mEthodized ePistle

 Famous First Words: Erhabener Geist, im Geisterreich verloren... Faust Part 1 by Goethe (Sublime Spirit, lost in the spirit realm...)

January is Get Organized Month! If you can't hire a house cleaner because you know they can't find the floor, you might need a professional organizer. / Professional Organizer Confession #18: I'm on a first name basis with staff at The Container Store.

It's so cold in Kansas that last night our snowman slept in the living room.

That was a joke this is real: It's so cold in Missouri that Andy Reid had icicles in his mustache after the Chiefs/Dolphins game.

..........Just waltz right in the door........Dolly Parton …..Here You Come Again

Radical simply means grasping things at the root. --Angela Davis

It is a frigid (1°F) Friday morning. The sun is up and shining on everything and everything (more or less) is covered with snow which glows in the sun and reflex the light. A stout breeze keeps the mulberry branches waving and the willow switches whipping. There are no clouds in the azure sky' not even a jet trail is visible. The bird feeder is very busy but other parts of the yard have no birds at all – none on the utility wires running to the house, none in the trees, none chirping to greet the day. The only sounds are furnace hum and since YouTube (whose revenues last year exceeded $29 billion) have decided I need to pay to listen to music much of which has to be past copyright, there is no music to fill in the gap. But Midco has an entire channel that plays nothing but the blues and I have cinnamon coffee and breakfast treats and I will survive. And since I get to write to you, I'll even enjoy it.

Hope your weekend is just right, epistliers.

First Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: May your coffee and cannabis kick-in before reality does.

Am I Over Organized? Will this make it easier or harder to put things back where they belong? / Professional Organizer Confession #7: I straighten up the candy and magazines at the checkout counter.

It's so cold in Kansas that we have to thaw our meat in the freezer.

..........My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.........Janis Joplin …..Mercedes Benz

Trivia Questions: Happy World Quark Day !

• ^ What is a quark anyway?
• ^^ Do you have any idea how old quarks are?
• ^^^ How were quarks discovered?
• ^^^^ What are different types of quarks called?
• ^^^^^ Where did the name quark come from?

Big Hello: Prana am – Maithili (India & Nepal) https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm

Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: In Canada we play a game called “Am I on the Road?” --Submitted by sb of ar
Image of the Week: Ta da … The 3 wheeler … ready and wintering in the living room

Fake Library Statistics of the Week: At any given moment, 12% of librarians are hiding in the book drop. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts

It is the evil Clutter Fairy who comes into your office at night and scatters papers onto desk tops like they're fairy dust. / Making a list and checking it twice...you must be a Professional Event Organizer.

It's so cold in Kansas that the legislature can't even get into a heated argument.

..........what a way to make a living.........Dolly Parton …..9 To 5

Moonbeam: It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it. --Robert E Lee

Question of the Week: The noblest question in the world is, “What good may I do in it?” --Benjamin Franklin

Puzzle of the Week: From listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Name certain weapons. Remove the middle four letters. The remaining letters, spelled backward, describe what these weapons do. --NPR Sunday Puzzle 1/14/24

Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: The Cowboys got bounced out of the playoffs faster than a book from a Texas library.

I purposely keep a very messy closet so the monsters can't get in. / Don't want your party to be a meeting with food? You need a Professional Party Organizer.

It's so cold in Kansas that the Amish are using electric blankets.

..........O, come on, come on, come on, come on.........Janis Joplin …..Piece of My Heart

^A quark is any of a number of subatomic particles carrying a fractional electric charge.

Almanac: It is Friday, January 19. 2024. The moon went into the first quarter yesterday (1/19) and is in Taurus. It is Bean Day, Robert E. Lee Day, Tin Can Day, World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Bald Eagle Appreciation Days, Hat Day, and World Quark Day. Because it is the third Friday in January it is also Women's Healthy Weight Day.

Among those born on this day were Mohammed (570), John Weldon (1679), James Watt (1736), Auguste Comte (1798), Robert E Lee (1807), Edgar Allan Poe (1809), Henry Bessemer (1813), Paul Cézanne (1839), Alice Eastwood (1859), Alexander Woollcott (1887), Ish Kabbible (1906), John Raitt (1917), Guy Madison (1922), Jean Stapleton (1923), Robert MacNeil (1931), Richard Lester (1932), Tippi Hedren (1935), Phil Everly (1938), Janis Joplin (1943), Dolly Parton (1946), and Katey Sagal (1954).

On January nineteenth a democratic revolution in Amsterdam ended the oligarchy (1795), Goethe's Faust, Part I, premiered (1929), Verdi's Il Trovatore premiered (1853), Georgia seceded (5th, 1861), the first negro lodge was approved by the Masons (NJ, 1884), the first ever Tour de France was announced (1903), the neon tube sign was patented (1917), Acadia National Park was established (ME, 1929), UCLA fired Angela Davis (1970), and Ford pardoned Tokyo Rose (1977).

Night Sky, 1/19: Zero-magnitude Capella high overhead, and equally bright Rigel in Orion's foot, have almost the same right ascension. This means they cross your sky’s meridian at almost exactly the same time: around 9 or 10 pm now, depending on how far east or west you live in your time zone. (Capella goes exactly through your zenith if you're at latitude 46° north: Portland, Oregon; Portland, Maine; Montreal; central France.) So, whenever Capella passes its very highest, Rigel always marks true south over your landscape, and vice versa. (FYI, Lawrence KS is latitude 38.9) http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/

Fraternal Picture of the Week: Two sleepy people...

This Week: Saturday, January 20 – National Cheese Lovers Day & National Disc Jockey Day & Penguin Awareness Day

Sunday, January 21 – National Hugging Day & World Religion Day & World Snow Day

Night Sky, 21: Right after dark, face east and look very high. The bright star there is Capella, the Goat Star. To the right of it, by a couple of finger-widths at arm's length, is a small, narrow triangle of 3rd and 4th magnitude stars known as "The Kids." Though they're not exactly eye-grabbing, they form a never-forgotten asterism with Capella.

Monday, January 22 – Answer Your Cat's Questions Day & World Scotch Pie Day & National Polka Dot Day

Tuesday, January 23 – Maternal Health Awareness Day & National Pie Day & National Handwriting Day

Wednesday, January 24 – Belly Laugh Day & National Compliment Day & Talk Like A Grizzled Prospector Day

Night Sky, 1/24: Saturn, magnitude +1.0 in Aquarius, sinks lower in the west-southwest during and after dusk and sets around 7 or 8 pm In late twilight, look for Fomalhaut twinkling nearly two fists lower to Saturn's lower left.

Thursday, January 25 – A Room of One's Own Day & Opposite Day & Robert Burns Day

How many professional organizers does it take to fix … done! / Professional Organizer Confession #86: Never watch television shows about hoarding.

It's so cold in Kansas that terrorists are stockpiling industrial strength hot chocolate.

..........Your beauty is beyond compare..........Dolly Parton …..Jolene

^^ The first quarks appeared about 10^minus 12 seconds after the universe was formed, in the same era where the weak force (which today is the basis for some radioactivity) separated from the electromagnetic force. The antiparticles of quarks appeared around the same time.

Preantepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Magic Johnson wasted the world's best porn name on a basketball career.

Moonbeam: The war...was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forbearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides. --Robert E Lee

Homework of the Week: A Valentine Geography Activity: Ms Powell of Thayer Elementary School is asking folks from everywhere (states and countries) to send her class a valentine. They will mark a big map and talk about the places. Address: Thayer Elementary School / Ms Powell's Class / 401 East Walnut Street / Thayer, MO 65791. Thanks

Video of the Week: 5 minutes in Acadia National Park (ME) https://www.outsideonline.com/video/5-minutes-acadia-national-park-will-leave-you-breathless/

What this country needs is more unemployed politicians. --Angela Davis

Am I Over Organized? Will this really make it easier to find what I am looking for? / Professional Organizer Confession #5: No one is immune to clutter. Even the people who clear clutter for a living.

It's so cold in Kansas that people are getting the mitten instead of the finger.

.........Love in this world is so hard to find.........Janis Joplin …..Down On Me.

^^^ A mystery arose in the 1960s when researchers using the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center found that the electrons were scattering from each other more widely than calculations suggested. More research found that there were at least three locations where electrons scattered more than expected within the nucleon or heart of these atoms, meaning something was causing that scattering. That was the basis for our understanding of quarks today.

Antepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Jake said he needed his space, so I got him a 12x12 storage unit.

Weird Word of the Week: Kakorrhaphiophobia: fear of failure or defeat. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kakorrhaphiophobia

Dragon of the Week: New dragon in the Bangkok airport … perhaps for the Year of the Dragon. --Picture stolen from vr of +66

Wacky Uses for Common Products: Condition your hair. After shampooing, rinse dry hair with Budweiser, let set for five minutes, and then rinse clean with water. Beer gives hair great body. https://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/budweiser.html

Organized people are just people too busy to look for things. / The autobiography of the professional organizer is titled: Into The Closet.

It's so cold in Kansas that the local flasher is just describing himself.

...........How can we be wrong.........Dolly Parton …..Islands In The Stream

^^^^ Physicists refer to the different types of quark as flavors: up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. The biggest differentiation between the flavors is their mass, but some also differ by charge and by spin.

Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I'm starting to think I will never be old enough to know better.

Science Fiction Convention of the Week: COSine 2024 (19-21, Colorado Springs, ... liquid nitrogen ice-cream, and more! https://www.firstfridayfandom.org/cosine/

Actual Science Conference of the Week: 15^th Annual Symposium on Generating Functions of Special Number and Polynomials and Their Applications (17-21, Antalya, Turkey) https://gfsnpsymposia.com/

Answer to Puzzle of the Week: bayonets --> stab

Susie the snake was so disorganized that she needed a crochet pattern just to coil up. / I know an Event Professional who tried to organize a Hide And Seek Tournament but good players were too hard to find.

It's so cold in Kansas that opticians are giving away free ice scrapers with every pair of glasses.

..........I'll always be around.........Janis Joplin …..Cry Baby

^^^^^ Murray Gell-Mann, the co-proposer, pronounced the word for the quark model in the 1960s. Quork but never wrote it down. When he finally did, he drew inspiration for the spelling from the 1939 James Joyce book "Finnegan's Wake," which read: "Three quarks for Muster Mark! / Sure he has not got much of a bark / And sure any he has it's all beside the mark." (The book came out well before quarks were discovered and so their name has always been spelled in this way.)

Observation of the Week: I once spent a winter in New England (outside Athol, MA, in fact) and I said I would not complain about the cold in Kansas. I did not promise to stop complaining about the heat in Kansas. I am thinking of breaking the vow this year. It has been this cold before but I wasn't this old last time.

New Thing of the Week: I have been watching college basketball for decades and from time to time “types” appear – the guy with the hair (the hair itself can come in a number of dos) ...the guy with all the tattoos ...the really tall guy. This year KU has Hunter Dickinson, the guy with the beard.

Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I saw a snake that was 3.14 meters long. I think it was a πthon. --Neil deGrasse Tyson --Submitted by sb of ar

Today's Peace of History, January 19, 1970: Angela Davis was fired from UCLA. Because Davis was a member of the Communist Party, the UC Board of Regents, at the urging of then governor Ronald Reagan, tried to fire her before she even taught her first class. But enraged UCLA faculty, staff, and students protested in support of Davis, citing academic freedom. Davis was allowed to teach a course that, for the opening lecture, had to be moved from the Dickson Art Center to Royce Hall to accommodate more than 2,000 students and others who wanted to attend.

Son: Dad, I'm considering a career in organized crime. Dad: Government or private sector? / Professional Organizer Confession #12: I sort my m&m's by color before eating them.

It's so cold in Kansas that I chipped a tooth on my soup.

..........And I hope life will treat you kind..........Dolly Parton …..I Will Always Love You

Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle, January 19, 2024, mEthodized ePistle. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. Lawrence, KS.

Moonbeam: What a cruel thing war is...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors. --Robert E Lee

Cost of War:

• As of 01/18/24 State Department War Costs since 2001: $226.702,064,306.
• As of 01/11/24 State Department War Costs since 2001: $226,151,755,345.
• As of 01/18/24 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,192,305,936,236.
• As of 01/11/24 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,190,768,785,736.
• As of 01/18/24 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,157,952,382,573.
• As of 01/11/24 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,157,354,560,720.
• As of 01/18/24 Veterans Care since 2001: $3,463,247,171,604.
• As of 01/11/24 Veterans Care since 2001: $3,451,594,291,019.
• As of 01/18/24 Military Costs since 2001: $3,064,954,793,913.
• As of 01/11/24 Military Costs since 2001: $3,063,787,625,905.
• As of 01/18/24 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $9,105,164,706,612.
• As of 01/11/24 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $9,089,659,187,794.

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

To understand how any society functions you must understand the relationship between the men and the women. --Angela Davis

Famous Last Words: E vivo ancor! --Verdi Il Trovatore (And still I live)

.........We sang every song that driver knew.........Janis Joplin …..Me And Bobby McGee

It's so cold in Kansas that Starbucks is serving coffee on a stick.

Am I Over Organized? Is the level of organizing that I am considering or maintaining worth the trouble, time, or expense? / Professional Organizer Confession #23: Everyone needs a secret clutter hiding space.

May Peace warm your cockles

And Joy heat your heart

prairie mama

christine

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