Justan ePistle

 Famous First Words: The right of citizens of the United States to vote... 15^th Amendment, US Constitution

The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down. / It's later than it's ever been. / I belong to the Church of What's Happening Now. --Flip Wilson

..........Make me feel real loose, like a long necked goose.........The Big Bopper …..Chantilly Lace

If society will not admit of woman's free development, then society must be remodeled. --Elizabeth Blackwell

It is another cold Friday morning; the temperature is in single digits; but at least it's the highest single digit you can get. Old Sol is rising in a cloudless sky and no wind stirs the trees. It could be worse. Puck and Bruno go out to do their morning business and come back into the house without even a bark of hello. Furnace buzz and computer hum are the only sounds but the house does smell of brewing coffee. It is, apparently, either too early or too cold for the birds to be out. Ah, Veronica is awake now and is straightening out the shower curtain with thumps and plastic scratches. She never misses adding cream to coffee and has her own bowl for a sip. Puck also has a cream bowl and drinks it quickly before Veronica can finish hers and come find his. Toddlers and pets, gotta love 'em. So, cold as it is, it's looking like a pretty good day, after all, I get to write to you.

Hope your weekend puts a smile on your face, ePistliers.

First Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Ego and Superego walk into a bar. The bartender says, I'm gonna need to see some Id. --Submitted by ocg of Philosopher Games

I never learned hate at home, or shame, I had to go to school for that. / Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said: “We don't serve colored people here.” I said: “that's all right, I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.” / If they took all the drugs, nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine off the market for six day, they'd have to bring out the tanks to control you. --Dick Gregory

..........Muy bonita.........Richie Valens …..La Bamba

Trivia Questions: Happy `119^th Birthday to Pretty Boy Floyd!

• ^ What was Pretty Boy's real name?
• ^^ How did “Pretty Boy” pick up the nickname?
• ^^^ What was Pretty Boy's weapon of choice?
• ^^^^ What activity endeared Pretty Boy to the public?
• ^^^^^ How did Pretty Boy die?

Big Hello: Ciao – Italian https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm

Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: The idea is to die young as late as possible. --Submitted by aeb of kc

Image of the Week: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

Fake Library Statistics of the Week: 90% of library music collections are shelved using the Dewey Decibel System https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts

I don't understand this whole Elvis thing. There are dead people in my family that we miss and love dearly, but shoot, we don't dress up like them and do impressions. I'll show up at the family reunion in a dirty t-shirt and a bald cap - “Look everybody, I'm Uncle Earl.” / Florida has so many strip clubs, they need to change their state flag to a brass pole. / I hate when women compare men to dogs. Men are not dogs, dogs are loyal. --Wanda Sykes

..........All of my love, all of my kissin'.......Buddy Holly …....Oh, Boy

Moonbeam: Music is love in search of a word. --Sidney Lanier

Meditation of the Week: What makes people happy? --Aristotle

Puzzle of the Week: From listener (and New York Times crossword contributor) Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Take a word that's in the name of several tourist attractions in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Rearrange the letters in that word to spell the names of two other nations' capitals. What are they? --NPR Sunday Puzzle 1/29/23

Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of – but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. --Robert Heinlein

I believe in the institution of marriage, and I intend to keep trying til I get it right. / I'd like to make you laugh for about ten minutes though I'm going to be on for an hour. / There's a lot more hypocrisy than before. Racism has gone back underground. --Richard Pryor

..........When you make me cry......Buddy Holly …....That'll Be The Day

^ Pretty Boy was born Charles Arthur Floyd in Bartow County, GA.

Almanac: It is Friday, February 3, 2023. The moon will be full ( ) on Sunday (2/5) and is in Cancer. It is Give Kids a Smile Day, 4 Chaplains Memorial Day, The Day the Music Died. Paraguay celebrates Patron's Day aka San Blas, patrón. Puerto Rico commemorates Fiesta de San Blas, protector of harvest. Because it is the first Friday it is also Wear Red Day and Working Naked Day. Finally because it is the first full weekend in February it is the Cordova Ice Worm Days.

Among those born on this day were Charles VI (1368), Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736), Louis Bouteiller (1848), Horace Greeley (1811), Elizabeth Blackwell (1821), Sidney Lanier (1842), Gertrude Stein (1874), Norman Rockwell (1894), Pretty Boy Floyd (1904), Joey Bishop (1918), Shelley Berman (1926), Fran Tarkenton (1940), Blythe Danner (12943), Melanie (1947), and Terry Bradshaw (1969).

On February third the first paper money was issued (Massachusetts, 1690), Spain recognized US independence (1783), the Territory of Illinois was organized (1809), US Supreme Court declared US Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional (1855), the 15th Amendment passed congress (Black Suffrage, 1870), Barnum bought Jumbo the elephant (1882), Congress created the Electoral Count Act (1887), the Dada-Manifesto was published (1916), the League of Nations held its first meeting (Paris, 1919), the Vietnamese Communist Party formed (1930), J Fred Muggs became a regular on the Today Show (1953), Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper,and Ritchie Valens, along with pilot Roger Peterson died in a plane crash (1959), the Cuban Embargo was instituted (1962), Hendrix recorded Purple Haze (1967), Discovery was launched (STS 63, 1994), Discovery 19 was launched (STS 63, 1995), and Carl Sagan's Public Memorial was held (1997).

Night Sky, 2/3: Now the nearly full Moon shines just below Pollux and Castor during evening. It forms a straight line with them when the stars come out over the eastern Canadian Maritimes. The line they make is slightly curved by the time of dusk for the rest of the continent http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/

Fraternal Picture of the Week: apprentice lumberjacks and dad

Extra Funniest Thing I read of the Week: Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions. --Submitted by ma of md

This Week: Saturday, February 4 – Barber Day & I Heart Horror Day & World Cancer Day

Sunday, February 5 – Shower With A Friend Day & Western Monarch Day & Tu B'Shevat day one

Night Sky, 2/5: Full Moon (exactly full at 1:29 pm. EST). The Moon, in Leo, rises in the east-northeast within a few minutes of sunset. Once the Moon is well up after dark, you can see it forming an isosceles triangle once again with Regulus and Algieba, the two brightest stars of Leo's Sickle.

Monday, February 6 – Canadian Maple Syrup Day & Lame Duck Day & Play Monopoly Day

Tuesday, February 7 – Ballet Day & Laura Ingalls Wilder Day & National Periodic Table Day

Wednesday, February 8 – Laugh And Get Rich Day & Opera Day & Wear Orange Day

Night Sky, 2/8 : Saturn, magnitude +0.8, is sinking farther away below Venus in twilight every evening. Try for it with binoculars.for it far to the lower right of bright Jupiter on high. Venus now sets about a half hour after twilight's end. Telescopically it's still just a shimmering little ball, 11 arcseconds in diameter and slightly gibbous (91% sunlit). Saturn, magnitude +0.8, is sinking farther away below Venus in twilight every evening. Try it with binoculars.

Thursday, February 9 – National Giving Hearts Day & National Pizza Day & Read In The Bathtub Day

A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need advice. / I love it when mothers get so mad they can't remember your name. “Come here, Roy, er, Rupert, er, Rutabaga...what is your name? And don't lie to me, because you live here, and I'll find our who you are. / Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry. --Bill Cosby

..........We'll live and love with all our might......Buddy Holly …....Well All Right

^^ After a stint in federal prison for a payroll robbery, Pretty Boy was paroled in Kansas City.. He committed a series of bank robberies over the next several years, and it was during this period that he acquired the nickname "Pretty Boy," although accounts differ. In one account Orville Drake gave him the name because he would wear a white button-up dress shirt and slacks to work in the oil fields. The men on the rig began calling him "Pretty Boy" which was later turned into "Pretty Boy Floyd". In another account, the payroll master in the 1925 St. Louis Kroger office holdup described one of the robbers as "a pretty boy with apple cheeks". A third version is that a girlfriend in a KC boarding house gave him the name. Floyd despised the nickname.

Preantepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: FOXnews is to news, what the WWE is to the Olympics. --Submitted by ff of ks

Moonbeam: Common sense is very uncommon. --Horace Greeley

Low light of the Week: I was channel surfing this week and came across the Stone Skipping Championship. Really, is it necessary to make an athletic contest out of a child's activity? Will it be an Olympic sport some day? On the other hand, this is spectacular: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=954281988769043 (The skip is over in the first few seconds).

Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: Fireball Whiskey is being sued not for hangovers...but for misleading labels on those popular little mini bottles they sell. Turns out they don't actually contain whiskey. --Peter Sagal They're like the George Santos of Whiskey. --Maz Jobrani Wait Wait Don't Tell Me 1/28/23

A blank wall of social and professional antagonism faces the woman physician that forms a situation of singular and painful loneliness, leaving her without support, respect or professional counsel. --Elizabeth Blackwell

I was happy when I heard his stuff, because he was rapping about broccoli. I was like, “Yeah! They're rapping about vegetables!” Until I looked it up. Just say weed, man. It's still a vegetable! And there's so many more words that can rhyme with weed. / Our next performer is the owner of my future restraining order. He has no idea that after the show he's about to get straight cougared. --Leslie Jones

..........And I know it's got me reelin'......Buddy Holly …....Rave On

^^^ Floyd mixed with gangsters in Kansas City and adopted the machine gun as his professional trademark.

Antepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Prayer: When you care enough to do the very least. --Submitted by SDS

Weird Word of the Week: Usufructuary – right of temporary possession and enjoyment that belongs to somebody else. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-usu1.htm

Dragon of the Week: Merry-go-round dragon

Wacky Uses for Common Products: Freshen the air in your car. Place a Bounce sheet in the sun visor of your car or under the seat, inside a seat pocket, behind a visor, or inside the glove compartment to freshen the air. https://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/bounce.html

Mick Jagger's lips so big, black people be going, “You got some big-ass lips!” / I tell ya, I'm about as crazy as a dog in a hubcap factory. / This is how you answer the door in my neighborhood, “WHO IS IT?” --Eddie Murphy

...........The sun is out the sky is blue......Buddy Holly …....Raining In My Heart

^^^^ He was seen positively by the public because it was believed that during robberies he burned mortgage documents, freeing many people from their debts. The Byrds singing Pretty Boy Floyd

Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Maybe eating tacos wasn't cheating on my diet. Maybe going on a diet was cheating on my tacos. --Submitted by jm of ks

Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Capricon 43 (2=4, Chicago, IL) An eternity awaits... https://capricon.org/

Actual Science Conference of the Week: 2023 KBA Bank Technology and Operations Conference (2-3, Manhattan, KS) : Forces Shaping Banking Over the Next Decade https://ksbankers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023BankTechConference-4.pdf

Answer to Puzzle of the Week: Memorial → Lima, Rome

You know Moms has been accused of liking young men and I'm guilty. Any time you see me with my arms around an old man, I'm holding him for the police. / The teenagers aren't all bad. I love 'em if nobody else does. There ain't nothing wrong with you people. Jus' quit lyin' to 'em. / Love is like playing checkers. You have to know which man to move. --Moms Mabley

..........Oh, how my heart years for you......Buddy Holly …....Peggy Sue

^^^^^ The Bureau of Investigation (later named FBI) named Floyd to be "Public Enemy No. 1" on July 23, 1934, following the death of John Dillinger. Local police and BOI agents led by Melvin Purvis shot Floyd on October 22, 1934 in a corn field in East Liverpool, OH.

My Own Writing of the Week: The Cowboy liked to make love in the morning. He would wake me up and say, "You have two minutes to pee and brush your teeth. Any longer and I'll come into the bathroom and f*ck you there." He wore plaid shirts with long cuffs that were piped around the edge. He never wore a cowboy hat, thank Inanna. He grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, listened to bad country music, and knew absolutely nothing about cows or horses. He programmed computers. He got a job out of town that allowed him to travel a lot. He would try to schedule his trips so that he could watch the Grateful Dead wherever they were playing. I would see him when he came back to KC. Then his company went out of business and I don't know what happened to him.

The gray Apollo was also a morning lover. He was one of the few men older than myself that I dated. He had a few gray patches at the temple. It would have been distinguished if he wasn't so shaggy and rustic. Like any true Apollo he was long and thin. He liked to make love in the mornings when the sun was almost slanting through the eastern windows. He would wake me up by stretching his body around mine making a kind of human ball and then he would kiss the back of my neck and slide his hand between my legs. The very first time he rolled me up that way he whispered in my ear, “Let's wake up the sun.” And we did; the sun came up and asked for a cigarette.

From Always Surrender by Christine Smith

Quote of the Week: Tom Brady finishes his career with 89,214 passing yards in total, quite possibly the gaudiest record in sports. --The New Yorker

Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: January was a tough year, but we made it. --Submitted by RHOZ

Today's Peace of History, February 3, 1973: President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act, intended to avoid species extinction, especially through loss of habitat.February 3, 1973: President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act, intended to avoid species extinction, especially through loss of habitat.

I like black people. I've got some cousins and shit. They're black. / I like to get drunk too, right up until throwing up time. / Football players wear too many clothes. You can't see what's going on. They do have cute behinds. --Marsha Warfield

..........Who am I gon' lean on when times get rough.........Richie Valens …..We Belong Together

Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle February 3, 2023, Justan ePistle. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. Lawrence, KS.

Moonbeam: One must dare to be happy. --Gertrude Stein

Cost of War:

• As of 02/02/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $198,901,026,236.
• As of 01/26/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $198,343,615,778.
• As of 02/02/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,114,654,688,585.
• As of 01/26/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,113,097,768,262.
• As of 02/02/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,127,754,635,382.
• As of 01/26/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,127,149,061,359.
• As of 02/02/23 Veterans Care since 2001: $2,874,630,789,887.
• As of 01/26/23 Veterans Care since 2001: $2,862,831,152,706.
• As of 02/02/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,005,997,272,639.
• As of 01/26/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,004,815,296,713.
• As of 02/02/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,321,940,525,747.
• As of 01/26/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,306,238,208,539.

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/

It is not easy to be a pioneer – but, oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world. --Elizabeth Blackwell.

Famous Last Words: No. No, Purple Haze --Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze

..........Now they'll always be together in their happy hunting ground.........The Big Bopper …..Running Bear

Every town has the same two malls: the one white people got to and the one white people used to go to. / Gun Control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost 5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollars, we wouldn't have any innocent bystanders. --Chris Rock

May Peace be your anchor

And Joy be your sail

prairie mama

christine

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