Really Good Quotes

Greetings, Quotaholics:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Here is some really good news. At least it is really good news for me. I’m a chocoholic and eat chocolate on a daily basis. Sometimes more than is really wise, but I love the substance and have all my life. I try to eat about one-half of a serving per day, so I don’t think I’m really over doing it.

The BBC has reported on an article posted at the BMJ (British Medical Journal) about the health benefits of eating chocolate. The authors of the study wanted to test links between chocolate intake and the risk of “developing cardiometabolic disorders”. They used seven studies which met their standards for data collection so that they had information on 114,000 participants.

The study found that chocolate may protect both the heart and the brain. However, over-consumption may lead to other illnesses. The British Heart Foundation said there were better ways to protect the heart. (I assume they mean more medically sound as I can think of nothing that is “heart healthy” that is equal to the wonderful taste of delicious chocolate.)

The study was done at the University of Cambridge. They compared the heart health of people with low chocolate intake (less than two bars per week) and those with high chocolate intake (more than two bars per week). Those with the “highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37% reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29% reduction in stroke compared with the lowest levels.”

Dr. Oscar Franco, one of the researchers, said chocolate was known to reduce blood pressure. He said the study’s findings were “promising” but needed more research. (No mention of where to go to volunteer for further study was listed.)

The down side to this is that eating lots of chocolate can lead to weight gain and Type 2 diabetes, so one should not start to binge on what was once called the “food of the gods” just to be healthy. No one is advising people to begin consuming large quantities of chocolate. The study did not test one type of chocolate against another type. There is some speculation that chocolate may be beneficial if the fats and sugars are removed (which would make it not taste nearly as good).

It is suggested, “If you want to reduce your heart disease risk, there are much better places to start than at the bottom of a box of chocolates.”

Do you eat chocolate? What type do you prefer? Milk? Dark? Semisweet? White? Do you like pure chocolate or do you like things mixed into your chocolate (peanuts, crispies, fruit filling)?

Are you as happy as me to find out that one of your “bad habits” could actually be keeping you healthy?

Joyfully,
   

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If you want to know how your girl will treat you after marriage, just listen to her talking to her little brother. - Sam Levenson

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. - Anne Lamott

Rough Day
[Thanks Bonnie]

After spending 3-1/2 hours enduring the long lines, surly clerks and insane regulations at the department of motor vehicles, a lady stopped at a toy store to pick up a gift for her son. She brought her selection - a baseball bat to the cash register.

“Cash or charge,” the clerk asked.

“Cash,” she snapped. Then apologizing for her rudeness, she explained, ” I’ve spent the afternoon at the motor-vehicle bureau. I am not too sane right now!!”

“Shall I gift -wrap the bat?” the clerk asked sweetly, “Or or you going back?”

I haven’t been out of work since the day I took my pants off.

What in heaven’s name is strange about a grandmother dancing nude? I’ll bet lots of grandmothers do it.

When I first came out with my fans and the wind hit me, I almost took off.  – all from Sally Rand, American dancer and actress who died on this day in 1979

Speak right up!

Coastal Living

As a child, I lived in several towns and cities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. From Virginia south, I lived in every state that has a coastline presence except Georgia. Later, I lived in Mississippi. I also lived on the Atlantic coast in Morocco, across the Atlantic from where I lived in the U.S. Had I been able to do the light speed thing, I could have waved to myself from both directions!

One of the neat things about living on coasts are beaches. Mother Nature sure knows how to make nice beaches. She takes shells, rocks, glass, and anything else, pounds them together with gazillions of gallons of water, and voila, sand is made. Then waves pile it up in nice strips up on shore and beaches are made. As these areas were so plentiful at the time, we would spend many weekends doing nothing but seeing how much sand we could carry back home in uncomfortable places.

The beach sand wasn’t the pretty white sand you see in movies and TV shows. It was more like a peppered grey than white. It was the same consistency, but it just wasn’t the all white sand. They buy the white sand from North African sources and dump it on our beaches. The sand from the Sahara is much whiter than the sand that occurs naturally on our coasts and everyone knows that tourists and sunbathers much prefer the white sand than the peppery grey.

One of the disadvantages of living on the coast is hurricanes. We had at least one hurricane a year come through. Some years we would have several. Of course the high winds and deluges of rain caused damage, but we prepared better back then than it seems they do now. Add into the mix that people have built every kind of building you can imagine within feet of the high tide line and there is potential for even more damage, especially when some of these places were not built to code.

One of the advantages today is the satellite coverage. We have much better warning of incoming hurricanes now. When I was a kid, they would send out the “hurricane hunters” toward the nearest clouds. Now they know from satellite views where to send them to get measurements. We know a week or more in advance what the potential storm may do and what path it may take. There is still some “fudge factor”, but thanks to technology, we have much better warning and much more time to prepare.

Here’s your quiz:
When you were young, what type of area did you live in?
How often did you get to “the beach”?
What kind of beach did you visit? A lake, or an ocean shore?

Coastal Living - Often Different Looking The Day After A Hurricane
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)

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Email Kirsten

“Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.”
~ Henry Beecher ~

For a number of reasons, I find my morning commute to be far more palatable than the afternoon commute. I rarely wait more than three minutes for a bus to the subway station. Because I board the subway at the end of the line, I always get a seat. The morning commute is faster and generally more pleasant – or at least, less unpleasant.

In the afternoon, I am tired and cranky, and my head is full of work-related stress. I am forced to squeeze myself onto an already jam-packed subway train, and when I emerge at my destination, I have to spend seventeen geological eras waiting for a bus home. Because my chances of getting a seat on either the subway or the bus are less than my chances of being ordained as the Pope, my afternoon commute involves me being on my feet for well over an hour.

By the time I got onto the bus yesterday, I was dying of thirst and my head was pounding. I stood there on the bus, one squashed sardine among many, feeling hot and grumpy. I never regard my commutes as fun, but yesterday, I was even more fed up than usual. I stared at the floor for the entire thirty minute bus ride just to avoid accidentally catching anyone’s eye. That’s how much of a mood I was in.

As the bus pulled up to my stop, I breathed a sigh of relief at having made it home while simultaneously lamenting the fact that my evenings are always filled with chores and running around after people.

Yes, I was feeling pathetic and sorry for myself. I admit it.

But then… something amazing happened.

As I stepped off the bus, I saw my husband and my younger son James sitting on the grass near the bus stop. Thinking I was seeing a mirage, I rubbed my eyes.

James jumped up and yelled, “Mommy!” The sun shone on his curly blond hair and illuminated his entire being. I swear, the kid looked like an angel – a glorious shining light that swept away every ounce of negativity in me. He ran towards me with his hands behind his back. The smile on his face as he reached me could have split his face in two as he pulled his hands from behind his back and thrust a bunch of red roses at me.

I spent a few minutes sitting there on the grass with my husband and my son, basking in the sense of love and belonging, and literally stopping to smell the roses.

I think I will regard my afternoon commutes with a lot less angst from now on. Because look at what I have waiting for me at the other end.

Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten

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Today would have been my dad’s 87th birthday. It has made me pensive, remembering him. In a way he was great training for Judgipoo. I grew up being terrified of him when he was mad. I can also remember many special and happy times with Dad, and don’t mean to imply otherwise. In fact, I used to tell him he did abuse me, because by not molesting or beating me, he deprived me of an opportunity to be on Opra.

The original Judgipoo sat on the bench which is now occupied by a man my colleagues and I fondly call "Church Lady". This jurist, like my dad, was a man of his times. He had his beliefs, and was not fond of having gray areas pointed out to him. In addition to sending people to jail, Judgipoo 1 was in charge of evictions and rent disputes. My dad was a landlord, and so it was that the two gentlemen frequently met.

On one such occasion, my dad asked me to represent him. This is a little like having your school principal ask you if you’d LIKE to come to his office. In short, it was like those old Godfather’s commercials that ended with "This is an offer you can’t refuse." I went. The tenants showed up, and my dad and Judgipoo 1 were both in rare form.

The tenant answered a question in a less then honest fashion, and Dad let it slide. He put forth another boner, and Dad held his tongue, although it took some will power. He went back to the well for another untruth, and Dad exploded, "SHUT UP! Not another damn word!"

"You shut up!" roared Judgipoo 1. "You’re in a court of law, and I could hold you in contempt for that."

Fortunately, Judgipoo 1 liked me, and he didn’t give my errant parent an all expense gray bar hotel vacation. But, for me, there were a few minutes of abject terror. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in the middle of an argument between Thor and Zeus? Call me sometime and I’ll tell you all about it.

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Fear? I’m not afraid of falling - it’s the sudden stop at the end that scares me!!

Here’s a "quick" one for you -

The batter had missed the fast ball…

Hints:  Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool.  http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules.  http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm 

Submit Opening Line
Submit Limerick

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