there's something about Mary

From 1909 to 1946, more girls were given that moniker than any other. Linda took over for a couple of years, but Mary was back on top from 1956 to 1962. Then, it was all about Lisa, Jennifer, Jessica and Ashley. And then, since 1996, Emily and Emma have completely taken over.

When it comes to boys' names, however, things stay pretty much the same. Michael, James, John, Robert and William were popular for decades, with Jacob, Joshua, Matthew and Daniel coming on strong in recent years.

Here are the top five names for girls and boys, in order, from 1909 to 2008, according to Social Security Online:


2008
Girls: Emma, Isabella, Emily, Madison, Ava
Boys: Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel

Enheduanna

Occupation: priestess of Nanna, poet, hymn writer

Known for: Enheduanna is the earliest author and poet in the world that history knows by name.

Places: Sumer (Sumeria), City of Ur

Dates: about 2300 BCE - estimated at 2350 or 2250 BC


JPR: sorry no pic available!

my physics class

jpr: Packed with sass, showing extremes in blood sugar levels, and always suffering from surging teenage hormones....but angels all!!!

wisdom p II

Wisdom teaches her children
and gives help to those who seek her.
Whoever loves her loves life,
and those who seek her from early morning are filled with joy.
Whoever holds her fast inherits glory,
and the Lord blesses the place she* enters.
Those who serve her minister to the Holy One;
the Lord loves those who love her.
Those who obey her will judge the nations,
and all who listen to her will live secure.
If they remain faithful, they will inherit her;
their descendants will also obtain her.
For at first she will walk with them on tortuous paths;
she will bring fear and dread upon them,
and will torment them by her discipline
until she trusts them,
and she will test them with her ordinances.
Then she will come straight back to them again and gladden them,
and will reveal her secrets to them.
If they go astray she will forsake them,
and hand them over to their ruin.

Sirach 4:11-19

jpr: in other words...wise up!

quotes

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost. ~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton

True love cannot be found where it truly does not exist;
nor can it be hidden where it truly does. ~ Unknown

Love makes the time pass. Time makes love pass. ~ Euripides

Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all. ~ St. Augustine

where our robbins go for winter?

The answer is St.Petersburg, Fla. According to birdcount.com 1,450,058 robins have been tallied there.


JPR: robbins settle territorial disputes by a fight to the death!

Spring Comes To Murray Hill by Ogden Nash

I sit in an office at 244 Madison Avenue
And say to myself You have a responsible job havenue?
Why then do you fritter away your time on this doggerel?
If you have a sore throat you can cure it by using a good goggeral,
If you have a sore foot you can get it fixed by a chiropodist,
And you can get your original sin removed by St. John the Bopodist,
Why then should this flocculent lassitude be incurable?
Kansas City, Kansas, proves that even Kansas City
needn't always be Missourible.

Up up my soul! This inaction is abominable.
Perhaps it is the result of disturbances abdominable.
The pilgrims settled Massachusetts in 1620 when they landed on a stone
hummock.

Maybe if they were here now they would settle my stomach.
Oh, if I only had the wings of a bird
Instead of being confined on Madison Avenue I could soar in a jiffy to
Second or Third.

WORDS TO LIVE BY...

Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year.

How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.

Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.

You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened.

We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box.

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

some concern

Bed bugs have been biting people since the beginning
of recorded time. Studies suggest the bugs first
parasitized bats and then humans inhabiting the same caves in
the Mediterranean region where civilization began.

Fossilized bed bugs have been unearthed from archeological
sites dating back more than 3,500 years — a time when they
were considered both pest and potion. The Egyptians, for example,
drank abed bug cocktail as a cure for snakebite (asps).

To deter bed bugs, early Greek philosophers (400 B.C.) advised
hanging the feet of a hare or stag at the foot of the bed. Others
suggested hanging a bear skin or setting a vessel of cold water
under one’s bed while traveling.

JPR: The third world cometh!

Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine? -

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?


jpr: seems to fit in sprintime

a bit more on preyen

To prayer, repentance, and obedience due,
Though but endeavored with sincere intent,
Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut.
And I will place within him as a guide,
My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear,
Light after light well used they shall attain,
And to the end persisting, safe arrive.
This my long sufferance, and my day of grace,
They who neglect and scorn shall never taste;
But hard be hardened, blind be blinded more,
That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;

*John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III, Lines 191-201

some comments on preyen

Allas, why pleynen folk so in commune
On purveiaunce of God, or of Fortune,
That yeveth hem ful ofte in many a gyse
Wel bettre than they kan hemself devyse?
Som man desireth for to han richesse,
That cause is of his mordre or greet siknesse;
And som man wolde out of his prisoun fayn,
That in his hous is of his meynee slayn.
Infinite harmes been in this mateere.
We witen nat what thing we preyen heere.

*Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Knight’s Tale, lines 1251-1260

irish toast

May your mornings bring joy
and your evenings bring peace...
May your troubles grow less
as your blessings increase!



jpr: keep the brandy in!

RSPK et tu

Among Parapsychologists, typical poltergeist phenomena are now known as "Recurrent Spontaneous Psycho-Kinesis," or RSPK. This term is used to describe the outward physical expression of intense emotion from a human agent through inexplicable force or action imposed on the immediate or surrounding environment through psychological means.

The agent is usually oblivious to the fact the he or she caused the disturbance because it is the subconscious mind, which is releasing repressed or unexpressed emotion through psychokinesis. In addition, poltergeist activity without the presence of an agent is attributed to the remnants of intense emotions in a particular location, a psychological imprint if you will.


JPR: more commonly referred to as adolescence!

student answers

A first grade teacher collected well known proverbs. For a quiz, she gave each child in her class the first half of a proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb.


* Strike while the ………insect is close.
* Never underestimate the power of…………ants.
* Don’t bite the hand that………………..looks dirty.
* Better to be safe than…………….punch a grade 7 boy.
* If you lie down with dogs, you’ll…….stink in the morning.
* It’s always darkest before…………DaylightSaving Time.
* You can lead a horse to water but………..how?
* No news is…………………………….impossible.
* A miss is as good as a………………….Mr.
* You can’t teach an old dog new…………..maths.
* Love all, trust………………………..me.
* The pen is mightier than the…………….pigs.
* An idle mind is…………………the best way to relax.
* Where there’s smoke there’s……………..pollution.
* Happy the bride who……………gets all the presents.

Spring has clad the grove in green by Robert Burns

NOW spring has clad the grove in green,
And strew’d the lea wi’ flowers;
The furrow’d, waving corn is seen
Rejoice in fostering showers.
While ilka thing in nature join
Their sorrows to forego,
O why thus all alone are mine
The weary steps o’ woe!

The trout in yonder wimpling burn
That glides, a silver dart,
And, safe beneath the shady thorn,
Defies the angler’s art—
My life was ance that careless stream,
That wanton trout was I;
But Love, wi’ unrelenting beam,
Has scorch’d my fountains dry.

...

Glory of the Snow

Glory-of-the-Snow is best suited for cold weather. It peeks out in the coldest weather to welcome Spring. There are up to 8 to 10 inch flowers to each short 6 inch stem, in a sparkling violet-blue with a white center. There are two or three slender basal leaves per bulb, with a single flower stalk no taller than about 6 or 8 inches. They grow in forests and on mountains, and bloom in early summer as the last snows melt.

Spring Song by Robert Louis Stevenson

THE air was full of sun and birds,
The fresh air sparkled clearly.
Remembrance wakened in my heart
And I knew I loved her dearly.

The fallows and the leafless trees
And all my spirit tingled.
My earliest thought of love, and Spring's
First puff of perfume mingled.

In my still heart the thoughts awoke,
Came lone by lone together -
Say, birds and Sun and Spring, is Love
A mere affair of weather?

Spring Pools by Robert Frost

These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.
The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods --
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.

Spring

When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
“Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
“Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.


~ W Shakespeare

Previous largest ice sculpture

Rising out of the snow, this magnificent sculpture is the centrepiece of the Ice And Snow Festival, held annually in the northeastern city of Harbin, China.
Called Romantic Feelings, it is a staggering 115ft high and 656ft long - the largest snow sculpture ever created.
It was made by joining together 15ft square blocks of natural ice and snow, taken from the nearby Songhua River, which have been compressed to withstand blows from hatchets, saws and shovels.


Today the largest sculpture in ice is the midwest, midatlantic and northeast of the US