Parenting Tips

 Today's post will look at some parenting advice from the 19th and early 20th centuries, you will note how the pendulum has swung from a strict format to the more lenient style used in modern times. Women of today don't even drink while pregnant but in the 19th century the children of yesteryear were given tonics of alcohol and opium for complaints such as fussiness and constipation. Toilet training started as early as 4 months. There was no lunch or snacks and if they had to have something between meals it should be a piece of dry bread. Affection was to be limited to a good morning handshake and a peck on the head at bedtime. Makes today's standards look soft! 

What's Bald and Has Six Nipples?

 Do you give up? It's probably not what anyone would have guessed, it's a man who first had 4 silicon implants then waited 4 months for them to heal before having them tattooed to look like real nipples. I guess as body modifications go it could be worse. The part I'm puzzled over is the procedure is controversial for some reason and I'm guessing from context that it has something to do with being trans as he made a comment about his trans friends being excited. I'm totally clueless, as far as I know members of the feline and canine species are the only ones to sport 6 nipples.  

Rant Time

 It's been a long time since I vented in a post so I'm overdue. The objects of my displeasure are twofold, first my local Freddy's has been price gouging since the pandemic to the extent that I've taken to ordering several things online, why should I pay $5 more for an item when I can have it delivered to my door? That brings me to part two of my rant...I'm not a huge fan of Amazon mainly because they don't seem like they are very good to their employees, though they treat the customers well and I end up ordering a lot from them because it is cut and dried, you place your order they send a confirmation, then another email when the item ships, easy peasy. Not so with many online businesses, for instance yesterday I got an email saying it was time for my automatic order of my laundry squares to ship, before the end of the day I had received a total of 6 emails detailing every hand the order had passed through. Really??? Do I need to know they are getting ready to ship it and all the minutia?  I certainly don't think so. Then there's the goat's milk soap people who I finally had to unsubscribe from because of multiple emails everyday hawking more stuff, so they think I'm not capable of reaching out if I need something else? Okay, end of rant. 

 

Giving the Finger

 Most everyone has heard about thumb wrestling but what about finger wrestling? AKA Fingerhakeln it is a sport practiced in several areas in Europe but the main action takes place in Bavaria where the championships are held. This year 150 men gathered in a big beer tent and drank beer and ate sausages between events. The sport originated as a way to settle disputes, two contestants sit on opposite sides of a table and hook their middle fingers through a leather loop and try to pull their competitor across the table. The winner goes on to the next round. Beer and sausages sound good. 

Variety

 Eggo has released 5 new waffle flavors that are now in stores nationwide, has anyone ever stopped to wonder what items go missing from the freezer section when their space is invaded? Of course the stores keep growing until a person nearly needs to bring a lunch to complete their grocery shopping, and how many types of frozen waffles does the world need? couldn't a person add their favorite ingredients to a regular waffle and call it good? Along with the new flavors, Chocolate Chip Brownie, Strawberry Delight (both are being called fully loaded as they contain 10 grams of protein), Cinnamon Churro, Dark Chocolate Chip Thick and Fluffy and Belgian Style Street Waffles they are also offering sneakers for $150 styled from the two fully loaded varieties. Too much stuff! 

Writing vs Typing

 Researchers have been at it again, this time the focus was handwritten (both cursive and printed) work is actually better than typing. Okay I'm betting there are those of you making disclaimers about your handwriting being so bad there is no way it could be better but you'd be wrong. The part of the brain that it takes to coordinate your fingers into making the different letters and holding the writing implement is also associated with the learning part of your brain, so as you write you remember what you're writing where with typing you would probably be able to record an entire lecture word for word but not remember any of it when you were done. I know this is true for me but never knew why until the good ol' researchers presented their findings. 

Flowers and Stuff

 With a nod to Mother's Day I present the world's smallest flower...Watermeal, aka Wolffia. To see the flower a person would need a microscope since it's 1/42 of an inch long and 1/85 of an inch wide. Without magnification it looks like algae. The second part of today's post is that the very woman who fought to make Mother's Day a holiday spent the last years of her life trying to have it abolished as the essence of the holiday was lost in the commercialization, as is true of most holidays.