Category: Beliefs


Is this a good idea?

I never knew how many people drive their mowers for fun. I always thought lawn mowers equaled work, and lots of it. But some folks enjoy their mowers more than others.

For instance, here’s a story from the Des Moines Register:

>>It may have been how Robert Grimstad was driving that caught people’s attention. He was all over the road.

Or the fact it was after midnight and the 38-year-old didn’t have headlights on.

Most likely, though, it was the fact he was riding a lawn mower down the highway.

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Six-time hot dog eating contest champion Takeru Kobayashi, center, of Japan, is taken into custody by New York police officers after he jumped on stage at the end of the hot dog eating contest in New York's Coney Island. (AP Photo)

Over the holiday weekend, the annual New York City Hot Dog Eating Contest took place, and it ended up with the same guy who has won the last four  years again taking the big prize. but that’s just the start of this story.  Here’s how the AP reported it:

>>A Japanese eating champion who sat out this year’s Coney Island Fourth of July hot dog contest apparently couldn’t resist the temptation to hotdog afterward.

Competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut gobbled his way to a fourth consecutive championship Sunday. But he was suddenly upstaged by the surprise appearance of his biggest rival–six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi, who did not compete but crashed the stage after Chestnut’s win and wrestled with police.

“Let him eat! Let him eat!” the crowd chanted as police handcuffed the world’s No. 3 professional eater, dubbed “The Tsunami.”

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When I was looking through videos for yesterday’s entry, I came across one that really surprised me.  As you can probably tell from my discussions, I enjoy the Muppets a lot.  They tend to look at things through a pretty innocent pair of spectacles, and I find that refreshing, especially these days.

The video I came across is below, Robin singing “Halfway Down The Stairs:”

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Okay, I know that yesterday was actually the real holiday, but it is a long weekend, so I hope you are still in the mood for some patriotic music.  I know I am!  I thought I’d pretty much let the music and the videos do the talking today, and I tried to pick out most of the videos because the music was easy to hear and/or they also had the words to the songs. Click on the images below for the videos. View full article »

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Happy Fourth of July!  Today is the big day, so be sure to have an extra hot dog or pretzel for me when you gather your friends and family together!

I thought I’d share some interesting facts about the Independence Day holiday from Wikipedia that intrigued me.  Here goes:

Families often celebrate Independence Day by hosting or attending a picnic or barbecue and take advantage of the day off and, in some years, long weekend to gather with relatives. Decorations (e.g., streamers, balloons, and clothing) are generally colored red, white, and blue, the colors of the American flag. Parades often are in the morning, while fireworks displays occur in the evening at such places as parks, fairgrounds, or town squares.

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Happy Independence Day!  Here’s the second in a series of articles by Beverly Hernandez on About.com regarding the holiday:

>>The Fireworks Family

New Castle, Pennsylvania, is home to the Vitale Fireworks Display Company, responsible for more than one thousand fireworks shows every year. In 1922 Constantino Vitale brought his expertise at making fireworks from Italy to the United States. He passed his secrets on to his four sons, and since then the company has been making Americans exclaim “ooohhh” and “aaahhhh” at the lighted colors in the sky on July 4 and other occasions. “It’s like putting on a ballet show except that the dancers were above, painting the sky,” says Vitale’s granddaughter. “Seeing that spectacular display in the sky made me really love the country.”

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For this holiday weekend, I thought I’d share a series of great articles from About.com on the Fourth of July by Beverly Hernandez.  Here’s the first, which focuses on general history of the holiday:

>>The History And Origin Of Independence Day

By the middle of the 1700s, the 13 colonies that made up part of England’s empire in the New World were finding it difficult to be ruled by a king 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. They were tired of the taxes imposed upon them. But independence was a gradual and painful process. The colonists could not forget that they were British citizens and that they owed allegiance to King George III.

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It’s a time of tight budgets everywhere due to a bad economy, so it comes as no surprise that the Fourth of July festivities are not going to be quite as … festive … as they have been in previously better times.

Here’s a story about it from USA Today:

>>City Budgets Snuffing July 4th Fireworks by Stacey Jones

Cities across the USA are dousing the fuse on Fourth of July fireworks displays this year because of continued budget woes.

Glendale, Ariz., Jersey City and Springfield, Mo., are among the latest cities that have canceled their traditional Independence Day celebrations, joining other cities including San Francisco suburb Redwood City and Ridgefield Park, N.J.

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I want to thank everyone for the kind comments I got about my entry about Father’s Day on Sunday (see the link below).  I really appreciate them!

There was a news story that I really found appropriate regarding that holiday, so let me share it with you.

>>For you, Dad: McDonald homers in first AB since father’s death

By ‘Duk

After watching his postgame press conference, I think Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston speaks for us all when talking about the home run that utilityman John McDonald hit in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game.

“I was so happy to see him hit that home run, I almost cried myself,” Gaston said.

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There’s one thing I’ve wanted to say to you for years, Dad: You were absolutely right about Gunsmoke being a terrific TV program!

I know it seems like something small, but I ragged on you for years for liking a western when that kind of series was out of vogue.  Years later, when my brother and I would drive up to buy food for Mom once a month, we’d watch Gunsmoke each Saturday night after the local news went off (the ABC channel showed it), and I came to love its intricate storylines and its fascinating characters. You were right all along–Gunsmore was a great television show!

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