Petless

 With yesterday's inauguration the White House is once more without a resident pet. Other than companionship the pets also serve to humanize the president. Even though Teddy Roosevelt was an avid hunter he was also an animal lover and had a menagerie while he was in office. Out of all the presidents only the current one and James Polk had no pets, Andrew Johnson made pets of some mice in his bedroom but also had no official pets. Now for some photos of past White House pets. 

Grace Coolidge with Rob Roy

Hoover and King Tut

Kennedy's Pushinka and her pupniks

Obama's Bo and Sunny

Wink Wink

Tiddlywinks recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of becoming a competitive sport. In January of 1955 three Cambridge students who were hopeless as athletes  but still wanted to obtain a prestigious blue, the highest honor of sportsmen at their school, set about writing the rules, a thesis on The Science Of Tiddlywinks, coined terminology, and oversaw the creation of the Tiddlywinks Anthem. After registering their club they set out to find matches and finally got lucky when Prince Phillip accepted the challenge and appointed a comedy group to play for him. Eventually tiddlywinks caught on and in 1961 the first British Universities Championship was played for the Silver Wink. The competition lives on to this day. 

A Few Words

 Have you ever had an experience/feeling that you didn't have words to describe? Today's post offers some words that English doesn't quite cover. Flaneur comes from Old Norse flana but was popularized in France and it means taking long solitary walks to broaden your mind by carefully observing the nuances of city life. Next up we have aspaldiko from the Basque language meaning that feeling you have when you meet up with old friends in fact many restaurants in Basque Country in Spain are named Aspaldiko because what's better than meeting up with old friends? 

Secret Code

 Do you have the skill set the National Archives is looking for?  Most older folks can still read and write cursive and that is what is needed to help transcribe/classify 200 years of handwritten historical documents. There are over 5000 volunteer citizen archivists currently working on more than 300 million digitized objects from field notes made by geographers working on the Mason Dixon line, to immigration and census records. Interested volunteers can sign up online at National Archives no application required. Side note: only 14 states still require cursive being taught in schools, which always makes me wonder how people learn how to sign their names? or do they all just print their names? 

A Piece of Soup

 Since January is National Soup Month and also the height of the cold/flu season Progresso is offering Soup Drops for a limited time. What are soup drops? they describe them as a chicken noodle soup flavored hard savory drop, similar to a cough drop. They taste like chicken broth, veggies, egg noodles, and a hint of parsley, soup you can suck on. If this seems like something you need to try they can be had online at ProgressoSoupDrops.com starting on the 16th with more released every Thursday for the rest of January. For $2.49 plus shipping you get 20 drops in a can and a can of actual chicken noodle soup. 

Pizza Police?

A pizza parlor in England is extremely against the ongoing pineapple on pizza debate. They aren't totally taking away the choice though instead they charge $122 for a pizza with pineapple. If they are that against the topping why offer it at all? It seems doubtful that anyone would pay that much for a topping but the business would still be obligated to carry it so it seems more like a gimmick than anything serious. What's the big deal about what someone else eats on their pizza? I've seen and heard of many things worse than pineapple on pizza. People should mind their own toppings and not worry about what anyone else chooses. Not to mention their pineapple pizza doesn't look that great. 

 

Sweat Jeans

The latest Gen Z fashion must is sweatpants disguised to look like jeans. The Gap's "Sweatpant Baggy Jeans" are leading the pack and allowing wearers to sport sweats 24/7 should they choose. In the post pandemic trend of wearing comfort geared clothing for office attire these are the answer to many people's prayers. Unfortunately the sweatpants/jeans have yet to replace the pajama bottom look also favored by the current work force.