respublica

Bowl game, Texas style

It pains me to be opposed to any of our military personnel, but today I can do no other.

Go Mizzou

Beat Navy!

Texas Bowl from Houston

The last day of the year-watch what you eat

The New York Times felt like giving us a New Year's Eve present warning:  Two stories on commonly consumed items which are now going to poison us.

Beef Products Inc., a company which supplies hamburger to schools and McDonald's, Burger King, etc, has beef which has been found to contain E. coli and salmonella pathogens dozens of times.  This after the company went with some sort of amonia based bacteria killer a couple of years ago.

Also, beware of that tap water everyone told us we should be drinking instead of the water we buy in those unfriendly environmentally plastic bottles.  Fill your own reusable bottle instead of buying water, they said.

Well, now the EPA is saying our tap water may be unhealthy.  60,000 different chemicals could be in our tap water, only 91 are regulated.

Stick to Coke.  Or beer.

Happy New Year.

Mirror image

What are the odds of getting a photo like the one below?   New York Times reporter, Diane Cardwell, writes a story on the cautious optimism among that city's wine sellers and photographer Damon Winter grabs this picture.

At first glance someone reading the story is probably looking to see if there is a mirror reflecting one man's image.  But no, it's actually two guys with the exact same shaved head, similar build and, minus the backpack, almost identical clothing.

Timing is everything.

Most admired women

In the eyes of Americans according to a Gallup survey.

Interesting.

But what is Queen Elizabeth doing on this list?

Wow-ser

I went into Sears today to pick up a new filter for our humidifier console (the air is too dry for sleeping these days) and I happened to pass by a shelf filled with boxes of ShamWow's. 

You have probably seen the commercials for the ShamWow, it's a shammy type cloth which is advertised as being able to soak up just about anything very quickly with little residue.

Now it just so happened that a family member had a bit of embarrassment a week ago.  Walking into the home of her husband's family she dropped her bottle of soda which soaked just about everything in sight, walls, floors, table, chairs, dog.  Out came a Sham Wow and things were almost as good as new in minutes.

Thanks Tom and Regina for having one of those.  The story of the clean up was so impressive I bought a box.  You just never know.

Blue moon for New Year's Eve

That old expression, "once in a blue moon", has nothing to do with the color of the moon, but with two full moons occurring in the same month.

This December will mark only the second New Year's Eve full Blue Moon in twenty years.  A normal full Blue Moon occurs only every two and a half years.

News you'll probably like

A study, yes another study, by the American Journal of Hypertension, found that there are blood pressure lowering properties in cocoa products like dark chocolate and cocoa drinks.

Hurray.  Pass the Fanny May chocolate bar.  And, open up another pint can of Sheer Bliss Chocolate.  Happy New Year!

Didn't we all secretly hope chocolate was good for us?

Dick Clark returns

Since he suffered a stroke in 2004, Dick Clark has not hosted the annual Time's Square New Year's Eve program on ABC.  That job was given to Ryan Seacrest.

But this year, the 80 year old Clark will return, sharing the hosting duties with Seacrest.  After the midnight countdown, he will be resurrecting his longtime tradition of having a hamburger and a beer at P.J. Clarke's.

A Wii bit of news

Ok, so I got a Wii for Christmas.  Ha.  I never knew I wanted one.

It's just so fun, but seriously, what do you use the nunchuk for?  No one who has a Wii ever seems to use theirs.

And, I just opened a game box and out popped another controller, this time a motion detector or something.  This involves taking the original remote out of its case and placing it in the motion detector case, but having to be very very careful.

Anyhow, it's tons of fun, even Dale who is not a game player, keeps going in the other room and playing.

Coming soon to Collinsville

At least we hope it's coming soon, a Rural King store.  It will be in the location of the former Value City and Grandpa's.  Yay.

Look up the Rural King website and see that they have lots of fun and useful items.  Take these women's outdoor boots for example.

Kind of cool for walking the dog in the winter mud and icy snow.

Lots of Carhartt clothing items which have long been the outdoor working clothes of choice for many.  

These jeans look warm, lined with flannel.  You come across these periodically in normal stores, but not often.

Again, being outdoors doing casual stuff, looks great.

The closest Rural King to anyone in St. Louis is in Waterloo.  None at all in Missouri.

They sell a lot of things you won't find anywhere else.   A Child's riding John Deere tractor.  Fun.