That’s one way to write the date today, though some prefer 01/01/11, which I think is a bit fussy. Why go out of your way to tell people there’s nothing there? Let the nothingness speak for itself.
Apparently some feel 1/1/11 is a lucky alignment of numbers, and some couples have chosen to get married today to increase the likelihood that they will have a happy life together. And if both parties happen to think this wacky notion is a good idea, they probably will be happy together.
Some expect the year itself, 2011, to be about “getting things in order”, all because 2+0+1+1=4, and orderly, “universal” number. (1/1/11 ALSO equals 4!) Nice try “Universal 4” fans, but clearly you haven’t thought about the political imbalance in the 112th Congress, which will strive with all its might towards universal disorder if all the preliminary indications are correct. Did I say 112th Congress? 1+1+2+4! Egads!
People who are superstitious about numbers can become adamant about the importance of days like this. Later this year we’re bound to get some hand wringing over 11/11/11 – a preview perhaps of the hysteria surrounding 12/12/12.
The great thing about numbers is that they’re open to interpretation by people who want to prove something without any real facts to rely on. You know the famous line – “There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” You can use numbers to say whatever you like, or infer what you can’t even bring yourself to say.
For instance, the world should have been extremely wary about my birthday, though everyone but the closest observers completely missed the cosmic significance of 10/4/1955.
How was it important? Let me count the ways.
If you add all those numbers up as single digits (1+0+4+1+9+5+5), you get 25. Twenty five is the number of players that can be carried by a professional baseball team, and 10/4/55 is also the date that the Brooklyn Dodgers won their first (and only) World Series. Ebbets Field was 25 miles away from the hospital where I was born!
That’s not all. If you add them as 10, 4 and 55, you get 69. 15 plus 69 is 84, which is the atomic number of Polonium, a very radioactive substance. It was also my jersey number for that one season I was on the high school football team, getting pummeled by a series big guys who outweighed my by an average of 84 pounds each. Polonium poisoning is very bad and can gradually, but quite certainly, kill you. What happened to me on the football field also felt like slow death. Coincidence? I think not
Finally, if you add the numbers of my birth date as 10, 4, and 1955, you get 1969, which is a year nobody wants to re-live. There you have it. Bad omens all around.
See? Numbers can illuminate the important relationships between things that scientific, fact-driven minds might see as totally unrelated!
Are you superstitious about numbers?
Trail Baboon 
Only in my checkbook.
LikeLike
Not superstitious, but I frequently notice interesting combinations and relationships that go unremarked and underappreciated by others. Happy New Year everyone.
LikeLike
not only newbie of the year but a 6 22 entry. impressive
LikeLike
Rise and Greet the New Year Baboons:
Nope. Numbers are not my thing.
Meanwhile, I’m gone for several days to my extended family’s CHristmas celebration in Iowa. Should be back in the muddle on Tuesday.
LikeLike
safe travels, Jacque – and anyone out there today.
LikeLike
LeMars?
LikeLike
a gracious good morning and MMXI to You All
i like numbers but wow, Dale – that was amazing! twisted.
remember the song from the 60s i think that compared a whole bunch of numbers between Lincoln and Kennedy?
and the folks that think 1/1/11 equals 4 – that sum would be 2013, no? just me, i guess.
Renee – we have had enough cold and wind now, thank you. if you could please stop it at the ND border, we’d be ever so grateful.
LikeLike
I wish we could send it to the Nebraska panhandle. Son and DIL stuck in Fargo for now as I-94 closed from Alexandria to Bismarck.
LikeLike
i thought i heard they reopened it. well at least they are in fargo. they can play 2 hands of backjack at one time right? head to downtown for some new years eve nightlife, ahh what a happy circumstance.
LikeLike
Happy New Year, baboons!
I’m with Jacque on this. Numbers are not real to me, and they bounce off my brain like Silly Putty balls. If I telly you something that has a number in it, the chances are really poor that the number is right.
I’m only slightly superstitious about anything. My world exploded the day I learned my marriage was doomed, and I couldn’t fail to notice that that happened on Friday the 13th. Since then I am skittish every Friday the 13th, fearing the worst, but nobody else has divorced me.
Being a word guy, I have to notice that our date–1/1/11–is a remarkably “singular” date.
LikeLike
That is notable, Steve– I like it.
LikeLike
Hoy, Estavio en San Pablo, are you planning to be around middle of next week or will you be gone to South America?
LikeLike
I can’t afford to cross the street, CoB, so I will be here. I’d love to meet your better half and spend some time in this delightful corner of the world.
LikeLike
Looks like Tuesday or Wednesday.
LikeLike
Like Caroline, I’m not normally superstitous, but I do notice number combinations. The only number superstition I regularly observe is from Pogo cartoons…Friday the 13th can fall on any day, but when if falls on Friday, it is especially to be noted and feared.
Cold and gray up here. Thanks, Barb, for asking Renee to keep the bad weather west of MN…though perhaps she would like it to stay west of ND.
LikeLike
Love it, Cynthia! Another Pogo fan.
Chuchy LaFemme used to declaim, “This week Friday the 13th falls on a MONDAY, which is a terrible way to start the week!”
LikeLike
INdeed!!!
LikeLike
Favorite Pogo line: “We has met the enemy and it is us.”
LikeLike
I have that on the wall right beside my computer, Anna.
LikeLike
Morning all!
Thanks to those who predicted that I would sleep later in 2011! Made it to almost 8 a.m. this morning (although this was only after going to bed at 1 and getting up at 5:30 for a bit to let the dogs out – but I’ll take it!).
I’ve never been good at noticing the patterns in numbers but I do sometimes notice other patterns in life. For example, Dale mentions Polonium this morning and I am currently reading a book about the history of the periodic table of elements (yes, I know, I’m a complete nerd) and Polonium has been mentioned a couple of times so far! Coincedence???? I wonder……….
LikeLike
whats the most interesting in the book so far?
LikeLike
Gallium… apparently scientists who work w/ gallium have a practical joke (or at least talk about it) in which they fashion a spoon out of gallium for afternoon tea. Since gallium melts at 84 degrees F, when you use the spoon to stir your tea, it dissolves. I kinda like the idea of scientists having practical jokes!
LikeLike
Does it count, VS, if the jokes scientists invent are only funny to scientists?
LikeLike
Yes, I think scientists should get every break available to them!
LikeLike
As a former research scientist–on a junior, junior level–I argue for you not to blend the scientists in with the numbers folks. Science labs in my experience are full of jokes and jokers.
LikeLike
http://www.disappearingspoons.com/index.php?action=extra&extra=A_all_things_gallium&lang=EN
LikeLike
I know I’ve seen a dissolving spoon somewhere else, but it was probably in a cartoon. Cartoons are on my mind because my little neighbor friend was over yesterday and we watched old Chip and Dale cartoons from early 50s — FUN!
LikeLike
Renee, any chance your flatware is made of Gallium? That could explain the disappearing soup spoons.
LikeLike
Caroline, I was thinking just that. Who could have known that I’m a victim of a scientific prank?
LikeLike
So nerts to you, verily. I slept until 9.09!! Here’s the secret, want to know, huh, huh, huh?? Not be able to fall asleep until 2 and then be up from 4 to 5. Works most times, but not all.
LikeLike
waiting for the new years day celebtation in l.a. to finish huh clyde de par t animal
LikeLike
Waiting for my body chemistry to comply with the time of day.
LikeLike
Gotta know, Verily, what is the name of the book?
Somebody at my house thinks that would be a good read.
LikeLike
It’s actually called “The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World From the Periodic Table of Elements” by Sam Kean.
LikeLike
A good 1/1/11 to all,
The number 13 bothers me,but 37 is the number that I would like to talk about. 37 has been noted as a special number by the Hell’s Tunas. This a group of people I know from my days in Indiana and at Purdue. A few of them ended up in Minnesota. Some of them had motor cycles and many were more or less drop outs from Purdue. They were my friends, but I never totally identified myself as a Tuna. As tim has noted, I try to avoid being too outrageous.
According to the Tunas, 37 is a special number. It occurs in unusual places and more often than it should. I think the Tunas are correct regarding 37. Keep your eye out for the number 37. I think you will find it in unusual places.
LikeLike
i willl note 37 and see. good heads up. i suspecy there is a closet tuna amongst us baboons
LikeLike
Tunas could be any where. The “hard core” orginal members were almost all from W. Lafayette, Indiana. Small groups have formed in other locations. I still have some connections. I think you might fit with this group, tim.
LikeLike
bring em on, let me know how to contact them.
LikeLike
You will see patterns you want to see. Start looking for the number XX and you will see it all the time. One of my favorite reading topics is math at the cocneptual level, especially in regards to r
LikeLike
[getting used to this bouncy keyboard and hit a hot key]
in regards to randomness and probability. I love the oddities of number distribution, for instance the in a long list of multi-digit numbers, the final digits will not be evenly distributed.
But 37 is an interesting prime and my number in football in HS and college.
Hell’s tunas—gotta love that!
LikeLike
i think you should open the mankato branch
LikeLike
My sister’s husband was long in a cycle gang that required a doctorate to belong. They never could come up with a good name.
LikeLike
hells doctors didn’t work for them, bpd would work too
LikeLike
The Tunas are a certain kind of people. A group would probably be formed by some one already in the Tunas. However, you might be a able to form a group on your own if you really are a Hell’s Tuna, even if you don’t know any other Tunas.
LikeLike
spoken by a man with a tuna heart i suspect
LikeLike
There are a few Phd Tunas. They were drop outs, but kept going to school any way. Some of the Tunas have “colors” like the colors worn by the Hell’s Angels. Not all of them had motor cycles and some of the cycles were not the best.
LikeLike
If tuna refers to body type, then I am in.
LikeLike
Morning–
I’m not superstitious either but numbers are interesting and fun– to a point. I missed three or four weeks of Jr. high Algebra so X /V (A +B)=__ has never made any sense to me no matter how I try. But I can do the Watts /Volts = Amps. Hah!
I love it when the clock shows 12:34. And I distinctly remember 7/7/77 more than 8/8/88 or 9/9/99… I drove my car around last night so I could record the mileage at 90,000 instead of 89,994. Remember when it was a big deal when the odometer turned over to 100,000? And when it was actual DIALS instead of digital? Grrr…..!
Happy New Year everyone– on any date!
LikeLike
i used to stop and tak a picture of the odometer at 44444 and 55555 and note where i was at the moment. 11111 miles later always makes a difference. if its not going well just wait 11111 miles and check it out. the differences are often substantial.
LikeLike
I watch numbers on the bike odometer, but then that’s where your eyes naturally look.
LikeLike
Not all of us have gone digital in the odometer department yet. I still have the old dial kind where sometimes when you stop the number is halfway between, and you have to stop and think, is that a 0 or a 9? Or maybe an 8?
LikeLike
i gat married on 1.1.1 and i forgot our anniversary is tday. thanks for the heads up. a card and some flowers will go a long way. we don’t celebrate it much but to miss it would be a problem. we did do the walk again last week. we got married on the boardwalk down in florida at the disney properties on a day like the ones we were just down there for. sunny and 41 at noon. colder than any floridian likes it and a couple of us minnesotans kindsa wished there was a heater nearby too. i am superstitious. just am. friday the 13th always gets noted and avoided. i wear lucky hats and sox,sit in the same seats at baseball games etc. but dale where did the add 15 to 69 come from to get to poladium and your football jersey. if you subtracted 15 youd have 54 the elelment xenon discovered right after krypton and neon, used to kill bacteria and power lasers. when dale takes off his glasses in the phone booth and reveals his secret identity of xenon man who is able to blog higher than a dictionary speed faster than a streaking acadamy awards show interluder and who disquised as dale connelley the mild mannered blogmaster who fights for truth justice and the american way
.. yes, it’s blogman … strange visitor from another planet, who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! blogman … who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as dale connelly, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan blog, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the american way! and now, another exciting episode, in the adventures of the trail baboon!
LikeLike
Lots of folks getting married today. I too was supposed to be driving to and through Iowa yesterday to Lawrence, KS. So with Twain I could have said “Good-Bye, God; I’m going to Missouri.” To the wedding of my former partner’s daughter, who is a sweetheart. But it is, of course, also the wedding of my former partner’s WIFE’s daughter’s wedding. The single greatest perk of no longer being a part of the company I co-founded is that I never again have to knowingly be in the same state as her. But I have heard of several weddings today. Isn’t it in Japan where they find certain dates better than others for such things? My daughter missed 9/9/99 by two days, this choosing 9/11 for both her birthday and anniversary, yet somehow my s-i-l misses it every now and then.
LikeLike
china and the yin and yang thing studies numbers like that big time.
LikeLike
and thanks for the painting like it like it more per favor
LikeLike
What I wanna know is, how spiffy is the cape that comes with being BlogMan?
LikeLike
understated strength, i am thinking grey cashmere with bone piping
LikeLike
No Capes!
LikeLike
I love it…Blogman…but the description reminds me of Incredible Betty who fought for good manners…where is she these days, Dale?
LikeLike
I miss Incredible Betty. She was fabulous.
LikeLike
I do notice numbers especially prime numbers and squares, cubes, etc. The morning of my 32nd birthday I was in the shower and turning my new age over in my mind, I realized that I was 2 to the 5th power, and I would never be any other number to the fifth power, although I can hope to get to 2 to the 6th power (64). I now try to celebrate my prime number birthdays in a bigger fashion than the -0 ones.
And as far as Friday the 13th goes, I have to watch out on Tuesday the 13th too, because that is unlucky in Spain, where I have lived for part of my life. I wonder if other 13th days are unlucky in other countries and we should all just be paranoid every 13th of every month!
txutxi
LikeLike
Hello! Are you a lurker come out of the cold are a regular with a new name? Welcome, in any event.
LikeLike
Isn’t he an oldie returning, and again I hope.
LikeLike
welcome, txutxi. nice to have a new voice to start the new year. are you able to tie some numerical value to most any day or do you have to wait for them to surface?
LikeLike
Thanks for the welcome! I’m an intermittent lurker, sometimes forgetting for days to check the trail baboon, but am a big fan of dale’s and the whole community. Usually by the time I lurk, it’s days later and I rarely have anything to say, so I don’t.
Tim, I suppose that the numbers hit me randomly, rather than having some association with every day. Although I didn’t do a lot of math at school, I can do simple math in my head way quicker than my husband, who’s an engineer!
txutxi
LikeLike
Oops, she not he. Now that I think about it, I knew that. Sorry
LikeLike
Welcome txutxi….
LikeLike
I’m thinkin’ txutxi is just a fancy way of spelling Susie.
LikeLike
i have a 4th grade daughter who is now supposed to know 7×7 and 9×8 and all that stuff then on to dividing. i was quizzing her on the answers and there was a long time of finger counting etc.. i finally got to the point that i said ..never mnd the answer tell me how you are getting there. like 8×7 is 10×7 minus 2×7 and 6×9 is 5×9 plus 9 kind of excersize so she can realize there re different avenues to get ot the answer. fun stuff. got any brain teaser clues to help the process to speed us along with your advanced processing skills? and welcome. steve i like the susie revelation.
LikeLike
xusxie, if you lurk and have a response days later. go ahead and stick it on todays blog and make a reference to the blog a couple days ago. we will get it. if i could remember what day it was i am referencing i could turn a whole new page.
LikeLike
My wife is having she says a dream come true: she is watching the rose parade on the house and garden channel.
LikeLike
Band just went by with a horn player in a wheelchair.
LikeLike
Hoping that comment raises Aaron.
LikeLike
We are watching the Rose Parade, too – loved the surfing dogs. Missed the horn player, though. We just tuned in…so we’re a bit late.
LikeLike
thought about aaron yesterday
LikeLike
me too
LikeLike
I’m thinking of Mark, who was on TBB back in the beginning.
LikeLike
Was Mark one of our bicyclers? I remember a biker from St. Louis Park who was out of work for awhile when I was and then he started biking to a downtown job…
LikeLike
Yes — and he also had the fabulous dog who jumps at the snow as it’s being shoveled. I just found his blog and invited him to come on over to TBB and say “hi”.
LikeLike
Mark was on for just a bit after I joined up in Sept of 2009.
LikeLike
And he was at the Duos show at the Fitz, along with Jeanne (sp?), his significant other.
LikeLike
Thanks for a fun opening to the NY, Dale. My mom was 22 when I was born, and when I was 11 I noticed she was thrice my age, and that she’d be double when I was 22. That’s about it for me noticing numbers on my own.
I think I’ve read that in other cultures 13 is actually lucky rather than unlucky. Husband dabbled in Numerology back in his hippie days, and has done my “chart” — I’m a 6, but can’t remember what that means, so “I’ll get back to you on that” if there’s anything significant. And I’ve read some on the Enneagram, but all is forgotten…
LikeLike
Numbers and I are not best friends – she’s sort of the occasional friend who drops by when you haven’t yet showered. I do not always understand numbers. I far prefer words; so much easier for me to put in order and bend them to my will. I am often amazed and surprised by numbers, though. They can be useful for things like measurement (e.g., for cooking) and for planning how much lumber to get for a set (I almost always wind up with too much…remember, numbers and I are not best friends). I was pleasantly surprised by some statistics from work this week (my little corner of the Best Buy web site had an increase in web traffic of 79% during the week of Christmas vs. the prior week, which means it was also about that much higher from Christmas week 2009 – pretty cool).
That said, my first full day of marriage was April Fool’s day – make of that what you will. 🙂
LikeLike
mine too but it was in january
LikeLike
Belly guffaw. Tim!
LikeLike
OK, so now that several of you have posted, I don’t have to worry about breaking the “66 replies to 1/1/11” at the top of the page. We are all about numbers at our house, but there was a time that I thought digital clocks were the work of the devil, as the s&h would be completely freaked by the times, 1:11, 2:22, etc. but then he was “safe” once we got past 5:55, as there was no 6:66-but 10:10, etc were no good either.
He still remembers that, but has no idea why he was so disturbed by those times.
Unlike most baboons, I have more facility with numbers than words-no idea why that is, and have never really been able to explain it(or explain who my brain works with numbers).
Part of the pre-ice birthday activities yesterday involved a trip to the Science Museum-the Geometry Playground is very cool and lots of fun, highly recommend it. Our main reason for going was to see the Hubble IMAX movie-thought of Dale the whole time, but especially when the music for the opening and closing credits was the ukelele version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World medley we know and love from TMS.
Ben and BiR, loved your comments on being a parent from yesterday.
LikeLike
Hi MiG- and Thanks….
It’s late and I’m sitting up watching Wisconsin Public TV and old movies; tonight seems to be ‘Cary Grant’ movie night. Cary Grant, now there is an actor…
LikeLike
hes not old , hes dead
LikeLike
i avoid 666 and 66 also
LikeLike
Well, how do you get your kicks?
LikeLike
on interstate 494
LikeLike
Does that include 66-year-olds?
LikeLike
naw i party down with the young at heart anytime
LikeLike
Enneagram . . . I can run with that. Lots of fun. It is character analysis based on the Seven Deadly Sins. The theory includes the idea that whatever kind of person you are, you can be a pain in the butt if you represent the worst features of that type. The Enneagram really isn’t about numbers; that’s just a shorthand way of referring to types.
LikeLike
I thought it had 9 types…?
LikeLike
There are nine. But I still think the idea originated with the Seven basic sins.
LikeLike
i can hardly wait to see what two were added, sloth finally has some competition
LikeLike
I may as well add our lunch to the biscuit corner of the Congress, which is pretty much my section.
Chicken in Beer Biscuits
Ingredients for Biscuits
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
¼ rounded cup shortening
¾ cup beer
Filling
10 oz can chicken in water
¾ full stalk celery finally cut
¼ small apple finally cut
4 tsp miracle whip
3 turns pepper mill
Directions
1) Combine flour, salt, baking powder and mix.
2) Cut in shortening to consistency of corn meal.
3) Add beer and mix.
4) Turn onto floured board and lightly knead.
5) Roll into square ¼ inch thick.
6) Fold in half and roll just to even the thickness.
7) Place on Pam-sprayed sheet and cut into squares about 3” x 3”. Do not separate pieces.
8) Bake at 450 degrees for 11-13 minutes.
9) Mix filling ingredients.
10) Let biscuits cool a bit before adding filling.
LikeLike
I love that moment when the celery & apple are finally cut.
LikeLike
Best moment I know is stir-frying. I get the oil hot in the wok and then throw in a little minced garlic, onion, celery and mushroom before frying the meat. Wow. There is a smell to live on.
LikeLike
you really read this stuff.good for you!
LikeLike
Thanks Clyde.
Chicken in Beer Biscuits has been posted to Kitchen Congress.
LikeLike
did not know 8 close parentheses makes 8)
LikeLike
Shorthand for “Cool”.
LikeLike
8()
LikeLike
Rats! I-94 is going to stay closed between Fargo and Jamestown until tomorrow afternoon, so son and dil are coming on January 14th for an even more belated Christmas. We’ll just have to freeze all the baked goodies and beef roast and keep watering the tree.
LikeLike
Sorry; disappointing /I am sure.
LikeLike
well you will be one day late for national skeptics day and one day early for international hat day. you could lose the tree and get some hats. http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/january.htm
LikeLike
Hmmm…. I sense a theme party in your future: Something along the lines of “Napoleon in 1928” or “Minute Men and the Inconvenient Truth”
LikeLike
i don’t know if you can beat skeptics with hats
LikeLike
Just depends if their emphasis is on hats or skeptics I guess….
LikeLike
Hello,
Nice to be remembered, thanks for the shout out Sherrilee. The job I found has cut into my blogging time considerably and is actually in Eagan so the bike ride is at least an hour each way or only a few minutes longer than it takes to drive in rush hour. My dog is still just as amazing and every once in a while I post something about him on my blog like the video that’s up there now.
As for today’s post, I’m more artist than number cruncher but numbers tend to stick in my brain like glue. I don’t lend any credence to the various combinations but got a real chuckle from Dale’s post here today.
I’ll have to stop by more often. Happy New Year everyone!
LikeLike
Hi Mark, so glad you checked in…have wondered about you since the day at Barb in Blackhoof’s picnic under her trees.
LikeLike
Nice of you to drop in, Mark, keep it up as time allows!
LikeLike
Mark — glad to “see” you again. Glad you’ve gotten that gainful employment that you were looking for way back when. I can’t think of anyone else who would look forward to a 1-hour bike commute to a job, so it must have been meant for you.
Hope to see you again here every now and then!
LikeLike
Hello, fellow biker, Mark. I log my miles as a motivation. In 2010 I rode 220 days and did 4575 outdoors this year plus about 1000 miles indoors (have to guess it from time), which is 1000 miles down from 2009 which was a 1000 miles down from 2008. There’s a number pattern.
LikeLike
Hi Mark– Welcome back!
LikeLike
Good to hear from you again, Mark. Thanks for visiting. I’ll think about you every time I see someone pedaling through the January cold. Our friend Ann Reed had a commentary about biking posted on the MPR website. Here’s a link:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/12/31/reed/
LikeLike
i think about you and your wonderful doggie often, Mark – that clip of shoveling is a joy! thanks for coming back
LikeLike
Greetings! I’ve read a little bit about numerology and it’s quite interesting to note numerical relationships, but I can’t speak to the validity of it all. It’s just really interesting. Otherwise, numbers and math generally don’t get through my brain barriers. I remember being traumatized by bothersome “bad” girls in middle school who sat next to me in Math class. They would ask me questions like if I got “balled” while playing volleyball in gym, or if I was a lesbian. I had no idea what either term meant, or even how to respond to their cruel questions. She said lesbian was the French word for girl. I was in French class, so I knew perfectly well that wasn’t correct. All I was aware of was that these girls were being nasty and I was an easy mark — a real dork too shy to defend myself.
So math is equated with emotional trauma in my mind. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. These 2 girls were both beautiful, wore lots of make-up, smoked in the bathrooms, had boyfriends who gave them hickeys on their necks and wore great clothes with very short skirts. I sometimes wondered what these two by-atches turned into later in life with that kind of start in 8th grade. Any stereotypes you care to characterize them with? The better question is; why am I still upset by that memory? Strange start to a new year on TB — maybe I can purge this kind of thing that holds me back.
LikeLike
Put ’em in the f **k it bucket, Joanne.
LikeLike
amen donna perfect application
LikeLike
Joanne! Been there. Why does stuff like this continue to happen? So many have been there… men and women. Donna has the right idea, but none of us had a f**k it bucket like that back then. We work hard at our school to fight this kind of thing, but I’m sure we can’t catch it all. I’m picturing our teaching staff running around with buckets….. Can I put those memories to use somehow for good? I hope so. I’ll be back to teaching elementary music on Monday after a welcome 2 weeks to recharge. Wish me and all teachers a heavy dose of wisdom.
LikeLike
LIKE!
LikeLike
welcome back holly. go forth and conquer. two weeks is hardly enough but do what you can.
i remember the story about the guy who woke up every day with his mom telling him to get up and go to school and he would cry and scream, i don’t want to go to school, the kids all hate me the teachers dont like me and i hate that rotten school. give me two good reasons why i should go , / his mom would yell, dont make me come up there and get you. you are 47 years old and you are the principle of that school and it is time to get going, now get up and go
LikeLike
Thanks for the support, everyone. Bless you, Holly — this was 40 years ago, but keep up the good fight. I remember Mr. Paige, the teacher, saying that he put those girls by me hoping my good behavior would be a positive influence on them. Well, nice try anyway. I had gone to a Catholic grade school which was strict and forbade any talking in class. Parents switched me to public school hoping for more help in my math (another 4th grade trauma of just NOT getting loonnnng division as taught at the time no matter how hard I tried to understand).
My quiet, sensitive soul was astonished and generally unable to cope with the loudness, rudeness, vulgarity and general coarseness of the behavior of regular middle school kids. That was a big adjustment. Thankfully, we grow out of adolescence and some of us find our voice later in life.
LikeLike
I’ve always had a sort of affinity for numbers; they seem friendly and helpful to me. I’m a pretty good money manager – it’s a shame no one has ever seen fit to bestow much of it on me, I would have made good use of it. What has come my way, I’ve made the most of.
I’m also really good at sudoku and kakuro puzzles. Everyone should have at least one talent that is completely useless, so there’s mine.
LikeLike
Linda – those puzzles are supposed to keep our brains supple as we age. Let us know if that’s true or not.
Cute refrigerator magnet from Lora last week – picture of a housewife from the 50’s (looks kinda like Barbara Billingsly) saying, “The Older I Get, The More Everyone Can Kiss My A**.”
LikeLike
Oh, that’s priceless!
LikeLike
Tell Lora hi – I have a picture on my (computer) desktop from the State Fair Radio Heartland show, so I see her smiling face often.
LikeLike
8)
LikeLike
I think tim should get some kind of acknowledgement for having the only comment to post at exactly 1:11 on 1/1/11. But I believe Jacque is unavailable to award a daily banana at the moment.
LikeLike
you really do read this stuff
LikeLike
Someone’s gotta do it. 😉
LikeLike
Our friend, and local, long-time farmer Mike OTLH (of the large hands) gave us this recipe:
Goat Cheese Tart
8 or 9 inch pie shell
4 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
½ green bell pepper, finely chopped see note below
4 eggs
5 oz. chevre
1 cup goat milk
½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper (white or black), 1 tsp dried onion flakes (optional)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place pie shell in pie plate. In bottom of pie shell, evenly scatter the crumbled bacon and chopped peppers. In a medium bowl, beat together the cheese, eggs, milk, seasonings, and onion. Pour over bacon and peppers in pie shell. Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour, until set (a knife inserted into custard halfway between center and crust will come out clean) and lightly browned on top. Serve warm or at room temperature. Serves 8 (ha, ha). The recipe is from the National Pork Board and was printed in The Country Today, May 5, 2010.
Note: I have used all sorts of substitutions in this tart and almost anything that sounds good to you will work. I’ve sautéed mushrooms, used roasted red peppers, scallions, asparagus, and I think broccoli would be good in it also. This is a lighter version of quiche – much lower in fat because there is no cream and it uses less cheese and a lower fat cheese like chevre. Makes a great luncheon with a green salad. Yum. Thanks, Mike!
LikeLike
Brrrb and Clyde – thanks for the new recipes… as soon as I get out for goat cheese and 3/4 C. of beer… In the mood to try something new on January 2.
Along those lines, I just went to the link tim posted about the “bizarre and unique holidays”, and Folks, today is
Run It Up the Flagpole and See if Anyone Salutes Day — “we suspect someone decided there should be a day dedicated to express or display new ideas, and concepts, etc.”
And the whole month is:
National Bath Safety Month
National Blood Donor Month
National Braille Literacy Month
National Hobby Month
Hot Tea Month
National Oatmeal Month
National Soup Month
LikeLike
And I had oatmeal, tea and soup…and I didn’t even know!
LikeLike
we’ll be sure to hear from BTSORafferty this month, right??
jeepers, it’s cold up here! this morning, All Girls jacketed at 7:30 a.m.
by 10 a.m., all self-unjacketed except Dream. i gave up and took them off everyone except Dreamy, who likes her look (it hides her tummy) in the jacket. except she has chewed two holes in it, i see.
T and Nibby don’t need no stinkin’ jackets.
LikeLike