Wow! That was a close one!

The Jersey Shore gang almost didn't sign for a second season!

But they did.

Pity if all that talent had gone to waste!

What are they famous far again?

Here's the odd twist: Jersey Shore's second season will be filmed in Miami.

I guess so no one would have to a buy shirt.

"15 Worst TV Spin-offs Ever"

Kind of fun, from EW online. Click HERE.

Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger dies

It's difficult now to remember how controversial this book was when it was published. The big issue was whether high school students should be allowed to read it. Holden Caulfield was seen as an anti-hero, a rebel by teenagers. To adults, he was just plain nuts.

I read it as a kid, eight grade maybe, but then I read almost everything as a kid -- even the books the city's Liberian kept under her desk. This always included the books on the New York Times Best Sellers List (me reading and her hiding). In the 1950's, where I grew up, this was somewhat dangerous for both of us.

Scary that the U.S. government banned books into the 1960's, they're only words.

It's a website that reports crimes involving meat!

Yep, click HERE. Crimes involving meat.

Need a date for Saturday night?

Looking for the ladies, go to cities with the blueish dots.

Looking for dudes, go to the cities with the brownish dots.

The larger the dot, the better your chances.

Click HERE for the full article.

Do this to Ozzie and you'd have no fingers!

Click HERE for more doggie dress-up pixs.

Higher education is a wonderful things!

Here, waste some of your Monday work day looking for unusual scholarships!

NOTE: I have sat on scholarship committees. Many scholarships receive only a handful of applications, even the non-wacky ones.

Note 2: No, I don't know who the dude in the tree is, or how they got him up there.

This is not a fake!

The Republican senator-elect from Massachusetts posed nude for Cosmo. It was for a good cause. He did it for the money.

Another right of Winter

I went to the eye doctor (Optometrist) today. I have insurance, so I needed my lenses changed. Could see that one coming!

Need salt?

The salt is on the floor of my garage. You can see the bumper of my car in the lower left.

IDOT does a great job in the winter. Before it begins to snow, trucks are sent to wait on the shoulders of the roads, all night if necessary. I had a friend who did this in the winter, until his IDOT truck caught fire and burned to toast (he's okay). IDOT dumps tons of salt, and then keeps plowing and salting until the roads are clear. Oddly, the roads often look snow covered but they are just stained white from all that salt.

On the way into town, there is an S-curve on the north side of a hill. IDOT strays liquid salt on that stretch of highway almost every night in the winter, just in case!

I guess this is what he is referring to...

TV preacher Pat Robertson said the quake in Haiti happened because the Haitians had made a deal with the DEVIL to gain their independence (in 1804).

I guess this is what he is referring to--Haiti is the only nation to have achieved independence by slave revolution.

Historical note: Many of the French colonists in Haiti fled with their slaves to Cuba. From there, they went to New Orleans, helping to ensure the city's French heritage.

How do they think of this...

Babies holding their dads.

In answer to an email...

Yes, I scrape the icing off of Christmas cookies, it violates my 'no food touching food' rule.

Search "Frozen Wave Pixs" on Google or Google Images

This is an example of what you get!

When I was young...

Poor people where I lived made their own ketsup -- today the exact same thing is called salsa!

You could tell where poor people lived because they had cedar shakes on their out-buildings. The farm houses originally had cedar shakes but, when they had enough money, poor people replaced the cedar with tin. Now, rich people have cedar-shake roofs.

My mother hated antiques. She considered them to be old furniture because, when she was growing up, all her family could afford was old furniture. (i.e., Hand-me-downs -- my toddler bed was already over 80-years old when I was a toddler. I still have it, in a closet.).

We were ahead of our time.

Yes, it's a guy hanging on a pole.

Probably the first episode of Russian Idol.

Maybe this won't be a waste of time!

Click HERE to find missing money or unclaimed property by state.

This is NOT a pay site.

The subject of today's sermon is 'Godmode'

Actually it's not a sermon but a hidden Windows feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder.

This works with Windows 7.

It also works with Vista 32 -- but it causes problems with Vista 64.

Left click your desktop. Select NEW, and then FOLDER.

Simply rename the folder you just created:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Yes, I know that seems stupid and way too simple but it works.

As always with Windows, be sure to create a Restore Point and a Rescue Disk before making any changes.

I gave myself a present!

I heated the driveway -- and, actually, part of the street!

This has to be one of the strangest news stories...

MacBook allegedly shot by Israeli security officers

Click HERE for the story.

Don't it always seem to go -- That you don't know what you got till it's gone

The photo shows Pennsylvania Station, New York, built in 1910. The photo directly below is a view inside that large area that sticks up above the roof line. Note the scale of the building in relation to the size of the people in the photographs. Penn Station was demolished in 1963 to make way for Madison Square Garden, shown in the last picture below. The tracks and passenger areas under the station are still there--but the grandeur is gone!

NOTE: There never was a Track 29!

CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO
Glenn Miller
- from "Sun Valley Serenade"
- words by Mack Gordon, music by Harry Warren

Pardon me, boy
Is that the Chattanooga choo choo?
Track twenty-nine
Boy, you can gimme a shine
I can afford
To board a Chattanooga choo choo
I've got my fare
And just a trifle to spare

You leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to four
Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore
Dinner in the diner
Nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham an' eggs in Carolina

When you hear the whistle blowin' eight to the bar
Then you know that Tennessee is not very far
Shovel all the coal in
Gotta keep it rollin'
Woo, woo, Chattanooga there you are

There's gonna be
A certain party at the station
Satin and lace
I used to call "funny face"
She's gonna cry
Until I tell her that I'll never roam
So Chattanooga choo choo
Won't you choo-choo me home?
Chattanooga choo choo
Won't you choo-choo me home?

It's that time of year again!

The guy above is having a religious experience, or freezing his b@lls off. My guess is it's both! The larger picture is below. Note that in the U.S., this would probably constitute child abuse (if you ignore the religious aspect of it).

As we have discussed almost every year, the Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated in the West as the Twelfth Day of Christmas--the day the Maji showed up with the presents. Only Polar Bear Clubs jump into icy water, and that's on New Years Day, and it has nothing to do with religion (but probably a lot to do with booze).

When I was young, we celebrated January 6th as Little Christmas (called Nollaig Bheag in Irish and we got presents).

The Russian Orthodox and many other Eastern Churches celebrate the Epiphany as the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Priests bless the water and then the faithful take the plunge--going underwater three times. In some areas, a priest will throw a wooden cross into the frozen river or lake and the local yuts jump in in a mad scramble to get the cross. This all takes place on January 19th (because of difference between the Gregorian Calender (us) and the Julian Calendar). See photo from Siberia below, yes, Siberian, on January 19th!!!!!!!

In past years, we have seen Russian soldiers taking the plunge and a special pool set up in Moscow's Red Square. THIS LINK will take you to more pictures.

As you might expect, this used to be done primarily by men and (before cameras) mostly naked. THIS LINK is to a set of recent pictures of the faithful who still observe that practice. Please note that there is male nudity and, in their defense, it was very cold! [NOTE: I deleted the link because some of those going into the water might have been under 18.]

Hell has already frozen over!

And, now it's going to snow!

Something between three and eight-hundred inches? Does it really matter?

The expected wind chills are supposed to be -26F with blowing snow.

My sister has been here for a visit but left today to try to get ahead of the pending storm.

Send popcorn.