Silky Soft & Stretchy: Blogophilia 47.6

Bonus Points:
(Hard, 2 points) Incorporate "the smell of gingerbread baking"
(Easy, 1 point) Include 2 animal character names from a Disney film.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/marvin-martian/blogophilia-week-476-silky-soft-and-stretchy/679877222033498

One night, I went to sleep, and then woke up to my bedroom door leading out to the front porch.  Walking down the steps, and rather than leading down to my street, I stepped out onto a street across town.  What is going on?  I decide to explore this new scene, but it seems that each corner becomes a new puzzle, where streets that don't connect are all of a sudden merging together.  I am unsure how to get back home, thinking that maybe I can wake up in a normal mode.  All of a sudden, it gets dark, and I try to feel my way around...  and I end up touching something silky soft and stretchy....  Oh, wait, it's Barbara K's compost dirt...  How did I end up HERE?  No one really walks from Wisconsin to California in just 45 minutes, can we?

Big Screen Movie Preview

All of a sudden, from no where, I see the billboard, inviting us to see the movie preview...  We get to see the new movie starring Angelina Jolie, and give our own opinions on it.  This is exciting!  Maybe Nissemech can come with me, to this gala of lights, camera, action!  How cool!  We actually get to go behind the scenes for a major block buster!  But as we enter the theater, rather than smelling the smell of freshly popped, buttered popcorn, I get the smell of gingerbread baking, and it's Christopher at the oven!

Is this a joke?  I'm getting a bit disoriented, since I thought I was seeing an Angelina movie with Nissemech, and instead, it's some kind of animated film that spoofs Disney that has Baloo Bear and Tinker Bell, and I'm in line with Christine W!  And then, in the background, I hear Veggie Tales?  I must be going crazy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXM2o_Hb9Ls

I yawn, stretch, and open my eyes, and I'm back in bed, where I started, and relieved that it was all a dream.  My life is back, to my normal hectic way it ought to be, with crazy jokes and homework...


p.s. to participate, write your blog, and don't forget to post it on Marvin Martian's blog!

Where did "piss poor" come from? Interesting history...

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot.

And then once it was full it was taken and sold to the tannery...

If you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".  But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...

They "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500's

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water,
Then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children.
Last of all the babies.
By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.  Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.
This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed.
Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.
That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery In the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing..

As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.  Hence: a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.
Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers In the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.
Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.
Hence the rhyme:
“Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon."
They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter.
Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death.
This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status..
Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle,
And guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky.
The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days..
Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.
They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom; “holding a wake."

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people.
So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave.
When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.
Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, “saved by the bell" or was "considered a dead ringer."

And that's the truth.

Now, whoever said history was boring!!!

So get out there and educate someone!
Share these facts with a friend.
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering,
"What the heck happened?"
We'll be friends until we are old and senile.
Then we'll be new friends.

The Cat Drug It In: Blogophilia 46.6

Bonus Points:
(Hard, 2 points) mention a person you hold on a level of Zachariah
(Easy, 1 point) include an odd useless fact (i.e. bats always exit their dwelling to the left)

https://www.facebook.com/notes/marvin-martian/blogophilia-week-466-the-cat-drug-it-in/677085472312673

We've all learned about the Garden of Eden.  I think that where ever it was, even after the Earth changing, that it would have looked like this photo that Barbara K. took and submitted -





I'm sure that C.C. aka Lori Gomez, an angel like Zachariah, would agree that this spring is fit for the Gods, even if she disagrees that she is an angel.

In this blissful spring, somewhere over the rainbow,  is a dead vulture. Great.  Figures that's what my cat drug in.  Or maybe it's Bettie being nostalgic about Palm Springs and missing her own cat.

No worries, worms aerate the dirt, and that's just basic common sense for gardeners like Barbara K.


To participate, click the link above for the rules and such.  do your own blog, and don't forget to put the link in, to get your points for it.

Health Care in America

Our fine country of the United States of America is known as the Land of Plenty or the Land of Opportunity.  People from all over the planet have been coming to this country as a refuge from what ever they may have been suffering from, whether it's extreme poverty, political asylum, slavery, oppression, caste system, etc.  We even have Lady Liberty in the harbor of the most used port, historically, in New York to accept those who are in need of some sort of a new start, what ever it is from a personal or other stand point.  On the base of the Statue of Liberty, is the welcoming poem greeting those who come here from the Old Country:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Author: Emma Lazarus

This is an inspirational poem, giving hope to immigrants and American citizens alike.  But there is an interesting thing going here.  With every nationality or ethnic group coming to this country, the new comers are usually welcomed with a cold shoulder.  Italians were called Wops, because they were stamped WOP, meaning With-Out Passport, but it became a somewhat derogatory term.  Other peoples were welcomed in similar ways, though many could go to those already acclimated to this country of their same background, to be able to become accustomed to our country.

Today, it seems as if non-European Hispanics, particularly Mexicans, are the target group.  Many of them don't speak English, and it seems to take a while to learn, and we have all sorts of services that translate into Spanish for those who need it.  The current technologies make it easier for many to come in and be able to get what ever it is, explained to them in their own languages, particularly, Spanish.  And if they don't speak English, it seems as if they are deemed illegal, which may or may not be true.  While some of this is to be expected, because the newest kids on the block are the ones who usually get picked one, some of it goes a lot further than a cold shoulder to the Mexican people.

Our conservative friends say that illegals are taking up all of the jobs that belong to Americans, creating a new type of poverty in this country, jacking up all of the cost of unemployment, welfare, and other things, and it ends up on the working tax payers' tab.  Many say that these "illegal aliens" are receiving general aid, such as food stamps, medicaid, and what not, and they're not happy about it.  Because of fraud, not just by immigrants, but by all of those who work to defraud their system that deep cuts would kick the fraudsters off of the system.

Our liberal friends say that "undocumented immigrants" do the jobs that no American wants to take, and that there is very little fraud, and that they help the economy by taking substandard wages to make it affordable for the rest of us.  Of course because fraud is at a minimum, that just tweaking the system would help minimize fraud from anyone.

Thing is, I think that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.  We all like to celebrate our multicultural roots.  In the bigger cities especially, but even in very middle America, we have ethnic restaurants and food stores, and some of that even permeates into regular grocers.  Lets face it, we love our ethnic foods, whether it's Italian, Mexican, Chinese, etc...  Even sushi is catching on as the rage.  So, why would we want to discriminate against those who make some of our favorite foods?

Anyway, yes, there ARE those who work to fraud the system.  That goes for citizens as well as legal residents as well as immigrants.  Just to let people know, to get welfare, you have to have a legal ID, proof of residency, and you have to have legal to receive anything.  Yes, some of the immigrants, do work under certain documents, some are legal SSN or EIN and yes, those are documents, thus can't be said they're undocumented.  Others are actual dummies accounts, so while yes, they pay into the system, they can't collect because the account doesn't belong to them.  But, someone who is undocumented or illegal is not eligible to get food stamps or medicaid.  Those are for citizens and certain legal residents.

I've digressed...  Anyway, the Affordable Care Act is here to get more people covered under health insurance.  Right now, poor people, even Americans, don't get preventative care, and so many don't get in for anything until too late, so many don't get to get coverage until they're probably going to die or get amputated before actually getting the services, rather than before.  And yes, the rest of us are paying for it.  Your insurance premiums are higher to help pay the doctor or hospital.  Your deductible is based on it as well.  So are the prices you pay at the office.  These are being charged at rates which will include those who need to come into the ER.  The ACA is trying to reduce the prices by giving the access to help prevent disease, rather than paying more later.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Here in Wisconsin our governor decided not to accept the federal funds to expand medicaid, so, while many are currently getting kicked off of Badger Care for being above the poverty line to get onto the health care exchange, after it gets to that point, will start giving single adults as well as couples without minor children will be able to get onto the state insurance if they are below the poverty line.  Here in Wisconsin, that won't be until at least April 1, 2014.  

While I agree that we do need to take care of our people, it seems as if we are in some kind of turbulent cycle until everything gets straightened out.  I admit, because our family income is far below the poverty line for a family of 3, that yes, we are on the medicaid system.  Since the implementation of the ACA, in combination of not expand medicaid, there are certain things that are not available to me because of it.  While I am taking steps to get educated so that I can be in a better position later, it's not easy to get the medical care I need for myself and my son because the same amount of money is covering more.  Kind of like sharing the wealth and the risk.  Those of us lucky enough to be low risk won't miss anything.  Those of us with high risk end up losing out, because we are on medicaid rather than regular insurance.  Hopefully, I will still be able to afford my care when I go full time at a regular job.  This is one of the drawbacks of deep cuts, and also because of any fraud issues.

I am hopeful that it will eventually straighten its self right.  What I don't understand, though, is it seems our conservative friends agree with Governor Walker about mandating auto insurance because it saves money, yet is against the health care because it costs money to save lives.  Our liberal friends seem to look at it the opposite way.  Just remember, it takes money to make money, and same goes for saving....  You can't save w/o money.  It takes money to save.  So, while we are struggling now, I have to hang out the hope that I can get the treatment needed once I start my new position in the health care field as a patient care coordinator.  As a diabetic in the care of an endocrinologist, along with some genetic issues, it's no easy or cheep task to keep up on my health.

Before the Last Leaf Falls: Blogophilia 45.6

Bonus suggestions:
(hard, 2 points) Quote Albert Einstein
(easy, 1 point) include a guardian angel

https://www.facebook.com/notes/marvin-martian/blogophilia-week-456-before-the-last-leaf-falls/670102536344300

Over the past summer, after getting my CNA certification, but before the fall semester started with school for both my son and me, I was hoping to get a lot of activities done before the last leaf falls, and Bettie is wise for suggesting to get as much time in with our children when we can, because before we know it, we will be in our own autumn of life, and our children will be grown, with a busy family life of their own.

Of course summer went by all too fast. Time is always flowing, and it's easy to let it to let it get away from us.  It's odd, though, my son, at 13, still asks a lot of questions.  He still is very much curious like the cat.  Then, Stormy's cat Clarice quotes Einstein - "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its ownreason for existing."  Of course curiosity helps us learn.  So I think it is good that we spend time together, to be able to answer those questions in the quest to learn more about what ever it is that he is yearning to learn.

Shedding tree in the night

I lie awake, admiring the tree, mostly bare of leaves, still clinging to the life of the cool blue sky...  I often wonder if this whispering leaves in the eve is the sign, and it is a beautiful sight to see, not wanting to think too much in the future.  C.C., AKA Lori is always an art appreciator, and maybe more of us ought to culture ourselves and do the same.

St. Peter, an original guardian angel tries to ensure that we see the tender aspects of life, has Dahlia bringing lovely flowers to remember that even in the fading light of fall, there is always beauty around us.


p.s.  if you would like to participate, please click the link to go to the blog page to read up on how this blogophilia works.  Go ahead and write your own, and don't forget to pimp yourself on the blog page, to earn your points and get positive comments to your blog.

Long Lost Words Whisper Slowly: Blogophila 44.6

Bonus Suggestions:
(Hard, 2 points) - use your Zodiac sign
(Easy, 1 point) - include shaggy dogs and black sheep

https://www.facebook.com/notes/marvin-martian/blogophilia-week-446-long-lost-words-whisper-slowly/668012803219940

Gun Heeled Hooves

As an Aquarian, I always felt like I live in the middle of two elements.  Thanks to Marvin Martian I am reminded of that fact all too often.  I'm an air sign, and I bear water.  Like the rain clouds that bringing the gentle rains that get little shaggy dogs dancing at our door steps with Stormy Gail  watching over them, or the big, black clouds with the booming thunder storms, I think I really am the black sheep in my family, and I think that The David can relate with me.  Everyone else fits into one category not associated with another Zodiac sign.

As the black sheep, I wonder, if I had hooves, could I be the high gun-heeled sheep with white boots in wolf's clothing?  Or maybe Sassy Sue has these fancy shoes that she likes to show off.

Kim reminisces about Christmas of yore, whispering slowly.  And I start to think about my grandmother, who lived to almost half past 100, this very gentle woman, who encouraged me to be an explorer when I'm faced with new adventures, even if it meant trying something new in foods.  I was always afraid to try apple pie, since in Japan, we almost never cooked fruit.  I tried, and I liked.  So many more things such as banana bread, pumpkin desserts, beef stew, and so much more.  She never got angry or raised her voice.  But we knew when she got disgusted with us, and I think that made us feel more guilty than any other punishment or getting yelled at.  And also, my grandfather, who always wanted to be 100, and didn't quite make it, would always tell me, "Just keep smiling, and everything will be okay" and "Be positive!"  Funny, because my blood type is B+, so I guess I don't have a choice, do I? 


* To participate, click the link at the top of the blog, use the prompts, and paste your blog in the original one.  It's okay if you don't know who to pick for the topic, prompts, and picture.  Just take a lucky guess, and everyone will like your blog.  :)

Sequester

You know, this is bad when our government shuts down due to infighting about whether Americans should get better access to health care or not.  Then we read this...

 I have not read of a single dollar reduction in foreign aid as a result of sequestering.

All items cut were for the express purpose of hurting the American taxpayer/working people the most!

Well?

DEMOCRATS and  Republicans 



We read all the jokes and forward the good ones but I just wonder who will pass this one on.
How about you sending it on, and back to us, if you have enough 'chutzpah' to do so.

Someone please tell us what’s wrong with All the people that run this country!!!!!!

Both Democrats and Republicans
Say, "We're broke" 
And can't help our own
Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless,
Etc.,?????
But, over the last several years THEY
Have provided direct cash aid to.....
 
Hamas - $351 M,

Libya  $1.45 B,

Egypt - $397 M,

Mexico - $622 M,

Russia - $380 M,

Haiti -    $1.4 B,
Jordan - $463 M,

Kenya - $816 M,

Sudan - $870 M,

Nigeria - $456 M,

Uganda - $451 M,

Congo - $359 M,

Ethiopia - $981 M,

Pakistan - $2 B,

South Africa - $566 M,

Senegal - $698 M,

Mozambique - $404 M,

Zambia - $331 M,

Kazakhstan - $304 M,

Iraq  -   $1.08 B,

Tanzania - $554 M,
...with literally Billions of Dollars and theystill hate us!!!! 
But on the other hand,  
Our retired seniors, living on a 'fixed income,' Receive NO aid! 
Nor do they get any breaks, while our government and religious organizations will pour Hundreds of Billions Of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food  toForeign Countries!

Someone needs to explain to them that
Charity begins AT HOME!!!

AMERICA: A country where we have
Countless Homeless without shelter,
Children going to bed hungry,
Elderly going without needed medication and the Mentally ill without treatment -- etc.
 Ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies. 
Now Just Imagine if 
Our own *GOVERNMENT*
Gave 'US' the same support they give to foreign countries. 
Sad, isn't it?
99% of people won't forward this.

WELL, I'm one of the 1% who Just Did.