Today I am just going to dip into Prepop's box of "goodies" and see if there is anything of interest to talk about.
Energy Vampires
Readers Digest listed some items that consume a lot of kilowatt-hours. Most of them use power just by being plugged in. They suggest plugging everything into power strips so that you can actually shut them off and save money. Some of the biggest users:
Cordless phone base station: 28.9 KWH in a year
DVD Player: 78.8
Laptop: 144.5
Game Console: 233.9
Computer: 311
Plasma TV: 1,452.4
Gross Out your Neighbors
I received an ad from Haband for some lawn ornaments they call Gnaughty Gnomes. For just $15.99, you can get a "Gangster Gnome" who stands guard over your yard with a machine gun and a leering face that I guess must say: "Make my day!" I'll bet lots of NRA members have these on display.
Or.. for the same price, you can get the "Gnome on a Throne." You can guess what that looks like. Haband says "Hilarity will ensue!"
Free Enterprise
The Week mentions that a South Carolina funeral home is opening a Starbucks coffee shop in its lobby. I wonder if this is the same South Carolina funeral home that has "drive up" visitations for the deceased?
By the way, Santa Fe Springs, California has the world's largest concentration of Starbucks outlets. There are 560 of them within 25 miles of the town.
Did I mention that the Westminster Target now has an embedded Starbucks? I ordered a decaf coffee and got the worst tasting cup of mud that I have ever had.
Habla Espanol?
The Harper's index mentions that there about 41 million native Spanish speakers in the U.S. and 43 million native Spanish speakers in Spain.
Pet Population
Mental Floss magazine says there are 78.2 million dogs in the U.S., but 86.4 million cats, even though 74% of Americans say they like dogs a lot, and only 41% say they like cats a lot.
My late brother in law, Moe, was a major cat hater when he was a kid... he and his buddy used to catch cats and throw them into the sewer. However, when he became an adult he suddenly found that he loved cats. Did he have an epiphany?
Your Brain
AARP ran a "Brain Test", the results of which follow:
o Your brain consumes one-fifth of the total energy that your body expends when resting. (Eleven calories per hour.)
o After age 20, thousands of brain cells die every day.
o Memory loss with age is avoidable.
o Your brain feels no pain.
o Your brain is 60 percent fat.
o Most of us use almost all of our brains every day.
I was proud of my aging brain today. I completed the latest British cryptic puzzle in the BBC Music magazine. That was a great workout for my brain cells because it was a very difficult puzzle. The brain likes exercise just like bodily muscles.. muscles as well as brain cells grow when they are challenged.
Useful Advice
Readers Digest contributor, Dick Becker, said that he saw a marquee outside of the Dannemora, New York prison that read: "The Dannemora fire department reminds you it's fire prevention week. Practice your escape plan."
Guilt by Association
According to Dick Cavett: Mark Twain once heard that a "blue nose" librarian had removed "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" from the library's shelves because she felt they were "dangerous" for children. Twain wrote her that she was indeed right because he had written them for adults and cautioned her not to leave them anywhere near a bible.
Great Bad News
Readers Digest again.. from Tyler King: Dr. Smith asks his patient, "Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?"
The patient replies, "Give me the good news."
Dr. Smith says, "You're about to have a disease named after you."
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