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Archive for the ‘BY THE WAY’ Category

Cover of "The Cove"

Cover of The Cove

“They are blood dolphins as in blood diamonds.”

It’s 11:53pm Thursday night and I have ABC’s Nightline on and there is a segment featuring the former dolphin trainer turned activist, Richard O’Barry.  O’Barry is discussing the current and continued dolphin slaughters in Japan.  Although his hard-hitting documentary The Cove raised international awareness of the heinous murders being committed in Japan, it’s not enough, the killings continue.  Since the covert filming of The Cove, security has tightened in the area.  However, now the Japan news media is covering the events and this will bring a much stronger force to work against the dolphincide.

Several months ago, I wrote a blog on The Cove and the impact it had on me.  I want to share it with you again.  Please click on the link and read and I guarantee you too  will be moved to action,

Search Results for ‘dead dolphins’

BLOODY LAGOON – DEAD and DYING DOLPHINS

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Vector image of the Las Vegas sign.

Image via Wikipedia

SIX WORD MEMOIR MONDAY

And the responses keep coming in!!!   This is so cool and I KNOW I have a few more followers out there who are writers and YET….

Stuck in Vegas, like Gilligan’s Island – Weez

RELAX – Everything happens for a reason – Kevin

Buying a swimsuit, shoot me now – Gail

New man-enjoying the ride together – Susan H.

These contributions are terrific.  If you’re just tuning in – The Six Word Memoir Project was created by the editor of Smith Magazine. Everyone has a story to tell and if you channel the Hemmingway in yourself, you will be able to share a Six Word Memoir with us all.  It can be a summation of life, a fleeting feeling,   a day in the life of, a passion, a problem – whatever!  Please send it to me here at the blog or at pbenjaytoo@gmail.com

Have Finny, bite, squeeze, hug, kiss.

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Cover of "Daddy's Girl"

Cover of Daddy's Girl

Poor Sally – “What’s Wrong With Her”?

Wow, let’s see now Betty, how about for starters you told her you would cut her fingers off?  That sounds like what they do in some other countries!!

Poor Sally, she’s so pubescent….Daddy is gone and even when he’s around, he’s screwing lots of women, and none of them are Mommy.  She is terribly jealous of him going out with these women, when now that Mommy is out of the picture, she could be “Daddy’s Girl”! Too bad Poor Sally doesn’t know it just doesn’t work that way – especially with a Daddy like Don.  She is desperately seeking some male attention and approval, so hey here’s an idea…’I’ll cut my hair while he’s out with another woman and he left me with yet another of his women. ‘  Poor Sally.  Oh boy, the fall out from that one act of misguided defiance; The babysitter gets fired – “Consider it severance” (nice Don, the kid was in the bathroom for God’s sake!!),  Poor Sally gets a strong slap across the face and like any abused child, she immediately apologizes and even makes up a lie that it was a mistake.  Don get yelled at and so he yells back, Henry tries to intervene and guess what??? It worked!!!!! Sally got everybody’s attention and again,  in true fashion of the day, rather than being recognized as a symptom/victim of the massive dysfunction going on, she must be the problem and we must fix her!! Poor Sally!

With the onset of puberty comes SO MANY new feelings and Poor Sally – as she tentatively begins to explore her own sexuality…Whamo!! In comes YET ANOTHER UNENLIGHTENED  MOTHER of the ages and Sally is sent home chastised and disgraced.

When Betty is confronted with the news that her daughter was masturbating in public, with arms tightly crossed and a pinched face, she apologizes for her daughter’s horrific behavior (funny she never challenges the neighbor’s accusation of what goes on in this house!).  Poor Sally cowers in her room waiting for the inevitable angry Mommy to appear.  Betty storms in and remonstrates her child for what?? The word cannot be spoken, the act must be denied a name and brushed aside with “We don’t do that in private and we don’t do that in public”.   When Sally protests she did nothing… the  horrid  verdict;  “I’ll cut your fingers off”.  Poor Sally….

And Betty, well it’s all about Betty… after all, she is the quintessential shallow, cold, stupid and totally self-absorbed bitch mother whose foremost concern is “I’m so embarrassed”. Don’t you just love her??

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OBSCURE ORIGINS of COMMON PHRASES

Did you ever read your kids or your husband the riot act and they didn’t understand a word you meant?  To read someone the riot act is to yell, shout, command and demand that the ruckus or misbehavior stop!!!

King George I, England, edict,

The Riot Act

This is how it came about:  In 1716, King George I of England issued a proclamation that if 12 or more people engaged in a demonstration, his officers were told to read the group this specific ACT and send those rioters home.  Only a few continued to be disruptive after the edict was read because you could be sent to prison for life for not obeying this order.  Usually once The RIOT ACT was read, people calmed down!!!

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OBSCURE ORIGINS of COMMON PHRASES

I was in a meeting this week and my manager said, “I’ll bet that scared the Dickens out of you”.  This got me thinking about what possible Charles Dickens story could be so scary that this phrase was born???  NONE- because that’s not the origin of the phrase and over the years we Americans have further obscured the origin due to the capitalization of the word, Dickens.

the merry wives of windsor, what the dickens?, scare the dickens out of you, devil

What the dickens does this mean?

Dickens or rather, dickens was used by Shakespeare as a euphemism for the devil.  In his play, The Merry Wives of Windsor the question is asked, “What the dickens”? to mean “What the devil”? So when someone says scare the dickens out of you – they mean to scare the devil out of you and I guess there’s  a little devil in all of us!


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TATTLE -TALE

Tattle-Tale, tattle-tale!!! And I thought this might have something to do with a rattle snake’s tail…and no clue as to why?

Actually the origin of this name-calling phrase has its roots in a combination of a Middle English word derived from Old Dutch, tatelen, which meant meaningless  prattle or stammering and was used in reference to children and an old English expression tell-tale, which was used the way we use tattle-tale.

There’s an old nursery rhyme: “Tell-tale-tit, your tongue will be slit, and all the dogs within the town shall have a little bit”.  As time went on, tatelen became tattlin which was thought of as tattling and soon morphed from meaningless prattle to idle gossip to telling tales to tattle-tale. The manner in which this phrase came into being through the morphing and blurring of words is the way many of our everyday phrases worked their way into our language.

TILL THE COWS COME HOME

I think I’ll be waiting till the cows come home for my son to call me!!  Surely your mother said this to you at one time or another in your life.  The phrase refers to the nature of cows, notoriously languid creatures who move only at their own pace.  The imagery is perfect, as you imagine the cows just ambling along slowly and taking a long time to get there.

It is believed that the phrase was in use prior to 1829 and may have originated in Scotland – it appeared in print in The Times in January of that year in reference to the Duke of Wellington and what he should do if he wished to maintain a place in Peel’s cabinet:

Till the cows come home,

The Duke of Wellington

If the Duke will but do what he unquestionably can do, and propose a Catholic Bill with securities, he may be Minister, as they say in Scotland “until the cows come home.”

In 1933, one of our great comedians known for his witty use and play on words, Groucho Marx, had this to say in the film, Duck Soup:

“I could dance with you till the cows come home. Better still, I’ll dance with the cows and you come home.”




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YOU ARE NOT A GOOD PERSON

My goodness, is that all she could muster up??  We know Don for who he is ; and true to  the tried and true corollary that women love bad boys, he is the best looking bad boy on the small screen these days.  It’s just so obvious – he’s an open book;  He drinks publicly,  screws around publicly, he bullies his team, begrudgingly offers feeble praise once in a while,  drinks like  a fish and smokes like a chimney.  Don is arrogant-perhaps that’s part of the carefully constructed facade that he hides his true self-doubting, self-conflicted  persona.  After all, can you imagine leading a life that is entirely constructed on a lie and a deception and locking it all up inside, drowning the truth in alcohol and smothering his past with Lucky Strikes?

And yet we lust after him – why? He certainly isn’t the kind of man we’d  want to marry, or have our daughter marry! Yet seductive, handsome,  and reeking  with animal magnetism.  He’s not funny, almost humorless, and seems to have no interests beyond getting laid and getting accounts – in that order.  And yet…

MAD MEN, Don Draper, Sterling cooper, draper, Jon Hamn, Lucky Strikes

"right, no sports heros!"

Overall the episode was all about Peggy.  She is rapidly becoming one of the guys – note her lying down on the couch in her office.  Hey the guys do it all the time.  She meets some new friends, gets hit on by a lesbian and declares she has a boyfriend who is presently renting it (her vagina). Peggy ran through a gamut of emotions last night;  she is affronted by the news that Pete is going to be a father and in Peggy character true to form, she pulled herself up and offered sincere congratulations to her former lover.  She is excited by the daring of her new buds;  rule-breaking, left wing liberal artsy fartsy crowd.  How poignant was it when as she departs for lunch with the new friends and Pete greets the stodgy big wigs of Vicks, they exchange a long and meaningful glance? The answer  – VERY! Was that scene all about their unresolved sexual tension and bewilderment as how to handle it (both are clueless) OR was it as my friend Gail says – a contrast in the changing course of the business with the young and the reckless and the old guard?

Tune in next week, it’s sure to heat up and get better!!

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Once again I’m really happy that a few more reader-contributed Six Word Memoirs were sent in! Oh this makes my Mondays much easier and your reading much more interesting.

This week’s contributions are:

Everyone is So Talented-Cool Contributors – submitted by Gail

Off Beach, In Shower, On Porch – submitted by Trish

If it weren’t hot, I’d paint – submitted by Jane

Isn’t it great that we’re getting in touch with our inner Ernest Hemingway?  I’m just fascinated by this concept and the more Six Word Memoirs I read, the clearer it becomes and actually easier.  At first I was bogged down by the question as it is posed; One Life, Six Words, What’s Yours? But then I realized (with a little help from reading The Smith magazine) that your Six Word Memoir could be philosophical, funny, timely, incidental or just a fleeting feeling of the day-which brings me to this very day;

Endless Summer Sounds Good to Me!– submitted by ME

One Life, Six Words, What’s Yours?



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3 flags, POW-MIA flag, beach chairs, sand dunes, Ocean Grove

1 Umbrella, 2 Beach Chairs, 3 Flags

photo by Lori

orange stripe umbrella, Ocean Grove, beach day

Orange Striped Umbrella with Circle of Friends

photo by Lori

Ocean Grove, Jersey Shore, primary colors, beach day

Primary Colors

photo by Lori

Jewel colors, beach umbrella, Jersey Shore, Ocean Grove, beach,

Jewel Colors

photo by Lori

Low tide, Ocean Grove, Jersey shore, pastel beach umbrella

Pastel Umbrella at Low Tide

photo by Lori

wading pool, beach, Jersey Shore, Ocean Grove, colorful beach umbrella

A Wading Pool to Match the Umbrella

photo by Lori

Low tide, Ocean Grove, Jersey Shore, orange plaid umbrella

Orange Plaid Umbrella

photo by Lori

Tommy Bahama beach umbrella, low tide, Ocean Grove, Jersey Shore,

Tommy Bahama Legs

photo by Lori

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How many times have you heard an expression or saying (and I mean one that you’ve heard all your life), and never knew where it came from?  This may just be the place you’ll find out!  In this column,  THE REAL MEANING OF COMMON PHRASES, I’ll endeavor to explore the origin of some commonly (and maybe some uncommonly)  used phrases and sayings that have become part of the American vernacular.  AND I NEED YOUR HELP – please send me any sayings and/or phrases you think the rest of us would like to know just how this expression evolved into our language.  You can send it to me through the comment section or at pbenjaytoo@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing from you!!!

HIGH ON THE HOG

(Wealthy, Exalted)

This phrase is often meant to describe  someone living the good (high) life, which would imply wealth and eating the better cuts of meat, such as the shoulder and upper leg of the pig whereas paupers eat the trotters and belly. Imagining lords and ladies feasting on roasts certainly seems to be the right context of the phrase, however the origin is much more elusive.

pork belly, trotters, pork butt, pork shoulder, cuts of meat

Living High on the Hog

There are no references to living (eating) high on (or off) the hog in any of Chaucer’s or Shakespeare’s works.  The phrase high has meant exalted  and impressive in the UK since the 17th Century and in America since the early 19th Century.

Initially meaning to be living the high life and eating pork rather than actually eating the meat from high on the pig, it’s interesting to note that one of the earliest instances of this phrase in print comes from The New York Times in 1920;      Southern laborers who are “eating too high up on the hog” (pork chops and ham) and American housewives who “eat too far back on the beef” (porterhouse and round steak) are to blame for the continued high cost of living, the American Institute of Meat Packers announced today.

People have been eating pork for hundreds of years yet it seems that the actual phrase high on the hog, meaning the better cuts of meat  originated in the 20th Century in the United States and the phrase eat too far back on the beef never quite caught on.

 

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