Hi Folks,
WOW, It's hard to believe that June is almost upon us! It seemed ages ago that Marie Ange decided to come to the Auld Sod and she arrives here next month! I have laid by suitable champagne stocks as I have been reliably informed that Montrealeans are weaned on the stuff! I am dreading Senior and Middle sprogs reactions to her sexy French accent <S> Then again, maybe not, maybe they will decide that they should move to Montreal <eg>. I have finally found an outfit for my niece's wedding ( was determined not to be outdone by any French Chic!). A beautiful red suit, and even if I say so myself, One Sassy Number! (Even Maggs likes it!)
On the homefront, the sprogs have been using the bathroom a month now, so that means I've already cleaned it numerous times. I swear they use a different towel for each "bit" that they dry! I am still trying to figure out how they manage to get toothpaste all over the mirror as well as the basin. One thing that wasn't altered though, it still seems that only females have the manual dexterity to be able to change a toilet roll!
Junior is heading to the states the same day that Marie Ange arrives, that was kind of convenient as it guarantees her a bedroom! (determined to sort out all the sweet (candy) papers, mouldy socks and Playstation discs from the floor before she arrives)
Guess what?, Yep, the sprogs are in the doghouse again! The phone bill arrived today! I make very few calls, guess I spend far too long on the computer to have time to natter on the phone. So you would think I would have very small phone bills? Wrong! Found £50 ($75) worth of calls to premium numbers ( suspect Senior Sprog is the guilty party here, with calls to Football (Soccer) lines, with the Football World Cup starting very soon). Then theres the £70 ($100) worth of calls to mobile lines (cell phones), that could only be Middle Sprog, he didn't just kiss the Blarney Stone, I think the eedjit swallowed it! Needless to say, WWIII has commenced with them bickering amongst themselves over who called what. I am having no part of the bickering, I just did my first-class fish-wife impersonation and demanded money OR ELSE! (The "or else" is to get ALL outgoing calls blocked on my phone, no call will be made unless you know the secret PIN number and only I will have that!)....devious or what? <eg>
Several Comments this month, everyone still loves *your* newspaper!
"I really enjoy your tidbits at the beginning of the newsletter. I finally figured out what a Sprog is but how did they come about being called Sprogs?"
(A sprog is, a derivitive of 'offspring', I think it's also an exclusive UK expression <S>)
"Wow! Well done, Lyn! I haven't read everything yet, but what a diverse group of writers and subjects. Fantastic."
"hope Ma'am keeps on and gives some
of us newer ones an insight of how the forum came to be. As usual
the rest of the articles are great and I always look forward to
reading the news....mayhap ye should send Wrench a
rubber dolly so his mind will be distracted to your coming over
the pond to clean his house...lol either that or come clean it!"
I hope you all enjoy this bumber-packed issue, we have so much talent in Casual Chat! Thats all for this month folks, please keep those article coming, everyone enjoys them so much!
Ohhh BTW, I have a great "update" article from Timbo (WK), I am saving it for next month because the pigeon post (snail mail) hasn't arrived from the land of Oz with the pictures to accompany it. Something to look forward to, eh?
Any comments. articles, tips etc, please mail to LyndaAtCasual@Compuserve.com
Lynda [Editor]
Editorial.........................................................................Lynda
"Little Bits" from Ma'am.................................................Maureen
Thoughts from the Chicken Yard....................................Lizzie
One year ago!................................................................Marie Ange
Do you Recken the Time?..............................................Nefertiti
The Power of Communication........................................Goose
The Taj Mahal................................................................Nefertiti
Thanksgiving..................................................................Nefertiti
Rocking out on the Porch...............................................Taffy
The weekend of May 24th through May 27th
is the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. I have worked as a volunteer for
this event for about ten years and looking forward to another
great year with lots of great music including traditional jazz,
blues, western jazz, youth groups, and Zydeco, personally one of
my favorites <grin> A bit of Cajun/Louisiana and extremely
Upbeat. After four days I am usually ready for a chiropractor
<LOL> have to remind myself this poor body generally does
NOT move that way all year. It is great fun and a family affair
working there. My older brother and sister in law are in charge
of the Recreation Vehicle area and his granddaughter will be
joining the area I work as a volunteer. The site is called the
Beer Garden and we can seat about 900 people and with standing
room about 1400 people. My daughter and granddaughter Katie are
the announcers on our shift. Katie is in her tenth year, she
started when she was three years old with her mom up on that
stage and we have patrons that come back year after year to see
Katie. My son is the late shift manager and has also worked this
event about ten years. This year Katie's younger sister Sarah
will be joining us as a volunteer. This year I am the manager of
the day shift. I only agreed to do this if I could continue with
my original job as well, I am the official "bar wench"
making sure the stage is tidy and the bands all have a beverage
of choice before performing. If anyone is ever in the Sacramento
area during Memorial weekend, Jubilee is the
place to be. We have sites all over the city and it is a four day
party.
http://www.sacjazz.com/
I will let ya all know if I survive this event again, there are
years I wonder if I will <grin> Thanks to Casual Staff for
their time and again farewell to our departing hosts, you will be
missed but not forgotten and we hope to see
you in the forum
Until next month, have a wonderful start to summer .
The other day, I went out to feed the chickens and those
old hens were just clucking to beat the band. I watched them and
listened to them and wondered what they were saying to each other.
Do you suppose they were like us human kind, talking about those
darn kids staying out late, husbands never there, (more than
likely they all shared the same old rooster) griping about their
eggs disappearing as fast as they laid them. You know they don't
lay those eggs for us, we just steal them. They lay those eggs
because they want a family just like us, and if some old hen
decides to abandon their nest, one of them may take it over.
Sounds like some of us a
little further up the food chain, don't it? Do you suppose it
upsets the balance of their lives not
having a definite daddy around to kind of shore things up and
stabilize the household?
Sometimes chickens peck each others tail feathers, do you suppose
that is just a social thing, of one trying to get the others
attention? Maybe trying to get her to mend her ways or take
better care of her children? Durn, that is something to think
about, ain't it?
You know actually the
chicken is a very docile bird, I just toss the feed around on the
ground and they peck at it and pick it up and eat it. Wow, that
is even like some of us humans, others bring the food in and some
of us just sit around waitin to eat it, no never mind worrying
about if there is enough for everyone. Chickens just sort of
mosey around and make this kind of a contented clucking noise,
but you let a fox come near that henhouse and you will hear a
noise like you never heard before. Hell hath no fury like a hen
being chased by a fox. Ya see, that fox is kind of like some of
these here people who just wait for someone else to raise the hen
and then they think it is theirs for the eatin, and who do we
think we are anyway, to deny them this meal. And like the fox,
they kind of slink away and find a hidey hole somewhere just
waitin for us to be careless
about closin the hen house door at nite.
Chickens really remind me of politicians, they just stand around
and cluck, and when it is time to eat, there they are right on
the front lines. Well, when you decide it is time for some
chicken and dumplings, you don't pick that little skinny hen, you
want the big fat one. Maybe we should look at politicians like
hens, whe they get too big and fat, you use them for dinner. Boy,
some of those fellars have really feathered their nests while in
office. They all think they are the rooster and start to crow
about what they have done for you and me. Let me tell you
something, that there rooster only crows to tell you the sun is
up, gettin out of bed is up to you.
Well, I been out here in this here chicken yard long enough, I
think the sun is starting to effect my thinkin. But you know, we
could learn a lot from these chickens. Maybe when the corn gets
tall enough to make a little shade, I will come out here again
and maybe do me a little more thinkin and if'n I come up with
anymore thoughts I will write down my notions and share
them with you. Of course, I will have to do this during the
daylite hours as someone stole my dang lights right out of that
cornfield last year, not to mention the corn they took too. Gee,
I still think about that there dress I was gonna make me out of
that corn silk. It would have looked right purty too and after I
went barefoot all summer long, just to save my shoes for good.
Oh well---------Lizzie
Copywrite
Montreal is now preparing herself to remember last years invasion by the Casual Tour!
Yes, one year ago, the forum invaded the streets of Montreal, the
cute french waiters (Frédérique and Dominique) are getting
ready to give interviews to the media about the accent of a
certain Irish lady when she spoke in french, a certain Dawn is
erring in the streets, holding a bird in her hands, her eyes are
glazed and she is mumbling a name, Lil chic, Lil chic. We all
wonder if that has something to do with the bird she is carrying
?
In the underground garage of a downtown Montreal Hotel, a
commemorative plaque was unveiled yesterday! Nailed on a column,
it says, "Rena used this column to visit a Montreal hospital
and find out about the colour of the eyes of the doctors! "
Naturally her new name now is "Crash!"
Many bars around the St-Denis street are posting signs saying
Reckless was here! (Any rumours that these were all topless bars
have not yet been proven)
Even policemen from outside Montreal, far away from Montreal in
fact, remembers a nice girl from Wyoming, in a car full of
sleeping people, asking them is she was far from the hotel!
"No", they said, "about 35 miles!" See!
Becca, I should have told you that Montreal was an island and
that crossing the St-Lawrence was getting you directly to the NY
border!
Maybe Hiker could have told you, but she was sleeping between Dar
and Juris! And where was Stewie?
At least, I remember getting Gin back at the hotel, I remember
that Jaxn followed me in another car, so he did not have the
occasion to visit the countryside!
Having over 20 people in my apartment was something, the smoke
was dense, This was also aided by a small accidental fire! Thanks
guys for extinguishing that fire in the kitchen!
Now, there was a conspiracy, all the planes were late, except Air
Canada from Toronto, the plan was to get Juris and Dar , then
Maureen, then come back for Tracey. However all 3 planes landed
at the same time. So part of the gang was alone in my place for
hours with no food (heard they was no problem with drinking
though!)
Lynda and I were both at the airport and when everybody got
there, there was not enough room in the car!
Oh well, we finally all managed, and I must say, we all had a
great time! We found out they stop selling beer here after 1 am
but they are still delivering pizza:-)!
Next time you hear there is a forum meeting somewhere, just go
gang!
You will be amazed to find out that the people in real life are
exactly as they are in the forum!
Same personalities! ( nuts!) You will recognize them, even if you
never saw them!
One piece of advice though, find out what their real names are
Because if you don't, you will look really ridiculous at the
hotel reception when you ask for them by their forum handle!
M.A
C Jodi L Burke
Before 1883, there was little worry about time.It was always
local sun time. Railroads chose the time that suited them best
and conductors and stationmasters set their watches and clocks
accordingly. The New York Central R.R. clock in Buffalo would
show New York City time, about twenty-minutes ahead of local sun
time. The Michigan Southern R.R. clock in
Buffalo would show the time at Columbus, Ohio, about fifteen-minutes
behind local sun time.
This puzzle was presented to the traveler in any city served by
more than one railroad. Catching a train was tricky in the first
place, but making connections took on the color of a loony tunes
adventure.
Charles F. Dowd decided to
do something about this chaos. He was minister and head of a
ladies seminary at Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1869, with the
completion of the first transcontinental railway, the orderly-minded
Rev. Dowd
began a one-man crusade for a logical time system. He saw a world
theoretically divided into twenty-four time zones, each including
fifteen degrees of longitude, the distance the sun appears to
travel from east to west in one hour. In any given time zone, all
the clocks would show the same time.
He was so persistent in his arguments and writings the leading
scientific societies began applying pressure for time reform.
Eventually the railroads of the United States and Canada
surrendered and adopted Standard Time, as we know it today.
Dowd packed his bags, considered it a job well done, and went
home. But now someone had to adjust the train schedules of more
than fifty different railway systems to the new way of keeping
time. This job was dropped into the lap of the publisher of The
Official Railway Guide, William F. Allen. His work is
commemorated by a large bronze plaque on an inside wall of
Washington's Union Station.
They were exciting times in 1883 when on Sunday, November 18, the
changeover took place. Telegraphers were alerted, the Naval
Observatory at Washington, DC, was ready, and at noon in
Washington, a signal was sent to all the cities across the
continent, and the hands of the clocks in Buffalo and elsewhere
throughout the Eastern Time Zone were moved to 12 o'clock. In the
Central Zone, the official time was moved to 11 o'clock. In the
Mountain Zone 10 o'clock, and in the Pacific Zone 9 o'clock. For
the first time in history, clocks and timepieces chimed on the
hour together. What Ho!
Other Nations said something similar when they realized the
advantages of Standard Time. In 1884 delegates from twenty-six
countries met in Washington to discuss it and Standard Time soon
was extended virtually to the rest of the globe.
Poor Reverend Dowd was never given an award, nor did the grateful
(?) public erect a monument in honor of his invention. In 1904,
at the age of seventy-nine, he was killed at Saratoga Springs. A
train ran over him!
The only good thing about that, he didn't live long enough to see
us mess with the time again when our President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, in "his heart of hearts" thought it might be
good for business if we adopted Daylight Savings Time in the
spring and let it go back to Standard Time in the fall. True to
the American spirit of "I'll Do It My Way," we cut out
the middleman and call it
Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time and Pacific Time. Do I
hear Millennium Time coming up?
^nefertiti^
Jodi1@compuserve.com
You will be heard by an open heart
You will be seen for who you truly are
You will be understood by the words you speak
Because of the Power of Communication
If you can't be gazed upon by loving eyes
If you can't be felt by loving hands
If you can't savor the moment of a loving kiss
There's still the Power of Communication
Is it possible to love due to conversation?
Mentally accepting the intelligence
Stimulating and inspiring anecdotes are the key
To unlock the Power of Communication
The link's been made - Soul to Soul
The bond's been set - Heart to Heart
The connection's there - Mind to Mind
Never underestimate the Power of Communication!
-Goose
Copyright Jodi Larcombe Burke
The monument is remarkable. The story behind it even more so. It
is a love story that took place in 17th-century India, where
marriages were arranged and love not considered a suitable reason
to marry.
The Emperor of India, Shah Jahan, needed a wife. Mumtaz Mahal was
selected from a host of women because she was the right height,
had a lovely face and was even tempered. But a funny thing
happened on the way to the wedding - they fell deeply in love.
This was new to Agra,
India, the land where Buddha and Gandhi taught; where Alexander
the Great and Akbar dreamed of empires; where Kipling wrote many
of his stories. The Shah's subjects were content to sit back and
wait for him to come to his senses for a great emperor cannot be
bothered with love and make sensible decisions. They had a very
long wait. It never happened.
When Mumtaz died, Shah was heartbroken. He determined to build a
monument as great as his love for his wife. It took eighteen
years, twenty-thousand workers and many architects and artisans.
Landscape artists laid out vast gardens, pools, canals, and
fountains around the Taj. Lookouts were placed in which from a
distance the Taj could be seen as delicate, somewhat ethereal.
Shah was pleased. His son and heir was not. The Taj nearly
bankrupted the imperial treasury, which left little for the royal
heir so he had a palace coup and seized the throne. Shah was a
prisoner for the rest of his life under house arrest within the
palace walls. His only pleasure his apartments, which overlooked
the Taj Mahal. When he died, he was buried beside his beloved
Mumtaz.
Nehru said of the area, "The air we breathe is full of the
dust and fragrances of the past ." Romantic but fragrant
dust in an area usually shrouded in smog thick enough to cut with
a knife makes for few visitors. Agra is the city of the Mughal
emperors. Seeing the Agra Fort is worth all the dust and fog.
Talk about private courtyards, peacock arches, carved lattice
screens, pavilions and secret gardens ! The entire Fort reeks of
opulence. Nearby is a perfectly preserved Mughal city, Fatehpur
Sikri, (ghost City) built between 1570 and 1585, as Emperor
Akbar's capital. The city ran out of water and was abandoned soon
after.
In India, there are many temples and monuments with soaring
gateway gopurams (towers) and many brilliant carvings of gods;
there are caves and bazaars, mosques, shops, sacred cows
wandering the streets, homes and restaurants, 9,000,000 people
and a bit of everything else, including the 20th century, but
there is only one Taj Mahal, a monument to love.
^nefertiti^
Jodi1@compuserve.com
As the sun tracks more to the North,
and the days are longer and warmer, the Porch Hens and Roosters
are outside clucking over the newcomers, visitors and regulars.
Newbies seem to quickly become regulars, due to the wit and charm
that bounces between the porch swing and the wicker rockers. One
of them is Melody, who keeps us in stitches with her quick quips
and good humor. We've also welcomed JLD=Bizzybeth, DK Chocolate,
Gwbrad, and Butter's daughter-in-law, Lilpoppiechic. Sue drops in
with freshly baked cookies (so divine), Strangelilbebe(Bebe) is
in charge of the merlot, Butter(fly) makes great tea, and Taffy
brings red seedless grapes and havarti cheese with dill.
Jeanne does her share, but she's off to China, so we will have to
suffer the loss for a while. In the inimitable whining style of
Butter...waa waaaaaaaaa!
Porch pet, Chatcat (Chatty), has been to the vet and declared
infertile. She's had a few accidents in her lifetime, poor thing,
but as responsible owners of this affectionate stray, we didn't
want to add to the overpopulated
kitty population. So Tomcat from down the gravel road is wasting
his time here....Scat, you devil! Well, on second thought, sit
for a spell and we'll scratch your ears.
That gallivanting rooster, Doc Who, finally showed up. He's been
scratching around in parts unknown, and has been evasive and
mysterious. Hmmm, he should know secrets are safe with us
<sorry, I just choked a bit>. That other rooster, Earl,
keeps adding to his Hot Chick photo collection...thought I saw
him the other day at KFC. Michael, Becca, Keys, Lynda, Cookie and
Joanie pop in occasionally, although they normally roost in Fab;
however, we're all good neighbors and visit back and forth on a
regular basis. Hi Tali!
World travelers include Bibi, that wild tango/milonga dancer from
Chicago who has been in China, Amsterdam, and now off to Florida;
Jeanne and hubby Art to China; Taff to France on the 28th, after
having been to Canada flying over Niagara Falls in a helicopter.
May birthdays were Cookie, moi, Lexy and Sue; June 10th is Bebe's.
Famous Geminis are Queen Victoria, Isadora Duncan, Henry
Kissinger, Ian Fleming, John F. Kennedy, Paul McCartney, Marilyn
Monroe, Johnny Depp, and Michael J. Fox. And our artist in
residence, Bebe, of course.
Stop by The Porch for a while, but excuse the mess. We're in the
midst of painting and sprucing things up a bit. Basic white, as
usual, with green trim, and potted red geraniums on the railings,
as well as luscious green
ferns trailing from hanging baskets. Does this bit of nostalgia
remind you of Grandma's house? : )
Hugs,
Taffy
Thats it for another month Folks! I hope you enjoyed this bumber packed issue as much as I did!
Come on Everyone! Get those pens busy for next month. Mail them to me at LyndaAtCasual@Compuserve.com We want all your contributions, don't be shy! This is a paper by the members for the members......that means YOU!
Please remember, this is a fun/interesting/informative
addition to the many features on offer at Casual Chat, critique
is welcome but nothing that attacks members, personalities or
other fora will be welcome.
Lynda [Editor]