Hi Ho Hi Ho, Its Off To Jail We Go!

Matt over at My Side of The Story has been featuring Saturday morning cartoons and sugary bowls of cereal. These cartoons demonstrate the obvious genius of the animating storytellers.

Surely, Walt Disney was one of those.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, made in 1937, was the first full length animated feature to be produced by Walt Disney, and the first American animated feature film in movie history.

It's a little known fact that it was based on a true story familiar to many employed in the pharmaceutical business.

The actual, true to life story, is about Beige White, a nurse who tended shut-ins and invalids, primarily and notably, the Seven Orange Cones. The Seven Cones, I'm sure you are all familiar with and know their names:

There was Doc, who with the aid of a stolen prescription pad, wrote out orders for himself and the rest of the cones. He, of course was later the inspiration for the Fox Networks TV series, House.

Sneezy, poor little cone, was always getting antihistamines, like Allegra, Clarinex, and Zyrtec D.

Sleepy, was always strung out on massive doses of Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata, and Rozerem in varying combinations.

Dopey, was really dopey! He guzzled NyQuil PM around the clock, even in the AM!

Happy, was the result of a modern medical miracle along with large amounts of Prozac and Zoloft, with some Lamisil to treat the main problem of having frequently wet feet, thrown in for good measure.

Bashful, needed copious amounts of Levitra and Viagra for things... to work.

Grumpy was the guy that drove the other six cones to work every day and the traffic and bad drivers made him grumpy - well that, and always getting the leftover medications that the other cones didn't want - mostly epidural spinal injections.

One day, while Beige White was cleaning the filthy mess the Seven Cones had made of their home - she saw this:


Picture supplied by Photojournalist Marmite Toasty (who should be in no way blamed for this entry)

She heard the Seven Cones singing lustily, feeling no pain after having been just arrested for a night of hooliganism, their favorite song:

Hi Ho Hi Ho, Its Off To Jail We Go!!
We pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
All our Meds the whole day through
To pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Its what we like to do
It ain't no trick
To knick some tricks
If ya pop pop pop
With a shovel or a spoon

--inaudible--

There's a million tablets
'N they're miiinnnneee!
We pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
From early mornin' til' night
We pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Up everything in sight

Don't you agree? Wasn't Walt Disney a genius? I'm sure the screenwriter had to some really heavy-duty editing.

Ha ha ha HA ha!

I couldn't resist... Perhaps I hit that tree with my head harder than I thought. Speaking of which, someone asked me how much damage I had done... not to my head, but to the tree. Nice guy huh? :)

So, having very little post-whack memory of my surroundings, yesterday I retraced my steps and walked back down the trail to the site of the incident and, well... only one word immediately came to mind...


Oops. The score: Hard Headed Iggy 1 - Hard Wood Tree 0.

Just kidding... really... I just found that tree that way... Honest.


Woodpecker damage to the wood-siding on my house. The woodpecker is gone now, but there is a red breasted Robin's nest in there now. When the Robin is done with the nest, I'll seal up the holes. The largest hole nearly 3 1/2 inches around.

Woodpeckers are protected by federal and state laws.

More information can be found on the Colorado State University website.

That Ought To Knock Some Sense In Me

While walking in the woods Sunday, I heard this RAT-TA-TA-TAT! coming from over my head. I stopped walking in the crunchy gravel to listen to the woodpecker hammering away at an old hardwood Walnut tree.

The Pileated Woodpecker was the inspiration for the cartoon character - Woody Woodpecker. Secretly I was hoping to hear, Mel Blanc's "ha-ha-ha-HA-ha".

I finally spotted him or her in this tree. It scurried around the trunk so I started to walk around the tree to keep it in sight, hoping to take its picture.


"My" elusive woodpecker is in the notch just left of center. You might just barely see its red plume. Around and around the tree we went. "Woody" just ran up and down the branches as if it were on level ground while I shuffled and stumbled through the brambles and the underbrush.


Ah ha! Finally a clear(er) shot! No sooner than I took the picture I whacked my head into a tree as I continued to move right, to get this bird to show in the picture frame!

I fell and scratched my face up, but managed to protect the camera from harm. After my eyes refocused and I caught my breath, I got up and brushed myself off and found my cap.

When I got home and looked at the pictures - I discovered this isn't a Pilated Woodpecker after all - its either a Downy Woodpecker, or more likely, a Hairy Woodpecker... but I can't tell from the hard earned but crummy picture.

Move over Charlie... I'm putting the Pilated Woodpecker on my bucket list of "must get a good one photographs".

Happy Birthday ChicagoLady!

Gosh it was HOT this weekend.

It hit 93F (34C) on Sunday, breaking a record for the area. Did I miss the Spring?

I got out and walked and sweated and took some pictures and sweated some more.

I put some pictures in the photostream on the right. You can click on any of the images, if you want, to "biggify" it. I like the one with all the bluebells in it.

When I got home from walking - I found out why it was so hot out. ChicagoLady has a birthday today and look at all the candles!!


Happy Birthday ChicagoLady - I hope you are enjoying your vacation!

I better put on my steel helmet before she comes back.

Weekend Wordle Time!

It's that time of week again!

It's time for Shan's Weekend Wordles.

Here's what you do:

1) Go to Wordle.net to create your Wordle.

2) Post it on your blog with a link to Shan's Week~End Wordles or Last Shreds Of Sanity.

3) Once that's done, go back to Last Shreds Of Sanity and sign the Mr Linky that she'll have up - this will help direct those who play along to your blog.

Blushing...

I recently got an award from LadyStyx that made me feel really good. She wanted to thank those who have endeavored to put a smile on her face.

I'm truly happy to have done that...as I enjoy the sound of your laughter - for me, its a special treat to see "LOL" or "LMAO" in a comment...and when I see that I've managed to make you smile, I feel like I've helped make the world an ever so slightly better place.

There are some of you - and you know who you are - that I will gladly go the "extra mile" for your smile - and be super daft to get you to laugh.


How could one not like this award? :)

I agree that the other folks LadyStyx awarded this to are award-winning and worthy: Chicagolady, Queenie Jeannie, MarmiteToasty, Yaya, Tori_Z, and ..Pooba.., they have all made me smile and laugh too.

I'd like to pass this award along to:

PunknDeanna - whose heart-warming stories about her grandchild make me smile every time.

Yellow Dog Grannie whose "stumbles" and other irreverent journeys leave me laughing.

My Side of the Story and tag team member, The Wife O Riley, who often pair up and induce hysterics.

Lainie whose life seems to be a fairy tale of late - her obvious joy with her new hubby and all of her family's accomplishments and doings is contagious. One can be envious without being jealous.

And finally, but by no means least, Jess, at Smiles in Easy Open Packages whose upbeat cheery entries always leave me wanting to read more. I know we all want to see more photographs of her part of ye olde England.

LadyStyx was generous with the awards that night...


This is a cool looking award. In addition to all those mentioned above, by me OR by LadyStyx, I'm going to pass this award to: Karla, Gyspy Heart, Sugar Lens, Meme Love, Alice Kay, AusGrl, Celtic Spirit, Whimsical Brainpan, and Dorkys Ramos.

The Return of Shake!

You may (or mercifully, you may not) remember my virtual pet chicken Shake N. Bake.

A while ago, in the throes of a bad cold and drugged up on NyQuil, I lost track of him. I secretly suspected I ate him. I guiltily treasured this last picture I had of him - carrying it in my wallet - and while not highly optimistic, I held some hope I might find him, alive and well.


Late into the nights, I printed flyers and circulars, to distribute on telephone poles, supermarkets, and places where I knew chickens tend to frequent. I even (please don't tell the Postmaster General) stuffed flyers into mailboxes while I was out walking.


Imagine my surprise when yesterday I got a call from the Chicken Roundabout Health and Rehabilitation Center saying Shake, my beloved Shake, wanted to come home! I got into the car and raced over to the rehabilitation center (don't bother me with the details about driving across the Atlantic Ocean) and was reunited with him!

It turns out, he had lost all his feathers and had gotten ghastly pale from long abuse of that dreadful, dreadful drug, NyQuil.

NyQuil, that I had not, in my head cold misery, locked up to keep safe from children. You can only imagine my dismay when I learned my feather-kid was a (hopefully reformed) drug addict. And imagine what my telling you this does to this blog's rating...


Shake's triumphant return from rehab!

He and I spent an hour doing the Rooster Strut on my front lawn to celebrate! Doesn't he look good?! I think he is a spitting image of Marmite Toasty's Cedric!

English Ochas

I wanted to post all the OCHA (Orange Cone Head Aliens) pictures Jess of Smiles in Easy Open Packages sent me because I found them interesting. Not necessarily the cones, but the pretty English town she found them in. Just look at all the flowers everywhere... and the stone buildings... They make me want to go over there for a visit once more.

While you are looking at the pictures, I'll play a little music for you. Ladies and gentlemen, here is Loretta Lynn...


Cone Minder's Daughter

Well, I was born a cone minder's daughter
In a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler
We were poor but we had love
That's the one thing my Daddy made sure of
He positioned cones to make a poor man's dollar

My daddy worked all night to make all them cones shine
All day long in the field hoeing corn
Mama rocked the baby at night
Read the Bible by a coal oil light
And everything would start all over come break of morn


Daddy loved and raised eight kids on a cone minder's pay
Mama scrubbed our clothes on a washboard every day
I've seen her fingers bleed
To complain there was no need
She'd smile in Mama's understanding way

In the summertime we didn't have shoes to wear
But in the wintertime we'd all get a brand new pair
From a mail-order catalogue, money made by selling a hog
Daddy always seemed to get the money somewhere


I'm proud to be a cone minder's daughter
I remember well, the well where I drew water
The work we done was hard
At night we'd sleep, cause we were tired
I never thought I'd ever leave Butcher Holler

Well a lot of things have changed, since way back when
And it's so good to be back home again
Not much left but the floor
Nothing lives here anymore
Just a memory of a cone minder's daughter...

P.s., Butcher Hollow (also known as Butcher Holler) is a coal-mining community located in Johnson County, eastern Kentucky that must have some real romantical cones...

Earth Day 2009

I've been thinking about what to write about today since Kate at Show My Face is doing an Earth Day Challenge on her blog.

At first, I wanted to completely recycle a couple of earlier entries but decided against doing that. I mean, I'm boring enough the first time around right? And then I thought, if I had something to add to Earth Day it would be to make it Earth Every Day. I mean, I'm a tree-hugger. I confessed that here. And I am always picking up litter. I confessed to doing that here.

So, here is my contribution to the Earth Day challenge. I'm going to recycle some pictures that remind me why I appreciate the the one and only Earth we have so much.

~~~**~~~










The plants and the animals count on us to keep a place for them to live.

Blog Rating

Well... I had to laugh at this...

This Blog is Rated

NC-17

intenseguy.blogspot.com

According to the Motion Picture Association America (MPAA):

An NC-17 rated motion picture is one that, in the view of the Rating Board, most parents would consider patently too adult for their children 17 and under. No children will be admitted.

NC-17 does not mean “obscene” or “pornographic” in the common or legal meaning of those words, and should not be construed as a negative judgment in any sense. The rating simply signals that the content is appropriate only for an adult audience. An NC-17 rating can be based on violence, sex, aberrational behavior, drug abuse or any other element that most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-limits for viewing by their children.

Those naughty, naughty turtles and OCHAs...

To check your own blog's rating... Click here

Turtle Beach

This past weekend the weather was so nice I just had to get out of the cabin and take a walk along the Schuylkill River. My legs were complaining so I just took a gentle stroll and enjoy the sun in my face and the warmth in the air.



The grass is gloriously green once more and the fields are covered with spectacular yellow Buttercups and Bluebells.



Nary a spot is uncovered, the flowers are everywhere. The trees, seemingly overnight, came into full green leaf.



I was happy to see my friend the Moose, survived the rigors of the winter. You see him here peering at the White Chin Strap Ducks that arrived from elsewheres.



You may remember this moose isn't really a moose. Its just a tree stump.



I took this picture and then I laughed outloud. In doing so, I spooked all the turtles away - but in my head I could imagine what these guys and gals had been saying.

"Ah, that glorious sunshine!"

"Hey! I was here first, move over!"

"Get off of me!"

"Anyone want to spread some lotion on my back for me?"

"Is it time to face the other way yet?"

"When will they make sunglasses that fit us?"

"Two's company, three's a crowd, and ten is a spring break happening!"

"When those blue bells ring, the ice cream man is here!"

Reflections

I downloaded Windows Live Writer in order to create this entry. I like what I have seen of it so far. The real-time Spellchecker and the special things you can do with pictures are very nice. I can click on the Picture - Advanced tab and easily type in the alternate text so Tori can “see” the picture and I think that is cool! It also makes uploading pictures a breeze. Now I just need to figure out how to source the pictures from my flickr account.

Thank you Punkn for suggesting this free tool! I give it two thumbs up and you can't beat the price.

The picture was taken last Thursday at Valley Forge National Historical Park – Betzwood. The island the tree is on is called Catfish Island - I've never seen any catfish around here, but I'm sure there are some.

Weekend Wordle Time!

It's that time of week again!

It's time for Shan's Weekend Wordles.

Here's what you do:

1) Go to Wordle.net to create your Wordle.

2) Post it on your blog with a link to Shan's Week~End Wordles or Last Shreds Of Sanity.

3) Once that's done, go back to Last Shreds Of Sanity and sign the Mr Linky that she'll have up - this will help direct those who play along to your blog.



My Wordle has been "graphically enhanced..."

Happy Birthday FedEx!

On April 17th 1973, FedEx went "live" and delivered its very first packages after its owner, Frederick W. Smith raised $91 million in venture capital. After adding $4 million of inherited money to his funding, Smith purchased a used aircraft company in Little Rock, Arkansas. He began using the aircraft to provide overnight delivery services for envelopes and small packages being shipped within the United States. Smith incorporated his business, Federal Express, on June 18, 1971. It took him two years to build and test the initial 25-city network, flying empty boxes across the country.

Frederick W. Smith, a Memphis Tennessee, native and a former Marine pilot, originally outlined his idea for an overnight delivery service in a term paper he wrote for a Yale University economics class. He felt that air freight had different requirements than air passenger service and that a company specializing in air freight rather than making it an add-on to passenger service would find a lucrative business niche.

Speed was more important than cost, in Smith's view, and access to smaller cities was essential. His strategies included shipping all packages through a single hub and building a private fleet of aircraft. Company-owned planes would free the service from commercial-airline schedules and shipping regulations, while a single hub would permit the tight control that got packages to their destinations overnight.

In making his dream a reality, Smith selected Memphis as his hub: it was centrally located and despite inclement weather its modern airport rarely closed.

In addition to FedEx, Smith is also a co-owner of the Washington Redskins NFL Team. This partnership resulted in FedEx sponsorship of the Joe Gibbs NASCAR racing team. Smith also owns or co-owns several entertainment companies, including Dream Image Productions and Alcon Films.

My New Pet!

My new pet is coming soon!

If you been following the news, a Polish politician has criticised his local zoo for acquiring a "gay" elephant named Ninio who prefers male companions and will probably not procreate.

"We didn't pay 37 million zlotys (15 million dollars! I hope they had a double-savings coupon!) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there," says Michal Grzes.

"We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?" said Grzes, a conservative councillor in the city of Poznan in western Poland.

The head of the Poznan zoo said 10-year-old Ninio may be too young to decide whether he prefers males or females as elephants only reach sexual maturity at 14.

...but hey... their loss is my gain! And I'm getting ready for him!



How many of you can hear the famous line from Jaws where Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) says, "I think I'm going to need a bigger hand?"

An Inspired Comment Awarding

ChicagoLady, come on down! Its time for you to accept another Blinky Inspired Comment Award!



When I wrote my "Spanning the Globe" entry, I was thinking about creating a TV show that would travel the world to visit with Orange Conehead Aliens (OCHAs). I went and listed cities and places that I knew some of you readers and other friends I have live in (those underlined) and added some more places that I would simply like to go.

Little did I know someone had already written a theme song for the show!

You could do commercials, to promote your show. With pictures of OCHAs, and in the background Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere".

- ChicagoLady

The song, in part, goes:

...I've been everywhere, man.
I've been everywhere, man.
Crossed the desert's bare, man.
I've breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I've had my share, man.
I've been everywhere.

I've been to:
Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota,
Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota,
Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma,
Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma,
Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo,
Tocapillo, Baranquilla, and Perdilla, I'm a killer.

The complete lyrics can be found here.

To go with the theme song, I'm starting a new project - finding songs that feature names of towns and cities so they can be suitably modified, like Frank Sinatra's "The Cone from Ipanema", Billy Joel's "Allentown" and "New York Cone of Mine", Glen Miller's "Chattanooga Cone Cone" and "I Got a Cone in Kalamazoo", Bob Seger's "Cone Out of Denver", ZZ Top's "Coneheads Just Left Chicago"...

I'd love some help. :)

Little Iggy's Brother Tang

Tang...the drink that was developed for astronauts.

It was nearly 6 months ago tomorrow when Little Iggy's big brother Tang went overseas. You may remember (but hopefully you don't) my writing about how the Pointy-haired Boss got jealous of the attention Little Iggy was getting from Tang and schemed to have Tang shipped some place far, far away.

If you don't remember and you really, really have nothing at all better to do, you can read all about it here.

The picture below was taken the last time I saw Tang. I got it framed and hung it on the wall in the break room at my office. Each workday morning, I see this picture and it brings back so many memories.



This morning, while sitting by the window and watching the soft rain drops trickle through the flowering bushes and make puddles, my computer monitor flashed the welcomed words, "New Mail Message!"

It was from Marmite Toasty and included some pictures of Tang!



The first picture was of Tang sitting in the scented "smells like a brothel" hay. I should of known Tang would be... ummm... well, shall we say, checking things out? I must say Tang looks good - the fresh air and southern English climate appears to really agree with him.



The second picture was a relief. Its nice to see Tang behaving like a gentlemen. I have little doubt he was discussing the finer differences between crackers and biscuits; the differences between chips and crisps; and what sort of tea to have at high tea with Janet. In fact, I think Janet seems to be a little bewildered by Tang's "doodle-isms".



Last three photographs provided by new Photojournalist Marmite Toasty!

Tang likes it "overthere", "across the pond", in England. He says he is dating the English girl in the picture above and tells me that English girls are really nice.

I asked him how he could tell if they were English, and he said, "Oh! Are ye daft?! Its bloody obvious mate! Just look at that wee bit of a bob on the top of 'er head! Lovely set of bacons, eh? Her new steves are a bit tight (wink wink!) And such nice pair of brads too! I'll see ya baked!"

I've not the faintest idea what he was going on about.

Spanning the Globe...

This entry dedicated to ski jumper Vinko Bogataj.

Today, I was supposed to fill out a form for my Endocrinologist before I go to his office. His form was the usual stupefying name, address, date of birth, social security number, insurance company name, policy number, phone number, ad nausea, sort of form... and I got to daydreaming but it was the medical form's fault.

It asked me when and where I had been outside of the United States or Canada. I'm not sure why the Endocrinologist needs to know this sort of thing, unless they think I might of been exposed to some bizarre central african virus or something... but in my head I heard the brassy fanfare from the Olympic Games followed by...

"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!"

I've been out of the country a few times... In fact, I sometimes feel like I've been out of the country nearly as often as Jim McKay... and that thought led me to thinking (I heard you say "ut-oh") that I could have done a TV show like Jim's but it would have been a little different. Cue fanfare please...

"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of Ochas... the thrill of pictures... and the agony of the feet... the inhuman drama of standing around mindlessly... This is IGGY's Wide World of OCHAs!"

We would go to China... Thailand, Japan, Korea, Guam, Hawaii, Anchorage, Winnipeg, Owen Sound, Ottawa, Maine-iacville, Jacksonville, Key West, Naples, Pensacola, Gulf Shores, Mobile, Fort Gordon, New Orleans, Abiliene, Saint Paul, Reno, San Diego, Los Angeles, Carlsbad, San Francisco, St Louis, West, Monroeton... to see orange cones and barrels and other critters of interest...



Thanks Photojournalist Punkn!

The Carribean, Brazil, Argentina, Panama City, Belize, Mexico City, Haiti, Aruba, Peru, the Falkland Islands and if we are really lucky, to the fabulous Galapagos to see the exotic blue and red-footed OCHAs.



Thanks Brand New Photojournalist Jess!

And then on to ye ol' England, especially Denmead, The Midlands, and Nottingham; and then Scotland, Ireland and Wales with what promises to be a wonderful break in Carmarthenshire. And then onwards to France, Spain, Germany, Poland, South Africa, New Dehli, and onward to Australia to see the upside down OCHAs down-under.



Thanks Photojournalist LadyStyx!

And then closer to home, back to ol' Virginia, Washington DC, Cleveland, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Boise, Butte, Chicago, Kansas City, Asheville, Toledo, Akron, Rochester, Cinncinnati, New York City, Manchester (NH), and Vancouver and see still more and more and more OCHAs!



Thanks Photojournalist Punkn!

If we are lucky, sometimes, we might not even need to get out of the airplane to see the OCHAs, which is good, because we will need to rest our globe-trotting, agonized feet.

As for Vinko Bogataj, him of the "agony of defeat" fame (video), he returned to ski jumping the next year but never duplicated the success he had before his tumbling crash and retired from the sport competitively. During his career, Bogataj's best career finish was 57th in the individual normal hill event at Bischofshofen, Austria.

Bogataj became a ski instructor, coaching the 1991 World Champion Slovenian ski jumper Franci Petek and supplementing his income by painting, and operating a forklift at a factory that manufactures anchor chains.

Oh well, I'll finish filling out that medical form tomorrow.

The Battle of Palmdale (LBE)

While I was recuperating from a nasty head cold last week, my Dad loaned me a book to read about the X-planes like the Bell X-1, in which the then Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and North American X-15 Rocket Plane.

The book was really interesting - but its focus was on the various crashes suffered by the experimental planes and how they came to their dire predicaments and sometimes fatal ends and attempts by the author to find their crash sites often many years later, hoping to find remaining debris to place it in his museum.

The book's very lengthy appendix has literally dozens of pages of plane crashes that have occurred in the vicinity of the Edwards Air Force Base, listed line by line.

While not exactly entertaining fare, I found myself riveted to it...and after the NyQuil madness cleared I found myself wondering if I had been hallucinating when I read about a battle over Palmdale, California.

So I went back and checked and indeed, Palmdale is one of few Southern California communities to have suffered through an air-launched rocket attack. This historical incident is worthy of Ripley's Believe it or Not!

Following World War II, a number of Grumman F6F Hellcats were converted to target drones. On August 16, 1956, one of these radio-controlled Hellcats was launched by the Navy from Point Mugu as a target for a missile test.

The Hellcat took off at 11:34 a.m., climbing out over the Pacific. As controllers attempted to maneuver the drone toward the target area over the ocean, they realized it was not responding to radio commands [and heading for downtown Los Angeles!]

With the runaway aircraft headed for a major metropolitan area, the Navy called the Air Force for assistance. At the time, Oxnard Air Force Base was five miles from the Navy’s Point Mugu facility.

The Air Force scrambled a pair of Northrop F-89 Scorpions from the 437th Fighter Interceptor Squadron to shoot down the [Grumman F6F] Hellcat, which had been painted bright red for high visibility.

The F6F was a very successful, rugged, but long obsolete by 1956, propeller-driven, WWII fighter plane that was used extensively in the Pacific against the Japanese.



The Northrop F-89 Scorpions scrambled by the Air Force were the latest thing for combating the ‘Red Menace’ of the Communists.

The jet crews, which consisted of a pilot and a radar observer, waited for the drone to reach an area that was relatively unpopulated. But when the crews attempted to fire, a design glitch in the automatic fire-control system for the Mighty Mouse rockets repeatedly prevented launches while the attack planes were turning.

The Air Force fliers opted to abandon their planes’ automatic system and fire their rockets manually in an attempt to bring the drone down.

The interceptors made their first attack run as the Hellcat crossed over the mountains near Castaic. Firing salvos of 42 rockets each, both planes missed the target, he said. "Rockets blazed through the sky and plunged earthward to spark brush fires.

While fires burned in its wake, the errant drone meandered northwest, toward Palmdale. As it did, the jets followed, expending the rest of their weapons in two more salvos of 32 and 30 rockets each as the two interceptors attempted to bring the Hellcat down ... What happened was that the obsolete, unpiloted, unguided, unarmed, propeller-driven drone evaded the state-of-the-art jet interceptors. In all, 208 rockets were fired without scoring a single hit.

As the drone passed over Palmdale’s downtown, Mighty Mouse rockets fell like hail. Miraculously, no one was hurt, and the [F6F] drone finally exhausted its fuel supply, sputtered and fell, crashing into an open field eight miles east of the Palmdale airport.

According to the Aug. 23, 1956, edition of the Valley Press, one of the air-to-air rockets fell to earth and nearly hit a station wagon being driven by 17-year-old Larry Kempton of Leona Valley when a rocket exploded on the street in front of his car. Fragments from the explosion shredded Kempton’s left front tire and put 17 holes in his radiator, hood and windshield.

Shrapnel also damaged a home near Avenue Q-8 and Third Street East and a home near Avenue Q-6 and Fourth Street East. Edna Carlson, who lived in the home on Third Street East, said a chunk of shrapnel from one Air Force rocket burst through the front window of her home, ricocheted off the ceiling, went through a wall and came to rest in a kitchen cupboard. J.R. Hingle had pieces of metal blasting into his garage and home on Fourth Street East, nearly striking a guest named Lilly Willingham. Both homes are still standing and in use.

Three good-size fires and numerous smaller blazes were ignited in Palmdale by the rockets, in addition to the fires near Santa Clarita. The Placerita Canyon fire burned 75 to 100 acres before being brought under control by a team more than 200 firefighters, who helped save the Bermite [Oil processing] plant.

Another fire was seven miles north of Castaic on the old Ridge Route and burned 50 to 75 acres before being brought under control late in the afternoon" by about 100 firefighters.

The third and largest blaze was in Soledad Canyon. At sundown, it had burned over 300 acres of heavy brush and continued to burn the day after the disastrous drone debacle despite the best efforts of 350 Forest Service firefighters. Eventually, 500 firefighters were called to the Soledad Canyon blaze, which was brought under control only after 350 acres had burned.

The Battle of Palmdale was won without a single shot striking the intended target.

Is it any wonder I thought I had been hallucinating?

The U.S. Military still buys these rockets to this very day.

Main Source

Source of Rocket Pod Photo

Happy Easter!

Look what I found in my Easter basket this morning!

Beautiful little hand-painted ceramic birds! A Robin, a Goldfinch, a Bluebird, and a Cardinal!



Did you know the Easter Bunny that left them is also a Snow Bunny!

Thank you LadyStyx!



This weeks wordle - I like it since so many of my friends names are in it.

Chocolate Bunnies

As Easter approaches, I noticed that while walking on the Pennypack Creek Trail, that the Frankford Candy & Chocolate Company is nearby (just above the red circled 9 on the lower area on the map) and the air smells really yummy.



The Frankford Candy & Chocolate Company, an American candy manufacturer, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1947 by Sam Himmelstein. The company has become a very successful candy manufacturer. It is one of the largest producers of chocolate rabbits in the United States, making over 100 varieties!

So, did you know?

Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced each year.

Chocolate bunnies should be eaten ears first, according to 76% of Americans. Five percent said bunnies should be eaten feet first, while 4% favored eating the tail first.

Adults prefer milk chocolate (65%), to dark chocolate (27%).

Zitner's Candy is also located in Philadelphia and they make the worlds (IMHO) bestest Chocolate Eggs.

Walking past a Chocolate factory is NOT a good idea for a diabetic? :)

A Time to be Serious

I know I've written a lot of nonsense lately. I'm not a complete fool, although some parts of me are missing. I know a lot of you are struggling with life and what it has given you.

Some of you struggling with joints that no longer work and give pain; some of you can barely breathe and are on oxygen; some of you are bothered by monetary and financial woes; some of you are dealing with sick and ailing family members; some of you have sick or hurt pets that are dear family members too; some of you are lonely and yearn to find a soulmate; and some of you are troubled with something that might seem trivial, like noisy or unpleasant neighbors, but they trouble and bother you, so they bother me too.

I too, have been lonely, have an achy shoulder, a head cold that simply doesn't want to leave, wish my finances were in better shape, and have had this dreadful hankering for a bunch of White Castle cheeseburgers. Unfortunately, medical science has no cure for the White Castle Urges - nor for the post-White Castle indigestion, at least as far as my lousy HMO is concerned. Umm, anyway, I digress.

Some of you, like the Wife of Riley and My Side of the Story, that bring so many laughs to others, haven't been around lately, and there is a nagging worry that something is wrong - but one has to try to think "no news is good news."

I've spouted a lot nonsense lately - not to ignore anyone's pain. I feel unable to be much help most times and of late, I've felt like I am no help at all. So I turn to jokes, the amusing odd events, and even near (or complete) "daft" babble. Having a virtual chicken dancing in his ocha-print underwear for a pet for a couple days helped me keep the ol' chin up.

I've written somewhere I'm not a religious, church-going person, in fact, I'm not even sure there is a God some days - being totally and thoroughly baffled at how pain and suffering can be part of some sort of "long term" plan of an all-loving God. I find myself returning to the thought, "I don't know why or what any of this (life) is about. I don't suppose with my limited perception and mental abilities I will ever know. I guess just about anything in terms of "the right religion" is possible."

I know I say I pray for folks. I do, and I really believe there is a power in praying. I suppose this sounds contradictory to what I've just written about how I approach God. But there is something to ... the composing ones thoughts, to give them expression in a verbal (even if silent) form. Forming an emotional structuring of what you feel and yearn for can being exhausting, but it also can make one feel better. And who knows, somehow I think that energy - those hopes of "get well", "feel better", "some one loves you" travels from a place deep within your "soul" to the one you are thinking about... via God, another dimension of space, or some other unfathomable mode.

I know some of you have said, "Write what you feel like in your blog, good and bad." Its the same sort of outlet a prayer has...taking the time to pull some (hopefully) important thoughts out of the chaos of that is ones usual moment-to-moment mental process.



I've never posted this award that Matt, from My Side of the Story gave me. It wasn't that it wasn't appreciated or that I didn't like it, I've just been saving it for a "rainy day" when just looking at it would give me a lift. Thank you, Matt. I hope you and yours are well. You and yours have been missed.

I hope all of you feel your best. Someone is thinking about you.

Namaste' (Sanskrit meaning "I bow to that divinity that is inherent in you.")

Show and Tell

No, I'm not planning on showing everyone my new boots and talking about them.

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This is about the bane of every school kid...late nights spent building the truly detested Diorama for Show and Tell.

With all the excitement over the recent sighting of the Big Muddy Ocha bouncing around in my head, I had a great idea that will be a boon to all school kids, young and old while showering this morning!

A really neat, sure-fire "A-plus", Diorama would show the Big Muddy Ocha in a raging flood of brown water!

Here kids! - This is what you need to get started!

Read these complete instructions on how to craft your own Ocha!

Once you have constructed your own little Ocha, you will need:

- A shoe box, piece of plywood, or stiff piece of cardboard
- A wooden clothes pin
- One Jar of imported Marmite - except NO substitutions
- One Jar of Peanut Butter (get an 'easy to spread' brand)
- A spreading knife, wall paper scraper, or putty knife
- One 3x 5 index card
- One pen or pencil
- Roll of scotch tape
- Small twigs

Options

- One, 2-4 inch high, glow in the dark Halloween skeleton
- Some chicken bones
- Some Popsicle sticks and some white Elmer's glue

Place the shoebox, plywood, or cardboard on a flat surface, like your Mom's fancy dining room table. Don't worry about making a mess, that cross-stitch table cloth your great-great Aunt Josephine made about hundred fifty years ago will protect the shiny wooden table and make cleaning up a breeze.

First you take the clothes pin and squeeze it over your nose so you can't smell anything.

Creatively position your little Ocha on the floor of your Diorama affixing it with some scotch tape.

Open the jar of peanut butter and liberally splosh it over the bottom of your Diorama. Then mix in all the Marmite, using its stiffness to make dark brown little swirls and waves. Be sure to slop some over the base of the ocha as this will hold him/her down once the gunk dries out a bit.

Place some small twigs in the water to make it appear like huge branches are washing downstream.

Label the 3x5 index card, using your pen or pencil. I suggest "The Big Muddy Ocha, Ocha's Bend, as discovered by Photojournalist Punkn, April 2009" and your name. Keep the 3x5 card safe, it will be placed in front of the Diorama when you display it with considerable (and very understandable) pride!


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Now if you want to embellish it a little because little Becky Goodyshoes always has these jaw-dropping Dioramas, heres an idea or two.

Take the Popsicles and glue up a raft.

Glue the skeleton to the raft and smoosh the raft and skeleton into the Marmite-Peanut Butter bondo mix. If you don't have, or can find, a skeleton, a couple small chicken bones from last night's, week's or month's chicken dinner (depending on how often folks clean up at your place) will be fine.

Be creative! Try some different placements and see if you can't give your Diorama viewer a shudder when they wonder if The Big Muddy Ocha ate someone.