Jewel Evelyn "Judy" Koehler, beloved aunt, RIP 11/11/1929-11/25/2008

Found out last night when I came home from work that my beloved Aunt Judy passed away. Ironically, I was lobbying the family to go see her just last week. She had severe diabetes and was in a nursing home down in Joplin due to the fact that none of us could get her to take care of herself and take her medicine. Since we (meaning the family) didnt have the money to pay for her care (well, I sure didnt, but some of us did and didn't lift a finger to help...my family's that way sometimes. The ones that care can't afford to help and the ones that can afford to help don't care...), the nursing home took her social security money and paid for her care thru that and Medicaid. They also placed her status as a "ward of the state" since her family couldn't afford her care. The state of MO is forcing upon us several issues - such as cremation instead of burial, etc. - and its bothersome, but, what can one do when one is economically powerless to fight it.
She almost died about 5 years ago - was in a diabetic coma for a couple of days - and came out afterwards in poor physical condition in a wheelchair for the remainder of her days. This is the woman who taught me how to dance, how to respect others opinions and how to appreciate what I have. Due to severe manic depression she suffered through in the latter stages of her adult life which developed into full blown schitzophrenia (she fought this disease throughtout her life, but, as she aged, it became worse and worse (thus the reasoning behind her not taking care of herself medication-wise, and the reasoning behind some of the family's decision not to help (my assumption, however, folks must realize that blood is thicker, as they say...))), she didnt really have much of a life, however, she was kind and gracious in her younger years, and in her later years as well when she was coherent. She was loved and she will be missed. Have her in your thoughts and prayers on this holiday of thanksgiving. I know we will, and will be giving thanks that she is in a better place (I hate that phrasing sometimes, how do we know, right??? But, as she suffered later in life, I believe that yes, this is true now...) and that we had the chance to experience her life, regardless of difficulties or successes, for the length of time that we did. Rest in peace, Judy.

Your nephew
David

something to ponder between tasks...

“If you take a picture of cheese, what does it say?”

uncomfortable news from across the pond...

From the UK’s The Sun tabloid –

A 50-year-old vicar recently turned up in agony at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield -- with a potato up his rectory. The clergyman told incredulous nurses he had pitched backwards onto his kitchen table while hanging curtains in the nude and well…why does God do bad things to good people? The rear reverend had to undergo a delicate operation to extract the offending spud, which was hardly the rummiest thing medics have pulled from people’s bums including a cuke, a can of deodorant, a Russian Matrushka doll -- and a carnation…(brings a new meaning to the song title “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation”, eh???)

a little BC in the AD...

Millions of years ago, there was no such thing as the wheel. One day, some primitive guys were watching their wives struggling to drag a dead mastodon to the fire area. It was exhausting work and the guys were getting tired just watching them. Then they noticed some large, smooth, rounded boulders nearby -- and they got a great idea, which you could still do in those days! So they went and sat on top of those boulders and got much better view of their struggling wives. And that, dear friends, was the first in a series of breakthroughs that led to TV and ultimately the remote control…thus began the war between the sexes....(grin!)

this is a totally cock-eyed story...

Rooster arrested in Benton, Ill.

By Becky Malkovich

THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN

11/04/2008

BENTON, Ill. -- A rooster played chicken in the wrong town.

That's the word from the downstate community of Benton, where police took a rooster into custody after it allegedly confronted a woman and her child.

Police Chief Mike O'Neill says the rooster has been bothering people lately, trying to keep them from getting where they want to go.

O'Neill says officers had enough on Monday and took the rooster into custody after what he described as a brief scuffle.

Nobody was injured and the rooster was thrown in an enclosed area near the police department. There, it lived on chicken feed and water until police located the owner. Chickens aren't allowed to live in Benton and the rooster was turned over to the owner only after he promised to find it a new home in the country.

so much for pathos...

Ancient Greeks pre-empted Dead Parrot sketch
By Daniel Flynn
Reuters News Service
Fri Nov 14, 2:15 pm ET

ATHENS (Reuters) – "I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it."
For those who believe the ancient Greeks thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch where a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead.
The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said Friday.
"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
In a British comedy act Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, first aired in 1969 and regularly voted one of the funniest ever, the pet-shop owner says the parrot, a "Norwegian Blue," is not dead, just "resting" or "pining for the fjords."
The English-language book will appeal to those who swear that the old jokes are the best ones. Many of its 265 gags will seem strikingly familiar, suggesting that sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence have raised laughs for centuries.
FAR-FETCHED CLOAK
In many of the jokes, a slow-witted figure known as the "student dunce" is the butt of the jokes. In one, the student dunce goes to the city and a friend asks him to buy two 15-year-old slaves: No problem,' responds the dunce. If I don't find two 15-year-olds, I'll get one 30-year-old.'
In another, someone asks to borrow the student's cloak to go down to the country. "I have a cloak to go down to your ankle, but I don't have one that reaches to the country," he replies.
The manuscript is attributed to a pair of ancient comedians called Hierocles and Philagrius. Little is known about them except that they were most likely the compilers of the jokes, not the original writers.
The multi-media e-book, which can be purchased online, features veteran British comedian Jim Bowen, 71, reviving the lines before a 21-century audience.
"Jim Bowen brings them back from the dead. It's like Jurassic Park for jokes," Richard Stephenson, CEO of digital publisher YUDU, said in a statement.
For Bowen, much of the material seemed very familiar: "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in peoples' acts nowadays, slightly updated: they put in a motor car instead of a chariot."
Other one-liners in Philogelos may baffle a modern audience, such as a series of jokes about a lettuce, which only make sense in light of the ancient belief it was an aphrodisiac.
(editing by Peter Millership)

just in case you've heard entirely too much about the 08 election...

Bacon wins over Fries in tasty Colorado race

Thu Nov 6, 6:31 am ET

LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) – There was a tasty race for Colorado senate when voters got to choose between Bacon and Fries.

In the end, Bacon won.

Democrat incumbent Bob Bacon defeated Republican challenger Matt Fries on Tuesday 63 percent to 37 percent to represent the district that encompasses most of Larimer County in northern Colorado.

"I am so pleased that the voters appreciate the work that I have done," Bacon said

Bacon originally was elected to the seat in 2004 after serving three terms in the state House of Representatives. Fries is a long time education advocate.