With Inflation That Would Be ....?

When commercial telephone service was introduced between New York and London in 1927, the first three minutes of a call cost $75.00.

We Knew This

In the Declaration of Independence as first written by Thomas Jefferson, there was a clause abolishing slavery. However, because of pressure, he was forced to delete the clause.

Where he lived when he wrote it.

Those Greeks!

Married women were forbidden by law to watch, let alone compete, in the ancient Olympics. The Greeks believed that the presence of wives in Olympia would defile Greece’s oldest religious shrine, which was located there. However, young maidens were allowed to attend. Any married woman who dared break the rule was thrown from a nearby cliff to her death. Ironically, the shrine that was off-limits to married women was dedicated to a woman, the fertility goddess Rhea, who was mother of the supreme god, Zeus.

A Sunbeam! A Sunbeam!

A sunbeam setting out through space at the rate of 186,000 miles a second would go in a gigantic circle and return to its origins after about 200 billion years.

A Sunbeam! A Sunbeam!

A sunbeam setting out through space at the rate of 186,000 miles a second would go in a gigantic circle and return to its origins after about 200 billion years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all of you and so glad I know you. We all have so much to be thankful for.

Yawn and Stretch

What's the first thing you think when you wake up in the morning? I always ask myself what day it is. Then I know what to expect. Sometimes it takes a little while to figure it out now that I'm retired. Whenever I wake up during the night or morning, I look to see what time it is.

Weird

Breathing for most snakes is accomplished with one lung only. The left lung is either greatly reduced in size or missing completely.

Fun Night in Nashville

Tina and I went to dinner at PF Chang and then to see Craig Ferguson at TPAC in Nashville tonight. He's filming his comedy special and chose to do it in Nashville! Wow! He said that it was no accident he wanted to do it here because he likes the South and feels our pain because people are always trying to do our accents and his and do them wrong. Then they do them for us to show us how it should be done. He really puts on a great show! It was hilarious! The little bondage guy and a man playing the sax came onstage at the beginning and end, and they all danced. It revved the audience up.

There were two shows, and we went to the last one at 9:45. It was a good evening since we left early enough not to rush and could do a few other things we wanted to like browse Border's after dinner since it's close to the restaurant. As I was driving to the restaurant, we saw the lights on at Vanderbilt's stadium and realized there was a ballgame. People were walking around everywhere. Then I saw orange and said, "Oh no! Orange! Vandy and UT are playing!" This is a big rivalry in the state for those who care. Anyway, we did get a parking place because the restaurant has free valet parking. Otherwise, impossible! Love those lettuce wraps at PF Chang!

Not sure when this special will be on, so let's look for it! I think it's going to be on HBO and know it will have to be on cable because of the language and some topics. Really enjoyed the evening and got all kinds of endorphins from laughing so much. I didn't take any pictures because they told us not to. Well, we could without the flash, but I decided to watch and enjoy instead of taking any pictures. This suit looks like the one he wore with a dark blue untucked shirt with a string tie.


What he tweeted:

CraigyFerg Craig Ferguson

Thank you Nashville you were incredible. You made a vulgar lounge entertainer feel like a star. I thank you xxx

Cutting off Noses

Ancient robbers of Egyptian tombs were convinced that whacking off the noses of stone effigies would thwart any nasty curses.

Patronage

Peter llyich Tchaikovsky was supported by a wealthy widow for 13 years. She stipulated that they never meet, and they didn’t.

Your Job Could Be Worse

In feudal Japan, the Imperial army had special soldiers whose only duty was to count the number of severed enemy heads after each battle. And if they came up with the wrong amount, heads would definitely roll!

Fishing Trivia & Memories

Thirty million Americans fish for bass every year, making it one of the top sports in the nation. One out of every 400 Americans (meaning 600,000 Americans), is a proud member of B.A.S.S., the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society. The average amateur fisherman spends about $200 a month on equipment, which adds up to a $40 billion industry.

I used to go fishing with Daddy. Good memories mostly from just spending time with him. He was a salesman and always competitive, so he'd have all these challenges, such as who catches the first fish, largest fish, etc. He also said the one who catches the least number of fish has to clean all of them. That usually applied to me, but the first time I did, I managed to mangle the fish and get scales everywhere. On purpose? Of course! That bothered him so much he told me to let him do it, and I never had to again. Win-win for me! Another thing my brother didn't even try to get by with.

For Mrs. Miss A!

A cat’s jaw can’t move sideways.

For many years, the globe on NBC Nightly News spun in the wrong direction. On January 2, 1984, NBC finally set the world spinning back in the proper direction.

Maybe I'll Blog Again!

OK, I know I haven't been blogging much lately. Part of it is that grading I'm doing. I spend at least an hour a day and sometimes three or four online grading essays and reports. Most of them aren't written well and many of them haven't learned about plagiarism, so I keep sending their assignments back with notes. Wish they'd follow directions and do it right the first time. Oh, and I'm not even talking about creative, sneaky plagiarism but copying and pasting. How dumb does it get?

Too bummed out about DWTS to comment on it. We know how that happened.

Loving David's recaps of The Fashion Show! No one does it better!

I look forward to Bob's Sunday Funnies and his gossip columns.

Have done a bit of Tweeting now and then with Froggy, Tug, David, Howard, and Wonder Man. David's dronk tweeting is hilarious! Sam always keeps up with me and checks on me. We text and have outrageous conversations on the phone! You wouldn't believe! Maddie and I have had some interesting ones, too.

I keep up with many of you on FB and play Scrabble with Charlie, Brian, and now Ginger on there, which is always a challenge. I like to think it helps my mind.

Still going to APSU with Tina twice a week. Next semester we'll go on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We leave around 3:30 and get home anywhere from 8:30 - 10:00, depending on whether we eat somewhere after class. Classes are from 4:30 - 7:30.

I read your blogs even though I don't always comment.

Margaret and Helen have a new post. Love that blog! She says exactly what I think!

For Tug: Don't miss this!

Who Knew?

False teeth are often radioactive. Approximately 1 million Americans wear some form of denture; half of these dentures are made of a porcelain compound laced with minute amounts of uranium to stimulate fluorescence. Without the uranium additive, the dentures would be a dull green color when seen under artificial light.

Laptop Revisited

UPS delivered my laptop while ago. My stuff is still on there along with 751 emails! Lotta deleting going on soon. It seems HUGE after using that little tiny netbook! Well, 17" vs 10" - guess so. Much easier keyboard to navigate and can see everything on this screen. This makes it easier to post on here, check and write email, play Scrabble (couldn't see the whole board and my letters on that little netbook), type, and all that. Not easier to take place or move to other rooms, though.

After online research, this model is the Edsel of HP's. It's a 2007 HP Pavilion dv941. They knew it had problems and sent them out anyway for the customers to deal with. I googled it and read about all kinds of people who had the same problems with theirs I did with mine. They sent them for repair, got new motherboards, and then had the same problem again. Some didn't. They overheat and destroy things. I keep mine on a cooling pad but think this is a different kind of overheating but not sure. Anyway, I hope it will continue to work, and I'm still getting a Macbook when it's feasible.

Request

Please send me an email (joydurham@comcast.net). My laptop died, as you know, and I need to get my addresses back. Some I have in my Blackberry and some are in the comcast.net website where I've been accessing my email. I had Outlook Express and like the way I can organize mail into folders, but I don't have that on this little tiny netbook and probably won't have any of my programs when I get my laptop back. Since I have Mozilla Firefox for my browser and like it, I'm trying Thunderbird for my email. I downloaded it while ago and am working on my address book on there. At least I like it better than going through all that to get to the Comcast site.

For those of you who don't mind and whose contact information I don't already have, if you'd like to email me your mailing address and phone number, I'll reciprocate if you are interested. Thanks!!

On Pundits and Journalists

Peter Sagal of NPR's "Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me!" wrote about Keith Olbermann's suspension from MSNBC on his blog HERE. Interesting post and comments. What do you think about it all?


Dust Bunny leader David Dust had an informative and interesting comment about this situation which I'll copy and paste.

I've been reading about the fascinating behind-the-scenes drama over at MSNBC. It seems that the guy who runs the network is actually a conservative - and the Keith/Rachel/Lawrence progressives hate him and the Boss hates them right back.

The only "friend" the Boss has over there is Joe Scarborough. In fact, when Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) got into a Twitter war with Scarborough, the Boss banned him from MSNBC completely - even though Markos was a frequent guest on Keith's show.

Furthermore, NBC/MSNBC/CNBC is preparing to be acquired by Comcast - which is headed by a friend/financial back of George W. Bush and is considered a conservative company.

More Help for Flood Relief

Wow!

Garth Brooks' Nashville Benefit: 9 Sold-out Shows, $3.5 Million for Flood Relief

Garth Brooks’ Dec. 17 benefit concert in Nashville for victims of flooding across middle Tennessee has turned into a deluge of its own.

When tickets went on sale Saturday morning, demand was such that the country superstar, who hasn’t performed in Nashville for 12 years, added shows until he had amassed a string of nine over six days. Those concerts are expected to generate $3.5 million for ongoing flood relief efforts.

"It's great to be part of the healing," Brooks said Saturday. The feat almost doubles the previous record in Tennessee for ticket sales by a single performer, set by Michael Jackson, who had sold 72,000 tickets for a stadium show in Knoxville.

Brooks will play Dec. 16, 17, 19, 20, 21 and 22 at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. Tickets were priced at $25, his standard maximum ticket price over the years, outside of his current engagement doing solo acoustic shows at Steve Wynn's Encore Theatre in Las Vegas. Brooks said 100% of the ticket revenue will be donated to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to help those who are still rebuilding after the flooding that hit the area in May.

When the concert benefit was announced late last month, Brooks told The Times that he didn't anticipate doing an extended series of shows, as he had done in 2008 to raise money for victims of Southern California wildfires the previous fall. But he said if the demand was there, he would add performances to generate more money.

He said the decision to hold the shows shortly before Christmas reflected his belief that "around Christmas time is when people seem to need the most help, and when people feel the most giving, so the timing just seemed to make sense."

-- Randy Lewis

Oh No!

Jill Clayburgh died. She was just 66 and died from chronic leukemia she's had for twenty-one years. I've enjoyed her performances and am sad about her death. She was most recently on Dirty, Sexy Money. Article HERE.

Despite her acclaim, Ms. Clayburgh, by all appearances, had a healthy sense of herself. “People think about me, ‘This wonderful lucky woman, she’s got it all,’ ” she told The Times in 1982. “But gee, that’s how I feel about Meryl Streep.”

Keith Olbermann

Guess most of you have heard by now that Keith Olbermann has been suspended from MSNBC for contributing to two Democratic candidates. NBC has a policy that journalists cannot contribute to campaigns unless they received approval. Rachel Maddow's commentary on this situation was excellent!

Women Bloggers

Excerpts from a couple of blogs I enjoy:

From Ronni Bennett's "Time Goes By" - Full post HERE

On a bi-gender basis, here are some of the extreme beliefs of the freshman Republicans who will join the 112th Congress in January, as compiled by ThinkProgress:

• 91% have sworn to never allow an income tax increase on any individual or business – regardless of deficits or war

• 79% have pledged to permanently repeal the the estate tax

• 50% deny the existence of man-made climate change

• 25% want to end birthright citizenship

Although those are all House members, the supposedly “adult” side of Congress doesn't appear to be even thinking about policy. In late October, Senate Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, told the National Journal - and repeated on television on election night - that

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

Margaret and Helen have done it again! Gotta read the whole thing HERE!

Sarah Palin has a clear path to the Presidency in 2012… which means we’ll have another presidential election in 2014 when she quits. No problems though. Michele Bachmann has been talking to God and he assures her that the two years as Vice President will fly by and she will be in the Oval Office before she knows it. Let’s all start a prayer group for her now.

I found it interesting that John Boehner declared that Washington has been put on notice. Considering how long he’s been a part of Washington, I say Politician heal thyself. Yes. Washington has been put on notice indeed. It’s been put on notice that Americans have the attention span of a gnat.

If there is one thing we learned last night, it is not that Americans are mad at their government. It’s not that Americans want lower taxes. It’s not even that Tea Party Americans who voted for McCain don’t like Barack Obama. We knew all that. What we learned last night is something we really should have known all along. Americans want what we don’t have. And once we have it, we no longer want it. 2012 will be here before we know it, and I wonder how we will feel then about what we have now.

New Speaker - Ack!

Sharron "Obtuse" Angle and Christine "Not a Witch, Not Me" O'Donnell would tell Orange Boner to "man up" and "put his big boy pants on" when he blubbered through his acceptance speech. I think they were out of line saying what they did to their opponents. It was very Mean Girl of them. If a man had said something like that to/about a woman, all hell would have broken loose! That being said, what he did looked like dronk crying.

Quotes

“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.”

- William E. Simon


“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

- Sir Winston Churchill

The Election

I voted during early voting. We can see the writing on the wall and know there are going to be sad results and horrific ones, too. Besides having nutjobs in office will be dealing with Republican smugness. Let's hope the Teabaggers don't get in there. Sharron "Obtuse" Angle and the others are scary. Hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

Got this from Move On:

Don't watch the election on ABC! They've lined up known liar and race-baiter Andrew Breitbart to do Election Night commentary. Remember him? He got African American USDA employee Shirley Sherrod fired with his highly edited video appearing to show her giving a racist speech—when the full video showed the opposite. Viewers depend on news for facts—Breitbart lies. Watch anyone but ABC on Election Night!

Good News

Latest news on the HP laptop. I called a former student who has a computer repair place here in town who asked me to check to see if it's still under warranty. YES!! I found the paperwork on that in the computer case. Who knew I'd put it somewhere logical where I could find it? Yay! He suggested that I call Staples where I bought it and go from there before doing anything else after I told him the problems I'm having with the computer. He said it will probably be very expensive to fix.

Staples directed me to their tech center where I talked to an American in the US. Very helpful and encouraging. I realize this sounds politically incorrect. So what? There are too many people here who need jobs without outsourcing them to India or wherever because of corporate greed, but I digress.

After doing some things like taking out the battery, holding down the power button, and trying to turn it on, the guy said they'd have a repair place send me a box and mailing labels with instructions on how to send it to them. It should take about 2 weeks to get it back. None of it will cost me anything since it's under extended warranty. Best $70 I've spent in a long time! So glad I did that!

Jim at the computer repair shop is going to transfer my data tomorrow, which he'll put on that intimidating external hard drive and give me another lesson on how to use it. Yes, this is the same person Dan blogged about and respected my request not to contact. I understand Dan's feelings and reaction but think I can do more good with the conversations I've had and will continue to have with him. He listened and heard me, which is at least a beginning. I definitely don't understand why this conversation even needs to take place with anyone anywhere, but obviously it does. It's totally foreign to me.

This little netbook helps with some things. I can keep doing my part-time job grading assignments for the Virtual High School. That has to be done daily. The volunteer work is over now that the election is finally happening. No more data to enter for the Democratic HQ here, but I was able to finish it.

There are limitations on this netbook. The main one is that it won't let me play Scrabble on FB, so I won't get back to my games for a couple of weeks or so. I downloaded Adobe Flash Player and Shockwave and tried playing it on Internet Explorer since I use Firefox which worked fine for me on the other laptop but apparently has a conflict with Scrabble. Still wouldn't load. So no Scrabble for me! :-(