Mullet Over
One of my bubble concepts burst
By James K. White | August 19, 2009
FYI: The concept of Free Box is spreading across the U.S.A. People in communities share large boxes, shelves, small shelters, etc. wherein items they no longer want are left and anyone can come by to leave or pickup pieces of “treasure.” Telluride, Colorado has such a program and most residents consider the Free Box to be not only a successful recycling effort, but a site to meet new friends and revisit old ones. The Telluride box is cleaned of all contents once each week.
A vigilant reader from Wales recently wrote to inform me that she is not impressed with the long name I listed for an Irish location (Muckanaghederdauhaulia). She stated that Wales has a place called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgog-erychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and that is the village with the longest name in the U.K. I sense a bit of Irish/Welsh rivalry there. More from the Great Britain: On Dec. 9, 2005 someone in the U.K. organized a sing-along that was composed of more than 290,000 participants.
I recently read in print (so I know it must be true) that some forensic experts are NOT convinced that fingerprints are always unique. Some point out that “unlikely” and “impossible” are not synonymous.
Speaking of unique, I had always considered the Leaning Tower of Pisa to possess a certain slanted singularity. However, the soil in that particular region of Italy has been the reason that more than one originally vertical structure has developed a noticeable tilt. For instance, San Michele degli Scalzi is at least 200 years older than the famous Pisa tower and has almost the same tilt of 5 degrees. Italy’s San Nicola boasts a building completed in 1250 which also exhibits a quite visible lack of verticality.
Giant Pandas are considered to be the most expensive of all zoo species. $1,000,000 annual leasing fees and $600,000 newborn fees must be paid to China.
For reasons unknown to me, someone in Gremsdorf, Germany has constructed a foosball table 40 feet and 2 inches in length. The table has 80 poles and 234 soccer figures. Not to be outdone by Gremsdorfites (made that up), Ana Yang fit 26 people inside a large soap bubble in Beijing, China (2006).
One of my bubble concepts burst (“busted” in Texas) when I was informed by coffee makers that dark roasted coffee is actually weaker than medium roasted. Continued roasting burns off some of the caffeine.
Well, good luck with your Free Boxes and have a great week.
Reasons not to mess with children - Part II
The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.
'Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's
Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor.'
A small voice at the back of the room rang out, 'And there's the teacher, she's dead.'
A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, 'Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face.'
'Yes,' the class said.
'Then why is it while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?'
A little fellow shouted, 'Cause your feet ain't empty.'
One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.
She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, 'Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?'
Her mother replied, 'Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.'
The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, 'Mummy, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?'
The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: 'Take only ONE. God is watching.'
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note, 'Take all you want. God is watching the apples.'