COINCIDENCE...I THINK NOT..OF COURSE IT IS...(MAYBE)

Once again, an oddity on the wheresgeorge.com website. Just checking my
end of year stats, and lo & behold, another oddity. The series year 2001 bills (any denomination) total 2168 or 42.17% of the total. The series year 2003 bills total 1474
or 28.67% of the total. However, the 2001 hit bills is 251 or 11.6% of the total and the
2003 bills is 171 which is...you guessed it...11.6% of the total also!!
Wow, is that weird, or what?(I'm guessing what, and also that you and I are
easily amused.)
Happy new year to you all, whoever you may be (besides Walter)...

"SCIENCE"...NOT SCIENCE

Wow, this is wild. According to today's Lakeland(FL) Ledger, Florida Governor Jeb 'my brother's the president' Bush, says that Florida schools need to raise their science standards.
Oddly enough, however, this doesn't need to be done by teaching evolution in schools.
After all, it is only the 'Theory of Evolution'...as opposed to the 'science of creationism' I guess.
And while we're on the subject, how do we know there's really gravity when we can't see it??
Perhaps we only stay on the ground because angels hold us down by the shoulders.
And I sure hope they're going to teach about the hollow earth, but how could it be hollow when it's really flat??
See, now I'm just confused...

DID YOU KNOW...???

Tiny Tim started his career singing 1950s doo-wop under the stage name 'Larry Love'.

Computer glitches became known as 'bugs' after a moth shorted out a circuit board in the room-size Mark 1 computer built in 1944 at Harvard University.

Orange Marmalade was first created in 18th Century England when a trader bought bushels of oranges from the Seville, Spain Cathedral. When he got them home, he found them too bitter
to eat, so he tried to make jam from the rinds. In order to make them edible, he had to add
pounds of sugar to the batch to make it palatable...voila...marmalade. The Jardin de los Naranjos
can still be seen at the Seville Cathedral...the birthplace of marmalade.

DID YOU KNOW...???

The pattern on the boxes of Scotch Brand Tape is actually based
on the Tartan of the Wallace Clan (as in William Wallace, who the movie 'Braveheart'
was loosely based on).

Know you know...do you care?

DID YOU KNOW...???

The 1968-69-70 Isle Of Wight Festivals in England had some of the biggest names
of the day playing over the course of 3 day weekends. Included were The Who, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Melanie, The Band, Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, The Move, Jefferson Airplane, Sly & the Family Stone, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer (their 1st public performance),
Ten Years After, and.................................
.
.
.
...Tiny Tim !!! of 'Tiptoe Through The Tulips' fame...

EARTH WIND & FIRE...& ICE

Very peculiar; while watching TV last night came across a show on Bravo that consisted of the band Earth Wind & Fire playing at one end of an arena, while ice skating stars skated solo, in pairs, and groups to routines set to the songs. A very odd thing to watch.
And coincidentally, it was taped at an arena in Bridgeport Ct ; where my wife was born & raised and we lived when we first got married; but that wasn't there before we moved to Florida. (They even have a hockey team there now).

A LITTLE XMAS HUMOR

What ethnic background is Santa Claus?
.
.
.
North Pole-ish (of course)
(With thanks to G.R.H.)

And speaking of Santa Claus; according to Leonard Maltin in his 'Movie & Video Guide 2004', 'Santa Claus:The Movie' was called that in all the advertising, posters, etc, but when it was shown in theaters was titled simply 'Santa Claus'.

HUMOROUS MOVIE DIALOGUE

From 'The Last Shot' (2004). Spoken by Toni Collette as Emily French: "In a moment I'm gonna die...I wish
I could live to see that."

LAST 6 BOOKS READ

1)They Came To Baghdad by Agatha Christie: Agatha moves her mystery from England to Baghdad in the late 50s/eraly 60s, when it was still a real city. Interesting change of pace.
2)Cleese Encounters by Jonathan Margolies: Not all Python & Fawlty, a very complex man, who sems to be funny only when HE wants to be.

3)What Might Have Been vol.III & IV by Gregory Benford & Martin H Greenberg,eds: Alternate Wars & Alternate Americas, best taken in small doses.

4)Message To Love: Isle Of Wight Festival 1968-69-70 by Brian Hinton: Interesting overview of the original 3 years of England's Woodstock. Both onstage, backstage, and behind the scenes stories; it should have been a bigger book.

5)Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett: More mayhem and humor on the Discworld.

6)The Vikings by Howard La Fay: National Geographic looks at the Vikings. Gorgeous pictures, artist renderings, historical background and present day descendents. Great starter book for those with little or no real knowledge except from movies.

LAST 3 MOVIES

3) 'Skeleton Key' with Kate Hudson & voodoo in Louisiana. Good movie, interesting ending. Strange scenes seeing New Orleans before the hurricane (but movie showed after...eerie).

2) 'The Fog' Sure, no Jamie Lee Curtis, but on the other hand I still say it made more sense than
the original.

3) 'King Kong' Yes he is! Great version of the original, very close to the same storyline, but with extra detail about the main characters, and lots more fun in the jungle. Lightyears ahead of the cheesy twin towers remake - not even in the same universe!! See it twice, & then buy the DVD.

DID YOU KNOW???

The 'Cafe Wha?' in 1960s Greenwich Village,NYC was owned by David Lee Roth's uncle.

The actor,Lou Gossett Jr, started out as a folk musician.

The 'Cafe Bazaar' in Greenwich Village,NYC was originally a coachhouse that was part of
Aaron Burr's COUNTRY(!) estate.

And now that you know...do you care?

THE DARK TOWER...AN ERROR(?)

Reading vol.vii of 'The Dark Tower' series, 'The Dark Tower'. Have discovered an apparent error on page 389 of the hardcover edition. The line reads 'At the sight of this terrible head-wound Susannah leaped to her feet...' However, Susannah has no feet as she has only stumps for legs, and was not in the New York where she did have legs (though not really hers-read the books). So it seems that she could have jumped up, or jumped to her legs, but not to her feet.
Of course, it makes no difference to the story, but it's an interesting error...

THE FESTIVAL OF BATTLE

1971: Down by the town of Battle, site of the Battle of Hastings. I guess they don't do this anymore, they now have a Battle Festival, which is more of an arts festival. The one I went to
was more along the lines of what is now called a Renaissance Fair/Fayre/Festival. They had knights, jousting, some crafts, food. Actually had venison sliced off a deer cooked on a spit over an open fire. Mead, the honey drink (very potent, i remember). One of the knights was Michael of Forfar, they actually had big pavilions they stayed in (just like the movies). Had a good time, wonder why they stopped doing it??

COINCIDENCE...I THINK NOT...OF COURSE IT IS..

One of the things I do, stamping money to track the bills(www.wheresgeorge.com). Not only is it fun, it annoys my wife, so that makes it twice as much fun! But anyway, after today's round of stamping, hit the update button, and lo & behold, a major coincidence. One of the listings for the bills is how many and what percentage of the total, bill years are. Well, today, the 1999 bills were 19.99% of the total!!
Pretty weird,eh?

SMOKY

My wife used to have a schnauzer named Smoky back when we first met. Nice dog (not like the neighbor's annoying one). When Crystal was a baby, he became very attached to her. When we used to put her on the floor at Phyl's parent's house, he would lay on the corner of the blanket to keep an eye on her. If you raised your voice to Crystal, he would give you an evil look. And once in a while, if you had to yell at her, he would growl at you! Funny stuff, but that sure was a great dog (not like all the neighbor's dogs!)...

CARVEL

Mmmmmmmmm...ice cream! Perhaps the best soft serve chocolate in the world! And oddly enough, hard to find in Florida. When we lived in Connecticut, Carvel was all over the place, though some of them would actually close for the winter. But here in Florida, warm to hot 95% of the time, there are almost none. Isn't that peculiar? There is a Carvel stand in Orlando Airport, and a stand in the Ice Palace (S.P.T.-F.) in Tampa. And just today, there's a real Carvel store opening in Citrus Park (Tampa). Well, that's going to be worth a trip out that-a-way...can't wait...mmmmm.....Carvel...

IT'S NOT EASY BEING A CLOWN

According to the John Cleese biography 'Cleese Encounters' by J Margolis: "There is a story about the famous Swiss clown,Grock(1880-1959),who became so terribly depressed on a tour of England that, using his real name, he went to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist finally said:'Look, what you need is a good laugh. Why don't you go and see Grock at Earl's Court(Theatre) tonight?'".

See, sometimes you just can't win...