Effective 8 January 2006 the new postage rate is .39 for standard first class mail. An increase of just over 5%. To commemorate this increase, the U.S. Postal Service has created a stamp with a picture of George W. Bush honoring his first-term achievements.
It has already been shown that the stamp is not sticking to envelopes, enraging the President, who has demanded a full investigation.
After a month of testing, a special presidential commission has made the following determinations:
1. The stamp is in perfect order.
2. There is nothing wrong with the applied adhesive.
3. People are spitting on the wrong side.
1.09.2006
Take a Hike
Yesterday was a very nice day in NY State. There is still snow on the ground and the temps were in the mid 40's. My brother in law gave me a call (they live up the street from us) and asked if we wanted to go on a short hike. I wanted to get the kids outside to air them out as my Mom used to say, so we went. I wish Dana was with us, but she was out doing something else so off we went. We live about 2 miles from the Appalacian Trail, which runs from Georgia to Maine. There's a great book by Bill Bryson called A Walk in the Woods that talks about his adventures while trying to walk the trail. We were not so bold although I hope to take the boys next summer on an overnight and do part of the trail. We did, however, go to a real cool spot where there is a great waterfall and it's only about 1/2 mile from the main road. It rarely is crowded too. After climbing over streams that Grif seemed to keep falling into and up the side of the mountain, we arrived at our destination. The Falls. There was one other person up there. A photographer who had his equipment set up and was taking photos of the falls. He was oblivious to the 8 of us and I guess we were of him too. All in all, it was a great hike. I want to check this place out during a very heavy rain. I bet it would be very cool.Here are some other pictures
BTW: for those of you keeping score, today is #50. I'm not posting much on the other site so you're not missing much
1.07.2006
Dark as a Dungeon
There was a tragedy this past week where 12 miners were killed in West Virginia. My Grandfather on my Mom's side was a coal miner. He was born in the 1880's and was a Catholic in Northen Ireland, not very popular to say the least. He wasn't allowed to go to school and went to what they referred to as a 'Hedge School'. Work was scarce too and that's how he wound up in Scotland. After coming to the States, he got a job working the coal mines in Western PA. He did that for many years then there was an mining accident and his left hand was crushed. The doctor who worked for the mining company said he's be ok. He wasn't ok, he wound up losing his hand. My Grandmother used to hold the nails for him while he would hit them with a hammer. My Mom and her three sisters would always drop the nail. Talk about love...
Here is a Merle Travis song called Dark as a Dungeon that is from the 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' album.
I never met any of my Grandparents, I wish I had. Some day I will.
here are the lyrics, the sound quality isn't too good
Come all you young fellows so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mine
It will form like a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal
Chorus
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is doubled and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine
There's many a man I've seen in my day
Who lived just to labor his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine
[chorus]
Oh when I am dead and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-digging my bones
[chorus]
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine
Here is a Merle Travis song called Dark as a Dungeon that is from the 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' album.
I never met any of my Grandparents, I wish I had. Some day I will.
here are the lyrics, the sound quality isn't too good
Come all you young fellows so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mine
It will form like a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal
Chorus
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is doubled and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine
There's many a man I've seen in my day
Who lived just to labor his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine
[chorus]
Oh when I am dead and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-digging my bones
[chorus]
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine
And Now For Something
Completely Different
My son took the piture and did the PhotoShop work, I just threw them together
1.02.2006
12.30.2005
Nice Work if You Can Get It...
or Hot Smurf Ass?
LONDON (AFP) - It is one of the most fundamental -- and, for men, potentially hazardous -- questions of modern life, for which academics now hope to provide the definitive answer: "Does my bum look big in this?"The School of Textiles and Design at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have begun what is believed to be the world's first-ever study on how women's clothing affects the bottom.
Models with variously sized posteriors will wear different types of clothing as part of the research, which will examine how designs, colours, patterns and fabric types affect perception.
Others will be asked to assess how big or small each model's backside appears to look in the outfits.
"This study will provide for the first time detailed and usable information that would enable designers to make the clothes that help women make the most of their natural assets," said Dr Lisa Macintyre, who is leading the study.
12.28.2005
Persons of the Year
*just a little side note from me. I've never been a Bono fan until recently. I'm weary of people with just one name like Cher, Madonna, Sting and Bono. I didn't jump on the U2 bandwagon but I don't tend to be the first to love a group anyway. Geeze, it took me like 3-4 seasons before I 'discovered' Seinfeld. I still don't watch Everybody Loves Raymond for crying out loud. I am not one of those Kill Bill Gates people either. I happen to think a monopoly isn't a bad thing when it comes to computers and software. The cool thing about him is that he has given away more money than anyone on the planet. He wants to cure disease and educate people. Bono wants to do the same and together, with Bill's wife Melinda have set out to make a change in the world. I think they are a wonderful choice for Persons of the Year, they are changing the world for the better. Here is the article from Time magazine, reprinted without permission (of course)
These are not the people you expect to come to the rescue. Rock stars are designed to be shiny, shallow creatures, furloughed from reality for all time. Billionaires are even more removed, nestled atop fantastic wealth where they never again have to place their own calls or defrost dinner or fly commercial. So Bono spends several thousand dollars at a restaurant for a nice Pinot Noir, and Bill Gates, the great predator of the Internet age, has a trampoline room in his $100 million house. It makes you think that if these guys can decide to make it their mission to save the world, partner with people they would never otherwise meet, care about causes that are not sexy or dignified in the ways that celebrities normally require, then no one really has a good excuse anymore for just staying on the sidelines and watching.
Such is the nature of Bono's fame that just about everyone in the world wants to meet him--except for the richest man in the world, who thought it would be a waste of time. "World health is immensely complicated," says Gates, recalling that first encounter in 2002. "It doesn't really boil down to a 'Let's be nice' analysis. So I thought a meeting wouldn't be all that valuable."
It took about three minutes with Bono for Gates to change his mind. Bill and his wife Melinda, another computer nerd turned poverty warrior, love facts and data with a tenderness most people reserve for their children, and Bono was hurling metrics across the table as fast as they could keep up. "He was every bit the geek that we are," says Gates Foundation chief Patty Stonesifer, who helped broker that first summit. "He just happens to be a geek who is a fantastic musician."
more of the story...
These are not the people you expect to come to the rescue. Rock stars are designed to be shiny, shallow creatures, furloughed from reality for all time. Billionaires are even more removed, nestled atop fantastic wealth where they never again have to place their own calls or defrost dinner or fly commercial. So Bono spends several thousand dollars at a restaurant for a nice Pinot Noir, and Bill Gates, the great predator of the Internet age, has a trampoline room in his $100 million house. It makes you think that if these guys can decide to make it their mission to save the world, partner with people they would never otherwise meet, care about causes that are not sexy or dignified in the ways that celebrities normally require, then no one really has a good excuse anymore for just staying on the sidelines and watching.Such is the nature of Bono's fame that just about everyone in the world wants to meet him--except for the richest man in the world, who thought it would be a waste of time. "World health is immensely complicated," says Gates, recalling that first encounter in 2002. "It doesn't really boil down to a 'Let's be nice' analysis. So I thought a meeting wouldn't be all that valuable."
It took about three minutes with Bono for Gates to change his mind. Bill and his wife Melinda, another computer nerd turned poverty warrior, love facts and data with a tenderness most people reserve for their children, and Bono was hurling metrics across the table as fast as they could keep up. "He was every bit the geek that we are," says Gates Foundation chief Patty Stonesifer, who helped broker that first summit. "He just happens to be a geek who is a fantastic musician."
more of the story...
"Nun Bun" on the Run....
NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Nashville police and residents were searching Monday for clues to the Christmas Day theft of a cinnamon bun that found unlikely fame for its resemblance to the late Mother Teresa's face. The bun has been a draw for curious tourists since it was preserved and put on display in a glass case at the shop where it was discovered by a customer in 1996."What I can't figure out is why anyone would steal it," said the shop's owner, Bob Bernstein. "They can't sell it on eBay, it's not fit to eat, there was no ransom note and the police put its value at only $25 on their report."
Bernstein said the thief broke into the coffee house at 6 a.m. Sunday, and had smashed the glass case containing the bun, ignoring cash lying nearby.
Before her death in 1997, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa wrote to Bernstein asking that her name not be used commercially. The pastry became known simply as the "Nun Bun."