Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

 

"It is all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back."

 

                                                                        ~~Mick Jagger

 

 

Here's wishing a very happy birthday to Sir Michael Jagger, who was knighted by Prince Charles on December 12, 2003.

 

While his knighthood has nothing to do with his music, I find it amusing and fun that the bad boy of rock and roll is an official Knight of the British Empire!

 

I love Mick, and always have. The old question of "Beatles or Stones" was never in doubt for me, and the Stones have always been my favorite. I love the Beatles, make no mistake about it, but I find the Stones' music deeper, darker, and more complex.

 

While Mick might have a reputation as a stupid rock star, that couldn't be further from the truth. Although he dropped out of university to pursue a career in music, he originally studied accounting and finance. He must have picked up some business savvy during his university days, because he's one of the smartest businessmen in the rock world. In interviews, he shows himself to be witty, intelligent, and articulate...and quite a charmer.

 

Legend has it that Mick was attending a party at the Playboy mansion. After a night of revelry (we really don't need to know the details!), he went to get his coat from the coat check service. As he stood there waiting for his coat, he looked into the coat check area and saw one of his fellow guests from the party, Dennis Weaver. Dennis was talking with Hugh Hefner, and as Mick watched, he saw their conversation break out into an argument. All of a sudden, Hugh Hefner starts beating the crap out of Dennis Weaver--he's just wailin' on him!

 

Mick was appalled to see this, and as the fight got uglier, he shouted, "Hey! Hugh! Get off of McCloud!"

 

Hee heeeee!

 

 

Tags: Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones

Kitteh...BIG kitteh!

Yes, this is corny as all get out...I don't know how much truth there is to this...it's designed to manipulate you and get you all teary-eyed and emotional....

And I think it's really neat. He's a big sweetie!

Oh, and welcome back, Indy! You've been missed!

Tags: Christian the Lion

Symbolic of what?

I have a small complaint.

 

It's nothing major, especially in the big scheme of things, but it IS an irritant. It is also one that isn't going to go away any time soon, no matter who I complain to or how many times I do it, so I'll just vent here and move along.

 

Why is it that there are symbols for everything now? There's no "on" or "off," there's no "lo" or "hi," it's all pictures of things. Sometimes I can't even tell what the picture is supposed to be..."Is that a face? A star? What does it MEAN?!" The one that ticks me off the most is my Krups egg cooker. It's a fine product, don't get me wrong, Eggs were on sale this week, so I bought another dozen. I cook the entire dozen, so Ken has a hard-boiled egg to take in his lunch a few times a week. If this egg cooker came with a manual, I've lost it, but I'm thinking that it just came with instructions of where to find the instructions online (if that makes any sense.) Here's the switch:

 

See those two little symbols? One means "cook" and the other means "keep warm." But which is which?

 

One the left, you have an egg in an egg cup. Is the egg supposed to be completely hard-boiled, ready to serve in the egg cup? Or is the egg cup indicating that this choice will cook your egg so that you can serve it up? On the right, you have what appear to be heat rays coming off of a surface. Does this mean that THIS is how I will heat my egg and cook it...or does it mean that once it's cooked using the egg in the egg cup choice, I will switch it here to zap it with heat waves to keep it warm until I'm ready to eat it?

 

I'm not kidding, every single time I pull out this egg cooker, I cannot remember which is which, and I have to go to the Krups website to see the instruction manual. I had finally had it today, and got out a Sharpie and underlined the appropriate symbol.

 

I rarely use my blender, but the Osterizer leaves nothing to the imagination: "mince," "blend," "puree," "frappé." Now if I only knew what "frappé" actually does....

 

I haven't finished my book yet, but I read a really good one today--one that is right up my alley! Hephaestus (he fest' us) was the Greek god of smiths, or blacksmiths, shown working at his forge. His Roman counterpart was the god of fire and forge, who worked in the depths of Mount Etna, the volcano found on Sicily. His Roman name was Vulcan, and in fact, that's where volcanoes get their name!

 

And here's where it gets really cool. Astronomers had noticed that the planet Mercury (the one closest to the sun) had a small unevenness in its orbit. The French astronomer, Urbain J. J. Leverrier, hypothesized that there was a planet even closer to the sun than Mercury, and this planet was what was causing the uneven orbit of Mercury. Since this would be the closest planet to the fiery heat of the sun, Leverrier proposed calling the new planet Vulcan. That's right...the planet Vulcan!!

 

Sadly, although astronomers searched for Vulcan for years, they were never able to find definitive evidence. In 1915, Albert Einstein proposed a theory that accounted for Mercury's orbit, and it was shown that there was no planet Vulcan.

 

But WE know better, don't we?

 

They were just looking in the wrong place! Five years after Asimov published this book, the original "Star Trek" series debuted, the planet Vulcan was immortalized, and it lives on over forty years later. It's only logical.

 

Live long and prosper, my friends.

 

 

 

P.S. Natalie, thanks for your comments, hon, but you might have me confused with another journal. I know there are a couple of Betty's out there, but I'm Beth. :)

 

P.P.S. The symbol for actually cooking the eggs is the one with the little heat waves. Which one did you pick?

Tags: Krups egg cooker, Hephaestus, Vulcan, Urbain J. J. Leverrier, Planet Vulcan, Star Trek

Naming planets

 

I have a couple more for you!

 

The Greek god of war was Ares, and his Roman counterpart was Mars. When the fourth planet was named, they chose the name Mars because of the red tinge (as in blood) to the planet. Ares/Mars had two sons, Phobos (which means fear) and Deimos (terror), and when the two small satellites of Mars were found, they were given the names Phobos and Deimos. So in the skies, war is always accompanied by fear and terror. Gee, it's kind of that way here, too, isn't it?

 

Phobos survives today as the psychology term phobia, which means fear or terror of. We all have our own phobias! And Mars was such an important god that an entire month was devoted to him, which gives us the month of March.

 

Athena is the Greek goddess of knowledge, as well as the arts of war and peace. The main city she was in charge of was Athenai, what we call Athens. This was the most learned and powerful city in ancient Greece, and is still the capital of Greece. Any city that considers itself to be a center of knowledge will sometimes be referred to as an Athens. And of course, there's Athens, Georgia, birthplace of the B-52's and REM!

 

Another beautiful day, and I'm soon off to read outside. I should be able to finish this book today and get a few other bits of trivia for you. I guess what I find fun about this is how many things you find that hearken back to these various names. Even something as common as the month of March!

 

I talked to my Mom this morning, and we'll be going down there tomorrow afternoon for a visit. Always a nice time, and of course, Mom always feeds us! I'm glad it worked out that we got to see them, because in less than a week, we're off for (hopefully) sunny California! I really haven't even thought about what to take yet--mostly casual stuff, but I wonder if I should take a summery dress? Hm.

 

Hope you're all enjoying your day!

 

 

Tags: Ares, Mars, Phobos, Deimos, Athena, Athens

A wedding in Sicily

 

 

They may not be in Vegas...but they're still around.

 

Corleone isn't just the name of the fictional family in the Godfather trilogy. It's a real town in Sicily, and recently the lovely setting for a Family wedding.

 

Godfather's Daughter Marries in Corleone

By PHIL STEWART, Reuters

ROME (July 24) - When Don Corleone's daughter got married in the film "The Godfather," the guests kissed his hand and he dispensed favors because no Sicilian Mafia boss could refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day. But when the real thing took place in Corleone, the Sicilian hill town made famous by the movie, the Mafia's former "boss of bosses" Salvatore "Toto" Riina could only read about it in newspapers on Thursday from inside prison.

Lucia Riina, his 28-year-old daughter, was married on Wednesday and, in the absence of her father, given away by her brother Giuseppe. Besides her father, other members of Lucia's extended family also could not attend, including brother Gianni and uncle Leoluca Bagarella, who were also Mafia bosses and are also behind bars.

"Our thoughts go to those who could not be here," the groom, Vincenco Bellomo, told the guests, according to reports in Italian newspapers.

Giuseppe, who was freed from jail in February after serving time for Mafia crimes, also thanked their father, whose Mafia nickname was "the Beast" because of his ruthlessness. "You should be paying for the (media) rights," Giuseppe joked to reporters, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

The wedding, which took place in a church in Corleone, enticed the media but shocked Mafia victims. "Whoever marries them becomes an accomplice," Sonia Alfano, daughter of a Sicilian journalist killed by the Mafia, told La Repubblica. "The newlyweds never disassociated themselves from the barbarous mobsters, but instead thanked them."

Corleone Mayor Antonino Iannazzo was neutral, describing the couple as "two private citizens" who followed the rules to marry publicly and who should be respected.

Salvatore Riina's arrest in 1993 after nearly a quarter of a century on the run ended a violent reign which saw a clan war and challenge to authority dramatized by the murders in 1992 of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Copyright 2008, Reuters

***********

I tend to think that the Mob is not that big of a deal these days, but I think I'm probably wrong. I suspect there may be goings-on that those of us in the innocent, naive, and crime-free <snort> Midwest have no idea of, and that we would be shocked to hear of the details.

Actually, we do have our share of crime in the Midwest, and our friend Mark in Detroit would probably have plenty to say about that. We have a lot of gang activity in our area, and we've had a rash of recent murders in our small city. But all in all, we are relatively free from the constant, violent crime that plagues large cities. We certainly don't have Mob activity in our immediate area, as far as I know, but then I try not to actively work to find it.

It IS a little shocking to me to hear that the crime families are alive and well, still operating, and apparently still being sent to the Big House. Is it still the same things? Or are they looking to expand the business and branch out a little bit? Any good businessman diversifies. I think I've watched so many Mob movies lately that I've fictionalized the reality a bit, and think it's not real. I should know better--I've read enough about early Vegas, and Al Capone's Chicago, to know that it's quite real. A wedding in Corleone, the bride's father, brother, and uncle in prison, another brother just released...that's all pretty real.

I don't think I'll be putting any tags on this entry, either. Just in the interests of protection. For me and my...you know, family.

It's only words

I've been going through my medical terminology workbook, and it's really kind of Dullsville for me. I mean, having trained and worked in the medical field for almost 30 years, I'm pretty familiar with most of these words and their meanings! They also don't give the Greek or Latin spelling or root, and that's what I'm interested in at the moment. I liked the challenge of relearning the Greek alphabet. (Maybe I need to get a Greek workbook...?) So instead, this afternoon I went back to an old friend, a book I first read in the second grade, Words from the Myths by Isaac Asimov. I recently recommended the book to Lori, who homeschools her daughter, after finding out that we have a mutual love of mythology.

 

This book fascinates me, because it lists many instances in which ancient words and names linger on in modern times, and believe me, there are many! Everything from the word "gas" to "uranium" to "titanic" to the Atlantic Ocean (both Atlas and Oceanus were Titans). The book is a dream-come-true for a philologist. <grin>

 

Considering that the Olympics are only about a week away, and that Ken and I are big fans of the competition, I found the history of the games especially interesting when I read about them again today.

 

The Greek gods and goddesses were believed to live on Mount Olympus, the tallest mountain in Greece, and were thus called Olympians. Zeus was the ruler of the gods, and every four years, games were held in his honor in southwestern Greece, at a place called Olympia Valley. Every four years was considered an "Olympiad."

 

These games were THE event in ancient Greece, and the winners of the games received much praise and glory. The first recorded games were held in 776 B.C., and continued for nearly 300 Olympiads before the Holy Roman Empire and its Emperor Theodosius viewed the games as a pagan festival, and stopped them in A.D. 394. (Spoilsport.)

 

The games were revived in 1896 as the Olympic Games, with the first modern version being held in the country of their birth, Greece. With brief interruptions during World War I and World War II, the Games have survived into modern times, continuing to honor--at least in name--Zeus and his fellow Olympian gods.

 

I love this stuff!

 

That's why I thought the Athens Olympics were so cool, because they used some of the same playing fields that were used in ancient Greece for the original Olympic games. How cool is that? I think the marathon ended in the original track field used way back then--can you imagine crossing that line in the stadium where athletes did the same almost 3000 years ago?! I wonder if they'll ever go back to how the Olympic games began, with its tradition of athletes competing in the nude? Of course, some of the uniforms today don't leave much to the imagination, do they? <wink>

 

To be serious for a moment, Ken and I are big fans of the Olympics, and are proud to support the American Olympic Team. While I love all kinds of sports (and you'll hear me talking about football a lot this fall, believe me), the Olympics are the purest form of athletics left in the world. They are a distillation of the best, the fastest, the strongest, from around the world, and I find it amazing to witness the athletes' competitive spirit and their pride in their country, no matter what that country might be. Let the Games begin! 

 

A couple more words for you, and then I'll be done with the "wordiness" (for now!). The Roman god of sleep was Somnus, and his name survives today in the words "somnolent," "somnambulism" (literally, in Latin, sleepwalking), "insomnia," and of course, the over-the-counter medication, Sominex. (Take Sominex tonight...and sleeeeep.) The son of Somnus was Morpheus, the god of dreams. The name Morpheus is rooted in the Greek word for shape, and dreams are shapes we see while we sleep. He gives his name to morphine, which brings sleep and relief from pain, and morphology, which is the study of the shape and structure of living things. And he has recently joined popular culture as the character Morpheus in "The Matrix."         

 

I'm only about a third of the way through the book, so there will be more. You have been warned.            

 

 

Tags: Words From The Myths, Isaac Asimov, Olympic Games, Somnus, Morpheus

Lucky bamboo and a baby in a bucket

 

 

Yesterday I mentioned that I got a little stick of bamboo at the store, and when I got it home, I realized I didn't know how to grow it! Ziggy gave me the scoop on what to do with it--thanks, Ziggy!--but I had already found some stuff online, and most seemed to say to just grow it in water.

 

I had this crystal votive holder, so I got that cleaned up. Then I went out to the driveway and found some smooth, multi-colored rocks and cleaned those up. I anchored the bamboo in the rocks, added water, and voilà! We'll see how it does. I told Ken it looks like my stick turned green and sprouted a leaf!

 

A couple of cautions about "lucky bamboo," which is not really bamboo. It is a small shrub that grows as undergrowth in rain forests. Apparently it is poisonous to animals, so be sure to put it in a spot where they can't get it. (Mine is sitting on the baker's rack, which Sheeba doesn't get on.) Also, as Ziggy pointed out, this is not a native plant to the States (it's native to Cameroon), and is horribly invasive here. It should never be planted outside, and kept only as a houseplant.

 

It's supposed to be extremely easy to grow. Let's see how long it takes me to kill it!

 

I think I've mentioned our UPS guy before (probably a while ago), about what a nice guy he seems to be, and long-suffering when it comes to delivering our packages. It's actually gotten better for him, because we stopped our wine-of-the-month club shipments, so he's not delivering any huge, heavy packages anymore. Anyhoo, he seems to have gotten to know our cat fairly well. If I'm here, when I answer the door, Sheeba runs right over to check out the UPS guy, and to attempt an escape. Sheeba's perch also sits in front of one of the front windows, and if he's sitting there when you're out on the walkway, he'll sometimes jump at you. The UPS guy told me that the cat about scared him half to death one day, when he walked by the window and THUMP, Sheeba leaped at the window!

 

Well, yesterday, I was sitting here, and suddenly here came the UPS guy. Sheeba ran over to the window and just put his paws up on the sill to look out. The UPS guy didn't need a signature, so he left the package by the door and walked away before I could even get up and say thank you. As he walked by Sheeba, he kind of waved and tapped the screen to say hi to him! I thought that was so cute and sweet. I'm still smiling about it today. Sometimes it's just the littlest things that make me grin.

 

And guess what UPS guy delivered? My Amazon shipment--man, they're fast!--consisting of memory cards, and two DVD's: "Casino" and..."Goodfellas"! Woohooo! We started watching "Goodfellas" last night, but Ken started conking out, so we'll continue it soon (maybe tomorrow night). I'll write more about it when we're done with it, but WOW! We're loving it! What a nice surprise to see Lorraine Bracco who played Dr. Melfi in "The Sopranos." We also spotted Michael Imperioli, who played Tony's nephew Christopher--hard to miss that schnozz. And of course, Joe Pesci...oh my God. Does anyone play a crazy little bastard with a Napoleon complex better than Joe Pesci? "I'm funny like a clown? I'm here to amuse you?" Great stuff!

 

I don't know if anyone remembers a while back when I bought some storage bins, and I cracked up over the warning label on them. Here is the original entry, with the picture at the bottom of the entry.

 

I have another one that I saw on my bucket of EnchantaCat as I carried it downstairs.

 

 

This says to me either "Don't bathe the baby in this bucket," or "Do not allow the baby to drink from this bucket."

 

Baby looks like a budding ballerina, too, as she stands delicately en pointe.

 

It's amazing to me that companies have to put these kinds of warnings on products. Some are genuinely hilarious, and the little pictures just add to my amusement. I seem to recall Cousin Shane and I laughing over a warning that one of us saw in a hair dryer's user's manual: Do Not Use While Sleeping. Huh?

 

I suppose it's all part of the increasing litigiousness of the country. When a woman can successfully sue McDonald's because the dork spilled hot coffee on her crotch, I guess anything is possible! I'm a big fan of the "I found a finger/mouse/cockroach/rat head in my food!" bunch. They seem to get especially creative, devising some fairly ingenious schemes to make it appear as if said foreign object actually originated in their food. Too bad they don't apply some of that ingenuity to legitimate efforts, such as oh, I don't know, going to school, getting a job...the boring stuff like that.

 

Years ago, I actually DID have an experience like that. It was at a hamburger chain restaurant, and I'm pretty sure it was in Texas. Or maybe it was Georgia. Anyhoo, I loved their "charco-broiled" burgers, and when I got about halfway through my cheeseburger, I felt something kind of stringy. I opened up the burger, and saw a large patch of cow fur laying atop my beef patty. It even had the black and white pattern you see on cows.

 

Well, ol' Beth didn't feel quite hungry enough to eat the rest of that burger. However, I didn't make a fuss or throw a coniption fit, I just deposited my burger into the nearest trashcan, left the establishment, and never ate there again. I'm still not sure I would, and this happened years ago. I really didn't want to talk about it with anyone...it was just so disgusting, and I just wanted it to go away. I didn't want to be offered a new burger, because I had somehow managed to lose my appetite.

 

I guess I missed my opportunity, didn't I? I could have sued them and gotten a chunk o' change for "pain and suffering" or "mental anguish." But it didn't cause me any harm physically, I wasn't traumatized mentally, and I didn't suffer any negative after-effects. I just chose not to frequent that establishment ever again. Why would I file such a dishonest claim?

 

 

Tags: Lucky bamboo, Goodfellas, Joe Pesci, product warning labels, frivolous lawsuits