Morning Glory; Funny Words; Fad Diets; Rising IQ; Mensa; Intertel; Memory Triggers

Cool, sunny, pleasant.  Fall winds blowing leaves off the trees.  We had an amazing discovery today.  I planted morning glory seeds last spring and we got lots of foliage, but no flowers.  However, today, Elaine noticed two blue flowers suddenly appearing.  Close examination showed another one as well, and lots and lots of buds.  Will they all bloom before a hard frost?  I don't know.  And, why didn't they bloom before now?  I have a lot to learn.

Funny Words

The Writers Digest suggests that we use funny words whenever possible in our writings. It's an easy way to add humor.  Here are a few:

bamboozled
canoodle
caterwaul
cattywampus
conniption
girdle
hornswoggle
kahuna
kerplunk
kinkajou
knickers
mugwump
noggin
persnickety
rapscallion
snuffle
succubus
tuchis
wombat
wonky
zeitgeist

Fad Diets

The Sodexo Corporation reminds us of some of the crazy fad diets over the decades: (Wait a minute... some may not be so crazy!)

1920:  The Smoking Diet
1930:   The Banana and Skim Milk Diet
1940:   The Master Cleanse Diet (lemon juice, grade B maple syrup and cayenne pepper.)
1950:   The Grapefruit, Prayer, and Tape Worm Diets
1960:    The Cabbage Soup Diet
1970:     The Diet Pill Diet
1980:     The Low Fat Diet
1990:     The Adkins Diet
2000:     The All Natural Diet
2010:      The Balanced Diet

I had my best results with the Adkins Diet.  How about you?

Hey Mensa Members... check this out.

James R. Flynn has written the following book:  Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century. 

Jim thinks that today's folks are a lot brighter than our ancestors.  At one time, he identified a phenomenon now known as the "Flynn Effect," a rise in IQ scores since 1930.  This is not just in the United States, but around the world.  What has caused it?  Better communication?  Better tests?

I belong to Mensa and Intertel and I've learned that we have members who are only two years old. Huh?  How did they get tested?  I'll have to look into that.

Perhaps these are examples of high intelligence   (in my progeny of course):

My daughter, Elizabeth, never crawled, but at just 8 months old, stood up and started walking... and she hasn't stopped yet.

My daughter, Diane, started talking at around 5 months old.  When we took her to a restaurant, she would immediately start a conversation with anyone nearby.

My son, Christopher, at around two or three, would sneak down during the night of Christmas eve and put together all of the toys that I expected to have to do on Christmas day.  It was so nice to come down that morning and see everything assembled already.

Memory Triggers

Here are some memory triggers to help you visualize numbers when you dazzle your audience during your mental/ESP routine:   (I'm not sure who gave them to me.. but it was not Father Janaites, who gave me a different set of triggers.)

1.  Magician's wand  (looks like)
2.  Swan  (looks like)
3.   Three Leaf Clover
4.   Table (4 legs)
5.   Pentagon
6.   Golf Club  (looks like)
7.   Lightning (looks like)
8.   Hourglass (looks like)
9.   Pipe (looks like)
10.  Bat and ball (looks like)
11.  Abraham Lincoln  (Feb 11 was his birthday)
12.  Columbus (Columbus Day in October)
13.  Friday the 13th
14.  Valentine (Feb 14)
15.   Income Tax (April 15th)

See  how easy it is. 

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