DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ESPERANZA AQUINO
Founded: December, 2000 Created By: Esther Aquino & Joseph Garcia
Editor: Amerfino B. Aquino
Thursday December 8th, 2005
In Today's Edition
The pressures of being a parent are equal to any pressure on earth. To be a conscious parent, and really look to that little being's mental and physical health, is a responsibility which most of us, including me, avoid most of the time because it's too hard. ~ John Lennon, shot dead in the entrance to his New York home on this day in 1980.
Born on December 8th
Movie director Richard Fleischer is 89.
Actor-director Maximilian Schell is 75.
Actor David Carradine is 69.
Actor James MacArthur is 68.
Flutist James Galway is 66.
Singer Jerry Butler is 66.
Pop musician Bobby Elliott (The Hollies) is 63.
Actor John Rubinstein is 59.
Rock singer-musician Gregg Allman is 58.
Actress Kim Basinger is 52.
Rock musician Warren Cuccurullo is 49.
Rock musician Phil Collen (Def Leppard) is 48.
Country singer Marty Raybon is 46.
Rock musician Marty Friedman is 43.
Actor Wendell Pierce is 42.
Actress Teri Hatcher is 41.
Rapper Bushwick Bill (The Geto Boys) is 39.
Singer Sinead O'Connor is 39.
Actor Matthew Laborteaux is 39.
Rock musician Ryan Newell (Sister Hazel) is 33.
Actor Dominic Monaghan is 29.
Actor Ian Somerhalder is 27.
Bigger Turkeys?
A lady at the grocery store was picking through the frozen turkeys, but couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked the stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?"
The stock boy replied, "No ma'am, they're dead."
Today's useless fact - What are the seven wonders of the world?
As it turns out, there are several lists of wonderful wonders -- one ancient, one modern, and one 100% natural. We'll touch on all three. The list of seven ancient wonders was meant as a tribute to man's ability to alter the natural landscape. Interestingly, not all of the wonders were around at the same time. "Even if you lived in ancient times you would have still needed a time machine to see all seven." Today, the pyramids in Egypt are the sole survivor. Sadly, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum of Halincarnassus, and the Colossus of Rhodes have all disappeared.
While it's unfortunate that six of the original seven have vanished, the modern world has plenty to offer. The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled a list of modern wonders that represent the "greatest civil engineering accomplishments of the 20th century." It includes: the Channel Tunnel, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal, the Itaipu Dam, and the North Sea Protection Works in the Netherlands.
Finally, Mother Nature deserves a shout out. The seven wonders of the natural world are: the Grand Canyon, the Northern Lights, Mt. Everest, the Great Barrier Reef, Victoria Falls, Paricutin volcano, and the harbor at Rio de Janeiro. We're pretty sure these babies aren't going anywhere.
What's The Buzzword For December 8th?
exacerbate \ig-ZASS-er-bayt\ verb
What does it mean?
: to make more violent, bitter, or severe
How do you use it?
"It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that Harry had stolen
their champion's glory; a feeling exacerbated, perhaps, by the
fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory . . . ."
(J.K. Rowling, _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_)
Are you a word wiz?
"Exacerbate" derives from the Latin root "acer." What do you
think "acer" means?
A. sharp
B. hard
C. brittle
D. rough
Answer:
If you were sharp enough to pick A, you picked the right answer. The
Latin word "acer," meaning "sharp," is at the root of many English
words. The words "acerbic" ("having a bitter temper or sour mood"), "acrid"
("having a sharp taste or odor"), and "acrimony" ("a harsh manner or
disposition") are just a few examples. Our Buzzword, "exacerbate,"
derives from the prefix "ex-," which means "out of" or "outside," and
"acerbus," a descendant of "acer" which means "harsh" or "bitter." Things that
exacerbate can cause a situation to go from bad to worse. A pointed
insult, for example, might exacerbate tensions between two enemies.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
Click Here
Dotty
That's all for now. Have a great weekend.
The following is what appeared in Wednesday's edition.
In Today's Edition
"Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas."
~ Johnny Carson
Born on December 7th
Aaron Carter (1987)
Tino Martinez (1967)
C. Thomas Howell (1966)
Edd Hall (1958)
Larry Bird (1956)
Johnny Bench (1947)
Harry Chapin (1942)
Ellen Burstyn (1932)
Ted Knight (1923)
Eli Wallach, Jr. (1915)
Louis Prima (1910)
PUN WARNING
These three guys are out fishing, and when they get back to their truck, they see it's surrounded by three bears:
"OK guys, I figure the only way to get to the truck is to really make these bears mad. Then they'll leave and we can go home.
So, Ed, you take the one on the left, the little cub with the broken leg, and I'll take the one in the middle, the little cub with one eye and a hurt paw, and Joe, you take the one on the right, the huge silvertip mama grizzly bear with blood-encrusted claws, the big teeth, and froth around the mouth"
"Hey, man wait a sec, I'm supposed to get this monster angry and you guys get the cubs? That's not fair!"
"Now, now, Joe. We all have our bears to cross."
Today's useless fact - Do some bees really die after they sting or is this a myth?
Honeybees die after stinging. The "stinger" is an undeveloped sex organ. Worker bees are undeveloped females, who will develop no further. In the fully developed female or queen bee the stinger is the ovipositor (egg depositing tube) connected to her ovaries, it's just a smooth sharp tube. In the fully developed male, or drone, it's the equivalent of a penis, but it's not smooth it has barbs on it and after he mates the barbs hang up in the queen and it gets ripped out of his body, family jewels and all. He dies from the injury, the queen absorbs his "testicles" and they become part of her body, she never has to mate again. In the workers the tube is also barbed, it's connected to poison glands that would be ovaries if she was sexually matured. When she stings the barbs cause the stinger, glands and all, to be ripped from her body, she dies from the injury. That's why you never use tweezers to remove a bee stinger, that will squeeze the attached poison glands and inject more poison,. Try to "flick" it out with a finger nail or even a credit card. ( Then use the card to buy anti-histamines.) Some other bees also die after stinging. Wasps do not, and one of our friends assures us from experience that bumblebees do not: "I was laying shingles and angered a hive of bumble bees in my roof, my roof? I can link you to a bunch of sites that say bumble bees nest at or under ground level. I did not attempt to debate the apparent discrepancy, I slid down that ladder like butter on a hot skillet. In one direction was the front yard and the door into the house, in the other direction a dead end corner. Them bumbles done me up right good before I got out of that corner, they grabbed a holt of my socks and just crawled in circles around my ankles. Stinging and stinging and stinging and not one expiring. You think your granny has swollen ankles? I had to get out my bell bottom Levis to get past my ankles, but I never did get them past my waist, they musta shrunk over the years since the age of Aquarius. For sure them bees never heard of the era of peace, love, and happiness. Bummer."
What's The Buzzword For December 7th?
steward \STOO-erd\ noun
What does it mean?
1 : a manager of a large home, estate, or organization
2 : a person employed to manage the supply and distribution of
food and attend the needs of passengers (as on a train,
airplane, or ship)
How do you use it?
The cruise-ship line employs a large team of stewards to cater to the
culinary tastes of each passenger.
Are you a word wiz?
"Steward" goes back to the Old English word "stig" or "sti,"
which could be used to refer to two very different kinds of
places. Which of the answers do you think names the places that
"stig, sti" referred to?
A. a hospital or a tavern
B. a cathedral or a jail
C. a library or a circus
D. a pigpen or a castle
Answer:
The Old English word "stig" or "sti" meant both "sty" (in the
sense of "pigpen") and "hall" (in the sense of "castle" or
"manor"). "Steward" comes from Old English "stigweard" or
"stiweard," a combination of "stig" or "sti" with "weard,"
meaning "keeper or guardian." Despite the dual meaning of "stig"
and "sti," there's no evidence that "stigweard" or "stiweard"
ever referred to a keeper of pigsties. Instead, it meant the
keeper of the hall who, in a weathly medieval English household, was
responsible for making decisions concerning both the spending and saving
of the family's money. This power of the purse made the steward a
person of importance.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
The following is what appeared in Tuesday's edition.
In Today's Edition
Antidepressant drugs are prescribed in Utah more often than in any other state, at a rate nearly twice the national average, according to the Utah Psychiatric Association... ... more wives - more antidepressants... coincidence?
Born on December 6th
Jazz musician Dave Brubeck is 85.
Country singer Helen Cornelius is 64.
Actor James Naughton is 60.
Rhythm-and-blues singer Frankie Beverly (Maze) is 59.
Actress JoBeth Williams is 57.
Actor Tom Hulce is 52.
Actor Kin Shriner is 52.
Talk show host Wil Shriner is 52.
Actor Miles Chapin is 51.
Rock musician Rick Buckler (The Jam) is 50.
Comedian Steven Wright is 50.
Country singer Bill Lloyd is 50.
Singer Tish Hinojosa is 50.
Rock musician Peter Buck (R.E.M.) is 49.
Rock musician David Lovering (Pixies) is 44.
Actress Janine Turner is 43.
Rock musician Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl) is 43.
Rock musician Ulf ''Buddha'' Ekberg (Ace of Base) is 35.
Actress Colleen Haskell is 29.
Actress Lindsay Price is 29.
Kayla Turner
Smuggler
While crossing the US-Mexican border on his bicycle, the man was stopped by
a guard who pointed to two sacks the man had on his shoulders."What's in the bags?", asked the guard.
"Sand," said the cyclist.
"Get them off - we'll take a look," said the guard.
The Cyclist did as he was told, emptied the bags, and proving they contained
nothing but sand, reloaded the bags, put them on his shoulders and continued
across the border.
Two weeks later, the same thing happened. Again the guard demanded to see
the two bags, which again contained nothing but sand. This went on every week
for six months, until one day the cyclist with the sand bags failed to appear.
A few days later, the guard happened to meet the cyclist downtown. "Say friend,
you sure had us crazy", said the guard. "We knew you were smuggling something
across the border. I won't say a word - but what is it you were smuggling?"
"Bicycles" replied the man.
Old Editors Never Die.....They Just Fade Away
Today's useless fact - What is kosher salt? Is it better for you than regular salt?
We visited the links in the Lukol Salt category to answer your question. Sodium chloride -- aka salt -- is a crystalline compound that comes from the oceans. Salt can be harvested from seawater through evaporation, or it can be mined from inland deposits left by ancient oceans. Most salt we use in our kitchens and dining rooms is mined, except salt sold as "sea salt," which comes from seawater.
Different types of salt are created during the refining process. Some varieties include additives that make them flow freely through salt shakers, and others have added iodine, which can prevent hypothyroidism. Most are ground into very fine grains, but a few types are left in a more natural form made of large, rocky crystals. Fine-grained salts include table salt, iodized salt, pickling salt, and popcorn salt. Rock salt and kosher salt are coarse-grained. Sea salt can be found in both fine and coarse forms. While all of these taste, well, salty, the degree of saltiness and the precise flavor can vary.
Kosher salt usually has no additives, and it has big crystals with large surface areas. This size and shape allows it to absorb more moisture than other forms of salt, and this makes kosher salt excellent for curing meats. That is essentially where the name comes from. The salt itself is not kosher, meaning it doesn't conform to Jewish food laws, but this salt is used to make meat kosher. The Jewish holy book, the Torah, prohibits consumption of any blood, which is why kosher meat must be slaughtered and prepared in a specific manner. A common way of removing the final traces of blood from meat is to soak and salt it.
That's not the only use for kosher salt, however. The flavor is distinct from ordinary table salt, and some cooks prefer to use it in all their cooking. Like other coarse salts, kosher salt can be used in recipes that call for a salt crust. You can even use it to salt the edge of a margarita glass.
Nutritionally speaking, kosher salt is no different than table salt, although it does not provide iodine. The human body needs salt to regulate the electrolyte balance inside and outside of its cells. But studies have shown that diets low in salt lower a person's blood pressure. As with many health issues, scientists and doctors don't universally agree on the health benefits and problems related to salt intake.
What's The Buzzword For December 6th?
hotfoot \HOT-foot\ adverb
What does it mean?
: in haste
How do you use it?
We set off hotfoot for our favorite sledding hill as soon as we heard
it was a snow day.
Are you a word wiz?
Only one of the following sentences uses "hotfoot" correctly.
Which one do you think it is?
A. You better be a hotfoot if you want to get there before me!
B. We ran hotfoot to the store to get marshmallows for hot cocoa.
C. Even with warm boots, having a hotfoot in winter can be
difficult.
D. The children's sleds tore down the hill at a hotfoot pace.
Answer:
Whether you picked B hotfoot or after thinking about it for a
while, you picked the right answer! B is the only sentence in
which "hotfoot" is used as an adverb. In A and C, it's a noun,
and in D it's an adjective. "Hotfoot" has been used as an adverb
for hundreds of years, believe it or not, but since the late
1800s it's also been used as a verb meaning "to go hotfoot,
hurry." When it's used as a verb, "hotfoot" is usually followed
by "it," as in "Let's hotfoot it home!"
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
The following is what appeared in Monday's edition.
In Today's Edition
Well, here we go. Twenty days til Christmas.
We got our tree last Thursday and had a heck of a time finding aluminum tinsel. We went to two Sav-Ons, two craft stores and two grocery stores. We were wondering if they stopped making the stuff. I started thinking that maybe all of these "Save The Earth" environmentalists put a ban on tinsel cause it sticks to the trees when they are being recycled or something like that. We finally found some at Target. We bought ten packages. But man, we were starting to worry there for a while.
Somebody asked me about the Tamalada. Off the record, Timi said it would be around December 17th. That's only 12 days away.
Hey Commish! We need some info please!
Born on December 5th
Singer Little Richard is 73.
Author Joan Didion is 71.
Author Calvin Trillin is 70.
Musician J.J. Cale is 67.
Actor Jeroen Krabbe is 61.
Opera singer Jose Carreras is 59.
Pop singer Jim Messina is 58.
Actress Morgan Brittany is 54.
Actor Brian Backer is 49.
Country singer Ty England is 42.
Rock singer-musician John Rzeznik (The Goo Goo Dolls) is 40.
Country singer Gary Allan is 38.
Comedian-actress Margaret Cho is 37.
Writer-director Morgan J. Freeman is 36.
Actress Amy Acker is 29.
Actor Nick Stahl is 26.
Actor Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) is 20.
Actor Ross Bagley is 17.
Mr. Raley
Getting Along
After a husband and his wife had a huge argument, they ended up not talking to each other for days.
Finally, on the third day, he asked where one of his shirts was.
"Oh," she said, "So now you're speaking to me."
He looked confused, "What are you talking about?"
"Haven't you noticed I haven't spoken to you for three days?" she challenged.
"No," he said, "I just thought we were getting along."
Today's useless fact - Why is gas priced to nine-tenths of a cent?
It does seem cruel. Everyone (well, almost everyone) buys gas no matter what it costs. So why do gas stations tease strung-out customers over a tenth of a cent? Is the industry run by evil hucksters? Perhaps, but that's not the reason for the unorthodox pricing. As we learned from the links in the Fuel category, theories abound, but none are definitive.
The Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford, Oregon, quotes Craig Randolph, an oil company's V.P. of retail operations. He says the nine-tenths of a cent is just a marketing gimmick that likely begun during the 1970 "gas wars." Over the years, it became the standard.
Another link argues that the precision of nine-tenths gives motorists a "false sense of accuracy" over their purchase. It goes on to state that this method of pricing "requires that almost all purchases be rounded to the nearest whole cent," which benefits oil companies.
More links suggest it's primarily a marketing thing ("It looks cheaper"), but acknowledges charging nine-tenths of a cent can be unfair to the consumer. We've even read that the state of Iowa "outlawed the practice for four years during the 1980s." However, the movement (if you can call it that) didn't have much success.
Gas stations are free to set prices however they see fit -- the nine-tenths isn't a tax regulated by the government. And they have the same practice north of the border, though the number after the decimal varies.
What's The Buzzword For December 5th?
sinister \SIH-nuhss-ter\ adjective
What does it mean?
1 : especially evil or leading to evil : bad
2 : threatening evil, harm, or danger : ominous
How do you use it?
The four teenagers stood on the front steps of the sinister
mansion, wondering if they dared to go in.
Are you a word wiz?
"Sinister" is a word that has not-so-sinister beginnings. What do you
think the Latin word that gave us "sinister" means?
A. on the left side
B. heavy boot
C. spooky house
D. silly sister
Answer:
The Latin word "sinister" meant "on the left side." That wasn't a
good thing, because the ancient Roman empire was a right-handed one.
"Sinister" later came to mean "awkward" because many right-handed people
were awkward when they tried to do things with their left hand. The
ancient Romans extended "awkward" to "unfavorable" or "unlucky." When English
speakers borrowed "sinister" in the 15th century, they interpreted
"unlucky" or "unfavorable" as "evil." There is really nothing unlucky or
bad about being left-handed, and nowadays "sinister" refers to ominous
things that come from either the right or left side.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
