Pin Money

Today's blog started out from looking up cartwheel hats,which turned out to be wide brimmed hats as the name implies. They were fairly interesting on their own,but what caught my attention more than the hats were the hatpins. I have always wondered exactly how they worked as obviously you wouldn't jam them into your head. I never really found an answer to how they were used other than they went through the hair,so either the hair was ratted or maybe braided and the pin stuck through that is my guess.
I was surprised that the length of the hatpins was from 6-12 inches,depending on the size of the hat it was to hold in place.
Around the 1820's to keep up with demand England started importing hatpins from France. Parliament passed an act restricting the sale of pins to two days a year,January 1st and 2nd. Ladies saved their money all year to be able to spend it on pins. This is thought to be a source of the term "pin money".
Laws were passed in 1908 in America which limited the length of hatpins as there was concern they might be used as weapons. Sounds kind of like the start of TSA!

Roll Your Own

No,nothing to do with smoking! I have heard many times mention of gunpowder tea,but had never really known what it was until it came up in a story on my Kindle. Kindles allow you to instantly see the meaning of words by simply putting your finger on the word,a box pops up with the definition,a very helpful feature.
Gunpowder tea is a form of green Chinese tea in which each leaf has been rolled into a small round pellet. It is believed to take its English name from the fact that the tea resembles blackpowder grains.
The tea leaves are withered,steamed,rolled,and then dried. Although the leaves were formerly rolled by hand,most today are rolled by machines. Rolling renders the leaves less susceptible to breakage and allows them to retain more of their flavor and aroma.
When buying gunpowder tea look for shiny pellets which indicate the tea is relatively fresh. Pellet size is associated with quality,larger pellets being a mark of lower quality.

Chewing Gum Ban

I read about this awhile ago and meant to look into it further but it slipped my mind and only recently resurfaced to my attention. I had remembered it taking place in Japan,when in fact it was Singapore. The ban was enacted in 1992 and revised in 2004 and 2010. It bans the import and sale of chewing gum in Singapore. Since 2004 only gum of therapeutic value is allowed.
This law was created because people disposed of gum by sticking it under tables and chairs. I have often wondered why people do things like that with gum,it isn't illegal most places in the world and yet people seem to want to hide it in unpleasant places. I am also continually surprised at the amount of gum I see on sidewalks,which can be nasty if stepped on in warm weather.
A proposal for this ban was brought to the Prime Minister as early as 1983,but no action was taken as a ban was thought too drastic. Chewing gum was causing serious maintenance problems in public housing,with vandals disposing of it in mailboxes,inside keyholes and on elevator buttons. Gum left on floors and pavement in public areas increased cleaning costs and damaged equipment. When vandals began sticking gum on door sensors of MRT trains,preventing the doors from functioning properly and causing disruption of service,the ban was decided on.

Bigots,Hypocrites and Zealots

People don't realize that because I talk my fair share that I also listen,and often what I hear is appalling. It makes me wonder if the speakers are thinking about what they are saying or if they are so deluded,so sanctimonious that they believe what they are saying is fact,and how can those same people who profess their religion rail against things that God himself created,such as tobacco and alcohol? Talking about a drunk in the gutter as if that person is below their station and the smell of smokers being so repulsive. Whatever happened to "Judge not,lest ye be judged"? And do those same sensory glands that can detect a vile smoker also include the ability to sniff out a child molester? Would those same people, as they go about their pious lives know Jesus Christ if they saw him in a gutter? Attending a church service doesn't exclude a person from needing to be compassionate nor does it give the right to persecute their fellow man. Do they think that by  regular attendance at their place of worship automatically makes them God's right hand man? I know there are exceptions to most every rule but it has been my experience that the regular church goers are some of the worst Christians I have ever known. I will climb down from my soap box now and include a few appropriate quotes in conclusion of today's blog.
"The hands that help are far better than lips that pray."  (Robert Green Ingersoll)
"If God objected to (people with various handicaps),he ought not have created such people." (also Ingersoll)
"I like your Christ,I do not like your Christians,your Christians are so unlike your Christ." (Mohandas Gandhi)
"The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad." (Friederich Nietzsche)
"Without religion,we'd have good people doing good things,and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things,that takes religion." (Stephen Weinburg)

Sumo Stew

I know my mind works in rather mysterious ways,but for some reason I started wondering what sumo wrestlers ate or shall I say trained? for lack of a better word? I thought it would be interesting to look into,so now it is time to share in case any of you would also like to know.
Chankonabe is a Japanese stew (or one pot dish),is the base of the sumo wrestlers weight gain diet. It contains chicken broth soup base with sake to add flavor. Chankonabe also contains large quantities of protein sources,chicken quartered and skin left on,fried fish made into balls,tofu or sometimes beef and vegetables. While reasonably healthy,it is protein rich and served in mass quantities with beer and rice to increase caloric intake. It is traditionally served according to seniority,with the junior wrestlers getting whatever is left.
Chankonabe served at sumo tournaments is made exclusively with chicken,the idea being to stay on two legs like a chicken,not on all four.
Sumo is a simple sport,if you force your opponent to the ground or rice straw that surrounds the 15 foot ring you win. If any part of your body other than the soles of your feet touches the floor you lose. Because bouts are generally over in a few seconds,size matters.

Ignorance

In my meanderings today I came across something that made me feel at least slightly ignorant. I have always known that there are many types of fruits and vegetables,apples,pears,oranges,onions and the list goes on. For some reason I never considered that there was more than one type of lemon. Shame on me!
Eurekas and Lisbons are the most common types of lemons found in stores as the Meyer lemons are more difficult to ship because of their thinner skin.
The Meyer lemon was originally found in China by Frank Meyer in 1908. Meyer was employed by the Department of Agriculture as a plant hunter. It is believed that the Meyer lemon is a hybrid between the lemon and mandarin orange. It is a very hardy plant and bears fruit for several months.
If you like the tang of lemons,but not the pucker Meyer lemons are for you,even their peel is slightly sweet.

Competition

We got to talking about competition the other morning while we were working out and everyone else seemed to think that you were either competitive with others or with yourself,I didn't argue the point because I am both...to the extreme. I don't really intend to be, it just kind of takes on a life of it's own. I am going to go with the thought that it is a basic survival instinct that allowed us to compete for our food back in the day when that kind of thing was necessary. I have been playing a game called Qwiz Show on Facebook and even though they give you at least 6 games a day to play you can also click on a cube for extra games and every game that you come in first out of 10 players you get an extra free game. Today I started out with 11 games and I am thinking to myself that I will never have time to play them all,but once I start playing I can help but try my best to win. I also enjoy looking at the thumbnail pictures of the other players and with some of them trying to figure out what the picture is of. In one game there was a player named Lamar and my cat named Lamar was curled up by my feet,so I had to keep him posted on how he was doing...he came in 3rd while I finished 10th,seems I didn't know the wager question and bet it all only to lose,oh well at least I burned off a game that way. I think I still have 8? remaining games to play today,according to them I have won over 2 million dollars and my IQ is 194,which I think is just slightly smarter than my shoe. I don't think they can judge with any accuracy a persons IQ from a trivia game but it is part of the charm of the whole thing. I doubt once my regular trivia game starts back up that I will have time to play this one at all but I like to think that the mental activity keeps the old brain from atrophying.

Light My Fire

Kindle Fire that is, I got one on Pi day (3/14) as I was out on an errand and when I had finished with it I thought I would check to see if a local store stocked Kindles. I had intended to get one before my vacation so as not to have to fill half the suitcase with books. I hadn't really used it much other than to set it up until yesterday when I ran out of books. I mean to tell you that thing is slick! It is user friendly and one feature I just love is if you come to a word that you don't know all you have to do is put your finger on it and the definition comes up in a little box,no more having dictionaries strategically stationed around my reading areas! I haven't even used all the things it offers yet. One thing I haven't liked is the end of books just don't feel the same,of course that could have been the particular books that I have read on it. It also gives a whole new meaning to "get off of my cloud" (that is where you can store what you have on your kindle but still have access to it is called a cloud). I am now going to attempt to download some books from the library,the gal I talked to when I took the books back there wasn't really familiar with Kindles and had only had the crash course that they gave her on how to instruct people to use it,with any luck it will go smoothly.

Menu Substitutions

For those of you who are regular readers you will recall a week or so ago I wrote a blog about phone menus and how annoying and unhelpful they were. It gets worse,since I never did succeed in talking to a real person I ended up making the payment they wanted without being able to find out why it wasn't on auto-pay anymore and why I had a late fee because of it. The "menu" did not charge me for the late fee portion so I didn't think to much more about it,I thought maybe it hadn't actually been late yet. Yesterday in the mail I got a notice that the late fee had not been paid,but at least it had a number to talk to a representative,but having received it late in the day and seeing that the hours of their phone service were east coast time I waited until this morning to call. I started trying the number shortly after 9 which according to the letter was well within their Friday phone hours but I kept getting a recording telling me that their phone center was closed and to please call back during their hours,needless to say I was frustrated by this but kept trying. Eventually I was answered by a different recording telling me all representatives were busy and to please hold,which I did,by this time it was around 11. When a person finally came on the phone she had all the personality of a recording and must have been specially schooled in how to avoid answering questions. After several attempts at coming at the problem from different angles I finally gave her the credit card number to pay,then asked to talk to someone else hoping to get to the bottom of why this whole thing was off track in the first place. The second person was equally unhelpful and I finally just told her to forget it and hung up before I flew into a rage and started cursing...so the moral of the story here is...be careful what you wish for! For those of you that don't know the original story I had wished to talk to a real person,show me to think.

Hostage Situation

You are probably all scratching your heads and wondering what I am going on about this time...mostly it is about insurance. In years past,long ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth,okay not quite that long ago but when I was a child people didn't have insurance. Some might have carried car insurance but it wasn't mandatory,and NO one had health insurance,nor was it supplied through and employer. Why you might ask? Because it wasn't needed first of all,people didn't go to the doctor at the drop of a hat and often the doctor came to them,yes I am talking house calls! As a child I had a mild case of Scarlet Fever and the doctor made a house call as I was to sick to travel,and we lived WAY out of town plus if I recall correctly he wasn't even coming from the town we lived 9 miles outside of. Then someone decided insurance would be a good idea and it was all downhill from there. The prices went up and then eventually the doctors started having to carry malpractice insurance which further raised the prices until the point where the only people that can afford the doctors are the ones that the state is paying for. And in case that isn't all enough for you, once you buck up and agree to pay for whatever procedure the doctor decides you need to have you don't get to know until they decide to tell you what the tests did or did not reveal. I don't know about the rest of you,but it seems to me that something here is really out of whack. It feels to me like I am being held hostage by either the insurance people,the doctors or both.
With all that off my chest,I didn't even have time to crack my book open when I went for my mammogram today,so at least I did have that one good thing going.

Snowballing

Going to the doctor is like eating potato chips...you can't have just  one. I had to go yesterday to get my blood pressure medicine prescription refilled as by law they have to see you every year ,okay I get that but you can't seem to get out of there without having to make another appointment this time it was for a mammogram,which I am due for. The appointment for that is for tomorrow,so more waiting coming right up! I have been practicing for it today...first I strip to the waist then I place first my right breast in the freezer then close the door and lean on it for 30 seconds,open door and place left breast in a repeat procedure. Some of you males out there may empathize with the females you know that have had to have this procedure so I have a suggestion for you so you can more clearly understand. Strip from the waist down the open freezer door and put right testicle in the freezer close door and lean on it for 30 seconds,open door and repeat with left testicle.
At any rate wish me luck!

Hurry Up and Wait

I am not good at waiting,never have been. I am just one of those people that always feel the need to hurry. In some situations I can soothe the anxiety by reading,but not all situations. I find when I am in a place with other people I am too distracted by bits of conversations and motions to be able to concentrate on the written word. I decided since I will be waiting a while today it would be fun to find out how much of our lives are spent waiting.
The average American spends and hour a day waiting in line which totals 2 to 3 years in a lifetime. 2 weeks of your life are spent waiting for traffic lights,on average a person spends 45 minutes to 1 hour waiting everyday. I have never resented that a third of a persons life is spent sleeping,as that is essential,but the time spent waiting in offices is more a matter of greed from over scheduling and expecting people to wait...and then  to pay for that privilege! Any thoughts on what could be done to help curb the wait time?

Botulism

There was a question on Millionaire today about what the Latin word for Botulism meant...the answer was sausage. I had never heard this and only associated Botulism with improperly canned foods,which as it turns out is only one source. It can also be found in honey,corn syrup,cured pork and ham,and smoked or raw fish. It can also be inhaled or enter the body through a wound.
The recorded history begins in 1735,when the disease was first associated with German sausage. Botulism toxins are some of the most toxic substances know to man,and has been considered for use as a biological weapon.
I may not be able to write a blog tomorrow as I have a doctor appointment in the afternoon and we all know how long those can drag out,last time I had to go he had an emergency and had to leave and I was there almost 3 hours. I will try to put something together earlier in the day,but since I have other things that I need to do in the first half of the day I may not get the chance,if not check back the following day as surely something will have caught my attention and need to be addressed by then!

In the Beginning...

I know I wonder about some downright silly things,and this is pretty much another one of those things. At the beginning of books where one would expect to find page one you don't always find page one,sometimes it is page three and I have also noticed a couple with page seven for the first page and even a page eleven. I have tried to find an answer to this that made sense to me and all I have really found just sounds like so much double talk and that they don't have any more of a clue for the reason than I do. It seems to be up to the publisher what number page one will be,some count the title page,dedication page if there is one,and sometimes the table of contents. They used to use Roman numerals for any forward,or prologue but I guess that method has fallen from favor,no idea why that would be either. Most people probably don't even notice what number the first page is, and I have to admit that the first time I noticed it was only a couple of years ago but if anyone has a valid explanation I would be happy to hear it and put this query to bed once and for all.
Some of you may remember back to when I mentioned the sign that said drawbridge always made me think I should pull over and get out some drawing materials and draw the bridge,now there is a sign saying bridge work which makes me think of a dental appliance...I know,just move on and let it go!

Ugly

Earlier this week I noticed a Nissan Juke,and at first I thought some auto body person had put a car together with parts from different cars,on closer inspection I realized that it was a brand new car even though to me it looked like a cross between a VW bug and and Edsel,like some giant picked up both cars and smashed them together into one. There are a few nice looking new cars but not as many as there have been in years past. And what happened to aerodynamics? The box cars, as I think of them could no way be aerodynamic,I am talking about for example the Nissan Cube. Is it just me or does it look like a kids drawing of a car? That style must be popular though as every brand seems to have their own box type car. Then there are the Smart Cars that seem like a good idea,but every time I see one I think there should be a telescopic handle on top,like a suitcase so you can take it with you on a flight as a carry on. Of course we all have different tastes which is what makes people so interesting,so with that said I hope no one takes offense at my opinions on the models I have mentioned.

Scary Stuff

I get an annoying amount of phone calls from numbers I don't know,mostly businesses and it seems to me like the amount of these calls increased AFTER I added my name and number to the offical Do Not Call List. Knowing that this sounds incredibly paranoid I hesitate to even write about it,but I was thinking about it today after yet another one of "those" calls and started wondering if the government might be behind it,they were after all the ones that offered the Do Not Call List to curb the problem that plagued the masses. That thought led me to another about how so many people are giving up their land lines and just going with cell phones. I have read many times in many different sources how easy it is to track a cell phone so today I checked it out. All I am going to say at this point is my paranoia may very well have a validity to it. I did a search on tracking cell phones and appartently it is as easy as pie (not to be confused with pi). You might think that if you don't have a top of the line phone that leaves you clear,but that isn't the case. My understanding is that the only cell phones that can't be easily tracked are obsolete and no longer in service. If you feel inclined to doubt this just enter "tracking cell phones" in your search engine. I have no reason to worry about anyone tracking me,it is more a matter of intrusion than anything else.

Coincidence?

In many of the detective novels I read the detectives often state they don't believe in coincidence. Though this is nothing like a detective novel,it still made me wonder if the universe was sending me a special message via George Clooney. First I need to explain that I am talking about the movie "The Ides of March" which by no doing of my own happened to be my movie that came today from Netflix. Now some of you are probably thinking that I had something to do with the movie with that name coming on the ides of March,but that is not the case. I rarely make changes in my queue,I sit down and put the movies I want to see into the queue about once a month and am mostly happy to watch whatever movie shows up,though I can't say my choices are always the best when it comes to movie selections, but about 80% of the time I am pleased by what I have chosen. It is probably nothing but it did give me a "Twilight Zone" feeling for a bit. If you never see another blog by yours truly you will know what happened!
On the lighter side I did find a quarter on my walk today,and I always enjoy finding money,as you can tell I am easily entertained.
 Oh no!! My right eye has been twitching off and on today and I thought I would look it up and see if there were any superstitions about that,and though the Chinese think it is good luck for a man,it is bad luck for a woman...I am so doomed!

Happy Pi Day!

I hope you are all commemorating the day with a nice slice of your favorite pie. I would love a slice of key lime pie,but not the frozen kind,and I know one reader whose favorite pie is lemon meringue,of course you all will have your own personal choices.
Some additional Pi day facts,in 1897,Indiana tried to pass a bill stating that pi is equal to 3.2,but it never became law due to an intervention by a Purdue University professor. Pi day is celebrated on 7/22 in other countries because of the 22/7 approximation,Pi day is also Albert Einsteins birthday.
In the original blog about March non-holidays I forgot the Ides of March which is 3/15. The significance of the Ides of March was the Roman calendar marked the 15th as the approximate middle of the month. The Ides of March is best known for the day Julius Caesar was killed in 44B.C.,popularized by the phrase "Beware of the Ides of March" from the play by Shakespeare. It also used to mark an annual ancient festival dedicated to the god Mars. On March 15,1917, Nicholas II of Russia abdicated his throne, another of the many things that happened on the 15th.

Cat Names

The book I just finished included a cat named Prozac,Pro for short. I was so impressed by that name for a cat that I wanted to share that with everyone. It also led me down a path that had names like Valium,or Val for short,or if you didn't have a laid back cat you could go the other way with names for uppers,though I think for the most part with all the sleeping cats tend to do that any muscle relaxant or sleeping pill name would do nicely. With that said I will leave you to your own vivid imaginings.
Sorry I didn't really get a blog out yesterday for those of you who don't follow me from Facebook,I had a bad stiff neck and didn't want to compound the problem with time on the computer. It is much better today,so things should proceed normally...or at least as normal as they ever do for awhile, barring no further maladies.
 None of these are my cats,as they hate to have their pictures taken,they have camera radar and the second I reach for the camera they immediately wake up and bolt.

Non-Holidays

I rather prefer the unofficial holidays in March,by unofficial I mean not moved to a Monday to give government and bank workers an extra day off,that has always seemed presumptuous to me, moving the actual day of a holiday just to get a three day weekend.
First up is Pi 3.14 Day (3/14), there are many ways of celebrating Pi Day,eating pie being one and discussing the mathematical constant is another.  St. Urho day is next up on 3/16. Though a Finnish centered celebration it started in the U.S. in Minnesota in the 1950's where there is a large Finnish population. The legend of St. Urho says he chased the grasshoppers out of Finland,saving the grape crop and jobs of the vineyard workers. His feast is celebrated by wearing the colors Royal Purple and Nile Green.  March 17th is the more well known of these three with parades and celebrations held in many cities around the world. Most people believe St. Patrick's Day is celebrated because he drove the snakes out of Ireland,but the modern day celebration has almost nothing to do with the real man. The real St. Patrick wasn't even Irish. He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family. At age 16 he was kidnapped and sent to tend sheep as a slave in Ireland for 7 years. According to folklore a voice came to Patrick in his dreams telling him to escape. He found passage on a pirate ship back to Britain,where he was reunited with his family. He got ordained as a priest and the voice came to him again telling him to return to Ireland and convert the Irish to Christianity. According to lore,Patrick used the three leaves of a shamrock to explain the holy trinity.
As far as the snake myth goes,snakes never did exist on the island. St. Patrick died March 17,461.

Assorted Glocks

Those of you who are regular readers probably have an idea of where this blog will be going given my proclivity for comparing words with similar spellings. Those of you that aren't used to it bear with me,it just might be fun or at least entertaining.
The Glock is a series of semi-automatic pistols produced in Austria. The company's founder Gaston Glock was an engineer with no experience in firearm design or production at the time their first pistol was made. He did,however,have experience in advanced synthetic polymers,which was instrumental in the first production of pistols with a polymer frame. Though the "plastic guns" didn't catch on right away they have come to be widely used.
The Rathaus-Glockenspiel is a tourist attraction in Munich,Germany. Everyday at 11a.m. and more often in the summer,it chimes and reenacts two stories. It consists of 43 bells and 32 life size figures.
The glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of a piano keyboard,similar to the xylophone.
Last on today's list is glocken, which in German means belfry and can be made into several compound words with the addition of different endings.

Menus

Now that I have you thinking about your favorite eatery and the many treats for your palate that can be found there I will break the news that isn't the kind of menus I am going to talk about. One of the "distractions" that drove me to distraction yesterday was a particularly obnoxious phone menu. I know none of them are exactly a cake walk,and though many claim that your call is important to them I find that statement lacking in sincerity. First of all seldom times do they have what you are calling about included in the selections that you must wade through,and the ones that want some information from you to "speed" your call along,if and when it is answered by a real person, never seem to pass that information along so it has to be repeated anyway. I have had a limited amount of luck in the past with the old hit the 0 key and get connected with a live person,but that option seems to be getting phased out now as well. Yesterday it took me three tries to get through to the end of the purpose for the call and it was not completed to my satisfaction as I never did get to talk to a person,in fact when I tried my hit 0 trick it simply said,"invalid key,goodbye" and disconnected my call. When I was thinking about this subject earlier in the day I thought it would be interesting to include who had invented the automated phone system and when,but I could not find a trace of information on that,of course if that person was named they would be in jeopardy with anyone that had ever used a phone menu so in that regard it makes perfect sense.

Distractions

I am sure most of you have had at least one of those days where everything you try to do leads to something else and after the first few hours you would be more than happy to just spend the rest of the day banging your head against the wall rather than go on with it. That is the kind of day I have been having,and though I finished that cursed book this morning,I am still thinking that somehow the blame still lies with "the book". I have no idea how things that are usually simple and straight forward can suddenly turn into an impossible puzzle,but the second I get it figured out I will be certain to share that wondrous news with you. I feel like I somehow slipped into a M.C. Escher print,and to top it all off,I lost this when I went to check something else and had to start over. I think I might be best off to go hide under the covers for the rest of the day!

Tangled Webs

I am currently reading a book in which the protagonist is a woman philosopher,and if I have thought myself guilty of sometimes over thinking things,she has taken it to a whole new level. It seems to me that she thinks in circles and that something that starts out as the right thing turns into the wrong thing. At this point I would like to pose a question for everyone to ponder...is philosopher synonymous with insane? She never seems to get much, if any of her work done because every single thought has to involve a long drawn out process of both how she thinks of whatever it is,and how anyone else might think of it,which at first seemed like thoughtfulness and kindness,but after the first couple of hundred pages of this applied to every movement and sight it has become annoying and I find myself wanting to screech at her to get with the program. Now most of you are probably thinking why doesn't she just quit reading the book if it is getting her so worked up? That is one of my odd little quirks,of all the hundreds of thousands of books I have read I think I only gave up on about two,at least I can only think of two and I am sure that is fairly accurate guess. Oh God! Now I am starting to sound like her!

That's How the Cookie Crumbles

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Oreo cookie,the best selling cookie of the 20th century. Over 12 billion Oreos are consumed every year. This cookie has never been a favorite of mine,the cookie part is too dry and the filling is too sweet,not to mention when dunked in milk they decompose,but I was raised on homemade cookies and nothing sold in stores comes close to homemade. I am apparently a minority in my disregard, as Oreo cookies are sold in more than 100 countries,some in flavors way beyond original Oreos. The name Oreo is printed on the packages in all capital letters which would lead a person to think the letters stand for something. No one really knows where the name comes from. It was originally known as Oreo Biscuit,but changed to Oreo Sandwich in 1921,Oreo Creme Sandwich in 1948,Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie in 1974,and today they are known simply as Oreos.
A totally unrelated item: on Millionaire today the $100,000 question was what state has a town named Boring,and interesting enough I knew the answer since I grew up near Boring. Okay that sentence turned into a bad pun before I knew what was happening!

Laugh Tracks

Stumbled across an article on the science of laughing in my Mental Floss magazine, so I thought I would look into it and see what I came up with.
Laughter lowers the levels of cortisol in the body,cortisol suppresses the immune system. Lowering these levels enhances the work of the immune system and may prevent disease. You can stimulate your heart and lungs and improves breathing capacity by laughing. In terms of exercise, laughing a hundred times a day is equal to ten minutes of rowing. (Why is it again that I exercise??) Fifteen minutes of laughter equals the benefits of two hours sleep. Laughing for fifteen seconds adds two days to your life span. (I don't know how they could prove that one.) Laughter releases endorphins into the body with the same effect as strenuous exercise.
With all that fresh in your mind I will leave you with this thought. Never take life seriously,nobody gets out alive anyway. Keep on laughing...your life may depend on it!

Marching

Some weather sayings are based on observations and are fairly accurate,others are merely rhymes or beliefs of yesteryear. Those beliefs often included ideas that there should be a balance in weather and life. So if a month came in like a lion,it should go out like a lamb.
Where I am located March came in like a lion this year. I was curious where that saying came from so I will share what I found.
Some claim the saying applies to the relative positions of the constellations Leo,the lion at the beginning of the month and Aries,the ram at the end of the month. This one is my personal favorite.
John Fletcher an English playwright wrote in 1624 "I would chuse March,for I would come in like a Lion,but you'd go out like a lamb when you went to hanging."

Night and Day

This is something I have always wondered about as at times in my life I have had to be a morning person and at others an evening person and though I thought at one time I was a night owl now that I have a choice in the matter I am an early riser.
Researchers did MRI studies on morning people vs. night owls and found early risers brains were most excitable at 9 a.m.,with night owls brains being most excitable at 9p.m. The researchers also found that night people became physically stronger throughout the day while the strength of morning people stayed the same. Another study claimed that evening people may have higher IQs and that being a night owl is an evolutionary preference. The same study claimed your sleep preferences to be at least 50% genetic and that your chronotype changes with age,that generally the eveningness peaks in the late teens and early 20's.
Night owls tend to be less reliable more emotionally unstable,and more likely to have problems with addictions and eating disorders. Early risers tend to be more conscientious,persistent,and more apt to cooperate.
The body likes cycles,and circadian rhythms are a strong force,however with discipline and motivation they can be modified and shifted...which explains to me how people with changing shifts have to train their bodies to accept that as normal.

Binturong

In case any of you are wondering why I often write about animals from other parts of the world,the answer is the trivia site I frequent has questions about these animals so I often find myself wanting to know more about them,which is the case with today's blog.
The Binturong is also known as the Asian Bearcat,the Palawan Bearcat and simply the Bearcat. It is not a bear,and the real meaning of the original name has been lost,as the language that gave it that name is now extinct. Its natural habitat is trees of the forest canopy in rain forests of Bangladesh,Bhutan,Burma,Cambodia,China,India,Indonesia,Laos,Malaysia,Nepal,the Philippines,Sri Lanka,Thailand and Vietnam.
It is nocturnal,eats primarily fruit,but it also eats eggs,shoots,leaves and small rodents or birds. Deforestation has greatly reduced its numbers. When cornered the Binturong can be vicious. It can make chuckling sounds when it seems happy and a high pitch wail if annoyed.

West Coast Weather Update

This morning there was snow and ice on the ground when I got up,so I was wondering if this year would be credited for or against Punxsutawney Phil's accuracy record. Since February 2nd we have had mild weather which as of today would be four weeks,leaving two weeks to reach the end of the six seek prediction. Then I thought does Phil really predict west coast weather from the east coast? At this point I found Groundfrog,the well known? frogprognosticator of Snohomish,WA. the frog predicted on February 2nd good weather for the remainder of the winter in the north west,which is consistent with the forecast from the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center for this area.
After further checking I found another site for the city of Snohomish that had a slightly different story to tell. Instead of the frog's name being Groundfrog,that is the name given to the February 2nd celebration and the frog's name is Snohomish Slew. I can only hope to remember to check this out more thoroughly next year.