Archive for the ‘New York’ Tag

05/16/2024 “Unknown History”   Leave a comment

As you’re probably aware I collect weird and odd trivia. I stumbled upon a book by a Mr. Russ Kick titled “50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know”. It’s a collection of somewhat obscure facts collected by Kick. I’ll list ten of the facts from the book without the accompanying lengthy explanations provided to prove his points. Some facts appear outrageous, but it seems his research was well done. If you want to check his facts, then you’ll need to find and buy the book or do some lengthy research online.

Barbie is based on a German sex doll

Fetuses masturbate

George Washington embezzled government funds

Scientists are re-creating the highly lethal 1918 Spanish Flu virus

Several thousand Americans were held in Nazi concentration camps during WW2

Well over 300,000 tons of chemical weapons have been dumped into the sea

Men have clitorises

Native Americans were once kept as slaves

James Audubon killed all the birds he painted

The Environmental Protection Agency lied about New York’s air quality after the 9/11 disaster.

This little book makes for interesting reading.

07/06/2023 šŸ’„šŸ’„1965 Limerick AlertšŸ’„šŸ’„   Leave a comment

These limericks were published in New York in 1965. They made their way into my hands via the Northside School Library in Rogers, Arkansas. The last date the book was signed out was on April Fool’s Day in 1967. From reading them I would guess many of them were written in Great Britain, but I’ll note the authors when I can. Enjoy!

🫤🫤🫤

There was a young man of Calcutta

Who spoke with a terrible stutta,

At breakfast he said,

“Get me some b-b-b-bread

And b-b-b-b-b-b-butta.”

😯😯😯

By Robert Louis Stevenson

There once was an old man of the Cape,

Who made himself garments of crepe.

When asked, “Do they tear?”

He replied, “Here and there,

But they’re perfectly splendid for shape!”

😊😊😊

A small boy when asked to spell “yacht,”

Most saucily said, “I will nacht.”

So, his teacher in wrath,

Took a section of lathe,

And warmed him up well on the spacht.

😬😬😬

There was a young bard of Japan

Whose limericks never would scan.

When they said it was so,

He replied “Yes I know,

But I make a rule of always trying to get just as many words into the last line as I possibly can.”

šŸ˜ŽšŸ˜ŽšŸ˜Ž

SUMMER’S FINALLY HERE

01-07-2014 Ben Franklin and Me   2 comments

ā€œEnergy and persistence conquer all things.ā€

I’m exhausted today. I was up half the night, not from insomnia, but from an e-book I’ve been reading. I downloaded the book from Amazon on a whim never thinking I’d be all that interested once I started reading it. Boy was I ever wrong.

ā€œA countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.ā€

I’ve always been an admirer ofĀ  a number of this country’s forefathers but there were three that interested me more than the others. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and of course Benjamin Franklin. Without those three individuals we’d probably still be under the thumb of the British Empire and never have turned into the superpower that we’ve become. That’s the primary reason that I downloaded the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, written by his own hand, and in the language of the day. I wanted to get to know him a little better.

ā€œA slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.ā€

I have to admit I was expecting very little from the experience but after reading just a few pages I knew I was hooked. I’m now 400 pages into a 2000 page autobiography which started when Mr. Franklin was 5 and I don’t know where it ends because I haven’t finished it yet. It supplied me with a brief but detailed description and history of his immediate family and included a laundry list of his closest friends and acquaintances. It absolutely boggles the mind how things fell together for this man and the number of movers and shakers in the colonies at that time who he’d met and exchanged ideas with.

ā€Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.ā€

I can now understand why his influences were felt throughout the colonies, in England, and throughout Europe. His elegant way of writing is what brought him to the attention of many and now I can be included in that number. He writes in such an honest and simple fashion but conveys so much more than he actually says. It allows you to peek into his brain to understand why he did the many things he did and the decision-making process he developed. After reading just 400 pages I feel like one of his best friends and I’m sure that’s the same effect he had on the people of the time. He loved reading and writing and voicing his opinions and did so whenever possible to whoever would listen. Fortunately for all of us he knew what he was talking about and much of what he said and did was for the benefit of us all.

ā€Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.ā€

I’m at the point in the book now where Mr. Franklin is about 22 years old. I can’t put the damn book down and I can’t wait for him to age a few more decades so I can listen to his experiences as a politician and inventor and his extended assignments in Europe which later proved to be crucial to the war effort.

ā€œAt twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty the wit; at forty the judgment.ā€

I just downloaded a second volume containing stories and memoirs of his life again written by his own hand. I can’t wait to read that as well. I’m looking forward to at least four more late nights in order to finish this first volume. I’m taking my time and trying not to miss any of the details or nuances he so artfully fills each paragraph with. I realize subject matter like this will bore some of you and that’s okay but I’ll still be mentioning it because for me it’s exciting. When I read I actually feel like I’m there as he’s writing his book. I feel like I’m standing behind him looking over his shoulder in the candle light as he struggles to put his thoughts in some kind of logical order. I can’t wait for tonight when I can go back to the colonies and sit with Ben Franklin and learn a few more things.

ā€œBe slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.ā€

11-17-2013 Islam and Me   Leave a comment

I think of myself on most days as a fair and honest thinking person.Ā  It’s the way I like to be treated therefore it’s how I try to treat people I meet.Ā  With that in mind I thought I would make one more try to understand our Islamic brothers and sisters without painting them all with the ā€œTerrorist Brushā€.Ā  I didn’t say it would be easy but I’m willing to make the attempt one more time.

I’m a patriotic American and the anger than I hold inside myself is in response to terrorism in general and 9/11 in particular. It’s now been a dozen years since the 9/11 attacks and that anger hasn’t abated in the least.Ā  Let me go back to that time and explain.

I had just become unemployed when the company I worked for went bankrupt.Ā  I was sitting on my coach watching the entire attack from start to finish, unable to move or take my eyes from the screen.Ā  I wasn’t alone. there were millions of others doing the same damn thing.

A week of so later I decided to learn as much as I could about our new Islamic enemies and the alleged reasons for their actions.Ā  The first thing I did was to read the Koran from cover to cover. It’s much like the Bible and the Talmud where it’s intentionally written in such a way as to allow a lot of room for interpretation. I visited certain Islamic web-sites and read ream after ream of supposed religious quotations designed to entice non-thinking individuals into idiotic actions.Ā  I was confused almost immediately because almost none of what I was reading was found in the Koran as they claimed.Ā  As with some Christian sects, words from ancient texts were intentionallyĀ  misquoted and corrupted and made to fit the extremist views of the writer.

Looking at history the Islamic culture at one time was the leader in almost everything including but not limited to the scientific, education, astronomy, and hundreds of others areas.Ā  They ruled most of the civilized world for centuries and did a pretty decent job of it.Ā  They were murderous and ruthless but so was everyone else including the Christians at that time.

Jump ahead to the present day and things have changed dramatically.Ā  They are no longer the ā€œBig Dogā€ and anyone not with them must convert or die.Ā  It’s truly a moronic approach but it’s what the extremists have chosen.Ā  It should be stated clearly that worldwide they kill more of their own people than anyone else which I can’t even begin to understand.

The following quotations are Islamic proverbs which would be perfectly acceptable to almost anyone of any religion.Ā  Ninety percent of the Islamic people are hard working and only interested in leading a good life and raising their families, just like everyone else.Ā  These proverbs prove that for me.Ā  Read them for yourselves and decide.

ā€œIt is wise to bring some water, when one goes out to look for water.’

ā€œHabit is the 6th sense that overrules the other.ā€

ā€Paradise can be found on the back of horses, in books and between the breasts of women.ā€

ā€˜If you have much, give of your wealth; If you have little, give of your heart.ā€

ā€œMarriage is like a fort, those who are in want out, those who are out want in.ā€

ā€œA fat woman is a blanket for winter.ā€

ā€œA woman can hide her love for 40 years, but her disgust and anger not for one dayā€.

ā€œEven a one eyed guy will wink at a beautiful woman.ā€

ā€œLove sees sharply, hatred sees even more sharp, but jealousy sees the sharpest for it is love and hate at the same time.ā€

ā€œWhen you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.ā€

ā€œLie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for a trickster and catch him at first attempt, but beware of an honest manā€

ā€œAnything that happens once does not necessarily happen again, everything that happens twice is likely to happen for the third time as well.ā€

ā€œOn the day of victory no one is tired.ā€

ā€œFear can make a donkey attack a lion.ā€

ā€œGod can see a black ant walk on a black stone in a black night.ā€

ā€œFear those who are afraid of you.ā€

ā€œWe learn little from our successes, but a lot from our failuresā€

Now that I’ve given them credit where it is due I must in good faith throw a huge and important criticism in their collective faces.Ā  Until the ninety percent of reasonableĀ Muslim’s decide to stand up and denounce that extremist ten percent there can be no peace.Ā  I want to see the Islamic population of every little mosque on the planet take a stand against the murder of innocents for political gain.Ā  They continue to stay quiet because of their fear of retaliation from the extremists and at the same time insist on whiningĀ and crying about the bad treatment they receive from non-Muslims.Ā  You can’t have it both ways.Ā  Period.Ā  End of story.