Drop It!

 The traditional ball drop in New York City is the oldest and best known dropping to celebrate the New Year but other less traditional things are also dropped across the country. In Lebanon,Pennsylvania a giant bologna is dropped,in Tallapoosa,Georgia a stuffed possum is dropped which brings us to North Carolina where they used to drop a live possum until PETA stopped that practice now North Carolina drops a giant copper and steel acorn. Boise,Idaho in keep with their state potato theme drop a giant lighted resin potato. Locations from Key West,Florida to Las Vegas,Nevada and several other cities go with dropping humans out of planes. Whatever your tradition enjoy it and best wishes for the New Year! 

Bittersweet

 So much for feeling like dark chocolate is a health food,not only is Hershey Co.  being sued for their dark chocolate containing well over the allowed amount of lead and cadmium it turns out that Consumer Reports has done a deep dive into the various chocolate makers and their findings leave only a handful of choices that are healthy. It isn't like the companies are adding heavy metals to their product as the cacao tree draws the cadmium from the soil it grows in and the lead comes from the way the beans are dried so the good news is they aren't trying to poison us but that the levels are too high. All dark chocolate contains  these heavy metals but there are a handful that have safer levels:

• Mast Organic Dark Chocolate, 80% Cocoa
• Taza Chocolate Organic Deliciously Dark Chocolate, 70% Cacao
• Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate, 86% Cacao
• Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate Twilight Delight, 72% Cacao
• Valrhona Abinao Dark Chocolate, 85% Cacao
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Going to the Dogs

 A Japanese man who always wanted to be a dog is finally dressed for success! After paying two million yen ($15,042.00) for a custom made,human sized collie costume he is now living his dream. He only dresses as a dog a few times a month when he practices how to do things like a dog would. He is careful who he tells about being a dog as it surprised his friends and family and he doesn't want people to think he's weird. He chose a collie because it is his favorite breed. The company who made the costume studied photographs and made a replica skeleton to get it just right, which took 40 days.

Who,What,Where

 It is said that there are no stupid questions though after seeing the most googled questions of 2022 that doesn't ring true. The most googled question with 109,680,000 was "what to watch",next with 89,760,000 was "where's my refund","how many ounces in a cup"with 32,880,000,"why is the sky blue" with 5,400,000,"what time is it"21,960,000,"where am I" 18,000,000 tied with ""what song is this" and bringing up the rear is the all time puzzling question,"who am I". The only good news I can think of to add  is that that data collected is anonymous. 

The Crawl

 The crocodile group is about 1,000 elderly people in China who gather daily to do the crocodile workout on a track. The exercise consist of starting in the plank position then moving one foot and arm forward at the same time while chanting affirmations to relieve pain. It is supposed to relieve back pain and stress though I haven't actually tried it yet it looks like a way to end up in a heap on the floor wondering how to get back up but I intend to try it with my phone nearby. Instructions are as follows:

How to do the crocodile crawl:

1. Start by setting up a pushup position
2. Lift the soles of your feet, tighten your abs and raise your hips
3. Walk with your hands as your feet follow behind you as you advance forward
4. Once confident, you could increase the difficulty by wearing a weighted vest
5. Always consult your doctor or physician before beginning a new workout - especially if you have a medical condition or are pregnant
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Women's Words

 The following are some funny tweets by women that I thought were share worthy. 

"What do your tattoos mean?" That I had $200 and nobody stopped me. 

At my funeral take the bouquet off my coffin and throw it into the crowd to see who's next. 

do you think they were giggling inside the Trojan horse?

My favorite thing is when I stay up too late and my dog passive aggressively puts herself to bed without me,like "YOU do what you want but SOME of us have work in the morning." 

oh no! my one basket! all my eggs were in there! 

Painted Lady

 Though teaching is a rewarding and much needed occupation this woman clearly was wasting her talents on teaching preschool. She has gained acclaim for her talent with 3D makeup and along with being inspired by Dali and Escher she has a unique and scary way of getting ideas. She struggles with sleep paralysis where she often has vivid and frightening visions which contribute to some of her more morbid looks. I know it sounds corny but they look so real! 

 

More Bad Santas

 Apparently Iceland isn't the only place with Santas that are less than jolly. The police were called to a hardware store in Australia for help with a man dressed as Santa who was causing a disturbance and refused to leave. Being a "Bad Santa" he also resisted the officers who ended up wrestling him to the ground and pepper spraying him. He left in an ambulance. Second up was a Santa riding a motor scooter,police noticed him when his Santa hat flew off,they also noticed a beer in the cup holder. He was charged with driving while disqualified,drink driving,using an unregistered motor vehicle and failure to wear a helmet. When police were done with him he demanded his spare beer out of the compartment on the scooter before he would leave. 

12 Santas Too Many

 While some might think the more Santas the merrier they wouldn't be thinking of the 13 Yule Lads of Iceland because they are more like trolls than most renditions of Santa. The 13 start their reign of mischief on December 12 and one by one continue to arrive until they all go back in the same order they came leaving Christmas to end on January 6. To get an idea of their antics one only needs to hear their names: Sheep Cote Clod,Gully Gawk,Stubby,Spoon Licker,Pot Scraper,Bowl Licker,Door Slammer,Skyr Gobbler,Sausage Swiper,Window Peeper,Doorway Sniffer,Meat Hook and Candle Beggar. With a line up like that the chances of being caught out seem much higher. 

Old Fool

 The old fool in this case is Nostradamus and we can only hope his predictions aren't as accurate as they have been in the past. A few of things he foresaw for 2023 include:a great war (Russia/Ukraine?),a great celestial fire on the royal edifice,so high will a bushel of wheat rise,that man will be eating his fellow man,like the sun the head shall sear the shinning sea,the Black Sea's fish shall all but boil.The one high point,if you can call it that,was that humans will set foot on Mars,or at least that's how "light falling on Mars" was interpreted. At the risk of sounding totally pessimistic,that's the good news? Mars? 

Dumbed Down

 Even though technology is great in many ways there are things that should remain simple so that any average person should be able to have access without computer savvy. For instance toilets,yes that means that toilets can now be smart,Kohler has introduced Numi 2.0 for a modest price tag of $11,500. The features include:Bluetooth technology and Alexa built in so you can enjoy music,news or whatever while using your toilet not to mention a bidet,heated toilet seat,bowl misting to kill germs,automatic seat lowering,deodorizing feature and built in night light. While all that might sound good the problem remains that smart devices often quit working for no apparent reason,and let's not even get into power outages and really does anyone need any of these features just to take a dump?