2-10-2019 Eating and Learning

Thoughts and Quotes: As I listen to the new socialist politicians, this comes to mind.

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian"
                                                                     Henry Ford

Tidbits: Friend George found this, and I marvel at the imagination of people who come up with these. 

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:

Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. 

Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

Decafalon: The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Glibido: All talk and no action.

Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Arachnoleptic Fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:

Coffee: The person upon whom one coughs.

Flabbergasted: Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

Abdicate: To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

Esplanade: To attempt an explanation while drunk.

Willy-nilly: Impotent.

Negligent: Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

Lymph: To walk with a lisp.

Gargoyle: Olive-flavored mouthwash.

Flatulence: Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

Balderdash: A rapidly receding hairline.

Testicle: A humorous question on an exam.

Rectitude: The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

Pokemon: A Rastafarian proctologist.

Oyster: A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

Frisbeetarianism: The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

Thank You to Bus: For his response to my post last week where I told you about my brother Sonny's Bean Feed. He gave me permission to share it.

Sonny is one of the first people I hired when John Deere Remanufacturing started in 1998 as the Engineering Technical Assistant.I'm not sure if his world famous bean fries started at work then or not, but it wasn't long after then.He told me he'd been doing them for his non-work buddies for a while before he started at work.His cornbread was made with jalapenos to spice it up and cream style corn to make it moist and soft.He told me he only used premium ham and cubed it up, because cheap ham just wasn't as tasty as good ham, and that made the beans less tasty than he wanted them to.... so why not eat great ham and beans instead of OK ham and beans!!He also brought Apple/jalapeno pies for dessert for us too.I brought some home to share with my late parents who were raised on beans and cornbread.... like I was.They couldn't believe how good the beans were.....and the cornbread was over the top and the apple/ jalapeno pie!Mom and Dad raved about the meal.... for several years.When the company grew larger, for Sonny to be able to continue the bean fry.... I had to give him time off to prepare and haul it to work, then also cover part of the expenses, as he was spending his own money for all of us to enjoy.... generous man he was!!!That's when the big boss started suggesting we needed to stop it...so we did.I had the good fortune to enjoy several bean fries with Sonny Brannock...and am happy that I got to.

Sonny would have loved hearing this tribute. See why we miss him so much?

Teaching and Learning: I learned something new which I'd like to teach you, if you don't already know about it. Our Clever branch of the library had a class which caught my eye: Around the World Geography. Travel to places near and far, find new international recipes, and delve into the history and culture that make up our world.

I met Deedee, who is really fun and adept at finding her way around the data bases listed under "Research". I had seen the topics of the A-Z's  but put them in my "later when I have time file". For an hour, we traveled the world and now that I know how much is available, I'll be watching less news and doing more research in the evening.

In Christian County where I live, our headings are: A to Z the USA; A to Z World Culture; A to Z World Travel; and A to Z World Food. 

In Greene County, the heading is: Culture-grams Online. 

Most libraries probably have similar classes. Search the topics at the top of the page. It might be Online Courses, Digital Resources, or something similar. A treasury of information, and very easy to navigate. I also noticed that Greene County has a database of 600,000 biographies. What fun!

AND look for online courses under Gale or Lynda. I used a Gale course to learn how to set up this blog. I know, I know. It's not perfect, but I learned the basics - enough to do my posting.

And how about Mango? Hundreds of languages to learn. And this is just a sampling of what's available. 

AND IT'S ALL FREE WITH YOUR LIBRARY CARD (which is also free)

Thrifting: I dropped by the thrift store on my way home from class and I had only twenty minutes before they closed, but I found some goodies.

Four ceramic napkins for $1.25

And five small napkins for $1

Tasting: Katie Sue and I went to Beth's Bake Shoppe for lunch. I had the quiche and cole slaw lunch and added a cup of clam chowder. This is only the half size and the quiche was the size of a regular slice of pie. If you order the full size, you get 1/4 of the pie. I brought my quiche home for lunch the next day. 

We split a piece of Boston Cream Cake - wonderful!

And the check comes with cute little homemade mints.

The counters were full of goodies for Valentine's Day. The tray below is tiny heart sugar sandwich cookies with pink frosting in the middle.

The food is great, the ladies are sweet and helpful, and the price is right. In addition, they also have lots of unusual gift items to shop and food samples to taste. You should try it. Check it out - here's the LINK.

Take a Little Break: Watch it to the end and be awed and inspired. Click HERE.

Teaching and Learning: Something else I'd like to tell you about. Maybe you already know about bullet journaling. I'd never heard of it, so nosy as I am, I wanted to see what it was all about. I went to a class at the library, and this looks like something really useful and also lots of fun. Might be more motivating than my lists, too. The system was designed by a guy who had ADD before we gave it a label. He was in school and devised a method of keeping track. His name is Ryder Carroll and he wrote a book called The Bullet Journal Method.  Your library probably has it, or see it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

To see some examples of journal pages, I found great examples HERE.

After you see the nuts and bolts, Google "youtube bullet journaling" to see how much fun it can be. Some of my favorite journalers are  Carrie Crista, Boho Berry, planning with kay, Amanda Rach Lee, and Johanna Clough.

Teaching and Learning: Mim forwarded one of her e-newsletters from American Minute about Frederick Douglass whose birthday was February 7. So interesting, I'm providing the link. Click HERE. 

Interesting facts from the article which African-Americans may not know:

Southern slaveowners were Democrats and the Republican Party was formed by men who wanted to abolish slavery.

"Many notable black authors and speakers have criticized modern-day dependency on government entitlements as being kin to the dependency that existed on Southern Democrat plantations, where slaves waited for handouts from their masters."

And if you go to www.americanminute.com, you will find wonderful sources of history. I told Mim I felt as if I'd discovered buried treasure. Open the website and click on the All Past Posts (by category) to search by subject. Though the site is called American Minute, it contains history of the world as well. Click on Archive Search to look for past posts.

The National Days: I told you'd get to Fritos Day later and I did. I kept seeing the cheese and chili dip advertised on tv, so I tried it: 1 can chili without beans and 4 ounces cheese cubes melted together. I only used half the chili and half the cheese and didn't care for it much, so I used the other half of the chili only as the dip. Not bad, but decided it's more fun to just eat Fritos unadorned. Still haven't done Tater-Tot Day and I'll just skip everything else.

Teaching and Learning (Yes, again!): Another class at the library. This one was pop-up cards. Glad I'm not sending these. We used 8-1/2 x 11 cardstock - they'd be a fortune to mail.

Tidbits: Saw this in the libary parking lot. What are the chances of seeing three copper-colored cars in one place?

Tasting (yes, again): Class ended at lunch time, so Katy and I went to my favorite place in Ozark (Market House Cafe). Katy was one of the judges that morning for the tweens pancake contest. The pancakes were furnished, and the toppings included bacon, pepperoni, pizza sauce, cheese sauce, crunchy snacks, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, sprinkles, etc. She had to have a bite of 7 savory pancakes and 7 sweet pancakes, so not too hungry. 

Soup and Salad

I saw chicken fingers and fries being served at a nearby table, so naturally I had to have some; and the soup was green chile pork and potato, so I had to have that as well. By far, the best chicken and fries I've ever eaten. I heated my leftovers in the toaster oven for dinner, and they were still great.

Katy had Red Velvet Cheesecake

And I had Lemon-Blueberry Cake

I blabbed so much, I was too late for the Wanderlust presentation at Nixa's libary. Darn! Guess I'll have to use A to Z World to learn about Israel.

I've given you enought to digest for one session, (and I didn't even talk about dinner at Texas Roadhouse), so we'll check out George's find about "What to know when traveling to a foreign country", and some great information about tea next week.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

KEEP OFF THE ICE

AND STAY WARM

EVERYDAY

EAT SOMETHING PURPLE OR BLUE

AND GREEN

AND RED

AND ORANGE OR YELLOW

AND WHITE

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE