"Permit Police" Go After The Children...!

Sometimes the absolute absurdness of how far the PTB are willing to go just to feel powerful shows up clearly in their actions!

I guess that dealing with and trying to push around the grown-ups was a bit too scary, so the next step was to go after the children! Of course! What else can you expect from the jerks who make a career out of harassing innocent people just trying to make a little pocket change?

When the agents and inspectors and high stepping "Defenders of the Rules" start taking on the children...I think it's time for us to help them make an attitude adjustment!

Ya know, it's bad enough for those of us that are older to be continually robbed and shoved and prodded and hassled, but when you start trying to do that to our children and grand children...you best be ready for a fight! That's what one of the bosses realized what was ahead!

Oregon girl not bitter after lemonade stir

Shut down by county officials, she's back in business

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aug. 6, 2010, 4:26PM

Julie Murphy, 7, shown at her lemonade stand in Portland, had to pack it up at an arts fair when a county inspector found she and her mother didn't have a restaurant license.


PORTLAND, Ore. — After a county inspector squeezed out a kid's lemonade business, so many Oregonians puckered up in disgust that the county chairman had to pour on a little sugar.

The apology sweetened up some sour feelings and made Julie Murphy, 7, eligible to resume selling her Kool-Aid-and-water concoction for 50 cents a cup.

Last week at a local arts fair, Julie and her mother were surprised when a county inspector asked to see their restaurant license.

They didn't have one. The inspector told them they would face a fine of up to $500 if they didn't stop selling lemonade.

Other vendors urged Julie and her mother not to leave. A second inspector arrived and the two inspectors were surrounded by a crowd of vendors supporting Julie and her mother.

Ultimately, Julie and her mother packed up the stand, and Julie left the fair crying.

But Julie has prevailed.

Jeff Cogen, chairman of Multnomah County, says the health inspectors were "just following the rule book," but they should have given the girl and her mom a break. On Thursday, he talked with Julie's mom to apologize.

"A lemonade stand is a classic, iconic American kid thing to do," Cogen told The Oregonian. "I don't want to be in the business of shutting that down."

And how does Julie feel about this?

Her mother, Maria Fife, said she and her daughter appreciates the apology.

But the sweet and sour tale of lemonade stands at the Portland art fair might not yet be over.

According to the Oregonian, one vendor at the local arts fair is planning a "lemonade revolt" the next time the fair is held — later this month.

Cogen says he doesn't know what he'll do if a bunch of fair vendors try selling lemonade without a license.

As it turns out, lemons may present county officials with something of a pickle.

Maybe the "permit police person" was just trying to audition for a job with the fedgov, ya think? Lord knows, with an attitude like his, he should fit right in with the others of his kind!

Now, let's get some coffee and sit outside for a bit! I need something to get this bad taste out of my mouth!

If Life Gives You Lemons...!

One of the easiest fruit trees to grow in many areas is the humble lemon tree!

A good, productive lemon tree can give you way more lemons than you think you can handle. However, if you want to know how to get the most out of your lemons, here are just a few suggestions. Hey, it certainly beats trying to drink all that lemonade, right?

For a sore throat or bad breath, gargle with some lemon juice.

Clean discolored utensils with a cloth dipped in lemon juice. Rinse with warm water.

Toss used lemons into your garbage disposal to help keep it clean and smelling fresh.

Use one part lemon juice and two parts salt to scour chinaware to its original luster.

A few drops of lemon juice in outdoor house-paint will keep insects away while you are painting and until the paint dries.

Remove scratches on furniture by mixing equal parts of lemon juice and salad oil and rubbing it on the scratches with a soft cloth.

To make furniture polish, mix one part lemon juice and two parts olive oil.

To clean the surface of white marble or ivory (such as piano keys), rub with a half a lemon, or make a lemon juice and salt paste. Wipe with a clean, wet cloth.

To renew hardened paintbrushes, dip into boiling lemon juice. Lower the heat and leave the brush for 15 minutes, then wash it in soapy water.

To remove dried paint from glass, apply hot lemon juice with a soft cloth. Leave until nearly dry, and then wipe off.

Rub kitchen and bathroom faucets with lemon peel. Wash and dry with a soft cloth to shine and remove spots.

Fresh lemon juice in rinse water removes soap film from interiors of ovens and refrigerators.

Create your own air freshener: Slice some lemons, cover with water, and let simmer in a pot for about an hour. (This will also clean your aluminum pots!)

Fish or onion odor on your hands can be removed by rubbing them with fresh lemons.

To get odors out of wooden rolling pins, bowls, or cutting boards, rub with a piece of lemon. Don’t rinse: The wood will absorb the lemon juice.

Save lemon and orange rinds to deter squirrels and cats from digging in the garden. Store rinds in the freezer during the winter, and then bury them just under the surface of the garden periodically throughout the spring and summer.

After a shampoo, rinse your hair with lemon juice to make it shine. Mix the strained juice of a lemon in an eight-ounce glass of warm water.

Mix one tablespoon of lemon juice with two tablespoons of salt to make a rust-removing scrub.

Before you start to vacuum, put a few drops of lemon juice in the dust bag. It will make the house smell fresh.

Get grimy white cotton socks white again by boiling them in water with a slice of lemon.

Clean copper pots by cutting a lemon in half and rubbing the cut side with alt until the salt sticks. Rub the lemon onto the metal, rinse with hot water, and polish dry.

Suck on a lemon to settle an upset stomach.

OK, now that we have taken care of the over abundance of lemons...what say we get some fresh coffee and sit out on the patio for a bit? Like a piece of lemon pie with your coffee?

Break Out The Rope...!

Once in a while, there is a crime that just screams for strong, strong justice!

I count among these two of these worst I know of ...crimes against children and crimes against older people! Especially helpless, bed-ridden older people! There is a special place in Hell for people that not only commit this type of crime, but think it's funny to do so!

I would like to be the one in charge of deciding what the punishment would be, but I can't say what without offending some of the readers of this article!

Suffice it to say, what I have in mind is not for the squeamish!

Greasy prank at Calif. nursing home leads to 6 arrests

© 2010 The Associated Press
Aug. 3, 2010, 9:14PM


UKIAH, Calif. — Six former Northern California nursing home employees are under arrest on charges they covered several elderly patients with cream to make them slippery as part of a prank against their co-workers.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced the arrests Tuesday, calling the alleged abuse "despicable behavior."

All of the patients at Valley View Skilled Nursing Facility in Ukiah suffered from dementia, Brown said, and were unable to object to their treatment.

The six employees have been fired. They face one misdemeanor count each of injury to elder or dependent adult; battery committed on elder or a dependent adult; conspiracy; and battery committed while on hospital property.

Bail has been set for $7,500 each.

I'm not sure what kind of sicko finds any humor in this, but I would caution you NOT to laugh at this type of action when my friends and I are around! You might be in for a very nasty surprise, believe me!

C'mon, my friends, let's get some fresh coffee and sit outside! Climbing up to another 100 degree day, so we have to hurry with the first cup!

New Way To Look At Age...!

Some days I feel my age more than I do on others, but I guess it's the same for every one.

This video helps to look at age in such a way that it somehow doesn't seem as bad! After all, it's all in how you perceive it, don't you think?



Maybe this will help to soften up the edges of those days when age seems to be winning the battle! Just a thought!

Now, my friends, how about some fresh coffee on the patio? It certainly can't hurt!

Gotta Watch Those Nursing Home Vitamins...!

As all of us age, we know it's important for us to get our fair share of exercise.

It helps the circulation and the muscle tone, not to mention the cardio!

As far as the choice of exercise, it just depends on doing whatever you decide on and doing it on a regular basis! One thing to watch out for is to not over-do. This old guy might be able to handle a little more exercise than a lot of us, certainly more than I could handle!

Check this out...!

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

If you notice some of the older members of your family acting like this, you might want to check and see what kind of vitamins they have been taking...not to have them stopped, but to order some for your own use! What ever this old guy is having, I need some for myself!

How about some coffee on the patio this morning, my friends? Dance if you want to!

This Too Shall Pass...!

Just when you think you've heard all the stupid things that people can do, something like this comes along!

The greed and ignorance of some folks just simply amazes me...daily! Why in the world would someone take this kind of chance with their life? The money wasn't even that good considering the possible outcome!

Trafficking suspect held
He's accused of swallowing 85 cocaine condoms

By DANE SCHILLER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

It took five hours and four minutes, but a suspected drug trafficker finally surrendered the spoils: 85 condoms of cocaine he allegedly swallowed and intended to smuggle from Houston to France.

Housrou Kedji is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Friday after being caught as he tried to board an Air France flight leaving Bush Intercontinental Airport. He is charged with two counts of drug-trafficking.

The 42-year-old citizen of the African nation of Togo gave up 2.2 pounds of his illicit cargo while sitting on a special no-flow toilet under the eyes of federal agents and doctors at a local hospital.

Kedji's undoing apparently began when tried to board the Flight 639 four weeks ago.

He was so nervous he drew the attention of Customs and Border Protection inspectors questioning travelers, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

The night of his arrest, Kedji's hands were shaking, his heart was racing, and he gave conflicting stories of what he'd been up to while visiting Houston, the affidavit says.

He supposedly confessed that he had traveled to Houston from Togo, and was headed to Switzerland. His pay for the job was to be 5,000 Euros, or nearly $6,500.

The cocaine was parceled into packets of a few grams apiece and wrapped in the condoms. Suspicions were confirmed by a hospital X-ray machine.

One risk is death
Known as "swallowers," such traffickers face risks on two fronts.

Getting caught by federal inspectors could mean prison. Having a condom break could unleash a brutal overdose death.

In other instances, swallowers have been known to use the sliced off tips of latex gloves.

It is unclear how Kedji will plead to the two trafficking-related charges when he is brought before a magistrate.

Kedji requested a French interpreter. His lawyer, Melissa Martin, declined to comment.

Problem for Houston
Mike Vigil, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was the director of international operations, said the arrest underscores how Houston is a trampoline for sneaking narcotics not only into the United States from South America and Mexico, but on to Europe and elsewhere.

The odds of catching Kedji were about zero, if he had just stayed calm and blended into passengers leaving the country, Vigil said.

"A lot of these guys may be a first-time courier," he said. "They are perspiring and do stupid things to bring attention to themselves.

"You get these guys thinking, 'I am going to get caught, going to go to the jail,'" he said. "They are at the point where they are shaking."

dane.schiller@chron.com

Stories like this almost make you ashamed to admit that these folks are part of the same species! We can only hope that this kind of stupidity isn't catching!

Almost wish one of those condoms had sprung a leak!

Now, my friends, let's get some fresh coffee and sit in the kitchen. It's way too hot to sit on the patio...sorry!

Salt Of The Earth...!

Since we covered some of the many uses of baking soda, I thought we would glance around in the pantry and see what else we could find for double duty.

One of the most obvious turns out to be table salt! How about that? Table salt!

The Almanac had a nice little list of some of the uses of salt, and I have borrowed just for educational purposes! See what you think...!

Household Uses for Salt

Salt certainly makes our food more flavorful, but it can also work to fix many of our unexpected items around the house. Here are some of our favorite household uses for salt.

When windows won't open and salt clogs the shaker, the weather will favor the umbrella maker.

Rub salt on fruit stains while still wet, then put them in the wash.

For mildew spots, rub in salt and some buttermilk, and then let dry in the sun.

If you spill wine or fruit juice on your tablecloth, pour salt on the spot immediately to absorb the stain.

Apply a paste of salt and olive oil to ugly heat rings on your table. Let sit for about an hour and then wipe off with a soft cloth.

To improve your iron, sprinkle salt on a piece of paper and run the sticky iron over it a few times while the iron is hot.

To restore some of the color to faded fabric, soak it in a strong solution of salt and water.

Mix a tablespoon of salt into the water of a vase of cut flowers to keep them fresh longer.

A mixture of salt and vinegar will clean brass.

Salt on the fingers when cleaning meat or fish will prevent your hands from slipping.

To kill unwanted weeds growing in your driveway or between bricks and stones, pour boiling salt water over them.

For perspiration stains, add enough water to salt to make a paste, then rub into the cloth. Wait for an hour, and then launder as usual.

Cover spilled eggs with salt, then wipe clean with a paper towel.

To freshen smelly sneakers (or any canvas shoe) sprinkle their insides with salt. Wait 24 hours for the salt to absorb the odor, and then shake them out.

Pour salt directly onto a grease spill and come back to it later.

A new broom will last longer if you soak the bristles in hot salt water before using it for the first time.

Stainless steel can be cleaned by rubbing it with a gritty paste of two tablespoons of salt mixed with lemon juice. Rinse well and pat dry with a soft cloth.

Rub two to three tablespoons of salt onto the stains inside your glass vases, and then scrub clean with a damp bristle brush.

Gargle with warm salt water (1/4 teaspoon salt to one cup water) to relieve a sore throat.

Sprinkle salt on carpets to dry out muddy footprints before vacuuming.

When silk flowers get dusty, put them in a paper bag with several tablespoons of salt and shake gently for two minutes to clean them.

Refresh household sponges by soaking them in cold salt water for ten minutes.

Well, it seems to me that some of these solutions might come in handy! This is the kind of information that might really come in handy some day! Then again...maybe not!

Better safe than sorry, right?

Coffee and iced tea on the patio today! No salt needed!