Digging the new tabbed format. 🙂

I want a way to toggle off that thread thing…

owie.

Common belief is that SOS stands for “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls” or “Stop Other Signals” or “Stomp Out Stupidity” or “Sale on Socks.” (Not really, I made those last two up.) In fact, SOS in not an acronym and it doesn’t represent anything at all.

Samuel Morse devised his telegraph code in 1835, using combinations of dots and dashes that he thought would be easy to memorize. The first distress signal was CQD, the “CQ” for a general notice that a message is coming, and “D” for “danger” or “distress.” However, this was cumbersome. In Morse Code, CQD was: -.-. –.- -..

So CQD was dropped.

In 1908, an international committee tried to come up with a distress signal that would be easy to remember during a crisis, and could be transmitted by an amateur with only rudimentary knowledge of Morse Code. They decided a simple combination of threes: three letters, each represented by three marks, since three is a universally favored number. Well, at least in Western cultures.

In Morse Code, the only letters represented by three identical marks are O (three dashes) and S (three dots). The committee toyed with OSO, but dashes are longer electrical signals to transmit than dots. An urgent message needed to be broadcast as quickly as possible and use as little power as possible, and so SOS became international standard.

During WWII, the signal “SSS” was adopted when the source of the emergency was a submarine attack, presumably so that potential rescue ships would know there was an enemy sub in the area.

In 1917, Edwin Cox of San Francisco dipped a small square steel-wool pad into a soap solution, and let it dry, and found this product sold well to housewives. His wife referred to the pads as “S.O.S.” for “Save Our Saucepans” believing (incorrectly) that the universal distress signal SOS meant “Save Our Ships.” Mr Cox took on S.O.S. (with the periods) as the name of his new product. The distress signal SOS has no periods in it, for obvious telegraphic reasons.

“But today he only saw one of the river’s secrets, one that gripped his soul. He saw that the water continually flowed and flowed and yet it was always there; it was always the same and yet every moment it was new. Who could understand, conceive this? He did not understand it; he was only aware of a dim suspicion, a faint memory, divine voices.”
Hermann Hesse from the book Siddhartha

sweetalyssm and I have been talking about classic foods… well, maybe not classic, but stuff folks ate 60 or more years ago. Pancreas with chicken liver dressing. Headcheese.

The Butcher Shop bears noticing… click on the head. 🙂

a whole mess of recipes for DarkTrain and his Gramma! Vittles!

Muskrat Stew

1 muskrat cut into pieces
flour
salt and pepper
2 1/2 Tb. butter
7 cups boiling water
1 tsp. thyme
1 cup corn
3 potatoes, cubed
1/4 tsp. cayenne
3 medium onions, sliced
2 cups canned tomatoes with juice

Roll the muskrat pieces in flour, salt, and pepper. Brown in
butter. Add muskrat and all other ingredients, (with the
exception of the tomatoes), to the boiling water, cover, and
simmer for 1/2 to 2 hours. Add the tomatoes and continue to
simmer another hour.

Serves 4

Bug City

Well… I… happened to…
Find me a buggy
Coming out from under a rock in the grass
He got his bug luggage
No time to talk he’s walkin’ fast

He’s heading for a log where the lady bugs are plentiful
He showed me some brochures and I must say it was beautiful
I’m belly down and bendin’ back the blades
Bug stopped just long enough for him to say

I’m on my way… to bug citay
I’m on my way… to bug citay

If you wanna dance with a buggy
Put all six feet on the ground
A bug will pick up your luggage
And drive you straight into town
When you’re safe from the spray and the kitty and the chase
If bugs can make it there they could make it anyplace
Between the sun going going down and the sun coming up
Bug city’s rocking’ yea that feather pluckin’ log is lit up

I’m on my way… to bug citay

And they’re all going to bug city for the night

I will say one thing. I won’t proselytize for the LJ, until folks can post and read comfortably. after that, call me minister scotto of the LJ tabernacle. 🙂

between this and proxy, again, I’m locked out today…

Error

Likely reasons you’re seeing this:

• Network congestion. We’re not hooked up the OC3 yet… we’re on a temporary 1.5 Mbps line at the colo place. It can’t handle the traffic. We should get a fast connection within a few days… I thought we would have got it sooner. :-/

I’m doing everything I can to find ways to get more bandwidth and offload parts of the site elsewhere for now. Sorry … if it makes you feel any better, the servers aren’t even breaking a sweat… it’s just the network connection that sucks now.

this

Why do I not feel any sense of worry about this?

Daisy, Daisy,
Give me your answer do
I’m half crazy,
All for the love of you
It won’t be a stylish marriage
I can’t afford a carriage
But you’ll look sweet
Upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two

Michael, Michael
Here is your answer true.
I’ll not cycle
Over the world with you.
If you can’t afford a carriage,
There won’t be any marriage.
‘Cause I’ll be damned,
If I’ll be crammed
On a bicycle built for two!

Divide children into two sets of equal numbers.
Have one set join hands and form a circle, the others
in the center of the ring, in crouching position.

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
(Children in circle skip to the left while singing)

Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie!
(Children in circle skip to the right,
then stretch arms up toward center to form the pie.)

When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
(Children in circle bring arms back down
to waist level, then children in center of ring
begin to ‘chirp’ and ‘tweet’)

Wasn’t that a dainty dish
To set before the king?
(Children in circle skip to the left;
children in center flutter about like birds.)

The king was in his counting house,
Counting all the money;
(Children in circle walk backward
four steps then pretend to count money;
children in center keep fluttering like birds)

The queen was in the parlor,
Eating bread with honey
(Children in circle walk forward
four steps, kneel and pretend to eat;
children in center keep fluttering like birds)

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
(Children in circle pretend to pick up clothes,
then turn outward and hang them up.)

When down came a blackbird
Who snapped off her nose!
(Children in center flutter to, and run around,
those in the circle, one bird to one child, each snapping
off a nose. Those in the circle kneel and the birds each
hold up one finger to represent the nose.)

I’m in a few places right now, primarily good, but under a bit of stress.

I’ll be changing jobs, soon… one way or the other. I’m not confident that my position here will exist by the time my birthday rolls around, which is less than a month away. (at this writing, it’s at 21 days, 17 hours, 49 minutes, 8 sec.)

Potential jobs in the future doing contract work, and perhaps some financial management for a local club. (at least until I find something more stable) . Just Called Suzy up, and she may have a gig lined up for me, and it seems that she’s going to want some of my help for something. (I hope it’s not financial, as I’m trying to gear up for some belt-tightening, in case of hungrier times ahead. I don’t think I’ll have to, but I’m happier safe than sorry.

Going out with Pix & Joel tonight for supper, picking up some info regarding the project she needs done, and handing it off to Kev. I may do it as a personal excersize too, but not until I find a steady, paying gig.

Looking into the future, I see good things. I see a better job (maybe a 9 to 5 gig, with more pay, and a more beneficial to humanity service) , a continually growing relationship with the girl that I love (I love her more every passing day… how is it possible? She’s so wonderful… patient, kind, loving, thoughtful, smart, sexy, beautiful….) and hopefully more improvements in my life. A bigger place to live, thinknig again about getting a pal for Newton, who has been such a wonderful element in my life. Spiritually, I see growth ahead, too.

All and all a good bundle.

Happy Birfday, ZenDaisy!