Merry Sunday

Toad

First night of Chanukah

From our house to yours, Happy Chanukah.
Shalom,
Toad

Bomb Sight Project

London, England

As a follow up to Pearl Harbor Day, today we travel to London, specifically to the blitz-7 October 1940 until 6 June 1941, to understand the work of the Bomb Sight Project.  The Bomb Sight Project has created an interactive map and Android app showing the location of every known German bomb to hit in London during the 8 month siege.

red marks show bomb hits in London during Blitz

The interactivity allows searches by street, by borough, by type of bomb. During the the 8 months of the blitz thousands of citizens were killed and over 1,000,000 homes destroyed.  Living in the Tube became a nightly occurrence.

Imperial War Museum photo

Seeing the effects of the bombing seventy years on is still incredibly moving. 

Toad

Take a moment to remember John Lennon who died on this date.  

Odds and Ends

Pearl Harbor Day

American's are great for remembering slogans;  Remember the Alamo, the Maine, the World Trade Center, yet we often, too soon after,  forget the why of what we are supposed to be remembering.  By now many have forgotten that today is Pearl Harbor Day, "a day that will live in infamy".  The 2 hour raid on the US Navy's Pacific fleet headquarters caused the deaths of 2335 servicemen with another 1143 wounded.


Denny's is the real deal! 

The southern US has a somewhat deserved reputation for culinary decadence. Locals believe that if the food isn't brown, hasn't been fried or served in large quantity it isn't worth eating.  Many of our ubiquitous franchised fast food chains hail from the land of huge/fried, including Denny's, which calls Spartanburg, S.C. home.

Denny's occasionally gets a bad rap for customer service but are working hard to embrace diversity.  To assist their effort to connect with everyone, everywhere they have opened a new flagship store in Las Vegas.   " The diner chain’s newest location will feature a photo booth in which vacationers and locals can pose with trademark Denny’s products. Those photos can be shared instantly on Facebook and Twitter."  Nothing says vacation like a Denny photo.

“We wanted to create a unique experience,” a spokesman said. “We have a lot of interactive features and a lot of things that make this location even more fun.

"For example, the diner has a full cocktail bar. The bar serves, among other items, a bacon-flavored martini.

"In addition, the location has some other only-in-Vegas features, including a wedding chapel. “It’s quite a unique experience... couples can get a cake made out of Denny’s pancake puppies to make their ceremony extra special.

"The new store also has Elvis-themed menu items like King Stack — pancakes with bananas, bacon and peanut butter — and the King Milkshake, featuring the same three ingredients."

If I'm lying I'm dying.

Holiday Shopping

While kicking the tires at the mall I came across "The Gold King" which is billed as "the world's fastest corkscrew".  Perhaps it's a sign of the times, but is knocking off a second or two opening a  bottle of wine really of benefit?

And Finally

From Vanity Fair, and I can't tell it any better than they did.

Toad

Who says Canadians aren't fun?

Just in time for the holidays, as a promotional gimmick Pizza Hut Canada has created a unique cologne, sure to be a hit.  According to the Globe and Mail the new, as yet unnamed scent "smells like fresh dough with a bit of spice." What gal wouldn't want to smell like a pizza box?

Toad

Hoxton Street Monster Supply

Sadly I found this too late for Halloween shopping but Hoxton Street Monster Supplies has reopened in London and now offers a full range of holiday items for a most discerning clientele.  It's always beneficial to maintain a supply of  tinned fear in your anxiety closet.

Hoxton Street Monster Supply offer a full range of products including impacted earwax, Bah Humbugs as well as the combo pack of various night terrors.  The web site  maintains that they ship only within the UK, and that they refuse magic beans and human sacrifice in lieu of monetary payment.  I suggest the website lies and for money they'll ship anywhere but don't quote me on that.

Ten minutes here and my holiday shopping would be over.
Toad

Bronies?

Perhaps you grew up with My Little Pony, maybe your kids did, or you may be among the fortunate few have no idea what I'm talking about. Created in the early '80's, My Little Pony was a line of toy ponies aimed at very young girls. MLP morphed into a television cartoon series of sweet morality tales aimed at those same young girls. The cartoons sold a lot of horses, and died well after its prime.

Since little risk is involved reselling old ideas, and there is always a risk in creating something new, the infotainment establishment recycled My Little Pony with truly horrific consequences i.e. "The Bronie."  Exploring the highways and bi-ways of holiday cheer, I encountered a corral of adult males sporting holiday My Little Pony wear. I had to ask. "We are bronies" came the reply. Bronies or Boy (adult) My Little Pony fans is the latest big thing for the demographic living in mom's basement.

I'm not here to judge, only to alert.

Toad

Sam and Winnie's Birthday/ St Andrew's day in scotland

Dunan Castle-my little bit of Scotland 

To all our Scottish friends Happy St. Andrew's Day. St. A is the patron saint of Scotland and half a dozen or more European counties.

Perhaps more importantly, today is the anniversary of the birth of Samuel Clemons and Winston Churchill.


The 2 met twice and did not form a mutual admiration society.  Each felt he was the center of the known world, and didn't cotton to intruders.  Twain the older, and more experienced of the two men found listening to Churchill trying.  When asked about their first encounter, after a dinner in London, Churchill was effusive over their conversation.  Twain replied "I had a good smoke."

Whenever I'm asked who in history I would wish to have dinner with, my list ends with these two.  If you haven't yet read Cita Stelzer's "Dinner with Churchill" put it on your holiday shopping list, it makes a great winter read.

Toad

geo harrison died

During the heyday of Beatlemania, the prime time disc jockey of the local teen radio station would nightly call a then Mayberry gal in an attempt to get the latest scoop in the world of the Beatles. The gal was George's sister Louise. Every now an then she would quietly drop a "Oh George is over for dinner, would you like a word with him?", and George would spend the next 3 minutes BSing how much fun he was having at our expense.

George soon became my favorite Beatle. It's hard to believe I've outlived two of the fab four. George died on this date in 2001.

Toad

PS: I am going to have limited access to the internet over the next 2 days, so I will preemptively block annon comments in my absence. Flo, I apologize.

Obits

I've been reading too many obits lately and have come to the conclusion that most are wasted on the dead. Instead, what would be a genuine service to mankind is a career obituary.

For many public figures death is the greatest career move of all. Look what it's done for Elvis and Jimi Hendrix. For others not so much. By the time Whitney Houston died did anyone outside of her family really care? Not so much. What we mourned was the loss of her majestic musical talent which in fact died several years earlier.

A glance at the sports pages of the local newspaper each day shows the passing of sports heroes from long ago who died in obscurity in advanced old age. Better to remember his career's death, back when it was meaningful, especially to the principal. Likewise, PBS is great for for resurrecting long thought dead entertainers, dressing them up and making them put on a travesty of a show in hopes that baby boomer nostalgia for 1950's and'60's songbirds will ease the transfer of wealth.

What I'm imagining is a public vehicle, much like the Daily Telegraph's obits, that would be the designated resting place for careers. Click on the web site, type in the subject, and in return the site says perhaps; career dead, yet still alive. Envision Tom Jones or The Little River Band while you do so.

PBS could become self-funded forever if they became gatekeeper to the site. In exchange for baksheesh, PBS might keep off those who don't want to go on the cart.

In the mean time we are stuck with Dead or Alive, the web site that keeps track, so I don't have to.

toad

Where to

On election day I suggested checking the political lawn signs in neighborhoods you may consider moving into in an effort to locate the crazies. Suppose though you were moving out of town, perhaps searching for a place to retire. How would you know where like minded souls congregate? You'd hate learn you were the odd man out after it was too late. The Daily Yonder has come to your rescue. The charts are mostly self explanatory.

Click on the charts to enlarge.

Happy hunting.
toad

"Le chandail de hockey"

Yes, I have shown this before, but it's been a couple of years, I appreciate your indulgence.

Gals and guys did you ever receive exactly the wrong present? Sometimes nothing is worse than receiving the wrong gift. This story is about a young boy who suffers such a fate, and is scarred for life. The first minute and 30 secs or so is in French. The rest in English.

It's a long but great story, and a reminder of how it pays to be mindful when giving presents.

In honor of the anniversary of The Rocket's 600th career NHL goal and with little expectation of the NHL ever returning to prominence anywhere south of Chicago, I present The Sweater.




Toad

John John

I find it hard to imagine that John John would be 52 today. I'll always remember him very much younger.

Toad

weekend follies

Gentlemen: the publishing sensation "Understanding Women" is now available in paperback.

Have a great weekend.

Toad

Thanks for...

Yesterday's Thanksgiving feast provided an opportunity for each of us to to take a moment, open our gratitude journal and reflect on just how good we have it. In your heart you know, however bad things are, they could be much worse. I'm grateful I don't work in retail this month and/or celebrate Black Friday.

Last August, a dear friend of ours gave birth, much too early, to her first child. The baby girl arrived weighing 1.2 pounds (.54 kilos)at birth. Mom is well, and the baby is growing, albeit slowly. Yesterday,the new parents celebrated their daughter's first Thanksgiving grateful that she has grown into the next larger size diaper, from right to left.

Count your blessings, and shop till you drop.

Toad

katy day and happy thanksgiving

Today is also Katy Day.  Katy is my first born, born on a Thanksgiving morning once upon a time ago.  She is my joy, my inspiration and light of my life.  I love her dearly.

Tonight while reaching for that piece of pie, gather hands with those around the table and sing like this.

HBD2 Katy
HBD 2 Katy
HBD dear Katy
HBD 2 you.

From our house to yours enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving, hopefully safely ensconced in the comforting bosom of family and friends. It has become too rare that families gather to share food and stories.  Children miss out when holidays are ignored. Holiday's provide the perfect backdrop for kids to overhear grownups reminiscing about the days before wi-fi, or wireless TV remotes.

 I love to make fun of Thanksgiving, it's one of my traditions.  American's tend to have such a poor sense of history that too many folk believe the Pilgrims arrived in North America with Columbus.  In a just world, we'd be celebrating the Spanish, who arrived 40 years before the English, contribution to American culture.  At least the food would be better.

And finally, for those of you too wrapped up in the day's feast to know when to put down the fork I suggest this:

Enjoy your day, be safe. We'll leave the light on for ya.
Toad

Pre-Thanksgiving PSA

It is alleged, especially by Mother's Against Drunk Driving, that  the day before Thanksgiving has become the busiest drinking day of the year in the U.S.  Now tagged Blackout Wednesday, tonight will surpass New Year's Eve as the season's thirstiest night. There is enough blame to go around, but since adults no longer imbibe at the rate their parents once did, the heavy lifting is left to the kids, especially college students home for the long weekend. That's where the joke ends.

The tragic aftermath is that tonight will become one of deadliest nights of the year for younger drivers and their passengers. As a parent I know the kids don't and won't listen, but before they head out remind them that you'll pay for the cab home if necessary. 

Toad

Gettysburg Address

November 19,1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, the day's second speaker, president Abraham Lincoln had this to say:

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

President Abraham Lincoln
November 1863

The first National Thanksgiving Day, as proclaimed by President Lincoln took place one week later (Nov 26).

Toad

Maybe-Maybe Not

Some of my male brethren are, to put it mildly, a trial for many women, especially at night. We smell, snore, kick, toss and turn and after a certain age I hear we're up several times a night. How is a woman expected to get her beauty rest under those wartime-like conditions?

The wonderful folks at Deluxe Comfort have created The Boyfriend Pillow, a more restful alternative to living breathing males which when used properly provides all the cuddle without the annoying downsides of real human companionship.

It's like having a cat without the fur.

toad

Let us give thanks

Toad