The Gourde

Did you know that the official currency of Haiti is known as gourde, named after the gourd? (botanically classified as a fruit) In the early 1800's the ruler of northern Haiti declared all gourds to be state property and had them rounded up and brought to the state treasury where they were then reissued as currency. Eventually banknotes and coins replaced the gourds, but gourde has remained the name of Haiti's official currency.

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I first discovered this fact when I read The Black Sun as a young man. My folks were big fans of the Mandingo series of books, as well as others written by Kyle Onstott and his partners. The books were really too adult for my age but I guess my parents thought it better for me to find out about sex that way instead of them having to uncomfortably explain it to me.

There were gourds growing in the pastures surrounding the house where I grew up; not sure what specific type of gourd they were, but they usually didn't grow much larger than a baseball and, in fact, throwing them was the most fun I had with them.  The vines and fruit smelled to high heaven when crushed, with an odor like day-old B.O.  After working hard all day during a hot summer, I often heard my dad say "I smell just like an ol' gourd vine." 

A Head's Up

Thought I'd better let everyone know a week in advance:

I won't be posting on this blog on Feb. 29th or the 30th.

It's a religious holiday for me.

Not Exactly a Comedy

But I'm watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets .... for probably the twentieth time. Not really "watching" it because I'm sitting at the computer but it's on behind me.

You Should Watch a Comedy

You are a fun loving person who is able to laugh at all aspects of life. Some may think you're light-hearted, but you're also able to be amusingly dark. You can see both the best and worst in people. More importantly, you understand how absurd life can be. You find a well written comedy to be intelligent and even insightful. Anyone can make a good movie, but only a genius can make a hilarious movie.

What Kind of Movie Should You Watch Tonight?

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I'd agree with the results. I DO understand how absurd life can be. Well, I understand how absurd MY life is.

I haven't watched a good movie in quite some time.  Oh, I've watched movies, but none of them have been too good.

Yeah, should watch a comedy.   The only comedy that's coming on is Beetlejuice and I watched it (again) not too terribly long ago and that will do me for that particular movie for about five more years.  It wasn't all that great the FIRST time I saw it.

Too bad I can't sit back and watch my love life.  It's laughably non-existent. -sigh-

Carpet Sprouts

Note:  Originally published on November 11, 2008. I noticed a hit on an old post from that month and got to looking though some of them. (checking to see if the videos still worked, etc.) I just bumped it up because I thought it funny and have been slacking off on posting here lately. Hey, if no one has seen it, it's new to them, right?

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The young couple had just started to move in a few houses down from me. I went down, introduced myself and offered to help them move in. They were grateful, but declined and told me before they moved their furniture in, they were going to shampoo the carpets. I agreed that that was a good idea as the last tenants had been less than tidy people.

I noticed them down there until later that night, then the next day the guy knocked on my door. He asked me to come down to see something strange at his new digs, so I followed him into the house.

The house was almost unbearably hot and humid, not something I wanted to experience on a normal hot and humid Texas afternoon. The wet heat hit me as soon as I walked through the door. He told me they had shampooed the carpet the night before, then turned on the heater to help it dry.

Until the day I die, I will probably never see another sight as I did that day. There, poking up out of the shag carpet, were thousands and thousands of little white sprouts, tiny things with little green leaves coming out of the tops and I recognized them immediately: they were freshly sprouted....

....pot plants.

I had seen this phenomenon before, albeit on a much smaller scale, a long time ago when my wife and I moved into some less-than-clean quarters.

The moral to the story is: Vacumn before you shampoo the carpet. If you smoke pot, flush the seeds.

Stresstest

60 Years of CBS Actresses

Hat tip to TYWKIWDBI

Too bad CBS has morphed from a once credible and respected news organization into the mouthpiece for the progressive wing of the Democratic party.