National Unfriend Day - Delete "Fake Friends" from Facebook

Half of the the people in this country are on Facebook and many of those people have hundreds, if not thousands of friends … If you have ten friends in your life then you’re doing very well.
~Jimmy Kimmel

November 17 (sorry I'm late) was National Unfriend Day. I can't believe I missed it! I probably would not have unfriended anyone anyway - I know or am related to nearly all of my Facebook friends - and the added few are entertaining in some way or another.

Pizza is a Vegetable

It's an important victory.
~Corey Henry, spokesman for the American Frozen Food Institute

Pizza is now counted as a vegetable in school lunches.The House of Representatives passed a bill that allows 2 tablespoons of tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable. It is kind of reminiscent of when ketchup (ketchup ingredients:tomato concentrate, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, salt) was declared a vegetable. Most school lunches no matter what is on they tray now include a couple of packs of ketchup. Meets the requirement for vegetable, right?

The reason the "pizza is a vegetable" is worse however, is because it is not only dubbing 2 tablespoons of watered down tomato paste and high fructose corn syrup a vegetable, it is wrapping it in processed, bleached flour (pesticide laden and low in nutritional content) and processed cheese food (high in calories and fat, low in nutritional value),  and more high fructose corn syrup.

Notice, there are no veggies on this:

Mmmm...remember these? Looks nutritious, doesn't it? I don't know why school lunch pizzas always have to be rectangular. Both of my kids started off their school lunch days excited about pizza Fridays until about 2nd grade, when they realized it really didn't taste good at all. From 3rd grade on, based on the urgent pleas of my kids, I began packing their lunches.

Note: I like packing lunch for my kids, that way I know what they are eating (and not eating).

Something else I learned: In 1910, bleach white flour was declared unfit as human food by the Federal Western District Court of Missouri.

The Vampire, A Poem by Rudyard Kipling

Oh the years we waste and the tears we waste
And the work of our head and hand,
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand.
~Rudyard Kipling

When I think of Rudyard Kipling Just So Stories is the very first thing that comes to mind, and then I start singing ♫♪♪♪ "Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worry and your strife..." ♪♪♫

Kipling has a vast array of work, most of which I have not read, yet I never pegged him for a vampire type. The poem was inspired by a Philip Burne-Jones painting.

Read the poem in it's entirety. It goes better with the painting - you get more a feel for what the poem is about. It's a rather misogynistic bit of poetry. But I do like the rhythm and the parentheticals, Kipling characteristics that have always delighted me as a reader.

Note: The Cat That Walked By Himself and The Elephant's Child are awesome Just So Stories.

Something else I learned: Der Vampir written by Heinrich August Ossenfelder in 1748 is wiely accepted as the first ever poem about a vampire.

Second note: After a lunch discussion today about sparkly vampires vs the more traditional sort I was supposed to be learning something about vampire sex today - but I got sidetracked. Hey! It's always good to learn a new poem, isn't it?

Daniel by Elton John

Daniel my brother, you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal
~Bernie Taupin, Elton John

The song Daniel by Elton John is certainly a haunting melody. The lyrics are elusive, but seem to be filled with meaning. If we sing along convincingly enough, we almost grasp it...

The song is actually about a fictional blind Vietnam vet. The final verse of the original song was omitted due to radio play time constraints. The final verse also apparently explained what the song was about.

Note: I have been unable to find the omitted verse anywhere.

Soapnuts for Skin Care, Laundry, Dishes, Shampoo and More!

My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
~Erma Bombeck

Soapnuts are the dried shell of the fruit of Chinese Soapberry trees (also known as sapindus trees). The shells contain saponin, purported to be as effective a cleaner the chemical laden cleaners we use around the home. It is a natural surfactant, reducing the surface tension of water.  Apparently the chemicals in household detergents are manufactured surfactants.

The Sapindus Mukorossi trees have the highest saponin content. These trees grow wild in North India and the berries have historically been used medicinally. It is now primarily known for it's cleaning properties. Some uses for soapnuts include: laundry detergent, dishwasing detergent, fruit rinse, jewelry cleaner, and shampoo.

Soapnuts are natural, organic, nd environmentally safe. They can be used 2-4 times (for laundry). 

Note: I have got to try this! I will let you know if it works.

Buffalo: It's What's for Dinner

Buffalo Meat is Extremely Healthy!
Buffalo meat is naturally flavorful and healthy, in fact if you didn't know, you would think you were eating the most flavorful Beef steak or burger you have ever had.
~The people who sell buffalo meat

At the store the other day picking up my thanksgiving turkey, I window shopped the meat department while the butcher found me the biggest turkey in the store. I saw some really brown hamburger and thought, "Eww gross! How can they sell that?" A closer inspection revealed that it was actually bison meat. I asked the butcher about it and she explained that bison is much leaner than hamburger, tastes similar, but is not really the same flavor.

I haven't eaten beef for years, but that doesn't mean I don't crave a burger from time to time. So I picked up an (almost) pound of the gound bison meat - Expen$ive! - to give it a try. I prepared it in the style of a really fancy hamburger - mixed with egg yolk, steak sauce, a pat of butter in the center.

Served up on a toasted bun, with lots of mayo, onions, and tomato, it looked much like the burgers I used to eat. "Do you want a little burger with your tomato?" It was with mouth watering anticipation that I took the first bite... hm. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't overwhelmingly delicious either. I am not running out to buy more anytime soon.

Note: Buffalo meat is so healthy and nutritious I wish I did love it. B vitamins, potassium, Iron, and selenium, low fat and sodium!

Something else I learned: Buffalo burgers, as well as elk and wild boar burgers are on the menu at Fuddruckers.

Bonus Post for Today: Those Kulula Emails with the Silly Planes

As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.
~Kulula Flight Attendant

I have received the Kulula Airlines email a few times now. I am always skeptical of anything I receive in my email. I admit the pictures and quotes included are quite amusing and I thought, very humorous if true.

So today I went and looked it up on Snopes: Kulula. Turns out it is true. Which makes me happy for some reason.

Rosining a Cello Bow

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.
~Pablo Casals

My son plays the cello. I have absolutely no musical talents whatsoever, so I am very proud that my son already, even after only a few months, can make such lovely noise on his cello. I do everything I can to help and encourage him. So today I learned how to rosin his bow.

It's not the hardest thing in the world to do, but if you are not a musician, it is not something you do regularly. These are the proper steps:

1. Make sure your hands are clean
2. Select a rosin (I just used the one we have - rosin selection: something to learn)
3. Tighten the bow to "ready-to-play" tension
4. Slide the rosin from bottom to top across the bow hairs several times
5. Test: Bow should make pleasant music without to much effort. If not, apply more rosin until the bow glides easily across the strings

 

Note: The above video was helpful in that it provides some indication of how tight the cello bow should be.

Something else I learned: Rosin can leave residue on the string and cello which should be wiped off after playing so it does not build up and become difficult to remove.