Friday, November 24, 2017

ePistle sePt

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

No comments:

Post a Comment