From Denny: Here's a sampling of the funny quotes about the subject of sleep for you to get a chuckle of the moment. For the full huge post of funnies with great photos over at The Social Poets for Cheeky Quote Day, go here.
The best Life advice:
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. - William Blake
Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night. - Marian Wright Edelman
Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian. - Herman Melville
Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone. - Anthony Burgess
From time immemorial artistic insights have been revealed to artists in their sleep and in dreams, so that at all times they ardently desired them. – Paracelsus
We are not hypocrites in our sleep. - William Hazlitt
Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. - Arthur Schopenhauer
There is only one thing people like that is good for them - a good night's sleep. - Edgar Watson Howe
*** For the full huge post of funnies with great photos over at The Social Poets for Cheeky Quote Day, go here.
*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this daily posting blog, please subscribe!
From Denny: You are going to enjoy this talented guy. He finds ways to chase away the boredom of the job - and stays in shape doing it!
This video comes from CBS Sunday Morning show. They had profiled the Rhode Island, USA, traffic officer back last summer. CBS followed up with comedian Mo Rocca interviewing him this past Christmas season.
*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!
From Denny: This winter season, aptly nicknamed Snowmageddon by President Obama, has been a doozie all across the country. Snow and ice bedevil driving on the roads and walking to our own mailboxes. After a snow storm people get out and shovel this heavy, wetter snow and it ends up causing tens of thousands of shoulder and back injuries every year in the United States. Several hundred heart attacks also occur.
Doctors saw over 70,000 shovel-related injuries serious enough to trigger a doctor's visit in 2008, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Shoveling snow isn't a daily activity for most people and the exertion, very cold weather and then slippery surfaces makes for a deadly combination.
Snow shoveling "is one of the most high-intensity exercises you can do," says Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City. "You're using all your major muscle groups."
Here are some tips for thoughtful precautions for your back - and your heart since this is an aerobic activity - during and after shoveling snow.
Let's deal with the main issue: back pain
Lower back strain is the usual suspect, leading the top of the list for snow shovelers. "That's when a muscle gets over-tensioned and tightens. If it over-tightens, it's almost like a spasm and that gets very painful," according to Dr. Henry Goitz, an orthopedic surgeon at Henry Ford Hospital, in Detroit, Michigan, and a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Herniated disk is the second most common injury during snow season, says Dr. Victor Khabie, the co-chief of orthopedic surgery at Northern Westchester Hospital, in Mount Kisco, New York. What's a herniated disk you ask? The common term it's known as is a "slipped disk." That's when one of the soft disks between the vertebrae of your spine decides to get out of position and then complains of its displacement by pushing on a nerve, causing severe pain.
How can you tell how severe is the disk injury? It's a bad sign, says Dr. Khabie, when that back pain also radiates down your leg. "That may mean you have ruptured or herniated a disk."
Sedentary lifestyle
Sedentary people and frigid weather are a recipe for back injuries. "The shoveling tends to be done by people who are not otherwise in good shape," says Dr. Richard Pomerantz, a professor of medicine in cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, New York. "Sometimes a potato chip is the heaviest thing they've lifted for a while."
Ice lurking under the top layer of snow is dangerous
People can "experience very bad fractures from slipping on the hidden ice frozen under the snow," advises Dr. Evalina L. Burger, a vice chair and associate professor of orthopedics at the University of Colorado, in Denver, Colorado. "The worst thing is a fall," she says. "It's not just old people who fall."
Heart attacks that occur during shoveling snow do tend to be rare. Doctors believe it is the combination of heavy exertion and cold weather. Why is this so? Both the aerobic, and weight-lifting component, especially years when heavy, wet snow occurs, can raise your blood pressure. All this combines to quickly increase the load upon the heart when the heart is not accustomed to it.
By increasing the load to the heart in cold weather when your arteries and vessels tend to constrict which causes the relative blood supply to go down at a time when your heart requires more. It's a case of supply and demand - the demand is too high for the supply available. Sometimes, a heart attack will occur when the heart is too stressed.
Guess what else contributes to a possible heart attack? We have hormones that are released during cold weather and when exercising that can cause built up plaques - those ugly fatty deposits that line artery walls - to rupture, causing either dangerous blood clots or heart attacks.
The time of day for snow shoveling is important to your heart
Most people get out there early in the morning and start shoveling. It's not a good idea, according to a 1996 study in the American Journal of Cardiology. Did you know that the early morning is when the risk for heart attack is higher? So, pick a better time of the day when your heart is ready.
*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel free to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe!
From Denny: The Olympics, both in sport TV and politics, loomed large in the minds of cartoonists this week. Sadly, the world did lose one accomplished Olympian, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili of Bakuriani, 21 years old, this week in a dangerous practice. The whole world mourns with his country.
The Vancouver Olympics have had a tough start this year with warmer weather than usual and the very reason for the venue to be held in Canada was because of the expected good snowfall. Instead, the stuff melted off while America got blasted with the extreme snow weather. Guess Washington, D. C. should have been the host of the Winter Olympics this crazy weather year. The big joke in America was to export snow to Canada for a hefty price - or for free if only they would do all the shoveling.
Tiger Woods read from a stilted lectern a half-hearted stilted apology ordered up by his publicists, agents and family horrified he was allowing half a billion dollars slip through his hands because of his bizarre sexual conduct. Frankly, it didn't go over well with most.
He just isn't at that point in his life where he realizes that being emotionally stingy just doesn't go over well with most people. He has another reputation as an extremely cheap tipper which red flags his attitude toward other people that they are not deserving of respect or consideration. His bad attitudes saturate all areas of his life and those same attitudes are not going to evolve or change over night.
The cartoonists are still churning out the Tiger Woods cartoons and just getting in gear on this current subject of The Big Apology. It will be next week before those appear en masse.
On a lighter note, the cartoonists compared politics and the political parties to an Olympic sport. I've always said my favorite sport was politics. Why? Because it has such passionate fans and there are high stakes for how it can affect our daily lives.
Political partisanship has taken a toll on the better politicians who are quitting the field. Voters and colleagues alike are fed up with the Republicans acting like Tiger Woods all rolled into one: cavalier with every one's lives, thinking only about themselves and the whole world is centered around their whining wants.
Toyota got off pretty light this week from the cartoonists. Guess they wore it out the past couple of weeks. At least the Toyota president finally agreed to quit being such a jerk and appear before American investigations into the safety of their products.
Prez Obama is up to his neck in the usual stinky messes, still shoveling hard to clean up everything in sight all over the land of America. Jobs creation is still slow but not completely in the tank, but sure not helping out all the millions looking for jobs.
What occurred to me some time ago is that the American worker needs to get off our co-dependency on big corporations as career jobs. It's best to work a while for them, get the business model, grow up a bit to be mentally tough and then it's time to leave the nest and go out and grow your own smaller business. If anything, what it looks like from the perspective of the Big Picture is that the Universe is saying, "OK, all you wimpy lazy baby birds, time to exit the nest and start flying on your own whether you want to or not!" And she dumped millions of people out of their comfortable jobs with easy regular money, respect and authority only to have to reestablish themselves all over again.
Also, Prez Obama has endured a lot of pig squealing from China about meeting with the Dalai Lama at the White House. How childish can you get? They would look more like a super power if they grew up their attitude toward Tibet and the spiritual leader. Come to think of it, they could stand to grow up their attitude toward Taiwan as well. All it does is make them look like bullies stomping the little guys. Guess what; absolutely no one in the world respects that situation.
The cartoonists have had a field day with the First Lady's War on Childhood Obesity, a laudable goal. These cartoons really do reflect our national obsession with food, stress and lack of exercise. They are also funny!
Lastly, the snow was a big topic of conversation all across America and in the editorial cartoon sections of newspapers. It really is a metaphor for being buried deep in something difficult to deal with in our lives on so many levels...
NASA and science still twisting in the wind financially. Gee, maybe if they quit wasting so much money and had used it wisely the past four decades maybe they would not be experiencing cutbacks:
*** FOR MORE cartoons every Saturday, please visit The Social Poets!
*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe!
From Denny: The weather is starting to cooperate and turn a bit warmer, melting all that annoying snow here and there. Your mind turns to "maybe I can wear real clothes now instead of piling on the winter gear." The clothing trend this Spring is frilly! Not to worry, it isn't weird or too girly but all grown up and sophisticated is the fashion take designers took on ruffles this year.
Designers have been playing with fabric like your toddler does with toys and having great fun. The result of their creativity is the modern update for ruffles is that the ruffle is longer, looser, even twisted and turned, creating very relaxed and easy to wear styles. For the unexpected are those nonperfect puckers that come across as elegant. The beauty of this modern take on ruffles is their versatility so you can dress them up or down: to work or on the weekends with jeans.
4 Styles of Frilly this season
Fashion-forward frills
Normally, the traditional ruffle is so excessive in its flourish that it is not considered work appropriate. However, the new abstract take this season on the ruffle makes it wearable to the office. If you are in a conservative environment with menswear-inspired as the rule this year's ruffle can give you a bit of a feminine twist for your wardrobe.
This new take on ruffles are larger folds that lie flat but add depth and movement yet without feeling frilly. Asymmetrical layers like these ruffles help soften structured suits and skirts and carve out some curves in all the right places. Make sure to add a belt to tame that possible volume on cardigans and blouses.
Featured in the video: Ruffled wrap top, $49, Loehmann's; Tiered ruffle skirt, $89.90, Zara.com
Pretty and preppy
Sometimes, casual wear can look just too plain vanilla and uninspired. This season focus on smaller details and update some of your casual cotten and easy knits to give them some flair with visual interest. Those tiny elements of texture on a simple T-shirt or a menswear button-down shirt with a tuxedo-like ruffle trim can do the trick without resorting to accessories.
Even this season's accessories are getting into the act with ruffles, puckers and pleats! Remember to keep your total look in mind and moderate just how much you embrace any new trend. A few touches of a good thing often create more stylish impact than too much flourish. Leave the excess to when you come down to visit me in south Louisiana and we blow it out over at the New Orleans Mardi Gras! :)
Featured in the video: Cascading Rose T-shirt, $45; Jcrew.com, Slim fit white jeans, $59.90, Mango.com; Deux lux ruffle handbag, $68, Urbanoutfitters.com
Trendy tiers
Some of the harsher, edgy and sharply tailored looks like biker jackets, knee-length boots and studded handbags are getting ruffles this season. Even if you might normally wear a very sleek look, a few items from this season's offerings can give your wardrobe that fluid flowing benefit that only a soft item can provide.
These new long layers look easy and modern, pairing well with tough fabrics and sharp tailoring, making you more approachable. Who wants to scare off a possible great mate? :) The reverse is true of the sharply tailored looks: they help balance soft flowing lines, taming a billowy look. I'm a big fan of contrast to create balance in a wardrobe. It keeps things interesting and people asking, "Where did you get that?"
Featured in the video: AK Anne Klein Blouse, $29.99, TJMaxx.com; Faux leather blazer, $24.95, Hm.com
In the Fall season we embraced structured, architectural styles. Well, this Spring season we all need a breather, something more whimsical and a bit softer. Don't even allow your mind to go to the typed cast vision of ruffles: little girls in pink poufy party dresses. This season ruffles grew up: think more classic muted tones like blush, rose and palest blues. Sophisticated colors build a stage for those perfect subtle details to be a stand out.
Check out how layered ruffles from delicious fabrics like lace and chiffon weave this airy transparency. It's those raw edges that give these vintage-inpsired versions their modernity. Even a trench coat gets cascading edges or a wonderful wrap gifts drama to a very simple classic black dress for that special occasion.
Featured in this video: Ruffle dress, $129, Zara.com; Silk ruffle trench, $228, Anntaylor.com
Check out how there are four different ways to wear this season's new take on frilly from style editor Bobbie Thomas who is also author of The Buzz column for In Touch Weekly. Explore with her new ways to embrace this textured trend!
*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe!
*** Mardi Gras and New Orleans is a quick tutorial in the Four D's: Debauchery, Decadence, Denial and Diets!
*** This is an excerpt from the full post over at my blog called The Social Poets. Be sure to check out the many great videos of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and more hilarious photos and great quotes: Funny Fat Tuesday Afterglow - Cheeky Quote Day 17 Feb 2010
From Denny: New Orleans has a particular fondness for lampooning the politically incorrect taboo subjects of sexuality, religion and death. This year they went at it full tilt and certainly did not disappoint.
These tacky photos will definitely make you laugh out loud. If you suffer from sexual prudishness you probably don't read my blogs but just in case, look away. Actually, it's pretty tame - but tacky stuff, not good taste - which is what New Orleans Mardi Gras is all about.
Anyway, I was doing that "wondering thing" about how to follow up the big party blowout of Fat Tuesday the day after when the thrill is gone. Of course, the Christian Lenten season has officially begun, a time to think of dialing it back on the excess meter and tuning ourselves to more inner reflection.
What better bridge than to laugh at the Four D's to get folks over their embarrassments from Mardi Gras that even their grandchildren will never hear the tales? The Four D's are Debauchery, Decadence, Denial and Diets. Enjoy the funny quotes, laugh 'til you fall off your chair Mardi Gras photos and news videos about the festival!
To keep your game face on, remember there is hope for the perpetual party person because this is the progression:
Debauchery is what you climb out of to get up to the next level of Decadence. You know, it's called graduating college and leaving behind your partying ways. So, you enter the oh, so adult life of Decadence known as credit cards, mortgages, shiny new cars, deep in debt and a few children dotting the backyard suburban landscape.
Before you know it you are done with Decadence after a decade or so and step up into the new house of Denial. Denial is when you experience Empty Nest Syndrome, hoping those screaming kids you so wanted to leave a few years earlier decide to come home to roost and make the house interesting again. Denial is also about figuring you might one day actually get to afford to retire. In those hopes you begin the process of trimming down your debt as your employer trims down your salary.
Eventually, you wake up and figure out you have to leave it all behind and go on a Diet to purge yourself of so much happy excess in order to function in life. What do you do? You retire, picking out your favorite destination and then go on perpetual holiday in New Orleans to begin the partying life all over again. And that, my friends, is why they call it the fast track Life Cycle... Oh, where did all the time go? :)
* May you - Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, dance like no-one is watching, screw like its being filmed, and drink like a true Irishman. - Anonymous
* To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love. - George Santayana
* I've been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I've lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet. – Erma Bombeck
Some Serious Quotes about Denial to help us happily slide into the reflective mood of the new Lenten season:
* Evil, what is evil? There is only one evil, to deny life. – D. H. Lawrence
*** This is an excerpt from the full post over at my blog called The Social Poets. Be sure to check out the many great videos of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and more hilarious photos and great quotes: Funny Fat Tuesday Afterglow - Cheeky Quote Day 17 Feb 2010
*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe!
