Fun with Words.

Starting with the political side, what is Trump made up of?  Well, to get into the middle to see what is there, you first have to remove the first and last letters and guess what is left?  Yep, it is rum.  Just kidding, of course, because I like Trump.

What happens if you refuse to pay your exorcist?  Well, you get repossessed, you know.

Did you know that a lot of money is tainted?  Yep, it taint mine and it taint yours.

When the lady saw her first strands of grey hair, she thought that she would dye.

You would be stuck with your debt if you couldn't budge it.

A fellow broke into song because he couldn't find the right key.

And of course the old one that asks, why can't a bicycle stand alone?  Well, that is because it is two tired.

I hope you enjoyed these.  If you want more, go to the website where I got these:  http://weblog.404creative.com/2007/06/02/clever-word-play/

Now you all have a great day, you hear?

Why the Furry Side Out?

Those pictures you may have seen of what prehistoric humans looked like usually always showed them wearing animal skins.

I believe, no matter what the paleontologists may try to tell us about them.  Yes, they probably got a lot of it right, but all the pictures of depicting early man show them wearing animal skins.  No, that part is probably correct but they all the pictures I have seen show them wearing the fur side out:

Yep, maybe they did, just like this next picture shows:

But I don't think that mankind would have survived if they were all that dumb.  Now tell me, wouldn't those poor cavemen be much warmer and a lot more comfortable if they had worn the fur side in and the skin side out?  That is the way I would do it.

Well, looking at this last picture below, I guess mankind hasn't learned much over the last few thousand years.

Maybe I am wrong in my thinking and if so, please enlighten me.  Now. you all have a great day, you hear?

How Well Do You Know English?

Yes, I know I already posted a blog today, but it was basically a link.  Of course if you would prefer, you could wait until tomorrow to read this or throw all caution to the wind and go ahead and read it now. . . it is up to you (grin).

I have been exposed to the English language all my life.  Yes, I took Latin in high-school, but it was all Greek to me. . .  I just don't do good with languages and even have trouble with English.  I am sure all of you are better versed in the English language than I am, so maybe you already know what this next list of words mean, but for you others, I will give a short definition of each.

Let us start the list with:

Lamprophony  -  If someone told you that you had lamprophony, what would you do?  Run to the hospital emergency room right away?  No, it just means that you have a loud and clear voice.

Depone  -  If that same someone told you that you had to Depone, what would you do?  Stop eating corn pone?  No, it means to testify under oath.

Finnimbrum  -  OK, if that person said he was going to give you a finnimbrum, would you be pleased or take off running?  Why I would be pleased, because it would be a trinket or nick-nack.

Inaniloquent  -  Are you good at inaniloquent?  I am.  It pertains to idle talk.

Limerance  -  That is an attempt to scientifically study the nature of romantic love.  Let me see, "limerance" is something that they write limericks about, right?

Nudiustertian  -  Get your mind out of the gutter!!  No, it doesn't mean to undress, it is "the day before yesterday".

Pronk  -  No, it is not prank misspelled.  It is a weak or foolish person.

Widdiful  -  No, it ain't a misspelling of pitiful, but in a way, it is pitiful.   It is someone who deserves to be hanged.

Tyrotoxism  -  Is that what a Tyrannosaurus Rex gets when it eats a rotten person?  No, it is what you get when poisoned by cheese.

Scopperloit  -  Rude or rough play.

Rastaquouere  -  This person would make use of scoppeloit to get what he wants.  He would be "a social climber".  I am far from being a rastaquouere, for sure.

How about just one more??  OK?

Pulveratricious  -  This is what happens to me when I don't move fast enough when sitting at home or too fast when going down a dry dirt road.  It means covered with dust.

OK, I will quit now.  Hope I didn't bore you because I want you all to have a great day, you hear?

A Link, Great Photos.

I love nature, both flora and fauna.  To me, natural stuff is always so much better than man made stuff.  I found a web site that not only has spectacular photos but the photos are all taken of European ground squirrels.  Here is the LINK.  I hope you enjoyed the link and I sure do want you all to have a great day, you hear?

Some More interesting Trivia.

I like trivia and facts, so I think I will list some questions and see how many of you know the answer.  Yes, I know I have done this before, but don't worry, I will use different facts.  I will list the question first and answer them at the end.  Don't cheat and look at the answers, but let me know how many of them you got right.

1.   Between 1912 and 1948, in what competitions were architecture, music, painting, and sculpture part of?

2.   What state only has two escalators?

3.   Is it true or false that no two snowflakes are exactly the same?

4.   When Disneyland opened in 1955, what year in the future was it designed to look like?

5.   What do you call a group of pugs (the dogs)?

6.   How many of you watch Bob Ross's show on educational TV?  I do and even though he isn't with us anymore (he is now painting the clouds in the real sky) I enjoy his show.  So, the question is, what percentage of his paintings had at least one "happy" cloud?

7.   Is there always news everyday?

8.   How did Ben & Jerry get started making ice cream?

9.   Pablo Esobar's Medellin Cartel spent how much money each month on rubber bands just to hold all their cash?

10.  A restaurant serves a veggie burger topped with crispy strips of bacon.  What is the name of the restaurant and what is the name of burger? 

*****************

1.   The Olympics.

2.   Wyoming.

3.   False, in a 1988 Wisconsin snowstorm, a scientist found two identical snow crystals.

4.   1986

5.   A grumble.

6.   Forty-four percent had happy clouds.

7.   On a day in April, 1930, the BBC reported, "There is no news."  Then they played piano music, instead.

8.   They took a five dollar correspondence course by Penn State.  (They split the course between them).

9.    They spent $2500.00 a month on rubber bands.  That is a lot of stretch. . .

10.   The restaurant name:  FATBURGER and the burger is called the "Hypocrite".  I guess the bacon isn't considered a vegetable. . .

************

OK, I hope you had fun with this little quiz.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Questions From Facebook

Mr. Bill Wheeler posted this on Facebook and I copied the questions and put my own answers here on my blog.   Interesting, so why don't you do the same.

Have a great day, you hear?

***********************

Four places I've lived:
     1.  Foxburg, PA
     2.  Butler, PA
     3.  Farmington, Michigan
     4.  Wilmington, N.C. and now here in Texas.

Four things I watch on TV:
     1.  The Western Channel
     2.  The Science Channel
     3.  The History Channel
     4.  And of course the News.

Four places I have visited:
     1.  Yellowstone N.P.
     2.  Glacier N.P.
     3.  West Texas
     4.  Niagara Falls

Four places I want to visit:
     1.  Been there done that now I want to stay close to home.

Four things I love to eat:
     1.  Everything except coconut and licorice.

Four favorite drinks:
     1.  Coffee
     2.  Unsweetened tea.
     4.  Cranberry Juice
     5.  Well and spring water.

.

A Few Questions For You.

This will be kind of trivia post where I ask a trivia question and you answer it and then I will give the correct answer and you can see if you were right.

1.    Which has the most surface area, Russia or the planet Pluto?

2.    What was France still doing when Star Wars: A New Hope hit theatres?

3.     How many ants are there for every human on Earth?

4.     Now tell me, how much do all the ants on Earth weigh?

5.     What does it rain on Jupiter and Saturn.

6.     What percent of all the photos ever taken were taken in the last 12 months?

7.     What is Scotland's national animal?

8.     Which is a berry, the strawberry or the banana?

9.     How many countries separates Norway from North Korea and what are those countries?

10.    Which US state is the closest to Africa?

And how about just two more questions, since you did so well on all of the above?

11.     Are there more fake flamingos or more real ones on Earth today?

12.    Which city is further south, New York City or Rome?

Answers:

1.     Russia

2.     France was still executing people by guillotine.

3.     There are 1.6 million ants for every human.

4.     The total weight of all ants on Earth equal the same as all the humans on Earth.

5.     It rains diamonds.

6.     Ten percent.

7.     The unicorn, of course (grin).  I wonder how many bottles of scotch one has to drink before he sees Scotland's national animal.

8.     The banana is a berry, the strawberry is not.

9.     There is only one country and it is Russia.

10.    Maine.

11.    There are more fake flamingos on Earth than real ones.

12.    Why sunny and balmy New York City, of course (grin).

OK, I hope you got a smile because you either knew all the answers or because you didn't and learned something.  Either way, I hope you enjoyed today's post, it was fun putting it together from the help of  http://www.lifebuzz.com/crazy-facts.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

A Worms' Thorofare.

I walked up the driveway on an errand and I noticed worm tracks all over the areas that were not rocky.  OK, you say worms don't have any feet so how do they leave tracks?  Well, they leave tracks the same way snakes leave tracks.  Worm tracks look like small, rounded grooves in the loose dirt.  Take a close look at the picture below and see if you can see worm tracks:

Don't forget that you can click on any picture to enlarge it.  The picture below was cropped off the bottom center of the one above.  So now you will not have to enlarge the picture above.  They were really busy going back and forth and up and down.  I wonder if they were having an "All worms' lives matter" parade.  (grin)

And this next one is cropped from the above cropped picture to give you an even closer view:

This next view shows a different and larger section that also has worm tracks.

 And upon further inspection on up the driveway a short distance I saw the worms:

And I also found this guy.  He was bigger than the other two:

Well, I hope my blog posting with all the fast and furious critters chasing the vehicles up and down my driveway, was not too much for you and didn't take your breath away.  I will try to have a slower paced posting the next time, but for now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Did You Know?

Did you know that the wild Tea Berry plant was once harvested for the wintergreen oil they made from it?  Have you ever seen wild Teaberry?  When I lived in Pennsylvania as a boy, I spent a lot of time at our family's camp in the Tionesta area and would take long hikes.  There was a lot of Teaberry growing there and I chewed on the leaves to freshen up my mouth and to help satisfy my thirst.  I was always told not to eat the berries, however.  Here is picture I got off of the website "emergencyoutdoors.com":

Also, when I was in school, we took a trip to Pittsburgh and toured the Wrigley's Chewing Gum plant.  Quite interesting, for sure.  Yes, one of their gum flavors was teaberry, which I do not believe they make anymore.  By the way, did you know that first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum?  Now that is a little bit of history that I didn't know unil now.

I will finish up this blog in a jiffy, but first I have a few other interesting facts.  By the way, did you know that a jiffy is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.  OK then, it will take a few jiffies. . .

Now, I bet you didn't know that porcupines float in water.  I have seen a lot them but none have been in the water, so I can't say that I have seen one floating.  I wonder if they float on their back to keep huge fish from grabbing them??

I have always heard that donkeys are sure footed, but never knew why until now.  I just found out that the placement of their eyes enables them to see all four feet at all times.

OK, just one more.  A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge and a dime has only one less groove even though it is quite a bit smaller in diameter.  OK, I learned a few things putting this posting together and I hope you learned something from it, too, or just enjoyed reading it.  Now you all have a great day, you hear?

Henry McCarty

I just can't let this day go by without talking about the fellow, Henry McCarty, who was born way back on September 17, 1859, and met his demise on this day back on July 14, 1881.  I am sure you all have heard of Henry, right?  Well, in case you haven't heard of any one with that name, you may better recognize him by his nick-name of Billy the Kid.

And the next picture is of this stone placed where his life came to an end at the hand (or should I say gun) of Sheriff Pat Garrett:

Billy the Kid, born Henry McCarty; also known as William H. Bonney (September 17, 1859 – July 14, 1881)

That may be what really occurred, but the old bandit, J. Frank Dalton, on his death bed claimed to be Jesse James.  Old West history can be pretty spotty.  There were not a lot of news papers and they sometimes embellished the facts to sell more papers.  But here is a clipping from a news paper of the time with a picture of Dalton in bed:

Ok, so what do you think is the truth?  Let us know and have a great day, you hear?

Some Fun Facts

Here are some fun facts for you all to enjoy:
Cherophobia is the fear of fun.  I have known people like that.  I do not have cherophobia, I love to have fun!!

Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.  So, don't worry fellow Texans.  No matter how hot it gets, your spit will not boil away.

During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools.  Just think of that the next time you dive into a pool to take a swim.

The person who invented the Frisbee was cremated and made into Frisbees after he died!  I may never touch a Frisbee again.

Hey, what do you call a baby spider??  A spiderling, of course.

Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.  Guess I don't want any of that ice in my iced tea.

The testicles on an octopus are located in its head!  Some just seem to have sex on the brain all the time. . .

If you leave everything to the last minute… it will only take a minute.  Dahhhh

Mel Blanc – the voice of Bugs Bunny – was allergic to carrots.  Oh how inappropriate!!

Did you know it is dangerous to be left handed?  Yep, every year more than 2500 left-handed people are killed from using right-handed products.

How popular is McDonalds?  Well, there is a McDonalds in every continent except Antarctica.

How many bridges do you think span the Amazon River?  If your answer is that there are no bridges that cross that river, you are right?

Now, I suppose that you all knew all the above fun facts, but I learned a few things.  Now, have a great day, you hear?

A Few Smiles for You.

I love humor.  It is a large part of my life.  You know, if you can't be good at anything, be funny.  OK, below is a few jokes I got off the internet.  I wanted to give credit to the web-site where I found them, but I can't find it again.

OK, this first joke points out that sometimes it pays to act dumb:

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.” The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, “Which do you want, son?” The boy takes the quarters and leaves. “What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!” Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. “Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters insteadad of the dollar bill?” The boy licked his cone and replied, “Because the day I take the dollar, the game is over!”

Now, if I ever went to a psychiatrist, this would probably happen to me, too:

I went to the psychiatrist, and he says "You're crazy." I tell him I want a second opinion. He says, "Okay, you're ugly too!" (Rodney Dangerfield)

And to think, I am not even one in a thousand, but I am not in China:

China has a population of a billion people. One billion. That means even if you’re a one in a million kind of guy, there are still a thousand others exactly like you. (A. Whitney Brown)

Yep, ugly lasts and lasts and lasts:

A lady at a party goes up to Winston Churchill and tells him, "Sir, you are drunk." Churchill replies, "Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.

No, this was not me, I was a beautiful baby.  Well, at least that is what my mother thought:

I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother. (Henny Yongman). Suspicions confirmed:  An old woman is upset at her husband’s funeral. "You have him in a brown suit and I wanted him in a blue suit" The mortician says "We’ll take care of it, ma’am" and yells back, "Ed, switch the heads on two and four!" Well now, that was nice of the twin on the right: I knew these Siamese twins. They moved to England, so the other one could drive. (Steven Wright) I don't hear as well as I used to, so I know how he feels: My grandfather is hard of hearing. He needs to read lips. I don’t mind him reading lips, but he uses one of those yellow highlighters. (Brian Kiley) Well, I hope you all got a chuckle or two out of the above and it helped you to have a great day, you hear?

Wondering About Jupiter.

I got wondering about Jupiter.  You all know, I am sure, that Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.  How large is it?  Well, I am glad you asked.  It is over twice as big as all the other planets combined.  Now that is huge!!

We are learning a lot of new things about Jupiter because our space probe, Juno, is going to be in orbit around that planet.  Juno has traveled 1.8 billion (yes that is a billion with a "B") on its journey and is sending back new information on that planet and its moons.  Jupiter produces gigantic magnetic fields.  But that is about all we know about it because it is shrouded in clouds.  Juno has on board what they call a "microwave radiometer" which can probe and see up to 342 miles below the visible cloud tops.  And guess what, it will be able to see a little ways beneath Jupiter's surface, too.

Juno has traveled those 1.8 billion miles at a speed up to 165,000 mph.  Just think, this high speed has been achieved by the sun's force on its solar panels.  Yet, it still takes 11.86 years to make one orbit around the sun.  Here is a picture of Jupiter:

And to get a perspective on just how huge it is, here is diagram comparing the size of Jupiter to the size of Earth:

Yep, it sure does make our planet Earth look very, very small.

Now you all have a great day and don't forget, Jupiter is one of the five planets visible when above our horizon and it is the fourth brightest object in the solar system.  Only the Sun, Moon, and Venus are brighter.  Let me tell you, it is an impressive sight through my big telescope.  Now you all have a great day, you hear?

That Time of Year Again.

Well, it is that time of year again when this otherwise quite area sounds like a WW2 battle.  Texas allows fireworks to be sold to the public twice a year, New Year's and the Fourth of July holidays.  This is a really rough time for my oldest dog, Muffin.  Muffin can't stand anything that goes bang, or boom, or bump in the night.  Thunder storms get her shaking like a vibrator.  So, I am not looking forward to this evening, when most of people living near my place put on quite a fireworks show.  Yes, it is pretty, but the sound is what bothers my poor old dog.  And just in case you are wondering, nothing helps.  I can hold her snuggly in my arms, talk to her, turn the TV up loud, but nothing seems to work.  So, think about the animals you will be scaring if or when you put off those fireworks.  I hope her heart can stand it again this year.  Now, have a safe and happy 4th, you hear? 

Feasting Black Holes

I have talked about black holes before but guess what?  Astronomers have viewed a star being gobbled up by a black hole.  When this happens, the black hole burbs X-rays.  So, an X-ray telescope is the best way to view what is going on when a black hole decides to feast.  I think that the experts can explain it better than I can so, if you will, please click HERE for a link to a page at astronomy.com.

Now, that saved me pasting in the picture and typing a lot of words.  Yep, I am getting lazy in my old age and you get to read the original article.  Now, don't ever tell me I eat like a black hole. . . well, you know, I sort of eat like a black hole.  If any food of any kind gets close to me, I gobble it up just like black holes gobble up stars.  So remember not to take me to an "all you can eat" buffet.  OK, that reminded me, it is about time for my big dish of chocolate chip cookie dough Blue Bell ice cream.  Now have a good evening, you hear?