A woman I knew back in Nebraska came from rich parents. No one was good enough to date her. One parent was a lawyer. The other raised show horses. She was "given" $10 million over the course of her young life. Twenty years later, as woman on the prowl in New York City, she met a man and fell for him. However, his family did not approve of her because "she is only worth $10 million" while their son was worth $50 million in inherited money and she was "too far beneath him" to be considered marriage material, let alone the mother of his children.
If I offered you a potion you could not share, but that would allow you live forever in fine health and provide you adequate financing to meet middle-class needs, would you accept my offer or not?
Here are the Top 10 Holiday Songs of All Time as performed with the most justice to the original melody:
Here are the Top 10 Christmas Songs of All Time as performed with the most dedication to the melody:
A Crooner is a singer's singer. Crooners make current songs into timeless standards.
Gray hairs are heirs to lives we no longer lead. No color can cover their intent. No plucking presumes their sense. Gray hairs are tough and wild and erupt faster and meaner than the ordinary. The sprouting of gray is the final bray below the dying sun. The respect and dread they covet from above are grasping internments of the earth.
I stumbled across a blog this morning where a woman was crying about how poor she was and how she couldn't clothe her kids and how her welfare check would barely cover her bills in December. She was using her blog to beg money from her readers and a couple even offered to send her a few dollars. I wanted to tell her to close down her blog and get a job to get off welfare and provide for her family. Would you use your blog to ask people to send you money because you're too lazy to work?
Yesterday I purchased the "Panasonic NN-T965SF Luxury Full-Size 2.2-Cubic-Foot 1,250-Watt Microwave Oven, Stainless" -- as Amazon tongue-tyingly describes it -- for $150.
Why, I remember back when tiny 500 Watt microwave ovens were the price of a small horse!
$150 is a great price for a microwave oven that is bigger and more powerful than a Hummer!
The problem is I can't use the microwave oven at full 1,250 Watt power because it konks out our electricity by tripping the outlet reset switch. If I step the behemoth down two notches -- to 1,000 Watts? if each "power step" is worth 125 Watts? -- I can use the monster. Beware of what you buy and be careful what you wish for because you might go into meltdown!
What is the best microwave popcorn if you prefer a healthy, but oh-so-buttery taste? Okay, forget the healthy. What's the best tasting microwave popcorn bar none? I tried the Pop Secret Kettle Corn yesterday but it is too sweet for me: It tastes like cotton candy.
The New York Public Schools this week instituted a new policy when teaching children how to avoid spreading disease and infections via their mouths. Children used to be taught to cover their mouths with their hands if they sneezed or coughed or yawned. That was problematic because children then used those infected hands to touch things, and each other, and viruses and disease were easily spread that way. Now teachers ask the children to cough into the crooks of their arms instead of into their hands. It's a brilliant, yet simple, idea that everyone should now adopt and it is a further delightful example of how education and better healthcare can immediately benefit the young and, in turn, us all. Of small instructions blossom good things.
In the National Basketball Association there are league rules that try to control the behavior of the teams, players, coaches and administration.
What is the going rate for ridicule in the NBA? If you are the Sacramento Kings, the price is $30,000.
We have been out of Sacramento for 24 hours now so it's time to look back and share some impressions while they are fresh and of the mind and not the memory. Flying into Sacramento is like diving into a miles long patchwork of streams and parcels of farmland.
You feel like you're landing in a pasture when your plane touches down. There is no doubt this part of California thrives on agriculture and living from the land. This Sacramento Reloaded post generally deals with experiences within a 30 minute walking radius of the Sheraton Grand hotel in four directions of the wind.
The first sign you're spending too much time on the computer is when the "L" on your "L" key wears off!
I had no clue I was using that letter so much and, frankly, I’m a little ticked off about the new blank key because I've only had this box for six months!
Have any of the labels worn off your keyboard? If so, how long did it take to wear away?
Here are the Top 10 Bands of All Time. Longevity is not important.
Here are the Top 10 Songs of All Time. Preference is given to lyric depth, memorable melody, re-recording by other singers and sustained length of cultural significance in order to become a classic in the American mainstream mind.
How many hours do you spend alone online a day and, at the end of the day, do you have anything real you can hold in your hand or is everything you experienced only stored in the core of your virtual existence?
When you are online at home or at work what are you doing and in what percentage? Reading? Writing? Watching something? Buying something? Something else?
What things do you do online that requires an ongoing payment or subscription?
An hour ago my Verizon phone line died and my DSL went belly up as well and I lost all connectivity.
I knew I should have Comcast Cable Internet, too!
Gah!
I hate being disconnected from my virtual life!
Verizon are coming sometime tomorrow in a giant 12 hour service window to maybe fix my problem. We'll see if they actually show up or not. My money is on Wednesday and not tomorrow.
And then -- With my Voice line dead I decided to fire up my box to see if my WiFi hunter could borrow someone else's bandwidth for a bit and I was surprised to see my DSL line is back up and working while my voice line is still dead.
HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! IT'S THE SAME LINE!
I see there are new messages here and I will do my best to stay connected for as long as possible to answer them all but if I get cut off again and disappear for awhile you'll know it's because of Verizon and not because I no longer love you.
Quest Diagnostics, headquartered in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, is the largest clinical lab in the United States and they have created a new screening test to detect the Avian Flu. That means we now have a rapid way to find out if a person is sick with “regular flu†or the more deadly Avian Flu. The test uses gene based screening that will identify the H5N1 strain of Influenza A virus (the Avian Flu) via respiratory (lungs, breathing, etc.) samples from sputum (spit, mucus, etc.), swabs and bronchial washes.
Only Children unite!
We are special!
We are misunderstood!
We are good in ways Ordinary Children can never achieve!
If you are one of the unlucky Ordinary who had to share with brothers and/or sisters while growing up, we pity you, and please allow us some sharp elbow room as we take a moment to celebrate the goodness of Only Children.
We understand only Only Children will understand most of this post.
I thank you for those numbers.
This blog is nothing without you.
Please list as many draft titles as you like in order of preference and if you can give me at least three that would be really great.
I can't promise I'll finish any of these in any particular order -- sometimes instants of inspiration hit and I write the main post on the spot for days on end -- but knowing what fires your interest will help me focus on trying to deliver the best possible posts for evergreen inspiration.
Sometimes the titles change at the last minute so a title you pick today may show up tomorrow with an all-new title. Some of these drafts will end up being 
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