Robert Todd Lincoln

the only child of President Lincoln to live past his teens had some interesting coincidences in his life:



"There is coincidence in regard to Lincoln and presidential assassinations. He was either present or was nearby when three of them occurred.
Lincoln was invited to accompany his parents to the Ford's Theatre the night his father was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. Citing fatigue from riding in a covered wagon for an extended period of time, he declined and remained behind at the White House, where he immediately went to bed. He was informed of the President's being shot just before midnight.
At President James A. Garfield's invitation, Lincoln was at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C., where the President was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881 and was an eyewitness to the event. Lincoln was serving as Garfield's Secretary of War at the time.
At President William McKinley's invitation, Lincoln was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, where the President was shot by Leon F. Czolgoz on September 6, 1901, though he was not an eyewitness to the event.

In an odd coincidence, Robert Lincoln was once saved by Edwin T. Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, from possible serious injury or death. The incident happened at a railroad station in Jersey City sometime in 1863 or 1864, when Robert was traveling from New York City to Washington, and was recounted by Lincoln in 1909. On his way to Washington, Lincoln waited on the platform and due to crowding was pushed next to the car and the train at that moment moved a few feet forward. He subsequently lost his balance and fell between the train station's platform and the moving train. He was grabbed quickly from behind and pulled back onto the platform. Turning to face his rescuer, Lincoln said, "Thank you, Mr. Booth," recognizing Edwin Booth instantly because of the actor's great fame."- Wikipedia

A Good One From Yahoo Answers

"You guys act like this election will change the world.?
Once you've been alive more than a few decades you'll see that it has very little influence on your life. The only thing that changes is government gets bigger and bigger. The main issue for Repubs is abortion. How much has that changed in the last 30 years.Zip.My vote goes McCain because sarah is hot and worth looking at for the next 4 years. Other than that, no effect.
3 minutes ago
- 3 days left to answer.
Additional Details
44 seconds ago
That's right, no question, just ranting"

You Might Think

with an impending hurricane New Orleans residents top priorities would be bottled water, foodstuffs, sandbags and plywood right? Well, you'd be wrong- apparently it's weapons and ammo for our bayou friends, the following are from an Outdoor Life article and a comment on it's message board:

“I just left a sporting goods store and you would think that the number-one selling item would be plywood or potable water or gasoline right now,” he said. “Apparently it is AR-15s and .223 ammo. I watched at least 20 people buy AR-15s and cases of .223.”

"The Ar15 is the perfect weapon for hurricane aftermath,zombie apocalypse,or just relaxing and shooting a few groundhogs. God smiles every time someone pulls the trigger on one."

http://www.stormpulse.com/tropical-storm-gustav-2008 For the coolest map anywhere to track Tropical Storm Gustav. It actually looks like the Houston area has the highest likelihood of getting hit.

On This Day

in 1963 Martin Luther King delivered his I Have A Dream speech, widely and correctly I believe considered one of the greatest speeches in American oratory. He spoke at the Lincoln Memorial Washington DC.

" For his part, King adamantly denied having any connections to Communism, stating in a 1965 Playboy interview that "there are as many Communists in this freedom movement as there are Eskimos in Florida" Hoover did not believe the statement and replied by saying that King was "the most notorious liar in the country." After King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, the FBI described King as "the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country" -Wikipedia

J Edgar Hoover was who he was because of fearfulness and anger, starting with himself over his own homosexuality. I think it's interesting though, that the only person I've ever seen in print where it was obvious Hoover feared them was MLK.

From Next Blog Button Meet SKULL

The idea of skull was born in 1998 by Hernan casas (bass) and Frank's duque (vocals)Influenced by: Motörhead, Venom, Exodus, Bulldozer, Voivod, the NWOBHM and 70's rock n' roll bands. They began to look for a guitar player that should be a mad man to give the spikier and wild sound they wanted to play. The searching result was a music student named Igor, who immediately captured the idea and had no trouble with the songs. The sound of his distortion and his fasts skills funded him in the band. After a few months Frank's had to leave the band the vocal lines were taken by Hernan, who already knew the songs. Igor and Hernan were playing, composing and writing pure speed metal pieces. In December of 2002 after seeing a few drummers they met German who was playing in a concert with other band. The line up got solid after some trials and the powerful engine the band needed was installed, giving full speed to the demential sound. The band had the chance to play live on March of 2003. Cause of their different sound Skull is one of the few bands that wants to make music in the old way: heavy, wild and raw, riffs full of rock n' roll dives, distorted basses give Loaded and harsh backgrounds, drums that combust like turbo charged V8 engine, guitars full of bright perforate like bullets and aggressive voices not guttural neither lyrical complete the metal machine that talks about violence, aggression, human decadence and war. What you have here is a true metal band that makes music with their blood, honest and real...speed metal from the heart. After travelling through some cities skull has released their first demo tape “beer metal spikes”, which already has been edited by Utterly Somber (U.S.A), with two live bonus tracks. Also the vinyl Thrash Metal Blitzkrieg of the German zine Death Strike where skull has recorded an exclusive song named “Insurrector” and there's no doubt that has banged the head of the ones have heard it. Recently the Japanese Death Thrash Armageddon has been in charge to show the Skull's power in a rehearsal named “Menace From The Third World” with new compositions and the...

Skull- YOU RAWK DUDES!!

We'll Believe

whatever we want to believe. A case in point from a comments section of a Newsweek blog.

"I am surprised that James Carville could be married to a lying, piece of garbage like Mary Matalin. When a person engages in outright lies, I lose all respect for them. Their credibility is nil. To be married to a liar whose is unattractive as well must be tortuous."

A Matalin fan could/would say exactly the same things- just switch the names around.

Wednesday Digressions

• A corn flashback: A friend asked me once to house sit for him while he was out of town for the weekend, this was ok until I discovered it was in the middle of a 75 acre cornfield. Have you ever been in a cornfield!? There is a reason why so many horror movies are set in cornfields- they are spooky. A breeze blows and it undulates like a wave caused by some God-awful monster that's waiting for the right time to eat your face off. The worst part was when the sun started to set- your heart would just sink with it. The security light put off enough light in the right spectrum to make the edges eerie and highlight the waves that looked like the monster was peeking out at you. At one point I looked out and saw what I thought was a coyote, it had a familiar predator shape anyway, eating bugs (which the entire place because of the corn and light was crawling with) under the security light as I watched it spread it's wings hopped a few steps in my direction and flew away! It was the biggest owl I've ever seen. What was thing doing eating bugs under a street light? Was it too afraid to go out into the cornfield? The drive curved in such a way that every direction you looked was corn and it made you feel absolutely and utterly trapped. I was there for 3 days and 2 nights. I was completely exhausted when he came back.
• A nearly forgotten associated memory: There is nothing like fresh corn on the cob, I made it every morning and evening while I was out there among the corn. There is something about how the nature of the sugars in the corn change after picking the flavor begins to degrade very rapidly. Boiled in salt water add a little pepper and butter- wow.

Yes, My School

had a clothesline in the back.

Crawling Spirit Baby In B/W

Birthday Wishes

Actor Mcauley Culkin was born this day in 1980. Happy 29th birthday. Home Alone aged well and is still a great movie- actually I suppose it's timeless. This is a good reminder to share it with my 6 year old daughter who I don't think has seen it.

Fun And Games With The Storm Door

A Random Blog

Dresden
Dieses Wochenende habe ich in Dresden mit meiner Familie verbracht. Meine Uromi hatte ihren 89. Geburtstag und wir feierten ihn. Ich schlief bei meiner Omi und sie hat mir diese alte Handtasche geschenkt, die aus weißem Leder ist sowie zwei Paar Lederhandschuhe, original aus den 40ern oder 50ern.

This is an excerpt from a random blog in Germany it was called Simply Stylish. There was a picture of the girl but, it wouldn't download.

Here is a rough translation: "I spent the weekend with my family in Dresden. We had a birthday party for my great grandmothers 89 birthday. We stayed at her apartment. She gave me this white leather handbag and two pair of gloves from the 40s or 50s. "

Note: lederhandshuhe = leather hand shoe (leather glove) a glove is a hand shoe cool huh?

Dreamy Randomitions

I just woke from a nap with the baby. Had the worst nightmare about what we called the storeroom at the house I grew up in, it was an attached shed at the back of the garage. I was wearing a headlamp because it was dark but, couldn't use it properly because I was wearing a plastic grocery bag on my head to protect me from something. I stepped in to put something in there and a mouse or lizard crawled into my shoe and started biting me- it was so real I woke up kicking in a cold sweat.

Why are dreams the most interesting thing in the world to relate and the most boring thing in the world to hear about?

Had a dream also about a dancer. I couldn't see much of her but, she wore a baby blue dress, white pointe shoes and smelled pretty and smiled at me.

Two different friends in two different states have predicted I'd marry a dancer (not the pole dancer type) isn't that weird? I think I'll definitely perk up and pay attention if I meet a woman and she says something like,"The dance is my life."

Little kids are heat generators! Is it because they expend so much energy growing? It feels great to have the baby in the crook of my arm and drift off to sleep but, man we can wake up and he'll be so sweaty it feels like he melted there.

If a woman is pretty decent looking and a redhead guys will go crazy and think she's awesome. If a woman is plain-ish and a redhead blah, they'll think she's dog ugly. After a group of guys I was around came to this conclusion I ask guys since when I think about it and it's true for basically 100% of them.

Mondays Missives

• I've started watching Perry Mason on cbs.com, I'd forgotten how great that show was.


• I hated it growing up- mom watched it and I missed The Dick Van Dyke show or something as a result. Later in life it would come on about the time I would pick my girlfriend up for lunch in college. There would always be this same girl in the dorms living room finishing a soap when I'd get there, then she'd put on PM and we'd watch part of it together before we parted ways for lunch.


• I looked up Raymond Burrs bio- I didn't know he was homosexual. I'm curious to see if he ever has a girlfriend in the series and also whether he ever loses a case.


• I thought Della Street his assistant was beautiful when I was a kid. He had an Orchid farm and cultured a certain type of orchid he named Barbara Hale after the actress. In the 20 years his nursery was opened it was responsible for bringing 1500 new varieties into the world catalog.


• Burr was shot in the stomach in WWII on Okinawa. He did newsreels for the troops in Vietnam where he acted as though he was talking to a troop personally giving encouragement and sending the best wishes of the country he'd then sit down under a shade tree and read a passage from the Bible. Pretty simple, pretty powerful stuff.


• His office in downtown LA was in the Brent Bldg. His phone number Madison 5 1190.


• The show ran for ten years and only shot one color episode.


• From the very first episodes a lot of scenes were shot outside- not just on sets either, out in the real world, it's interesting to see the old cars and different architecture of buildings.


• I'm curious to see how much and in what light black people will be portrayed in the coming episodes.


• William Talman played the DA he opposed and was the first actor to do an anti smoking PSA- while he was dying of lung cancer.

On This Day In 1718

New Orleans was founded by French settlers who named it after the Duke Of Orleans

Another First For T.R.

On August 25, 1905 he became the first U.S. President to ride in a military submarine when he boarded the USS Plunger and ran submerged in it for 55 minutes.

PS: Maybe it's just me but, couldn't they have thought of a better name than Plunger?

On This Day In 1814

The British set fire to the White House and the Capitol when they invaded Washington, DC during the War of 1812.

Embitterfication Truism

Americana

Meet Mike the headless chicken. He was destined for the table until his owner thought a headless chicken that walked, crowed and did other chickenly things while headless was far more interesting than one that was simply delicious. Apparently headless chickens are also far more lucrative as he earned the equivalent of 50,000 dollars per month being viewed for 25 cents a person in the late 1940s. He lived this way for 18 months being fed a mixture of grain and milk from a syringe and died in a motel in Phoenix.

"When used to his new and unusual center of mass Mike could easily get himself to the highest perches without falling. His crowing, though, was less impressive and consisted of a gurgling sound made in his throat, leaving him unable to crow at dawn. Mike also spent his time preening and attempting to peck for food with his neck.
Being headless did not keep Mike from putting on weight; at the time of his partial beheading he weighed two and a half pounds, but at the time of his death this had increased to nearly eight pounds." Wikipedia

There was even a childrens chant associated with Mike,"Mike, Mike, where's your head? Even without it, you're not dead!"

Want an unusual honeymoon? Visit Fruita Colorado for Mike The Headless Chicken Day.

Bonus: Although He travelled with a head as part of the display it wasn't his real head as it was eaten by a cat shortly after being separated from his body.

http://http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/story.html for more things Mikely including his campaign video for president!

A Neighbor Of The Woodland Realm

Saw this healthy cottontail rabbit when out for a walk a couple of nights ago. I'd been curious how much the recent drought conditions would affect small mammal life in our area. There are at least 3 living in a 7 acre area.

Click to feel warm and fuzzy

On This Day In 1902

Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States president to ride in an automobile.

Little Green Man

Proof aliens are among us.

Click to enlarge and take me to your leader

Check Dam

The little check dam at the pond has held up through about 4 inches of rain in 4 days. The purpose of this particular structure is to help keep soil and trash from washing into the pond and give small aquatic life a place to hide when pond is full.

I Once Owned A ZRX1100

that the guy I bought it from had broken his wrist when he wrecked.

-that when I wrecked I fractured my arm breaking the elbow off!

-that when it was wrecked by the guy I sold it to he broke both of his arms.

Maybe, just maybe let's hope that's where the madness stops- I haven't heard anything from it in a while.

On This Day

in 1785 Adm. Oliver Hazard Perry hero of the War of 1812 was born. Adm. Perry was famous for reporting to his command,"We have met the enemy and he is ours". The battle that he was was referring to was a naval engagement on Lake Erie which seems strange to me in a way- I know the Great Lakes are huge and there are still giant commercial ships navigating them but, when yor reference point for a lake is Lake Bridgeport TX I guess I should be forgiven. During the battle when his flagship was destroyed he simply boarded another ship, flagged it and continued the battle.

A Little Bit Of Heaven

Almost every time I hide a DP for a rainy day somebody finds it before I do only increasing the crushing disappointment of not having my favorite tasty beverage to savor. With this in mind imagine how my heart skipped a beat when I pushed a box of oatmeal to the side half heartedly looking and found this little treasure awaiting my consumption in the pantry! Thank you Doctor Pepper, wherever you are, I hope you received the Nobel Prize for your beverage endeavors while on this earth.

I Remember

flesh colored crayons but, only as an artifact that popped up in a cigar box of old worn out, broken crayons. I still remember the kid who pointed it out to me in the first grade and my mothers uncomfortable reaction when I asked her about it in relation to black people. Mom, was never at a loss for words but, this time was definitely the exception for that rule- I guess that's why it made such an impression.

The color name was changed to peach in 1962 although I cannot tell you how many times I've heard a black person born years after the name change relate (in one memorable case tearfully) their shock and sadness on the first day of school at seeing the flesh colored crayons when they opened their school supplies.

Not bad, nor right or wrong - just a collective conscientiousness thing, that you couldn't get them to shake off if you tried.

Punchosophy

More Rain?

Click to enlarge

Let There Be Rain, Let There Be Color

click to enlarge

Free At Last

This is the release of the little skunk from the flowerbed a few weeks ago.

Click to enlarge

Mondays Missives

• I had toast with sausage gravy this morning while drinking a Dr Pepper. Extreme comfort food.
• I ate lemon pepper tuna and black eyed peas and drank orange juice yesterday, maybe that counteracts this morning breakfast.


• I have never owned a toaster- I use the broiler in the oven. I'd never thought of that before- I've never owned a toaster that seems weird.


• When I was growing up my friends mom always cooked a lot every meal but, especially breakfast. We'd go to his house when we skipped school and there would be leftover bacon and toast. We would eat that and it was the only place I drank coffee. I still like stale-ish buttered toast and coffee every once in a while.


• When I was in school, kids drank coffee in the lunchroom-kid you not- as in first grade.


• That friend and I were to start a used car lot in our hometown. We would have done great, I was at a loss when he was killed- he was electrocuted at work. I was in Germany when he died, I found out in a letter from my mother, it started out after a greeting,"I have terrible news". We had been planning for him to come over and I think he may have even already gotten his passport. God, I can still get sad when I think about him- in a way, worse as time goes by. Wonder why? Intuitively, it seems like time should soften the blow to where you feel very little. I think about him less often but, the thought can still hit me hard. I've only gone to the cemetary twice, once I was there for another funeral and bumped into his mother and she took me over to see his grave another time it was snowing and I couldn't find the grave.


• I got back in touch with his mother a few months before she died and we visited several times. I think it was good for both of us.


• Just had another memory of that friend, there was trouble at his house when we were probably 10 years old. He ran away to my house, I slept in the backyard in my hammock and he slept in an old Studebaker car of my dads. A thunderstorm hit about 2 am and I ran in the house. I can see him sitting up in that old car looking around silhouetted by the lightning as I ran into the house now just as plain as the night it happened.

• The picture above is of my childrens grandfathers horses in the pasture by the house. Quite a view huh?

Click to enlarge and be jealous.

Close Encounter?

Sometime in 1985 there were a group of 5 guys standing outside on a chilly, clear night when one who had military intelligence experience began pointing out satellites passing overhead. This got my attention first of all because I had no idea they could be seen from earth and I didn't know about the guys M.I. background. He began educating us a little on how satellites work and how to actually identify there countries of origin. He did this by noting different colors reflected (if I remember correctly the US and Soviets used different outer material which reflected different colors) and some other details I don't recall.


As we watched 3 of the same apparent size and altitude came into view. They reflected both a silvery and gold glint maybe only slightly brighter than the satellites we had been watching. They flew from our right to our left in a sideways loose triangle formation. The lead stopped dead, the second went to it and the 3rd stopped short. After the first two were halted several seconds side by side, the first shot into space and disappeared, the second did the same after 1-2 seconds disappearing at the same apparent point as the first. The number 3 craft leisurely made a heading for where the first 2 stopped curving slightly to intercept the point where the first 2 had stopped then shot out into space and disappeared.


Everyone there saw this and all saw the same thing. In one voice everybody that had been listening to the MI guy said,"What was that?" He said,"I don't know, I have no idea but, if you tell anyone I saw it, I'll say you are a liar."


That is my UFO story.





click to enlarge and believe

A Prediction

• The time will come when capped off landfills will be extensively mined for the buried resources.




• Yes, I know that methane gas is already commonly extracted, it's one of the uses that causes me to make the above claim. What I mean is we'll see full scale efforts to take metals (for one) of course when standard extraction of raw materials becomes too expensive but, they'll be taking gasses and other components we may not even be familiar with for purposes we could only guess at now. There is a tremendous amount of energy potential in the giant landfills across the US.




• It will be more common as robotic technology becomes more sophisticated (especially sniffer tech.) and cheaper.




• The National Elephant Center is on a landfill site owned by Waste Management http://www.thenationalelephantcenter.org/ with elephants arriving late 2009.

• Already parks, housing developments, industrial parks are planned in other areas over closed landfills.

• When the public learns extractors are wanting to come in and exploit some of these sites communities will protest- so in essence instead of saying "Not in my backyard" to a dump as we've often heard in the past, they'll be saying, "Save Our Dump!"

The above picture is a landfill that's been converted to a wildlife preserve. Look here http://www.town.cedarburg.wi.us/cm/pdfs/Former%20Landfill%20to%20Park%20Examples.pdf for other examples.

From Comic On Laugh USA XM

"I went to college and got a business degree. One thing I remember they taught me, Buy low and sell high, this from a textbook I paid sixty dollars for and sold back at the end of the semester for three."

A Fairly Profound Thought

I was looking on Flickr earlier and there was a picture that could have been politically charged. It showed a disfigured Iraqi man who was shot in the face by insurgents who found his way to the US under asylum. The poster said this of his picture:

"Asking this thread to not get too political is folly, but I only ask more light than heat; pretend this isn't the Internet."

My Eldest Spawn

When he was a baby I never thought I'd ever see my oldest son on a bike with a cell phone.



When I was a kid out on my bike I saw one of our towns rich guys on a mobile phone in his car at his wifes business while I was out on my bike. Being the goofball I was, I went up and talked to him. He was more than happy to tell us how it worked and showed us the phone part which was a traditional old phone looking white receiver with a spiral cord going down to a box mounted on the floorboard. In the trunk was a unit that was big as a microwave. I think this would have actually been a radio-telephone. I thought he was almost like a movie star.



My son stopped there while I was walking the baby and talked for a minute then some girl called and he rode out of my life for the afternoon.



Soon enough the same will happen and he'll ride out of my life basically forever.

From The Detritus Of My Past

It's unlikely you've seen one of these, it's a hammer that at one time was used on airliners to smash ice for drinks before ice machines would have been common. It's easy to imagine why you would want to have one of these instead of an ice pick on a bumpy flight. A good friend who was a flight engineer for Southwest when I was in college gave this to me. TWA ceased operations in 2001 when it was aquired by American Airlines.

Click to enlarge

I Remember It Like

it was only yesterday- it was a cool, cloudy morning with intermittent showers the date was August 15 2008.

Viagra emails

Jennifer Davis says, "A Medicinal Offer You Would Never Decline." That is where you are wrong Jennifer.

However Mariano Mills says,"Win the ladies favor with Soft Viagra." I'll think about it Mariano, thank you for the unsolicited medical and relationship advice.

Random Roadside Object

On a windswept country lane, a seemingly forgotten Spidey-ball forlornly yet patiently awaits the return of it's rightful owner.

A Knifes Tale

Another Rainy Day Picture

Afterthought To Todays Dispatch

Seeing that picture reminded of something one of the guys who came to the baby shower at the house a few weeks ago said when he looked at the neighbors pasture and their horses up at our fence. He's from New Hampshire and lives in a nice but crowded neighborhood in Plano. Looking from the back porch he said,"This is what Texas is supposed to look like."

It made me feel good to hear that.

Fridays Dispatch

• The headline this morning is- New Allegations Revealed In Dallas City Hall Investigation. I'm sorry, that is not headline news it's been standard fare since I started being interested in politics 25 years ago. I remember one of their councilmen pulling an Uzi in traffic once, another calling in death threats to her own answering machine from a brother in laws phone. They stayed on the council. I looked up one recently, she was the keynote at a big deal MLK birthday banquet. The Uzi man is still on the council. He obsesses over racial issues. Recently another councilman used the term "black hole" to reference how funds were being mismanaged, Uzi man freaked and demanded the phrase be changed to "white hole" the judge who is black backed him on the issue. Bizarre.



• I did a couple of jobs in Dallas. On one site in the 8 weeks I was there 2 bodies were found on the site. Not a day would go by a crackhead wouldn't stumble onto the site with a power tool or some electronics to sell. I saw one of our guys we called Foot (short for Bigfoot= Bad Man) speeding off from the site with another guy once. When I came over to where he had been and asked what was going on they said,"He gave some crackhead 15 bucks for a new in the box vcr, he was going to leave it sealed up but, decided he better open it up- inside there was a brick." They caught the guy and got his money back. I remember the guy he took with him wanted to rob the crackhead. At the time I thought that would have been pretty funny.



• I would hate for my legacy to be He was a crackhead .



• On another site Foot swung a foreman around on a chain suspended from the bucket of a track hoe. The force transmitted to the guy was unbelievable. He would swing up and out 30 plus feet. The inevitable happened and he couldn't hang on and he flew out and landed in a yard off site. Both of his wrists were broken.



• It was raining this morning, thank God. My yard is so dry you can't even walk on it barefooted. When I looked out I felt like I should have been some pioneer farmer on the edge of civilization drawing my overworked, tired looking- though pretty wife and my dirt eating children near, clutching my hat to my chest while saying, " Thank ye Lord for the rains which nourish our souls and quench our parched lands."



• My mom always said I was born in the wrong time.

Classic American Literature

Garrison Spik, a 41-year-old communications director and writer, took top honors in San Jose State University's 26th annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this opening sentence to a nonexistent novel:
“Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped ‘Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.’”

From an AP article on MSNBC

"Little Fluffy Clouds"

B.O.M.B. IDEA

Before you call the ATF to collect the reward for preventing a bomb idea- let me tell you what I'm talking about. It's an acronym for back of my brain idea, it's something I don't think about often, it just sits back there waiting for the right time for me to accomplish a goal related to the idea. I've wanted to hold a patent on something for as long as I can remember, it doesn't have to be earth shattering, though I've pictured it being health related to improve human life.

TA - DA


You are seeing it first here, the Octo Grip Toothbrush Stand.

The advantages are clear: 1) It's always ready for use. 2) It stands alone to provide air circulation to deter bacterial growth (and not be in a cup with other brushes- sure way to get cooties) 3) Attach it to the mirror to remind you to brush those chompers after every meal.

I figure I can provide a retro-fit kit for any brush for about 7.50 (a bargain at twice the price we can agree I'm sure)

If only half the US population has the good sense to buy this product that will be about $1,125,000,000, I'm not sure but, technically I think that's termed a buttload.

My first priority will be to insure that my invention doesn't find its way to some public forum where just anybody can steal my idea and make the fortune which is rightfully mine then I'll try to secure investor interest and talk to trusted manufacturers.

Then, I plan to be ridin' a gravy train with biscuit wheels baby. Any hotties interested in getting onboard with a gazillionare and traveling the world in style (could I be lucky enough to find 1 on this earth?) let me know.

Title: Cloudy Sunburst or Oh My Aching Retina

Georgia Bigfoot Hoaxers Dehoaxed

http://www.bfro.net/ for the complete story. They point out some pretty epic information regarding the goons who attempted the hoax. Interestingly, one of them is a deputy sheriff in the county he lives in and recently shot himself while trying to arrest a subject. I would have gone to Bigfoot Research Org. when I first heard about the story but, I really wanted to hit the sack early. I couldn't sleep- too wound up thinking about that poor critter in some white trashes deep freeze I guess. Also when any Bigfoot story that sounds really good comes out BFROs site gets pounded so hard it will often knock their servers out for hours anyway. Check their entire site out.

This Austinite Wants You To Know

about the tools of the Austin PD.

Georgia Bigfeets

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/ga-gorilla-pic/ For news of this once proud and noble beast who roamed the wilds of Georgia before being miraculously found by two Bigfoot hunters. No one - not a hunter, butterfly collector, hiker or lumberjack et al (ad infitatum essentially)has stumbled across a bigfoot carcass over hundreds of years we've been curious about the creature and these bigfoot hunters can just walk out into the woods hoist this big fella over their shoulders and tote him back to the house and chunk his body in the freezer?
Give me a break.

A Bumper Sticker

Helena AR Madness Or I Didn't Think This Blog Was Going To Be A Political Rant...

• The following is another excerpt from the same article about the West Helena Arkansas curfew."As far as I'm concerned, at 3 o'clock in the morning, nobody has any business being on the street, except the law," Councilman Eugene "Red" Johnson said. "Anyone out at 3 o'clock shouldn't be out on the street, unless you're going to the hospital."
• Honestly, this situation is blowing me away- are the citizens of that city really as good with this situation as their leaders are saying? Does no one understand the truism "It could be me next"?
• I have and odd, reluctant respect for these leaders honesty though.
• Here is why this situation is so scary: "Originally, the curfew applied only to a high-crime, ten-block area of the city. However, on August 12, 2008, the city council voted to expand the curfew to any area of the city. Under the curfew, if local police find people on the street, they may stop them." This entry from Wikipedia is very telling- we don't want to see the Constitution pushed aside EVER because of what it can lead to in the future as much as much as damage it causes citizens directly affected in the here and now. Interestingly, the situation there escalated within in own boundaries to become more widespread than initially intended- in less than one week it went from covering a ten block area "under siege" to the entire city.
• If leaders ever use war euphemisms and they aren't actually talking about a war, you can bet they are intent on taking someones rights.
• Think it doesn't matter because it doesn't affect you? Don't worry, with that attitude- you'll be next.

If This Doesn't Scare You

nothing will. The following is a statement of the mayor of a town in Arkansas that has imposed a curfew on a neighborhood in his city.

Now if somebody wants to sue us, they have an option to sue, but I'm fairly certain that a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it here," Mayor James Valley said. "The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution."

I weep for the species

Wednesdays Digressions

• Over the past few days I've watched the entire first season of the Twilight Zone. I'd forgotten how many screen legends and generally well know people were on there. A single episode had Cliff Robertson, The Chief From Get Smart and John Astin- Gomez from the Addams Family. There are a lot of actors who didn't become legends but, their faces are very recognizable if you watched a lot of old television from the 50s and 60s.




• One thing I noticed that I had never thought of before: I can tell the difference between episodes written by Rod Serling and others- the Serling episodes are almost always great and the others will be relatively lame.




• Trivia I remember from way back- Serling was known for sweating very profusely, so much so he had to change shirts multiple time in a day.




• I also remember people thinking he was some sort of Antichrist. I gave a couple minutes to trying to find something about this by using Serling Antichrist, I only found articles mentioning Serling but, the emphasis would be Obama as The Anti Christ

• When I was a kid we had a black and white TV that for a long time if you turned it off it would take hours for it to warm up and make an image- we would just black the screen out and turn the volume down. Eventually it got to the point if it was turned off it would take days for it to come back.

• We were poor.




• I haven't had broadcast or cable TV in the house for 13? years. I watch DVDs and some shows on the internet. Burn Notice, Dresden Files and a few others on Hulu.com and now The Twilight Zone on CBS.com




• I have a new Panasonic 42 inch glass screen plasma HD TV that is 5 months old still in the box. I found it on sale when I was going to buy a motorhome. The deal I felt good about didn't happen and although I kept looking for awhile-and then with gas prices I thought better of it. I'll end up using it, though I guess it's weird something that is such an awesome example of something I enjoy (and people I know would nearly kill for) is just sitting there in a box.

• I used to feel kind of sorry for some people who would go to sleep in front of a television. They seemed so lonely. I do it often now, although it doesn't just stay on all night- it's just something to do like reading which I still often do before I go to sleep. Would people feel sorry for me thinking I'm lonely? Pitiful even?

• Television: Fewer things in this world have the potential for so much good and simultaneously so much destruction.

• I know people who will say,"We don't watch the TV all that much." When I know it stays on all day and they watch hours of it daily.

• I have probably donated close to 50 DVDs to the public library, it makes me feel good when I see one on the shelf that is there because of me. I wonder: How many people enjoyed it because they couldn't afford to rent? Did a family become closer for few minutes laughing together at a comedy? Have people learned alot from the documentaries? Will someome steal it and why?
  

  
  

An Interesting Thought

"Tell a man that there are 300-billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch it to be sure."

With My Luck...

it would take two people for that costume and guess which end I'd be.

A Bugalistic Moment

From the front porch last night, don't know what it is- pretty wild looking though. I bet the other bugs get antenna envy.

Click to enlarge- if you dare MUWAHAHA!

More Flowers From The Front Beds

They really are that crazy, vibrant color- not a lighting or photography trick.

Click to enlarge and be awed

Dallas Derby Devils

Pictured from the left: Ol' Dirty Basher, Vodka Martina, Cold Ethel, The Pusher, Athena Monster, Drew Scarymore, Made'n Texas; Kneeling: Professor Kaos.

From My Flowerbed