Friday, February 29, 2008

Gold Star Awards

Gold Stars

 MARGARET, 7 out of 7
SPARTY : 5 right
ALICE 4 right
====

Correct answers were:
1. Hatte McDaniel, Gone With the Wind
2. Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda 
3. Geraldine Page, Trip to Bountiful 
4. Sidney Poitier, Lillies of the Field
5. Ruth Gordon, Rosemary's Baby
6. Jennifer Connolly, A Beautiful Mind
7. Red Buttons, Sayonara



Silver Star to Felix J.

Travel time

The blog may not be updated for the next couple of days. This is travel time.

We'll be hitting the road as early as possible tomorrow morning, leaving Florida and heading home. We may or may not stop on the way home. If we can drive straight through without falling asleep at the wheel, we will.

We've had a great time here, and are reluctant to leave this nice place for the frozen wasteland of the north just now. We've been comfortable in our lodging and thank our friends Sharon and Claude for renting to us.

We golfed a reasonable number of times, had a wonderful time renewing friendship with Gender, swam a lot, made new friends from Wisconsin, walked and explored and even took our hand at playing pickleball. Now we'll go home, turn up the heat and shovel snow for awhile.

We had visitors all of whom we enjoyed. Our kids wanted to stay busy, so they wore us out.

We tried to keep in touch with friends and family from back home, and we appreciate all those who made an effort to keep in touch with us.

We were not as good at keeping up with the blog, though everyday, we made an effort.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker (33) (a little late)

Congratulations. Welcome to the U.S.

South Carolina May Recognize End Of Slavery

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The House has approved a bill to officially recognize the freeing of slaves.


The bill would "Juneteenth" to commemorate the June 19th, 1865, announcement by Union soldiers arriving in Texas that the war was over and all slaves were free.



Ronald Myers with the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation says South Carolina would be the 28th state to permanently recognize the day. The state has used temporary resolutions in the past.

Spartanburg Representative Harold Mitchell says a bill would prevent the annual passages of resolutions to honor the day.

CLICK

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Goodbye William F. Buckley

Bill ---
your rakish smile, your tousled hair, your super syllabification, and your raging ego-centrism all combined to give superciliousness a good name.

L.A. shooting proves need for gun safety classes

The willy-nilly shooting down of elementary students at a bus stop this evening in Los Angeles is absolute proof of the need to start mandatory hunter safety classes in elementary school gymnasiums. Arming all the students and training them how to shoot more safely would make these types of accidents less likely. It would also be a good idea to arm the elementary teachers who could rush out of the buildings and shoot down the culprits in future such incidents. I know Mrs. Bourdeau, my 4th grade teacher, would have loved to have a few shots at errant passers-by.
====
story excerpt
8 Wounded in Los Angeles Street Shooting
Associated Press February 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES - A gunman fired into a crowd of children and adults at a South Los Angeles bus stop Wednesday, wounding eight, authorities said. Three girls, ages 10 to 12, and a woman were in critical condition.

The gunman ran away, and streets in the area were shut down as numerous police officers rushed in.

CLICK

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

a thought for what it's worth

I am convinced that either Obama or Hillary would make a much better President than the gutless Democratic Party deserves.

Agree?

Tuesday Evening Quiz 02/26/08

Identify these 7 Academy Award winners:
(clicking pictures usually enlarges them)
6.
7.

It's just starting

There's a big controversy this morning about whether or not it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that released a picture of Barack Obama dressed up in a some sort of muslim-looking outfit when he was visiting somewhere or other. Was this an effort to make him look foolish? Make him look Muslim? What?

Well, Dudes, this is small potatoes. If you want real graphic intolerance, check out this conservative exhibit. Here is your morning racism in all it's unalloyed brilliance. You might as well know it's still out there, because as the election year proceeds, you will see it more and more. Some of our bigots will forever be unreconstructed.

Hillary will say she had nothing to do with the Muslim picture. The Republicans will say they had nothing to do with the other garbage. Take it all in the spirit of fairy tales.


Click to make the pic bigger.
Thanks to Bill for the picture.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Monday Morning friends report, Feb. 25, 08

There will not be a posting this morning.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Sunday silly Sites #14

Go here to see the best collection of UFO pictures. click

Go here to calculate the day of your death, if you have the nerve. click

Go here to see cats boxing. [YouTube]: click

Hunter Bags Family

Using a shotgun he owns ostensibly to protect his country against godless communism and other tyrannical anti-gun forces, a California man has successfully bagged his own family as well as himself. One of his family has survived, dragging himself into a hospital where he may live to run another day in the wilderness of American society.

CLICK

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Wacko of the Week -- 02/23/08

Preamble
As my mother used to often say: 
"They're all crazy, save me and thee,  and I oft wonder about thee." 
===


This is a Wacko Award to all of the parties, jointly and severally, each and all.

This woman.  Not, a teacher, but an "educational associate" with a taste, pun intended, for a young guy. Her instructions as a teacher's aide did not include this sort of -umm - instruction.

====

====
This School District: 
Iowa City Schools, Johnson County, Iowa. They fired the lady though the deed wasn't done on school grounds, and the kid was not a student.

====

====
And an unnamed 17 year old boy, who was not a student. We can't admire his eyesight, but then, he IS a teenage boy and brains aren't the loudest speaking organs in a 17 year old's body.

In our judgement, they all are deserving to be Wacko of the Week.
CLICK

of Rain and McCain

... under assault
1. There is much rain and thunder assailing the live oaks of Central Florida this morning. No one is swimming or golfing, well, no one in his right mind. The temperatures remain nice and warm, so it's a good morning for some computer work.


2. The uproar over McCain's friendship with a seedy lobbyist of the female persuasion is being written off as junk journalism from the New York Times. I suppose that the reputation and integrity of the Times can survive even the united assault of all those highly self-righteous commentators of the new style of journalism like Michael Savage or Rush Limbaugh.

But wait a minute. What in the world would qualify John McCain for an exemption from sleazy speculation and commentary? All the Democrats are fair game. When "ex-staffers" complain about a cozy relationship between McCain and a comely lobbyist upon whose plane he flew about hither and yon, that's news. I assure you that if the likes of Limbaugh and O'Reilly had such a bit of crap this juicy to play with concerning Hillary or John Kerry or Obama, they would be painting the airwaves red with their invective. Remember when Hillary was called a lesbian and a murderer and a drug pusher?

I no longer consider myself a Democrat and I have no deep and abiding love for any politician currently on the government/entertainment circuit. But this I know. McCain is not special as a political operative and he is entitled to be smeared with shit also, just like all those Democrats over the years. This is how we in America "do" politics. He knows that. He managed to slip out of the scandal over the S and L bankruptcies a few years ago. And he chose to play again.

So my advice to anti-McCain folks is to keep on slinging manure. Let's all get down and dirty. Believe me, Obama's turn is coming and Hillary's turn has always been in season.

Academy invitation

DID YOU have a favorite film among those nominated this year? Did you have a favorite performance? If so, feel free to send them along and we'll post them. These are not necessarily what you think will win, but what you think should win.
===

Under the BIRCHES, we've seen 4 of the 5 films nominated and these are our preferences:

Pat W: 
BEST PICTURE: "No Country for Old Men"

BEST ACTRESS:  Julie Christie 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tila Swinton 

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Philip Seymour Hoffman
===

Bud:
BEST PICTURE: "No Country for Old Men."

ACTORS: Tilda Swinton for "Michael Clayton" and Javier Bardem for "No Country ..."


Friday, February 22, 2008

We're glad you're dead


The dreadful saga of Larry Davis, who at best was a neighborhood hoodlum , drug dealer, and murderer, came to a violent end Wednesday night, when a fellow inmate stabbed him to death with a homemade knife in a New York state prison.

He killed a bunch of policemen, and if we're gullible enough to swallow the hook and sinker, he did it in self-defense. I don't care. Good riddance.

CLICK FOR STORY

BUY THE MOVIE OF HIS PATHETIC LIFE

Felixhikes writes. (More)

You are invited
To Read "The Curve" in
it's entirety at this website:
CLICK
And feel free to comment.

Gold Star Awards



1. John Havlicek
2. Patrick Ewing
3. Elgin Baylor
4. Bill Walton
5. Dave Debusschere

FELIX: This quiz obviously hit an area of his expertise, because he started sending me answers even before I could get all the pictures loaded onto Blogger via this damnable dial-up service I have here in FLA. So, we BETTER be sure he gets top billing.

MARSHA: Contacted me to complain that I hadn't told her she had all the right answers. She's our female sports expert and wants her "props." In fact she and Trase are our sweet experts in the sports arena, but I believe Trase is now on the beach in Fiji and therefor can't be sending me emails.

BOB; Knew them in one guess. For him, this was evidently too easy .. sort of like an eye test: you look at them, you know them, you say them.

DOUG - got hung up on one of the pictures, but nailed it finally.

DASHMANN: He was a little tardy this time, but he knew them.


SCOT: Knew four of the players, but his insistence that the third guy was Huge Jass is too droll to accept. In fact, I don't think I'll mention it.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Story Excerpt

From "The Curve"
a story by
Felix J. McGillicuddy

“So, one day I was hunting quail in a thicket along Raccoon Creek, just below Grover’s house. It was getting late and I was skunked. I hadn’t even got a shot off. I knew I was running out of time, so I headed up stream to Sammy Ooley’s field. He had just picked his corn, and I knew if I was going to get Grover a bird, it had to be right there.”

“Sure enough, I hadn’t even stepped in the field yet and a covey got up. I cracked down on ‘em and saw two birds go down with one shot. I thought about trying to get ‘em up again, but it was getting dark and two birds was good enough. So, I stuck ‘em in my pouch and headed to Grover’s. He was wanting a bird for Sunday dinner and I had him one.”

“If he hadn’t had a kerosene lantern burning on the porch, I wouldn’t have been able to see his house. He didn’t have electricity and it was always dark in the woods. He was sitting in his rocking chair as I walked up the steps. I said ‘I gotcha one, Grover’. But, he was dead.”

“When he didn’t say anything back, I knew it was bad. So, I touched his hand and it was cold. It was still clamped on to the arm of the chair right here,” he said, showing where Grover’s hand had been when he died. “I sat on the step and cried like a baby.”

Hahahahahahahahaha I'm Rich! I'm Rich

A peak at the email this morning:  HEY! Look you guys, I'm a multi-millionaire. Now, I want any of you who wishes to pretend to be me, Bud (otherwise known as "Dear Sir"to folks peddling free money) to go right ahead and answer this dude and collect the money. 


Dear Sir
Inheritance Part Payment
Today,we write to inform you that $2.5 Millions USD being part
payment of your inheritance fund has been release to you vide swift transfer
to your nominated bank account details.Please be advice to contact us
immediately for details of transfer once again accept our warmest
congratulations

Thanks and God bless.

Regards,
Guis Johnson
Payment Facilitator Director
Zenith Bank Plc

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker (32)

Italian Children Awaiting the Pope

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Tuesday Quiz update


Sports quizzes usually draw a very nice response and this is no exception.  Quite a few people have sent in answers.  Any more? 

For What it's Worth

Under the BIRCHES we're actually quite pleased with the direction  of this year's Presidential election.  

We are down to 3 possibilities, now.  One Republic and two Democrats. None of them is stupid. None is crazy.  None of them is an embarrassment to the United States.  

How nice. And what do you, our friends have to say?  Any of the 3 unacceptable?  


wacko update again

Here he is. David Tarloff. 
Accused murderer. 

A Light Through the Leaves

The protagonist thinks that all things things have changed in his lifetime, noting that there were many, many generations before him when the people died after a lifetime in which nothing in the world around them changed. The customs and the wisdom stayed the same. He contemplates the metaphor of trees which grew and fell, with the only variable being how thick they were when they fell. Then he wonders:
===

"Does overwhelming change, the annihilation of all you know, create an intensity of memory that would not have existed otherwise? When all you know is lost and gone forever, does it become sweeter in the mind? Does it make you want to let go or hold on even tighter?
"All I can say is that we are mistaken to gouge such a deep rift in history that the things old men and old women know have become so useless as to not be worth passing on to grandchildren."

--Charles Frazier, Thirteen Moons

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Monday, February 18, 2008

friends report first installment --

The morning began in central Florida with cloudy skies and a hint of rain on the breeze. It seemed that this would be a perfect time to work on a Monday Morning Friends Report. However, things are looking more bright and it's nice and warm, so it's break time.

Here's what I have for you so far:

JERRY - sends this picture of a Yooper "Hot Rod." I love it! Click on the picture to enlarge it.



Jerry also sent this interesting exercise. What do you see in the picture? You have to click here to look at it on a website.
Which part of your brain is stimulated by this girl? click

And a picture of his toilet. Click to enlarge it.

Go here to see more: click


=====
SPARTY - reports that he and IRISH MIKE are still meeting for Friday Guinness Club but they have been the only ones lately. The bad weather has canceled routine activities for a lot of people, especially teachers, and of course, some of their favorite people (ahem) are in Florida.

friends report PART TWO

OF GOD AND CLINTON --

BILL from WNNCO - is a very loyal correspondent who not only sends me fascinating stuff to look at and chuckle over, but also personal emails that enable us to carry on many good discussions. Bill has been interested in the Hillary campaign and all the controversy that goes with it. He thinks there should someday be a woman president and that maybe Hillary is the one. I don't know if he means it or not.

Meanwhile, he's suggesting tongue-in-cheek, that she ought to appoint Bill Clinton her running mate and then resign so that he can rule another 4 years. Sounds like a good idea for a conspiracy theory.



GIGI - has a plaque on display which says this: Bidden or unbidden, God is present." I've often read the plaque and contemplated its messages, thinking there are several ways to look at it. (Really!) Then I put that thought together with Bill's idea of a Clinton-Clinton ticket for president and vice president and it occurs to me this way: Bidden or unbidden, Bill Clinton is there. If she comes into the White House, he comes with her one way or another.

Now, I'm NOT confusing Bill Clinton and God, though there are politicians, goddamn them, who think their particular concept of God ought to govern us all. But I think now, it's Hillary's downfall that Bill is always there.
===

BILL FROM WNNCO - also sent this picture of a supposed sunset and moonrise occurring simultaneously in the north polar region. Now we wonder whether this is a trick pic or if this is really possible. In any event, the picture itself is beautiful and we WANT it to be true.



====
THAT WEATHER IN MICHIGAN -

SPARTY informs me that February is the worst on record in mid MIchigan. The whole winter is now the 6th or 7th worst, and there is lots of winter left to go. Sparty also reports he has been out cross country skiing and that we can say this for the winter: It's beautiful.

DASHMANN - calls to say that he is "sick of this sh.." which surprised me because he don't swear too often.

ALICE - flew home from Florida in the teeth of an ice storm in Michigan which had made the roads horrible on top of all that snow they had, but the ice was melting by the time she got on to the roads in Flint.

MARILYN - is regretting the decision they made not to take a February vacation.

SOMEONE - i think it was a neighbor SOVA,- has cleaned the snow from our driveway back home under the Birches. Thank you, thank you. I think this deserves a beer, at least.

IRISH MIKE - we understand has been taking care of not only his driveway and so on, but also someone else's. Another hero.
===

A WEST VIRGINIAN - I ran into one at the pool and he remarked on my MICHIGAN shirt. Then he said, "I don't really think I should talk to you. You stole our coach!" He was smiling and friendly, but you could tell --- they hate us for this!
====

Republican Humor (42)


BILL FROM WNNCO - is well connected with the conservatives, especially those in certain executive offices at certain manufacturing companies who have too much time and too little to do some days and who have the leisure to pump some propaganda into the internet grist mill.

We knew it was only a matter of time before the long knives came for Obama. So, here's one that's especially funny. The Birches really enjoyed this.
====


Sunday, February 17, 2008

THE NEXT Tuesday Quiz will be a SPORTS one, 
if the dial-up service and Blogger both cooperate.

update: Wacko

Our Wacko of the Week has been identified by the New York police. Well, they arrested him and they say they have forensic evidence. His name is David Tarloff.

The arrest has not restored to life Kathyryn Faughey the Irish-born angel whom he hacked to death with butcher's tools.

Two GOLD STARS awarded




To: IRISH MIKE
and
To: ALICE

for identifying the 3 religious leaders in our last quiz. They were:

1. John Calvin
2. Joseph Smith
3. Martin Luther


SILVER STAR for Trase for getting two out of three

Sunday silly Sites #13

-- stuff found serendipitously on the web.

1. U.S. map created with local beer labels. We know lots of Birchies who will appreciated this artistic effort click

2. Go here to see the little girl yodel. Western style. WOW! [YouTube] click

3. Here's the Encyclopedia of Girdles click

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Last call: Tuesday Quiz

All 3 pictures have been identified by 2 people. Any more of you looking for a gold star?

Awards tomorrow.

Goodbye Steve Fossett

The Judge says
You're dead!
But I expect
you to walk out
of the wilderness
any day.

You thought you had more lives than a cat.

I thought you had more money than brains.

Happy travels.

Recommended Reading: short essay

An essay which notes the inter-related nature of the killing of a well-know psychotherapist and a mass shooting by a mental patient, both on the same day.


Kathryn Faughey and the Northern Illinois University killing Rampage, an Ordinary Day

EXCERPT: NIU is only about an hour and a half away from my house. A short trip, really. Dekalb. Think women's basketball. Huskies. Nice people, now scared to go to school.
It's Valentine's Day. A quick and dirty: Another peer rejected kid. With mental illness.

A dangerous world we live in, perverse. We're going to need more mental health professionals, my friends, not fewer, in the coming years. So don't listen to people tell you that there's a glut of psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, and counselors, or that psychiatrists don't get to do psychotherapy anymore, all they do is push medicine.

click for essay

Wacko of the Week -- 02/16/08


UNKNOWN
(but there IS a suspect)

Murderer of
Kathryn Faughey

"She was a very good and decent person. She saw herself as the child of immigrants. Both of her parents came from Ireland. She was one of seven and the first in her family to go to college. She worked very hard to become what she was."

===


Under the Birches, we regard the work of those who try to straighten out our cloudy minds as the work of the angels. And we have needed that angelic intervention for generations in our species, as we crouch bewildered under the rustling leaves of the Birches.

So, when someone creeps into a psychiatric clinic and hacks an angel to death, we are even more disturbed. When the guy is pushing a wheeled suitcase full of weapons, designer adult diapers, and brassieres, we're convinced that we've not only located a wacko, but also a candidate for that most prestigious award: Wacko of the Week.

And when he's caught, we want him to get the very best of professional help. We all need it.
CLICK
====
==

ALSO-RANS:
1. Steven Kazmierczak who shot up Northern Illinois University. He went off his meds, they say. Enough said. Photo from Yahoo : CLICK
===
==
=

2.Jerry Keene, of Welch, W.Va. . He robbed a store wearing his underpants on his head. His victims recognized him anyway. (I guess he had the "sembles." If you don't know what the "sembles" is, just ask me.) As a frequent patron of the store, he had other features that made his identification a certainty.

Oh! Yeah, this was WEST VIRGINIA and the store was called "The Hillbilly Market." Once again, enough said.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Republican Humor (41)

One good thing about having Hillary still a candidate is that she is the thing in the world that Republicans hate the most, worse than Socialism and even more than Ted Kennedy. So as long as she's around, we don't seem to lack for good healthy Republican humor. Like this:
=====

Hillary's Deal With the Devil

Hillary was finishing up a day as Senator for New York when the Devil suddenly appeared in her office and made her an offer. "I am here to offer you a deal," the Devil said. "I will give you unlimited wealth, even more power than you have, and a media that will pander to your every whim. I will even make you President of the United States.

"In return, all I ask for is your soul, the souls of every member of your family, and the souls of all your constituents."

Hillary pondered for a moment and then asked, "Unlimited wealth and power?"

"Absolutely unlimited," the Devil asserted.

"A pandering media?" she asked.

"They'll fall over themselves to support you, no matter what you say or do," the Devil assured.

"And you want my soul, my family's souls, and the souls of my constituents?" she asked.

"Yes. All of them," the Devil answered.

Hillary was deep in thought for a moment, then finally spoke:

"So...what's the catch?"

like a roundelay

From ARBORETUM CLICK a message from the travelers

This, for real, is the forecast for the coming week in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia:

Thursday A shower or two Min 21 Max 28
Friday A shower or two Min 21 Max 28
Saturday A shower or two Min 21 Max 28
Sunday A shower or two Min 21 Max 28
Monday A shower or two Min 22 Max 28
Tuesday A shower or two Min 21 Max 28


(temps are in Celsius)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Second Amendment supported at record rate

Gunman exercises Second Amendment rights at Northern Illinois University.

5 dead so far. Still counting.

This makes it a record week, and a record ten months, for classroom hunters. The foreign press is taking note:

From the BBC. "It is also the fourth shooting at a US education establishment within a week. Last Friday, a woman shot dead two fellow students before killing herself at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. In Memphis, Tennessee, a 17-year-old is accused of shooting and critically wounding a student on Monday, and a 15-year-old was shot at a junior high school in California on Tuesday." CLICK

Occasionally, we hear of a shooting in a foreign school. Scotland a few years ago. Finland last year. But to have four shootings in four separate schools in just ONE COUNTRY -- and in just one week! WOW! Only in America!

It should be a new Olympic Event.

Environmental News: Species collapse

Following recent die-offs of bees there are new reports of biological mayhem in another species of great importance to people. This time it is bats. Thousands of bats have died off from a disease being called "White Nose Syndrome" because one symptom of the disease is a white ring around the nose of the victims.


The death of the bats affects agriculture because bats are ravenous consumers of destructive insects.

Fish and Wildlife Service statement: CLICK
and current news from Associated Press: CLICK


This picture was borrowed from the website of the Northeastern Cave Conservancy CLICK

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker (31)

Soccer -- yep, soccer -- players

Tuesday, February 12, 2008


Well what's a trip to Florida without at least a tornado watch. The last two times we came, there were warning and tornados touched down close to us.

So far today, just a watch. The was a tornado at 2:30 on the East coast by Cocoa Beach, and another reported south of us but so far, not here. Hang on to your hats!

funky quiz ANSWER

ANSWER: They were in the 4th vehicle that ran over a drunken couple who climbed out of a taxi cab to fight on the highway. As is so often the case: CHARLES DARWIN wins again! :)
CLICK

Monday, February 11, 2008

Recommended: by Margaret


Margaret recommends this commentary to us. She's a young mother with a young child, so she appreciates the responsibility as well as the expense of educating children.

One would have thought Bush could understand this as well, especially as he talks about "No Child Left Behind" and mumbles other 'compassionate' slogans which he has no clue or intent to fulfill.

I've read this commentary several times, and the more I read it, the more I think this liberal commentator has nailed Bush exactly. The article is called:

ONE BUSH LEFT BEHIND

Go read it, it's short and cutting: CLICK

Goodbye Tom Lantos



"The only holocaust survivor to serve in the United States Congress."
But you were wrong about Iraq.

Monday Morning friends report, Feb. 11, 08

DASHMANN- sent this reference about a threat to Great Lakes birds.

Botulism is killing Great Lakes birds
Some 8,000 died in 2007, including 2,000 loons
February 4, 2008
BY TINA LAM
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Counting dead birds along Lake Michigan's Upper Peninsula shoreline last November was mind-numbing, even emotional for wildlife biologist Joe Kaplan. Hundreds of loons, cormorants, gulls, long-tailed ducks and grebes were scattered across the sand, washed up and rotting. CLICK for story

BUD - (1. lost a one dollar bet by predicting that Hillary would win 60% of the Super Tuesday delegates. (2. Has been swimming nearly every day (3. May commit hara-kiri over the slowness of dial-up blogging.

FELIX - has returned from his travels out east. He tells a great story of trying to look up someone he met a long time ago only to find that the person has died bu that the family went to great trouble to accommodate him and make him feel welcome.

MARSHA - has been visiting in Florida and will return to Carolina today.

SPARTY - (1. says that the snowfall in mid Michigan has already made this one of the snowiest winters in history and that there is still 6 weeks to go. (2. He won a $1 bet.

ALICE - leaves Wednesday evening for a long weekend in warmer and sunnier places.

BILL from WNNCO - says that in the middle of plowing out his tenants, friends and neighbors, the alternator went out in the truck, and so a repair job in 15 inches of snow was necessary.

GIGI -(1. got stuck in the snow twice and both times good samaritans came along and rescued her. (2. She also sent a great picture of grandchildren getting their picture taken with the Governor of Michigan.

JERRY - sent along this enormously sexist bit of humor that turned up in his inbox. Which sex should be more insulted by this example is a good question.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Mellencamp not happy with McCain music choice



John Mellencamp, a political supporter of John Edwards and a staunch Democrat, has asked John McCain to stop using his music at McCain rallies. McCain has not made a public comment on the matter, but there's moves afoot in the background to disassociate the Mellencamp music from Republican causes.

We have phone calls in to our Indiana connections to try to get more details about this matter, which is to say, when he reads about it here, maybe Felix will send us an email.

Does it seem to you there are an awful lot of 'Johns" in that generation?
CLICK