Mail Dog

I thought it would be nice to end the year with an uplifting post (though it is a bit of a tear jerker too). The story is about a stray Border terrier mix who was adopted by the Albany,NY post office. The abandoned puppy wandered into the back door of the post office seeking shelter on a rainy night in 1888. A postal worker named Owen allowed the pup to make his bed atop the mail bags. When the supervisor asked where they dog came from the workers said he was Owen's dog and he became known as Owney. Owney not only slept on the mail bags he went with them whenever they were moved and wouldn't allow anyone other than postal workers to touch the bags. In this way he started his extensive travels throughout the 48 states and later by steamship to Europe,Asia,North Africa,and the Middle East logging over 143,000 miles in his lifetime (1888-1897). Owney received tags everywhere he went and once his collar was full he was given a jacket by the Postmaster General to display his medals. He reportedly became aggressive as he aged and was shot after biting a clerk in Toledo,Ohio. The postal clerks refused to bury Owney and donations allowed for his remains to be sent for taxidermy. Today Owney is on exhibit at the Smithsonian and was honored on a stamp in 2011.

Not a Fan

I find myself intrigued by the various brand mascots and how some of them have complete families and back stories,however neither Julius Pringle (Mr. Pringle) nor the potato and wheat based snack chip have ever been a favorite of mine. Pringles were introduced in 1967 and were originally known as "Pringles Newfangled Potato Chip" but they had to change their name as other snack manufacturers complained that they were not really potato chips. Procter&Gamble eventually shortened the name to Pringles. One theory for that name is in reference to Mark Pringle who filed a potato processing patent in 1937. Another theory is two P&G employees lived on Pringle Drive,and yet another is Pringle was selected at random from a phone book. The logo itself has had subtle changes throughout the years,but I still find him slightly creepy for some reason.

2009-present

2002-2009

1995-2002

1986-1995
apostrophe is dropped

1967-1986

Quit His Day Job

Okay he didn't really quit his day job,but former President George W. Bush has pursued painting as a hobby since his term as a leader came to an end. There were the scandalous nude self portraits,then he expanded his repertoire to include world leaders and lots and lots of dogs. Personally I didn't think much of him as a president and I will not make a comment about his talent (or lack of) as an artist,after all everyone should get to do what they enjoy.
 

Notice he signs with his presidential number.

Quack,Quack Here

It is fascinating how many weird museums are out there,or at least it is to me. Today's offering is the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices,the original museum closed in 2002 and most of the collection was moved to the Science Museum of  Minnesota. Some of the exhibits include: a fancy metal colander which when placed on your head gives a phrenology reading that tells where the strong and weak points of your personality are by the bumps and flat places on your skull,next up is a foot operated breast enlarger pump (please! has anyone ever been that desperate to have bigger boobs?),and last on my list for today I will include one for the men to balance things out,a prostate warmer (not entirely sure why a warm prostate would be desirable). The pictures are self explanatory.

No Pride

Is it just me or do workers today have no pride in their jobs? I can't believe the amount of misspelled words or misused words I come across in the course of a day,yes,that's right a DAY! Some of them should be caught by the computer,other words makes one wonder how a person who decides to write for a living could make mistakes like using warn for the word worn...but wait,it gets worse! The general manager of the Chilean mint lost his job because he spelled the country's name wrong,and for the most part the people thought that was a harsh action for a misspelled word! As you can see in the picture below Chile is spelled Chiie instead of Chile. Oh well,maybe I'm just getting old and picky.

Miss What?

I naively thought that the days of beauty pageants degrading women were in the past,that will show me to think! The last I heard they were considering dropping the swimsuit competition portion of several pageants,but not so in Brazil! Wearing little more than dental floss 27 women representing the 27 states in Brazil compete every year in November for the title of Miss Bumbum...to me even the name of the contest is less than savory,of course there are worse names used to describe a person's backside. I also didn't realize that it is the current fashion to have a bigger butt than I would have thought was stylish,but once again,what do I know?

Safe Socks

I hear a lot of people complain about their socks disappearing (I don't have that particular problem) and I may have an answer that will solve the  mystery for some of you,the rest of you try checking between,behind, and under your washer and dryer.
In Portland,OR a 3 year old Great Dane was miserable and retching (I would have guessed bloat) when the owners rushed him to the emergency animal hospital. X-rays showed a large quantity of foreign material. After nearly two hours of surgery the mysterious material proved to be 43 and 1/2 socks. The animal hospital entered a contest sponsored by a veterinary magazine called "They Ate What?" thinking they had the $1,500 prize in the bag,but last years winner was a frog from Texas who ate 30 ornamental rocks...oh well,there is always next year!

Closing the Gap

I posted a piece on the ear tunnel type of ear piercing (aka gauging) sometime within the last year and wondered at the time how long it would take to catch up with the people who were having it done. Apparently that day is here for many of them as the surgery to repair the ear tunnels is becoming more frequent. Those kids that had to stretch their earlobes when they were going to school are now trying to join the work force and finding employers and the armed forces don't care for that look,so now they are paying to have their earlobes repaired at the cost of around $2,800. It is said that earlobes don't have much feeling but I can't imagine going through the months of gradual stretching to get any where from a 1.5 cm up to 10 cm (the record) for fashion statement that is certain not to remain in style. No thank you! My ears were sore enough from a regular piercing.

A Different Twist

People being allergic to animals (mainly cats and dogs) is not uncommon,and cats and dogs being allergic to fleas is also not uncommon,but how about a dog that's allergic to humans? I did a double take when I read about Adam,a two year old black lab who was taken in at a rescue center after being posted on a rescue website. The rescue center figured they would have him healthy and ready for a new home in a couple of weeks or a month. They treated him for fleas first,started him on quality dog food and took him to the vet for special baths to sooth his inflamed skin. Nothing seemed to be the solution until the vet did a blood test that revealed Adam was allergic to human dander! He is now on a series of shots similar to what a human undergoes to make their allergies more manageable. The long term hope is for him be able to tolerate human companionship without itching and sneezing.  Poor guy!

Zap! Boom! Bang!

When I was growing up we lived on a farm and grew most of our foods so cereal,especially cold cereal was a rare treat. The only one I remember having was Cheerios but that was a long time ago and not a major thing to store in my memory banks. With that in mind it is no surprise that I didn't know that there was a fourth Rice Krispies  elf. Rice Krispies were first introduced in 1928 and the elves,Snap (the oldest brother),Crackle,(middle brother) and Pop began their career as mascots in the 1930's. The fourth elf was Pow,his name stood for the power you would get from eating Rice Krispies and for some reason he was from outer space and never spoke lines,he only pointed. Pow was only featured in two commercials in the 1950s and that was the end of his career as a non-spokeself,the rest of the gang is the first and longest running of Kellogg's cartoon mascots,although they have underwent considerable changes over the years.

Is Nothing Sacred?

I rarely spend time at the library anymore since I do most of my reading on my Kindle,when I was still a library regular I usually just grabbed some books and left as I'm prone to people watching which makes reading in the library problematic,I do miss the smell of the books though and speaking of smell...A middle aged woman in England was sitting in the library reading when a man started complimenting her on her legs and feet. She ignored him but he was undeterred. He crawled under the table and started kissing her legs and feet. He then grabbed one of her boots and began smelling it while still talking about her wonderful feet. The woman informed the library staff and the man was arrested and sentenced to 14 months in prison. So much for the library being a safe hang out!

The library

Maui Memo

I recently decided to give our local paper a second chance and subscribed for a trial period. I have a problem with them printing stories one day and correcting them the next day,and trust me this isn't news that needs to be rushed into print to justify the errors. Back to the subject of today's post...the paper ran a short blurb about a couple who had recently? (didn't say when they had been to Maui) and on their return flight they  participated in program called Wings of Aloha which with the generosity of donors and Alaska Airlines allows people returning to Portland,OR to escort animals from the Maui Humane Society at no cost to them (other than filling out some paperwork at the airport in Maui and a few minutes of their time). The humane society in Maui takes in around 9,000 animals a year and there is not enough homes in the islands to adopt them all so they get a second chance to come to the mainland (Oregon,Washington,Colorado and Canada) and find homes here. I intend to escort one or two on my return flight from Maui. I haven't called the number yet to get all the details (808-877-3680 ext. 17) but will be calling when the time for my trip gets nearer. Back to the mistakes the paper made,they printed an incorrect web site address and a wrong ext. for the phone number,but with any luck interested parties will be able to ferret out the correct information on their own. Mahalo for your time and hopefully interest!

Ugly Good

Ugly is kind of a harsh description and maybe some people would even find the naked mole rat cute in its own way. The thing that ultimately sets the naked mole rat apart from other mammals is they are cancer resistant,so far researchers have never observed cancer in them and if that isn't enough to make them more attractive they are also extraordinarily long-lived for a rodent (they live up to 32 years,mice average around 4 years). Scientists are still studying these animals and have figured out the mechanism that prevents the rapid cell growth of cancer and with any luck they will find a way to apply this knowledge to saving human lives. Long live the naked mole rat!

Cutting Off Your Nose

This situation would be laughable if the offending people would admit their wrongdoing in the matter. It is back to the dog feces wars...this time there are two wars raging one on each US coast. In Jacksonville,FL a neighborhood is up in arms because a woman has put mothballs on her lawn and driveway to keep the dogs from relieving themselves there. The neighbors want her to clean up the mothballs because they fear possible health hazards and the smell,,,but wait isn't that the same thing the woman with the mothballs fears? The only difference is she is trying to keep people from trespassing on her property and it seems to me she is within her rights to use whatever she wants on her own lawn,if the neighbors don't like it they can stay away. In Seattle,WA the property owner in question used mass quantities of cayenne pepper to keep the dogs off their lawn and the people complained that it had burned their animals paws...well excuse me but isn't that admitting that the dog was indeed on the lawn the property owner was trying to keep them off of? I am an animal lover but for some reason more and more people are finding it convenient to allow their dogs to do their business in improper places and then turn their backs and walk away from the mess,if they would at least do the right thing and pick up after the animal these people would not be employing these harsh measures.

How Come I Didn't Know?

Today on Millionaire there was a question about a marriage saving device,it was obvious from the answers that it was a self closing toilet. The one they were referring to was developed at Skjern Technical College in Denmark,and that is all the information that was available about it,but while I was searching for that I found two other inventions for self closing toilets. One was on Kickstarter and it washed out before it met the total,it wasn't very sophisticated and from what I read it slammed the lid down...not good. The other worked like a trash can peddle where to keep the seat up you had to keep your foot on a peddle. The next thing I stumbled across beat them all,it is new toilet seat that is battery powered and slowly closes the lid after every use. In conclusion those of you who may still be arguing with your male counterparts over the toilet seat dilemma you worries are over!

Lost List

I decided that today would be the day I dealt with the dreaded Christmas card ordeal,but when I went to get my list it wasn't there. It is a relatively short list but now extra effort will be needed to complete the task,so who knows? Maybe this is the year I will quit sending cards. That whole scenario set me to thinking about how it came to be that every year 1.6 billion cards are sent back and forth...to celebrate a dead guy's birthday?? Okay,relax, it is a little more than that but the story I found on how card exchanges originated goes something like this...
In England in the early 19th century British students away at school would send letters home to their parents around Christmas time boasting of their grades and how well they were doing in hopes of receiving gifts or money for the year's efforts. These letters home are thought to be the origin of the Christmas newsletters that are often included with modern cards. In 1839 in England after the introduction of the penny post the tradition of sending cards to friends and relatives developed and grew into the monster industry it is today.

Time Again

Today's post is referring back to a previous post (December,12th) about time spent on hold in a lifetime,but the twist today is the computer voices that some businesses employ to do a sort of screening ( they ask all the same questions once you talk to a real person) while a person is on hold. I personally find them equally annoying,but they also have other uses or at least that is the idea behind them. Eugene Goostman is a chat-bot,his persona is that of a 13 year old boy living in Ukraine,which makes some of his responses not so unusual. His claim to fame? He passed the Turning Test this year,meaning he convinced the judges 33% of the time that he was a real boy. Kind of scary stuff. The plan is for the program to eventually be used to help people choose healthcare providers and doctors. I still see no reason real people can't be doing these jobs other than big business wanting to save money on employee costs so they can pay the CEOs more money!

Hang on to Your Hat

This is a little something about top hats  I ran across and found interesting. The first top hat was made and worn by John Hetherington in 1797 and caused quite a stir. People panicked at the sight,women fainted,children screamed,dogs yelped and one boy had his arm broken by the mob when they trampled him in an attempt to flee the frightening sight. Hetherington was taken to court for wearing "a tall structure having a shiny luster calculated to frighten timid people". The top hat did not gain popularity until 1850 when Prince Albert took to the fashion.
Now for some more top hat trivia: Lincoln used his stove pipe hat to carry court papers,notes and contracts (I wonder if that has anything to do with the phrase "keep it under your hat?") President Nixon was the last president to be inaugurated wearing a top hat or hat of any kind. Uncle Sam still wears a top hat!

Time's a Wasting

As I  showered this morning I was wondering how long the average person spent in a lifetime showering/bathing (182 days and 12 hours). The next thought wasn't of anything nearly as pleasant as a shower,but was brought on by thinking about the time wasted doing less than pleasant things...like being on hold. I tried to talk myself out of looking it up as I knew it wasn't going to make me happy but I couldn't resist the urge to know. One moment please...your call is important, blah,blah,blah. What a crock! If your call was of the least interest to anyone a person would not have to spend 43 days of their lifetime on hold,and let's not even thing about waiting in lines! Does calling businesses accomplish anything? short of making the consumer more annoyed and possibly raising their blood pressure? Doubtful,but short of assuming ramming speed there really aren't many options.