I saw an article earlier about how today is the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler by suicide in his bunker in 1945. I'm sure it was just a coincidence, but Family Guy had an episode just last night with this clip:
Even as horrible as is the subject matter, both suicide and Hitler, I couldn't help but laugh.
verb (used without object)
1. to snack or eat between meals.
verb (used with object)
2. to snack on: They noshed peanuts and cookies while watching television.
When I first saw this entry in this blog's Word of the Day feed (in the right-hand column), I had to laugh. It's not a word I would ordinarily use - and it's not one used in the circles I run in - but I do often use it, only no one hears it.
"No one" except the Beej, my old cat-varmint. He's not the brightest animal I've ever been around and isn't even the smartest cat I've ever owned. My old B-cat knew several words but he reacted the most to "chicken?" and would go nuts. I swear, he could smell a pkg. of KFC takeout before I even opened up the car door. He also knew "bird" and when I'd say it, he'd make that little sound most cats do when they see a bird, along with a quiver of the mouth.
The Beej knows "outside?" and will go to the door if that's where he wants to go and will run into another room if he doesn't want to go out. He also knows "hungry?" and will go to his food bowl if I say that. He also knows "nosh" and when I ask "Wouldja like a nosh?", he perks up because he knows he's getting a treat or two from a pkg. of Meow Mix "Ocean Explosion" seafood-flavored treats.
They're something I've always bought him; they're only a buck for a pkg. at the dollar store and I've found that it's a good way to get him to eat leftover food in his bowl at which he'd ordinarily turn up his nose. I just say "Nosh?" and sprinkle a few on the perfectly good cat food - put out only an hour or two before - and he'll finish up the food. (mostly)
The Beej has always been wary of strangers; the first time my British friend Elle came over to see me, he would have nothing to do with her. I gave her a pkg. of the treats and told her to call to him, speaking his name and saying "Nosh?" I watched her coax him to her with the treats, then went to take a shower. As I left the room, she was petting him and he was content with being fussed over.
About ten minutes later, I was rinsing off when she frantically called through the door "Come here...B's sick!" I jumped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and went to see what was wrong with my cat. He had thrown up several times and was at the door, wanting out, still retching. I went ahead and let him out, then noticed the package of treats laying on the floor. I picked it up and found it was empty; she had fed the entire contents to him!
I knew he'd be all right and looking out the door, could see him eating a few blades of grass as cats (and dogs) will often do when their stomach is upset. I told her she shouldn't feed him more than a few at a time, that they must be very rich. I figured it was probably the same as eating a box of chocolates, a couple of pieces of pie followed by a huge slice of cake washed down by a double milkshake....just too rich for him all at once.
It didn't turn him off the things, though; he'd still eat the entire pkg. if I fed it to him.
To celebrate slimming this blog down a little by deleting some modules and unneeded graphics and scripts (which decreased load time from 4+ seconds to a little over one second with my connection), here's a great classic tune.
I've got a good online friend from England - her nickname is "Minnie". She's a devoted fan of the Chelsea soccer (footie) team. A long time ago when we were chatting on IM, she asked if I followed soccer and if so, what team did I like. I allowed as I really didn't like soccer all that much, but if I did, I might follow Arsenal because that was such a cool name for a team.
Oops, wrong answer. I knew soccer fans were...well, "fanatical" about their teams, but I didn't know about the hatred they could have for other teams. (I like American football, but have grown less and less interested in all sports as I've grown older. I do follow the Dallas Cowboys and have been a fan since I was a young boy, but I don't watch them if they're playing badly. Why would I want to suffer through that? Personally, I don't "hate" other NFL teams, but will admit to disliking Philadelphia mostly because of their obnoxious fans)
It wasn't very long until I got a pkg. in the mail from my British friend; in it were two Chelsea jerseys, one white and one blue. My allegiance to a particular footie team had been decided for me!
Chelsea played Barcelona yesterday; I wasn't for sure what was at stake, but I did some research and found out it was an important match (the Champions League Semifinal) and that the team from Spain was the World Cup Champs. (was? were? The British form of singular/plural confuses me a little. Where Americans would say "Chelsea is a great team.", the Brits would say "Chelsea are a great team." I guess it's something to do with the former thinking of a team as a singular unit while the latter thinks of a team being individual players. Just always found that odd. It's almost like the USA being considered a union of individual states pre-Civil War - "The United States ARE..." and afterwards being thought of as a single entity "The United States IS....")
Anyway....I watched a little bit of the match, but was confused a little bit by the Barcelona squad being able to keep the ball near the Chelsea goal as much as they were. I then found out that John Terry, a Chelsea star player, had been given a "red card" - being ejected from the match for a flagrant foul on a Barcelona player, Sanchez. Here's a video of the infraction:
Good Grief, that wasn't much more than a love tap. Sanchez deserved an Oscar for that acting performance. Terry could have shot him with a pistol and he wouldn't have gone down that fast.
As said, Terry was ejected from the match. I didn't know that a team would have to play short-handed the rest of the game. That doesn't seem right. Chelsea went on to play great defense and eventually knotted the score at 2-2. I know next to nothing about the game and even less about how that can be considered a win, but that's what happened and Chelsea moves on into the playoffs.
(I also don't understand how the various leagues work - my friend Min tried to explain it to me once but I was more confused after the explanation than I was before. I remember thinking at the time it would be like trying to explain the game of baseball to one of those remote Amazonian tribes. I did catch on that the worst teams have to "drop down" into another league and that sounds like a good deal to me and wish they'd try it in the NFL.)
The Terry "foul" reminded me of another foul committed by Albert Haynesworth, then of the Tennessee Titans, against Andre Gurode of the Dallas Cowboys from a few years ago.
What Terry did paled in comparison, wouldn't you say?
Note: Doing a little dab of research on this post has made me much more knowledgeable about soccer. I still don't know much, but I know more than I did yesterday. Now I need to find out what the fans sing during soccer matches. I watched a bit of a Liverpool match (scousers!) a couple of years ago and heard them singing "You'll Never Walk Alone". Odd.
I haven't asked her, but I bet my British friend Min might think Liverpool should sing the chorus of "Hair Of The Dog".
I've had this new computer for a little over a week now and have been trying to d/l all my programs I like. Some were free when I downloaded them and are now not free. -sigh- I guess I'll either have to fork over the cash or learn to live without them.
I've also been trying to configure my Firefox browser the way I like it. I hadn't noticed until the last post but when I tried to make a link, I discovered I hadn't d/l the "Make Link" add-on.
It's the most handy add-on, especially for blogging or posting in forums. All you have to do is highlight the text you want to add a link to, then right click and select the type of code you want:
As you can see, there are several options; the html code works here in Blogger, but there are several forums I frequent that use the forum code or BB (bulletin board) code. It's quicker than using a rich text editor.
Since I first got on the 'net, I've been reading all sorts of memes about Texas. Most are funny, some are stereotypes but true, but there are several that just aren't true. I see people write that Texas is flat - not so, not even here in the Panhandle. Part of Texas is called the Hill Country for good reason. There are mountains in far west Texas. Another misconception is that Texas is hot. People who think that should spend a winter here in the top of Texas. Another is that Texas is all desert. Good grief. Texas borders the Gulf of Mexico and has some lovely beaches; east Texas has loads of timber and from here to Lubbock is some of the finest farmland in the U.S.
That's OK, though...those ideas are from people who just don't know any better. There's one thing, however, that's perpetuated by Texans themselves and I want to set the record straight.
There was a recipe post that hit my reader yesterday that finally made me decide to rant. The post - The Texican Burger - brought up the "what kind of coke do you want?" meme.
Me: Do you want a coke? Not me: Yes. Me: What kind? Not me: Dr. Pepper.
This is such crap. I was born and raised here in Texas, lived here for over half a century and I've NEVER heard anyone say that nor been asked anything like that when ordering a soda. If you asked for a Coke, that's what you got. If you ordered a DP, they knew you meant Dr Pepper. (which originated in Waco, Texas, btw.) If you asked a waitress for a strawberry coke, she would probably tell you they had Fanta or Big Red or maybe you'd get a Coke w/ strawberry flavoring added.
Maybe this all stems from the popularity of Coca-Cola and being asked if you would like a coke. "Yeah, gimme a DP." That's the only thing I can think of that comes close to "What kind of coke...?" meme.
I belong to a couple of Texas Facebook groups which have posted this among other Texas "truths". Along with this (and that Texans all drive pickups with gun racks and school lets out during hunting season or that all the women are blonde and have "big hair"), they also state that "true Texans" don't say "soda" or "pop" or "soda pop". Like I said, I'm a native Texan and I say soda and pop and soda pop.
Do a search for "texas what kind of coke do you want" and you'll see thousands of posts that continue this idiotic idea. Maybe there's something to the stereotype that Texans are stupid - maybe I've just grown up around the smarter ones and the rest of Texas is filled with dumb asses.
