The Daily Update

A blossom fell... from off a tree.
It settled softly on the lips you turned
to me.
The gypsies say, and I know why
A falling blossom only touches
lips that lie.

A blossom fell... and very soon
I saw you kissing
someone new beneath the moon.
I thought you loved me, you said you loved me.
We planned together to dream forever.
The dream has ended, for true love
died,
The night a blossom fell, and touched two lips that lied."


Today in History:

Random picture of Valeria Mazza:

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Oh, come on now. It's a RANDOM picture.

In A.D. 64, the Great Fire of Rome began.

In 1792, American naval hero John Paul Jones died in Paris at age 45.

In 1932, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began.

In 1940, the Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated President Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office.

In 1947, President Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

In 1955, a summit opened in Geneva, Switzerland, attended by President Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and French Premier Edgar Faure.

In 1969, a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) (D-Mass.) plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard; passenger Mary Jo Kopechne died.

In 1984, a gunman opened fire at a McDonald's fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.

In 1984, Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco.

In 1994, Tutsi rebels declared an end to Rwanda's 14-week-old civil war.

In 1995, Opening statements were presented in the trial of Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman charged with drowning her two young sons.

Random Pictures of China Chow. Dig In. I'd say Chow down, but that'd be in bad taste. And I can't see any bad taste here.:



Today's Birthdays:
Former South African President Nelson Mandela is 87.

Former Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, is 84.


Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 67.

Singer Dion DiMucci is 66.

Actor James Brolin is 65. As an actor, his biggest accomplishment that I know of is marrying Barbra. Nothing against Babs. Just don't know what signifigant contribution he's made.


Singer Martha Reeves is 64.

Singer Ricky Skaggs is 51. Ricky is the begnign strain. It's unpleasant but treatable. Should you be unlucky enough to catch the mre potent Boss Skaggs or the German Lotus Skaggs, best prepare your last will and testament. But that's what you get when you hang around those sorts of places. And don't think that you'll get any consolation out of it; she's just a carrier and transmitter. She isn't gona die from it like you will. Fool. Didn't you listen durning health class?!

Actress Audrey Landers is 46.


Actor Vin Diesel is 38.



Actress Kristen Bell is 25.



Shakespeare quote of the day:

Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou; to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms,
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or mine-
rals
That weaken, motion: I'll have't disputed on;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.

-Othello Act I. Sc. II

Random Picture Time! Paige Butcher. Looks a little like Tar Reid, without the cocaine:


Word of the day:

ameliorate \uh-MEEL-yuh-rayt\, transitive verb:
To make better; to improve.

Being Bobby Brown:

It's nice to know that no matter how big of a star some people become, they never really grow out from being the trailer trash within. If we didn't learn that lesson already with Anna Nicole Smith, the Bravo channel drives it home with this show, featuring the disfunctional marriage of one Bobby "Every little step" Brown and Whitney "I wanna dance with somebody" Houston.

To watch this is to set up a lawn chair at your local trailer court with a 12 pack for a month or so, and watch the human dynamic at it's lowest level. Only, with Bobby and Whitney, it's at a mansion instead. Bobb comes across as comepletely clueless at the world outside of his brainpan, and unaware that any other feelings might exist beyond his own. Whitney? I was never a big fan of hers, but she strikes me as the tied-up animal that's given up any will to fight. So she wallows in the world they have created together, and make no attempt to make it better.

Compare Whitney of 1988 to the Whitney of now...you'd never think she'd turn out like this. With her blissfully happy pop songs and ballads ("One moment in time", done fo rthe 1988 Olympics? Don't tell me you forgot about that.), you'd have never thought you'd see her this low. Fortunately for their sake, they've got a ton of money to keep them upright until its too late.

For the sake of your own inner being though, let not your eyes cast upon it. You'll BEG to be turned into a pillar of salt if you do.

Course, a pillar of salt is pretty big. Some people only measure up to a stoop. Me? load-bearing column, complete with flying buttress. Of salt. It'd make me popular with the horses, I'll bet.

But that may not be something I want.

Coca Cola Zero review:

A recent edition has been made to the Coca-Cola family. As devout a follower as I am, I felt the need to pay my respects, visit the newborn, and like any other...twist off it's head and sup the sweet innocent fluids found inside.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lileks beat me to the review. Argh! Well, that's what I get for being remiss in my duties, I suppose.

From my perspective, He's only half-correct, though. True, it is Coca cola's answer to Pepsi One. And if Pepsi is going to leave any sort of room for negotiation, Coca-Cola is pretty much obligated to do one better. Or one less. One is the lonliest number. Whatever.

Anyway, I actually like it alot. Diet Coke just doesn't have the same bite to it that regular Coke does. It's sweeter, and there's another part that I just can't put my tongue on it.

What CAN I put my tongue on?

Jell-o pudding pops.

I found them in the freezer section at my local grocer! They're just like when I was a kid! Chocolate, Vanilla, and Swirl! It's the great taste we all remember. Have you tried one recently?

No?

Well, they're not Lujan Fernandez, but that's alot to ask out of a puddin' pop.


But what if you could have Ms. Fernandez AND a pudding pop?

Well now, you have taken a hypothetical question that while implausible, still had some basis of reality and turned it into something straight out of a green party convention. That's right, I am saying it has absoultely no chance at all.

And I don't know that what you are implying with Ms. Fernandez and a dairy delight ON A STICK, but I can guess. And there are doctors in that field who would shun the practice entirely.

(But don't think I hadn't thought of it, either, strictly between you and I.)

Random Picture of your writer:

Closed Circuit to E...note the T-shirt.

Anyway, Diet Coke simply isn't close enough to regular coke to really classify them together. When you tell me that product B is a diet product of product A, I expect them to taste similar as to be able to be hard pressed to see the difference. that isn't the case here. Diet Coke has a very distinctive taste seperate from it's predacessor.



No, I said predaCESSOR.

Enter Coca Cola Zero. The first taste of CCZ is nearly identical of Coca-Cola Classic. It arrives on the pallatte under the cloak of it's origin, presenting itself to unsuspecting taste buds as the main guest of the party. It mills about the room introducing itself as none other than Coca Cola Classic. The taste buds, who cannot see beyond the shroud, suspect nothing. But that isn't even the best part yet.

At some point the shroud must be removed. And when it is...there's nothing to be found! At all! To take it outside the analogies, there's NO AFTERTASTE AT ALL. You take a few gulps, and it flows down your gullet, but when you pull hte bottle away, it's as though it evaporated on your tongue before you ever had a chance to drink it!

I don't see myself straying from the original formula (loyalist that I am), but if I were to, Coca Cola Zero is where I'd end up.

But what if you had a Coca Cola in one hand, a pudding pop in another, and Lujan someplace else?

See, that is so absurd to consider, that I can't even entertain the possibility. I mean, even if I were, WHAT THEN can I look forward to daydreaming about in Heaven for the life beyond that?!


SI.com's Peter King and the role of fatherhood:

OK, really really late, but it's something that I simply can't let pass by. Peter King is an NFL writer for CNNSI.com, and fr Father's day, he posed the following note.

Two men. Ten marriages between them. Here's the Father's Day Note of the Week:

Something called the National Father's Day Council named Larry King and Donald Trump two of its three fathers of the year. According to the New York Post, selection committee chairman Rich Wurtzburger said King and Trump had shown "great dedication to raising their families.''

King has been married seven times, Trump three. And as the Post pointed out, Trump had three young children when he had an affair with Marla Maples in the '80s.

That's the kind of Dad-like example we want to set for the rest of America!

An interview King had with the New York Times showed the kind of husband-like example we like to see.

Said King: "I get amazed at the 50-year marriage. My father-in-law is married 50 years. To me, they've had to compensate a lot more than I did. Compensate, make arrangements, give up things, which I wasn't willing to do.''

That's the spirit! Get married, and then, as soon as you wake up one morning not wanting to be married right then, get divorced! Then get married again! And when you see a prettier woman than your wife, get divorced again and get married to the babe!

Now, I am posting this for a few different reasons. Let us count the ways!

1. I didn't understand this when I was younger, but sometimes the best thing a dad can do for his family is to get a divorce. A household full of tension and fighting and misery amongst mom and dad is no place for children to be. Better that they have a home of love and peace and structure. Things happen in life that sometimes require people to go their seperate ways, and unfortunately that means heartache for the children. But just because you are not a husband anymore doesn't mean that you can't be a great dad. That said, I am sure that is not the message Peter King was trying to convey. His issue was more along the lines of their approach to marriage, and what a lousy example that set for the kids. Despite what Mr. Trump or Larry King may say, any relationship they have with a woman beyond their mother IS their business, since you are the example thay are supposed to follow. So if you then set the example that marriage is as disposable as a paper plate, you have hardly set them up for their own marital bliss. Sounds like more heartache than should be given to all but a few people in the world.

2. The Lary King Quote. I'll post it again.

"I get amazed at the 50-year marriage. My father-in-law is married 50 years. To me, they've had to compensate a lot more than I did. Compensate, make arrangements, give up things, which I wasn't willing to do.''

This comes from such a different frame of mind than mine, that I don't stand a chance of seeing his point of view. For myself, I live to find the person in life who I am willing to give up things for. That probably exposes alot of my internal self right there I suppose. Like that time the photographer got me drunk, and...

Well anyway. The point is that marriage is a commitment to a life of sacrifice and compensating, and cooperation. Ideally, what you get out of the marriage is greater than that which you give up. Marriage isn't JUST that, of course. But this is part of it, and to enter into it without thinking that you'll have to make consessions at some point of the union is to see only yourself.

However, it is important to state that there are things which you should never give up. Dignity, which is different than pride. You should never give up your morals and personal beliefs of what is right and wrong. BUt material possessions? Please. I don't think that is what Larry King was referring to, but it's my point.


Full Throttle Drink Review:



Full Throttle is an energy drink similar to Red Bull. From this consumer though, it's a little more powerful. Shortly after taking it in, you feel your arteries strain to open as wide as possible for the blood to flow as freely and as quickly as possible, your pupils dialate, and like anyone else, you snap out of it 20 hours later on a river bank bathed in sweat, holding a gray sack full of jewels and marked money, and there's a hole in your leg where flesh used to be.

But then, maybe other people have a different reaction. I don't know.

I don't know exactly how much energy it give you, since I only had a drink or two of it. So all I can do is comment on the taste, which for an energy drink isn't bad. It's definately sweet tasting, and it's hard to place. It was suggested that it tasted similar to when you were a kid and you would mix all of the sodas from the spouts all into one drink. In my neighborhood, we called it a "suicide". And while there were some correlations, it wasn't an exact match in my tastebud archives. But it was close...very close. We had the right time frame, it was a taste from my childhood.

And then I figured it out. When I was at summer camp, there was a candy store at the top of the hill. You could buy candy and soda and all of that. Well, you had to carry all of that back down the hill once you bought it. And sometimes you didn't have enough hands to carry a drink and all the candy you bought. So what do you do? You do what I did. You put some of the candy into the soda and carry it dow. BUt of course, you can't do that with all candy. Chocolate and soda don't mix well. Bottlecaps candy and soda seems redundant. No, only Gummy candy remains unaffected by a carbonated beverage.

More specifically, Gummy worms. And that's when it hit me. Full throttle tastes like liquified gummi worms.



It's your favorite childhood treat! In liquid form!

Your favorite Diety help us if they ever catch onto the idea of taking those horrid circus peanut candy and turning that into a drink.

(shudder).



Adultery Cards

OK, in order to understand this rant, you have to click on the title first,a nd read the story. I know some of you aren't big on doing that, but it's important this time to really get what I am after.

Are we ready to continue? Good.

So lemme get this straight...you publish cards for adulterous couples to hare with each other, earning a profit off of other peoples sins? And you don't feel dirty about this?

"Hey, I am not the one having the affair. They don't HAVE to buy them. I just supply them. What they do with them is none of my business", the reply might be.

Ok so that makes you no better than any drug dealer or network TV. But what you are contributing to by doing so is unimaginable pain. If they want cards, they can hunt around Hallmark or wherever to find one that vaguely implies what they want. But this is just plain bullshit. DOn't pretend to be innocent about it.

And what the hell are the people in the affair supposed to do with the card? You can't set it on the mantle during Christmas. There's typically enough of a paper trail to hide as it is in an affair, wihtout passing card to each other which leave no doubt about it. It's bound to end up in a drawer if the recipient is stupid enough not to throw it in the fireplace or the trash as soon as they get it.

And how the heck do you buy them at a store if you have any concience whatsoever? Hmmm, I need one for Grandmother's 50th anniversary, Arbor day is coming up, and OH! I should get one of these for my infedel's out of town business trip.

(I use the term infedel, because it's not a lover. It's your partner in infedelity. How one could call something so gross and unpure in nature "love" is to not understand love at all. It should never be something to be ashamed of or have to be hidden. And if you find yourself having to hide it from someone close to you...say, A SPOUSE...well, it may be love in your book, but it's not in mine. )

And then you still have to take it up to the counter. With a sheepish grin, you put down the cards, as the teller rings them up. As she rings through the card of deception and lies, you needlessly blurt out "It's for my friend. She's the one having hte affair. And with that, you realize you've just implicated yourself. And the shame that washes over you at that moment is exactly what you deserve to carry.

Great idea for making money I suppose, but the cost to the soul is a heavy one. That's what happens when you put business before ethics, though.

Mother mother tell your children
That their time has just begun
I have suffered for my anger
There are wars that can’t be won

Father father please believe me
I am laying down my guns
I am broken like an arrow
Forgive me
Forgive your wayward son

Everybody needs somebody to love
(mother, mother)
Everybody needs somebody to hate
(please believe me)
Everybody’s bitching
’cause they can’t get enough
And it’s hard to hold on
When there’s no one to lean on

Faith: you know you’re gonna live thru the rain
Lord you got to keep the faith
Faith: don’t let your love turn to hate
Right now we got to
Keep the faith
Keep the faith
Keep the faith
Lord we got to keep the faith

Tell me baby when I hurt you
Do you keep it all inside
Do you tell me all’s forgiven
And just hide behind your pride

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.