Fairy Tale

I was recalling a childhood tale and although I don't recall who wrote this story, or even its title, 

it was a very charming tale.

 

It concerns a princess who was born with everything she could possibly wish for, doting parents,

great wealth, beauty and intelligence.  The only problem she was born bald and bald she remained.

 

On her sixteenth birthday, a fairy told the queen, she would grant whatever wish the queen desired

for her daughter.  Whereupon the queen wished that her daughter would grow a beautiful head of long

golden hair.  And should the princess ever cut her hair, then the more it would grow, both faster and

longer.

 

This became a problem, as you can guess.  Because she did cut her hair when it became (she felt)

too heavy and too long.

 

For awhile the princess' hair became her kingdom's primary industry: stuffing for pin cushions, and

chairs and ropes and the like.  But really that could only go on for so long.  What can you do with

such an overwhelming surplus?

 

The king offered that any man who could solve this problem could have his daughter's hand in marriage.

Well of course, there were all sorts of suitors who gave it a shot.  Until one day, this poor prince

suggested, that instead of cutting the hair off the princess, she should try cutting herself off from her

hair.  And guess what?  It worked!.  Her hair stopped growing.

 

But can you guess what happened next?  Yup.  You got it.  Uh huh.  She started to grow and grow.

She literally became the bulwark of her nation, lifting enemy ships out of the water intent on destroying

her father's kingdom.  She became very lonely because was just too big.

 

But then she heard a tiny voice in her ear.  That prince had climbed all the way up the princess to reach

her ear.  He had one more suggestion.  He figured the problem the first time around was cutting her hair

from her.  The problem the second time around was cutting her off from her hair.

 

Why not, he reasoned, have the princess jump and simultaneously whack off her hair.  While I personally

do not know how this amazing feat was achieved, it did do the trick.

 

The princess was restored to normal size, but her resume now included her heroic achievements on behalf

of country.  She had insights and perspectives that very few, if any, could offer.  And of course, she had

a very clever husband now as well.

 

Finis

Why Is It Called Black Friday?

The following comes from Steve Little of ThePerfectBizFinder.com

 

 

The Friday after Thanksgiving has become known as “Black Friday”.

Some say this is because, as the ‘kick-off’ to the holiday shopping season, it is supposed to be one of the biggest shopping days of the year. The story goes that the sales volume produced by the busiest shopping day puts the businesses books securely into the black (ink that it – where black ink is profit and red ink is not).

This is actually not true though. It turns out that statistically speaking the day after Thanksgiving rarely ranks above the 5th biggest shopping day and is most often 8th or higher.

Others claim that the “Black Friday” moniker dates back a little further as a derisive term used by police and retail workers to describe the horrendous traffic jams and badly behaving shoppers that mark the day.

But this, it turns out, is not the truth either. For the true origins of the term, you have to dig back a bit further to the late 1920s. Here is the story as told by RJ White:

“Laurence H. Black was one of the best floor men in town, working in the men’s department of the old Osberger’s Department Store for over thirty years. He had been with the store since its humble beginnings as a menswear store on Richmond Avenue in the late 1920s. Except for a very brief stint in the service during World War II, he remained with the store as it grew, eventually settling into its later eight-floor retail palace on North Geary Street. Black was a fixture in the store, presiding over the suits, shirts, ties and millinery in his ever-present black suit (“That’s how they remember me. Black suit, Mr. Black, see?”) with a red carnation in the lapel. In a very cutthroat industry, his was one of those rare cases in which he was respected by everyone in the city’s retail trade, regardless of store affiliation. His reputation was even cemented throughout the region, as Osberger’s expanded in the 1950s and Mr. Black would often be called upon to train sellers at the various stores.

But it was the downtown store he loved the most. He was typically one of the first there in the morning (just behind Wharton Osberger) and one of the last to leave, which is exactly as it was on November 27, 1964. Toward the end of his twelve-hour shift, as the massive brass clock overlooking the restaurant in the store’s Grande Center Court read 7:48 pm, Laurence H. Black collapsed, felled by a heart attack. Old man Osberger closed the store the next day and clerks at the city’s other retail palaces wore black in tribute.

The following year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, all of the employees wore black suits and dresses, highlighted by a single red carnation, with a moment of silence at 7:48 pm, a tradition that carried on year after year and was picked up by many other stores in the city. But, through many consolidations and sales and employee turnover and whatnot, the reason for the tribute and the tradition itself has been lost, save for a few old-timers who still remember. The small Osberger chain was dissolved in the early 1990s and the old parent company is now the owner of a chain of movie theaters in Australia. If you trace back through approximately fifteen mergers and acquisitions you’ll find that the old Osberger stores themselves are all now Macy’s. The central Osberger’s store on North Geary was converted to office space in 2001, after sitting vacant for a number of years.

They’ve kept the central court and clock, however.“

The truth is, these could all be accurate in one way or another. Personally I like the story about Mr Black and will choose it as my reason for calling the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday”.

 

Another Great Blog

http://www.dearblankpleaseblank.com/ 

 

Check this out!

The Erudite Vampire Chronicler

Finally a blog for the discerning vampire watcher:  http://reasoningwithvampires.tumblr.com/

 

 

Niacinamide for Reversing Alzheimer's?

According to Dr. David Williams of the natural health newsletter Alternatives, niacinamide, which is the alkaline form

of niacin (or vitamin B3) can restore memory loss caused by Alzheimer's.

 

Researchers at the University of California at Irvine, gave mice with medically induced Alzheimer's the human equivalent

of 2000 to 3000 mg of niacinamide.  After a four-month treatment with niacinamide, "Cognitively, they were cured" said

Dr. Kim Green, one of the researchers. (J Neurosci 08; 28: 11500--11510)

 

Evidently, niacinamide not only further memory loss, but also restored memory loss function.  Dr. William Kaufman was

taking and prescribing niacinamide as far back as the 1930s.  He and his wife took it everyday in 250 mg doses for 55

years.

 

I'll have more information for you on this vitamin in the near future.

Sarah Silverman's Thanksgiving Memories Animated (VIDEO)

via huffingtonpost.com

Just click on the link to gain access to the video

Wray Herbert: Young in Mind: Saying No to Caricatures of Aging

I recently became a grandfather. This was a joyous event in our family, and my first emotion was indeed joy -- for the new parents, for the healthy baby boy. But I confess that my second reaction -- and not far behind -- was much more conflicted: I'm too young to be a grandfather, I found myself thinking. Don't grandparents sit on park benches and drive slowly?

Within weeks I found myself upping my cardio routine and modifying my diet a bit, with the idea of shedding a couple of pounds. I should do more sit-ups, too. Who knows, maybe I'll even train for a triathlon.

There are two schools of thought regarding aging. One says that we should age gracefully, accept the normal wear-and-tear of the years as the natural order of things. Don't embarrass yourself with body piercings and skinny jeans that bulge in the wrong places. The other school says, hell no: If you act old, you'll feel old. Don't accept the stereotypes of the elderly as debilitated, out to pasture. Ditch the cardigans and easy-fit jeans.

So what's a new grandfather to do? New research from the Harvard lab of Ellen Langer suggests that there may be some truth to the second view. According to Langer, our society is chock-full of subtle cues about aging as a diminished, unhealthy stage of life -- and these unconscious cues may be shaping both our views of ourselves and the way we act -- and indeed shaping our bodies themselves -- all in undesirable ways.

Consider the evidence from several studies, all designed to either mute or magnify common signs of aging. For example, in one study Langer and her colleagues visited a local hair salon to study women who were having their hair styled. They photographed a group of customers who ranged in age from 27 to 83; they also measured their blood pressure and asked them how old they thought they looked, and they repeated this procedure after their hair appointments.

Some of the women had their hair colored, while others had their hair cut. The scientists cropped both the before and after photographs so that they did not reveal the hair, and asked independent raters to identify the photos in which each of the women looked younger. The results were intriguing: Whether they had their hair dyed or cut, if the women felt younger, they also appeared younger to the independent observers. And more important, women who perceived themselves as younger showed a decrease in blood pressure following their appointments. In other words, a change in self-perception of age was linked to healthy changes in physiology and demeanor.

Since this was just one small field study, Langer and colleagues decided to verify the findings by analyzing various kinds of archival data. In one study, for instance, they wanted to explore clothing as a possibly unhealthy cue for getting and acting old. Specifically, they compared people who wore uniforms for their job -- hospital scrubs, for example -- to others who did not -- say engineers. They controlled for education level, income, physical activity on the job, and happiness, then took various measures of poor health -- work loss due to injury or illness, doctor visits, hospital stays, chronic health problems, and so forth. The idea was that people who wear uniforms have one less cue that they're getting older -- dressing appropriately for one's age -- and that this difference will actually affect the aging process. And that's just what they found: Those who wore uniforms for a living had lower morbidity overall than did those who earned the same money but didn't wear a work uniform.

The scientists did a similar study of male baldness. Many men lose hair as they age, so that balding -- like gray hair and wrinkles -- is a common and potent trigger for an aging mindset. They analyzed several existing collections of data on premature balding and later health outcomes, and found that hair loss is linked with both prostate cancer and coronary heart disease. Langer believes that as we age, we have certain visceral responses to seeing ourselves getting older -- and that these visceral responses accumulate over time, eventually turning into something bigger and more visible -- perhaps even a deadly disease. In other words, we internalize negative views of aging -- they become part of our identity -- with unhappy consequences down the line.

Langer describes these studies and others in the new issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. She also examined data on women who have children later in life, reasoning that these women are likely to be surrounded by youthful cues. And indeed it turns out that these older mothers live longer on average than women who bear children earlier in life. Finally, the scientists looked at women who marry either significantly older or significantly younger men, and found that younger wives live shorter lives -- presumably because they "live older lives." Of course the flip side is that older spouses live younger lives -- and longer ones.

We all live by "social clocks" -- we gauge our lives by all sorts of beliefs that there is a "right age" for this of that attitude, this or that behavior. We often adjust our own clock -- social and biological -- to sync with those around us, becoming older in the process. But mindsets are not fate. Langer's mind-body hypothesis predicts that just as social cues can make us feel old, other social cues can make us feel and act young. These could include everything from Botox to aerobics class to being around children, including grandchildren.

via huffingtonpost.com

Here's an interesting article on self-perceptions of aging and how it can influence the perception of others.

Archy and Mehitabel

My grandparents were into Don Marquis' "Archy and Mehitabel".  It was first published in 1916,

(serialized actually). I found a neat site which has quotations from Don Marquis.  Check it out.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/16197.Don_Marquis

 

Briefly, the premise is that Archy is a cockroach who used to be a free verse poet in another

life (human).  He can type his stories by throwing himself against each key of the typewriter.

Remember this is before electric typewriters.  Since he is incapable of holding the shift key

AND striking another key at the same time, all his writing is in lower caps.

 

Mehitabel is pure alley cat, who insists she is the reincarnation of Cleopatra and hangs around

the newspaper office after hours, just like Archy.  Enjoy.

VIDEO: Taiwan TV animation tackles the airport pat-down controversy -

via content.usatoday.com

This is the video I tried to post earlier last week, before it was taken down. So my thanks to USA Today.

SNL’s ‘Charlie Rangel’ to ‘Rachel Maddow’: ‘Hello Young Man’ - TVNewser

via mediabistro.com

Good impressions of Maddow and Pelosi.

Chevron Thinks We're Stupid from FOD Team, Kulap Vilaysack, Seth , Brian Lane, and The Yes Men

via funnyordie.com

Funny-sad, not funny-haha.

Advice From A Cartoon Princess: Snow White

via youtube.com

I feel I'm really getting to know Ms. White for the first time. She used to seem so one dimensional. Now she's two.

Middle School Proverbs

One of my students was being egregiously disrespectful, so I let him know that if he continued to behave that way, he would be suspended.  This was his comment:

 

“Sounds good, another day off.”

 

I let him know that while suspended he would receive a grade of ‘zero’ on any and all assigned work.  He said he didn’t care because he wasn’t going to do the work anyway, even if he were in school that day.

 

Another student asked him what he was planning on doing with his life, since it looked like he was going to try seventh grade for the third time the following year (Note: he had a 4% in my class at this point).  He replied:

“I just gonna take my parents money, they rich.  That way, I ain’t have to do no school or college, I just gonna hang out with they money for the rest of my life.”

via middleschoolproverbs.wordpress.com

I love this!

Bread People

via breadpeople.tumblr.com

Frankly, I think this enough to cure a breadaholic!

Please Fire Me: Submit If You Can't Quit

via pleasefireme.com

Huffington Post brought this to my attention. Very funny website.

Hungover Owls

via hungoverowls.tumblr.com

Keep on clicking through. What a hooot!

Funny Cats

via youtube.com

I admit it. At one time or another I've seen my cats perform almost all of the antics in this video.

Taiwanese News Animation TSA's Touching of Junk

via youtube.com

Funny or not?

EPA: States Should List Coastal Waters As Impaired Due To Rising Ocean Acidification

SEATTLE — States with coastal water that is becoming more acidic because of carbon dioxide should list them as impaired under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Agency said.

The federal agency's memo Monday to states recognizes carbon dioxide as not only an air pollutant but a water pollutant, and notes the serious impacts that ocean acification can have on aquatic life.

Ocean acidification refers to the decrease in the alkalinity of oceans, which is caused by the absorption of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As water becomes more acidic, scientists have raised concern about dissolving coral reefs and potential effects on fish and other sea life.

"Ocean acidification is one of the biggest threats to our marine environment," said Miyoko Sakashita, a senior attorney at Center for Biological Diversity. This EPA action "really gave the green light to using the Clean Water Act to address ocean acidification," she said.

via huffingtonpost.com

The article further states that 40,000 bodies of water are affected.

African Asthma Therapy

In the November issue of Alternatives, Dr. David Williams writes about a natural therapy for treating asthma, called Yamoa.

This bitter powder comes from the bark of a rubber tree, Funtumia elastica.  For palatability, he suggests taking it with raw

honey. ( Under the age of 2, NO HONEY should be used.)

 

Improvement is not immediate, but happens within a week to 10 days, typically.  You can purchase a 30-day supply, which

seems to work for most people.  Rarely, some people need two to three months for complete relief.

 

So, what're you waiting for?  Start Googling!

Pause for Thought

I am reading Robert Harris' Conspirata, which is the sequel to his Imperium.  Conspirata continues the story of Marcus Cicero, first century B.C. consul of Rome.  Cicero is an interesting figure because he was a self-made man, ambitious, smart and yet appears (as presented in this series) to have hung onto his humanity.  His story is recalled by his slave and secretary, Tiro, who long outlived his master.  Tiro died at the age of 100.

 

It's fascinating to "watch" Cicero's interactions with other historical figures--Gaius Julius Caesar, Gaius Octavius--to name just a few, and learn that Julius Caesar was just as lethal in his intentions to assassinate Cicero, as he was later himself assassinated.

 

I was struck by the opening quote the author chose for his work:

 

We look on past ages with condescension, as a mere preparation for us . . . but what if we're only an after-glow of them?     J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krisnapur

 

Top Rated Funny Jokes for the day

The United Nations conducted a worldwide survey with one single question:

"Would you please give your opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure:

* In Latin America, they didn't know what please meant ...
* In China, they didn't know what opinion meant ...
* In the Middle East, they didn't know what solution meant ...
* In Europe, they didn't know what shortage meant ...
* In Africa, they didn't know what food meant ...

* In the United States, they didn't know what the rest of the world meant ...

37

4

 Ethnic, World, United, China, Europe

comments (3)

God and China

Hot 1 week agoby Tats

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth... the rest was made in China.

14

2

 Heaven, God, Chinese, China, Creator

comments (2)

Goofy Problem

Hot 1 week ago

Mickey and Minnie are going to get a divorce and the Judge asks Mickey... So you say shes crazy?
He replies... NO, I SAID SHE IS FUCKING GOOFY!!

via jokebuddha.com

3 pretty good ones ... ; )

A Sophisticated Couple Joke

Having been married to each other for forty of their sixty years, a sophisticated couple decided on separate vacations. After reveling for two months in the island paradise of Hawaii, the old gent made a rather lengthy phone call to the far shores of Miami, where his wife had decided to vacation:
"I'm having a great time," he said. "I met the most fabulous thirty-year-old blonde and we're really swinging." After a pause, a matronly voice aimed at Honolulu replied: "Well, darling, I'm having a great time, too. I met a thirty-year-old man who has been squiring me all over town and I can assure you I'm certainly enjoying myself more than you are."
"How do you figure that?" he responded in an irritated tone.
"Simple mathematics, my dear," she purred. "Thirty goes into sixty more times than sixty goes into thirty."

via jokebuddha.com

Have to admit I kinda like this one...lol

DallasDon: The rest of the story...... After pondering the existence of

Prove All Things

Biocentrism – A Theory of Everything that makes sense | hydrogen2oxygen

Yoga--Just an Exercise or Something More? - Jehovah's Witnesses Official Web Site

via huffingtonpost.com

“The rest of the story......

After pondering the existence of God,
Rene Decartes walked into his favorite watering hole and famously proclaimed.......

"I think therefore I am."

But few people know that tragedy soon struck
when the bartender asked "Your usual Rene?"

To which Decartes replied "I think not Sam." and promptly disappeared.”

The above is from DallasDon, Huff Post Moderator

Life of Brian - ROMANES EUNT DOMUS

via youtube.com

One of the funniest scenes from the Monty Python's "Life of Brian" in which a Roman gives a Latin graffiti lesson. Hilarious.

10 Quirky Facts About Kissing

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©2010 Google

via google.com

This is from, dare I say it? Yahoo. Oops!

Dogs and Love

This video sings for itself:  http://www.andiesisle.com/GoD_and_DoG.html

 

Enjoy!

A Couiple of Late Late Late Summer Recipes

I figure with all the global climate changes going on, what the heck--it's still summer!  Right?

 

Here are a couple of quick recipes:

 

1)  Grill a couple of tomato halves, skin-side down, with a little basil pesto sauce on top, along with

a few crumbs of feta cheese and ground pine-seeds.  Just takes a few minutes to grill.  Yum!

 

2)  Saute in a couple table spoons of olive oil, 3 carrots, julienned for five minutes;  add 6 or 7 green onions,

chopped, and saute for another five minutes;  and finally add 20 individual sage leaves for another five minutes.

 

Then pour mixture of pasta or rice, and top with a little parmesan cheese.  Yum-yum. 

 

I found the last recipe in an old (15 to 20 years) issue of "Vegetarian" magazine.

Lexical Ambiguity...Say what?????

Hi All,

 

Check this out http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/10/lexical-ambiguity_n_781158.html#

and have yourself a little chuckle.

Writer Wednesday: Grammar Mind Benders Known As 'Lexical Ambiguity' (PHOTOS)

via huffingtonpost.com

Here are some examples of "lexical ambiguity" to tickle the funnybone.

Carpenters - B'wana She No Home

via youtube.com

Yet another KC song with a jazzy sassy flair. Enjoy!

Favorite Quote

This is quote is attributed to Henry Beston who wrote the Outermost House:

 

Remote from Universal Nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge, and sees thereby, a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion.  We patronize them for their incompleteness and for their tragic fate in having taken form so far below ourselves.

 

And therein we err, and greatly err.  For the animals shall not be measured by man.  In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complet, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost nor ever attained, living by voices we shall never hear.

 

They are not bretheren.  They are not underlings.  They are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.

Airplane Pillow Fight Breaks Out In Coach Class (VIDEO)

via huffingtonpost.com

How to relieve the tedium during a flight from Phoenix to Washington State as reported by Newslite.tv.

The Carpenters - This Masquerade

via youtube.com

Here's another great jazz song by George Benson and sung by Karen Carpenter. Who knew?

The.Carpenters.-.All.You.Get.From.Love.Is.a.Love.Song

via youtube.com

Iit's not just about discovering new stuff. It's about uncovering old gems, too.
Did you know that Karen Carpenter had quite a few jazz-influenced songs under her belt?

Introduction

Hello Everyone!
This is my new blog.  Since I'm always finding great stuff online, I thought I'd share what I find with all of you.  I'll catch up with all of you later with more updates.