Brain Power

I haven't added to this blog for a while and I know that everybody is wondering why.  (Actually nobody noticed.)

Anyway, today I want to share with you a game that I invented and call "Joe's Triplets."  Many years ago, before the age of cell phones that contained games and other fantastic "apps", I would get bored driving or being driven for long trips.  Looking for license plates from other States quickly loses interest.  Something else was needed.  So, I developed this game:

As you progress through an area with parked or moving cars, check out the first three letters of selected license plates.  Take those three letters and make up words or phrases using those letters, in order.  It's as simple as that, but mind-expanding if you concentrate.   For example, last Tuesday, while walking through the Social Security Headquarters parking lot in Baltimore, I copied down the first three letters from the license plates of some of the cars I passed.  As I did, I made up words and phrases from the letters, and wrote them down as follows: (the parking lot guard watched me very carefully as I did this)

Letters    Phrase or Word Examples

MPW     manpower     moping wimp     lame paws

KPL     Park Place     dark palace     take a pulse

HDR     header     hot dog relish     shade roller

KBF     black buffalo     kick-boxing fighter     pink bifocals

MTF     mountain flower     a minute to five     mouthy fink!

XCZ     excess zest     extra cut zinnias     tax-cut denizens

KHS     pink house     skinheads     thick thumbs

LTL     little     last lamb     Atlanta Lions

WYC  Wayne County     Why complain?     chewy cupcakes

KYH     keyhole     frisky hound     skinny youth

Now I know that some license plates do not start with all letters, so I have developed this variant.  If the first three positions of the plate start with any of the numbers from 1 to 9, change the numbers to the corresponding letters of the alphabet, A through I.  (Zero always counts as the letter O.)

68Z  becomes FHZ  -  fish zipper     fight zone     flashy Amazon

32J  becomes  CBJ  -  Cabin John     I can buy Jello.     Crummy beer joint!

7K6  becomes GKF - aging kinfolk     Go kill the fleas!     eighty kingfishers

I must warn you, this becomes addictive.  I've been doing it for many many years and I can't stop.  However, if you do try this game, in no time at all, you will have stretched and enriched your brain so much that Mr. Alzheimer will be unable to penetrate it.  Soon, you will be as smart as Professor Einstein...

I guarantee it!

Happy New Year 2012!

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October 19, 2011

A very tough day.  Now, I'm waiting for some dark clothes to run through the washing machine and have an hour to spend on my hobby.. which is bugging people with my take on the current "scene".

1.  A Fishy Story

I've been told that the Bonneville Fish Hatchery in Oregon has a celebrity.  Herman the Sturgeon is 11 feet long and 500 pounds.  He is also 70 years old!  If you get out to the West Coast, take a look.

2.  Cowboy Dick

No, it's not Rick Perry of Texas. It's Richard Rothschild of Carroll County Maryland, one of our five Commissioners.  Apparently, he carries an "unconcealed" weapon.  He has a permit to carry it, but I wonder why he has to, in the safest County in Maryland, and perhaps in the whole United States.  I'm told that he can be found on You-Tube.  I hope none of the other four Commissioners get him "riled up."

3.  Joe?

Our local Jiffy Mart has an ad in the local paper: "Remember when 'a cup of joe and a paper' were only $1.00?"  They are offering a cup of coffee and a newspaper for a dollar for a little while.

Hell! I can remember when a cup of coffee was a nickel and a newspaper was a penny!  Coffee stayed at that price until suddenly newspapers reported that coffee was scarse and the price of a cup would have to go up... and up... and up...

At that time, I had a problem with caffeine and was drinking Postum, the cereal drink developed by Mr. Post and the trigger for the Post Cereal empire and Marjorie Merriwether Post and Dena Merrill.  (You can visit the Merriwether Post mansion complex in DC.. a very interesting place, where you can see all kinds of Russian treasures purchased by Marjorie when Russia was divesting itself of items that recalled it's csarist days.)

Anyway, Postum was not coffee, but guess what... it's price  went way up, just as coffee's did.. what a rip off!  Good bye Postum!

Now, I subscribe to Gevalia, which supplies me with pretty good coffee every couple of months.  I drink six cups of six ounce caffeine free coffee each day, and I look forward to it.  If I slip up and drink caffeinated coffee by mistake, I can kiss sleep goodbye that night. 

4.  Elaine's Experience

Elaine has to have antibiotics pumped into her through an IV, so she has to spend some time in a nursing environment where we live.  Since there was only one bed available, she has been located in a dementia/Alzheimers ward.

The first day she was there, she tried to help a lady who seemed to need assistance.  The lady glared at Elaine and said:  "Go to Haband!"  (Pronounced: Hay Band)  She was probably meaning a subterranean location and not a business out of Pennsylvania.

She also observed an elderly couple (both 90 years old) holding hands and whispering sweet "nothings" in each other's ears.  She has  Alzheimers and he is recuperating from back surgery, but has no mental problems.   They have been married for many years and are still in love. (Remember the movie "The Notebook")   It is very touching. 

I'm  confident that breakthroughs will occur within the next ten years and Alzheimers will be a disease of the past.  Stem cells, my friend, stem cells.

When I visit, there is usually two ladies singing: "He walks with me, and he talks with me.."  They sing it in perfect pitch and harmony.. and they have dementia.  What a weird thing our brains are.

5. Irony?

Harpers magazine reports:  July 13, 2011 was the date that Joe Walsh (R. Ill) said that Washington can't put "one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids."

The amount that Harpers says Joe Walsh owes in back child support: $98,422.

.......................................  My hour is up again... see ya!...................................

October 17, 2011

Since my eyes are beginning to focus again after a visit to my Ophthalmologist (who happens to be named Barber), and since I have a little over an hour until I visit with Elaine at the Health Care Center, I will do my fun thing again, namely reveal some of my inmost thoughts to the world.. that is, to the one or two of you who actually read these blog entries.

1.  Stinkies

Our Representative, Roscoe Bartlett (R:Maryland), has managed to garner a grant of money to try to find a way for farmers to rid themselves of the dreaded stinkbug. These odiferous rascals have been causing havoc with Maryland produce this year.  They also killed my squash and cucumber plants.. and feasted on a lot of my tomatoes.  I'm sure that the money that Roscoe has obtained will help our farmers.  Great job, Roscoe!

For many years,  Representative Bartlett has reigned this Republican enclave, in the midst of Democratic Maryland.  I'm not sure about what he has done to be elected every two years for ages, but I guess it must have been of benefit to his constituents.  My only knowledge about his activity in Congress has been listening to some of his one-minute Republican speeches at the beginning of Congressional Sessions. 

I did try to contact him once to tell him I didn't agree with something he had said in Congress.   Someone from his office wrote me that the Congressman was pleased to see that I agreed with him on the issue.. whatever it was that I can't remember.   I guess they sent me a form of the "bedbug letter," hoping that I would give up and not contact him again.  Well, it worked.

I kind of feel sorry for Representative Bartlett now because the Maryland Democrats are about to Gerrymander his district so that he would have powerful Democratic opposition in the next election. 

2.  Hey, Dude!

I've talked a number of times about the phrases that people use in everyday communication, and how some of them clang in my ears.. such as,  "like" and "I mean, you know".  There are other phrases and words that people use that can let others know when they were brought up, such as:

"23 skiddoo!" ..  popular in the 1920's and early 1930's

"Katey, bar the door!" .. popular in the 1930's and 1940's (I have a friend who is in his '80's that still uses that phrase when he is excited by something....which isn't too often)

"Cool!" .. came into usage by musicians in the 1940's.. and resurfaced in the '60's.. and is used even today, mainly by people under 30.  I have heard people in their 50's and 60's using this word and feel that they should let the younger folks use it.

"Dude!" .. Once again, used by musicians many years ago.  I believe that it popped up into common usage in the 1970's.  Besides it's usage by Michael Moore and other celebrities, it is very popular with folks under 30.  (Recently, at the local hospital, Elaine was being transported by a 24 year old guy named Jordan.  Every few feet, someone would yell at him: "Hey, Dude!")

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this.. but as a curmudgeon, I am allowed to comment on everything, even without doing appropriate research.

3. Alzheimers

The Week magazine mentions a new study by the Mayo Clinic that found it is possible to greatly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimers Disease by lifestyle choices.

a. Become more physically active.
b. Treat depression.
c. Stop smoking.
d. Exercise your brain.

4. Pretty Betty

Good news for us old timers:  Betty White topped Kate Middleton and even Oprah to become the most trusted popular celebrity, according to a recent poll.  At 89... she's still going strong.  I'll bet she joins Bob Hope and George Burns in the Comedians' Centenary Club.

5.  Dick's Book

As I've mentioned before, I'm reading Dick Cheney's book: In My Time.  I'm over half way through and have spent a lot of sleep time with the book in my hands.  BORING!  But that is my opinion.  I lived through all of the events and thought about all of the issues he has brought up.  He tells us why he did some of the things he did.. and I still don't agree with him.   However, from his words and his numerous pretty color pictures, he has always been a dedicated family man, when he wasn't working 20 hour days in the West Wing.  He probably would be a nice guy to have a beer with.  But frisk him first.

That's enough, my hour is up.  See ya!