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10 Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Cattle, Cattle raiding, Slang on July 28, 2011| 4 Comments »

THURSDAY’S TOP TEN

I have found a book, well rather Peter had this book squirreled away in the archives of our apartment and when I saw it I knew immediately it was a great source for blog posts. I think I’ll go through the alphabet; so here are 10 crazy-who-ever-heard-of-these words!

abbey-lubber: a lazy monk pretending to be ascetic; any loafer.
abscotchalater: one in hiding from the police (slang).
absquatulate: to leave hurriedly, suddenly, or secretly
abuccinate: to proclaim, like a fanfare
abrosia: fasting.
abulic: pertaining to a lack of will power; also aboulic
abligurition: extravagance in cooking and serving.
abigeus: a cattle rustler.
abbozzo: a rough draft or sketch.
abacinate: to blind by putting a red-hot copper basin near the eyes.

Now, I mean really, did you know any of those words? OMG we only touched on the A’s as far as “ab” , can you see how far we can go with this???

A Leonardo Da Vinci Abbozzo

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Collections on Steroids – Thursday’s Top Ten

Posted in Peter Coddles, Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Antique, Collect, Food and Drink Related, Havana, New York City, Old Maid, Postcard, Recreation, Roger Clemens, Vintage on July 14, 2011| 4 Comments »

Did You Win?

I’m a collector, my husband is a collector and so you can only envision the stuff in our home. Or can you? A while ago I did a blog post about my Flamingo collection which I refer to as kitschy. See link: https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/florida-kitsch-is-cool/. Oh the collections we have!!! Just to name a few; There are hood ornaments, old radios, character watches, Old Maid games, Peter Coddles games, vintage Mah Jongg sets, vintage advertising characters, antique books on New York City, Pez, bakelite figural napkin rings, vintage laundry soap boxes, vintage marbles…. I probably better not go too much further or you will know for sure just how crazy we are!

And all this prologue is to introduce Thursday’s Top Ten crazy collections and the moniker to describe their collectors.

Sucrologist: Collect those little sugar packets you find in restaurants.
Deltiologists: Collect postcards, derived from the Greek word deltos meaning writing tablet – uh oh, I’m one of those too.
Vexillophiles: Collect and display flags
Lotologists: Collect new and used lottery tickets
Panna pictagraphists: Collecting comic books (there’s one for Peter)
Helixophiles: Collect corkscrews (need a lot of room for the rabbits)
Tyrosemiophiles: Collect cheese labels
Arctophiles: Collect Teddy Bears
Brandophilists: Collect cigar labels (got to go to Havana)
Labeorphilists: Collect beer bottles

Thank you Gail for bringing this madness to my attention!!

Selling Collectibles is about Creating Collectors of New Stuff, Old Stuff, All Kinds of Stuff (rubylane.com)
How I started collecting Antique and Vintage purses -On Serendipity ! (rubylane.com)
Vintage Sparklers (thebestinvintage.wordpress.com)

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Thursday’s Top Ten Movie Mistakes – The Green Hornet

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Bridesmaids, Chicago, Green Hornet, John Hamm, Kato, Matrix of Leadership, Seth Rogen, Transformers on July 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

GREEN HORNET

It’s almost Saturday and Thursday’s Top Ten and Friday’s Fab Fotos are still in my head and not posted yet. But I think if I put my mind to it, I can knock out the two posts before midnight. I’m up because I’m waiting for the orzo to cool off. Yes you did read that right, if it comes out the way I hope it does, it just might be Tuesday’s Tasty Tidbit recipe. But back to the list….

The Green Hornet had a lot of Continuity issues, here are some of them:

Kato shoots against the black beauty and aims for the bottles behind him. He shoots the bottles in the mirror in a different order than they actually break.
Seth Rogan is in bed with a hot girl and talking to his father. From the father’s view point, the sheets are pulled up high on the girl but from the opposite view point, the sheets are at her waist.
When Reid and Kato are fighting by the pool, the beach ball falls off the chair (besides the pool) and into the water. In the next shot, it is up on the chair again.
When Kato rides up on his motorcycle and looks through the fence at Reid begging Lenore to come outside, she is standing inside beside the sliding glass doors. From Reid’s view point she is outside!
When the crime boss shakes down the club owner, he leaves a briefcase with a bomb in it, inside. He goes out to explode it but the first thing to explode are club’s billboard lights which are not near the club. Then the club explodes as is a bomb went off.

Bridesmaids has a few mistakes to add to the list too.

When Annie and the cop are drinking in the bar, the people behind the bar change from one man in a dark shirt to a guy in a checkered shirt and a gal.
The heavy-set bridesmaid wears an ace bandage on her left wrist throughout the movie but in the bridal shower scene, the bandage is on her right wrist.
Kirsten Wiig upon leaving John Hamm‘s house can’t get the gate open so she throws her purse over the wall but when she finally climbs over and is out, the purse is nowhere to be seen.
And in Transformers, after Sam and Seymour visited the cosmonauts, when they left and were attacked on the Interstate, they were supposed to be in DC but when they passed a green interstate sign it was for I-88 to Aurora which is in Chicago.
Optimus uses the Matrix of Leadership to revive Sentinal Prime. Problem is that the Sentinal was in the Sun Harvester and that was destroyed in the first movie.

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Did You Know? Thursday’s Top 10 Interesting Facts

Posted in BY THE WAY, Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Cooking, corn husks, George Nissen, Iowa, lollipops, Maize, New Jersey, post-it notes on June 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Here’s 10 interesting facts that you can casually (and intentionally) drop into a conversation to impress your friends. Did you know???

The snowboard was invented by an eighth grader from New Jersey?

In the days before toilet paper, Americans used corn husks and corncobs and the Japanese used sea weed?

Please Don't Squeeze the Corn Husks

The world’s first ketchup was a green and brown paste made of squished up cucumbers, walnuts and mushrooms.

The average American spends nine years of his or her life watching television.

The first trampoline was thought up by an 11-year old George Nissen while watching a circus show in hometown in Iowa in 1826. While in high school, George invented a bouncing table. To prove how high a person could jump on a trampoline, its inventor took along a kangaroo – and made sure he jumped higher than the animal in his demonstrations

For almost two centuries bread was the world’s only type of eraser. It didn’t work very well, but was good enough, until the rubber eraser was invented.

Not until the 1920s did it become common in the United States to have separate public bathrooms for males and females. Those for men were called Johns. Those for women were called Janes.

Post It Notes

Post It Notes were invented by 3 M employee, Art Fry. He used some of his colleague’s strong but removable adhesive to stick a page marker in his hymnal.

That Jules Leotard, a French circus acrobat invented the leotard . It was said he was in love with himself!

The modern day lollipop was invented by George Smith of New Haven, CT in 1908. He would put a ball of boiled sweets on a stick and he named it after a famous race horse of the day, Lolly Pop.

Lollipop

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Why Was Grandma’s Apron So Useful? 10+Reasons and a Look Back in Time

Posted in BY THE WAY, Thursday's Top Ten, tagged accessories, Apron, Cobbler apron, Flirty Aprons, Shopping on June 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

My old and dear friend, Susan sent me this charming little story about Grandma’s aprons. Of course it took me back to a time when I remember my own Grandma, standing in the kitchen in her “Cobbler‘s Apron”, because that’s the kind she preferred and she used to make them herself. I remember my own mother wearing the more traditional short, tie-it-around-your-waist version and having many; Some were the kind she put on just before the company came, crisp, clean and often frilly.

Hostess Aprons

When I was a young wife, I asked my Grandmother to make me some Cobbler Aprons and she gave me two. I still have one (which unfortunately I can no longer fit in) and one I gave to my daughter. I think she still has it, I hope she does.

Today’s aprons are very different and are more associated with grilling than cooking although lately I’ve taken to wearing one more often than not when I cook. I mean how many times do I have to send a tee shirt or blouse to the cleaners before I learn that it’s quite possible that I will a) spill something on myself, b) splash something on myself or c) the oil will spatter on me!! Well I have about 4 of these pseudo-chef aprons; a black one with various pasta shapes and their names on the front, a white one with a big blue whale courtesy of a Westchester real estate company, and two favorites; one with penguins on the front and lined in pink – just perfect for me and my husband’s niece, Dani made it. The other favorite is a black apron with the just these words so near and dear to my heart – something like “All I ask is that you treat me with the same respect as Martha”. – Love it! But enough about me, here’s the lovely little story which if you’re old enough will take you back to another simpler time.

What a sweet memory!

Just Like My Grandma Made

Cobbler's Apron

Remember making aprons in Home Ec class?

I don’t think our kids know what an apron is and they certainly don’t have Home Ec classes. The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few and it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that….

It served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs and fussy chicks.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow bent over the stove.

Chips and kindling were brought into the kitchen in that apron for the wood stove or fireplace.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in the apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up, it’s surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

It was a super place to hide a marble, a piece of candy or almost anything in Nana’s pocket.

apron with pockets , cobble apron, house dress apron

Grandma' s Apron

When it was time for dinner, Grandma would go out to the porch, wave her apron and the menfolk would know it was time to come in from the fields for dinner. (This is more Hollywood than any memory I would have).

It will be a long time before anyone invents anything as useful as Grandma’s apron.

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Gone With The Wind But NOT Forgotten – Thursday’s Top Ten

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged David O. Selznick, Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell, Pulitzer Prize, Rhett Butler, Scarlett O'Hara, Sidney Howard, United States on June 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Gone With The Wind

GONE WITH THE WIND , written by Margaret Mitchell, was published in 1936. Ms. Mitchell received a Pulitzer Prize for her novel in 1937. In 1939, David O. Selznick produced the historical epic film by the same name. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Howard and directed by Victor Fleming and from that moment on, a romantic legend was born. 75 years later woman of all ages will tell you it is one of their favorite movies.

Gone With The Wind doesn’t exactly have a cult following; I don’t think there are groups of people who gather around the world to attend Gone With The Wind conventions, people don’t dress up to go to the movie theater to see it and for that matter, I wonder when it was actually run in a movie theater.

Fortunately the movie is so compelling and holds a timeless and powerful appeal that it has been re-released several times since 1939, thereby creating an ever-increasing fan base. In fact, it has been re-released in the USA eight times, the last one being 1998. I’m sure we will have the opportunity before the year is out to see it again on the big screen, at least I hope so.

Growing up, I read the book twice and it fed my pre-teen notions of romance and the old South and the illusion that a Rhett Butler would someday come along, the rascal that he was! Maybe this is where the attraction to bad boys originated in myself and so many other women.

There are famous movie quotes from every genre of popular movie and in this blog I have listed many from time to time in my Thursday’s Top Ten List. Here are some memorable lines from the great Gone With The Wind.

Rhett: “I’m very drunk and I intend on getting still drunker before the evening’s over“.
Scarlett: “Fiddle-dee-dee”.
Gerald O’Hara: ” It will come to you, this love of the land. There’s no gettin’ away from it if you’re Irish”.
Rhett: ” No, I don’t think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly”.
Mammy: ” It ain’t fittin’…it ain’t fittin’. It jes ain’t fittin’…it ain’t fittin”.
Scarlett: “As God is my witness, as God is my witness they’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this and when it’s all over, I’ll never be hungry again”.
Prissy: “Lawzy, we got to have a doctor. I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies”.
Dr. Meade: ” Good heavens, woman! This is a war, not a garden party! “
Rhett: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn“.
Scarlett: “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow”.

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2011-5 Months In – 10 Movie Mistakes – Thursday’s Top Ten

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Art, Gore Verbinski, Johnny Depp, Midnight in Paris, movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Rango, Saint Patrick's Flag on May 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The Union Jack

2011 is looking like a year rife with movie mistakes. It’s only May, not even a half year and already there are many mistakes from which to make a Thursday’s Top Ten list.

The Green Hornet – Reid and Kato are fighting by the pool and when they land in the water, the beach ball falls off the chair and lands beside the pool. In the next shot, it’s back in the chair.
Scream 4 – At the end of the movie, when Jill is supposed to be dead, her head moves slightly.
The Dilemma – Passaflora incarnata does not cause the symptoms described in the movie. There was one symptom, nausea which occurred but that can only happen if it is ingested and that’s not what happened in the film.
Rango – When Rango is in the mayor’s office, the mayor grabs a jug of water and opens it. In the next shot, the jug is sealed again.
Rio – When Blu and Jewel are playing dead, Blu is on the right and Jewel on the left, but when the sheet is removed, their positions have switched.
Pirates of the Carribean– On Stranger Tides – Captain Barbossa‘s ship is flying a modern Union Jack. The Cross of St. Patrick is included in the flag’s field. However, the film is set between 1727-1760 and Ireland did not become part of the United Kingdom until 1801.
Water For Elephants – The invitation from August to Jacob uses the name Rosenbluth and not Rosenblum.
Source Code – Colter is looking at Derek Foster‘s license and it reads his hometown as Northfield, ILL. The three letter state abbreviation is out-dated. Later when Goodwin and Rutledge are showing the passenger’s ID’s on the computer screen, Frost’s license appears as Chicago, IL. Different city, different abbreviation.
Bridesmaids – Anne goes up a second time to toast Lillian and in the close-up shot, you see her holding the microphone in her left hand and the champagne flute in her right. The camera shows the audience and then returns to Anne who is now holding the glass in her left hand and the microphone in her right.
Midnight in Paris – When Gil is walking along the river bank, watch the left side of the bridge ahead and you will see a crowd watching the filming.

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Thursday’s Top Ten Blog Buzzwords

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Blook, Buzzword, Directories, Facebook, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, World Wide Web on May 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

An Oxymoron??

Buzzwords! When did they creep into our conversation? There are buzzwords used exclusively by Gen X and Gen Y, and Gen D(igital), BUT the best buzzwords are used in corporate America! That world is just FULL of buzzwords. I wonder who started the trend, when did it become so cool to speak in acronyms?

And there are even buzzwords that describe blogging and bloggers and blogs themselves.

Blahger: A blogger whose message primarily consists of blah-blah-blah.
Blalker: Someone who uses a blog to stalk or hound another individual.
Bleg: To use one’s blog for assistance (usually for information, but occasionally for money). One who does so is a blegger.
Blogives: Web log archives. (Somewhere in the million blogs that fill cyberspace, there must be something worth saving for posterity).
Blogna sandwich: When employees spend their time reading blogs during their lunch breaks
Blook: A book that began as a blog and someone figured they could make money off it if they published the same stuff on paper.
Flyblogged: The result of unwanted spam being posted to an open blog, just as flies stick to flypaper. “I have just been comprehensively flyblogged”. Coined by technology analyst Bill Thompson.
Pajamahadeen: The new media watchdogs. Bloggers who spend their days surfing the Net, challenging and fact-checking the traditional media.
Splog: A fake blog created by spammers as a home for their ads and scams. Of the 7,000 new blogs started each day, nearly 10% are now splogs.
Thought parsing: To filter online blogs in a manner that allows you to see what others are thinking (or at least writing).

Source: The Buzzword Dictionary

7 Social Media Buzzwords That Make Us Cringe (searchenginejournal.com)
GREEN buzzwords & their meanings so you don’t get GREEN-WASHED! (powerearthwarehouse.com)
You are not a ‘ninja’ and other buzzwords (itskatherinec.wordpress.com)

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Top 10 Fun Things About Easter

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Chocolate, Easter, Easter bonnets, Easter bunny, Easter Parade, Egg hunt, Holidays, hunts, Paz, Pizza Rustica, pizzagaina, Russell Stover, spring on April 23, 2011| 3 Comments »

I did NOT hatch these eggs

Easter is yet another religious holiday that has been appropriated by the general secular public aided and abetted by Hallmark and Russell Stover! But what the hey-fun times to be had by all; the Easter bunny is non-discriminating. I just wish Yom Kippur was a universal fun day too lol.

There are at least 10 fun things about Easter we all enjoy, well some more than others.

Chocolate Bunnies – White chocolate, Milk chocolate, Dark chocolate and even Strawberry chocolate. Those little rabbits multiply in all flavors. Which kind do you prefer? Every kid hopes to get a solid chocolate rabbit or chick in his or her basket but most get the hollow kind- you know the Easter bunny finds shopping in Stop & Shop so much easier these days. When I was a kid (and didn’t know any better) I always wanted a white chocolate rabbit and often got one. My God, what was I thinking? It’s like eating Crisco and sugar! Last question; Do you bite off the ears first?
Peeps – Oh just admit it, you like them? I think most people are willing, I mean want to pop one into their mouth. Bright yellow dye #5 sanding sugar over sweet white elastic; why wouldn’t you want to eat them? Or you can wait an hour or two when even their multiple chemical compounds can’t keep them pliable and they harden into plaster chickens. Biting into one of those hardened yellow critters either affords you a rock candy-like mouthful of marshmallow or a chipped tooth. AND NOW through an intricate process of cross-breeding the little yellow peeps can be had in shocking green, electric blue or bright orange!
Jelly Beans: Gone are the days of the funny tasting white, bright yellow, green, red and nasty black. Our kids get mango, cherry, coconut, green apple, and pineapple. You gotta have jelly beans – how else could you weight down the basket so the kids think they’re full.
Patent Leather shoes: When I was growing up, one of the best things about Easter was the anticipated purchase a new pair of shoes to wear to Church on Easter morning. Patent leather was always our choice as we all knew you only wore patent leather in the Spring.
Easter Bonnets: I carried the tradition of getting a new hat to wear every Easter for many many years. Then there was about a 15 year hiatus; based pretty much on that I stopped attending Mass. BUT now I’m back in the hat groove and have been for the last 10 years or so. Why? Back to the Church? No-the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. Now the hats are floral creations. Look for me on the rotogravure.
Easter Egg Hunts: When my kids were growing up, I used to make an Easter egg hunt for them at home with some of their friends and we parents drank Bloody Marys. Lots of towns hold Easter Egg Hunts for the kids, the White House has a great one but you have to get an invitation to that one OR you can go to Central Park where en masse swarms of kids gather the thousands of eggs on the Great Lawn.
Pizzagaina, Pizza Rustica: There’s a traditional Italian Easter dish my grandmother used to make. I loved it and we only had it at Easter time. It is also known as Easter Pie and is made with eggs, cheese, ham, proscuitto, bread dough, salami. Maybe I’ll post the recipe next Tuesday.
Corsage: Too bad nobody gets one anymore for Easter but certainly having your Dad buy a corsage for both my mother and me was a great delight. Pink carnations and baby breath and I thought I was a princess.
Dyeing Easter Eggs: Paz, that seemed to be the only brand of Easter Egg dye made for the first 20 years of my life. Now you can get kits that will give you sparkly eggs, confetti eggs, and sticker eggs. Ahhh the smell of white vinegar and blue fingers, the hallmark of Holy Saturday afternoon fun. Eggs half pink and half green and so many that ended up kind of murky blue purple. And did you ever master the wax crayon?
Hot Cross Buns: My other Grandmother was a great pastry baker and she always made those yummy yeasty buns with the white icing cross on top and raisins inside. And on Easter morning what a delicious breakfast treat they were!

And one more! Diorama Eggs: Large hardened sugar or styrofoam eggs beautifully decorated on the outside and with 3-D Easter scene.

Easter egg hunting, partying, & projects!!!! (missamandaspreschool.wordpress.com)
Happy (almost) Easter #Bellingham! (bellinghamsandwich.com)

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10 “THINGS” Now Obsolete to Gen X and Gen Y

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged cellphones, Cooking, Dialer, Home, iPhone, Ipod, Mobile phone, Pressure Cooker, Pressure cooking, T-Mobile G2 on April 15, 2011| 6 Comments »

THURSDAY’S TOP TEN

With a birthday approaching, an onslaught of nostalgia is taking over; now more than ever, memories of childhood toys, songs from my own angst-ridden high school years and thoughts and memories of things I grew up with. Household items I saw my mother use and my own childhood experiences that I know my kids never saw or had and now that they are grown up and having kids of their own, these things are lost to yet another generation and some gone forever, some will be found in antique shops.

Rotary Phones: telephones with dials, with phone numbers that began with letters like DI for Diamond or WA for Waldorf and sometimes with a party line. Can you imagine picking up the phone to make a call and hearing other people already talking and it isn’t your sister on an extension (there were none) in another room. It’s a whole other household and each “party” had their own special ring. It was rude to keep picking up the phone to see if they were still talking and it was definitely rude to listen in on a conversation. Life is so much easier now, all you have to do is be near some idiot on their cell phone and you can catch the entire conversation.
Transistor Radios: I remember the birthday that my father gave me my own transistor radio; it was green and in a leather carrying case. Loved it! Of course I couldn’t download 400 of my favorite songs and it didn’t cost anywhere near as much money.
Darning Egg: I watched my grandmothers darn and I’m not sure if I ever saw my mother darn a sock but one thing I’m sure about is my kids never saw me darn a sock and although I had a darning egg (don’t remember how I acquired one or why), I doubt they ever saw it. Why darn socks? The world was not so disposable then and my grandmothers had lived through the depression and they knew the value of saving a pair of socks for a couple of more months.
Hot Water Bottle: I think most of them were made of dark red rubber with a stopper and like a few other “vintage” cures it was used for a lot of ailments. A stomach ache, a headache, cramps…you name it, Mom would give you a hot water bottle and tuck you into bed. Sometimes, your grandmother might even knit, crochet or sew a cover for the bottle and then it didn’t have to get wrapped in a towel.
Wringer Washers: These were on their way out when I was growing up in the 50’s but there was one in our basement for a long time. Wow, imagine doing a load of clothes and diapers in this tank like washer and then instead of the machine spinning out the water, you fed the clothing between two roller and cranked it and squeezed the water out. Wash day probably was a half day’s work then.
Milkman: Life had its conveniences even then and having the milk delivered to your doorstep was one of them. Every back doorstep had a milk box on it. You would write down your order for the next delivery if you wanted something extra like heavy cream or buttermilk. Real glass bottles with round paper caps; AND in the winter when the temperature really dropped the cream literally rose to the top and pushed up and out of the bottle like a frozen milk pop. Sometimes I got to lick that frozen creamy popsicle.
Tooth Powder: Strange but true and not exactly popular by the time I was old enough to understand what it was. Now I collect some of the old tins when I find them; but then, well who wanted to use yukky powder on their teeth when the latest thing was “STRIPE” toothpaste. So cool!
Pressure Cooker: These were scary things. Never knew what Mom was cooking in it but it whistled, steam escaped and above all, we all heard stories about the pressure cooker lid blowing off. From what I understand, a pressure cooker was not for the inexperienced cook, but it cooked food quickly.
Electric Frying Pan: I received one as a wedding present in 1968 and used it for many years. I don’t know if they still sell them but I might look into getting one because they were great! Large with high sides and a temperature dial and a lid with a movable vent and best of all you could cook on a counter or tabletop which is a grand idea when all four burners are in use. I wonder why I stopped using it, I wonder where it went – maybe with the “ex”?
Telephone Dialer: Going back to the Rotary Phone – ladies didn’t want to break a nail or chip their polish so they used a “dialer”. Often given away as an advertising premium, these dandy little helpers enabled you to quickly dial a number and leave manicure intact. Dialers were around a long time; there are antique dialers, Tiffany dialers as well as the plastic give-aways and lots of secretaries had a combination pen or mechanical pencil with a silver ball at the end to be used as a dialer. Interesting!