America's Top Ten

I found the following story as a post on the CompuServe community causal chat area.

Fast food junkies were surveyed by Askmen.com and it appears that these ten fast foods top their list. Do any of these fast foods tickle your taste buds or do you have a list of faves you want to share?
#10 Pizza Hut's Pepperoni Pizza: The pepperoni pizza came in as the best of the best at Pizza Hut and the close second was its cheese and stuffed crust pizzas.
#9 Subway's Steak and Cheese Sub: Oh, yeah! Hot steak oozing with melted, stringy cheese!
#8 Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich: The original sandwich will always be #1 on everyone's list of Arby faves.
#7 KFC's Bucket of Original Recipe Chicken: Ah yeah! Chicken fans love those spices!
#6 McDonald's Big Mac: No matter how many new items McDonald's may add to their menu, the Big Mac will always rule.
#5 Hooter's Buffalo Style Chicken Wings: Is it the wings or the Hooters' girls that make the wings a fave?
#4 Wendy's Big Bacon Classic With Cheese: Add a Frosty and you're set for the day!
#3 Papa John's Cheese Pizza: They know how to spread the cheese!
#2 Taco Bell Beef Burrito: Cha, cha, cha!
and the #1 fast food junkies love the best is...You are going to have to read AskMen.com's "America's Top 10 Favorite Fast Food" for the the answer :-)

So did you go there to see? Its a relative of my favorite which is the smaller "healthier" version. I need to tell a story which makes me chuckle each time I think of the whopper ditty of years ago. In the sixth period ninth grade English class I taught in the old days was a young man of 15 or maybe 16 named Dale. One day as we awaited the the final bell Dale was heard to sing the whopper ditty, "It takes two hands to handle my whopper" whereupon Dale's head was abused by a book wielded by young lady named Debbie. I actually thought I would need to call for medical help but after seeing stars for a minute or two Dale returned to normal which wasn't too far beyond and above the condition he was temporarily assigned by Debbie and the book.

I Am Getting Alarmed!

John Kerry gave a speech this week at Georgetown . Iraq is beginning to alarm me. All the for's and against's on the radio and on the TV and in the papers and where ever! I keep wandering off the see pictures like the one above and reading names at places like this web site. What are we going to do Mr. President?

An Ambitious Road Project

Anyone who has traveled through Milwaukee on I 94 or I 43 has probably marveled at the immense Marquette Interchange. Conceived in the 1950's and built in the mid 1960's during the the era of the national interstate system's construction it now needs to be replaced. The plan will gradually rebuild the entire massive interchange while traffic flow is maintained. After all this is Wisconsin's busiest highway interchange. See for yourself the plans in this most impressive website.

Verbal Carbon Dating

Here are a few examples of VCD (verbal carbon dating). It is a new phrase from Red Green.

I remember when I could get a haircut for 2 bucks!
I shopped at the dime store.
Things used to nickel and dime me to death!
My family health insurance cost me $23 per month.

My new Ford Fairlane cost me $2200.

Geese Wait for Handout

One generally presumes that urban geese graze on the plush front lawns of some corporate world headquarters or at the local golf club but not so with these guys. You might recognize the site as in the area of the Duluth, Minnesota Harbor. These "harbor geese" hang around the no grass area back of a wholesale salt distributor waiting for their dinner. Now you ask......salt? Well, not salt. These wiley critters wait for a grain truck which has unloaded grain up the street to come by to sweep out before it picks up a load of salt to bring back home. According to the fellow in the salt warehouse the birds spend most of the summer there just hanging out for a handout. I guess for some its a choice of grazing for dinner or just standing there waiting for a handout!

Saturday Night On the Television!

It is entertainment DELUXE on the PBS Saturday evening tube. It all starts with the Red Green Show, hilariously silly but a must watch. Read all about my favorite nut. His motto is Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati.......(When all else fails play dead) . Each show ends with the guys at the Possum Lodge concluding their meeting with the Man's Prayer.....It goes like this ........

"I'm a man...
But I can change
If I have to
I guess."

Next is an interlude with with some young gal who likes to do things in her work shop. At times she stops to philosophize. I only leave her on so I don't forget to catch the Saturday night broadcast of High School Bowl. High School Bowl has been a favorite of mine since Dr. Christopher's years thereon! Tonight the Stephenson Eagles played. The trouble is that I don't remember if they won. Stephenson has a special place in my heart as it was there that I garnered the retirement pension that I started having direct deposited recently. It's not much but it is something! It will help keep the TV set on!

The finale before bed time is the Lawrence Welk Show. Oh such bubble music. The poor guy's been dead for some time but the music still flows! And the costumes are terrific on the gals and guys as they sing about getting rings and wearing bangles and beads and such! It is one of those shows which I would let my teenager watch if I had one. Just now I saw some real pretty teenagers singing. And now comes an arrangment of the 1812 Overture!

Ahh.....Saturday night with the television.

Oh My, It Isn't Far Off!

Look, see the white stuff!

Where Are You in This Set of Facts?

Somewhere I heard this propaganda about who pays how much. It went like this.

50% of taxpayers report income of $29,000 or more
50% of taxpayers report income of $29,000 or less

The first group pays about 96.6% of IRS collections.
The second group pays about 3.4% of IRS collections.

What do you think? I think I pay too much!

Transportation Accidents Take 44,870 Lives in 2004

I am appalled each time I see reports like this one. So many of these tragic deaths result from disrespect of rules and laws, lack of common sense and common courtesy, and, among other things, the courts allowing people to drive who simply should not be doing so. Just this past week I heard a news report of a young guy who split his Ferrari in two killing himself and two other people in the car he hit. This fellow had, if I recall correctly, 40 some traffic offenses on his record. Here's the latest on transportation deaths as reported by the National Transportation Safety Board and reported by J.J. Keller


Fatalities from transportation accidents decrease slightly in 2004

Transportation fatalities in the United States decreased slightly in 2004, according to preliminary figures released today by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Deaths from transportation accidents in the United States in 2004 totaled 44,870, down from the 45,158 fatalities in 2003. Although it is always gratifying to see transportation fatalities decline, NTSB Acting Chairman Mark Rosenker said, the yearly toll, especially on our highways, continues to be unacceptable. We need to do more at all levels - federal, state, and local - to protect our traveling public.
Highway transportation, which accounts for the largest portion of fatalities, decreased from 42,884 in 2003 to 42,636 in 2004. The number of fatalities increased in the motorcycle; light trucks and van; and, medium and heavy trucks categories. However, there was a decrease in the number of deaths occurring in the passenger car category, which recorded 634 fewer fatalities in 2004 than in 2003.
The number of persons killed in all aviation accidents dropped from 710 in 2003 to 651 in 2004. There were no fatalities on commuter carriers in 2004. The number of general aviation fatalities also decreased from 632 in 2003 to 556 in 2004. There were 14 airline fatalities, 13 of which occurred in a crash of one aircraft in Kirksville, Mo. Air taxi fatalities increased from 42 to 65.
Total rail fatalities increased from 760 in 2003 to 802 in 2004, reflecting a rise in every category except passenger fatalities, which remain

Do You Have Uninvited Guests in Your Stomach?

Hurrah for the scientists from Australia who were at first laughed at and chided for their work on the theory turned fact that a bug treatable with antibiotics was the cause of all the pain and misery of peptic type ulcers! I went through this about 9 years ago. In fact I just ran into a leftover bung of the medicine I took. The symptoms were painful stomach aches and pains which were somewhat soothed by anti-acids, baking soda, eating crackers and so on. When I mentioned this to Dr. Brunner, my personal physician, he immediately tested me for the varmints. Sure enough, they showed up in excessive numbers. They apparently like to live in and feed on the stomach's protective mucus liner exposing the delicate tissues to the harsh digestive juices and thus cause the pain. After only a few days of medicine the pain was gone and for good! Absolutely amazing! Too bad it took all these years for the prize folks to name and honor these these guys for their work! Beware, the bugs can be transmitted orally!

http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/2005/index.html The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2005 "for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease" was recenetly awarded to Barry J. Marshall J. Robin Warren

Pulling with Volvo: A Week of Trucking

Trip #1 Sunday thru Monday evening

Zip City State County Miles between Accumulated miles

54151 Niagara, WI, Marinette
49876 Quinnesec, MI, Dickinson 4.5
60188 Carol Stream, IL, Du Page 301.4 305.
60153 Maywood, IL, Cook 17.1 323.0
54952 Menasha, WI, Winnebago 186.1 509.1
49870 Norway, MI, Dickinson 126.7 6 35.8
54151 Niagara, WI, Marinette 7.4 643.2

Trip #2 Monday evening thru Tuesday evening

49876 Quinnesec, MI, Dickinson 4.5 647.7
55440 Minneapolis, MN, Hennepin 315.1 962.8
55806 Duluth, MN, St Louis 153.6 1116.4
54151 Niagara, WI, Marinette 243.6 1360.0

Trip # 3 Tuesday evening thru Thursday evening

45202 Cincinnati, OH, Hamilton 586.7 1946.7
60186 West Chicago, IL, Du Page 313.8 2260.5
60499 Bedford Park, IL, Cook 27.0 2287.5
54957 Neenah, WI, Winnebago 197.3 2484.8
54151 Niagara, WI, Marinette 130.1 2614.9

Trip # 4 Thurday evening thru Friday afternoon

49876 Quinnesec, MI, Dickinson 4.5 2619.4
54151 Niagara, WI, Marinette 4.5 2623.9
53089 Sussex, WI, Waukesha 211.1 2835.0
53946 Markesan, WI, Green Lake 82.8 2917.8
54151 Niagara, WI, Marinette 179.6 3097.4

Crooks?

Delay, Frist, Scooter, and whoever is next.
Delay makes like money laundering is just like going to the laundromat on Saturday!
Frisk makes like selling millions in stock days before a price drop is like business as usual.
Scooter makes like naming CIA agents is like ninth graders naming the Presidents in the old days.
What is the matter with these people?

Price of Fuel

IT looks like the folks who made the price signs didn't expect the need for a "3"!
At this price it would cost 558 dollars to "fill er up"!