In the Race

Harvey Bernard Milk, Politician and Gay Activist




"The research for "Milk" was an unusually productive example of how archives and scholarship can influence Hollywood and popular culture, participants said."

Have you ever heard of "broomball?"

I never did before.  Another discovery from looking around Vermont. 

The following video clip is from the 1980s and is a championship match  - I believe Australia /Canada.  I thought it best showed what broomball could be.  It seriously is wearing shoes and using a stick with a flat plastic-like broom.

The Central Vermont Women's Broomball
League took to the ice at the Central Vermont
Memorial Civic Center Sunday night. Broomball
isn't for the timid. It's a tough, competitive sport
that brings a whole new meaning to the word "broom."
Kyle Martel/Times Argus




MONTPELIER – The only cleaning up these ladies use brooms for is sweeping up the competition.

They play broomball, eight teams of women who use a hockey-stick-like "broom" to bash a hard leather or plastic ball down the ice and into a goal. They don't skate; they run in shoes with rubber soles that grip the ice, occasionally falling to their knees and sliding into a play.

Broomball is rough. Broomball is competitive. Broomball is not for the faint of heart.


Click to Continue

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?"  1962

Hmm..I wonder if that would have been a "Turkey" of the year?  But I like watching the movie.

Don't you just love peeking into your Christmas stocking?  Can't you just imagine what might be waiting for you in there? 

Okay...The economy is taking a downward turn.  People will be thrifty in their Christmas purchases.  They will be more thoughtful.  You may have been warned about Gift Cards...be careful of where you purchase them.  A business may go "out of business."  If you want to get someone a Gift Certificate for that stocking, perhaps you want it to be useful, something very practical. 

Indiana is a down-to-earth thinking kind of state; wouldn't you say?  Planned Parenthood in Indiana has come up with the perfect solution for that hard to buy for person on your list.  How about a Gift Certificate?  Oh, they say it can be used for any service, and by males or females.  That's comforting to know.  But just so Indiana residents know, yes, it will be able to be used on abortions, too. 

The gift that does not keep on giving. 

From Indiana Planned Parenthood.

"Some Hoosiers 24-Hour News 8 talked to asked if the gift certificates could be used toward abortions. The answer is yes. But, Planned Parenthood said that's not the purpose of the gift certificates.

Struben-Hall said, "They really are intended for preventative healthcare. We decided not to put restrictions on the gift certificates so it's for whatever people feel they need the services for most."


Read the entire article HERE

H/T  Pensamientos

Remember: You haven’t lived until your home computer says “hello” and asks you to “please enter a number.”

I recall my first home computer in the very early 1980s.  I suppose I can only liken the excitement of opening the box and setting it up to how it must have felt when my parents got their very first television.

It didn't look like these three 1980s home computers...visit Modern Mechanix to read about them by clicking the image below.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/firstlady/

What's a killer horse?  Horses that aren't in the best of shape that are auctioned off, shipped, under poor conditions (such as not being fed) to Canada or Mexico...slaughtered, and then exported to Europe or Asia where the practice of eating horse meat is common place.

Why is it that when an animal is going off to be slaughtered, we allow it to be traumatized are starved? 

"We're doing them a favor by buying horses that might otherwise be neglected," Barnes said. "The big misconception animal rights people have is that all horses that go to slaughter are good, useable horses or pets ... when actually they're animals you can't do much with."

Click to read the article

 

White House Photo Essay

Check out the Thanksgiving at the White House photo gallery featuring the first National Thanksgiving Turkey presented to President Harry Truman. Learn more »

Roll out crust, slice apples and mix with spices, add filling.

.	Heat oven to 425°F. If making crust, roll out half of pie crust and place in 9-inch pie plate. Trim overhanging edge of bottom pastry 1 inch from rim of plate.
.	Stir together 1/2 cup sugar, the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in large bowl. Add apples; toss very well. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter.
	Roll remaining pastry and place on pie.  Crimp edges of crust.  Make slits in top.  Brush lightly with milk; sprinkle lightly with additional sugar.  Cover edges of pie with aluminum foil until last 15 minutes of baking time, then remove.
	Bake about 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice is bubbly.

And here are my Pumpkin Pies ~

Click for a podcast of President Bush pardoning the White House turkey(s) Pumpkin and Pecan.



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White House Photo

Click below to listen to President Bush address the Troops at Fort Campbell as he joins them for a Thanksgiving celebration

President Bush Visits Fort Campbell



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http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Have you seen those people on the sides of the streets wearing the sandwich board signs that are four feet tall for going out of business sales?  We’ve seen them in past years when stores have gone under.  Currently I’ve seen them near Southridge mall.  Those are liquidator signs. 

Those signs make everything sound really cheap.  Well, beware when you actually go in and look over the product.  Some of that merchandise may actually have been marked up by the liquidator.

"Contrary to popular belief, liquidation sales aren't a great deal for the consumer," said retail industry analyst Stephen Baker of the NPD Group. "The liquidator is there to make money."

[…]

Despite what the public might think, Baker said liquidators rarely sell merchandise at a loss, even near the end of the sale. He said there are other ways to sell it off, like to overseas markets hungry for merchandise. So rather than trying to empty a store to the bare walls, Baker explained that going-out-of-business sales are more of a play upon human psychology.

Continue article HERE

 

 

"Retail is all about excitement, to get people into a store and get them into a mood to spend "

 

1964 Chevy Impala Coupe Low Rider

Being a librarian isn't the most exciting job around, but librarians can be pretty intelligent.  Some end up becoming school teachers, and who know, they could become the First Lady of the United States, like Laura Bush. 

Some of them may even know a few things about saving money, like this librarian....

"A retired Virginia school teacher and librarian who died two years ago left more than $2 million to split between the universities she attended, the schools announced Tuesday.

Jane Iris Crutchfield's estate will donate $1.1 million each to the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia."

Continued HERE

Stressed-out by your boss?   Beware….

If you are prone to heart disease, your workplace and the managerial style of your supervisor could be impacting your health.

"Burdened by an overbearing boss? Your heart may pay the price, according to new research.

The Swedish study found that workers' risks for angina, heart attack and death rose along with the reported incompetence of their bosses.

 

"This study is the first to provide evidence of a prospective, dose-response relationship between concrete managerial behaviors and objectively assessed heart disease among employees," said lead researcher Anna Nyberg, from the department of public health sciences at the Karolinska Institute, and Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University."

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Some families spend more time dealing with hospitals than others do…that’s just an unfortunate fact.  And some hospitals lead patients to have better experiences at them than others do.

Last week my husband happened to have some “work” done on his heart.  He’s had some major surgery done before and has been to many hospitals.  I’ve been to several, too, for various reasons.   We’ve got our opinions regarding them, but when it comes right down to it, you can’t beat the care from doctors, and especially from nurses.

This time he had his care a the four year old Wisconsin Heart Hospital.  I’ve got to tell you, if you ever have to have heart care and have a choice of where to go, this is the place to choose.  It’s modern, clean and efficient.  Everything was right at the fingertips of the medical staff, even in the patient rooms.  Wow.  I was really impressed.

Mailbox!

That’s right!

You read that correctly. 

A target on my mailbox.

There's a stretch of road south of 35th and Puetz that had been worked on by city workers off and on for what seemed like months recently.  I know it was worked on in October, and I believe it carried over into November.  You just never would know what day you could drive on 35th Street.  Would there be a crew there?  Would they be grading the road?  Paving it?  Working on the side of the road?  Burying pipe?  Finally it was finished, and the sides of the street were covered with a hay-like covering.

Yesterday it snowed and guess what...right in the area near 35th and Puetz, after being graded and having hay covering...the plows came by and tore up the area.  The plows come by and already, with this slight snow storm couldn't judge where the road began and ended and tore up work that was just completed.  

Which brings me to my target.  Last winter, my mailbox, along with who knows how many other Franklin residents, had their mailboxes torn up on a day when it wasn't necessary to be having snow plowed and pushed back off the roads (not the first time).  Was it just busy work for an overstaffed DPW?  I was tempted to find out just how much taxpayer money was spent reimbursing residents for mailbox replacements, but I figured I wasn't going to waste any staff time at city hall with my request for a blog.  They have better things to be doing. 

So, I wonder, should I just put the target on my mailbox just to make things easier?  Just to let the plows get it over with?  Or will they pay closer attention this year?  Time will tell.