April 18, 2011
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Links here are good only for the week of April 18. After that... is
anybody's guess.
Oh, we're celebrating each one separately; it's not like "Presidents'
Day." Passover begins today; Easter is Sunday; and after-tax filing day is
tomorrow. Plenty of reason to celebrate, whatever your inclination.
And yes, we do refer to them as "Easter eggs," not "spring spheres," as one
progressive school in Seattle was rumored to have renamed them. Please!
Meanwhile, in this week's thrill-packed issue:
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Newsletter Table of Contents
(Yep; each is a clickable link)
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Last week's Trivia Teaser:
It was Snooki who was paid $32,000 to speak/perform at Rutgers. Almost
all of you knew that. The spokesman for Timex was John Cameron Swayze.
And a "great song of social and political import," as Janis Joplin
referred to it, goes like this:
"Oh, Lord; won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz;
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends.
So, oh Lord, won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz?"
Three more coming up, below.
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The easiest way to get there from here:
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Texas is considering raising the speed limit on some roads to 85. Now
that's what we all progress.
Eye remember when, in its infinite wisdom,
the federal government reduced the limit to 55 on interstate highways.
Shees!
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This Week with the Chicowitz
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This week, Hershel takes Michael Moore's notion to task: we're not broke;
we just need to eat the rich.
Director, political activist, economist, community organizer, and all 'round
very, very big guy Michael Moore has claimed that, contrary to statements by
conservatives, we have plenty of money... gobs of it. The problem is that
it is in the hands of the evil, rich people and banks, not in
your hands. Well, OK; but rather than just let that sit out there and
fester in the minds of the weak, the gullible, and the impressionable,
let's look at the facts and the evidence. Let's do some hypothetical
wealth redistribution, using real numbers, and see where it gets us. This
is going to be very enlightening.
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You can read the entire essay here.
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Here are three questions from the most recent BBHQ Weekly Trivia
Contest:
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There
are no prizes here... it's all just for fun.
If the submit button does not work for you, you can take the quiz online
here.
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The next BBHQ Weekly Trivia Contest cranks up Monday at 6 p.m.,
eastern.
Members can play all of our trivia games in
The BBHQ Trivia Library.
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In our Trivia Teaser last week, we asked about the Timex commercial. Back
then, many TV commercials were live -- no tape; no film. We remember one
time that the Timex commercial turned into a big blooper. Oh, the Timex
kept on ticking (we think), but it escaped from the grasp of the
propeller blade. Watch how the host covers for the goof. Click the pic,
below, to watch the commercial.
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Our "Lyrics You Can Share" for this week comes from Elton John's
"Candle in the Wind." It's the chorus to this beautiful song:
And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did.
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You can listen to a clip from the song near the bottom of this week's essay. Click
here,
scroll down the page, and listen to our "Lyrics You Can Share."
BBHQ members can also play 200 oldies, 24/7 in our JukeBox. Think of
it as your own boomer karaoke machine.
And of course, you can buy this music and all kinds of stuff -
please! - using our link to
Amazon.com.
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The BBHQ Joke of the Week
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Well, it's become another BBHQ tradition: our annual tribute to the income
tax filing deadline:
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WE ARE MET ON FORM 1040
Four score and eighteen years ago, our fathers brought forth
upon this nation a new tax, conceived in desperation and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are fair game.
Now we are engaged in a great mass of calculations,
testing whether this taxpayer or any taxpayer so confused
and so impoverished can long endure.
We are met on Form 1040. We have come to dedicate a large
portion of our income to a final resting place with those men
who here spend their lives that they may spend our money.
It is altogether anguish and torture that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot evade, we cannot cheat, we
cannot under-estimate this tax. The collectors, clever and
sly, who compute there have gone far beyond our poor
power to add and subtract.
Our creditors will little note nor long remember what we
pay here, but the Bureau of Internal Revenue can never
forget what we report here.
It is not for us, the taxpayers, to question the tax which the
government has thus far ignobly spent. It is rather for us
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -
that from these vanishing dollars we take increased devotion
to the few remaining - that we highly resolve that next year
will not find us in a higher bracket, that this taxpayer,
underpaid, shall figure out more deductions, and that this tax
of the people, by the Congress, for the government, shall not
cause solvency to perish.
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Brush Up Your Webster - featuring Madam Red Dot
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This week Madam Red Dot has another entry in her new series
"Vocabulary Death Panel" -- words and phrases that have outlived their
usefulness, or whose usefulness is exceeded by their misuse.
This week's word that I have sentenced to the death penalty is
"you're fired."
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When you don't show up for work repeatedly, or when you show up
unprepared for work, or when you fall asleep on the job... you should be
fired. (Though, if you are a government employee, or a member of a union,
particularly if you are a teacher, that would be darn near impossible.)
But if the company for which you work cuts back on employees, and you are
one of the ones not retained, you have not been "fired"; you have been
laid off. That is an important distinction.
Being fired is a bad thing... or, for some employees, an impossible
thing. But being laid off is just part of the deal. It happens.
Too often, journalists, among others, fail to make that distinction.
Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" has also blurred the distinction by making
"you're fired" a catch-phrase in the vernacular.
By all means, let's fire someone when it is appropriate. But let us also
fire "you're fired."
Madam Red Dot has spoken.
So... brush up your Webster!
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Uncle Jay is one of our favorite boomer... artists.
Last week, Uncle Jay's word was "adult." He explained it, using the
behavior of elected members of our government.
Click the pic, above, to view a short clip of Uncle Jay's take on the news or
visit his web site to watch the complete video.
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Have a great week. We'll share the fun again next Monday.
- the Boomer Crew at BBHQ
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