FIGHTING THE URGE TO PLAY THE KAZOO SINCE 1837.
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While I am not big on Social Networks, I know some people are.  However if you get on something like FaceBook or MySpace you are in an exclusive group on many millions.  So maybe you are looking for something that is closer to your particular interests.  Say like poetry.  Then Digital Verse is for you.  Share your poems with those who fancy themselves poets at:
http://www.digitalverse.org/

Or maybe you dabble in art.  Would you like to showoff or even sell your work?  Well you can do that at deviantART at:
http://www.deviantart.com/

Maybe you are an Uber Internet Geek and you want a social network that only caters to your kind.  Well then Pingsta is just for you, but only if you are really good.  You have to submit a resume and pass a test to be invited to join.  Get Freaky with your Geeky at:
http://www.pingsta.com/

If you have some illness or injury and you would like to talk to others that share your problem then there is Patients Like Me.  You can share concerns, treatments and emotions with others sitting in the same boat at:
http://www.patientslikeme.com/
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Somebody sent me an email that was talking about young women and their cell phones.  It said the only way to get a cell phone away from a teenage girl was to pry it out of her cold, dead hand.  After the product I saw Friday I believe it.  It was a colorful, elastic, material, pocket that fit around the wrist.  The pocket was to hold your cell phone.  It was a Phone Cozy.
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Looking for the the interesting and the unusual to bring before for you amusement, I have discovered a Play.  A little thing (off Broadway) called 'Zanna Don't'.  It is a love story and the central figure is Zanna who has the magic power to help couples come together.  He is pretty good at it.  It takes place sort of now in a small town somewhere in the US.  Pretty boring so far.  Well here is the twist.  Being Gay is the norm and only a very small number of people are straight and they are treated very badly.  You follow the lives of a few high school students during their last year of school.  A boy and a girl fall in love.  They are frightened and guilt ridden and try not to let it happen because they know that they will lose all their friends and be ostracized by their relatives. 

Obviously this is a play for the open minded and I doubt that any Homophobe will become more tolerate since they will never see the play in the first place.  I do think that people who don't have any strong feeling one way or the other could be shown that the most unhealthy part of a Gay relationship is the ton of guilt and crap that society drops on two people just trying to make it through life.

As I get older I realize that laws and social moralities are not there just to punish evil people but also to crush those who are different.  A lot of our cherished freedom is the freedom to stretch our wings, inside the confines of our cages. 
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Do you like history?  Would you like to collect little pieces of it?  That stuff is expensive and hard to find but there is an alternative.  Replicas!  Get you historic replicas at:
http://www.aurorahistoryboutique.com

I found this when I was doing a little search on the British rifle called the Brown Bess.  The British used this weapon during the Revolutionary war and as you will see (in the Wednesday Birthday section) the US captured a bunch of them.  Well Aurora History Boutique sells replica Brown Bess rifles (full size, non-firing models).  These look just as cool, hanging on the wall as the real thing.  Plus they have hundreds of other items.  They have model soldiers and airplanes, replica jewelry and pottery (copy of historic pieces).  They sell Reenactment clothing and non-firing replicas of many different guns, from a single shot pirate's pistol to a copy of Bat Masterson's Colt .45 to several models of the Thompson machine gun to copies of the AK-47.  They like to supply historical movies with props. 

Want to spice up your Halloween party or just convince your neighbors that you are a serial killer (so they will leave you alone)?  They sell human skull replicas.  Where do you think all the Crime Lab shows get all their bones and skulls from?  They don't go grave robbing.  Also they sell fossils (replicas of course).  They have 1/4 scale T-Rex skulls and various critter teeth.  You can get a full size replica of a Saber Tooth Tiger and if that does not make you treat you cat better, nothing will.  They also have a full size replica of an American Lion skull.  This was a 560 pound cat that dwarfs the 300 African Lion.  Also the American Lion roamed 4 continents and is one of the widest ranging mammals of all time.

Ancient Egypt has some neat artifacts and they are knee deep in them.  They have King Tut death masks, scarab beetles, pottery and statuary.

They have Roman era brass chest armor and replica swords.  They have replica old Crosley radio/record players.  If you wonder why that sounds familiar that is because the Cincinnati Reds used to play on Crosley field because Crosley owned them.  He also owned WLW (the Big One) radio station (700 AM).  He knew if people could not afford to buy a radio they were not going to listen so he made a sled load of money selling affordable radios.  Of course this radio just looks old.  Besides the radio and record player there is a cassette deck and a CD burner.  You can transfer entire record albums to CD while you listen to them. 

They even sell some real thing such as:
Authentic Coins & Currency
Authentic Native Artifacts
Authentic Fossils

One of the neat Authentic items they have is stock certificates for the Titanic.  Too cool for school.  Thousands of products.  Check it out.
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Now to the reasons to be happy this week
(or at least civil).
Here goes:

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monday 22 february
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** For every human reaction there is an
*** over-reaction.
***
***  - Carmichael's Law
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birthdays:
1732 – George Washington.  You should know who he is by now.

1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, English founder of the Boy Scouts.  He has the same birthday as his wife, but a few years older.

1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, English founder of the Girl Guides.  Well co-founder, along with her husband Robert Baden-Powell.  You might have noticed the 32 year deference in their ages, the press sure did.  They had to marry in secret to avoid the press.  Every Boy Scout in England donated one penny each and they bought a car as a wedding present.  Olave did not get a feeble old man and over the next 5 year they had three children.

1903 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer.  Callaghan was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario.  During the 1920s he worked at the Toronto Daily Star where he became friends with fellow reporter, Ernest Hemingway. Callaghan began writing stories and soon was recognized as one of the best short story writers of the day. In 1929 he spent some months in Paris, where he was part of the gathering of writers in Montparnasse that included Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce.

Hemingway and Callaghan liked to spar and once during a challenge match the referee (F. Scott Fitzgerald) let a round run over the normal 3 minute mark and Callaghan decked Hemingway.  Hemingway was mad at Fitzgerald because he said he let the round go long just so he could see Hemingway embarrassed.  Who knows?

Anyhow Callaghan has been published in The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, Maclean's, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Saturday Evening Post, Yale Review, New World, Performing Arts in Canada, and Twentieth Century Literature.  The four volume 'The Complete Stories' was published in 2003 and I am sure it is in the library, if not at Amazon.

events:
1819 – By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.  Today that will buy a beach front condo in Miami.

1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded in State College, Pennsylvania (as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania).  Joe Paterno accepted the job of football coach the very next year :>

1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first 5 and 10-cent Woolworth store.  131 years later, all that remains of the mighty retail chain (in the US) is Foot Locker.  There are some Woolworths, in Germany, Austria, Mexico, and South Africa that have a historic connection to the original but the New Zealand and Australian supermarkets have no connection with the US stores and used the name simply because it had not been copyrighted locally.

1889 – President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.  They actually become states the following November.  The Dakotas on the 2nd, Montana on the 8th and Washington on the 11th.

1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.  And Moonshine runners have a socially expectable outlet for their law breaking ways.

2006 – At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing £53 million (about $92.5 million or 78€ million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.  Five men are in jail and there is a sixth man living in Morocco (they won't extradite).  About £33 million ($60 million or 47€ million) has NOT been recovered.  They say that crime does not pay... well maybe not for everybody but somewhere there is £33,000,000 British Pounds that beg to differ. 

For my Nestle friends, Securitas provides the security at Marysville.  Just saying.

holidays:
Girl Guides Day (UK) - I mean why not.  This is the his and hers Baden-Powell birthday.

National Margarita Day - I great thing especially if it is your birthday.

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tuesday 23 february
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Always think of something new; this helps
*** you forget your last rotten idea.
***
***  - Seth Frankel
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birthdays:
1583 - Jean-Baptiste Morin was a French mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer.  Well he was not a very good astronomer because he believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe and sat fixed and unmoving.  Once you get that one wrong then all the rest of it is sort of meaningless.  And then there is his 26 volume explanation of astrology (in Latin).  I do not read Latin and I believe that I could get as much (if not more) true information skimming those books, in total incomprehension, than if I understood Latin and read them.  This guy does not impress me.

1904 - William Lawrence Shirer was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian, who wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (the definitive history of Hitler's Germany).  Shirer became famous for his news broadcasts from Berlin, from the rise of the Nazi dictatorship through the first year of World War II (1934-41).  So he saw the rise first hand.  He is a respected Journalist and Historian.  His book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" went through 20 printings the first year it was published (1960).  This guy impresses me a lot.

1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress.  She has more acting credits at 16 than many actors have by the time they are 50.  She is the youngest person to be asked to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so she gets to vote on who gets the Oscars.  She made $4 million during 2006 and I expect she will make a lot more than that this year.

events:
1778 – Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.  I always have to mention the Baron since the town I was born in is named after him.  Fort Steuben became Steubenville (its nickname is 'Little Chicago').

1836 – The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.  2,400 Mexican Soldiers came up against an undetermined number (182-260) of Texas defenders.  13 days later the Mexicans enter the fort and kill everybody.  Well no.  There may have been as many as 50 people who were in the fort the day the attack began but lived.  Most of the soldiers who survived were sent out as couriers or scouts and could not get back in.  One man refused to cross 'the line in the sand' and he slipped away. Of those who were there during the final assault and survived there was a deserted Mexican Soldier (he was fighting with us) who (when he saw the battle was lost) locked himself in a cell and convinced the Mexicans that he was a prisoner of the Texans.  At least two slaves were released (Santa Anna was trying to get slaves' support) as were about 9 women and 9 children.  So maybe 21 people walked out of the Alamo. 

Many details are fuzzy and there is a lot of controversy.  It is hard to study some of this since Texas has a reverent view of the events over these 13 days and they do not welcome anyone poking into the official history.  Ozzie Osborne peed on a monument, erected in honor of those who died at the Alamo, across the street from the actual building.  He was arrested and banned from San Antonio for 10 years.  Many people would have done far worse.  It has been reported that Ozzie was wearing Sharon's dress at the time of the incident. 

1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".  Castro is still frosted about that.

1909 – The AEA Silver Dart (similar to the Wright Brother's Flyer) makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.  To see what it looks like goto:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AEA_Silver_Dart.jpg

1947 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.  I know many of us have been terrorized by ISO 9000 (for quality management systems) and wonder what good could ever come of this organization.  Well they set standards for things and then businesses usually end up going along with the standards and everybody everywhere can be compatible.  It works.  If you take your latest Green Day CD to any CD player on the planet and drop it in, it is going to play (assuming the player works).  That is because of ISO 9660 which is a standard for how files are stored on CDs.  I just wish that ISO 9000 worked as well as the CDs.  One other example is the speed of camera film.  You remember camera film don't you?  Anyhow these and other Standards groups are why computer parts fit together and stereo system components always connect up. 

holidays:
National Banana Bread Day - Random food day.

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wednesday 24 february
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** If you knew what you were doing,
*** you'd probably be bored.
***
***  - Catherine B. Fresco
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birthdays:
1723 – General John Burgoyne - His military career was a casualty of the Revolutionary War.  In 1777, Burgoyne's mission was to engage and defeat the Continental Army which would have destroyed the largest Rebel Military unit and cut the colonies in two.  Then the British could mop up part by part.  The only problem was in the second of two battles (same field but 18 days apart) Burgoyne's forces had to retreat.  They withdrew to Saratoga where they were surrounded by a larger Rebel Force and General John had to surrender 6,000 troops.  OOOPS.  Many historians claim this was the turning point of the war.  France saw this as a great time to screw with England so they made a treaty with us and started putting military pressure on the British in Europe and the Indies.  We captured an army's worth of weapons to help arm our troops.  Today the US military is taught that if you have to withdraw or surrender, YOU DESTROY YOUR WEAPONS.  I learned some pretty cool stuff about how to blow things up when we had our classes in destroying our own stuff.  Anyhow we got several cannon and thousands of Brown Bess rifles that the British were so fond of.

An ironic moment happened in the second battle at Saratoga.  General Benedict Arnold had been removed from field command and he was pissed.  He stomped around camp in a really bad mood and there is some evidence he may have been drinking.  Without authorization he jumped on his horse and rode through whithering fire to twice lead attacks that punched the hole in the British defenses, that led to their retreat.  Would we have won the battle without him?  I think we might have but we may not have been able to force the surrender and it could have been a very different war.  The surrender of Burgoyne's army was what convinced King Louis XVI to throw in, on our side.  Arnold became a hero because of his anger at orders he was given (and choose to ignore) and a short time later he became a traitor of his own free will. 

A very attractive 2 cent US postage stamp commemorating 150th anniversary of the surrender can be seen at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saratoga_1777_Oriskany_1927_Issue-2c.jpg

1866 – Hubert Van Innis, Belgian archer.  Yep he was an Archer.  He won 6 gold medals and 3 silver medals in the two Olympic games he competed in. 

1877 - Ettie Annie Rout was a Tasmanian-born New Zealander.  She tried to combat venereal disease by passing out condoms and hygienic material to New Zealand troops, in France, during WWI.  The military eventually adopted her ideas and handed out kits to all troops going on leave.  While her own country never recognized her contributions the French gave her an award the Reconnaissance Française medal.  She was reviled by society in New Zealand and was accused of trying to make vice safe.  Everybody is afraid that somebody else is having more fun than themselves and they want to put a stop to it.

events:
1868 – The first parade to have floats is staged at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1895 – Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the second war for Cuban independence, which ended with the Spanish-American War in 1898.

1863 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory.  They will remain a territory for 51 years until being admitted to the Union in 1914.  They are the 48th star on the flag. 

If you happen to be in Scottsdale, AZ this week you might want to check out the  75th Annual Waste Management Phoenix Open.  I guess this is one Golf tournament where trash talk is allowed.

You just missed the Eat, Drink & Ski Merry event in Flagstaff.  That was a three-course meal including wine, while skiing and snowshoeing along scenic, groomed trails.  Drinking while skiing, there's a great idea :>  Watch out for trees. 

'Zanna, Don’t' is playing in Scottsdale.  $22-25, 7:30 & 2 pm
www.desertstages.com

1917 – The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States. 

The British have been masters at intercepting and decoding messages from their enemies for years.  Some of the stuff they have done during the world wars is probably still secret.  Their WWI cryptologists were called Room 40.  They intercepted and decoded the Zimmermann Telegram that was sent to the Mexican government by the German Ambassador. 

Mexico actually had a General study the feasibility of what the German's proposed and they decided that it was too much trouble and at the moment they were getting along a little better with the US and did not need to fight another war with us.  Besides they had no idea what they would do with all the English speaking people in those states.

Well the decoded Zimmermann telegram was published in the US newspapers and the public did not like it at all.  Through in a couple of US ships sunk by U boats (SS Housatonic and SS California) and on April 6th the US declared war on Germany.

holidays:
Swamp Cabbage Festival - Random possibly edible (not by me) food day.

National Tortilla Chip Day - Much more normal random food day.

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thursday 25 february
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** If you know how much you are worth,
*** you are not worth much.
***
***  - J. Paul Getty
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birthdays:
1894 – Meher Baba, Indian spiritual leader.  Meher Baba means compassionate father.  This guy had will power.  He did not speak for the last 44 years of his life for devotional reasons.  I know people that talk to themselves (and sometimes answer) when no one else is around.

1908 - Frank Gill Slaughter AKA C.V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies.  I just find the irony of his name is precious.  Save me Doctor Slaughter.  He wrote mainly medical fiction and religious themed books.  At least three have been adapted to the screen (in the early 50s) one even starred Rock Hudson (Seminole). 

1965 – Carrot Top, American comedian.  It is easy to sum up Mr. Top: bright red hair, prop comedy and self-deprecating humor.  Since coming up with props can be pretty tough Carrot Top is running a contest for all his loyal minions to come up with props for him.  He will pick his favorite and that prop's designer will get a couple of round trip tickets to Las Vegas, two nights and two pair of dinners at the Luxor and two tickets to see Carrot Top.  No Puns please.  Join the contest at:
http://carrottop.com/contest/

events:
1570 – Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England.  It did not seem to have the desired effect.

1836 – Samuel Colt receives an American patent for the Colt revolver.

1919 – Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.  If it had stayed at 1 cent I would not mind.

1933 – The USS Ranger (CV-4) is launched. It is the first US Navy ship to be built solely as an aircraft carrier.  Over time CV-4 was joined by 61 other carriers.  Currently 11 are on active duty, a 12th has had the keel laid and is being built and a 13th and 14th carriers are planned.  All of our carriers are nuclear powered and have canted decks so they can launch and recover aircraft at the same time.  Also they are called Super Carriers because they are all (except one) over 100,000 tons.  Currently there are only 10 other carriers operating in the world.  Only one of those is nuclear powered and the largest of them is 65,000 tons.  Eight of the 10 do not have catapults and can only launch STOL fighters or helicopters.  The two that have catapults only have 40 aircraft on board.  Our Super Carriers carry 90 aircraft.  We spend so much money on war that it is completely unreal.

1947 – The State of Prussia ceases to exist.  Once Prussia was a mighty state of 41 million inhabitants living in an area of 114,000 square miles.  It was made up of parts of Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium, Czech Republic and The Netherlands. 

holidays:
National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day - I like to suck the chocolate off and then eat the peanut.

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friday 26 february
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** If you want to make people angry, lie.
*** If you want to make them absolutely livid
*** with rage, tell the truth.
***
***  - Robert D. Gillette
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birthdays:
1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver.  His name lives on today in just about every computer in any English speaking country.  He designed the Bodoni Font.  It turns out that when later font designers create a new variant of an old font it is called a revival.  Bondoni has had several.  Of course there is the original Bodoni and then there are all these revivals:
ATF Bodoni
Bauer Bodoni
Bodoni Antiqua
Bodoni Old Face
ITC Bodoni Seventy Two
ITC Bodoni Six
ITC Bodoni Twelve
Bodoni MT
LTC Bodoni 175
WTC Our Bodoni
Bodoni EF
Bodoni Classico
TS Bodoni
Filosofia is also thought to be a riff on Bodoni.

Personally I think we could probably do quite well with a dozen or two fonts instead of the thousands that there are but everybody's tastes are different.  I got a CD that has 2,000 fonts and after playing with it for a couple of days I find I don't use any of them.

1808 - Nathan B. Kelley was a US architect and builder. He was a prolific architect whose designs dominated the cityscape of Columbus, Ohio at the middle of the 19th century.  The School for the Blind, the Lunatic Asylum, the interior and mechanical plant of the State House, Central Market and many others.  He designed churches and dwellings all over Columbus.  Most of his work has been torn down but the ornate floor inside the rotunda of the State House still remains.  Even though he was well know and traveled in a high social circle, he seemed to never have been photographed or sat for a portrait.  We have no idea what he looks like.  His grave is even unmarked but since it is beside the marker for his daughter you can find where he rests at Green Lawn Cemetery.

events:
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.  Wackiness ensues.

1914 – HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast.  Since WWI had started she was put to work as a hospital ship.  She had a longer life than her sister ship the Titanic.  She lasted two years and ten months before she hit a mine and went down in the Mediterranean Sea.  The third ship RMS Olympic sailed for twenty years until decommissioned.  She carried 201,000 US troops to Europe safely.  Also she is the only commercial ship to sink a U boat during the war.  She caught the U-103 on the surface and turned to ram it.  The U-103 made a crash dive but the bow of the Olympic caught the conning tower and her props sliced open the hull.  The crew of the sub actually escaped the sub before it went down.

1917 – The Original Dixieland Jass Band records the first ever jazz record for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York.

1952 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb.  Elements of the public are not happy and within 5 years the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is formed.  They advocate Britain, unilaterally giving up its nuclear weapons.  They design a logo that means Nuclear Disarmament and it becomes an international Peace sign. 

The symbol is a combination of the semaphore signals for the letters "N" and "D," standing for Nuclear Disarmament.  In semaphore the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. Superimposing these two signs forms the shape of the center of the peace sign.  Add a circle a there you go.

holidays:
Bun Day - One supposes that this is a random food day but, let's face it people are strange and until I get further conformation I am not participating in this day.  I do not want to end up covered in sesame seeds.

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****joe722****