Monday Morning friends report, April 21, 2008

"Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
We wonder where
The flowers is."

Having a hard time remembering news we should be reporting. You out there: don't forget to contribute to BIRCHES.
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What some of our friends, folks, and bad-ass dawgs are up to

FELIX - is shaking. He says: "I felt the earth move, under my feet... WE JUST HAD AN EARTHQUAKE!! Well, it's been an hour ago now ... but, it was a good, long one." Yep, it was a good earthquake and it shook the whole of Mid-America, but the only one we know personally who felt it was Felix, and that's because he lives down there in the boonies.

THE SEVEN TEACHERS AND A CREATURE TRIVIA TEAM - despite being the prettiest, most charming and wittiest group at the party, placed only 2nd in the trivia contest, but are going to win it next time. Great time!

TRASE -

MARGARET - has changed residences and "has already started her vegetable garden." SCOT - is so busy he doesn't have time for a garden. BUD and PAT - lack the energy and ambition to make a vegetable garden, but they really wish they did. Does that count? SPARTY - is working on his.

PAT W. - is "... so nervous I can hardly watch," but she did watch and saw the Red Wings defeat the Nashville Predators, which threw her into raptures because she loves all those guys on that team.

ALICE - is recovering from illness. She had a surgery and is doing much better.

MIKE CARROLL (almost from Carrollton) - is telling friends: "There are 9,675,000,000 people in this world and yet I ended up with your crazy ass as a friend. Damn I'm lucky!"

SCOT - for no reason at all, and without any provocation, called his father a "beef-witted fat-belly." How sharper than a serpent's tooth is the ingratitude of a child!
He's out of the will.

MARSHA - has lost weight and looks great. She is, by the way, due back from Tahiti this week.

BUD - spent a night in the hospital but seems to be OK. It was not the mental ward, that's why.

GIGI - has added a room! It looks beautiful. It's that kind of a screened/many-windowed room that nestles up to the shade of at great old maple tree and makes a perfect place for friends to share some wine and stories.

IRISH MIKE - he's building something.
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What's on folk's minds:

DIG S. - sent this cite for the latest Al Gore presentation:

In Al Gore's brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of "generational mission" -- the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement -- to set it right.

Go watch it here, it's fascinating, inspiring and scary: click
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SPARTY sent a very long article from the New York Times about the secret program of the Defense Department for propagandizing news analysts on TV,  generals and retirees of the military, to brainwash them. Purpose: To make the news channels and reporters favorable to the war and to Guantanamo Prison and so on. 

 click .
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CHRIS - is talking about the oil company testimony before Congress:

Did you hear about the oil companies meeting with congress? I guess congress wanted to know why the oil industry should continue getting tax breaks when they made over $120 billion in profit last year. The response by the Shell Oil Company president or CEO was something to the effect of "Because the oil industry is a cyclical market and something bad might happen in the future."
So why don't the bastards take the profit and bank it away until something bad happens? That's like citizens telling the IRS, "I'm not going to pay all my taxes this year because something bad may happen in the future."
There is something wrong here.

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DASHMANN - refers to the wearing of flag pins in the lapels.

"You know, the only one I ever see wear a flag pin is W !!
Check it out---really. Others seldom if ever wear them.
Think I saw Gingrich with one recently."

At Birches, we don't recall anyone wearing American flags on their clothing, but then, most of us run around naked.   

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PAT C. - sent a reference to the "Tibetan Personality Test." If you want to try it, look here: Click

(Bud, it turn out has no personality traits worthy of being quanitified. Better luck to the rest of you.)

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IRENE - notes that May 20 is Curtis Granderson bobble-head doll day at Comerica Park and so she was thinking of flying in from Australia to be there, but then decided: "I've found a cheaper option. You can get a bobblehead online for the low price of $18.99. Bit cheaper than the $2000 + ticket to the game, but not as fun."
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Alice - recommends "The Myth of Ronald Reagan" which you can read here:   click 

This is the gravamen of the article:  "The Myth of Ronald Reagan Lured the Working Class Into Economic Destruction: Obama Gets It, But the Jilted Middle Class Doesn’t."
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Some snickers

JOE - who never reads this blog, sent this joke. He won't know it was printed by us.
Husband: "When I get mad at you, you never fight back. How do you manage to control your anger?"
Wife: "I clean the toilet."

Husband: "How does that help?"

Wife: "I use your toothbrush ."
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DASHMANN - sent this:

(click to make it larger)
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JERRY - sent these examples of "Wisdom":

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
-- Mark Twain

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
-- Groucho Marx

I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.
-- W.C. Fields

We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.
-- Will Rogers