February 6, 2006

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
~Elizabeth Stone






If you don't know
Whose signs these are
You haven't driven
Very far!
Burma Shave




The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.




COFFEE
part 15 of 23
  • Over 10,000 coffee cafes plus several thousand vending machines with both hot and cold coffee serve the needs of Tokyo alone.
  • Over 5 million people in Brazil are employed by the coffee trade. Most of those are involved with the cultivation and harvesting of more than 3 billion coffee plants.
  • Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
  • Over-roasted coffee beans are very flammable during the roasting process.
  • Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa.
  • Regular coffee drinkers have about one-third less asthma symptoms than those non-coffee drinkers. So says a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.
  • Retail espresso vendors report an increase in decaffeinated sales in the month of January due to New Year's resolutions to decrease caffeine intake.



    • If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.
    Alex Noble <



    A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat, one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."



    OUR FOUNDING FATHERS
    John Adams
    Genius is sorrow's child.
    John Adams



    A "Wise King" devised a contest to see who would receive the Princess hand in marriage.

    The Princess was put in a 50x50 foot carpeted room. Each of her four suitors were put in one corner of the room with a small box to stand on. The first one to touch the Princess hand would be the winner and become the new King.

    The rules of the test were that the contestants could not walk over the carpet, cross the plane of the carpet, or hang from anything; nor could they use anything but their body and wits (i.e. no magic or telepathy, nor any items such as ladders, block and tackles, etc.).

    One suitor figured out a way and married the Princess and became the new King.

    How did he figure it out?



    Here's one that happened to me a few years ago. I went to a clothing store and bought a skirt for $7. With tax my total came to $7.51; I handed the cashier $8.01 and she had to take out a calculator to figure out how much change she had to give me back. I told her she owed me 50 cents.



    If you surveyed a hundred typical middle-aged Americans, I bet you'd find that only two of them could tell you their blood types, but every last one of them would know the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies.



    Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.