I posted some Halloween pets yesterday, too. I’m a bit ashamed to say I’m a grown woman who takes great delight in animals wearing clothes. I was going to say it started with Wishbone, but it occurs to me I have photos somewhere of our Golden Retriever and our German Shepherd wearing sundresses and beads.
Don’t judge me!
Okay. I think I got it out of my system. I think my favorite in this bunch is the Pilgrim and the Indian. Yours?
As if it’s not bad enough we make them eat out of a bowl on the floor, we do this to them too …
Favorite? I have more for tomorrow …
This is what Navy Corpsmen do when they’re attached to Marine divisions.
How can you not be proud of them?!
This was in my Publisher’s Lunch newsletter yesterday. (If you don’t already subscribe, you should. Tons of interesting publishing insider info.)
OR Books Goes Rogue with Initial Release
The direct-sale start-up OR Books, founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson, announced their inaugural title yesterday–which just happens to share some striking similarities with another prominent forthcoming release. OR Books is issuing GOING ROUGE: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare on November 17, the same day when HarperCollins publishes GOING ROGUE: An American Life by Sarah Palin. Comprising essays assembled by Nation editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, it promises “progressive perspectives on Sarah Palin’s political career” by writers including Naomi Klein, Jane Mayer, Katha Pollitt, Jim Hightower, Christopher Hayes, Gloria Steinem, Joe Conason, and Tom Frank.
Harper had no comment on the OR Books cover, so we asked Ned Himmelrich, head of the intellectual property department at law firm Gordon Feinblatt, for an assessment of whether the cheeky new cover crosses legal lines. “Although the first instinct is to believe that the “Nightmare” book has to be infringing” the publishers “may have found a seam in Palin’s protection.” He added: “Titles of books cannot be protected as trademarks (a clear rule); trademark protection does not accrue until the mark is used (no sales yet); both books would be “in use” on the first day (Palin cannot claim first use); “Trade dress” does not exist unless the graphics are inherently distinctive (doubtful) or well recognized (too soon); and the “Nightmare” title may even be a valid parody (a good defense). Each of these theories has a countervailing argument, but on each, the legal arguments might be a nightmare for Palin.”
I thought it was extremely clever of the editors of Going Rogue. What do you think?
I decided not to move my blog so just ignore the indecisive blogger waving her arms like a madwoman behind the curtain there. It wasn’t because it was too difficult … well, it might have been, but I didn’t get that far. I’m starting up a new enterprise which you’ll hear about in due course and I thought it would make sense to move this blog to practice with all the bells and whistles at the new place.
Not so much.
So I’ll just wait and start up the new one in the new place.
Curious about my traffic while I wasn’t posting, I checked my stats. Imagine my surprise that I get just as many readers when I post as when I don’t. About 100/day.
What might that mean?
Just a heads up to all my loyal readers. And to you not-so-loyal ones, too.
I’m switching this blog over from wordpress.com to wordpress.org for a variety of reasons I won’t bore you with today. I have absolutely no clue as to how to accomplish this lofty goal, however, so I might be floating around the bloggy heavens for ten minutes or ten days.
I hope it’s closer to ten minutes, but that’s probably not quite realistic as I’m going to eat lunch now. I don’t work through my lunch. I sometimes lunch through my work, but never the reverse.
I guess all I can do is guarantee I’ll see ya’ll somewhere on the flip side. For those of you who subscribe or visit BeckyLand on an RSS feed, if there is anything you need to do to continue your daily fix of The Becky, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Wish me luck!
Sometimes common sense is the best sense to steal from the internet. Sorry about the shouting caps, but I am so very lazy I really wanted to avoid the re-typing thang. But I did think this was funny enough to share. Hope you agree.
1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.
2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.
3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.
4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.
5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU’LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.
6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE — WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN’T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN’T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.
7. IF YOU CAN’T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU’VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
DAILY THOUGHT:
SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES – NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.
Do you have any common sense advice?
Raise your hand if you think proofreading is a dying art.
Actual headlines …
• Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter … that is one talented murderer
• Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says … Good thing they called in an expert.
• Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers … that’ll stop ‘em
• Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over … very noble of him
• Miners Refuse to Work after Death … rest in peace
• Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant … well, if Scared Straight doesn’t work, then they are just about out of options
• War Dims Hope for Peace … such Negative Nellies
• If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile … yes, I think that might be correct
• Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures … those crazy global warming nutjobs are at it again
• Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide … or was it Colonel Mustard?
• Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges … must be some kind of Super Duct Tape – and it comes in designer colors. Sweet!
• New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group … weren’t they fat enough?
• Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft … if he dealt it, then he should!
• Kids Make Nutritious Snacks … do they taste like chicken?
• Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half … they are strict there!
• Hospitals are sued by 7 Foot Doctors … because the ceilings were too low?
• Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead … Wait. What?
Got any more good ones?
Increase your vocabulary using Urban Dictionary.
• Mascary — when a person wears a scary amount of mascara. “Although Melanie thought her mascara application was flawless, her eyelashes really looked like scary spiderlegs.”
• Neighbornet — What you get when you connect to your neighbor’s wireless (or wired, for that matter) internet, with or without his or her knowledge. “Didja hear? Johnny connected his wireless ethernet card to his neighbor’s wireless network, and now he’s got neighbornet!”
Now, write them five times and use them in a sentence. Don’t you feel smarter already?
We played Trivial Pursuit on Family Game Night last week and I’ve come to the disturbing conclusion I’m getting stupider.
Granted, it’s trivia. Outdated trivia at that. “What city has the tallest building outside the U.S?” Um, pretty sure it’s not Toronto anymore.
But some of it falls under the category Stuff I Used To Know. Like geography. And who won the first Super Bowl. And the name of Carole Lombard’s husband. I did, however, know Ms Lombard died in a plane crash, but no, she wasn’t married to Cary Grant.
My struggle for the answer reminded me of one of my favorite jokes…
An elderly couple goes to their friends’ house for dinner. After they finish eating, the men go in the living room to chat while the ladies go into the kitchen to clean up.
The first man says, “We went to a really good restaurant yesterday. I’d recommend it to anyone.”
The second man asks, “What’s the name of the restaurant?”
The first man thinks and thinks and finally says, “What’s that flower that has thorns and you give to someone you love?”
The second man says, “A rose?”
The first man says, “Yes, that’s it! A rose!” He turns his head toward the kitchen and says, “Rose? What’s the name of that restaurant we went to yesterday?”
Yeah. That’s me.
“Let’s see … Carole Lombard was in ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘Mr & Mrs Smith’ … married to William Powell, the Thin Man … he had that skinny moustache … so did this guy … “Hey, honey, who was that guy, in a bunch of movies, married to Carole Lombard?”
“You mean the answer to the question?”
“Yeah.”
“You mean the one for the wedge?”
“Yeah.”
“You mean Cary Grant?”
“Yeah. Cary Grant.”
“Is that your final answer?”
“Yeah.”
“Wrong. It was Clark Gable.”
“%$#%^&.”
So I was happy when I saw this article in Prevention Magazine. I’m going to start tricking my brain into making me smarter instead of dopier.
This is my favorite game so far …
You say out loud the color each word is printed in—not the word itself.
If I play it enough, I’m going to reward myself with a trip to Toronto to see the world’s tallest building. Then I’m going to watch The Thin Man starring Cary Grant.
What’s your favorite way to get smarter?
I'm Just Sayin
