Category: Uncategorized
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THINGS WE LEARNED THIS YEAR…
2022–we had plenty to do The world’s biggest plant! In the coastal waters of Shark Bay, Australia, scientists discovered that a seagrass bed of Poseidon’s ribbon weed is actually one plant. The massive organism covers an area of 77 square miles. Scientists began surveying the bed’s genetic code and found that every single shoot was genetically…
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TV THEME SONGS: You can try but you won’t forget them
There’s probably nothing more subjective than a listing of favorite TV theme songs. After all, they reflect the shows you liked or at least knew about. What are we rewarding anyway? Is it for the best musical effort or the best reflection of the program? How much does nostalgia play into all this? What about…
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ARGENTINA
BUENOS AIRES –American consumers may be wringing their hands over an inflation rate of 7.5 percent in 2022 but others around the world are faring far worse. The massive amounts of emergency spending required to counter the economic malaise brought about by the pandemic accelerated global inflation. Countries like Sweden, the United Kingdom and Russia,…
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Hitchcock Top 10
Certain subjects never go out of season. Just like dinosaurs and the sinking of the Titanic, the public never shies away from reading about Alfred Hitchcock and his movies. Hitch died in 1980 but look at the recent press he’s received. Far Out Magazine, a British publication, just ran a story that stated Hitchcock was…
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B MOVIES
When we went to Provincetown this past summer, we made the obligatory trip to town to climb the Pilgrim Monument, the majestic obelisk that dominates the P-town skyline. Well, the family went up to the top. I didn’t, choosing to wait down below. When I was a kid I remember going about halfway up those…
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Christmas cards. What do you think? Still a big industry?
Time magazine pointed out that Americans posted 2.9 billion holiday cards in 2002. Ten years later, the number was down to 1.4 billion cards in the mail. Yet a lot of the charities that solicit folks in the mail still send you a few holiday cards. I’ve collected a drawerful over the years. These aren’t…
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Five Easy Pieces
(Nov. 9, 2022) The Jack Nicholson movie, “Five Easy Pieces” (1970) is playing at the Peoria Riverfont Museum’s SuperDuper Big Screen Theater this Friday (Nov. 11) at 6:30 p.m. and I thought back to the time I saw this picture when it first came out. It was in Washington, D.C. on a double date with…
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Dr. Seuss
Before Horton heard a Who, he was a cartoon elephant that opposed U.S. participation in World War II. Ted Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, was an editorial cartoonist for a New York newspaper (“PM”) from 1941 to 1943. During that time he created 400 cartoons, many which you can find in books like “Dr.…