God Help The Price is Right

So I had heard a rumor that Rosie O'Donnell was vying for The Price is Right hosting job. I thought, "Yeah right, Bob would NEVER go for that. He's a classy guy." It's a job for someone who can step back and let the contestants be the show. I mean, for 30 years his only political statement was his signoff, "Remember folks, to spay and neuter your pets." Simple, effective and not a topic people can dispute as being important or not. True that he had all those sexual harassment suits thrown at him at one point, but he's an old-school game show host with young scantily-clad models around him all day... what do you expect?

Rosie can't be that unpolitical and subtly opinionated.

Just when I thought the whole thing was just a rumor, then I saw this in People magazine today (my comments inserted with the bullets):

Rosie O'Donnell Meets with Price Is Right Producers
FRIDAY JUNE 22, 2007 09:50 AM
By Emily Fromm

As promised, Rosie O'Donnell met with The Price Is Right producers on Thursday – although the speculation that she'll replace Bob Barker as the show's host has been losing steam.

• THANK GOD...
  

Asked on her blog how her interview went, O'Donnell replies, "we had a nice lunch" – but does not elaborate. Another reader writes, "I see that Drew Carey's name has been thrown into the mix. Any comments?" Writes O'Donnell: "i love drew carey."

• DREW CAREY AS THE HOST OF PIR?? NAHH.

Barker started the buzz about O'Donnell replacing him when he said at last week's Daytime Emmys that he had "no doubt" O'Donnell would be a good host for the game show. But he backed off on Wednesday, telling the Associated Press: "I think there are several candidates who could do the show, and Rosie is certainly one of them."

• NOOOOOOOO, BOB!! SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!! DO I HAVE TO GET HAPPY GILMORE TO SMACK YOU?

O'Donnell herself sounded pessimistic about her chances in a recent video post on her blog: "I don't know if it's gonna work out," she told fans. "I just think it's a part of American nostalgia, and it's what America needs right now. It would be good for me, but I don't know if it's right for them."

• WELL AT LEAST SHE'S BEING REALISTIC. I IMAGINE AT THE LUNCH THEY HAD, THEY PROBABLY TOLD HER SHE CAN'T BE A LOUDMOUTH JERK AS THE HOST OF THE SHOW AND SHE PROBABLY ANSWERED..."WHATEVER." THAT IS NOT THE KIND OF ATTITUDE THE SHOW -- OR THE REST OF THIS WORLD -- NEEDS. WE CAN ONLY HOPE AND PRAY THAT SHE DOES NOT LAND THIS GIG.
  
  

My sister's blog

If someone can help them out... that would be awesome.

http://mombyprofession.blogspot.com/

HALLELUJAH!!!

Nancy Grace to end show on Court TV

ATLANTA - Nancy Grace is ending her justice-themed interview and debate show, "Nancy Grace: Closing Arguments," on Court TV after 10 years with the network.

That's the best thing I've heard since Rosie O' Donnell quit The View.

Recent peeves, Kid Rock and Blades of Glory

So I am covering a few topics today.

First, I have to say that Snow Patrol and the Fray are whiny-ass sounding bands who need to NOT be played on the radio ever again. It seems every time I turn on just about any station here in Detroit, I hear these two bands' songs. Their sound (because even though it's two bands I am talking about, they sound the same) is a rip-off of Five For Fighting (a good band) and I am really tired of hearing these posers. They do NOT actually know "how to save a life" even if their stupid song has been adopted by "Grey's Anatomy." Come on. I would much rather hear Marilyn Manson because he has musical talent.

A few days ago a local high school girls' golf team had their clubs stolen from the back of the coach's SUV. The very next day Kid Rock called the coach and told her he was going to help them out by getting custom-made clubs from TaylorMade to replace all the clubs that were stolen! Anything else you want to say about Kid, I think he's a nice guy.
Link to the Ann Arbor News article on it:
http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/
base/news-22/1178203448215770.xml&coll=2

And finally, I took my sweetie on a date last Friday night to see "Blades of Glory" with Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. Frigging hilarious! We left the theatre laughing so hard, our sides were hurting. I will never hear the song "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith and think of it the same way again. If you have not seen this movie, see it. We're definitely buying a copy to have at home as soon as it comes out on DVD.

Weird book titles

'Stray Shopping Carts' wins oddest title

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer

Rogue shopping carts beat green Nazis Friday in the battle for one of Britain's most unusual book prizes.

"The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification" was named winner of the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for oddest book title.

The book, written by Buffalo, N.Y.-based artist Julian Montague and published by Harry N. Abrams, beat "How Green Were the Nazis?" a study of the environmental policies of the Third Reich.

"Stray Shopping Carts" received a third of the more than 5,500 votes cast by the public on the Web site of trade magazine The Bookseller.

"It's a sort of strange honor to have," Montague said. "But I welcome the publicity and it's nice that people are finding out my book exists."

Montague's work — documented on his Stray Shopping Cart Project Web site — offers a mock-scientific look at the varieties of lost shopping carts, from the simply discarded to the elaborately vandalized.

"Then there's plow crush — where a cart gets crushed by a snow plow — and train crush," Montague said. "It's really a project about the power of language and scientific classification to shape the way we see the world."

Runner-up for the prize was "Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan," by Robert Chenciner, Gabib Ismailov, Magomedkhan Magomedkhanov and Alex Binnie (Bennett & Bloom).

The other finalists were "Di Mascio's Delicious Ice Cream: Di Mascio of Coventry: an Ice Cream Company of Repute, With an Interesting and Varied Fleet of Ice Cream Vans," by Roger De Boer, Harvey Francis Pitcher and Alan Wilkinson (Past Masters); "Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Seaweed Symposium" (Kluwer); and "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence," by David Benatar (Clarendon Press).

Past winners of the 29-year-old prize include "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It."

Ten of the best April Fool's Day hoaxes

Thu Mar 29, 4:19 AM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - From television revealing that spaghetti grows on trees to advertisements for the left-handed burger, the tradition of April Fool's Day stories in the media has a weird and wonderful history.

Here are 10 of the top April Fool's Day pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the Museum of Hoaxes for their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.

-- In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home.

-- In 1985, Sports Illustrated magazine published a story that a rookie baseball pitcher who could reportedly throw a ball at 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) was set to join the New York Mets. Finch was said to have mastered his skill -- pitching significantly faster than anyone else has ever managed -- in a Tibetan monastery. Mets fans' celebrations were short-lived.

-- Sweden in 1962 had only one television channel, which broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to receive color pictures by pulling a nylon stocking over the screen. In fact, they had to wait until 1970.

-- In 1996, American fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that it had bought Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, a historic symbol of American independence, from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Outraged citizens called to express their anger before Taco Bell revealed the hoax. Then-White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale and said the Lincoln Memorial in Washington had also been sold and was to be renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant.

-- In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles described the geography and culture of the two main islands, named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse.

-- In 1992, US National Public Radio announced that Richard Nixon was running for president again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." They even had clips of Nixon announcing his candidacy. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their outrage. Nixon's voice actually turned out to be that of impersonator Rich Little.

-- In 1998, a newsletter titled New Mexicans for Science and Reason carried an article that the state of Alabama had voted to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.

-- Burger King, another American fast-food chain, published a full-page advertisement in USA Today in 1998 announcing the introduction of the "Left-Handed Whopper," specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new burger included the same ingredients as the original, but the condiments were rotated 180 degrees. The chain said it received thousands of requests for the new burger, as well as orders for the original "right-handed" version.

-- Discover Magazine announced in 1995 that a highly respected biologist, Aprile Pazzo (Italian for April Fool), had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. The creatures were described as having bony plates on their heads that became burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speed -- a technique they used to hunt penguins.

-- Noted British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on the radio in 1976 that at 9:47 am, a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event, in which Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, would cause a gravitational alignment that would reduce the Earth's gravity. Moore told listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment, they would experience a floating sensation. Hundreds of people called in to report feeling the sensation.

Miracles never cease

While on a lovely vacation a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Gentle Leader for Dudley. Supposedly, for $19.99, you put this thingy on the dog's face and they don't pull on the leash anymore. I liked taking Dudley for walks... except for the fact that I just about got my arm yanked out of its socket. So I was willing to give it a try. I fitted him with it Sunday and tried a short walk. Apparently I put it on too tight over the bridge of his nose, because he spent most of our walk (a whole 4 blocks) trying to paw it off. But I have to say, even with that distraction, we had a pleasant walk... he literally could not pull ahead because when he did, I only had to exert the smallest amount of pressure (with two fingers...really!) and he would turn his head towards me. He also stopped walking when I did it.

Last night we tried a looser fit over his nose, and went for a longer walk. What a difference from the yanking and pulling! He still tried to paw it off last night but just about a half-dozen times. Then we had a very nice walk, where most of the time he was next to me. He did want to walk ahead but when he did, he didn't pull. Anyone looking for a help with their dog's yanking... buy one of these things! They are available online (Ebay) or at Petco (significantly more expensive there though).

A big day!

Today the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame finally acknowledged one of the most influential groups of all time -- Grand Master Flash!! The first time I heard "Rapper's Delight" I was hooked. Of course, that was in MTV's infancy, so anyone who had a video I was happy to watch. But they're a great group just the same.

Plus it's almost 70 degrees here today and that just rocks!

I only hope to achieve all 8 - and have money!

The 8 Qualities of a Wealthy Woman

By Suze Orman

Posted Monday, February 12, 2007, 3:00AM

What keeps women from achieving the financial security they -- and their families -- deserve? I believe the root of the problem lies in the dysfunctional relationship women have with money.

That's the launching point for my new book, "Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny." My message to all women: Owning the power to control your destiny requires more than 401(k)s and Roth IRAs. It requires reconditioning from the inside. In this excerpt from "Women & Money," I discuss the eight qualities of wealthy women.

Qualities 1 and 2: Harmony and Balance

Harmony is an agreement in feeling, approach, and sympathy. It is the pleasing interaction between what you think, feel, say, and do.

Balance is a state of emotional and rational stability in which you are calm and able to make sound decisions and judgments.

Harmony and balance are perhaps the most important qualities of all, for they serve as the foundation for the remaining qualities. When you possess true inner harmony, what you think, say, feel, and do is one. We are so accustomed to this split-screen state of mind in which we think one thing, say another, feel something else, and act in a way that has nothing to do with what we just thought, said, or felt. When your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions are not in harmony, it shows up as an imbalance -- you feel agitated, uncomfortable, you sense something is off, so you find it difficult to make rational, calm decisions. This is why these two qualities are a pair.

Quality 3: Courage

Courage is the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action.

Courage gives harmony expression. When your thoughts and feelings are one, courage helps you manifest them in the form of words and actions. When you are afraid to speak or act, courage helps you overcome your fear. Courage gives you the ability to speak your truth, even when it is not what others may want to hear.

Fear is usually what stands between us and our courage. But if we are to embrace this quality of courage to its fullest, we can no longer allow ourselves to hide behind fear. You can meditate on your fear and think about it rationally and try to will it away, but in the end, if fear is preventing you from acting, you must find your courage and act to overcome your fear.

Quality 4: Generosity

Generosity is when you give the right thing to the right person at the right time -- and it benefits both of you.

Generosity is a quality that most women can tap into very easily -- maybe too easily. As women, we tend to be overly generous with our time, support, love, and money -- but giving simply for the sake of giving does not match the definition of true generosity.

True generosity goes far beyond what you give to others. In giving there is a power, an understanding that you are just the vessel that wealth or energy flows through. You allow money to come in through your hands and out through your heart. To be empowered to give, to be moved to give straight from the heart, is a feeling that all the money in the world could never buy. So let me ask you: Is that how you feel when you constantly give of yourself? Do you feel enhanced or do you feel diminished? You think of yourself as a giver, as generous with your time, your talent, your money. Others probably describe you as a generous woman, but if I were to look at you, I might think you give for the wrong reasons. Do you give because you feel that you should? Do you give out of guilt or embarrassment? Understand that true generosity is as much about the one who gives as it is about the one who receives. If an act of generosity benefits the receiver but saps the giver, then it is not true generosity.

Quality 5: Happiness

Happiness is a state of well-being and contentment.

When you find the courage to live your life in harmony and balance, when you understand and practice generosity in the truest sense, happiness spontaneously appears. When you are happy, you are open and accessible. When you are happy, you tend to be more optimistic. You approach new challenges with a clear mind that seeks positive solutions. You see possibilities rather than problems.

Happiness is not a luxury. It is a necessity for true wealth. When you are happy, you have the satisfaction of knowing that your actions come from a place of purity and balance, that they are correct and generous and kind. There are no regrets in this state of happiness -- and that's a goal worth striving for in all areas of your life.

Quality 6: Wisdom

Wisdom is the knowledge and experience needed to make sensible decisions and judgments, or the good sense shown by the decisions and judgments made from an accumulated knowledge of life that has been gained through experience.

The quality of wisdom is more than intellectual, and it is in no way related to how much schooling you have. Exercising wisdom requires cutting through the noise of life and tapping into your core beliefs to make thoughtful decisions. Wisdom results from inhabiting all the qualities that came before it. A wise woman recognizes when her life is out of balance and summons the courage to act to correct it. A wise woman knows the meaning of true generosity. A wise woman knows happiness is the reward for a life lived in harmony, with courage and grace. A wise woman knows how to summon her courage and do what is right, rather than what is easy.

Quality 7: Cleanliness

Cleanliness is a state of purity, clarity, and precision.

Cleanliness is about respecting the importance of order and organization. When you don't know where your money is, when you have no filing system for your important documents, when you dive into your pocketbook to pull out crumpled bills, when your car looks like a garbage can, when your closets are filled with junk and clutter -- you cannot possibly be a wealthy woman. You need to clean up your act -- quite literally -- to bring true wealth into your life. In India, women sweep the front entrance to their home each morning as a way of welcoming Lakshmi, the goddess of material and spiritual abundance, into their home, for there is a belief that she resides at the threshold of every house. In order for her to enter, she must have a clear path.

You might be reading this and thinking that cleanliness is nice but not essential to your financial well-being. I am here to tell you that if this quality is not up front and center, wealth will elude you and you will be left with the mess that you created. Respect the power of this quality of cleanliness. Tell the universe that you have cleared the path for wealth and abundance to enter.

Quality 8: Beauty

Beauty is the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.

Beauty is what you create when you incorporate the other seven qualities into your life. When you take the steps to have harmony, balance, courage, generosity, happiness, wisdom, cleanliness, and beauty in your life, you will exude confidence in who you are. And there is nothing more beautiful than a confident woman. Remember, when you are confident you feel secure, and when you feel secure you have no fear. And when you have no fear, you have the courage to say what you think and feel in a calm and wise way. And when you are calm, you make wise decisions with your money, which then allows you to be truly generous to others as well as yourself, which, in turn, makes you a happy, powerful, and beautiful woman. Do you see how all of these qualities work together to help you arrive at the goal of being a woman in control of her destiny?

Summoning the 8 Qualities

I've noticed, in my own life and in others', that the more you summon these qualities, the easier they are to access. Harmony yearns for more harmony, and balance abhors imbalance. Courage begets greater courage. Once you are generous in the right way, a lesser form of generosity will feel inferior to you. True happiness will never permit you to settle for a lesser form of happiness. Cleanliness recoils at disorder. Wisdom, once achieved, is with you forever, and beauty inspires beauty in all things.

Carry these qualities with you throughout your life. Write them on a notecard and keep them close at hand -- in your wallet or in your pocket. Make it into a talisman to guide you every day as you make your way through life and all its impossible demands. These qualities will keep you focused and tranquil. Let them and they will offer you constant reassurance that you are acting powerfully and correctly, with love in your heart and the purest intentions, to realize your goals of security and comfort for yourself and all you love.

That's more like it

Broadcaster to pay $2M in bomb scare

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer 52 minutes ago

BOSTON - Turner Broadcasting Systems and Interference Inc. have agreed to pay $2 million for a Cartoon Network advertising campaign that caused a widespread bomb scare, the attorney general said Monday. The agreement with several state and local agencies resolves any potential civil or criminal claims against the companies, said Attorney General Martha Coakley.

More than three dozen blinking electronic signs with a boxy cartoon character giving an obscene hand gesture were found Wednesday in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville. The signs, part of a publicity campaign for Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," also appeared in nine other big U.S. cities in recent weeks, with little interest.

But in Boston, bomb squads responded to reports of the devices in a subway station, on bridges and elsewhere.

As part of the settlement, $1 million will be used to reimburse the agencies and $1 million will be used to fund homeland security and other programs. Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc., and Interference Inc. also will issue a public statement accepting full responsibility and apologizing for the incident.

"Last week's events caused a major disruption in the greater Boston area on many levels — crippling public transportation, causing serious traffic problems, negatively affecting local businesses and perhaps most significantly, costing Boston and surrounding communities thousands of dollars," Coakley said.

Turner released a statement again taking responsibility for the "unconventional marketing tactic" and apologizing for hardships caused to Boston area residents.

"We understand now that in today's post-Sept. 11 environment, it was reasonable and appropriate for citizens and law enforcement officials to take any perceived threat posed by our light boards very seriously and to respond as they did," the statement said.

The company said it was reviewing its policies concerning local marketing efforts and strategies to ensure that they are not disruptive or perceived as threatening.

Authorities say two men were paid to hang the signs around the city. Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, have pleaded not guilty to placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct.

Coakley said prosecutors were in discussions with the men's attorneys to resolve the charges before a trial.

When PR goes bad

Today on CNN they're reporting that several lighted circuit boards, funky ads promoting the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie and placed around busy areas in Boston, were mistaken for bombs. According to the poor art students who put them there, they've been in place for more than two weeks. What does this say for our counterterrorism policing? And why weren't the boards more clearly marked as advertising, or at least an attempt at it? They were placed in odd areas like underpasses, and subway tunnels, and were just a couple of feet in size. The boards were placed in several large cities including NYC and Seattle, where they had over 50.

I've never seen Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but this seems like a pretty sick way to promote it, not to mention bizarre. Turner Broadcasting, with its silly idea, wasted about $500,000 of the taxpayers' money, and that's just in Boston, because they had to bring out the bomb squads, shut down the subways and roadways for quite some time Wednesday.

We can't take frigging shampoo on a plane but these students figured out a way into subway tunnels and other supposedly secure places, and hang up battery-operated blinking signs, in several large metro populations without anyone noticing for weeks.

Happy 2007 - and it should be!

Hello you stalwart readers of my blog (I know who most of you are...). Happy 2007!

I came across an article today about how to attend MIT (and many other large universities) for free. It involves twoOpen Courseware websites:

the MIT site (ocw.mit.edu)

the OCW consortium (ocwconsortium.org)

Both places you can just sign up for classes. Only 26 have video lectures available, but many more have materials, coursework, podcasts and other items for you to take classes on everything from atomic physics to wildlife medicine. These two sites are being generously supported by private donations and hopefully they will continue into the future as we become more and more a global society. Exchanging what we know is the most valuable resource!

I said I wasn't getting married again... but....

That just proves you should never say never! Finally I find the right man for me so I am not letting him go!

Our wedding is set for March 3, 2007, one year from the day we laid eyes on each other at Conor O'Neills in Ann Arbor. Amazingly we met online, on MySpace, so I guess we'll have to send Tom a gushy letter thanking him for developing such a cool place to meet people.

So far, we are registered at Bed Bath & Beyond. We're still officially determining a reception site, although we think we know where we'll do that. It will be an evening cocktail and h'ors douerve reception, and we're asking everyone to wear "cocktail attire" - meaning little black dresses for the ladies (gloves optional) and dark suits for the men. Yes it is OK to wear black to a wedding!

Invites will go out probably around Christmas, so we have a lot of work to do between now and then. I've already purchased a few decoration items on Ebay (again, cheap and functional stuff... gotta love Ebay!) and my dress... then we have to talk about ceremony music, the DJ, get ourselves a photographer, get our attendant gifts, arrange a rehearsal dinner...well, I'm getting exhausted just typing all that. More updates as wedding developments fall into place!

Court, and other necessary things

Looks like I am now the owner of the house in Greenville, just waiting on the official signed judgement from the county, and an emergency quit claim deed from the area in which the house sits. My lawyer even said she appreciated the volume of information I provided to her, and that the judge had never approved something like this before without any changes to what we requested. So that made me feel good, like I coulda been a lawyer! Hopefully I can get the place ready to sell fairly soon and just get rid of it ASAP. Goodness knows I have some other debt and expenses to take care of instead of paying a mortgage payment on a house I don't live in. I keep saying I wish I'd gotten a lawyer way back when to take care of this before...but there's no sense in beating myself up now, it's mostly resolved at this point.

Reprinted from Snopes.com - Happy Friday the 13th

Legend: Friday the 13th is a day fraught with peril.

Origins: Although most of us would probably affirm that superstition's
role in Western culture is now a much diminished one, more a source of amusement than anything else, there are still those who allow their trepidation over particular days or dates to prevent them from engaging in their choice of activities. We may make jokes about Friday the 13th and only kiddingly instruct loved ones to exercise greater care on that day, but those who suffer from a fear of the number thirteen (triskaidekaphobia) or a fear of Friday the 13th (paraskevidekatriaphobia) may genuinely feel limited by the rumored potential for ill luck connected with the date.

The reasons why Friday came to be regarded as a day of bad luck have been obscured by the mists of time — some of the more common theories link it to a significant event in Christian tradition said to have taken place on Friday, such as the Crucifixion, Eve's offering the apple to Adam in the Garden of Eden, the beginning of the Great Flood, or the confusion at the Tower of Babel. Chaucer alluded to Friday as a day on which bad things seemed to happen in the Canterbury Tales as far back as the late 14th century ("And on a Friday fell all this mischance"), but references to Friday as a day connected with ill luck generally start to show up in Western literature around the mid-17th century:

• "Now Friday came, you old wives say, Of all the week's the unluckiest day." (1656)

From the early 19th century onward, examples abound of Friday's being considered a bad day for all sorts of ordinary tasks, from writing letters to conducting business and receiving medical treatment:

• "I knew another poor woman, who lost half her time in waiting for lucky days, and made it a rule never to . . . write a letter on business . . . on a Friday — so her business was never done, and her fortune suffered accordingly." (1804)
• "There are still a few respectable tradesmen and merchants who will not transact business, or be bled, or take physic, on a Friday, because it is an unlucky day." (1831)

Friday was also said to be a particularly unlucky day on which to undertake anything that represented a beginning or the start of a new venture, thus we find references to all of the following activities as endeavors best avoided on Fridays:

• Needleworking: "I knew an old lady who, if she had nearly completed a piece of needlework on a Thursday, would put it aside unfinished, and set a few stitches in her next undertaking, that she might not be obliged either to begin the new task on Friday or to remain idle for a day." (1883)
• Harvesting: "My father once decided to start harvest on a Friday, and men went out on the Thursday evening, and, unpaid, cut along one side of the first field with their scythes, in order to dodge the malign fates which a Friday start would begin." (1933)
• Laying the keel of, or launching, a ship: "Fisherman would have great misgivings about laying the keel of a new boat on Friday, as well as launching one on that day." (1885)
• Beginning a sea voyage: "Sailors are many of them superstitious . . . A voyage begun [on a Friday] is sure to be an unfortunate one." (1823)
• Beginning a journey: "I knew another poor woman, who . . . made it a rule never to . . . set out on a journey on a Friday." (1804)
• Giving birth: "A child born on a Friday is doomed to misfortune." (1846)
• Getting married: "As to Friday, a couple married on that day are doomed to a cat-and-dog life." (1879)
• Recovering from illness: "If you have been ill, don't get up for the first time on a Friday." (1923)
• Hearing news: "If you hear anything new on a Friday, it gives you another wrinkle on your face, and adds a year to your age." (1883)
• Moving: "Don't move on a Friday, or you won't stay there very long." (1982)
• Starting a new job: "Servants who go into their situations on Friday, never go to stay." (1923)

In some cases, Good Friday (the Friday before Easter) was regarded as an exception or 'antidote' to the bad luck usually associated with Friday beginnings:

• "Notwithstanding the prejudice against sailing on a Friday . . . most of the pleasure-boats . . . make their first voyage for the season on Good Friday." (1857)
• "It was accounted unlucky for a child to be born on a Friday, unless it happened to be Good Friday, when the event was counterbalanced by the sanctity of the day." (1870)

The origins of the connection between the number thirteen and ill fortune are similarly obscure. Many different sources for the superstition surrounding the number thirteen have been posited, the most common stemming from another Christian source, the Last Supper, at which Judas Iscariot was said to have been the thirteenth guest to sit at the table. (Judas later betrayed Jesus, leading to His crucifixion, and then took his own life.) This Christian symbolism is reflected in early Western references to thirteen as an omen of bad fortune, which generally started to appear in the early 18th century and warned that thirteen people sitting down to a meal together presaged that one of them would die within the year:

• "I have known, and now know, persons in genteel life who did, and do, not sit down to table unmoved with twelve others. Our notion is that one of the thirteen so partaking, will die ere the expiry of the year." (1823)
• "The old story runs, that the last individual of the thirteen who takes a seat has the greatest chance of being the 'doomed one'." (1839)

Superstition held that the victim would be the first person to rise from the table (or the last one to be seated), leading to the remedies of having all guests sit and stand at the same time, or seating one or more guests at a separate table:

• " . . . Miss Mellon always gave the last comer an equal chance with the rest for life . . . she used to rise and say, 'I will not have any friend of mine sit down as the thirteenth; you must all rise, and we will then sit down again together.'" (1839)
• "Every one knows that to sit down thirteen at a table is a most unlucky omen, sure to be followed by the death of one of the party within the year . . . Some say, however, that the evil will only befall the first who leaves the table, and may be averted if the whole company are careful to rise from their seats at the same moment." (1883)
• " . . . so far is this feeling carried that one of the thirteen is requested to dine at a side table!" (1823)

(The "thirteen at the table" form of superstition again harkens back to the Last Supper: the one who left the table first, Judas Iscariot, died at his own hand soon afterwards.)

More generally, groups of thirteen people in any context — at a table, in a room, on a ship — were believed to inevitably lead to tragedy:

• "On a sudden an old woman unluckily observed there were thirteen of us in company. This remark struck a panic terror into several who were present . . . but a friend of mine, taking notice that one of our female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen in the room . . ." (1711)
• "Notwithstanding . . . opinions in favour of odd numbers, the number thirteen is considered as extremely ominous; it being held that, when thirteen persons meet in a room, one of them will die within the year." (1787)
• "Many will not sail on a vessel when [thirteen] is the number of persons on board; and it is believed that some fatal accident must befall one of them." (1808)

By the late 19th century the superstition surrounding thirteen had become even more general, with people going out of their ways to avoid anything designated by the number thirteen, whether it be hotel rooms, desks, or cars:

• "'Look at that,' said Parnell, pointing to the number on his door. It was No. 13! 'What a room to give me!'" (1893)
• "For some time before the late War I went almost daily to the British Museum reading room . . . I gave some attention to the desks left to the last comers . . . there was a very marked preference of any other desk to that numbered '13'." (1927)
• "The mechanic helped him get out [of the racing car]. 'May as well scratch,' he said. 'He won't be good for anything more this afternoon. It's asking for trouble having a No. 13.'" (1930)

Once again these ill omens were avoided through artifice, such as the renumbering of rooms in hotels and inns to eliminate any Room #13's, and misnumbering the floors above the 12th floor in multi-story buildings so that tenants could pretend 13th floors were really 14th floors.

Just as Friday was considered an inauspicious day of the week on which to embark upon a new enterprise, so the 13th day of a month came to signify a particularly bad day for beginning a venture. Although regarding the confluence of a particularly unlucky day of the week (Friday) and a particularly unlucky day of the month (the 13th) as a date of supreme unluckiness might seem to be obvious and inevitable, superstitions regarding Friday the 13th are not nearly as old as most people tend to think. The belief in Friday the 13th as a day on which Murphy's Law reigns supreme and anything that can go wrong will go wrong appears to be largely a 20th century phenomenon. (The claim that the Friday the 13th superstition began with the arrest of the final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques Demolay, on Friday, October 13, 1307, is a modern-day invention.)

Maybe I'm just homesick... but I like this a lot

We have a lot of neat memories from when we were kids, and my sister spent some time one day writing down things she remembered. I've made some of these more generic than her original document but the same flavor is there. My comments, added in, are in parens.

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I remember enjoying the big brown “bear” chair at Grandma & Grandpa’s house in the den. (I remember dad fighting to light the fire in the fireplace at their house. It never lit on the first try!)

I remember watching Nova and Tiger Baseball with Grandma & Grandpa.

I remember eating saltines and peanut butter in the next door neighbor's kitchen when mom took us over there with her to visit.

I remember hating softball because the girls teased me. I played for 2 years anyway.

I remember rehearsing plays at school for hours upon hours, and loving it.

I remember clogging classes.

I remember listening to Aunt Sue tell stories about the farmer’s market and going bowling.

I remember Dad and Uncle Eric doing cannonballs in Grandma’s pool.

I remember singing while dad played the guitar. We sang, “I’ll Fly Away” and “Do Lord”.

I remember Grandma Newell playing “The King Is Coming” on the piano. She knew it by heart.

I remember having a cake fight in my friend’s kitchen.

* I remember the year that we only trick or treated to three of the neighbors because the rain was pouring down. That was the year I was a witch and my big floppy hat got soaked.*

I remember Dad drawing X’s and O’s on the ends of our toes with a ball point pen after we’d just gotten out of the bathtub.

I remember my best friend and I going through all the garbage at Ponderosa looking for the retainer I had accidentally thrown away, and finding it under a garbage can.

I remember sledding at the big sand dune by the lake.

I remember playing in the sand, and loving to chase seagulls and swim in the summer.

I remember the first patchwork quilt I ever made. It was for my best friend's baby when he was newborn. It was awful!

I remember playing “Choplifter” and “Olympic Games” on Uncle Bob’s Commodore 64 computer.

I remember listening to my dress shoes tap on the tile floor in the hallway at church when I was very small.

I remember loving my Raggedy Ann dress.

I remember peanut butter & jelly on a hot dog bun (and the song we had to sing when we made one!)

I remember the red flowered nightgown that Grandma Newell made for me. It felt like clean sheets. I loved it.

I remember having a special bed on the couch when I didn’t feel good. We always had jell-o, saltines, and 7-Up.

I remember the day I found out I was going to be a Mom. It was one of the very most special days of my life.

I remember not wanting to fall in love with Jason, but having no control over it. He was just the one for me.

I remember following Ann Pool home from elementary school, sharing a Little Debbie snack, and then her Mom gave me my piano lesson. She didn’t like me one bit.

I remember going to Alabama to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Mobile.

I remember Grandma buying me a Mexican Barbie when I learned my multiplication tables.

I remember devouring all of the Little House on the Prairie books. We watched Little House religiously!

I remember Shirley Temple movies on Sunday afternoons, and watching Sha Na Na.

I remember all of the musicals in elementary school. I loved them.

I remember our babysitter Amy washing our hair in the kitchen sink.

I remember mom checking on us when we were in the tub. “Are you ok?”

Sept 19th - Talk Like A Pirate Day

My pirate name is:

Calico Charity Rackham

Often indecisive, you can't even choose a favorite color. You're apt to follow wherever the wind blows you, just like Calico Jack Rackham, your namesake. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com

Dog sprayed by a skunk?

This is the fail-proof recipe for cleaning up a skunk-sprayed dog. I know because I had to do this one late night last summer.

• 1 pint hydrogen peroxide
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of citrus-based liquid soap

With gloves on, sponge this mixture into the dog's fur, and rub it in down to the skin if you can. Let sit two to five minutes, then rinse with plain water. If a second batch is needed, use fresh ingredients.

If this mixture, or skunk spray, has gotten into the dog's eyes, use a wet rag soaked in milk to wipe the eyes. Wring the rag out over the eyes for best results (dripping it directly into the eyes) or if the dog will sit still, gently wipe around the eyes with the rag. Results should be immediate.

Update on the BS that continues

Well - my naivete and trust in people who shouldn't be trusted has come around to bite me again. Namely my ex, who we will refer to here as AzHol.

Not only did AzHol lie to me about the refinancing being possible, he said it could happen ASAP and that it would correct both of our credit scores. I talked to the refi guy he talked to and none of it's true (so many people told me this but I was SO hoping for an easy resolution here...) So I had to forward an email from refi guy to my lawyer, stating the truth, and figure out how the heck I am going to pay the already past due mortgage payments, along with the payments that will be due from this point on, since I am most likely going to be awarded the house in the court hearing in October... I am still trying to refi for myself, and hopefully with just a few ontime payments under my belt I can swing it sooner rather than later. An interest only loan would work best but you have to have pretty good credit and mortgage payment history to qualify.

It just pisses me off to no end, that I am making more money than I have in my whole life, and yet I have nothing to show for it... 1/3 of my income each month is going to a house payment for a house I DON'T LIVE IN!! I have no "extra" money EVER, no savings, and very little in the 401K. I might as well throw my money into a hole in the ground.

So I'm feeling pretty low today... and then I get a call about needing to have me sub at the local softball league... so after my 8 hour workday (2 of which have been actually on the phone with the mortgage company and lawyer and refi guy) I go to a 1-hour yoga class, then zip home to pick up the dog, and change clothes again for softball and have to take the dog with me. I certainly hope they are not expecting much out of me, I SUCK at softball worse than I do at golf.

So it's a little early for this but I think it's fun

Halloween being one of my favorite holidays (I'm a frustrated actress I guess), we were challenged during our department meeting a couple of weeks ago to develop a theme for Halloween for the marketing department. Our boss suggested When the Grinch Stole Halloween which I think is cool. So I wrote this up and gave it to her (yes she loved it!).

When the Grinch Stole Halloween

Copyright 2006 Shannon Edwards

There’s the time he stole Christmas, but it all came out right
Because of Cindy Lou Who, some roast beast and starlight
But the Grinch took another day -- it’s the worst thing we’ve seen
Come walk through Whoville, and try to save Halloween.

First he outfitted Max with devil horns and a cape
The poor thing looked pathetic, his head wrapped in duct tape
The Grinch himself got dressed up too
As a fierce looking mobster with a greasy hairdo

Then he loaded some bags and some empty old sacks
On that same sleigh and hitched up old Max
Then the Grinch said “Giddyap” - the sleigh started down
Toward the homes where the Whos were decorating the town

They were hanging up twine webs and plastic spiders
And other fun things that were sure to frighten
Like stuffed Kleenex ghosts hung from tree branches
And black cat cutouts raised up on their haunches

There were paper skeletons hanging on doors
And fog machines started, just like the moors
Pumpkin-face bags full of leaves all around
RIP tombstones and zombie hands stuck in the ground
Even a vampire’s coffin with authentic fake locks
And a seven-foot cornhusk tied to a mailbox

Then the Grinch swept in and yelled at the children
“Give me those jack-o-lanterns, wax teeth and black cauldrons!
The cider in jugs and caramel apples on sticks
All of the treats and all of the tricks!
I’m here to steal Halloween and I’ll do it right
So you Whos won’t eat any candy tonight!”

Just then Cindy Lou, and Cindy Lou’s brother
Along with Cindy Lou’s father and mother
Said “Wait a minute Grinch, it seems to us
That you’re a big bully and causing a fuss
Over a night that’s silly and full of sweets
You’re already dressed, so join us and see!”

Maybe it was the smell of the chocolaty Snickers
Or Max’s brown eyes pleading over his whiskers
But the Grinch’s plot was foiled again
By those nice Whos, who made him a friend.

Then Halloween night was a joy for them all
As they went door to door with that plaintive call
The one you can hear from down the street:
TRICK OR TREAT! TRICK OR TREAT! TRICK OR TREAT!