When the man came home, his wife was crying. "Your mother insulted me," she sobbed. "My mother? How could she do that when she is on vacation on the other side of the world?" the man asked. "I know. But this morning a letter addressed to you arrived. I opened it because I was curious." "And?" "At the end of the letter it was written: PS. Dear Diane, when you have finished reading this letter, don't forget to give it to my son."
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TRIVIA:
The # symbols is often referred to as a "number sign" or "pound sign." Its actual name is an octothorpe.
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Prepared mustard can be stored for at least 2 years.
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The first merchandise item to feature Mickey Mouse was a child's school tablet in 1929.
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The uniform of the San Diego Padres is a shade of brown officially called "Padre Brown," after the color of the robes of the missionaries who settled in California and built Mission San Diego 400 years ago.
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Wall Street
The 1,340-foot-long wall that gave New York's Wall Street its name was only 12 feet tall. It was erected in 1653 by Dutch colonists to protect against their enemies.
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Now That's the Stuff
Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies are Interstate Brands Corp.'s two most popular snack items. Every year, the Americans gobble half a billion of each.
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Here Comes the Bride
In ancient times, the traditional color of bridal gowns was red. The wife of Napoleon III broke the tradition and wore a white gown. Then, brides began wearing white gowns (that were worn only once) as a symbol of their wealth.
If you've ever been attacked by ankle-biting fleas upon entering a room that hasn't been used for a while, you know that the bloodsucking insects can wait patiently in carpets and furniture, then spring into action within minutes of the arrival of a large mammal.
They wait inside tiny cocoons formed by the young insects in their last stage of growth before becoming adults. Until then, the flea larvae eat organic debris such as the dead skin cells cast off in great numbers by humans and pets.
Even houses that have been abandoned for up to three years can harbor cocooned fleas. The tiny pests are triggered into immediate hatching by the warmth, movement, and exhaled carbon dioxide of their warm-blooded prey.
The life cycle of fleas: http://www.placervillevet.com/flea_life_cycle.htm
“We can all pray. We all should pray. We should ask the fulfillment of God’s will. We should ask for courage, wisdom, for the quietness of soul which comes alone to them who place their lives in His hands.” -- President Harry Truman
Woman comes home to find house cleaned 2 hours, 58 minutes ago
When Debbie Phillips tried to report a crime, police just snickered. "I told him that someone came into my house and cleaned," the president of the Putnam County School Board said. "He just laughed."
The problem wasn't that her home smelled a little fresher or looked a little tidier. The problem was that Phillips had no idea who the mystery cleaner was.
Her husband denied cleaning up the joint. So did her next-door neighbor. Everyone she asked denied responsibility.
All she knew was the rugs weren't where she had left them that morning in June. Trinkets had been rearranged and in the master bedroom, the bed was made differently.
It didn't look like anything had been stolen, but she couldn't be sure.
Nearly a month passed before the mystery was solved. Her son called her at work recently after a cleaning lady arrived at the front door.
As it turns out, her neighbor across the street, with a similar house number, the same number of rooms to be cleaned and a house key hidden in a similar spot outside, had hired a cleaning service.
"They just came to the wrong door," Phillips said.
Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe
By Peter Schweizer Thu Aug 10, 6:46 AM ET
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin." ADVERTISEMENT
Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.
For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.
But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.
Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.
Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.
Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.
Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.
The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.
Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy.
UNC student went to an eye doctor to have her eyes checked for glasses. The doctor directed her to read various letters with the left eye while covering the right eye. This student was so mixed up on which eye was which that the eye doctor in disgust took a paper sack with a hole to see through, covered up the appropriate eye and asked her to read the letters.
As he did so, he noticed the student had tears streaming down her face. "Look," said the doctor, "there's no need to get emotional about getting glasses."
"I know," agreed the UNC student, "But I kind of had my heart set on wire frames."
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Information? I need the number of the Caseway Insurance Company."
"Would you spell that, please?"
"Certainly. C as in sea. A as in aye. S as in sea. E as in eye. W as in why. A as in are. Y as in you."
"Just a minute, sir. I'll connect you with my supervisor."
Sharyn says if you haven't had sex, you've got nothing to be shy about. Just the opposite.
http://www.boundless.org/2002_2003/departments/beyond_buddies/a0000737.ht ml
{None above amalgamated with 'Thought & Humor'}
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Someone took this picture of Howdy recently: http://i1img.com/images/today/pet/042502pet_lg.jpg
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Known as the Queen Of The Skies, the Boeing 747 has been in commercial service since 1970. It was the first wide-body long-haul jet, and it is still a mainstay of intercontinental passenger travel.
A fully loaded 747 weighs more than 400 tons (of which 40% is fuel), and its four engines deliver about 280 million watts of power for a thrust of about 1,100,000 Newtons (250,000 pounds). On intercontinental flights it can travel for more than 12 hours nonstop.
Originally, the 747 was intended for cargo flights, but when supersonic planes never caught on, the 747 became the world's favorite long-haul jet. A 747-400 (the latest model, which has small winglets at the wing tips) can carry as many as 524 people across the planet at almost 90% of the speed of sound.
The story of the 747: http://www.flug-revue.rotor.com/FRHeft/FRH9904/FR9904e.htm
Boeing's official 747-400 page: http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/
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Chopped cabbage is not just a good idea, it's the slaw!
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Q. What's the difference between a bagpipe and an onion? A. No one cries when you chop up a bagpipe.
Stressing the importance of a large vocabulary, the UNC English professor told his class, "Use a word ten times and it will be yours for life."
In the back of the room a pert sophomore closed her eyes and was heard chanting under her breath: "Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred."
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Why is it when you turn on the TV you see ads for telephone companies, and when you turn on the radio you hear ads for TV shows, and when you get put on hold on the phone you hear a radio station?
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MUSLIMS
There have been two main views regarding Islam since the September 11 attacks in America.
View 1 - The first group believes that Allah and the God of the Bible are
one and the same and that Islam is basically a good religion. This side views the September 11 attacks as an action by fundamentalists working outside the peaceful spirit of Islam.
View 2 - The second group argues that while many Muslims may be non-violent moderates, Islam is a dangerous religion - one that supports the murder or forced conversion of anybody outside the Muslim faith and one that is bent on the conversion or destruction of all non-Islamic nations, especially America and Israel.
Regardless of which group one falls in, there is a basic fact that Christians must remember: Muslims are dying without Christ because Islam denies the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as a payment for sins and the way to eternal life. The millions of Muslims around the world are people for whom Christ died, yet most do not know that Good News. Whether
moderate or fundamentalist, Muslims all need to hear the message that God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die. It is not God's desire that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Muslims see the Trinity as a threat to monotheism. Islam teaches that Jesus was born of a virgin, but it denies that he was the Son of God. It teaches that Jesus Christ was a great prophet but that he never died on the cross. Muslims believe they will have to be judged based on their own good works according to the strict laws of the Koran, and even then can have no guarantee of heaven (unless they die in jihad).
Many Muslims have no clue that God loves them and wants them to know Him personally. A large number are intimidated by their religious leaders and feel no freedom to search for God outside of the heavy hand of Islam. While those committing murder in the name of Islam must be stopped, individual Muslims still need to know the love and forgiveness that can be found in Christ alone. We in the Christian community need to love Muslims with Christ's love and show them who God is through the power of His Spirit working in us. If members of the Muslim community count us their enemies,
Christians must pray for them.
"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." -Matthew 5:44
We are providing the links below for further study on Islam and how to minister to Muslims. May God show you His heart in every situation!
When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital, it was believed that she had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.
Crabby Old Woman
What do you see, nurses? What do you see? What are you thinking, When you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, Not very wise, Uncertain of habit, With faraway eyes.
Who dribbles her food, And makes no reply, When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice, The things that you do, And forever is losing, A stocking or shoe
Who, resisting or not Let's you do as you will, With bathing and feeding, The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see? Then open your eyes, nurse, You're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am, As I sit here so still, As I do at your bidding, As I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten, With a father and mother, Brothers and sisters, Who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen, With wings on her feet, Dreaming that soon now, A lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty, My heart gives a leap, Remembering the vows, That I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own, Who need me to guide, And a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, My young now grown fast, Bound to each other, With ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons, Have grown and are gone, But my man's beside me, To see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more, Babies play round my knee, Again we know children, My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, My husband is dead, I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing, Young of their own, And I think of the years, And the love that I've known.
I'm now an old woman, And nature is cruel, 'Tis jest to make old age, Look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, Grace and vigor depart, There is now a stone, Where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass, A young girl still dwells, And now and again, My battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain, And I'm loving and living, Life over again.
I think of the years, All too few, gone too fast, And accept the stark fact, That nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people, Open and see, Not a crabby old woman; Look closer - see ME!!