Wacky Wednesday Wisdom - March Madness

"The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play "Drop the Handkerchief." ~ James Naismith

Ah, Drop the Handkerchief - an antiquated childhood game that disappeared when hankies went out of style because girls quit crying when they were finally allowed to play on the basketball court, not just lead cheers.

There's a central Illinois college student promoting himself for the NCAA Dunk Contest. Rather impressive dunking.  Here's his YouTube video:

Tuesday Titillation

When giving financial advice, I recommend keeping receipts and always using coupons.  Even when in jail, an inmate took that advice, but apparently there isn't enough storage space in a jail cell.

The man was hiding a general store in his rectum, including a drug store receipt, a coupon, matches, cigarette, pills, a SYRINGE WITH NEEDLE (ouch), lip balm and more.  All were contained in a condom to keep them fresh and sanitized.

I bet he has a reputation for being a big A**hole.

You can find other uses for a condom here.

Music Monday

Schools are promoting self-esteem these days. You've seen all the awards every kid gets nowadays; every one is a winner.  Here's how one school is instilling confidence, complete with air guitar and background dancers:



But are the schools teaching that too much confidence and self-esteem can be bad? Icarus got too cocky and flew too close to the sun which resulted in his plunge to death. Don't fly too high or too low were the wise words of his father.

Here's the original version:

Vlog - Accents and Regional dialects

Stolen from Memphis Steve, this is an interesting experiment featuring the different voices and dialects of other bloggers.  Since I'm camera shy, you'll have to look at a bowl of peaches and blackberries while the audio plays.  This provides proof that we have NO accents here in the Midwest USA.

Here's the text so you can participate in the experiment too:

Say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

Now answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

What do you call gym shoes?

What do you say to address a group of people?

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

What do you call your grandparents?

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Thursday Thoughts



While I've been hunkered down and slaving away night and day at my office preparing tax returns, there's been exciting things happening in my small town.  We made the big time. It's all here on the Huffington Post.

The owner of the bed and breakfast, located just outside of town in one of the few local wooded areas, has blatantly refused to allow a civil union ceremony to take place there as requested by a gay couple. The business actively markets its locale for wedding ceremonies, private parties, etc.

The B&B owners are very religious and are members of an area Apostolic church which frowns on gay lifestyle, and Mr. Owner sent some very strong emails to the couple about his beliefs and quoted Bible passages.

" We will never host same-sex weddings even if they become legal in Illinois.  We believe homosexuality is wrong and unnatural based on what the Bible says about it. It's not too late to change your behavior..."

The couple is now suing for discrimination.

The local newspaper and residents' Facebook pages have been filled with comments, mostly in support of the gay couple.  There are some who think a business should be able to pick and choose the people they want as customers because this is a free country, right?

Well, not so fast, folks. This isn't a free country.  Government says you business people can't discriminate based on race, creed, color, religion, and sex.  You can discriminate for other things like credit-worthiness, dress codes, or smoking, but just not those things named in the Human Rights Act.

One interesting thing I noticed was that one of the most vocal commenters of the "it's a free country and he (Mr. Owner) can do anything he wants" is a former City Council member, who seemed to have no trouble at all telling business owners, developers, and residents what to do when he held that position of power. I hope he has indeed had a laissez-faire epiphany since his government days.

We don't live in a truly free-market society here in the USA, but thankfully there is enough freedom remaining that I suspect the capitalist marketplace will ultimately dictate whether or not Mr. Owner's now very public personal beliefs will allow his B&B to succeed in the future.

And that is exactly why we don't need government regulation.   When outraged customers within a marketplace don't particularly like certain business practices, they will find alternative places to spend their money and those scorned businesses will eventually close. 

Music Monday

February 21, 1958 - The Peace Symbol was designed.

The Very Late Meme

Courtesy of  Sunday Stealing:

1. Make a list of 5 things that you can see without getting up:
monitor, dog, cat, book, Kleenex, Coke
2. How do you style your hair?
Blow and go

3. What are you wearing now?
dang reading glasses

4. What's your occupation?
This time of year it's tax-preparer 24/7

5. What do you hear right now?
The dog licking and I won't tell you what she's licking

6. Who was the last person you hugged?
A client; her husband has major health issues and she's struggling to cope
7. What is/was for dinner?
Chinese take-out, all alone.
8. What did you do today?
fixed breakfast for my parents, washed 5 loads of laundry, went grocery shopping, took out the trash, walked the dog several times, ran some errands, browsed the Internet, went to my office where I worked on clients' tax returns, did some light cleaning, and hung some curtains. Sunday is only a day of rest for the religious.
9. Dog person or cat person?
In the last few years, both.

10. If you had to change your name, what would you change it to?
Beau Peep
11. What was the last thing that you bought?
a lamp shade which looks better on the lamp than it did on my head
12. If you could afford to go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
San Francisco to see my daughter. It's not the money to get there that's the problem; it's the time away I can't afford.

13. Where do you see yourself in five years?
In the mirror with even more grey hair

14. Where's your birthmark?
in my pants where you can't see it

15. What are you doing this weekend?
Was there a weekend?  See #8. Saturday I worked at the office until 2:00, got dinner for my parents and watched a movie (see #17).
16. Which book are you reading at the moment?
The Art of Table Dancing - A birthday gift from last month



17. The last movie you've seen?

Mary and Max - a great animated film based on a true story of a pen-pal relationship between a young Australian girl and a middle-aged man with Asperger's syndrome from New York. The art work and claymation are wonderful and so are the voices of Toni Collette and Philip Seymour-Hoffman.

18. What are you doing tomorrow?
About 12 tax returns