Okay, Things look bleak but the following youtube is too good to miss.Let us hope for the best!
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
The Best Films Never Made
The following PajamasMedia production by Andrew Klavan on the "Oscars" is funny but painfully true.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Political Cartoon
As a soon to be retired "politician" I could not resist posting the following cartoon. Enjoy!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Barack Obama's Teleprompter Blog
We all need a little humor now and again. This imaginative blogspot helps.http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
A Touching Story All Women Will Adore
THE BOTTLE OF WINE
For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married, this is something to smile about the next time you see a bottle of wine:
Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like ride.With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.
Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman.The old
woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.'What in bag?' asked the old woman.Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, 'It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.'The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:
Good trade.....'
Thursday, November 27, 2008
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Today Ed Giobbe and I were trying to remember what word the Italians use for turkey. Ed speaks fluent Italian and I used to be reasonably competent but neither of us could recall the word. I did know that in Turkey the bird is called a hindi which of course means India.. I "googled" for an answer and found this interesting bit of information. So now we all know.
The Story of How the Unofficial Bird of the United States Got Named After a Middle Eastern Country
(by Giancarlo Casale)
How did the turkey get its name? This seemingly harmless question popped into my head one morning as I realized that the holidays were once again upon us. After all, I thought, there's nothing more American than a turkey. Their meat saved the pilgrims from starvation during their first winter in New England. Out of gratitude, if you can call it that, we eat them for Thanksgiving dinner, and again at Christmas, and gobble them up in sandwiches all year long. Every fourth grader can tell you that Benjamin Franklin was particularly fond of the wild turkey, and even campaigned to make it, and not the bald eagle, the national symbol. So how did such a creature end up taking its name from a medium sized country in the Middle East? Was it just a coincidence? I wondered.
The next day I mentioned my musings to my landlord, whose wife is from Brazil. "That's funny," he said, "In Portuguese the word for turkey is 'peru.' Same bird, different country." Hmm.
With my curiosity piqued, I decided to go straight to the source. That very afternoon I found myself a Turk and asked him how to say turkey in Turkish. "Turkey?" he said. "Well, we call turkeys 'hindi,' which means, you know, from India." India? This was getting weird. I spent the next few days finding out the word for turkey in as many languages as I could think of, and the more I found out, the weirder things got. In Arabic, for instance, the word for turkey is "Ethiopian bird," while in Greek it is "gallapoula" or "French girl." The Persians, meanwhile, call them "buchalamun" which means, appropriately enough, "chameleon."
In Italian, on the other hand, the word for turkey is "tacchino" which, my Italian relatives assured me, means nothing but the bird. "But," they added, "it reminds us of something else. In Italy we call corn, which as everybody knows comes from America, 'grano turco,' or 'Turkish grain.'" So here we were back to Turkey again! And as if things weren't already confusing enough, a further consultation with my Turkish informant revealed that the Turks call corn "misir" which is also their word for Egypt!
By this point, things were clearly getting out of hand. But I persevered nonetheless, and just as I was about to give up hope, a pattern finally seemed to emerge from this bewildering labyrinth. In French, it turns out, the word for turkey is "dinde," meaning "from India," just like in Turkish. The words in both German and Russian had similar meanings, so I was clearly on to something. The key, I reasoned, was to find out what turkeys are called in India, so I called up my high school friend's wife, who is from an old Bengali family, and popped her the question.
"Oh," she said, "We don't have turkeys in India. They come from America. Everybody knows that."
"Yes," I insisted, "but what do you call them?"
"Well, we don't have them!" she said. She wasn't being very helpful. Still, I persisted:
"Look, you must have a word for them. Say you were watching an American movie translated from English and the actors were all talking about turkeys. What would they say?" "Well...I suppose in that case they would just say the American word, 'turkey.' Like I said, we don't have them." So there I was, at a dead end. I began to realize only too late that I had unwittingly stumbled upon a problem whose solution lay far beyond the capacity of my own limited resources. Obviously I needed serious professional assistance. So the next morning I scheduled an appointment with Prof. Sinasi Tekin of Harvard University, a world-renowned philologist and expert on Turkic languages. If anyone could help me, I figured it would be Professor Tekin.
As I walked into his office on the following Tuesday, I knew I would not be disappointed. Prof. Tekin had a wizened, grandfatherly face, a white, bushy, knowledgeable beard, and was surrounded by stack upon stack of just the sort of hefty, authoritative books which were sure to contain a solution to my vexing Turkish mystery. I introduced myself, sat down, and eagerly awaited a dose of Prof. Tekin's erudition. "You see," he said, "In the Turkish countryside there is a kind of bird, which is called a chulluk. It looks like a turkey but it is much smaller, and its meat is very delicious. Long before the discovery of America, English merchants had already discovered the delicious chulluk, and began exporting it back to England, where it became very popular, and was known as a 'Turkey bird' or simply a 'turkey.' Then, when the English came to America, they mistook the birds here for chulluks, and so they began calling them 'turkey" also. But other peoples weren't so easily fooled. They knew that these new birds came from America, and so they called them things like 'India birds,' 'Peruvian birds,' or 'Ethiopian birds.' You see, 'India,' 'Peru' and 'Ethiopia' were all common names for the New World in the early centuries, both because people had a hazier understanding of geography, and because it took a while for the name 'America' to catch on.
"Anyway, since that time Americans have begun exporting their birds everywhere, and even in Turkey people have started eating them, and have forgotten all about their delicious chulluk. This is a shame, because chulluk meat is really much, much tastier."
Prof. Tekin seemed genuinely sad as he explained all this to me. I did my best to comfort him, and tried to express my regret at hearing of the unfairly cruel fate of the delicious chulluk. Deep down, however, I was ecstatic. I finally had a solution to this holiday problem, and knew I would be able once again to enjoy the main course of my traditional Thanksgiving dinner without reservation.
Now if I could just figure out why they call those little teeny dogs Chihuahuas....
Happy Thanksgiving from Dick and Donna
The Story of How the Unofficial Bird of the United States Got Named After a Middle Eastern Country
(by Giancarlo Casale)
How did the turkey get its name? This seemingly harmless question popped into my head one morning as I realized that the holidays were once again upon us. After all, I thought, there's nothing more American than a turkey. Their meat saved the pilgrims from starvation during their first winter in New England. Out of gratitude, if you can call it that, we eat them for Thanksgiving dinner, and again at Christmas, and gobble them up in sandwiches all year long. Every fourth grader can tell you that Benjamin Franklin was particularly fond of the wild turkey, and even campaigned to make it, and not the bald eagle, the national symbol. So how did such a creature end up taking its name from a medium sized country in the Middle East? Was it just a coincidence? I wondered.
The next day I mentioned my musings to my landlord, whose wife is from Brazil. "That's funny," he said, "In Portuguese the word for turkey is 'peru.' Same bird, different country." Hmm.
With my curiosity piqued, I decided to go straight to the source. That very afternoon I found myself a Turk and asked him how to say turkey in Turkish. "Turkey?" he said. "Well, we call turkeys 'hindi,' which means, you know, from India." India? This was getting weird. I spent the next few days finding out the word for turkey in as many languages as I could think of, and the more I found out, the weirder things got. In Arabic, for instance, the word for turkey is "Ethiopian bird," while in Greek it is "gallapoula" or "French girl." The Persians, meanwhile, call them "buchalamun" which means, appropriately enough, "chameleon."
In Italian, on the other hand, the word for turkey is "tacchino" which, my Italian relatives assured me, means nothing but the bird. "But," they added, "it reminds us of something else. In Italy we call corn, which as everybody knows comes from America, 'grano turco,' or 'Turkish grain.'" So here we were back to Turkey again! And as if things weren't already confusing enough, a further consultation with my Turkish informant revealed that the Turks call corn "misir" which is also their word for Egypt!
By this point, things were clearly getting out of hand. But I persevered nonetheless, and just as I was about to give up hope, a pattern finally seemed to emerge from this bewildering labyrinth. In French, it turns out, the word for turkey is "dinde," meaning "from India," just like in Turkish. The words in both German and Russian had similar meanings, so I was clearly on to something. The key, I reasoned, was to find out what turkeys are called in India, so I called up my high school friend's wife, who is from an old Bengali family, and popped her the question.
"Oh," she said, "We don't have turkeys in India. They come from America. Everybody knows that."
"Yes," I insisted, "but what do you call them?"
"Well, we don't have them!" she said. She wasn't being very helpful. Still, I persisted:
"Look, you must have a word for them. Say you were watching an American movie translated from English and the actors were all talking about turkeys. What would they say?" "Well...I suppose in that case they would just say the American word, 'turkey.' Like I said, we don't have them." So there I was, at a dead end. I began to realize only too late that I had unwittingly stumbled upon a problem whose solution lay far beyond the capacity of my own limited resources. Obviously I needed serious professional assistance. So the next morning I scheduled an appointment with Prof. Sinasi Tekin of Harvard University, a world-renowned philologist and expert on Turkic languages. If anyone could help me, I figured it would be Professor Tekin.
As I walked into his office on the following Tuesday, I knew I would not be disappointed. Prof. Tekin had a wizened, grandfatherly face, a white, bushy, knowledgeable beard, and was surrounded by stack upon stack of just the sort of hefty, authoritative books which were sure to contain a solution to my vexing Turkish mystery. I introduced myself, sat down, and eagerly awaited a dose of Prof. Tekin's erudition. "You see," he said, "In the Turkish countryside there is a kind of bird, which is called a chulluk. It looks like a turkey but it is much smaller, and its meat is very delicious. Long before the discovery of America, English merchants had already discovered the delicious chulluk, and began exporting it back to England, where it became very popular, and was known as a 'Turkey bird' or simply a 'turkey.' Then, when the English came to America, they mistook the birds here for chulluks, and so they began calling them 'turkey" also. But other peoples weren't so easily fooled. They knew that these new birds came from America, and so they called them things like 'India birds,' 'Peruvian birds,' or 'Ethiopian birds.' You see, 'India,' 'Peru' and 'Ethiopia' were all common names for the New World in the early centuries, both because people had a hazier understanding of geography, and because it took a while for the name 'America' to catch on.
"Anyway, since that time Americans have begun exporting their birds everywhere, and even in Turkey people have started eating them, and have forgotten all about their delicious chulluk. This is a shame, because chulluk meat is really much, much tastier."
Prof. Tekin seemed genuinely sad as he explained all this to me. I did my best to comfort him, and tried to express my regret at hearing of the unfairly cruel fate of the delicious chulluk. Deep down, however, I was ecstatic. I finally had a solution to this holiday problem, and knew I would be able once again to enjoy the main course of my traditional Thanksgiving dinner without reservation.
Now if I could just figure out why they call those little teeny dogs Chihuahuas....
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Obama Campaign Volunteer Email
A good Republican member of the Boy Scouts of America Fraternity (Alpha Phi Omega) at the University of Washington was "livid" when he received an email.from an Obama group.He sent the email and his comments to his Dad who lives in Aiken.
I'm Kady Dodds,Border State Washington University 's Alpha Phi Omega chapter because we desperately need more team members on the ground here in Colorado Colorado is ripe for turning blue: While George Bush won Colorado
"I am absolutely livid, yet at the same time excited that Obama’s supporters are so desperate! In the state where the Dem’s had their convention, they are trying to bring in students from other states to bolster their efforts because they think they’ll lose. (The part that makes me livid is that they used a non-profit, a-political organization’s email contact list to do this. I also have to laugh because they didn’t even get the name of the university correct!!!) It’s hard to say if they are endangering one more non-profit’s status because they didn’t learn from the big to-do over Obama’s church or if they just don’t care. Either way it makes me livid!
Thought you might like yet another example of how Obama’s supporters feel that the ends justify the means. Heard recently that Obama is preemptively playing the race card. Fred may have been my first choice, but attacking McCain’s integrity in this way doesn’t just cross the line, it obliterates it! This is just one more reason that Obama is just plain wrong for the Presidency!
Go McCain & Palin!
-Franklin
flloyd@alumni.washington.edu"
From: Come To Colorado [mailto:cometocolorado@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 5:55 PM
To: apo@u.washington.edu; flloyd@alumni.washington.edu
Subject: Colorado's Campaign for Change Needs Student Volunteers!
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 5:55 PM
To: apo@u.washington.edu; flloyd@alumni.washington.edu
Subject: Colorado's Campaign for Change Needs Student Volunteers!
Hi,
I'm Kady Dodds,
With only 15 days left before election day, the race between Obama and McCain is dead even in Colorado
I would really appreciate it if you would forward this email to your members, and let them know that I am happy to answer any questions they may have about traveling out here to volunteer. Volunteers can sign up directly at ComeToColorado@gmail.com, or I can be reached by phone at 720-366-8906. **FREE HOUSING IS PROVIDED FOR EVERYONE COMING TO COLORADO** The deadline to sign up is this Friday, October 24th.
To get a feel for our operation here, please see our recruiting video at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/oosco
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Kady Dodds
--
Colorado Border States
Barack Obama's Campaign for Change
1355 S. Colorado Blvd. Denver , CO 80222
w. 720.982.3365 | c. 720.304.5328
I would really appreciate it if you would forward this email to your members, and let them know that I am happy to answer any questions they may have about traveling out here to volunteer. Volunteers can sign up directly at ComeToColorado@gmail.com, or I can be reached by phone at 720-366-8906. **FREE HOUSING IS PROVIDED FOR EVERYONE COMING TO COLORADO** The deadline to sign up is this Friday, October 24th.
To get a feel for our operation here, please see our recruiting video at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/oosco
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Kady Dodds
--
Barack Obama's Campaign for Change
w. 720.982.3365 | c. 720.304.5328
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
North of the Border
From the MANITOBA HERALD, Canada (a very underground paper):
The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the
past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The possibility of a McCain/Palin election is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O'Reilly. Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.
'I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,' said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota . The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. 'He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?' In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields. 'Not real effective,' he said. 'The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn't give milk.'
Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border and leave them to fend for themselves. 'A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions,' an Ontario border patrolman said. 'I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. 'Th ey did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though.'
When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the McCain administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to shoot wolves from airplanes, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture.
In recent days, liberals have turned to sometimes-ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers on Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney hits to prove they were alive in the '50s. 'If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence WelkShow, we get suspicious about their age,' an official said.
Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies. 'I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy justcan't support them,' an Ottawa resident said. 'How many art-history and English majors does one country need?'
The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the
past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The possibility of a McCain/Palin election is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O'Reilly. Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.
'I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,' said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota . The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. 'He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?' In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields. 'Not real effective,' he said. 'The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn't give milk.'
Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border and leave them to fend for themselves. 'A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions,' an Ontario border patrolman said. 'I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. 'Th ey did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though.'
When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the McCain administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to shoot wolves from airplanes, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture.
In recent days, liberals have turned to sometimes-ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers on Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney hits to prove they were alive in the '50s. 'If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence WelkShow, we get suspicious about their age,' an official said.
Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies. 'I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy justcan't support them,' an Ottawa resident said. 'How many art-history and English majors does one country need?'
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Obama tells supporters to get in faces of Republicans and argue
"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face," he said.
Lovely. Obama will negotiate with our nation's enemies without preconditions but he wants his supporters to get in our faces and argue.
YouTube captured the moment.
Friday, July 25, 2008
AN ENLIGHTENED VIEW
“He ventured forth to bring light to the world"
"The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers”---------
The above quote is the lead on a story by Gerard Baker about Obama’s grand tour that appears on the Times Online website today. It is very clever and well worth the read. Times Online
"The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers”---------
The above quote is the lead on a story by Gerard Baker about Obama’s grand tour that appears on the Times Online website today. It is very clever and well worth the read. Times Online
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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