Opie, Andy Griffith, and the Fonz are back! This IS a political video created by Ron Howard, but it’s worth a look for the nostalgia factor. There is a very short ad at the beginning of this version, but it’s the only one I could figure out how to embed.
Apparently that video is no longer available on YouTube. Instead, see Ron Howard’s 40 year old Opie at Huffington Post. Thanks for the heads up, Theresa!
In the spirit of procrastination (articles due? piles of books to read? beds to make? laundry?):
Bold the things you’ve done and will admit to.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (I’m easily satisfied!)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (does a wall count?)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (ew!)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
Have you ever? Let me know if you join in, so I can read your answers.
Via MommyBrain
It’s been a busy few weeks, and that promises to continue. I spent the past weekend in Florida for a writer’s conference - there are real people behind all of those magazine stories and books you read! It was nice to meet some. Here are a few things I discovered while gone:
The crater that’s been spewing smoke and VOG since March is showing off a little. Check out this cool video.
Have you noticed that my wistful, wishful posts about Hawai’i have increased steadily as the temperature here decreases? Go figure.
Well, for a day, anyway. We spent Saturday at the Wine Country ‘Ukulele Festival in Napa. There aren’t too many things I’m willing to get up before dawn and drive long distances for, but the chance to touch base with some island friends, listen to Hawaiian music, and hook Brad up with a few workshops? That’s one.
Konabob jammin’ with Uncle Kimo Hussey
Hemispheres magazine (the United Airlines in-flight) is offering free downloads of eleven popular Hawaiian songs. Add a little aloha to your Friday afternoon!
Hubby: What did you guys do today?
Eldest son: I got a great skirt at the thrift store!
Halloween’s a-comin’
If you’ve heard anything about the honeybee colony collapse, you know that the dying off of bees has the potential to impact our world and food supply pretty drastically. The good news? We CAN do something about it.
We need help getting the word out about Michael Schacker’s book, “A Spring Without Bees, How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply“.
Michael’s book is the only authoritative book out on the the major suspected cause of massive honeybee die-offs–a widely used neurotoxic pesticide. The insecticide should be technically illegal because each of the combined ingredients, nicotine and chlorine have been banned in pesticide formulas previously–the combination is extremely poisonous. They were shoved through the approval process without testing for toxicity for pregnant women or young children on an “emergency provisionary basis”. It is in most lawn maintenance or “Chem Lawn” type mixes–(the books tells you the many names of the chemical so you can know what is on the label). So the problem is not just out there in the fruits and vegetable and alfalfa fields, our children are rolling around in it and we are tracking it into our homes on our feet! France, Germany, Spain and Italy have banned this class of pesticides. In France, it took several years for the soil to recover, but the bees did come back. In addition, Michael Schacker is the only person to have designed a comprehensive plan on how to save the bees and our food supply. But Michael had a CVA and then a massive left hemipshere stroke just the day after completing the book! He is unable to tour the country or speak about all the information in the book, so my daughter Melissa and I along with a few friends are trying to do it. [emphasis mine] With running 2 companies and overseeing Michael’s speech recovery or stroke recovery, I feel I am not doing a good enough job with promoting his book and getting the word out about the real story on this.
The beekeepers are going bankrupt–and there is “domino effect” (explained in the book) to this particular environmental crisis. We have to work on this now! Rachel Carson’s, “Silent Spring” only became a best seller because it got on the Book of the Month Club and because a Supreme Court justice recommended it. Even so, it took another 10 years to ban DDT! Without a best seller, I believe we have little chance of getting the word out and overcoming the misinformation that continually replicates itself about the honeybee and the potential food and fresh produce crisis–a worldwide crisis.
From my research, email lists are the new “book of the month”. I need to get on as many email lists of people who are interested in the organic lifestyle, the environment and planetary survival as possible. If you can refer us to any lists that would be a great help. Also in your message to your email list, you can tell people to copy and paste and then email to their lists so we get a “word of mouth” campaign going. The request to send to other email lists of friends of bees and friends of the Earth should be replicated in each message.
You can help right away by buying a copy of “A Spring Without Bees” and reading it. It is not a “depressing environmental disaster” book, but rather is written in a surprisingly smart, easy style, almost like a mystery novel–you’ll see! Then you can pass the book along to a friend and ask them to put the message out on their email or urge them to buy a copy and pass it along if they wish. You can also go to Plan Bee Central online to sign up for the Plan Bee Action Plan and to find out more about what you can do to ban these pesticides. Buy a copy for Thanksgiving and give thanks to the bees for creating the food you are eating. Buy them as Christmas or holiday gifts so that people can read them over the winter and be prepared to ban locally, plant their bee garden or get their hive to replenish honeybee populations in the spring. I guarantee you will be rewarded for your efforts by meeting a lot of nice people on this journey–I have!
Feel free to–and please–copy and paste this message into your email list or send it to someone with an email list who would be interested. I am so very grateful for your interest and your help. –Barbara Dean Schacker, (his wife)
Nominations are now open for the 2008 Cybils Awards. Head on over and nominate YOUR favorite new book in one of nine categories. It’s your chance to tell the world about your favorite book or author.
The rain is here. The cold is here. Not the bone chilling cold that I know will shock me again in another couple of months, but the cold weather that reminds me that we are ill equipped for the upcoming winter. Long pants haven’t been a part of our wardrobe for over three years now. The heavy winter coats that I stored are laughably too small for both boys. All of our shoes are open-toed. And Evan came in today, asking for slippers. The fuzzy kind, not the rubber slipper beach kind. I daresay we’ll be forced to actually shop within the next week or so, which is nobody’s favorite activity around here.
The boys are (in shorts) reveling in the cool weather, taking the opportunity to modify their mountain bike track while the ground is soft, and without breaking a sweat.
The garden is wet and limp, with green tomatoes begging to be rescued from the cold. I managed to pick one last batch of ripe tomatoes, and the canner is bubbling with jars of salsa. The green tomatoes, once they come in, will become chow chow. I’m feeling very much like a squirrel, getting ready for the winter. If only I had such a nice coat!
