Tommy's New Favorite Lawyer Joke

A rancher named Clyde had a car accident. In court, the trucking company's fancy lawyer was questioning Clyde. "Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine,'" asked the lawyer.

Clyde responded, "Well, I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule, Bessie, into the..."

"I didn't ask for any details", the lawyer interrupted. "Just answer the question? Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'?

Clyde said, "Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road... "The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Clyde's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule, Bessie."

Clyde thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting, real bad and didn't want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans. Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road, gun in hand, looked at me, and said "How are you feeling?"

"Now what the heck would you say?"

I found this picture of a Samoyed named George.

Makes me miss my Codyman.

Francis Langford died yesterday

Her trademark song was "I'm in the Mood for Love" and she traveled with Bob Hope entertaining troops. She was also known for her role in "The Bickersons" with Don Ameche.

hubris \HYOO-bruhs\, noun:

Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance

"During his long tenure in the financial world, Friedman has watched dozens of his competitors' businesses killed by hubris born of success rather than by unsound business decisions or adverse market conditions."
--Lisa Endlich, Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success

"This is the actor's hubris, to imagine the world possessed of a single, avid eye fixed solely and always on him."
--John Banville, Eclipse

"With dizzying hubris, Shelley elevated the vocation of the poet above that of priest and statesman."
--Peter Gay, Pleasure Wars: The Bourgeois Experience

Quotation for Wednesday, July 06, 2005:

"Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before."

The Magician's Nephew (C. S. Lewis)

Word of the Day

prestidigitation \pres-tih-dij-ih-TAY-shuhn\, noun:

1. Performance of or skill in performing magic with the hands; sleight of hand.
2. Manual dexterity in the execution of tricks; sleight of hand; legerdemain.
3. A show of skill or deceitful cleverness.

"He was the man who had sat alone in a room for hundreds and hundreds of hours, his fingers manipulating cards and coins until he had learned and could perfectly reproduce every form of prestidigitation found in books of magic lore." -- Brian Moore, The Magician's Wife

"In his new work the magic is in the storyteller's prestidigitation as the stories pass from character to character and voice to voice, and the realism seems Homeric."--D. J. R. Bruckner, "A Storyteller For the War That Won't End," New York Times, April 3, 1990

"It all came about less through engineering skill than through political prestidigitation." --Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

Quotation for Friday, June 24, 2005:

"I love the empty, silent, dewy, cobwebby hours."

Letters to an American Lady (C.S. Lewis)

Hey...me too!

nerd (nûrd) n. Slang

1. A foolish, inept, or unattractive person.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

The word nerd first appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss's "If I Ran the Zoo":
“And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo, A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!” (The nerd is a small humanoid creature looking comically angry)

Nerd next appears, with a gloss, in a 1957 issue of the Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday Mail in a column entitled “ABC for SQUARES”:
“Nerd - a square...any explanation needed?”

The third appearance of nerd in print is back in the United States in 1970 in Current Slang:
“Nurd [sic], someone with objectionable habits or traits.... An uninteresting person, a ‘dud.’”

I also found this definition from Webster:
Nurd: a person who is extremely interested and knowledgeable about computers, electronics, technology, and gadgets; also called nerd, geek

And from WordNet...

nerd
1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyonewith an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.
2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious, ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare the two senses of computer geek.

I was recently called a nerd. After reviewing the above, I'm thinking...what? Me? Socially inept, a square, a dud? Ouch. But, if I may be selective, I'll take the part where it says "above-average IQ" and "knows what's really important."

I just bought this Jack Johnson CD on a whim the other day at the mall.
I like it.

Word of the Day

antiquarian \an-tuh-KWAIR-ee-uhn\, noun/adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to objects or relics from the past.
2. Dealing in or concerned with old or rare items.

Except to antiquarians and preservationists, silent cinema has little presence on the cultural radar screen, its landmark films unrented on video, its iconic images spotted only as fodder for video collage on MTV. --Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood

Quotation for Monday, June 13, 2005:

"Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do."

The Silver Chair

(don't worry anyone...I didn't post this because I've been crying. Just liked the line.)

Almost here!

Smashmouth has now completed their new album, "Old Habits," and it's due out this summer. I plan to be first in line to get it when it's released!

And speaking of us evolving...

A quote from "My Sister's Keeper" regarding a subject I was not debating with a friend last week:

"...it's a huge leap from an amoeba to a monkey to a whole thinking person. The really amazing thing about all this is, no matter what you believe, it took some doing to get from a point where there was nothing to a point where all the right neurons fire and pop so that we can make decisions.

More amazing is how, even though that's become second nature, we all still manage to screw it up."

Monster Engine

Once again I'm borrowing content from the ever popular Jack. Check out this extremely cool site!

Word of the Day:

I just like the sound of this word. I definitely need to find a use for it soon!

agglomeration \uh-glom-uh-RAY-shuhn\, noun:
1. The act or process of collecting in a mass; a heaping together.
2. A jumbled cluster or mass of usually varied elements.

On flat farmland outside the town of Paulding, Ohio, sits an agglomeration of storage tanks, conveyors and long, rotating kilns that burn 60,000 tons of hazardous waste a year.
--David Bowermaster, "The cement makers' long sweet ride," U.S. News & World Report, July 19, 1993
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agglomeration is the noun form of agglomerate, "to gather into a ball or mass," which derives from the past participle of Latin agglomerare, "to mass together; to heap up," from ad- + glomerare, "to form into a ball," from glomus, glomer-, "ball."

Quote of the day:

"Some books are to be tasted, some swallowed and a few to be chewed up and digested."

Sir Francis Bacon (1625)

I love this commentary by my good friend, Jack, about the griping some male race car drivers are doing over Danica Patrick's lesser weight.

Clear that desk!

I totally agree with this work flow concept shared on 43 folders. Without this habit, my work life would be chaos.

"A practice of clearing your workspace and your inbox every night does more than foster a clean desk; it demands that you evaluate your progress, review your immediate landscape, and then always find some kind of formal caesura to your work. The day must end at some point."

Now, if only I could be as good about that at home.

Word of the Day

lionize \LY-uh-nyz\, transitive verb:
To treat or regard as an object of great interest or importance.

"There is good reason to be wary, and to pay some attention to that man behind the curtain -- or, if anyone tries to sell you one, to be cautious about lionizing "some pig" -- however terrific, radiant, and humble -- in a poke."
--Marjorie B. Garber, Symptoms of Culture

Word of the Day

suffuse \suh-FYOOZ\, transitive verb:
To spread through or over in the manner of fluid or light; to flush.

Have you ever felt happiness suffuse all the cells in your body and a smile light up your face?
--Sarabjit Singh, "Queen of the Hills," India Currents, November 30, 1996

Like an angel or an earthquake, it isn't there and then it is; it doesn't steal over us and suffuse us with a festive spirit like the gradual effects of alcohol or good deeds.
--Barbara Peters Smith, "Gladness descends on her home," Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 27, 2003

Quotation for Wednesday, May 25, 2005:

"There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."

That Hideous Strength

Quotation for Monday, May 23, 2005:

"We have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people."

Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)

Goodbye, Cody

I will miss you, my sweet, handsome boy. :(

First car

1980 Mustang Coupe

I don't have a picture of me with it. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

For Mother's Day, my son took me to see "Hitchhiker's Guide..." Lots of fun, especially since I loved the book. One caution: if you haven't read the book, you just might not enjoy the movie as much.
I recommend reading the book first!

Yes...weird is spelled weird

weird (wîrd)
adj. weird·er, weird·est

1. Of, relating to, or suggestive of the preternatural or supernatural.
2. Of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.

I know it may seem weird to some of you, but this is the correct spelling. I'm amazed at how many people are mistaken on that one. Just remember...weird is spelled weird. There.
Thank you.

Heaven's Little Angels

I'm so very, very proud of my beautiful, wonderful, amazing choir! They were incredibly fabulous last night in their concert. I just can't say enough about how great they are.

Did I mention I'm proud?

Word of the Day

intransigent \in-TRAN-suh-juhnt; -zuh-\, adjective:
Refusing to compromise; uncompromising.

He was intransigent at times, and almost playfully yielding at others.
--"The Decline and Fall of a Sure Thing," New York Times, September 10, 1989

Sometimes I was intransigent, and proud of it. At other times I seemed to myself to be nearly devoid of any character at all, timid, uncertain, without will.
--Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir

The dispute brewed through the summer as Nehru remained intransigent and U.S. officials confronted an unbending legal mandate.
--George Perkovich, India's Nuclear Bomb

Out of the Ordinary

It's all just a dream that You slowly reveal
And You promised You're making me Real

Now hope is the difference for all who believe
and hope gives me strength where I stand
The difference is coming alive in me
as all the days go by
How the time flies by

It's all just a dream that You slowly reveal
and I know that You're drawing me near
Isn't it right, and isn't it good
How Your love makes me Real

- Out of the Grey

Quotation for Friday, April 22, 2005:

No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home, but the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the very sign of His presence.

The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis

Remembering Jeanne

It's been two years today that Jeanne's been gone from us.
I love you and miss you very much, my friend.

Shameless Commerce

I want this for Mother's Day!

Quotation for Friday, April 15, 2005:

"I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?"

Till We Have Faces
C.S. Lewis

Quotation for April 11, 2005

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

The Problem of Pain
(C.S. Lewis)

Life long friendship

An excerpt from "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency,"

"You can go through life and make new friends every year - every month practically - but there is never any substitute for those friendships of childhood that survive into adult years. Those are the ones in which we are bound to one another with hoops of steel."

Sleeping Bear Dunes

I climbed the Sleeping Bear Dunes last weekend. You have to earn the view with a long, hard climb, but it's absolutely beautiful and worth the work.

Quotation for Monday, April 4, 2005

"For the believer there are no questions; for the non-believer there are no answers."

source unknown

(interesting concept...trying to decide if I quite agree with it)

Quotation for Friday, April 1, 2005:

"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask--half our great theological and metaphysical problems--are like that."

A Grief Observed

Word of the Day for Friday March 25, 2005

pestiferous \pes-TIF-uh-ruhs\, adjective:
1. Bearing or bringing disease.
2. Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease.
3. Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious.
4. Bothersome; troublesome; annoying.

Quotation for Thursday, March 24, 2005:

"It is terrible to find how little progress one's philosophy and charity have made when they are brought to the test of domestic life."

source unknown

Quotation for Sunday, March 20, 2005:

"In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares twopence about any one else's family, profession, class, income, race, or previous history...That is the kingliness of Friendship. We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts."

The Four Loves
(C.S. Lewis)

Is gender-based pricing fair?

Uh...NO! Of course not. Read on...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Most women, accustomed to paying more than men for goods and services like clothes and hair cuts, simply shrug it off as part of life, but an Ontario legislator hopes to end all that.

Lorenzo Berardinetti wants to brand so-called gender-based pricing a human rights violation and he has introduced a bill in the Ontario legislature to make the practice illegal.

Berardinetti said on Tuesday he was shocked when he and his wife took clothes to a dry cleaners and she ended up paying more for similar items.

"I get charged one price and she gets charged another price for virtually the same material," he said.
(click here for the rest of the story)

Word of the Day

fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shus\ adjective

Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

The fugacious nature of life and time.
--Harriet Martineau, Autobiography

---

Quotation for Wednesday, March 16, 2005:

"How difficult it is to avoid having a special standard for oneself."

Mere Christianity

Quotation for Sunday, March 13, 2005:

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good."

Mere Christianity

A Joke from the "Hope Springs Eternal" Department

An elderly looking gentleman, very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel, smelling slightly of a good after shave, presenting a well-looked-after image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge.

Seated at the bar is an elderly looking lady.

The gentleman walks over, sits alongside of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me, do I come here often?"

Good news for me

Yesterday my boss made the announcment: I've been promoted to Business Lead/Management Trainee

More responsibility, hopefully more opportunity and a small raise. Overall...a very good thing.

Smashmouth is in the studio

From the Smash Mouth site:
Smash Mouth has invaded Oakland's 880 Studios to bash out their fifth release. The new tunes are fast and rockin' with an aggressive sound that harkens back to Smash Mouth's multi-platinum "Fush Yu Mang".

Hurry up, guys!

Thanks, but no thanks

BERLIN (Reuters) - An apparently friendly motorist in Germany stopped to tow a broken-down car, stranded the owners as he sped away, crashed their car into a gas station and then drove off, police said Thursday.

"After attaching it, the man sped off so fast that the two hadn't even got into the car -- and were left gesticulating wildly," said police in Aachen. The man then drove toward the gas station, swerving his own car at the last minute.

"But the trailing vehicle went straight on and smashed into the air pump," police said. "The station attendant was roused by the noise and saw a man uncoupling his car from the battered vehicle before departing without further ado."

Police said there was no trace of the reckless driver.

Word of the Day

salubrious \suh-LOO-bree-us\, adjective:
Favorable to health; promoting health; healthful.

A physician warned him his health was precarious, so Montague returned to the United States, shelved his legal ambitions and searched for a salubrious climate where he might try farming.
--"Teeing Off Into the Past At Oakhurst," New York Times, May 2, 1999

For years, her mother has maintained that the sea air has a salubrious effect on both her spirits and her vocal cords.
--Anita Shreve, Fortune's Rocks

Finding Neverland

What a beautiful movie! I loved every minute. Much as I love Johnny Depp, my favorite thing in the movie was the little boy whole played Peter. He was fantastic.

Just so you know, I'm not the only one who liked it...Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 84%.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Here's an excerpt from the book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss:
"Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, "Good food at it's best", you deserve to be struck by lightening, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave."
(hence the subtitle of the book "A Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation")

If you'd like to test your own punctuation abilities, you can play the Punctuation Game by clicking here. See if you're a stickler like Lynne. Good luck!

Quotation for Saturday, February 19, 2005:

"The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it."

The Abolition of Man

Look, Jim...one of our favorite words!

perspicacity
(Pronunciation: pur-spuh-KAS-uh-tee) n.
Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.

Definition:
[n] the capacity to assess situations or circumstances shrewdly and draw sound conclusions

Synonyms:
astuteness, judgement, perspicaciousness, shrewdness, sound judgement
See Also:
acumen, craftiness, cunning, foxiness, guile, insightfulness, intelligence, knowingness, slyness, street smarts

Quotation for Friday, February 18, 2005

This one's got me thinking. I don't remember this line from the book. I need to go back and read this in context to understand his whole thought process on it:

"You can't, in most things, get what you want if you want it too desperately; anyway, you can't get the best out of it."

A Grief Observed
(C.S. Lewis)

Today's new word

perfervid

adj : characterized by intense emotion; "ardent love"; "an ardent lover"; "a burning enthusiasm"; "a fervent desire to change society"; "a fervent admirer"; "fiery oratory"; "an impassioned appeal"; "a torrid love affair" [syn: ardent, burning(a), fervent, fervid, fiery, impassioned, torrid]

Happy Birthday to me!

I was born on this date in 1964. That was obviously the year of the Beatles here in the States...

• "Can't Buy Me Love" and "She Loves You" were hits in 1964
• John Lennon's book "In His Own Write" was released in 1964.
• Apparently there were no reports of juvenile crime in New York City the day the Beatles came to town....which proves I wasn't the only good thing to come along that year!

Heaven on Seven

Had a great Cajun lunch today. Definitely worth checking out if you go to Chicago.

Word of the Day

transmute \trans-MYOOT; tranz-\, transitive verb:
To change from one nature, form, substance, or state into another; to transform.

(Book Babes - you already know this one very well from "Bee Season")

intransitive verb:
To undergo transmutation.

"It now seems as if she no longer had the strength or will to transmute life into art."
--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Changes Not for the Better," New York Times, February 28, 1974

"Sand that once was rock becomes rock once again as it slowly sediments and compresses into layers of sandstone, which, in turn, transmute into sand."
--Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker, The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth

My gorgeous puppies

Cody
Daisy

Hot stuff

Erica had a Hawaiian party tonight, which got me interested in volcanoes.

Alarm Clock

Ok, here's my new invention (no fair stealing it and getting the patent before I do!). Instead of the radio or a buzzer sounding when the alarm goes off, this alarm clock spouts Bible verses...

On the first alarm (Isaiah 51):
"Awake, awake! Rise up!"
After one time hitting the snooze (Isaiah 52):
"Shake off your dust...rise up!!"
Hit the snooze again (Proverbs 6):
"How long will you lie there, you sluggard!!!"

Can't say I agree

This would be one of the few things I disagree with Jack Lewis about:

"...I cannot quite understand why a man should wish to know more people than he can make real friends of."

Surprised by Joy - C.S. Lewis
(I really do love this book, though, and recommend it for anyone wanting an inside look at how Lewis arrived at his beliefs)

Quotation for Wednesday, January 12, 2005:

"Sometimes, Lord, one is tempted to say that if You wanted us to behave like lilies of the field You might have given us an organization more like theirs. But that, I suppose, is just Your grand experiment. Or no; not an experiment, for You have no need to find things out. Rather Your grand enterprise. To make an organism which is also a spirit; to make that terrible oxymoron, a 'spiritual animal.' To take a poor primate, a beast with nerve-endings all over it, a creature with a stomach that wants to be filled, a breeding animal that wants to mate, and say, 'Now get on with it. Become a god.'"

A Grief Observed

Erica

It occurs to me that I've mentioned both Jared and Laura here, but not the baby!

Ella Minnow Pea

Loved this book! It's like nothing I've ever read before. It's clever, funny and full of great vocabulary. Just lots of fun with letters and words.

From a review on Amazon: "Not onlee es thes book a romp, but et es a soseeal kommentaree on the abuse oph power."
(you'll have to read the book to get that)

Pop Culture

Time for a new season of American Idol! Laugh if you like(you know you'll at least be curious about who makes it)...it's a lot of fun. Actually, I feel a little guilty laughing at some of the early auditions. After all, some of these people don't seem to be in possession of all of their faculties...much less any talent. Of course the editors purposely show only the most odd or sensationalist moments. But that's why it's so entertaining. I can't resist.

Happy Birthday, Laura!

Today my beautiful baby girl is 13. She's gorgeous...and about three inches taller than me. She's also sweet, understanding, fun, easy-going...and she sings beautifully.

Scary looking ahead to the teen years...but exciting, too. I just hope I get the parenting thing right. I love you, Laura!

Quotation for Saturday, January 22, 2005:

"To think that the spectre you see is an illusion does not rob him of his terrors: it simply adds the further terror of madness itself - and then on top of that the horrible surmise that those whom the rest have called mad have, all along, been the only people who see the world as it really is."

Perelandra

Jump, Jive and Wail!

I'm having fun with my latest CD, a Louis Prima collection. I love "Banana Split for My Baby," "There'll Be No Next Time" and, of course, "Jump, Jive and Wail!" Dig that swing, baby.

JARED RETURNS!

Jared came home from Bangladesh tonight. There will no doubt be many stories and lots of cool pictures to share, so will try to include them here as soon as possible.

Quotation for Saturday, January 15, 2005:

"We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the Future every real gift which is offered them in the Present."

Screwtape Letters

Bangladesh

Jared is now in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He's now been there about 24 hours. He had called from the hotel in Bangkok, but he probably won't get to call home from the orphanage. He returns next Monday, the 17th. Please keep him in your prayers this week!

Lyrics to love

I've always enjoyed these Dashboard Confessional lyrics:

My heart is yours to fill or burst
To break or bury
Or wear as jewelry
Whichever you prefer

Quotation for Tuesday, January 11, 2005:

"Very likely, what with enemies, and mountains, and rivers to cross, and losing our way, and next to nothing to eat, and sore feet, we'll hardly notice the weather."

The Silver Chair

Colon cancer screening underused

All sorts of evidence is out there that early detection of cancer through screening measures means a longer, fuller life. No one finds the idea of a colonoscopy appealing, but it really can save lives. Having lost a friend to colon cancer that wasn't detected until it was too late, I feel strongly about this issue. But my biggest beefs are:

- our health care system discourages responsibility by patients in the area of colon CA screening because only about half of the insurance companies pay for screening colonscopies (which can run $2000-$3000), and

- people just don't pay attention to eating in a way that keeps their system running right.

I don't have the answer for reforming the insurance industry, but I can say...eat your broccoli! Time for a healthy colon...yeah colons!

Jared's in Bangkok

My son has now safely arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. He'll be there for two days of seeing the sights before heading to Bangladesh to work.

NBC's 'Fear Factor' Sued for Rat-Eating Episode

"Watching contestants eat dead rats on NBC's gross-out stunt show "Fear Factor" so disgusted a Cleveland man that he has sued NBC for $2.5 million, saying he could not stomach what he saw."

When it first started, I liked the idea of "Fear Factor" because I thought it was a great way to challenge the contestants to conquer real fears people face: heights, tight spaces, darkness and my favorite - plunging into water strapped into a car with a baby to get out of a carseat in the back (a recurrent nightmare I used to have). Watching it caused me to examine whether I could face the challenge, and watching others face those fears made me feel that I just might be able to as well. Now, the show seems to be trying to entice viewers with only contestants who look like models (complete with wet tank tops) while grossing them out with the worst possible things to put in their mouths. To me, the only thing worth watching now is the cute host.

(While the idea of this post is to speak against the show, I realize that some of the above just may have the opposite effect!)

Quotation for Sunday, January 09, 2005:

"An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons -- marriage, or meat, or beer, or cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning."

Mere Christianity

News Is Free

Just signed up for a NewsIsFree account and it is indeed cool. But I can see that I'm going to have a test of patience in using it. The site is fraught with typos, misspellings and grammatical errors. Aaaah! There, I got that out of my system...for now.

Heading to Bangladesh

It's official...Jared is going to Bangladesh on Friday to work in an orphanage for a week. Lots to do to get ready before then, and some nerves to conquer (mine and his)...but it sure is exciting!

Smart girl!

A bit of good news about a bright girl who proved that paying attention in school can save your life.

The Curious Incident...

Right now I'm very much enjoying my current read. Curiously enough, Amazon listed three other favorites of mine under "readers who bought this also bought" - "The Time Traveler's Wife", "The Secret Life of Bees" (fabulous book!) and "The Life of Pi" (see below). Apparently great minds do think alike.

Life of Pi

Finished reading "Life of Pi" last week. I had been meaning to read it since last winter...tried to convince my book club to read it, but they would have none of it. This book interested me from Part I, when we get to know Pi and his philosophies and faith(s), through his survival story in Part II to the humorous account of his debriefing in Part III. I do believe that many parts would be considered rather gross by my book club cohorts. But I wish they'd read it anyway so that we could discuss the ending, which still has me puzzling and wanting to go back and read it again.
(Tip: if you are even remotely considering reading this book, PLEASE don't read the review on Amazon...it tells too much and spoils the ending)

Brrrr...

Now here's a rather cozy story to warm the cockles of one's heart.

VERY cool pictures

I couldn't swipe any of the pictures to display here, but check out these photos on MSNBC. They really are amazing!

Kids, dogs...same diff?

According to the study published in Rome's La Repubblica, there are at least 14.5 million dogs and cats in Italian homes...compared with 8.7 million children under the age of 15.

Quotation for the day:

To ask that God's love should be content with us is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labour to make us lovable.

"The Problem of Pain"

It's a Wonderful Life

It's that time of year when I watch one of the best movies ever made. I love it from the scene with Mr. Gower to the budding romance between Mary and George to the wonderful ending when all George's friends prove to him how wealthy he really is. I know line after line, word for word. I cry at the ending every time...and I hope I never stop.

Quotation for today:

"And I say also this. I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes."

Out of the Silent Planet

And speaking of marketing...

This has got to be one of the dumbest things ever sold

JOY

Today's C.S.Lewis quote:
"I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy."
Surprised by Joy
(I love this book - the autobiographical account of Lewis' journey to faith)

How Christmas Works...

(From How Stuff Works)

Let's say that on December 20 you were to meet a friendly space alien. That is, let's say that his space ship discreetly drops him off in your back yard while you are looking out your window. You walk outside to meet the visitor, and you find out he's a pretty nice guy. His name is Gorg (or maybe Ford Prefect?), he is wearing a costume that makes him look passably human, he speaks reasonable English, and he explains that his goal is to spend a week on the planet to learn about its people. He asks if you would consider being his guide for the week, and you decide to take on the job.

So you take Gorg around and start showing him your town. Since it is December 20, one thing is for sure -- Gorg is going to ask about Christmas. And he is going to ask a LOT of questions, because Christmas is a pretty complicated tradition.

Click here to check out answers to questions Gorg might ask.

We need a little Christmas

Found a Christmas site to help spread the holiday spirit.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

OPUS

Here you go, Frank! Guess he forgot that the secret of the universe is the number 42.

Materialism for kids

From a piece on "60 Minutes Wednesday"

"...25 million kids, between the age of 8 and 13, form the most powerful consumer group since the baby boom. They're called "tweens," and marketers are obsessed with them. Tween girls are especially prized since they spend the most money -- and marketers are now targeting girls right in their own bedrooms. Sofia Mandel's special mission as a secret agent is to host a slumber party and invite her closest friends. It starts with a sealed box filled with goodies, never-before-seen products designed to produce a feeding frenzy of tween girls. The box is strategically placed there by...a marketing firm.

But critics say the research is enabling marketers to appeal directly to kids, making an end-run around parents. "The clear message from the marketers is it doesn't matter what the parent thinks," says Juliet Schor, author of "Born to Buy," a book that accuses marketers of skillfully reducing the power of parents. "They go directly to the kids, and say, 'You want this product?' Get your parent to buy it for you.'"

[Marketers say,]"Our responsibility is to translate that girl-speak into biz-speak for our clients...then tell the young girls, 'This is what you did...You are affecting change in your world.'" But what’s changing, parents say, is children’s attitudes, and it’s not for the better.

Meanwhile, Sofia, the alpha girl with her box of loot, is influencing her friends, whether she knows it or not. In fact, it’s not clear that any of these girls or their parents are aware of the marketing mechanics at work. And that's what concerns Schor. She says that while the slumber parties look fun, there's a subtle manipulation going on: "The marketers are inserting themselves into these peer dynamics." And the host girl? "She's being taught that her friends are an exploitable resource," says Schor. "She needs to get those friends over there, get that information out of them. It's an instrumental use of friendship.""

I have to say I'm leaning more toward the opinion that using friends to fuel the marketing side job is exploitive. And all the relentless selling to such an impressionable group, while it may be the American Way, just encourages materialism at an early age. Could it be that parents are supposed to have some measure of control over the situation? I have two "tweens" at my house. Sure they love to get new stuff, but I have yet to see a full scale buying frenzy and, thankfully, they don't beg, whine or act like spoiled brats.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas! Now that we have a few decorations up and a good start to the shopping, I'm starting to feel festive. Saw Rudolph the other day and have the Christmas music going every day. More than anything, the excitement of the kids in my life is contagious. If you need a boost in your holiday enthusiasm, try hanging out with some kids. Works every time.

Superballs!

In case you didn't notice, this page has superballs all over it!

NOT out of this world quite yet...

Ok, I think I'm getting this thing *sort of* how I want it. Not quite everything I'm wanting in a blog as yet, but maybe some more experienced friends will share some of their wisdom...please.

To see what I started with, check out my other site.