old "Burma Shave" promotions from along the highways. If you're older than 60, you probably remember seeing them yourself a couple of generations ago.

(Click to enlarge)

Here is a place to go read more of them: CLICK

One I remember that was on the highway near our house for many years was this one: "Cattle Crossing/ Please Drive Slow/ That old Bull/ Is Some/ Cow's Beau/ Burma Shave."
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TRAVEL PLANS I've heard:

DASHMANN and SKUZZA - are going to Florida for a few days after Thanksgiving.

BUD and PAT - are going to Florida for 10 days in December.

ALICE - is going to Florida for a long weekend in February.

SPARTY'S son - is home for the holiday! Great joy, and of course, celebrations for the Michigan State winning season.

MARSHA - is going to Polynesia in February. She's seen the pictures of the barely-clad native girls frolicking in the surf and she wants to be one of them, if only for a few days.

SANDY - is proposing organizing a group trip to Paris and other parts of France. This would be in the fall of 2008. Anyone out there interested? We can testify that her trips are wonderful.

She provides this picture from her last trip:

(click on picture to enlarge)
I've heard a story that these ladies passed up 4 other gondoliers just to get this one. Evidently they liked his tecnica.
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DASHMANN- (and SPARTY and GIGI) recommend that you rent the German movie, "Lives of Others" for a chilling look at life in a police state where people are always being watched. I join them in the recommendation.

Dashmann sent this political cartoon to express his disgust with the tendency of the Bush government to spy on people:

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FELIX - admits he cheats on our quizzes. For example, he got 100% correct on the statues quiz after the correct answers were printed. Before that, he only knew 6 of them.

ERICK - took pictures of many properties in Saginaw and a lot of them look like this. He called it "Saginaw Pride?" Saginaw is an automobile town that, like many other MIchigan cities, has seen the demise of our auto industry and with it, the collapse of our civic tranquility and beauty. Very sad.