All Thumbs Allowed

When I read about the Quedgeley,England garden show permitting contestants to enter store bought produce I was sure I must have misread it or maybe skipped a key sentence,but nope I had it right from the start. Apparently since the show's beginning in 1972 interest or perhaps space for gardening has waned. The only way to salvage the show this year was to allow entrants to show veggies they had purchased otherwise there wouldn't have been enough entries to have a competition.  The turnout was still poor and the organizers agreed it was time to rethink the event. Rather than spend too much time trying to figure out the problem my suggestion is they change the name: Green Thumbs vs Brown Thumbs Wrestling Event.

A Boy and His Dog

Mickey Mouse was called Mortimer by his creator,Walt Disney but Walt's wife liked the name Mickey better so he became Mickey,pretty simple so far. As Mickey's popularity grew so did his family,Minnie his friends Donald Duck,Goofy and his dog Pluto. Pluto, like his master underwent a name change,his original name was Rover but shortly after Rover came into Mickey's family Pluto the planet was discovered and named by 11 year old Venetia Burney. Her grandfather read her the article about the planet's discovery and that they hadn't decided on a name yet. Venetia said she thought it should be Pluto as "Pluto is the god of the underworld,who could make himself invisible and generally dwelt in a place that sunlight doesn't reach." The discoverer of Pluto agreed. The people at Disney decided Rover was too plain and renamed the dog Pluto,or Pluto Pup. When Pluto first appeared he was Minnie's dog and since he was a bloodhound he was used to track Mickey the convict. Ah,life was so simple in the 1930s!

The Shuffle

Homelessness is a worldwide problem though most Americans seem to think it only happens after natural disasters or in war zones and that is simply not true. I live in a small town that has a homeless population,I have often wondered when new faces appear on the streets where they have come from,often they have mental impairments that prevent them from telling you their stories. I was prompted to try to find out more when a nice looking,polite but pretty far out of touch young man told me he was hungry a couple of days ago. I walked with him to McDonald's and bought him the #6 that he said he wanted. When I got home I did some research,what I found is reprehensible. Colorado and Nevada routinely buy one-way tickets for their homeless and send them off on the bus,solving their problem by sweeping it under the carpet. There are several cities in California that follow the same practice. Even St. Petersburg,FL has an agency that ships off their mentally disabled claiming they are sending them to relatives in other states. At least if they were to stay in Florida they wouldn't need to find warming shelters in the winter. My hope for today's post is to make people more aware of not only the homeless but the homeless that are mentally impaired,become aware of your environment,notice these people and accept there is a problem,then get to work on it.

Sign Sign Everywhere a Sign

Today's topic is something I have often thought about,the signs security companies put in people's yards or windows advertising not only their company but also the fact that people have a security system...maybe. The signs alone can also be bought without having a system,and through the wonder of Google a person (read crook) can find out if the person with a sign on their property has a system and what kind. Now I want everyone to put on your thief hats and ask yourself if you were going to break into a house wouldn't you go for one that was advertising they had valuable stuff? I know it would be more of a challenge,but if I were a thief I would want to be the best at what I did so a little thing like a security system wouldn't stand in my way. Also if a person has a security system wouldn't they want the robber to have the element of surprise? Maybe it's just me,but the whole sign thing seems more like an ego thing than a deterrent.

The Versatile Shroom

Cooks know how mushrooms can be put to many uses,of course there are people who don't care for mushrooms,though it is hard to imagine anyone not liking the fungi. Now there are even more reasons to love the mushroom,uses that will cut down on plastics and in turn oil consumption. A company named Evocative has been growing packing material,home insulation,fiberboard and even surfboards. The process involves composting plant waste products such as cotton hulls,rice hulls and wheat chaff which are then consumed by the thread like mushroom roots. The process takes place in a mold shaped like what the finished product will be and only takes 5 to 10 days,and most importantly the end result is completely recyclable. There are several companies supporting this venture,Dell Computers,Steelcase and Crate and Barrel. Evocative has also won grants from US EPA,National Science Foundation, and the US Department of Agriculture. Don't you just love good news for the environment?

Who's Brad?

I am pretty sure somewhere in my mental archives I knew Pepsi was first called Brad's Drink,but I didn't know who Brad was. Brad was the pharmacist who invented Pepsi,except his name was Caleb Bradham so the Brad part was not the first name of the inventor. Caleb set out in 1893 to make a drink free of stimulants,the original formula didn't even contain caffeine. In 1898 Brad's Drink became Pepsi-Cola because Caleb believed it was a healthy drink that aided digestion and the drink is still known by that name today although the name was shortened to Pepsi in 1961. Another interesting tidbit,the phrase "more bounce for the ounce" was coined for a Pepsi slogan in 1950 and later adapted by the military to "bigger bang for your buck".

Things That Go Bump

I don't pay much attention to sell by dates because they don't really mean much if the foods have met with any variables on their way to you,for instance twice this past summer I had bags of salad  that had been frozen in transit because the reefer truck was over refrigerating the load due to the outside temperature. The opposite can apply to milk and dairy products if they meet with heat in their handling. So with those things in mind the news of a bio-reactive bump to replace sell by dates is fairly exciting. The 23 year old industrial designer was looking for ways to improve life for the blind when she designed the gelatine label for foods. It starts out flush with the packaging but as the foods inside began to decay the bumps in the label can be felt. The labels work well with protein based products so the gelatine decays at the same rate,but she is working on altering the concentration to adapt it to other products. It would also be handy to not have to haul the reading glasses out for the smaller print dates.

Define Bad

Most people have at some point in their work career had a bad boss,I had one that would qualify as bad by anyone's definition,but once again I digress. George Pullman is near the top of the list of all time bad bosses. He would come under the heading of control freak type,or maybe wannabe (bad) father figure. On the surface what he did looked like a pretty good deal,he built a town for his employees to live in,but there were catches and downfalls so bad the town could be more aptly called a prison. Since he owned it all he could charge whatever he wanted for rent and utilities,but it didn't end there. The "townsfolk" weren't allowed free press,public meetings or bars...but wait there's more! They weren't paid in regular money they were paid in Pullman Script which was only good in his town so they couldn't just up and leave when they'd had enough. They were also subject to cleanliness inspections without notice and could be evicted if they were not up to his high standards. So if you think you have it bad or have in the past remember George Pullman!
Your trivia for the day...the color of UPS vans official name is Pullman Brown,named for the color Pullman used on his coaches.

A Little Tongue

I imagine most everyone is familiar with the iconic Einstein photo of him sticking his tongue out,but am I the only one that didn't know why he was sticking his tongue out?  The photo was taken at the end of his 72nd birthday party and he was tired of being asked to smile for the camera all evening so instead of smiling one last time he stuck his tongue out. Einstein was an interesting guy not only because of his IQ but maybe more in spite of it. He is said to have had a quick wit and a lighthearted sense of humor. He loved smoking his pipe despite health warnings. He didn't like wearing socks as it was inevitable that his big toe would eventually make a hole.

A Minor Flaw

Here we go with another Florida story! Apparently Al's Army Surplus is a favorite among the robber crowd as the store has been robbed 3 times since 2006. The first time the robbers made it into a drive-thru when they crashed through the front door then stole 400 guns. The next event the back wall was breached,this year's robbery the roof was put to use where a hole was cut allowing the perpetrator to rappel into the store and climb back out with 73 guns. That was when the plan began to fall apart with the choice of getaway vehicle . It seems the police couldn't help but notice an adult tricycle loaded with guns...and the rest,as they say,is history.

Write Stuff

With all the controversy about whether cursive writing should be taught in schools I was a little surprised to learn that the White House employs a team (usually three people) of calligraphers. Don't get me wrong I am not finding fault with that I just assumed that all the lettering related tasks would be computer generated. I find it fascinating that calligraphy has not only survived in the nation's capital but that the team is kept so busy. Every place card is hand lettered,every envelope,programs,menus and I'm sure many more items I am overlooking. It just seems so proper in a world where no one pays attention to the details that make things more civilized that it makes a citizen feel proud to say they're a citizen.

In the Dark...Kinda

Yesterday was an unusual day in several ways,I made so many trips up and down my stairs I lost count. I try to avoid too many trips on the stairs as my knees are no longer up to it and complain at great lengths when they feel abused. The reason for the excess stair climbing was mainly  being a gofer for parts and what not for work being done on my Mustang,but then in the evening about the time I have dinner the power went out or so I thought. There was no storm or any obvious reason for a power outage so I thought a a circuit had tripped,back down the stairs to the basement...not once but twice as the first time didn't fix the problem. About that time I went into the bathroom and noticed that I had power in the bedroom,curiouser and curiouser. The neighbors had began gathering in the yard across the street all with similar power problems and eventually a repairman showed up and went to work on the transformer at the top of the hill,the same transformer I called in about two separate times when it was snapping and sparking and was told it was nothing to worry about! Oh well,a couple of hours later power was restored and with any luck there will be no further power problems this season.

No Comma

In case any of you have spent many years wondering about the song "Louie Louie" I decided to dedicate today's post telling what I have learned about the inscrutable "Louie Louie" over the years. First off as indicated in the title there is no comma between Louie and Louie. The original lyrics were written on toilet paper by Richard Berry in 1955 and he also recorded it as a B side in 1956. What happened  that made the song famous was when it was recorded by the Kingsmen in 1963. They were going to record the song as an instrumental but decided to use the lyrics at the last minute. The lead singer wore braces on his teeth and the only mike was attached to the ceiling and to high for him so he had to stand on his tip toes which resulted in  unintelligible singing. A rumor was started by an unknown source that the lyrics were nasty and eventually the FBI was asked to investigate. After 2 1/2 years the FBI concluded in an 116 page report that they were unable to determine the wording of the record. Another fine example of our tax dollars at work!

Tea Test

I don't remember where I heard/read about the Honest Tea experiment where stands were set up in 27 cities across the nation using the honor system asking people to leave a $1 when they took a tea. The good news is the nation on the whole is 94% honest,the bad news though not all that surprising was this years experiment had the first theft ever out of 6 years of the social experiment and ironically it happened in the nations capital,yes,Washington,DC. It happened in the early morning and the lose was between $5-$20 but still an embarrassment. A couple more things before I wrap today's post up...women are more honest than men,people with brown hair are the most honest and bald people the least honest. The proceeds from the experiment are donated to FoodCorp a group promoting nutrition for children.

No Postage Required

Not to worry today's post isn't another rant about our shoddy local mail service however their method of delivering mail on my street is pretty much the same deal as the area this post is about...just put it all in a barrel and let the people figure it out. The remote Galapagos island of Floreana (cool name!) hasn't made any improvements to the mail service in over 100 years,but as the saying goes "if it ain't broke,don't fix it". Twice a day(7 days a week) boatloads of travelers arrive in Post Office Bay where they sort through a barrel of postcards and letters looking for addresses within delivery distance from their homes. As haphazard as the system sounds at times it is faster than the regular mail. It is a good thing that the mail doesn't contain as many important pieces as it once did thanks to technology because unlike booze,the post office doesn't get better with age.

A Fine Whine

I am officially crabby today,actually it started yesterday when the only daytime TV show I care about watching wasn't on for what I thought was going to be the start of the new season. Since then I have found out through an extremely circuitous route that "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" is no longer on the roster for ANY local station,in fact from what skimpy amount of information I was able to glean the only place in the entire state that the show is airing is Bend,OR. I am talking cable TV so it may be available with other services. I spent several hours online trying to figure out how I could still watch it but every place I went only offered old shows and 30 second clips of the new host asking a contestants a single questions,more like a promo or preview than the actual show. A couple of sites made it look like they offered the currents shows but I consistently hit brick walls when I tried to view them. Hopefully I will be over my pout and ready to forge ahead by tomorrow,I apologize for my whine.

Life Imitating Fiction

Of all the movies I've seen "Groundhog Day" would be one of the concepts that I would never expect to happen in real life. Amnesia is real enough but not the way it was depicted in "Groundhog Day"... unless you just happen to go to the dentist for a root canal and have an extreme reaction to the anesthetic. The man (identified only as WO) has a 90 minute memory and the only way he makes it through the day is with an electronic diary that his wife has him write down his daily tasks in and refers him to each morning when he wakes up wondering where he is. The only event that he has any memory of since the dental procedure in 2005 is his father's death. Can you imagine waking up thinking you have a dentist appointment everyday?  For anyone with odontophobia reading about this I am thinking you will forget any thoughts of ever making a dental appointment again,but it won't be because of amnesia.

It's Official

I think I did a post on the Darwin Awards before,but since there are so many of them to choose from I decided it would be good for a laugh to do another. As you know the Darwin is and award given for the stupidest way of accidentally killing yourself,and over 88% of the awards go to men,once again proving the more intelligent gender is female. The first is one of my favorites as it involves a lawyer. His last words were "Hey,watch this" as he crashed through the bullet proof glass of his 24th floor office and landed on the pavement below. In 2000 a Texas teenager (see,it isn't always Florida!) decided to be macho and play Russian roulette,but instead of using a revolver with one bullet he used a semi-automatic raising the odds from 1 in 6 to 100%. Beep (or rather bang),you lose.

In the Dark

The phrase "All cats are gray in the dark" has several meanings but they all pretty much share the thought that appearance is not important. However when it comes to actual cats in the dark the statement just doesn't hold water. Lighter colored cats can be seen in the dark,black cats can even be discerned as a darker area of the dark,but gray cats are invisible in the dark and they seem to think since they can see you fine you should be able to see them. As long as I'm talking about cats today I often wonder if there is a formula they use to determine how slow or fast to walk in front of a person. By my calculations the urgency of where I am trying to go (picture the bathroom) is directly proportional to the slowness of their gate. This next part is kind of off the subject but still about cats,sort of. If you happen to have a last name that is often mispronounced you may have noticed that when some people attempt to say your name it sounds a lot like a cat trying to cough up a particularly tough fur-ball.

Does Crime Pay?

I can't help but feel a little bit sorry for this guy,but chances are I'll get over it. The 33 year old man begin robbing banks in the Pittsburgh area,he would stand in line pretending to talk on his cell phone then when he got to the teller he would hand them a note. His face was partially hidden by the cell phone but not enough to disguise his red beard. Once the media got the information out on a serial bank robber with a red beard and a cell phone he changed his MO and donned a fake red beard. Needless to say he was caught and could be sentenced up to 20 years for each robbery and he only netted a grand total of $16,000. No reason was given for the clever beard disguise but if I had to guess I would venture to say he was color blind.

Loyalty Cards

Apparently marijuana isn't legal in France yet as a neighborhood in Marseilles was upset when one of the local dealers started passing out customer loyalty cards offering a 10 Euro discount after 10 purchases. The cards also had a list of products,hours of operation (11 a.m.-midnight) and a polite message thanking them for their loyalty. Some of the buyers were a little confused at first wondering if they were hallucinating or maybe in a pizzeria or coffee shop,but once word got out the dealer saw a significant increase in customers. I thought today's post would make a nice contrast piece and lend continuity to yesterday's drug post.  To bad Big Pharma doesn't offer discounts.

Stuck in the Middle

Trying to make some sense of it all,but I can see it makes no sense at all. That seems to pretty much sum up my thoughts on the prescription drug racket,I quit using the eye drops that the Dr. prescribed for my red eyes and blurry vision to see if regular eye drops would work just as well,but after a couple of days it was back to the blurs early in the day so I called in a renewal. It isn't so much the cost which comes out to roughly $345 an ounce,but more the reason they cost that much. Big Pharma would like everyone to believe it is due to research,but let me tell you a story about a Canadian drug company. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International bought the rights to 2 already approved heart drugs,which had been priced  fairly before the sale. Valeant raised the price by 212% on one and 525% on the other. When asked about the abrupt raise their spokesperson stated,"Our duty is to our shareholders and to maximize the value".  That my friends is how Big Pharma feels about the people that depend on their drugs,they are only secondary to the almighty dollar. I can only hope it comes back to bite them,and of course the US is no better when it comes down to the greed factor.