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DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ESPERANZA AQUINO

Founded: December 2000 Created By: Esther Aquino & Joseph Garcia

Thursday January 27th, 2005

In Today's Edition

Condoleeza has raised some very fine points. She also wants rules of mass instruction. So be it. I want to thank her for bringing up this subject.

When I said I'll give a prize to the two top winners, I meant in the next contest, not this last one. That makes Danielle eligible to partake in the upcoming contest in February. Contrary to popular belief, I don't play favorites and I run a fair and square game.

Oh, Nell, can you call me tonight? I have to talk to you about, you know, that, uh, that thing you asked me about. You know, the ontest-cay.

Condoleeza also suggested that I award a prize to the first and last place winners. At first I thought that this was a great idea. But the more I pondered this platform the more I grew leery of it's pratfalls. Suppose the magic number was 500. Someone could pick the numbers 1 and 1000 and they would almost be guaranteed a winning shot. Even if I made the magic number 22, the person picking number 1000 would be a winner. This plan might work if I let the entrants pick only 1 number. I've always let the contestants pick two numbers so that they would have more chances at the prize. You let me know how you want it.

I hope this clarifies the context of The Contest rules.

Like I said, I play no favorites and am impartial.

Have a nice day and a real great weekend!

Born On January 27th

Bobby "Blue" Bland 1930 Singer-"Stormy Monday Blues"+

Joyce Compton 1907 F-100+; F-Sorry Wrong Number, Mighty Joe Young, ++

Michael Craig 1928 B-India; F-Modesty Blaise, Ride A Wold Pony+

James Daughton 1950 Animal House, Spies Like Us and Blind Date, The Revengers. California Kid on Happy Days

Troy Donahue 1936 F-Parish, Tv-Surfside 6/Hawaiian Eye. X/W-Suzanne Pleshette

Skitch Henderson 1918 Bandleader

Jerome Kern 1885 Died-1945; Composer-Show Boat, Oscar-The Way You Look Tonight ('36)

Wolfgang Mozart 1756 Died-1791, Composer (Upi/C)

Donna Reed 1921 B-Denison, Ia.; Tv-Donna Reed Show; Oscar-(Prostitute) In From Here To…

Admiral Hyman Rickover 1900 Died-7/8/86

David Seville 1919 Died-1/16/72; Songwriter-"Witch Doctor", "The Chipmunk Song"

Harry Stevenson 1890

Ingrid Thulin 1929 B-Sweden

Benay Venuta 1911 Jazz Musician

Mimi Rogers 1956 Actress

Born On January 29th

Anthony Munoz

Blonde Joke

A cop saw a blonde down on her knees under a streetlight.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

Replied the blonde, "I dropped my diamond ring and I'm looking for it."

Asked the cop "did you drop it right here?"

"No," she responded, "I dropped it about a block away, but the light's better here."

Today's useless fact - Can dogs see in the dark? My husband and I argue about whether or not we need to leave a light on for our pet when we leave at night.

We pawed through the links in the Lukol Dogs category to shed some light on this issue. What did we learn? You and your husband need that nightlight a whole lot more than your furry friend does. Dogs have excellent night vision, a trait crucial to their predatory ancestors. The minimum threshold of light dogs require for vision is about five or six times lower than that of humans. So your pooch won't be stumbling around in the dark if you don't leave a light on for him.

Unlike our eyes, a dog's eyes are designed to function well in low-light conditions. Both canines and humans (and many other animals) have two types of light-sensitive cells in the retina called rods and cones. These cells respond to light and process visual information, which is transferred to the brain for interpretation. Rods work best in dim light and can detect motion. Cones are used in bright light to detect color and details.

The retinas of dogs are dominated by rods, allowing them to see very well with very little light. They can also sense small motions, which helps make them good hunters. However, dogs have about one-tenth of the cones that humans do, so they don't see color in the same way we do.

The Buzzword For January 27th

picturesque \pik-chuh-RESK\ adjective What does it mean? 1 a : resembling a picture : suggesting a painted scene b : charming or quaint in appearance 2 : evoking mental images : vivid How do you use it? "Some of the views, where the peaked hills and the cultivated farms were seen together, were exceedingly picturesque; and we were constantly tempted to exclaim, 'How pleasant it would be to pass one's life in such quiet abodes!'" (Charles Darwin, _The Voyage of the Beagle_) Are you a word wiz? One of the answers below gives the meaning of the Latin root of "picturesque." Which answer can you picture as the right one? A. to imagine B. to resemble C. to charm D. to paint Answer: If you paint a picture with bright pigments to depict a picturesque scene, you are making use of the very useful Latin root, "pingere." "Pingere" means "to paint, tattoo, or embroider" and we find it at the root of "paint," "picture," "pigment," "depict," and "picturesque." English speakers formed "picturesque" by borrowing from the French word "pittoresque" and the Italian word "pittoresco." Those words stem from the Italian word "pittore" meaning "painter." Italian speakers formed "pittore" from the Latin word "pictor" meaning "painter." And "pictor" stems from our root word, "pingere."

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click Here Shrek Dos

                       That's all for now. Have a great weekend.



                The following is what appeared in Wednesday's edition.

In Today's Edition

Dear Colin,

My, you do have a way with words. So much so, in fact, that I was starting to believe you. If your grammar wasn't so perfect, I would've sworn you were George W. Bush himself.

As far as getting the closest to the winning number, I can't help it if Renee and Danielle were the most intuitive of all the entrants. They are very good with numbers . Most card-counters are. I think it's in the ~~jeans~~   genes.

I stand by my chronological line of events. Would I lie to the readers?

As I stated on Monday, Renee will not be eligible for the upcoming contest on February 7-11th.

To distribute the prizes more evenly, I have decided to give a mug to each of the top two contestants.

I hope this explanation is satisfactory.

yours truly,

The Editor

ps: Condoleeza doesn't do a thing for me. Barbara Bush............now there's a babe!

Born On January 26th

Derek Bond 1919 B-Scotland; F-Saturday Night Out, When 8 Bells Toll+

Angela Davis 1944 Black Leader

Julia Grant 1926 Wife Of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President Of US

William Hopper, Jr. 1915 Died-1970; Tv-Perry Mason (Detective Paul Drake)

Anne Jeffreys 1923 40's Film Star; Former Opera Singer; Tv-Topper

Wayne Gretzky 1961 Pro Hockey Player

Eartha Kitt 1928 Singer/Actress; F-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Friday Foster, Last Resort+

Joan Leslie 1925 F-Star Dust, Military Academy, Camille, Nancy Drew: Reporter+

Douglas Mac Arthur 1880 Dead-1964 Am. General In WW 2 In SW Pacific

Mary Murphy 1931 Leading Lady 50's; Once Married To Dale Robertson; F-Manhattan, Harlow

Paul Newman 1925 F-Hud; Butch Cassidy; Sting, The Color of Money

Maria Trapp 1905 Singer-Story Told In The Sound Of Music Movie

Jimmy Van Heusen 1913 Song Writer; Oscar-"Swinging On A Star" In Going My Way ('44)

Jack Youngblood 1950 Football

Anita Baker 1958 Singer

Ellen DeGeneres 1958 Actress

Eddie Van Halen 1957 Lead Guitar- Van Halen

Domestic

The customer in the Italian restaurant was so pleased that he asked to speak to the chef. The owner proudly led him into the kitchen and introduced him to the chef.

"Your veal parmigiana was superb," the customer said. "I just spent a month in Italy, and yours is better than any I ever had over there."

"Naturally," the chef said. "Over there, they use domestic cheese. Ours is imported."

Today's useless fact - We drink water and eat salt. Aside from the taste, why can't we drink sea water?

We visited the links in the Lukol Nutrients category and learned the difference between salt water, which contains concentrations of dissolved salts, and fresh water. Salinity is usually measured by the weight or amount of salt contained in water expressed as "parts per million" or ppm. Water is considered highly saline if it contains anywhere from 10,000-35,000 ppm of dissolved salts. Water is considered fresh if it contains less than 1,000 ppm of salt. In some regions of the United States, slightly saline water is used for tasks like crop irrigation. In regions where an abundant supply of clean, fresh water is difficult to come by, desalinization technologies convert seawater to drinkable fresh water. This is still a very expensive process, although costs are starting to drop, and methods, such as reverse osmosis, are improving. Today, the towns of Avalon and Santa Barbara in California, and Tampa Bay in Florida, are working on desalinization projects.

But that still doesn't answer your question The U.S. government came through again with an answer from the Department of Energy's Ask a Scientist web site. Prof Bill's response is brief and to the point:

Humans can't drink salt water because the kidneys can only make urine that is less salty than salt water. Therefore, to get rid of all the excess salt taken in by drinking salt water, you have to urinate more water than you drank, so you die of dehydration. As is so often the case, this answer raises some new questions. How much salt is too much? Salt, like water, is a key ingredient of life on earth. The right amount of sodium chloride (common table salt) is essential for human health. In fact, our blood is 0.9% salt and our body weight is about 1/400 salt. Living cells depend on sodium chloride to maintain the chemical balances required for complex processes and reactions that take place at the microscopic level.

Insufficient salt intake can lead to fatigue, illness, and death, although it is more common nowadays to hear about health problems associated with too much salt. According to the Salt Institute's encyclopedic site about salt, the National Academy of Sciences' recommended daily dose is 500 mg/day -- though most Americans consume closer to 3,500 mg/day. (A teaspoon of salt equals about 2,000mg.)

Optimal salt intake varies -- it depends on a person's genetic makeup, where they live, how active they are, and other lifestyle factors.

The Buzzword For January 26th

rancor \RANK-er\ noun What does it mean? : deep hatred How do you use it? Although the two teams were longtime rivals for the state championship, there was never any rancor between their players. Are you a word wiz? Which one of these words would you hate to leave out as a synonym of "rancor"? A. envy B. admiration C. hostility D. deception Answer: Only good feelings are in order if you picked C. "Rancor," "hostility," "enmity," "antagonism," and "antipathy" all mean a firm dislike or ill will. "Rancor" applies to long, bitter thinking about an unjust or unfair act (as in "he showed rancor in all his letters"), while "enmity" suggests hatred which may be open or hidden (as "an unspoken enmity"). "Hostility" implies an enmity that shows itself in attacks (as "hostility between two nations"), and "antagonism" suggests a clash of opposing personalities (as "antagonism between the brothers"). "Antipathy" is used for a desire to avoid or reject someone or something (as "an antipathy to liars").

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click Here Fish Face

                That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.



                  The following is what appeared in Tuesday's edition.

In Today's Edition

"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US congress." ~Ronald Reagan

Born On January 25th

Robert Boyle 1627 Irish Physicist (Boyle's Law)

Robert Burns 1759 Died-1796, Scottish Poet

Charles Curtis 1860 Died-1936, 31st Vice-President

Mildred Dunnock 1906 (Wife) Death Of A Salesman (Broadway, Film, TV) Nom. For Oscar Baby

Dean Jones 1931 Singer/Actor; Many Disney Films; $1,000,000 Duck, Love Bug++

Don Maynard 1937

Edwin Newman 1919 News Commentator-NBC-TV

Gregg Palmer 1927 F-Shootist, To Hell & Back, Playgirl, Rare Breed+

Virginia Woolf 1882 Dead-Novelist

Corazon Aquino 1933 -

Alicia Keys 1981 Singer

A Taxing Situation

A visitor from Holland was chatting with his American friend and was jokingly explaining about the red, white and blue in the Netherlands flag. "Our flag symbolizes our taxes," he said. "We get red when we talk about them, white when we get our tax bill, and blue after we pay them."

"The same with us," the American said, "only we see stars, too."

Today's useless fact - What is the origin of the phrase "cold turkey"?

Let's talk turkey. Since "cold turkey" is normally used in the context of quitting an unhealthy habit, such as smoking, we had a hunch its origins had something to do with addiction and decided to visit the links in the Lukol Wordplay category.

Sure enough, one of the links led us to an entry on IdiomSite. Here, we learned that the phrase describes the skin's reaction to heroin withdrawal. As an addict stops using the drug, blood is drawn toward the internal organs, thereby leaving the skin to resemble a cold, plucked turkey.

The popular Q&A site AllExperts dates the phrase back to 1910 and states that it originally meant "without preparation," referring to the ease of making a dish of cold turkey. In 1922, the expression acquired its darker connotation related to drug withdrawal.

Actually, our feathered friends have been the inspiration for many descriptive idioms, not always flattering to fowl. Here are some graphic examples: the ghost-inspired or cold-triggered phenomenon of goose bumps; the painful goose egg (bump) on the head; chicken feed, for a measly sum of money; and chicken livered, a synonym for cowardly. It seems there's plenty of fowl language in use to depict humans who are not at their best.

The Buzzword For January 25th

luxuriate \lug-ZHUR-ee-ayt\ verb What does it mean? : to enjoy oneself in a luxurious manner How do you use it? As the cold January winds blew outside, Beth and her family sat around the cozy fire, luxuriating in its glowing warmth. Are you a word wiz? We've only told you part of the story about "luxuriate"; the word has another meaning as well. Which of the following do you think it is? A. to cost a significant amount of money B. to lessen the degree of pain or discomfort C. to provide more than is needed D. to grow in great numbers or quantity Answer: Aside from the common meaning used in today's sentence, "luxuriate" also means "to grow in great numbers or quantity." This is the meaning the word had when it first came into English in the early 1600s. At that time, it was often used to describe plants that were thriving, a sense still in use today. In Joseph Conrad's book "Lord Jim," for example, a strip of jungle is said to be "luxuriating in a damp hollow." "Luxuriate" comes from the Latin word "luxuria," meaning "rankness, luxury, excess." This same Latin word gave us the words "luxurious" and "luxury."

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click Here Butterfly

                That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.



             The following is what appeared in Monday's edition.

In Today's Edition

I want to thank each and every one of you who entered the Mug Contest. It was a great prize and I truly appreciate your participation.

But.................

You don't know the suspense and turmoil of what went on behind the scenes of this contest. Man, I was agonizing over this thing from day one. Let me fill you in on my thoughts as the entries came rolling in.

Jan. 16. I posted the contest on the webpage. Joseph submits his entry of 777. I'm thinking, "Wow, my comps might win this thing. He's only 30 numbers away from the winning number. I don't think anyone has ever gotten that close to a contest number before. Way to go Joe! He's finally gonna win a Tribune contest."

Jan. 18. Danielle submits her number of 762. She's only 15 numbers away from the winner. Now I'm thinking, "Danielle has knocked Joey out of the running. I'm happy for her but in the back of my mind I can faintly hear the cries of foul play from the rest of the contestants."

Jan. 20. Just as I had feared, Tony puts up a tongue-in-cheek note on the message board asking me to declare past winners (Danielle, Renee) and my offspring (Danielle, Renee) from participating in the contest. Geez, what next?

Jan. 20. Yikes! Renee submits her number of 756. She's only 9 numbers off.

Oh my………The crap is gonna hit the fan.

The winning number was 747. Renee is now the owner of the one-of-a-kind “Got Neen?” mug set. Congratulations Renee.

We’ll have another contest for a second set of mugs as soon as they become available. I believe that will be the week of February 7-11th.

Renee will be prohibited from participating in that one.

Thanks again to all who participated.

Born On January 24th

John Belushi 1949 Died 3/5/82; (Member Of Blues Brothers), F-Animal House, Neighbors

Ernest Borgnine 1917 TV-McHale's Navy;F-Dirty Dozen, From Here To Eternity, Marty++

Neil Diamond 1941 Singer-"Song Sung Blue", Scored Music For Film Jonathan Livingston

Ava Gardner 1922 X/H-Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra; F-Killers, Show Boat, Sun Also Rises+

Frederick The Great 1712 -

Nastassia Kinski 1960 B-Berlin

Mary Lou Retton 1968 1984 Olympics Gold Metal Winner

Rev. Oral Roberts 1918 Evangelist

Jack Scott 1936 Singer-"My True Love" #1 '58, "Patsy"+

Ray Stevens 1941 Recorded The Song W/Longest Title-"Jeremiah Peabody's Poly Unsaturated…"

Maria Tallchief 1925 Ballerina

Sharon Tate 1943 - 1969

Tatyana Ali 1979 Muhammad Ali's daughter

Worry

"I always worry when you leave for a weekend with the guys," sobbed the pretty young wife.

"Don't worry about me, babe, " he soothed her. "I'll be back before you know it."

"I know," she sighed. "That's what worries me."

Doves

Today's useless fact - I grew up drinking cow milk, but these days kids drink soy milk and rice milk instead. Is this healthy?

We researched the nutrition of the two alternatives to cow milk by visiting the links in the Lukol Milk Allergy category and here's what we learned:

While soy milk doesn't provide the same nutrients as cow milk, it can be an acceptable alternative for kids who are lactose intolerant, allergic to cow's milk, observing a vegetarian diet, or not drinking cow's milk for other reasons. Soy milk, however, lacks some of the essential elements of cow milk, so parents should select a brand fortified with vitamins A and D and calcium, and make sure their child receives adequate nutrition from other foods.

Rice milk can also be an acceptable alternative to cow milk. Similar to soy milk, it doesn't supply the same nutrients as cow milk, but fortified rice milk can be a fine substitute for kids as long as they're receiving necessary protein and fat in other areas of their diet. While it may not be same as a glass of good, old-fashioned whole milk, it's a healthy and refreshing option.

Some final words of advice: Rice, soy, and even cow milk lack the nutrients essential for infant development and should not be given to children under the age of 1. It's also important to remember kids under the age of 2 should always be given whole-fat milk of any variety (rice, soy, or cow) because fat is crucial for brain development. And, as always, it's best to consult your pediatrician about your child's nutrition.

Cat and Mouse

The Buzzword For January 24th

smattering \SMAT-uh-ring\ noun What does it mean? 1 : a small amount of knowledge 2 : a small scattered number How do you use it? They managed to get around Paris knowing just a smattering of French. Are you a word wiz? "Smattering" and a much less common verb "smatter" come from a Middle English word. What do you think that Middle English word means? A. "to make something dirty" or "to talk idly" B. "to learn a trivial fact" or "to be foolish" C. "to break into many tiny pieces" D. "to lose one's balance" Answer: There's nothing idle about your vocabulary if you chose A! "Smattering" can be traced to the Middle English word "smateren." "Smateren" was first used in written English in the 1300s to mean "to make something dirty." By the 1400s, it had gained another meaning: "to talk idly," born from the idea that idle talk is like spattering or splashing words around like paint. The idea of spattering gave rise to the 15th century English verb "smatter," meaning "to talk about something idly" or "to have a little bit of knowledge about something." This verb gave us the noun "smattering," which first entered English in the 1500s.

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click Here Ski Fun

                That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.