Happy New Year

One of the few Vietnamese words American's of a certain age know, beyond a few rudimentary menu words is TET, the Vietnamese word meaning Feast of the First Morning, or New Year.  Today is Tet, Vietnamese New Year, the first day of spring in countries which use the the Chinese lunar calendar.  Hence, it Chinese New Year as well.

A wandering Scot who turned up in Saigon would recognize most Vietnamese new year celebrations.   New Year's day is first celebrated within the family.  The oldest family members honor the youngest with small packets of money to bestow good luck on the family.  The children in return offer a special greeting wishing good health and long life to their benefactors.  As in Scotland, it is widely believed that the first guest to your home in the new year will determine the fortune of the house (first footing). Generally, guests of good character will be invited to arrive first.  Dad will often wait outside his house before midnight to intercept bad man Jose should he try to enter first.

As in all cultures there a numerous proscribed gifts, foods and taboos for Tet. Most are based upon the traditional Buddhist beliefs.  Do give clothes, new rice or rice wine, chickens and something red.  Don't sweep (expels good fortune), do not visit if you have recently lost a loved one, don't give gifts of medicine and no duck.

Happy New Year
Toad
 
American's of a certain age most likely remember the TET Offensive as a surprise attack and escalation of the Vietnam war by the North Vietnamese forces which began on this date 1968.  

worry wart

Prior to moving into the woods, Mrs. T and I lived in a typical cookie cutter suburban neighborhood.  The original settlers were offered a limited number of building plans, so when the builders left approximately every third house was a copy of yours. We liked it there, and by the time the trees matured it was a lovely place to live.

Several years ago our old favorite neighbor's house was struck by lightening and burned to the ground. I wrote about the fire here. They have since rebuilt, better than ever.

We've heard little from our neighbors since we moved, rarely do we drive the streets we knew so well, until  last week.  A family member phoned late one night to tell that our old house was on fire and the story led the local nightly news.

 Noticing Mrs. T didn't sleep well the night we heard the news, in the morning I lightly broached why. Never let it be said my bride isn't all girl. " I've been worrying all night. What if the fire was due to something we did to the house?" and assorted nonsense, she railed, once again wondering how I could be so oblivious.

Convinced we were about to be sued my bride insisted, that before breakfast, we assess our liability. It wasn't our home, but one across the street.  It was the house next door to the one that burned in 2009. What are the odds?

Toad

pride and prejudice

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was published on this date 200 years ago.

I love this book, especially how well written the minor characters are.  Keira Knightley will forever be marked as Elizabeth and Donald Sutherland, her father in my minds eye.  That said, I have despised EVERY Darcy who has taken on the role.  Elizabeth, was at her most sensible to not to have been taken in by that fool. 

Just sayin'

toad

Odds and Ends

Sometimes in life a guy just gets lucky. I've met some wonderful people via this blog, but none more so than my personal enabler ADG, better known to many of you as Maxminimus. We've met in person several times, spoken on the phone a couple of more times, and email each other once a week or so, yet whenever/however we gather, I discover more and more, just how much we have in common.

Today is the birthday of my brother from other parents. While he doesn't look a day over 35, I believe that he turns 70 today, going on 15. His enthusiasm for people and life that keeps him an eternal 35. I am envious.

Happy Birthday from the whole entirely big internet.

ADG and style maven Bruce Boyer

II. See the Dustin Hoffman directed movie Quartet. Mrs. T and I went to the Saturday matinee. She was by far the youngest person in the theater but still approved. I think you'll enjoy it, especially if you're over 50.

III Perhaps from the Maybe-Maybe Not file:

From the UP Magazine oct/nov 2012

Enjoy your weekend.

Toad

Australia Day

There are hundreds of holidays around the globe that American's have never heard of, nor given any  thought to.  Today we celebrate Australia Day, which in fact is a big day for our friends down under.

Australia Day is THE national holiday of Australia.  In May 1787 a British fleet of 11 ships left England for Australia with orders to establish a penal colony in Botany Bay.  Upon arrival, Botany Bay was deemed unsuitable so the fleet sailed north to Sydney Cove arriving on January 26, 1788.  The British colony of New South Wales was formally established 7 February 1788, but arrival day became more historically significant as the founding date mark the anniversary of the first arrivals prison terms.  After completing their sentences,  and not welcome back in England, the founders stayed in Australia eventually their progeny created one of the world's greatest liberal democracies.

I toast their accomplishments.

It is customary during Australia Day celebrations to recite the Australia Citizenship Affirmation.  Unfortunately, there is nothing in the US to compare it to.

Australia Citizenship Affirmation

As an Australian citizen

I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people

whose democratic beliefs I share

whose rights and liberties I respect

and whose laws I uphold and obey

Toad 

rabbie burns day 2013

Get cozy and chill Tumblr

American's hardly know and little care that today is Robert Burns Day (or Night), the anniversary of the birth of the Scottish poet and lyricist, the Bob Marley of his time, Robert Burns. We canna do the accent, and as long as 95% of us can make up the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne as we go, and Scottish distillers remain in operation we are mostly OK giving Rabbie a miss.

On this side of the pond is a powerful fear of eating haggis, which is rather sad.  True haggis is difficult to obtain, and in the US, sheep lung, a key component, is considered unfit for human consumption.  We canna import from the UK either.  

We should know a bit about the Bard, if only to be neighborly.  Rabbie took to poetry when he found it a good way to chat up birds, at which he became quite successful. His first book of verse was sold when he was 27, to raise funds so he could hightail it to Jamaica with his girlfriend, Mary Campbell. Burns hoped to escape the mother of his first daughter Elizabeth and Miss Jean Armour who was pregnant with his twins.

That the book sold well was a blessing and a curse in that it convinced him he had another talent, one that paid, so he cancelled the move, dumped Mary and married Jean. Profligate Rabbie had at least 13 known children, 5 out of wedlock, 3 named Elizabeth.

Written for his first born Elizabeth was A Poet's Welcome to his Love Begotten Daughter, or as Burns called it "Welcome to a Bastart Wean".

Raise a glass tonight to Mr. Burns, he deserves to be remembered, for his poetry, his storytelling, his love for and hopes a republican Scotland and his love of fine lasses.  May his memory live forever.

To Bobby,

Laird Toad

 

It's a dogs life

TTWD

When Ted the Wonder Dog passed my son in law sent a long list of dog quotes to remember Ted by. It took several months before I could read them without tearing up. Last night I read them to Charley. She liked them and asked me to share, so I will.

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
-Anonymous

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
-Ann Landers

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
-Will Rogers

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
-Ben Williams

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.
-Josh Billings

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.
-Andy Rooney

Charley

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made.
-M. Acklam

Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.
- Sigmund Freud

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.
-Rita Rudner

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three
times before lying down.
-Robert Benchley

Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.
-Franklin P. Jones

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
-James Thurber

If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise.
-Unknown

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That's almost $21.00 in dog money.
-Joe Weinstein

Ever consider what our dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul -- chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!
-Anne Tyler

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
-Robert A. Heinlein

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
-Mark Twain

You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'
- Dave Barry

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
-Roger Caras

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then give him only two of them.
-Phil Pastoret

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am.
-Unknown

Shack's whisky

Once upon a time I questioned the motivation of the brave scientists who liberated 3 bottles of MacKinlay's finest  15 year old Scotch whisky, buried in 1907 under antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod base camp.  The plan was to deliver the ancient whisky bottles to MacKinlay's, who over the proceeding 100 years lost the recipe for that particular blend.  MacKinlay hoped they could recreate it.  Foolishly, I only saw party plans.



I now suspect the antarctic scientific community hopes that in a few years MacKinlay will roll out a few barrels of recreated "Shackleton" whisky, bottle it and offer it at prestige auction and whisky sales, proceeds going to Antarctic Heritage Trust.  MacKinlay could bottle water from the river Jordan, call it Shack, since no is likely to open it, nor would anyone have any expectations of what last century's whisky would taste like.  Explorer types would pay heavily for the privilege.  If the scheme worked, aged 10 year and 15 may be in the offing. Might work.

Much to my surprise, the 3 liberated bottles were returned to the antarctic Saturday, the expectation is that the bottles will  returned to Shackleton's cabin in March.  Foolishly, I though it was merely am excuse for a party.  I had forgotten the financial opportunities.

Toad

Curt Flood

At the end of the '69 baseball season, the St. Louis Cardinals traded their long time centerfielder Curt Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies.  At the time, backed by Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption, a player, regardless of how well he was paid, belonged forever to the team that owned his contract.  The team could trade him, and a player was obligated to go, his only other option was to retire.  In 1957, Jackie Robinson "retired" instead of accepting a trade to the hated Giants.

Flood told the Phillies he wasn't going to Philadelphia, not then, not now.  The Phils offered him a raise to $100,000 in the days when the average working man's salary was $18,000. Still he refused.  As Flood told broadcaster Howard Cosell "a well paid slave was still a slave".  

 In 1970 Flood went to court to challenge baseball's restrictive reserve clause.  Warned by everyone and his brother he hadn't a chance, Flood persisted, until the Supreme Court ruled against him ruling that free agency for players should be a matter of collective bargaining.  It cost Flood everything he had. All he would say is that he did it for those coming behind him.

Two years later  the right of a player to ask for binding arbitration for grievances became baseball's standard practice, free agency arrived in 1976 and is now the foundation of all sports labor contracts.  Flood didn't break down the wall, but certainly weakened it.  Professional sports authorities the world over owe Curt Flood monuments of thanksgiving for his sacrifice.  Instead he has largely been ignored.

Curt Flood died on this date in 1997, 2 days after his 59th birthday.

Toad

Robert E Lee

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

II Timothy 4:7

Family hagiography leads one to believe that my father's family left Virginia twice, each time hoping to make their fortune in the west.  My mother's tribe arrive 50 years later escaping civil war in their own back yard.  During our Civil War, Eastern Missourians celebrated whatever uniform was outside their door that day.  I truly have no dog in this fight, all I have is a fertile imagination.

General  Lee surrendered his troops on Sunday, April 9, 1865, Palm Sunday.  Late the following Saturday, Holy Saturday, along with his son and staff, through a driving, cold rain, while soaked to the skin, Lee arrived home in burned out Richmond.  Home was now the rented house where his crippled wife and his daughters waited. The war over, his future uncertain, Lincoln died earlier that morning.  Imagine Lee, arriving home from war and closing the door on the prior 4 years.

Easter services in Richmond were canceled that year.

Happy Birthday General.

Toad

Happy Poe Day

Who knew Milne and Poe were so closely connected?
Toad

A.A. Milne

Laying around for the past several weeks I've amused myself by re-reading much of the AA Milne canon. How could I not love the creator of the play Toad of Toad Hall and his friends, Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore.  They are good companions when you don't feel well.

Like all successful children's writers Milne wrote on multiple levels of humor and wisdom.  On what would be Alan's birthday let's take a look at some favorite bits of Milne wisdom.





“One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and, if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character. We can't criticize it, because it is criticizing us. But I must give you one word of warning. When you sit down to it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgment on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself. You may be worthy: I don't know, But it is you who are on trial.” 

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” 


“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present." Winnie the Pooh” 

“The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.” 

“I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” 

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.” 

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?” 

“What day is it?"
It's today," squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day," said Pooh.” 

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.” 

Happy birthday Mr. Milne

Toad

Cool Guy- Muhammad Ali

He was simultaneously the most reviled and most revered sportsman in America.  The living embodiment of a n all-American Horatio Alger rags to riches, you can be whatever you can achieve in America story while at the same time misunderstood and vilified for his religious beliefs and his very public stand against racism in the US and the Vietnam war.  Still, he was the greatest boxer ever.

Since his retirement from boxing and the onset of Parkinson's disease Ali has dedicated his life to promoting social causes, especially those focused on children and the Muhammad Ali Foundation located in Louisville which focuses on peace and and social responsibility.

By his autobiography he described himself as "the greatest, not the smartest."

Toad  

For the first time in 2013 I spent time outside yesterday.  I think I'll live, and by doing so may I offer hope to all who are suffering.  This too shall pass.

Mrs. T's Anniversary

It wouldn't be out of line to wonder why, in Mayberry, 2 otherwise sensible people would marry on the the Ides of January.  The wedding day itself may have passable weather, but you set yourself up for a lifetime of dreary, cold, and inclement anniversaries.  And so we have.

I take full responsibility for the January decision.  My bride to be wanted to be married in the fall, but several important cogs in our wheel were not available.  I however, wanted to make certain my bride was Y2K compatible (that was important in those days). She offered no prior assurances, saying only that things would work out, "you'll see" she said repeatedly.   She wasn't Y2K compatible and knew it, while I still wait to see how things will work out.  Two or 3 times each week I'm likely to hear "I told you things would work out", to which I reply "ya, but you never said when", and so it goes.  Still, I am the happiest married man ever.

Today's anniversary, like all others is Mrs. T's anniversary. I'm blessed beyond measure simply to circle in her orbit, it's her universe and I'm joyously along for the ride.  I've said before and I repeat today, I did not marry my best friend, she does not complete me, she is not my soul mate. She does however make us "we", and together we are indomitable.  I love her madly. 

Thank you love for our wonderful life together, and yes, I'll sign up for at least another year.

Toad

Bentley Boys

In the late 1920's Bentley Motors decided the best way to advertise their very expensive sports cars was to build successful race cars. Half of the strategy worked.  During the later half of the 1920's Bentley dominated European race tracks, most especially the 24 hour race at Le Mans.

Piloting the cars were a collection of wealth and stylish young toffs known throughout the ages as the Bentley Boys. The two men above, Capt. Sir Tim Berkin and Captain Woolf Barnato were the most successful Bentley Boys winning LeMans 4 times.

The caption on the photo says it was taken 15 minutes before the start of the 1929 race.  The photo below taken moments later shows Woolf in his racing helmet. At the track they changed into overalls, Birkin adding his helmet and trademark blue and white polka dot scarf.  

They won the race.



Toad

Boyz and Beer- snow edition

Resourceful kids will always find ways to have fun. As long as no one gets seriously hurt, anything can be fun.  The trouble comes when pain exceeds the fun quotient.  In our house its known as the Boys and Beer or in this case Vodka phenomena.

Undoubtedly, tomboy Scout was part inspiration for Zorb, a large transparent ball which holds one or 2 people.  Like all balls it is meant to roll, and like Scout, a Zorb passenger is simply along for the ride.  In the park its a world of fun.  Add beer and watch the fun escalate.

Zorb comes into its own on ski slopes.  Find a Zorb, enclose two drunks and push. Zorbing is so popular in Russia that it has become one of the symbols for next year's winter Olympics. There was a You Tube video (since removed) showing 2 guys in a Zorb being pushed down hill at a Russian ski resort.  All was fun and games until Zorb rolled off a cliff. A mile later...  (You may sing a verse of the children's classic "2 little monkeys jumping on a bed...now)

Natch, Zorb's people distanced themselves quickly from the tragedy.  After a long speech on how things should be done the local ZORB rep had this to say “It's not even irresponsibility. It's an experiment on life,” Loginov said. “It's all or nothing. They either survive or they don't.” 

Zorb Inc says:
 "This tragedy was committed by an illegal operator who has no association with ZORB, and was not known to ZORB," the company said in a statement. "The equipment was not manufactured by ZORB. The lack of proper berms to stop globes is absolutely prohibited by ZORB. Operating in mountainous, rocky and snow conditions is very dangerous."

Mrs. T's middle kid lives in the mountains.  He has spent the day ZORB shopping, his mother is in a dither.

Toad

Uxbridge Dictionary

I came of age during the heyday of The Rocky and Bullwinkle show, waiting anxiously for this week's Fractured Fairy Tales. The Fractured Fairy Tales recreated many of childhood's best loved fairy tales often with a twist you saw coming from the opening line, and would have been sorely disappointed at any other conclusion. The Tales operated on multiple levels of absurdity, each highlighted by the inimitable voice of Edward Everett Horton. I owe FFT creator A. J. Jacobs many thanks for leading me down the path less traveled, seeking the odd unusual and absurd in most everything.

My long suffering family indulges my longing for the odd by frequently gifting unusual dictionaries. For Christmas this year I received The New Uxbridge English Dictionary,18th Edition (precisely) Comprehensively Reviled: the dictionary which contains words soon to be used in a Major Motion Picture.

The Uxbridge which now lives along such classics as The Devil's Dictionary, The American Heretic's dictionary, Deeper Meaning of Liff, More Deeper, et al. includes redefined words such as

Chinchilla: air conditioned beard.
Benign: what it will be after 8.
Chiropractice: getting ready to go to Egypt
Hailstone: formal greeting for Sir. Mick.
Magistrate: Madge isn't a lesbian.

Need more? I've got a million of 'em, or better yet try it on line.

Toad

Two Icons

He hated being called the King. His gospel roots rebelled at the notion, all he wanted was to be known as the entertainer. No one listened.  Born in 1935, recorded his first song That's All Right in 1954, played his first New York concert in 1972.  In a career that spanned 23 years he recorded over 600 songs, not a one did he write.

Played the Grand Ole Opry once, in 1954, was told to go home and resume his truck driving career. Despite many later invites Elvis never returned.  Unbelievably, he played only 5 concerts outside the US, ever.

Singer Barry White claims him as his inspiration to become a singer.  In 1961, while rotting in jail for stealing tires, White heard "It's now or never". Claims it turned his life around.

It is alleged that The Entertainer was putting away 90,000 calories per day at the end. Should you find yourself sick in bed today, TCM is playing his movies all day. There are worse ways to recover.

Around the time the Entertainer fell from grace, the mantle of King of the Universe was picked up by today's other birthday boy, the 66 year old Ziggy Stardust.  The years have been good to David, god is he gorgeous.

Bowie along with much of then modern "culture" was easy to dismiss in the mid 70's.  It was only later when you paid attention to what was in your IPOD that you noticed just how much Bowie was part of the soundtrack to your life. You tend to forget how good some of his stuff really was. Most of it he wrote.

To look at him you'd doubt he's consumed 90,000 calories ever.

Happy Birthday gents and thank you

Toad

Charles Addams Bd

From: the Charles Addams Foundation

Today would be the 101st. birthday of cartoonist Charles Addams, the creator of the The Addams Family.  Popular illustrators tend to develop personas.  While anonymous to the general public, the cartoonists fans come to believe that what they see is who the artists is.  Rarely, do the man and the myth intersect.

Coming across Addams' macabre drawings while thumbing through old issues of the New Yorker you could easily get the sense the artist lived on the top floor of an asylum. For years stories abounded of how he was carried off to Bedlam, furiously sketching his best known works.  Never happened.

Much of his work was oddly sweet, all of it was funny, yet it was the ghoulish macabre stuff that sold the books and created the reputation.

As it turned out he was a lover of classic cars, something of a ladies man, a curious guy with an odd kick for the absurd, a self described Uncle Fester.  In 1988 Addams had a heart attack and died in his parked car. His wife told the Times "He's always been a car buff, so it was a nice way to go."

Check your local library for a copy of Charles Addams, A Cartoonists Life by Linda H. Davis.

Toad

Look at his eyes

I change my computer background photo almost every day, but for the past three weeks this has been in place.  I'm mesmerized by a photo of 3 men taken early in WWII.  The airman on the left is cipher, on the right a Canadian flight sergeant,  it's the squadron leader in his Mae West life preserver, dead center which holds my gaze.  Look at his eyes.

Perhaps all of 25, became squadron leader through attrition and because he attended college, at least for a while, he also fit within the tight confines of a British warplane. Likely as not none of these men survived the war. Look at his eyes and you begin to wonder if dying may have become welcome.  These brave men saved the Empire in spite of their former king.

For a great story of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flights latest Spitfire resurrection follow the link to  Eclectic Ephemera

J Peterman has dropped the hammer on squadron leaders scarf.  It's $50 this weekend, it was $119. Believing they would never drop the price to a level I was willing to pay I purchased an alternative yesterday. Having acted in haste I am now repenting at leisure.

Toad

Weird Books or a Killer idea

Have a few minutes to kill? It may change your life.  Many if not most of you are familiar with Abe's Books, the ubiquitous internet cataloger of available stock hidden within the world's independent bookstores.  Scratch the surface a bit and you'll uncover The Weird Book Room a compendium of the greatest hits in publishing.

I've been composing imaginary shopping lists from the available titles.  For instance what young man's library wouldn't benefit from such works as:
C is for Chafing 
All About Pockets
Lumber Jack songs with yodel arrangements
How to Avoid Huge Ships
Wood Nymph seeks Centaur
How to Date a White Woman 
Dating for Under a Dollar ?

Or perhaps:
Liberace, your personal fashion consultant 
Crafting with Cat Hair
How to make your own shoes  

I'd build bookshelves if necessary to include:
How to be Happy Though Married
A New Look at Wife Swapping
Teach your wife to be a Widow
How to Disappear
How to start your own country

Imagine what a copy of Electricity in Gynecology on the nightstand might do for a flagging relationship.

TV shows have been created using less fodder for inspiration than Abe provides on a few short pages. Create your own book list, invent a concept, or better a reality series, sell to Merv, remember you heard it here first.

Toad

PS I actually own several books shown on Abe's Weird Book page.  I didn't find that weird until now.

Taking the Cure

We have a routine around our house.  Whenever Mrs. T is sick, she climbs into bed, neatly arranges her pillows, puts the house phone, her cell phone and the TIVO remote within easy reach, and expects to be waited on continuously until she announces she's cured.  I've never seen her take so much as an aspirin.  Naturally, since we disagree about every unimportant thing, when I'm under the weather, put me in a dark room, with a dog or two by my side, AND LEAVE ME ALONE. I'll emerge when I'm hungry and announce that I'm well.

The only drawback to our curatives is when we each become sick at the same time.  Like now for instance.

I adore my bride (in sickness and in health) and I'm happy to wait on her hand and foot, fluff her pillows, serve her meals at any time, except.   

Having spent the past 3 days under cover has allowed time to ruminate on ways an enterprising someone could make a quick one on the backs of the sick.  I offer my best one freely to the world. I hope you can use it.

 Every hotel has a block of rooms that no one would willingly stay in.  Could be they are cramped, there is a landfill view, or...  Supposed the hotelier offered these special rooms (in season, and at a substantial premium) to the sick.  Hotels offer everything a sick person wants.  Better TV channels than you have at home, 24 hour room service, along with a maid or butler for frequent reassurances of a speedy recovery, or just to fluff.

Toad

Happy 2013 and a new resolution

from Hoodoo That Voodoo.tumblr.com

I'm not going to do it.  You can't make me. I refuse.  I won't.

Each year on this day I offer the greatest New Year's resolution and make it available for you to claim as your very own.  It's powerful, it's inexpensive, it will change your life.  It's o easy that no one does it, which is a shame. If you are new here, and/ or curious you can find it here.  I still recommend it. Sorry about the missing photo. I accidently deleted my blog photo file once upon a time.

What I will do is offer each and all my new resolution.  Work this year to enjoy yourself more.  One of the most frequent regrets of the dying is that they worked too hard on stuff that was ultimately BS, and didn't pay enough attention to their spouse, their children, their family and their communities. Turn off your  smartphone and home computer until the kids go to bed.  You'll survive.

Finally, Happy Birthday Mary.  The party was Sunday, her big day yesterday. It was a wonderful experience, even better if you waited for the 90+ yo's to clear the parking lot before you. Quite a few are still driving.

Happy 2013, thanks for sharing it will us.

Toad