Tag: in the news

The Easter Egg tree to beat….

WOW.. just absolutely beautiful.   “Volker Kraft hung 10,000 colored eggs in his apple tree this week in Saalfeld, Germany.”

His story….

SAALFELD, Germany — You thought Easter eggs don’t grow on trees?
Check out Volker Kraft’s garden in eastern Germany, and think again.

Kraft’s apple sapling sported just 18 eggs when he first decorated it
for Easter in 1965. The number increased year by year; and by last
year, the sturdy tree was festooned with 9,800 eggs, artfully decorated
with everything from sequins to sea shells.

This time, Kraft has reached 10,000 – and he says he’s stopping there.

“There will be no increase because I do not have storage capacity
anymore,” the 76-year-old retiree says. “I would have to sleep with the
eggs otherwise.”

Kraft’s tree in the town of Saalfeld has become a tourist attraction,
drawing thousands of people every year. Decorating trees with colored
eggs at Easter is a tradition in Germany – though usually on a smaller
scale.

Kraft started with plastic eggs decades ago, but later switched to
real eggs and enlisted his family’s help in blowing out the insides of
the eggs and painting them.

“You can now see here what develops after 47 years, when the tree
grows, the wife blows the eggs and the children start painting,” he
says.

Flight 370 and the Circus we know as CNN

 It’s a horrible thing… the idea of loved ones most likely deceased in a plane that has vanished, apparently, without a trace, despite the medias best efforts to create a circus out of the tragedy and put it in our face nonstop 24-7.  I hope the families can find some peace of mind, but they won’t get it from the news coverage or the failed search efforts so far. Hard to fathom in this day and age that weeks later this plane can’t be found, with all the technology out there. I  could go on, but I won’t… instead, giving you one of my favorite bloggers words on the issue  because he hit the nail on the head perfectly, as he so often does.

Ok, so I popped in to see what CNN was talking about today, and yes, you guessed it, Flight 370.




I know I know, I said I wouldn’t watch anymore, but I couldn’t help myself. 




I don’t mean to make light of the tragedy that took place and the 370
lives that are presumed lost. I can’t imagine how the family’s of those
doomed souls feel, considering everyones apparent ineptness  at finding a
plane that somehow just disappeared out of the sky.







What I am making light of is this “Saturday Night live Skit” CNN calls it’s coverage of this disaster.




I mean, seriously, can you be anymore over the top with your coverage?







Their never ending banner that runs 24/7 across the bottom of the screen which yells,




“BREAKING NEWS!! FLIGHT 370………”




Hey CNN. It’s not BREAKING news anymore.







They now have a counter going, telling us the ESTIMATED BLACK BOX LIFE.




Last I checked it was 6 DAYS      2 HOURS.




Really??




It’s like the Times Square countdown to the new year. The only thing missing on the CNN set are the party favors.







Just when I thought I’d seen everything that would make Walter Cronkite
puke, their coverage switched from the studio to a guy standing in a
little boat 10 miles at sea from Perth.




Was he in the search area, is that why he was in a little boat? Hell no. He was hundreds of miles from the search area.




So…..did they put him in a boat no where near the search area so as he
was talking about the authorities searching the ocean for clues, we
could get an idea of what the ocean looks like?







As they were wrapping up the segment, Wolf Blitzer ( I always think of
Dash Riprock of Beverly hillbilly fame when I hear his name ) asked the
reporter standing in the little boat hundreds of miles from the search
zone, if he see’s any junk in the water where he is at. I could tell the
reporter just wanted to yell at Dash, I mean Wolf, “hell no I don’t see
anything in the water, I’M HUNDREDS OF MILES FROM THE SEARCH ZONE !







I’m giving up CNN for lent. I swear.

You can visit Marks blog HERE. I highly recommend it.   And.. blogger will not let me correct the annoying placement of sentences or spaces between sentences this morning.. I apologize for the odd format.   *sigh*  

The Dog Whisperer

“Spiritual fulfillment doesn’t have to mean belief in a religion or
disbelief in science… Whether one believes in an unseen, all-knowing
force, or the wonder of science and the
universe, or simply the beauty of the human spirit, nearly every one of
us feels an inner longing to feel part of something bigger than
ourselves.” 

– Cesar Millan 


I love this guy… not just because I’m a dog lover.  Do you know his -story- ?  He came to America to better his life. He began his journey here as a very young homeless man living under a highway overpass.  He immediately started a job search, no easy feat under the circumstances.  His first job was at a dog grooming facility , existing on those lovely convenience store hot dogs and water. As it became clear he had a natural way with dogs…he was eventually able to create the Pacific Point Canine Academy.  Jada Pinkett Smith became one of Millan’s first clients and supporters, (he was at that time also a limousine driver) – and she  provided him with an English tutor for a year. Then, Cesar  created the Dog Psychology Center, a 2-acre facility in South Los Angeles —specializing in working with large breed dogs.  Nat Geo took notice and we all know him now as the Dog Whisperer.  He has also been open about his struggle with depression, hoping to help others who might be suffering as well. 

Cesar, you will never read this, I’m sure.. but I’m putting it out into the Universe anyway.. you’re a class act all the way.  The world is a better place because you are in it.

 

*sigh* ready for another controversial conversation?

The New York Jets have signed with Michael Vick, the NFL quarterback widely known for his participation in dog fighting and countless acts of cruelty by his own hands to his dogs.  Here’s a pic… and I didn’t warn in my post header of the graphic nature of this post because we have to stop looking away from uncomfortable things.  

 

This was posted on a friends FB page this morning…

Question…. First off, I’m not a Jets fan
and I am a huge animal lover. My question is this…hasn’t Michael
Vick paid for his crime and made amends or has he not? I don’t really
follow the story. I know how horrific it was fighting dogs, but I
wonder what all the hating is going to serve. Can anyone forgive?
Sorry if I upset anyone, just wondering and thinking that he is human
and has a mother, etc… Any thoughts? Perhaps he’s not sorry, like
I said, I don’t follow him, so I’m curious. I’d hate to hear Vick
bashing and Jets bashing all season. I hope this doesn’t start a big
nasty debate.

My Response on her post…  I
can’t forgive a man who shoved dogs in a bathtub and electrocuted them
for fun. My opinion is that someone who could do that is made up of
stuff that I can never understand or forgive. This isn’t about a bad
mistake made.. this was a choice made over and over again to be horribly
inhumane, and this was after he was already making millions, was an adult and should have known better. Why
should we glorify him and make him a multi millionaire? What does that
say about our society as a whole? Nothing good, I think that’s safe to
say. He only stopped doing it because he was caught and shamed and will
be watched closely to be sure he doesn’t participate again. Here’s my
question… do you really feel he deserves forgiveness? Some people
are not worthy when the crime is that cruel.

What would your response have been?  As Diana had stated, I hope it doesn’t start a nasty debate, but ignoring these issues because they are unpleasant does not solve any problems, right any wrongs, bring us any closer to our supposed humanity.  We owe it to each other to discuss and take action and to eradicate hate, cruelty and abuse on any level.  

And I feel I have to say this because I am what I am…. When religious beliefs dictate that all should find forgiveness, I can’t abide with certain instances. There are some crimes too heinous and there are those who are unworthy.  Who am I to judge who is worthy and who is not?.. you might say.   I say anyone who can take another beings life and torture it, abuse, maim and kill.. all for the sport of it, for the fun of it…again and again and again….  IS NOT WORTHY.  

This, That.. and something else entirely.

  I am very pleased to see that the powers that be saw the discrimination in the Brewer Bill in Arizona and the state continues to be open for business… to everyone.  If interested, read article HERE.  

 This has been shared on FB, and for me it epitomizes how I felt about the bill
and the mentality of it. 
On another note, neighbor Carol Ann sent me this..

Amen. 
About the Red Dog Project… since the innaugural  group of dogs has now been adopted, they are bringing nine new pups in from Georgia that were living in a small house along the highway, never handled by humans and in danger of being run over by the highway traffic.  One of our Rescue friends down there pulled them all after the owner of the house made it clear he wasn’t going to care for them… and they are being vetted and eventually spayed/neutered.. and will be transported to the Correctional facility here in CT for training and care – and then adoption.  The Corrections Officers will actually drive down on their own time to pick them up, how awesome is that!!  These guys are adorable… not sure of the mix of breed yet.. any guesses from my readers?   We call them the Highway Nine. 
If you’d like to contribute to their rescue expenses, there’s a donate widget HERE on the Red Dog site.  Every dollar helps us achieve our rescue and rehab mission. You know I’ll keep you posted on the highway nine’s progress.  Red Dog is trying to bring the mom home too…that will be more expensive, as currently there is no foster available for her and she will need to undergo heartworm testing and possibly treatment.  

I love when people come together to get something accomplished in a postive way.It’s a beautiful thing.  And you know.. some would say… “it’s just a bunch of homeless puppies, there are so many others.”And I will tell to look at a pebble you toss in a vast lake.. see how far the ripple travels. Every step taken..counts. Every good deed makes the world a better place,no matter the scale of it.
Amen again.

WTF

CNN – Arizona’s Legislature has passed a controversial bill that would
allow business owners, as long as they assert their religious beliefs,
to deny service to gay and lesbian customers.

The bill, which the state
House of Representatives passed by a 33-27 vote Thursday, now goes to
Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican and onetime small business owner who
vetoed similar legislation last year but has expressed the right of
business owners to deny service.
Full Article HERE


When
is government going to stay out of places they don’t belong?    And when
are we going to drop the phrase GAY RIGHTS…there should be no such
phrase.   HUMAN RIGHTS…. that’s all we should be concerned with,
because that’s what WE ALL ARE .  “Rights” should have NOTHING TO DO with
who we are sexually attracted to unless we’re referring to harm to
children or sexual abuse. Seriously… grow up, America.
Just Sayin. 
 

The Gold Medal I would give out…

My family has been enjoying the winter Olympics, even though I wanted to boycott the whole thing when I heard Putin was poisoning the stray dogs in the Olympic Village area.. dogs that had been brought there by construction crews to guard the sites, then abandoned when they were no longer needed.  A pest control company was hired to use poison darts to kill the approx. 5,000 dogs disgarded.    Disgusting. 

The Sochi Gold medal I would give out – goes to all the visitors, russian activists and athletes  who are adopting  some of the dogs and puppies who were left behind.  

Several American Olympians of note –  slopestyle skiing silver medalist Gus Kenworthy.  
This guy has actually postponed his return home in order to get the paperwork
necessary to allow him to adopt several stray puppies that have captured his
heart.

 From NBC Connecticut – Lindsey Jacobellis may have failed to medal in snowboard cross in Sochi, but she’s still going home a winner. The Olympian has adopted one of the
Russian town’s famed stray dogs, whose uncertain fates have made for one
of the major human (not to mention canine) interest stories of these
Winter Games.
 
Ryan Miller and the U.S. men’s hockey team have joined the puppy-loving masses.
one of their tweets..
 “Couple of stray dogs have been cleaned up and adopted by players.” 
And there are more!
I love when that happens.  These are my Gold medal winners
Believe it or not, and maybe you are of the same belief,  there people who criticize those from the US  who adopt an animal from elsewhere.  Even now there are some with negative comments about these Olympic adoptions.   My view is.. an animal savedis an animal saved.  You only serve to discourage what is truly courageous and generous behavior when you inflict such criticism.  If you were an American visiting another country and came across a person in immediate need of help and could DO something about it.. would you just walk away because he or she is not an American? 

Durham Academy Weather Announcement

 This is hilarious… have you seen it yet? Way to go, guys….  Lyrics below.. and some info about the school itself from one of my favorite blog readers, Maggy….who is a tutor at the Hill Center across the street.

Durham Academy (aka, “DA”) has two campuses; the Upper School (high school)
and Lower School (elementary grades) are across the street from The Hill
Center, the school I tutor for. In fact, back in the late 70s, George Watts
Hill, a community leader and philanthropist, and his 2nd wife, a teacher with
three children (one which had learning disabilities), were instrumental in
bringing together educators to help address and teach students
with learning differences. That initial program morphed into what is now
The Hill Center, which is both a school as well as a training center for
teachers.

Lyrics:

All right stop, Collaborate and listen
Ice is back and the roads will glisten
Polar vortex has a hold of us tightly
Wind like a harpoon daily and nightly

Will the power stop? Yo — I don’t know
Turn up the heat and then let go
Sleet fallin’ down like a million missiles
Bringin’ school delays and early dismissals.

Dance, To the grocery store
Buy batteries before conditions become . . .
Deadly, slippery roads might be
So stay in your house and drink hot tea

Don’t worry kids, the learning’s not lost
We have Evernote, Moodle, Veracross
If there is a problem, Greg Fishel will solve it
Check out a book while the ice dissolves. It’s

Ice, ice baby. No school, there’s ice, ice baby. No school, there’s ice, ice baby. No school there’s ice, ice baby!

It’s all relative

   My trek up to the barn and coop were “crunchy” this morning.. best way to describe it.   We got the snow that changed to freezing rain yesterday and the result is about five inches of snow with a hard coating of ice. The good news is my legs are getting a good workout with every lift and step I take back and forth.  Some winters in New England are wishy washy with barely any snow and a whole lot of grey days, and some have seen three to four feet of the white stuff at a time.  This winter is a steady stream of cold, snow, ice, thaw, repeat.

  My blog friend Cheyenne in Canada is experiencing her typical winter… MINUS 43 degrees in the wee hours. She went for a walk yesterday and she could not see over the snow drifts to the fields beyond.  Like walking in a tunnel.  She sent me this pic… a little winter humor… and she said -not quite- what she’s got there right now, but she has seen this kind of snow. 

I guess it’s all relative.
 My remedy last night  to chase the winter blues… a little red.

Unrelated…
Can someone tell me why the current location for the winter Olympics was chosen in the first place?  Did they draw straws? Was there a gun to a head involved?  Oh, I know, they -won the bid- Still, hard to fathom any logical conclusions when choosing the location.
Let’s recap…. .Before it even began, gay ban and bashing, literally! Stray dog poisoning, by the hundreds! 
 Lower income residents removed from their housing, which is now demolished to make room for fancy hotel site for athletes, who are welcome even if you are gay.  Really!
What did they do with all those misplaced people?  What WILL they do with the new seaside resort fantasy land they’ve created, once the games are over?
Afraid for your safety? We feel so good about it we’ve got two Navy ships on the coast, just in case! 
Let’s not ignore the current toothpaste terror – the US warned airlines with direct flights serving Russia to be aware of the possibility that  explosive material could be concealed in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes. A US Rep said he feels reasonably sure you will be safe, but he’s not going.  That’s actually what he said.
The U.S. ski and snowboarding team has hired a private security firm. As have just about all other athletes participating. Some have received death and kidnapping threats. 
Some of these things are not new to the Olympic arena…but ALL of these things together?  Do not make for a pretty picture.  Even after all their hard work and desire to attend the games,I don’t think I could, in good conscience, send one of mine over there.
-Just sayin.

Well..Dang it all to hell and back…

…now you’ve got me thinking about Velveeta.  Did I even just type that? 

   You see… something about that stuff has just always reminded me of plastic.  Like those individually wrapped slices of  yellow-orange cheese my mother used to buy at the local A & P when we were kids that were of the same ilk.  Plastic-y.  bleh.

    Oh, my mouth was so happy when on occasion I’d be invited to stay at my friends house just down the street for lunch.  They had the real sliced cheese asked for at the deli counter and those sandwiches on Pepperidge Farm bread were just delightful. To be fair, my mom worked full time and probably didn’t want to spend the time standing in line at the deli counter when she could grab that prewrapped slice package quick as lightning right off the shelf.

   Yesterday, many of you shared FOND memories of  -Velveeta- and still use it in some of your treasured recipes. I’m a little embarassed to tell you I had no idea what “Queso” was and I actually had to google it.  Knock me over with a feather!  I’ve had it!  I’ve even made it!… although I just call it Mexican dip with nachos and now that I know what Ro-Tel is I probably won’t dice my own tomatoes, peppers onions.  Being really real here, it’s true I have used Velveeta maybe four times in my life because the recipe called for it and I didn’t want to F it up.  But I couldn’t help but think… oh, boy, we’re really eating CRAP today… is there even any CHEESE in this stuff?

   Turns out, there is. 

    So..I finally decided after so much praise from some of you, that I oughta do some  research before my cheese snobbery gets me in some trouble. Keeping it real, isn’t that what I blather on about right here on this blog?

   Here’s the Velveeta story according to Wikipedia-

Velveeta is a processed cheese product having a taste that is identified as a type of American Cheese with a texture that is softer and smoother. (PLASTICY… just saying)  It was invented in 1908 by Caleb Hommel of the Monroe Cheese Company NY .    The Velveeta Cheese Company sold it to KRAFT Foods in 1927.  The product was advertised for its nutrition. (go figure!)    According to Kraft’s website, in the 1930s, Velveeta became the first cheese product to gain the American Medical Associations seal of approval  ( get out of town!)    It was reformulated in 1953 as a cheese spread.   Velveeta is labeled in the US  as a “Pasteurized Recipe Cheese Product”.  The name “Velveeta” is intended to connote a Velvety smooth edible product. Smoothness and melt ability are promoted as its properties that result by reincorporating the whey with the curd.

Ingredients:  Milk, water, whey, milk protein concentrate, milkfat, whey protein concentrate, sodium phosphate, contains 2% or less of:  Salt, calcium phosphate, lactic acid, sorbic acid, sodium citrate, sodium alginate, enzymes, apogarotenal, annato, cheese culture. 

   I have discovered that while it’s true that Velveeta is a real cheese PRODUCT –  it is high in calories, fat and sodium if you look at the overall content of that package, not just the “serving size”.. which is one little slice.   So, while you won’t kill yourself using Velveeta in your favorite occasional Queso, if you’re a regular consumer of the stuff, you’re better off Health-wise buying a -real- cheddar version for your Queso, broccoli casseroles or grilled cheese.

…although, consumers might kill  you trying to get at the stuff if you’re found with it in your possession… you do know the cheesepacolypse is upon us, don’t you? 

 
– Just sayin.