USELESS INFO THURSDAY

~  After 1912 the Olympic gold medal was no longer made entirely of gold.  Under current regulations, each medal must me 92.5% silver and coated with at least 6 grams of 24-karat gold.

~  The Mona Lisa is not painted on canvas.  Leonardo da Vinci painted her on a solid panel of fine-grained white poplar.

~  Nepal is the only country whose flag is not rectangular or square.  It consists of two overlapping right triangles, or pennants, one above the other.

~  There are 118 reeds - or ridges - on the edge of a dime, 150 on the edge of a half-dollar, and 119 on the edge of a quarter.

~  A skunk can accurately aim its foul-smelling spray 15 feet.

SANTA'S ELVES!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas break.  I thought I would share with you what Jimmy and I spent last Friday doing.....

Yep.  His grandaughter got this for Christmas, so we spent all day Friday in Birmingham assembling Fort Tatum!  Needless to say...it was a labor of love! 

Hope you all have a very safe and Happy New Year!

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

I might have gone a bit overboard this year....



Merry Christmas!

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~  A Wendy's fast food served as the McDowell's Restaurant where Prince Akeem, portrayed by Eddie Murphy, worked in the 1988 film Coming to America.  It was in Jackson Heights in New York City and was closed for renovations at the time.

~  The laughing kookaburra (a native of Australia and New Guinea) is often used as a sound effect in jungle films because it's easily mistaken for the noise made by a group of monkeys.

~  When it comes to Italian sauces Bolognese means prepared in the style of Bologna.  Marinara means prepared sailor-style.  The simple meatless sauce was once a staple aboard Italian ships.

~  Martha Stewart listed her motto as "I do what I please and I do it with ease" in her high school yearbook.  In 1959 she was a senior at Nutley High School in Nutley, New Jersey.

~  In the United Kingdom, plastic wrap is called cling film.

WEEKEND REWIND

Had a busy, busy weekend...

1.  Finished Christmas shopping (well, almost - haven't bought groceries for the big meal)

2.  Moved art from Mom's old house to her apartment (and when I say art, I don't mean 3 or 4 pictures, more like 25)

3.  (Best thing I did) Went to see Washaway (Rachel's boyfriend) play music on Saturday!  Wash plays the drums.

http://lafango.com/epk/grayblackandwhite#.Tud6N-sPg04.facebook

Gray Black and White made their debut Saturday...and they rocked.  We all had so much fun listening to them.  The venue was a little iffy, but it was fun!

Thanks so much to TCW, Wino Bill, BTut and the Big Dawes for coming to see them!

CALL ME REALLY CRAZY...

...but when my boyfriend told me he would like one of these food choppers from Tupperware for Christmas, I just had to get it for him.

Call me crazy, because it cost $70 and I bought it anyway.

Call me REALLY CRAZY, because as I was checking out they said I only had to spend $15 more dollars for free shipping...(can you see where this is going?)...so I went back and changed my quantity to 2!  Yep, I got one for myself.  I couldn't just find something for $15....no, I had to spend an additional $70.

I am such a sucker for free shipping.

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~  It takes approximately 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.

~  Nikita Khrushchev was barred from visiting Disneyland during the cold war in 1959 for security reasons.  The Soviet premier raged, "What is it, do you have rocket-launching pads there?"

~  The eight Rocky Mountain states are Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

~  Clark Kent, aka Superman, worked as a reported at the "Daily Planet."  Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, worked at the "Daily Bugle" as a freelance photographer.

~  According to legend, the thistle became the national emblem of Scotland when Norse raiders slipped ashore at night in 1263. They went barefoot to avoid alerting the sleeping Scots.  The strategy failed after one of the invaders stepped on a prickly thistle and screamed in pain, rousing the clansmen - who then defeated the Norsemen in the Battle of Largs.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS...

The trees are up!  And they look fantastic!  Rayray surprised me and set up her Disney tree all by herself!  I know that sounds funny considering she is 21, but this is the first year she did it all.  It looks great and makes our den so festive!

Here's Pooh, and you can see the Genie from Aladdin on the right and Mickey tangled up in lights on the left...

....wouldn't be Disney without 101 Dalmatians....

...and it wouldn't be 101 Dalmatians without Cruella!
                                     

Here's is our family tree (kinda fuzzy).  It is quirky and fun just like us!  Our ornaments range from places we've been, movies and tv we love, just anything!  And we love it that way!

Survivor ornament feels completely at home next to sock monkey!

The Island of Misfit Kids love hanging out next to a tacky yellow Empire State Building!

And, of course, we have to have the "LEG LAMP" from A Christmas Story.  This is one of many ornaments from that movie we have.

And topping it all off is the real kicker!  Rayray bought me this star last year from Anthropology, and I love it!  It is perfect for our tree!

(Photos courtesy of Rayray!)

FUNNY THINGS I HEARD THIS WEEKEND

"My grandkids are all girls except the one that's a boy."

"If it doesn't burn my mouth I'm not happy."

"Sally threw up in the sock drawer."

"She wants to stop at Costco and get the economy sized thing of Brazil nuts."

singing "Cover me up before you go go...."  (Wake me up before you go go)

"It's just...we're fat and we're married.  That's it."

"The other conferences should be glad that Bama and LSU are going to the championship....at least they are guaranteed an SEC team will lose.  That's the only way."

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~  French born wrestler Andre the Giant fought under the name Monster Eiffel Tower early in his career.

~  The Kansas City Chiefs holds the National Football League record for most yard penalized in a single season with 1,304 penalty yards in 1998.

~  Crocodiles swallow stones to help themselves dive deeper and remain submerged longer.  It also aids in digestion.

~  The popular 1969 buddy movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" ends with the understatement, "For a minute, I thought we were in trouble."  The words were spoken by Cassidy (Newman).

~  The minimum size set for holes in U.S. manufactured Grade A Swiss cheese is 3/8 inch.  The maximum is 13/16 inch.  The voluntary standards were set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2001.  Previously the holes, or eyes, had to be larger - between 11/16 and 13/16.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

Does anyone think it is weird that I, a 42 year old woman, was one of the 10 million viewers that tuned in to watch "Rudolph" on CBS Tuesday night?  I certainly don't.  Yep, I sat at my house, by myself (Josh could only handle about 3.7 minutes of it), and thoroughly enjoyed it!  I will admit I had to go outside and smoke when all the other reindeer were being mean to Rudolph at training. 

I was so inspired that I had to do....

....THIS!  A few years ago Rayray and I found most all the the characters for sale at Dollar General.  So, I just sat them up in the den where I can enjoy them this Christmas Season!

Have a good weekend!

SOUTHERN FRIED THURSDAY

"I suggest that the true Southland is that territory within which, when asked by an outsider whether he is a Southerner, the reply almost invariable is "Hell Yes!"  This 'Hell Yes' line has the advantage of eliminating the ambivalent wishy-washy fringes, and leaving the unquestionable defiant, hard-core Southland.
     ~  Hamilton C. Horton, Jr.

"I would have been alright if I'd never left the South."
     ~  "Martha the Mouth" Mitchell, wife of Nixon campaign manager/attorney General John Mitchell

"Horizons without a red clay motif are somebody else's horizons."
     ~  Lewis Grizzard

"...the green kudzu vine covered the sides of the mountains...and the air was heavy and moist with the smell of gardenias and barbecue."
     ~  Fannie Flagg, "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"

"There is a profound conviction that the South is another land, sharply differentiated from the rest of the American nation."
     ~  W.J. Cash, "The Mind of the South"

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~ Wisconsin produces more than half of the U.S.'s cranberry crop.  Massachusetts is second, followed by New Jersey and then Oregon.  The rest of the nation's crop is grown in Washington, Maine, Michigan and Minnesota.

~  Korea was once known as the Hermit Kingdom because of its strict isolationism in the late 19th century, before it signed trade agreements with the U.S. and other Western nations.

~  Before the collapsible metal tube was invented, artists commonly used small pouches made from a pig's bladder to hold their oil paints.  The metal tube was invented in 1841 by South Carolina portrait artist John G. Rand. (I was tempted to find a picture of a pig's bladder)

~  The width of a cut made by a saw is called the kerf.

~  When computer scientist Scott Fahlman introduced the smiley face emoticon in 1982 it was called the joke marker.  Fahlman, who is known as the father of the emoticon, created the :-) symbol so people would know when an e-mail was not intended to be taken seriously.

TURKEY TRIVIA!

OOPS!  This was supposed to post on Thanksgiving!  Sorry!

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Quiz courtesy of Aristotle, Inc.

1. When was the first Thanksgiving celebration?

a.  1492
b.  1567
c.  1621
d.  1777

2. Where was the turkey first domesticated?
a.  Canada
b.  Mexico and Central America
c.  New Zealand
d.  India

3. What is a female turkey called?
a.  a rooster
b.  a cuckoo
c.  a chick
d.  a hen

4. What is a male turkey called?
a.  a larry
b.  a clark
c.  a harry
d.  a tom

5. What great American statesman lobbied to make the turkey the national symbol?
a.  Benjamin Franklin
b.  Thomas Jefferson
c.  John Adams
d.  Andrew Jackson

6. What sound does a female turkey make?
a.  gobble
b.  cluck
c.  chirp
d.  peep

7. What sound does a male turkey make?
a.  gobble
b.  click
c.  chirp
d.  peep

8. About how many feathers does a mature turkey have?
a.  1,500
b.  2,000
c.  3,500
d.  5,000

9. Which state produces the most turkeys annually?
a.  Kansas
b.  Ohio
c.  Arkansas
d.  Minnesota

10. How fast can wild turkeys run?
a.  5 mph
b.  15 mph
c.  25 mph
d.  45 mph

11. How does Arkansas rank among the other states in turkey production?
a.  first
b.  third
c.  eighth
d.  fourteenth

12. What Native American tribe celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the colonists?
a.  the Wampanoag tribe
b.  the Sioux tribe
c.  the Choctaw tribe
d.  the Arapaho tribe

13. Can wild turkeys fly? If so, how fast?
a.  No.
b.  Yes, up to 25 mph
c.  Yes, up to 40 mph
d.  Yes, up to 55 mph

14. Approximately what percentage of American homes eats turkey on Thanksgiving?
a.  49%
b.  67%
c.  82%
d.  90%

15. Approximately what percentage of American homes eats turkey on Christmas?
a.  34%
b.  50%
c.  67%
d.  89%

16. What is the name of the skin that hangs from a turkey's neck?
a.  snark
b.  wattle
c.  garble
d.  swag

17. Which U.S. president specified that Thanksgiving would fall on the last Thursday of November?
a.  Martin Van Buren
b.  Andrew Jackson
c.  William H. Taft
d.  Abraham Lincoln

18. Which president attempted to move the Thanksgiving holiday to the fourth Thursday in November to create a longer Christmas shopping season?
a.  Franklin D. Roosevelt
b.  Dwight D. Eisenhower
c.  Harry S. Truman
d.  Gerald R. Ford

19. Which country consumes the most turkey per year per capita?
a.  The United States
b.  Israel
c.  Spain
d.  The United Kingdom

20. What is the best way to defrost a turkey?
a.  with a hair dryer
b.  in the refrigerator
c.  in cold water
d.  in the microwave oven

 
ANSWERS:
1.  1621
2.  Mexico and Central America
3.  a hen
4.  a tom
5.  Benjamin Franklin
6.  cluck
7.  gobble
8.  3,500
9.  Minnesota
10.  25 mph
11.  third
12.  the Wampanoag trive
13.  yes, up to 55 mph
14.  90%
15.  50%
16.  wattle
17.  Abraham Lincoln
18.  Franklin D. Roosevelt
19.  Isreal
20.  in the refrigerator

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~  An African elephant's ear can weigh up the 110 pounds.  Each of their ears measures as much as 6 feet high and 4 feet wide.

~  James Dean was the only performer to be nominated twice posthumously for a Best Actor Oscar.  he was nominated for East of Eden (1955) and Giant (1956), but didn't win either.  He died September 1955.

~  In Greek mythology, the river Styx circles Hades nine times.

~  During WW II Operation Sauerkraut was the code name of a successful Office of Strategic Services project in which disaffected Germans (aka sour krauts) were recruited in prisoner-of-war camps to slip behind enemy lines to spread rumors and distribute Allied propaganda.

~  The town of Snowflake, Arizona got its name, not from precipitation, but for its two founders, Mormon pioneers Erastus Snow and William Flake in 1878.

NO DOUBLE CHINS HERE!

SOMEDAYS I WISH I WERE SALLY....

...no worries, no expenses, no crisis in her life.  All she has to worry about is eating and sleeping, and occasionally Tay, the neighbor's cat.  Yes, I could live her life, soaking up the sun on a warm day....

...but I probably wouldn't do it on the hood of a car.

Love you Salad, Evil Zlid, Wombat, Sally Jefferson Jackson Johnson Washington Campbell.

USELESS INFO TUESDAY

~  A cross between a camel and a llama is called a cama.  Because of the great size difference between the camel and the llama, artificial insemination was used to produce the first cama, a male named Rama, in 1998.

~  In the famous Mary Shelley horror story, Frankenstein's first name was Victor.

~  625 square feet of lawn is needed to provide a day's oxygen needs for one person.

~  The only crime that can disqualify a prisoner in Vermont from voting is election fraud.  Vermont and Maine are the only two states that permit prisoners to vote (by absentee ballot).

~  King Uther was the name of King Arthur's father.  His full name was Uther Pendragon.