Station Manager Eva reporting in...
My computer was down for most of the last 4 days, reformatting the hard drive, etc. Badly needed maintenance, that's all. One great new improvement...installed Norton AntiSpam...it's working like a charm. But don't worry, I won't miss anything here at A2K. :wink:
So, what's happening, Eva?
I'm going to go look to my sources and see if I have any building info, but even I, something of an enthusiast, am wallowing in my two days off with small interest in straightening to order... You might get a recipe for a gingerbread house instead of a link on architecture..
A treatise on gingerbread houses would be perfectly topical and seasonal as well, osso. I'd love it! Go right ahead.
In order to keep WA2K's bottom line in the black and start off our new year in a sound financial position, the second of Dr. Mirrors' ads will be airing soon. Stay tuned.
While the gingerbread houses are getting in shape, WA2Ks celebrity reporter would like to remember and extend January 3 Birthday greetings to:
1793 Lucretia Mott, women's rights leader and abolitionist (Nantucket, MA; died 1880)
1883 Clement Atlee, British prime minister (London, England; died 1967)
1892 J. R. R. Tolkien, fantasy writer and philologist (Bloemfontein, South Africa; died 1973)
1897 Marion Davies, actress (Brooklyn, NY; died 1961)
1909 Victor Borge, pianist and comedian (Copenhagen, Denmark; died 2000)
1926 Joan Walsh Anglund, children's illustrator (Hinsdale, IL)
1930 Robert Loggia, actor (New York, NY)
1932 Dabney Coleman, actor (Austin, TX)
1945 Stephen Stills, singer/songwriter/musician (Dallas, TX)
1950 Victoria Principal, actress (Fukuoka, Japan)
1956 Mel Gibson, actor/director (Peekskill, NY)
Loved this guy:
WA2K is glad to have our manager, Eva, back with us, and perhaps Osso will play Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel for us as she gives us directions for a gingerbread house.
Once again, Raggedy has provided us with a celeb update. We are especially delighted with the recognition of Victor Borge, who was not only an accomplished pianist, but one of the funniest men that I have ever seen. We have a video tape of him, and enjoy watching one particular episode when he sat down at the piano; put a piece of music up and began to play a strange song. He stops, turns the music upside down, and plays the William Tell Overture. He also invented inflated language:
Any two five elevenis?
**********ADVERTISEMENT**********
Good afternoon, gentle listeners. My name is Dr. S. N. Mirrors. I have been a clinical psychologist for many years and have helped thousands of people just like you to learn more about themselves. I want to help you lead a more fulfilling life...to have healthier relationships...and to become more comfortable with yourselves. I thank WA2K for giving me this forum.
Today's topic is GOOD RELATIONSHIPS. Are you and your partner starting out the New Year on a solid footing? Or are issues from the past clouding your future? How do your feelings compare with other couples'?
Take the following quiz and we'll see how you're doing. Get a pencil and assign a number value to each of your answers using this scale:
1 = Extremely Negative
2 = Quite Negative
3 = Slightly Negative
4 = Neutral
5 = Slightly Positive
6 = Quite Positive
7 = Extremely Positive
Remember, answer these in terms of how you generally feel about your partner, taking into account the last few months. The rating you choose should reflect how you actually feel, not how you think you should feel or would like to feel. Okay, here we go.
1. How do you feel about your partner as a friend to you?
2. How do you feel about the future of your relationship?
3. How do you feel about marrying/having married your partner?
4. How do you feel about your partner's ability to put you in a good mood so that you can laugh and smile?
5. How do you feel about your partner's ability to handle stress?
6. How do you feel about the degree to which your partner understands you?
7. How do you feel about the degree to which you can trust your partner?
8. How do you feel about how your partner relates to other people?
Good. Now, the following questions are in the form of statements. Just fill in the blanks with one of the above answers (Slightly Positive, Neutral, etc.) and give yourself that number of points. Remember, it's how you generally feel, taking into account the last few months.
1. Touching my partner makes me feel ___________.
2. Being alone with my partner makes me feel __________.
3. Having sex with my partner makes me feel __________.
4. Talking and communicating with my partner makes me feel _________.
5. My partner's encouragement of my individual growth makes me feel _________.
6. My partner's physical appearance makes me feel __________.
7. Seeking comfort from my partner makes me feel __________.
8. Kissing my partner makes me feel __________.
9. Sitting or lying close to my partner makes me feel __________.
Okay, let's add up your number scores and let's see how you're doing.
HOW DO YOU COMPARE?
Score................Percentile
Men...Women
88.......94................15
94.......99................30
101.....104..............50
107.....109..............70
113.....114..............85
---------------
Why are the scores different for men and women? Because women are generally somewhat happier with their partners than men. I'll bet that about 90% of you who took this quiz are women. I'm right, aren't I!!! It's true, you women think about relationships more than we men do. We're likely to think everything's going just fine as long as you don't complain too much.
If your score was at the 50th percentile or higher, odds are your relationship is in good condition.
Dealing with money and other difficulties are an inevitable part of life, but they needn't dominate your relationship. Recent studies have shown that couples who have five times as many pleasant interactions as unpleasant ones are likely to be happy with their relationships. If the percentage of unpleasant interactions rises much higher than 20%, the couple is likely to view the relationship as burdensome.
So, it's a good idea for everyone to try to increase their number of pleasant interactions. Simple things work, like telling your partner about an amusing article in the paper or taking a walk around the block together after dinner. Cuddling while watching a movie on TV would count. So would more elaborate plans. Especially if you've been a stinker lately. It never hurts to plan an exotic vacation together or buy diamond jewelry to show your affection. All couples should indulge in some good Belgian chocolates and purchase fresh flowers for each other from time to time. Never mind the cost...it's good for your relationship. Besides, I have good buddies who are travel agents, jewelers, chocolatiers and florists. They'll give you a special discount if you tell them I referred you. We've worked out a special deal for my clients. If your partner is worried about the cost, just tell 'em the doctor said it was therapeutic.
If you scored below the 50th percentile, you're in immediate need of relationship counseling. Improving a bad relationship is hard work, and studies have shown that even couples who spend the time, effort and money to seek out professional counseling have less than a 50-50 chance of succeeding. With most counselors, that is. Our success rate is much, much higher, of course. So make an appointment today. Don't delay. Call me, Dr. Mirrors at the Smoke N. Mirrors Counseling Center, 1+800+MIRRORS. Phone answered 24 hours. GET HELP TODAY!
**********ADVERTISEMENT**********
Is this pass/fail or graded on the curve? I like curves! Twiggy had no cruves, I didn't like Twiggy.
I campaigned and voted for Shirley Chisholm in 1972. She was a magnificent woman. ---BBB
January 3, 2005
Chisholm, 'Unbossed' Pioneer in Congress, Dies
By JAMES BARRON
New York Times
Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to serve in Congress and the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, died on Saturday night at her home in Ormond Beach, Fla. She was 80. She had suffered several strokes recently, according to a former staff member, William Howard.
Mrs. Chisholm was an outspoken, steely educator-turned-politician who shattered racial and gender barriers as she became a national symbol of liberal politics in the 1960's and 1970's. Over the years, she also had a way of making statements that angered the establishment, as in 1974, when she asserted that "there is an undercurrent of resistance" to integration "among many blacks in areas of concentrated poverty and discrimination" - including in her own district in Brooklyn.
"Just wait, there may be some fireworks," she declared after winning her seat in Congress in 1968 with an upset victory in Brooklyn's 12th Congressional District, which had been created by court-ordered reapportionment.
Her slogan was "unbought and unbossed" - in the primary, she had defeated two other candidates, William C. Thompson, whom she maintained was the candidate of the Brooklyn Democratic organization, and Dolly Robinson. "The party leaders do not like me," Mrs. Chisholm said at the time.
But about 80 percent of the registered voters in the district - which included her own neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant - were Democrats. That edge helped her in her race against James Farmer, a leader of the Freedom Rides in the south in the early 1960's, who ran as an independent on the Republican and Liberal lines, and Ralph Carrano, who ran as the Conservative candidate.
"I am an historical person at this point, and I'm very much aware of it," she told The Washington Post a few months after she was sworn in.
Soon she was challenging the seniority system in the House, which had relegated her to its Agriculture Committee, an assignment she criticized as irrelevant to an urban district like hers.
"Apparently all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there," she said in a statement at the time. "Only nine black people have been elected to Congress, and those nine should be used as effectively as possible."
She said that the House speaker, John W. McCormack, had told her to "be a good soldier" and accept the agriculture assignment. Instead, she fired a parliamentary salvo at the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Wilbur D. Mills, who handed out the committee assignments. Before long, she was reassigned, first to the Veterans Affairs Committee, and eventually to the Education and Labor Committees.
Winning a better committee assignment did not make her any less acerbic on the workings of Washington. "Our representative democracy is not working," she wrote in a 1970 book that borrowed her campaign slogan as its title, "because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men."
In 1972, when she entered the presidential primaries, she did not expect to capture the Democratic nomination, which ultimately went to George S. McGovern. "Some see my candidacy as an alternate and others as symbolic or a move to make other candidates start addressing themselves to real issues," she said at the time. She did not win a single primary, but in 2002, she said her campaign had been a necessary "catalyst for change."
She was also aware of her status as a woman in politics. "I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being black," she told The Associated Press in December 1982, shortly before she left Washington to teach at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. "When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being black. Men are men."
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Nov. 30, 1924. Her father worked in a factory that made burlap bags, and her mother was a seamstress and domestic worker. They sent their daughter and her three sisters to Barbados, where the children lived with a grandmother until 1934. Mrs. Chisholm later described the relatives she encountered there as "a strongly disciplined family unit."
But she had her own strength, too: "Mother always said that even when I was 3, I used to get the 6- and 7-year-old kids on the block and punch them and say, 'Listen to me.' "
Her professors listened to her at Brooklyn College, where she won prizes in debating. Some of them told her she should think about politics as a career.
First, though, she taught in a nursery school and earned a master's degree in elementary education at Columbia University. Working as the director of the Friends Day Nursery in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center in Lower Manhattan, she became widely known as an authority on early education and child welfare. She argued that early schooling was essential, saying she knew there were experts who maintained that children's eyes were not developed enough for reading. "I say baloney, because I learned to read when I was 3½," she countered, "and I learned to write when I was 4."
From 1959 to 1964, she was an educational consultant in the day care division of the city's bureau of child welfare. But she laid a foundation for her eventual political career, working as a clubhouse volunteer and with organizations like the Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League and the League of Women Voters.
So, when she decided to run for the New York State Assembly in 1964, she said the decision was straightforward: "The people wanted me."
She moved on to the House four years later, in the year when President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to run for re-election. A year later, she confirmed her reputation for independence when she endorsed John V. Lindsay, who was running for re-election as mayor of New York
as the Liberal Party candidate.By 1982, the political climate had changed, and Mrs. Chisholm left Washington after seven terms in the House, saying that "moderate and liberal" lawmakers were "running for cover from the new right." But she also had personal reasons for deciding not to seek re-election that year: Her second husband, Arthur Hardwick, a Buffalo liquor store owner who had been in the New York State Assembly when Mrs. Chisholm was, had been injured in a car accident. (Her first marriage, to Conrad O. Chisholm, ended in divorce in 1977. Mr. Hardwick died in 1986.)
"I had been so consumed by my life in politics," she said in 1982. "I had no time for privacy, no time for my husband, no time to play my beautiful grand piano. After he recovered, I decided to make some changes in my life. I truly believe God had a message for me."
She also sounded frustrated, saying she had been misunderstood for much of her career. She mentioned her hospital visit to George C. Wallace, the Alabama governor who built his political career on segregation, after he had been wounded in an assassination attempt in 1972.
"Black people in my community crucified me," she recalled. "But why shouldn't I go to visit him? Every other presidential candidate was going to see him. He said to me, 'What are your people going to say?' I said: 'I know what they're going to say. But I wouldn't want what happened to you to happen to anyone.' He cried and cried and cried."
She maintained that her visit had paid off. "He always spoke well of Shirley Chisholm in the South," she said, adding that she had contacted him in 1974, when she was looking for votes for a bill to extend federal minimum-wage provisions to domestic workers. "Many of the Southerners did not want to make the vote. They came around."
Mrs. Chisholm moved to Florida in 1991 and said in 2002, "I live a very quiet life." She said she spent her time reading biographies - political biographies.
"I have faded out of the scene," she said.
When she left Washington, she said she did not want to go down in history as "the nation's first black congresswoman" or, as she put it, "the first black woman congressman."
"I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts," she said. "That's how I'd like to be remembered."
Michelle O'Donnell contributed reporting for this article.
Rep. Matsui died of cancer
REP. ROBERT T. MATSUI, 63
California Democrat key in NAFTA passage
The Washington Post
Published January 3, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Robert T. Matsui, the low-key but influential California Democrat who had been interned in a detention camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II, died Saturday at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He was 63.
He had pneumonia, a complication of myelodysplastic disorder, an often-fatal form of bone marrow cancer.
At his death, Mr. Matsui was the third-ranking Democrat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and among the highest-ranking Asian-Americans in House history. He was a major force on trade and Social Security issues. He also pushed through a bill hoping to redress the psychological damage of Japanese-American internees.
During the early 1990s, Mr. Matsui was President Bill Clinton's key ally for getting the North American Free Trade Agreement approved by the House despite opposition from labor groups that traditionally support Democrats. In 2000, he took a leading role in formulating permanent normalized trading relations with China, again at Clinton's behest.
In recent years, as the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, he battled President Bush's proposal to allow people to direct some of their mandatory Social Security contributions to private retirement accounts.
Robert Takeo Matsui was born in Sacramento, the son of Japanese immigrants. He and his family were taken in 1942 to an internment camp in Tule Lake, Calif.--a federal government reaction to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Mr. Matsui said his mother was riven by nightmares for the rest of her life. Also shamed by the experience, the future congressman said that as a child he denied it when a schoolteacher asked if he had been taken to an internment camp.
"The mere fact that I was acknowledging that I was incarcerated would have raised the specter that ... perhaps I was a spy, that I was an enemy alien," he once said. "That still lives with me."
As a congressman, he shepherded legislation in 1988 that formally apologized for the internment of Japanese-Americans and provided financial compensation for the survivors.
Matsui's early ambition was architecture. He switched to law after reading about the advocate Clarence Darrow and hearing President John Kennedy beckon young Americans to public service.
He was elected to the House in 1978. Mr. Matsui was largely a predictable supporter of Democratic legislation, with the exception of some trade issues.
Two years ago, Mr. Matsui became the choice of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader and a California colleague, to lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
While Mr. Matsui was able to recruit new candidates and increase the committee's base of contributors to more than 500,000 from 270,000, he was unsuccessful in the effort to regain control of the House. He did win his own re-election handily in November.
Survivors include his wife, Doris Okada Matsui, and a son, Brian.
Well, then, here's a nifty site with a wide selection of photos of Gingerbread Houses -
http://frankysattic.home.comcast.net/pictures.html
Englebert Humperdinck's strange recording of his reading of the Hansel and Gretl story plays in the background..
<kidding, Letty>
Chuck Willis song made popular by the Diamonds
The Stroll
Come, let's stroll
Stroll across the floor
Come, let's stro-oh-oh-oll
Stroll across the floor
Now turn around, baby
Let's stroll once more
Feel so good
Take me by my hand
I feel so goo-ooh-ooh-ood
Take me by my hand
And let's go strolling
In wonderland
Strollin', <SPOKEN "whoa yeah">, strollin' aah-huh-uh
Rock and ro-uh-oh-oh-oh-oh-llin'
Strollin'
Well rock my so-oul
How I love to stroll
There's my love
Strolling in the door
There's my lo-o-o-ove
Strolling in the door
Baby, let's go strolling
By the candy store
<whistling and wailing sax to end>
and then we have Bach's Air of a G-String (with lyrics)
We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed
She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'
though in truth we were at sea
so I took her by the looking glass
and forced her to agree
saying, 'You must be the mermaid
who took Neptune for a ride.'
But she smiled at me so sadly
that my anger straightway died
If music be the food of love
then laughter is its queen
and likewise if behind is in front
then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
and attacked the ocean bed
A stroll and a ghost. This is your host Raymond the inner sanctum of a crystal ball brought to you by Bromo Seltzer.
edgar and dys, The Hit Parade was the forerunner of MTV.
I heard you on my wireless back in '52
Lying awake intent on tuning in on you
If I was young it didn't stop you coming through
Oh oh
They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine on new technology
And now I understand the supernova scene
Oh oh
I met the children
Oh oh
What did you tell them
Video killed the radio star (x2)
In my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far
And now we meet in an abandoned studio
You hear the playback and it seems so long ago
And you remember the jingles used to go
Oh oh
You were the first on
Oh oh
You were the last one
Video killed the radio star (x2)
In my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far
Too far!
Alright
Video killed the radio star (x2)
It's my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far
Pictures came and broke your heart
So put all the blame on vcr
You are radio star (x2)
Video killed the radio star (x7)
Yes video killed that radio star, yes it did
"The One On The Right Is On The Left"
Johnny Cash
There once was a musical troupe
A pickin' singin' folk group
They sang the mountain ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They were long on musical ability
Folks thought they would go far
But political incompatibility led to their downfall
Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear was a Methodist
This musical aggregation toured the entire nation
Singing the traditional ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They performed with great virtuosity
And soon they were the rage
But political animosity prevailed upon the stage
Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear burned his driver's license
Well the curtain had ascended
A hush fell on the crowd
As thousands there were gathered to hear The folk songs of our land
But they took their politics seriously
And that night at the concert hall
As the audience watched deliriously
They had a free-for-all
Well, the one on the right was on the bottom
And the one in the middle was on the top
And the one on the left got a broken arm
And the guy in the rear, said, "Oh dear"
Now this should be a lesson if you plan to start a folk group
Don't go mixin' politics with the folk songs of our land
Just work on harmony and diction
Play your banjo well
And if you have political convictions keep them to yourself
Now, the one on the left works in a bank
And the one in the middle drives a truck
The one on the right's an all-night deejay
And the guy in the rear got drafted
Efficiency expert on restaurant service.
******
A timeless lesson on how consultants can make a difference for an
organization.........
Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, and noticed
that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.
It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and
utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I
looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets.
When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the spoon?".
"Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired a consulting firm
to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they
concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It
represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per
hour. If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the
number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift."
As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it
with his spare. "I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen
instead of making an extra trip to get it right now." I was impressed!
I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly.
Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string
hanging from their flies. So before he walked off, I asked the waiter,
"Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?".
"Oh, certainly!" Then he lowered his voice. "Not everyone is so
observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we can
save time in the restroom. By tying this string to the tip of you know
what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to
wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 per
cent."
"After you get it out, how do you put it back?"
"Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others, but I use the
spoon."
I'm a 2 percenter.
****************
Are you normal or abnormal.................??
At the end of this message, you are asked a question.
Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it.
Just say the first thing that pops into your mind.
This is a fun "test"... AND kind of spooky at the same time! Give it a
try,
then send it as a new email with your "score". Be sure to put in the
subject
line if you are among the 98% or the 2%. You'll understand what that
means
after you finish taking the "test".
Now.. just follow the instructions as quickly as possible.
Do not go to the next calculation before you have finished the previous
one..
You do not ever need to write or remember the answers, just do it using
your
mind.
You'll be surprised.
Start:
How much is:
15 + 6
3 + 56
89 + 2
12 + 53
75 + 26
25 + 52
63 + 32
I know! Calculations are hard work, but it's nearly over..
Come on, one more...
123 + 5
QUICK! THINK ABOUT A COLOR AND A TOOL!
A bit more...
You just thought about a red hammer, didn't you?
If this is not your answer, you are among 2% of people who have a
different,
if not abnormal, mind.
98% of the folks would answer a red hammer while doing this exercise.
If you do not believe this, pass it around and you'll see.
Be sure to put in the subject line if you are among the 98% or the 2%
And the winners are...
******************
NEW WORDS AND DEFINITIONS 2004
The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers
to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting,
or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are this year's winners:
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone unfortunately, shows
little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the
person who doesn't get it.
Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running
late.
Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
Karmageddon (n): 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 (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.
Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter
when they come very quickly.
Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've
accidentally walked through a spider web.
Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the
fruit you're eating.
Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose
of getting laid.
And the pick of the literature:
Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
C.I. that was the most amazing thing that I have even seen. I did indeed think red hammer.
Hee hee, funny vocab, too.
Also, loved edgar's Johnny Cash spoof on folk groups.
