Monday, November 16, 2009

To Those of Us Born 1930 - 1979


No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us, WE ARE AWESOME !!!!OUR LIFE IS LIVING PROOF !!!!

To Those of Us Born 1930 - 1979
At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno. If you don't read anything else, pleaseread what he said.
Very well stated, Mr. Leno..
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE1930's, 40's, 50's,60's and 70's!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.


They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs coveredwith bright colored lead-base paints.


We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes,we had baseball capsnot helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.


Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.


We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this..


We ate cupcakes made with Lard, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank FLAV-OR- AID made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing....that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on..No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scrapsand then ride them down the hill,only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's,no surround-sound or CD's,no cell phones,no personal computers,no Internet and no chat rooms..

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms and mud piesmade from dirt, andthe worms did not live in us forever.


We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.


We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.


Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.Those who didn't had to learnto deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the bestrisk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. What can kids today do besides push buttons.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were..


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?
~ The quote of the month is byJay Leno:
'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu, swine flu, and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this.

For the rest of us...send this link to a friend...

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The American Tax System

The American Tax System.....

Okay, so you all know I sorely lack math and actually even arithmetic skills (!!) but I found this kind of interesting anyway!

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it
would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beers by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before and the first four continued to drink for free, but once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. I only got a dollar out of the $20, declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, but he got $10! Yeah, that's right, exclaimed the fifth man. I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I! That's true!! shouted the seventh man. Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks! Wait a minute, yelled the first four men in unison. We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor! The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something very important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes DO get the most benefit from a tax reduction. They also PAY more than the rest. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Perception - Joshua Bell at Washington Metro Station

..something to think about...


Joshua Bell at Washington Metro Station


Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.


4 minutes later:

the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.


10 minutes:


A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.


45 minutes:


The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.


1 hour:


He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.


No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sunday, September 13, 2009

People of Walmart

Originally there were funny captions that go along with this email entitled People of Walmart. I think however, the People of Walmart speak for themselves. Don't get me wrong, I love Walmart. We must admit though, there are some interesting people that come along with super low prices.

People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart
People of Walmart