Famous
First Words: ...and according to Scotland Yard... Radio The
Mousetrap, Agatha Christie
Welcome
to National Family Week: (18-24) Strangers think I'm great. My
friends think I'm eccentric. My family knows that I am completely
insane. / Look
I probably should have told you this before but you see... well...
insanity runs in my family... It practically gallops.
--Mortimer Brewster Arsenic & Old Lace
..........When
the morning breaks..........Scott Joplin …..Weeping Willow
Gratitude
makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision
for tomorrow. --Melody Beattie
It
is relatively late on a beautiful (50°F) Friday morning. The sky is
a very pale blue with very wispy, very white clouds. The grass is
still green but the only trees still bearing serious leafage are the
oaks and the leaves are universally brown. Bird voices, conversing
about the day, rise about the distant grind of machinery and add to
the “illustration of a beautiful morning” feel of the backyard.
Cooper and Puck have run the perimeter and are settled into “play
with me / no” game adding small growls and grunts to the
soundtrack. Birdsong rises and falls in waves governed by an unseen
baton. The only bird I see is a blue jay sitting on a wire listening
but not singing. There is a light breeze but it doesn't not bite
with cold nor dampen the joy of rising temperatures or hope of a warm
day in November. We return to our rooms through the deck doors,
upstairs, because Cooper is out and I don't want to open the gate.
We bounce noisily across the wood, through the frame and onto the
tile. Puck and I descend the stairs where the smell of brewing
coffee and incense greet us. Here there is no noise but white noise,
clothes dryer, computer, civilization. So I doctor a cup of decaf –
creamy and sweet and warm...rather like my thought of you.
Hope
your weekend celebrates your unique talent for fun, ePistliers.
In
some families “please” is described as the magic word. In our
house, however, it was “sorry”. --Margaret Laurence / Happiness
is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
--George Burns
..........The
things I did not know at first I learned by doin'
twice..........Scott Joplin …..The Entertainer
Trivia
Questions: Welcome Home to Apollo 12
^
How many missions had landed on the Moon and returned before
Apollo12?
^^
Briefly what was the Apollo 12's main mission
^^^
Know any of the crew members on that voyage?
^^^^
About how close was the mission to the old Surveyor III spacecraft
that landed in 1967?
^^^^^
Care to guess how long the mission took.
Funniest
Thing I Read of the Week: The KKK member wearing sheets and a
large, white dunce hat was explaining that women in burkas make him
uncomfortable. --Submitted by cj of ks
Fake
Library Statistic of the Week:
31% of library card use from November 1 – April 1 is scraping ice
off of car windows. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts
There's
family and then there's relatives. Family are those that you're
close to. Relatives are those you want to stay relatively far away.
/ Every family has one weird relative. If you don't know who it is,
then it's probably you.
..........just
step back and watch my motion..........Scott Joplin …..Maple Leaf
Rag
Moonbeam:
All things excellent are as difficult as they
are rare. --Spinoza
Something
to Think About of the Week:
Big
Hello: Moien - Luxembourgish
Second
Funniest Thing I Read of the Week:
Christmas Tip. Wrap empty boxes and put them under the tree.
Everytime your child acts up, throw one in the fireplace.
Week
of the Week:
National
Game & Puzzle Week (November 18-24) - You
know when you walk into a room and forget why you went in there?
That’s
God playing Sims, he just canceled your action.
Families
with babies and families without babies are so sorry for each other.
/ Before most people start boasting about their family tree, they
usually do a good pruning job.
..........Turn
to the left and do the cake walk prance..........Scott Joplin …..The
Ragtime Dance
^
The
Apollo 12 mission was the second manned lunar landing mission.
Almanac:
It is Friday, November 24, 2017. The moon will be first quarter on
Sunday and is in Aquarius. It is Brownielocks Day,
Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day, and D.B. Cooper Day.
Among
those born on this day were Spinoza (1632), Laurence Sterne (1713),
Zachary Taylor (1784), Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849), Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec (1864), Scott Joplin (1868), Dale Carnegie (1888),
John Lindsay (1921), William F Buckley, Jr. (1925), Ted Bundy (1946),
and Denise Crosby (1957).
On
November twent-fourth the Era of Maccabbes began (166 BC), Tasman
"discovered" Tasmania (1642), Vesuvius erupted (1759),
Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" (1859), the
National Rifle Association was organized (NYC, 1871), barbed wire was
patented (1874), The Mousetrap
opened in London (1952), Ruby shot Oswald (1963), Apollo 12 returned
to Earth (1969), and the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia resigned
(1989).
Night
Sky, 11/24:
Whenever
Fomalhaut "souths" — crosses the meridian due south,
which it does around 7 pm this week — the first stars of Orion are
just about to rise above the east horizon. And,
the
Pointers of the Big Dipper stand upright due north, straight below
Polaris.
Next
Funniest Thing I Read of the Week:
Celebrating Thanksgiving this week? Thank an Anglican. We're the
church that chased the Puritans out of England in the first place.
You're Welcome, America. --Submitted by ma of va
This
Week: Saturday, November 25 – International Day for the
Elimination of Violence Against Women Day
Sunday,
November 26 – Onion Market Festival opens in Bern, Switzerland
Night
Sky, 11/26: Two faint fuzzies: The
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Perseus Double Cluster are two of the
most famous deep-sky objects. They're both cataloged as 4th
magnitude, and in a fairly good sky you can see both with the unaided
eye. They're located only 22° apart, very high toward the east early
these evenings — to the right of Cassiopeia and closer below
Cassiopeia, respectively. But they look rather different, the more so
the darker your sky
Monday,
November 27 – National Craft Jerky Day
Tuesday,
November 28 – Giving Tuesday
Night
Sky, 11/28:
Does
the Sun already seem to be setting about as early as it ever will?
You're right! We're still a month away from the winter solstice —
but the Sun sets its earliest around
December
7th
if
you're near latitude 40° north. And right now it already sets within
about 3 minutes of that time.
Wednesday,
November 29 – Electronic Greeting Day & Square Dancing Day
Thursday,
November 30 – National Mason Jar Day & Cities for Life Day
Night
Sky, 11/30: Orion is clearing the eastern
horizon by 8 pm this week (depending on how far east or west you live
in your time zone). His three-star belt is nearly vertical. High
above Orion shines orange Aldebaran. Above Aldebaran is the little
Pleiades cluster, the size of your fingertip at arm's length. Far
left of Aldebaran and the Pleiades shines bright Capella.
Blessed
Separation of Church and State Week (18-24) !! I'm completely in
favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these
two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them
together is certain death. --George Carlin
..........Has
your heart, love, been sealed..........Scott Joplin …..Please Say
You Will
^^
Apollo 12 primary
objectives included: #Perform inspection, survey, and sampling in
lunar mare area #Deploy an Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package
(ALSEP) #Develop techniques for a point landing capability #Develop
capability to work in the lunar environment #Obtain photographs of
candidate exploration sites. Secondary objective was to the retrieve
portions of the Surveyor III spacecraft which had been exposed to the
lunar environment since the unmanned spacecraft soft-landed on the
inner slope of a crater on April 20, 1967.
'Nother
Funniest thing I read of the Week: Conservatives told us Gay
Marriage would lead to defending pedophilia. Turns out being a
Republican does that.
Science
Fiction Convention of the Week:
ChessieCon 2017 (Baltimore, November 24-26) Where Traditions
Evolve... Presentation of the Turkey Award!!
http://chessiecon.org/
Actual
Science Convention of the Week:
20th
International Colloquium on the Electronic Document (Lyon, France:
23-25) http://www.enssib.fr/CIDE-20
Moonbeam:
Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything
in the world understands it. --Frances Hodgson
Burnett
Late
Night Snacks: It
just came out that as many as four elected officials have NOT been
accused of sexual harassment. --Jimmy Fallon / Republicans
are reportedly hoping that President Trump will pressure Alabama
Senate candidate Roy Moore to drop out of the race. And Roy Moore
still might not drop out, but at least he’ll know what it’s like
to be pressured by an older man. --Seth Meyers / I can't believe
Trump and Kim Jong Un are still going back and forth like this. Like
the two of them have literally become the characters in every romcom
you have ever seen. They're insulting each other so much you just
know they'll actually end up together. --James Corden / Astronomers
have discovered a previously unknown planet only 11 light years from
Earth that could possibly support human life. They call it Ross
128-b. Which sounds like a “Friends” spinoff where David
Schwimmer is divorced from Rachel and forced to live alone in a sad
apartment. --Jimmy Kimmel / A lot of Donald Trump fans here tonight.
You know what they say: “While the cat’s away, the mice have to
testify before Congress.” In this case, it was Attorney General
Jeff Sessions. Sessions’ testimony to the House Judiciary Committee
covered a wide range of issues, and Sessions had the same answer for
a lot of them: “I don’t recall.” --Stephen Colbert
Not
So Late Night Snacks: In
tribute to (Trump's) famous campaign promise, China went ahead and
built an enormous wall. --Peter Sagal Wait,
Wait, Don't Tell Me
Peace
begins in your heart. Grows in your mind. Manifests through your will
and spreads through your actions. --Anna Pereira
Blessed
Separation of Church and State Week (18-24) !! When Church Met
State: A new romantic comedy from Pat Robertson. They tried
being friends, but their separation never felt right. Isn't it time
these two finally got together.
..........He
call'd his little children to his side..........Scott Joplin …..I
Am Thinking of My Pickaninny Days
^^^
The
space vehicle had a crew of Charles (Pete) Conrad, Jr., the
commander; Richard F. Gordon, the command module pilot; and Alan L.
Bean, the lunar module pilot.
Worthless
Fact of the Week: The
first patent
in
the United States for barbed
wire
was
issued in 1867 to Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio, who is regarded as
the inventor. Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois, received a
patent
for
the modern invention in 1874 after he made his own modifications to
previous versions.
Wicked
Funniest Thing I Read of the Week:
Rather than putting “Christ” back in “Christmas”, I'd settle
for putting “Christ” back in “Christians:. --Submitted by sd
of ks
Weird
Word of the Week:
Killick – an Irish wooden anchor, an anchor. A
fairly modern example is in Jim
Davis,
by John Masefield: “In the shallow water near the beach, we dropped
our killick”.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-kil1.htm
Wacky
Uses for Common Products:
Make a fishing bobber. Inflate a Trojan Condom slightly, tie a knot
in the open end, and tie it to your fishing line as a bobber.
http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/trojan.html
National
Family Week (18-24) !! Where
there’s a will, there’s a relative. --Ricky
Gervais
/ Families are like fudge; they're best if they have lots of nuts.
...........Goo-goo-goo-e,
goo-garee goo..........Scott Joplin …..Little Black Baby
^^^^
Touchdown
occurred at a point only 600 feet (183 meters) from the target point,
the Surveyor III spacecraft. The landing was in the Ocean of Storms.
Word
Shakespeare Made Up of the Week: Pander – gratify or indulge
--Hamlet Act III, Scene IV Hamlet: since
frost itself as actively doth burn and reason panders will.
Lost
Count Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Instead of tax
reform, why not just require every poor and middle class person to
send a check for, say, $1000 to their favorite rich person.
--submitted by jm of ks
Puck
the Brave
Episode of the Week:
Here's our fearless Puck resting his nose in the case of the Busy
Bloodhound.
My
family is temperamental...half temper...half mental / Let's have a
family gathering for the remaining family members who still speak to
each other.
..........Strange
things appear when I says “Hee hoo”..........Scott Joplin …..The
Bag of Luck
^^^^^
Apollo 12 took 10 days. It launched on November 14 and returned on
November 24.
Month
of the Week: November is Sweet Potato
Awareness Month – How many grams of protein are in a sweet potato
pi? 3.1415926
Penultimate
Funniest Thing I Read of the Week:
Another young woman has come forward accusing Bernie Sanders of
trying to get her free college.
Most
Beautiful Thing in the State:
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
Valley
of Fire State Park covers an area of approximately 35,000 acres.
Valley of Fire was named for the magnificent red sandstone formations
that were formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of the
dinosaurs more than 150 million years ago (Mesozoic Era). These
brilliant sandstone formations can appear to be on fire when
reflecting the sun’s rays.
http://www.valley-of-fire.com/
Today's
Peace of History, Today's
Peace of History, November 24, 1993: Congress
voted to formally apologize to Hawaii for the 1893 overthrow of the
government of Queen Lydia Liliuokalani.
Families
are about love and overcoming emotional torture. --Matt Groening /
Crazy is a relative term.
..........Sheltered
by the tree's cool shade..........Scott Joplin …..The Sacred Tree
Masthead
of the Week:
ePistle sePt, November 24, 2017. Online at:
http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/
Family
Fun and Peace Too.
Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. 1800 Goodell Ct. Lawrence, KS
66046
Final
Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Dear
Life, Could you at least start using lubricant? --submitted by mj of
ks
Moonbeam:
In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.
--Laurence Sterne
Cost
of War:
Tax
dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 11/16/17: $790,168,711,290.
Tax
dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 11/16/17: $789,510,516,466.
Tax
dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 11/16/17:
$821,025,721,385.
Tax
dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 11/16/17:
$821,006,484,973.
Tax
dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 11/16/17:
$1,799,941,406,752.
Tax
dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 11/16/17:
$1,798,566,866,104.
Gratitude
is one of the sweet shortcuts to finding peace of mind and happiness
inside. --The Dog Buddha
..........Your
deeds should please heaven's throng..........Scott Joplin …..Wrong
Is Never Right
This
family is just one tent away from a full-blown circus. / Remember, as
far as anyone knows we are a nice, cute, normal family.
Famous
Last Words: Oh, my pie. Mollie – The Mousetrap, Agatha
Christie
May
Peace grace your genes
And
Joy fill your lines
prairie
mama
christine
Last
Laugh:
