Baker Library June 28,2005
My First try using a digital camera
PENN'S PEN ITEMS. 3/9/10 Click here for more updates
Latest entrees are just below Picture "Closeness and Companionship"
and Looking for Faces.Closeness and companionship
A dog's prayer: Thank you for sending me to Timmy's House and not Micheal Vick's.
LOOKING FOR FACES
THESE ARE FASCINATING CHECK THEM ALL OUT, LOOK CLOSE!!
Weird walking cow. Warning do not view while drinking
CAN YOU SEE 10 FACES IN THE TREE
THERE'S A FACE IN HERE. CAN YOU SEE IT?
CAN YOU SEE THE BABY?
CAN YOU SEE THE KISSING COUPLE?
CAN YOU SEE THE THREE WOMEN?
Can you tell the difference between a horse and a frog? Watch closely...
3/9/10Proud to be an American
Sentence of Reid
Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into
his shoe and tried to light it?
Did you know his trial is over?
Did you know he was sentenced?
Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or
Radio?
Didn't think so.
Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.
Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.
Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he
had anything to say. His response: After admitting his
guilt to the court for the record, Reid also admitted his "allegiance
to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah," defiantly
stating, "I think I will not apologize for my actions," and told the
court "I am at war with your country."
Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:
January 30, 2003, United States vs. Reid. Judge Young:
"Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court
imposes upon you.
On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in
prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General. On
counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on
each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutively. (That's
80 years.)
On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years
again, to be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The
Court imposes upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000
that's an aggregate fine of $2 million. The Court accepts the
government's recommendation with respect to restitution and orders
restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to
American Airlines.
The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment.
The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release
simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real
life sentences so I need go no further.
This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes.
It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.
Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you
or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans.
We have been through the fire before. There is too much war talk
here and I say that to every-one with the utmost respect. Here in
this court, we deal with individuals as individuals and care for
individuals as individuals. As human beings, we reach out for
justice.
You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You
are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that
reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature.
Whether the officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or
if you think you are a soldier. You are not----- you are a terrorist.
And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with
terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them
down one by one and bring them to justice.
So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big
fellow. But you are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known
warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty
of multiple attempted murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper
Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and
into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV crews were,
and he said: "You're no big deal."
You are no big deal.
What your able counsel and what the equally able United
States attorneys have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I
know how tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific.
What was it that led you here to this courtroom today?
I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I
ask you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of
unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty and admit you are
guilty of doing? And, I have an answer for you. It may not satisfy
you, but as I search this entire record, it comes as close to
understanding as I know.
It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most
precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our
individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose,
to believe or not believe as we individually choose. Here, in this
society, the very wind carries freedom. It carries it everywhere from
sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual freedom so much
that you are here in this beautiful courtroom. So that everyone can
see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and
discretely. It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving
so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their
representation of you before other judges.
We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know
that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own
liberties. Make no mistake though. It is yet true that we will bare
any burden; pay any price, to preserve our freedoms. Look around this
courtroom. Mark it well. The world is not going to long remember
what you or I say here. The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten,
but this, however, will long endure.
Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America,
the American people will gather to see that justice, individual
justice, justice, not war, individual justice is in fact being done.
The very President of the United States through his officers will
have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific
matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to sit and
judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our
sense of justice.
See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United
States of America That flag will fly there long after this is all
forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.
Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.
So, how much of this Judge's comments did we hear on our TV
sets? We need more judges like Judge Young, but that's another
subject. Pass this around. Everyone should and needs to hear what
this fine judge had to say. Powerful words that strike home. God
bless America
|
2/22/2010
Subject: Where to Eat?
|
2/1/10
A bit more humor for the coldest month of the year
'Please note that this Bank is installing new Drive-through ATM machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles.
Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts.
After months of careful research, MALE &FEMALE Procedures have been developed. Please follow the Appropriate steps for your gender.'
*******************************
MALE PROCEDURE:
1. Drive up to the cash machine.
2. Put down your car window.
3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN.
4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw.
5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt.
6. Put window up.
7. Drive off.
FEMALE PROCEDURE:
What is really funny is that most of this part is the Truth.!!!!
1. Drive up to cash machine.
2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align
car window with the machine.
3. Set parking brake, put the window down.
4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card.
5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.
6. Attempt to insert card into machine.
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from
the car.
8. Insert card.
9. Re-insert card the right way.
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.
11. Enter PIN.
12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN.
13. Enter amount of cash required.
14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.
15. Retrieve cash and receipt.
16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place
cash inside.
17. Write debit amount in check register and place
receipt in back of checkbook.
18. Re-check makeup.
19. Drive forward 2 feet.
20. Reverse back to cash machine.
21. Retrieve card.
22. Re-empty handbag, locate cardholder, and place
card into the slot provided!
23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind
you.
24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.
25. Redial person on cell phone.
26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.
27. Release Parking Brake.
Subject: : The Folded
Napkin
A Truckers
Story
If this doesn't light your fire..your wood's
wet!
I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about
hiring Stevie. His
placement counselor assured me that he would be a good,
reliable
busboy. But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and
wasn't
sure I wanted one. I wasn't sure how my customers would react to
Stevie.
He was short, a little dumpy with the smooth facial
features and
thick-tongued speech of Downs Syndrome. I wasn't worried about
most of
my trucker customers because truckers don't generally care who buses
tables as long as the meatloaf platter is good and the pies are
homemade.
The four-wheeler drivers were the ones who concerned me;
the mouthy
college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly
polish
their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded
'truck stop germ' the pairs of white-shirted business men on expense
accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to be flirted with.
I knew those people would be uncomfortable around Stevie so I closely
watched him for the first few weeks.
I shouldn't have worried. After
the first week, Stevie had my staff
wrapped around his stubby little finger,
and within a month my truck
regulars had adopted him as their official truck
stop mascot.
After that, I really didn't care what the rest of the
customers thought
of him. He was like a 21-year-old in blue jeans and
Nikes, eager to
laugh and eager to please, but fierce in his attention to
his duties.
Every salt and pepper shaker was exactly in its place, not a
bread
crumb or coffee spill was visible when Stevie got done with the table.
Our only problem was persuading him to wait to clean a table until
after the customers were finished. He would hover in the background,
shifting his weight from one foot to the other, scanning the dining
room
until a table was empty. Then he would scurry to the empty table
and
carefully bus dishes and glasses onto his cart and meticulously
wipe the
table up with a practiced flourish of his rag.
If he thought a customer
was watching, his brow would pucker with added
concentration. He took pride
in doing his job exactly right, and you
had to love how hard he tried to
please each and every person he met.
Over time, we learned that he
lived with his mother, a widow who was
disabled after repeated surgeries for
cancer. They lived on their
Social Security benefits in public housing two
miles from the truck
stop. Their social worker, who stopped to check on him
every so often,
admitted they had fallen between the cracks. Money was
tight, and what
I paid him was probably the difference between them being
able to live
together and Stevie being sent to a group home. That's why the
restaurant was a gloomy place that morning last August, the first
morning in three years that Stevie missed work.
He was at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester getting a new valve or something
put in his heart. His
social worker said that people with Downs
Syndrome often have heart problems
at an early age so this wasn't
unexpected, and there was a good chance he
would come through the
surgery in good shape and be back at work in a few
months.
A ripple of excitement ran through the staff later that morning
when
word came that he was out of surgery, in recovery, and doing
fine.
Frannie, the head waitress, let out a war hoop and did a little
dance
in the aisle when she heard the good news.
Belle Ringer, one of
our regular trucker customers, stared at the sight
of this 50-year-old
grandmother of four doing a victory shimmy beside
his
table.
Frannie blushed, smoothed her apron and shot Belle Ringer a
withering
look.
He grinned. 'OK, Frannie, what was that all
about?' he asked.
'We just got word that Stevie is out of surgery and going
to be okay.'
'I was wondering where he was. I had a new joke to tell him.
What was
the surgery about?'
Frannie quickly told Belle Ringer and the
other two drivers sitting at
his booth about Stevie's surgery, then sighed:
'Yeah, I'm glad he is
going to be OK,' she said. 'But I don't know how he
and his Mom are
going to handle all the bills. From what I hear, they're
barely
getting by as it is.' Belle Ringer nodded thoughtfully, and Frannie
hurried off to wait on the rest of her tables. Since I hadn't had time
to round up a busboy to replace Stevie and really didn't want to
replace
him, the girls were busing their own tables that day until we
decided what
to do.
After the morning rush, Frannie walked into my office. She had a
couple of paper napkins in her hand and a funny look on her
face.
'What's up?' I asked.
'I didn't get that table where
Belle Ringer and his friends were
sitting cleared off after they left, and
Pony Pete and Tony Tipper were
sitting there when I got back to clean it
off,' she said. 'This was
folded and tucked under a coffee cup.'
She
handed the napkin to me, and three $20 bills fell onto my desk when
I opened
it. On the outside, in big, bold letters, was printed
'Something For
Stevie'.
'Pony Pete asked me what that was all about,' she said, 'so I
told him
about Stevie and his Mom and everything, and Pete looked at Tony
and
Tony looked at Pete, and they ended up giving me this' She handed me
another paper napkin that had 'Something For Stevie' scrawled on its
outside. Two $50 bills were tucked within its folds. Frannie looked at
me with wet, shiny eyes, shook her head and said simply: 'truckers.'
That was three months ago. Today is Thanksgiving, the first day Stevie
is supposed to be back to work.
His placement worker said he's been
counting the days until the doctor
said he could work, and it didn't matter
at all that it was a holiday.
He called 10 times in the past week, making
sure we knew he was
coming, fearful that we had forgotten him or that his
job was in
jeopardy. I arranged to have his mother bring him to work. I
then met
them in the parking lot and invited them both to celebrate his day
back.
Stevie was thinner and paler, but couldn't stop grinning as he
pushed
through the doors and headed for the back room where his apron and
busing cart were waiting.
'Hold up there, Stevie, not so fast,' I
said. I took him and his
mother by their arms. 'Work can wait for a
minute. To celebrate you
coming back, breakfast for you and your mother is
on me!' I led them
toward a large corner booth at the rear of the
room.
I could feel and hear the rest of the staff following behind as
we
marched through the dining room. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw
booth after booth of grinning truckers empty and join the procession.
We
stopped in front of the big table Its surface was covered with
coffee cups,
saucers and dinner plates, all sitting slightly crooked on
dozens of folded
paper napkins. 'First thing you have to do, Stevie,
is clean up this mess,'
I said. I tried to sound stern.
Stevie looked at me, and then at his
mother, then pulled out one of the
napkins. It had 'Something for Stevie'
printed on the outside. As he
picked it up, two $10 bills fell onto the
table.
Stevie stared at the money, then at all the napkins peeking from
beneath the tableware, each with his name printed or scrawled on it. I
turned to his mother. 'There's more than $10,000 in cash and checks on
that table, all from truckers and trucking companies that heard about
your problems. 'Happy Thanksgiving,'.
Well, it got real noisy about that
time, with everybody hollering and
shouting, and there were a few tears, as
well.
But you know what's funny? While everybody else was busy shaking hands
and hugging each other, Stevie, with a big, big smile on his face, was
busy clearing all the cups and dishes from the table.
Best worker I ever
hired.
Plant a seed and watch it grow.
1/4/10 Another great story to begin this New Year
THE LAB STORY (I have a lab, Sophie, who was 6 when I got her 4 years ago. Hence, I really appreciate this story.)
______________________________________
To: Whoever Gets My Dog:
Well, I can't say that I'm happy you're reading this, a letter I told the shelter could only be opened by Reggie's new owner. I'm not even happy writing it. If you're reading this, it means I just got back from my last car ride with my Lab after dropping him off at the shelter. He knew something was different. I have packed up his pad and toys before and set them by the back door before a trip, but this time... it's like he knew something was wrong. And something is wrong... which is why I have to go to try to make it right.
Give him a good home, and give him an extra kiss goodnight - every night - from me.
__________________________________
HISTORY LESSON
Railroad tracks. This is fascinating.
The
US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.
That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Well, because
that's the way they built them in England , and English engineers designed the
first US railroads.
Why did the English build them like that? Because
the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways,
and that's the gauge they used.
So, why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that
they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing.
Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they
tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some
of the old, long distance roads in England .. You see, that's the spacing of
the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome
built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their
legions.. Those roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the
roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to
match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were
made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is
derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a
specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with
this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just
wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses'
asses.)
Now,
the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on
its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the
main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by
Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers
who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the
SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The
railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains,
and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than
the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as
two horses' behinds.
This information was in The New York Times several
weeks ago as part of their "Spotlight on the Home" series that highlighted creative and fanciful ways to solve common problems.
1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6,
Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.
2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.
3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.
4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in
a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.
5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!
6.
Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber
slices
before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free.
Cucumbers contain
enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essentialnutrients
the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover
and headache!!
7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge?
Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, tradersand explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.8.
Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you
don't
have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber
over the
shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only
looks great but also repels water.
9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!
10.
Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to
the
spa?
Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water,
the chemicals
and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be
released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that hasbeen
shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final
exams.
11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.
12.
Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless
steel?
Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to
clean, not
only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but
is won't
leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.
13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!
Pass this along to everybody you know who is looking for better and safer ways to solve life's everyday problems..