Thought for the day: Who indeed will set bounds to human ingenuity? Who will assert that everything in the universe capable of being perceived is already discovered and known? [Galileo]
One could argue that there is a best way to do something, but that doesn't mean it's the only way. Give ten different people the same challenge, and they're likely to come up with ten different potential solutions. (Which is why some business meetings are less than productive...)
Let's just say... some people are more creative than others. They've got more ingenuity and imagination.
Creativity is intelligence having fun. [Albert Einstein]
I reckon one way... and the safest way... to skin a cat is to buy one that doesn't have any fur to begin with. Having a naked cat would be easier on the ol' vacuum cleaner, but... um... yuk. Sorry. Not too many things creep me out, but they do.
But I digress. This post isn't about cats, hairless or not. It's about human ingenuity. I believe the following pictures will demonstrate that trait quite well, but I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not the people who obviously had a ton of fun coming up with these solutions demonstrated intelligence or not... (I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.)
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes— an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counter-intuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. [Carl Sagan]
Okay, so some of those pics demonstrate some very clever solutions, and others? Okay, nonsense. But funny.
Never ever underestimate the importance of having fun. [Randy Pausch]
Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
Thought for the day: MGsdon'tleak oil; they mark their places.
Dontcha love the front of this car? If I were more clever, I'd doctor the picture to make it look even more like a smiling face. No matter. When Smarticus and I went to the British Car Fayre in our town last weekend, we saw plenty of real smiling faces. And plenty of extraordinary British cars, too.
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of owning a British car, but want to know what it's like: Next big rainstorm, wait 'til dark, roll down all the windows, leave off lights and heater and wipers, and go for a drive. Stop at every intersection and throw out a twenty dollar bill. It's not exactly the same, but it's real close. [Mike Nash]
We evidently have plenty of anglophiles and UK ex-pats living in our area, because this annual car show, sponsored in part by the loverly Taste of Britain always draws a fine array of vehicles and visitors. Lots of Triumphs, Rolls Royces, MGs, Morgans, Austin Healies, Astin Martins, Lotuses, Minis, Range Rovers, Deloreans, Jaguars, motorcycles, and more. A bunch of drool-worthy vehicles. Alas, we didn't stay as long this year as we have in years past, because it was too bloody H-O-T!
But the Queen looked cool as a proverbial cucumber. I, on the other hand, felt like I was having a heat stroke. (Such a wimp!)
One street was pretty well lined with Minis. Some of them are reeeeally... mini. You hear the one about the trouble with bucket seats is we don't all have the same size buckets? Well, I know some people who'd have a hard time fitting their impressive buckets into some of these Minis. Pulling them out of one of these cars would sound like a champagne cork popping.
There were quite a few Land Rovers, too. These two cracked me up. One for Dad... and one for Junior.
Hey, you never can tell when you might have an opportunity to go on safari in Atlanta. Heck, everyone knows the traffic here is like a jungle, and some of the drivers are real... beasts.
Aye, and there were bonnie brogues to be heard, and evidence of a wee bit of Scottish humor.
(The patch on that hat says Gleneagle, Scotland.)
Check out this 1933 Rolls Royce. Its owner had a good sense of humor, too. Know how I could tell? By what I saw sitting in the back seat...
Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon? Evi-doggone-dently!
How about this one? Anybody see the movie featuring this car?
Bond, James Bond...
Wouldn't this hood ornament be absolutely perfect for our rat rod? I mean, Smarticus and I do practice a certain amount of smart assiness from time to time.
Because of the heat, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, so how's about if I share a few from past years:
Alas, there was no bagpiper there this year. Not that it's my favorite (or favourite) instrument, but I missed seeing... and hearing... him.
A fun touch of whimsy.
It'd be a hard call, but this was definitely one of my favourite cars at the show. In the proper colour, too...
But I do love the British racing green, too.
They don't call these the dog days of summer for nothing.
Until next time, take care of yourselves, old beans. And each other.
Thought for the day: All good things must come to an end. (sigh)
No matter how beautiful a day may be, the sun has to eventually set, and no matter how much fun an experience may be, it, too, must end.
So I promise this'll be the last post about our 50th anniversary trip to Charleston. Then I'll find something new to bore you with.
This last post will be about two plantations in the Charleston area. Boone Hall, located in Mt. Pleasant, has been dubbed the #1 plantation by USA Today, and called a must-see destination by many, so that was our first plantation stop. But that wasn't the only reason. I'd seen pictures of the entry to that plantation... and there's a good chance you have, too, because it's a rather iconic shot. If you saw the movie North and South, you might remember the scene with Patrick Swayze riding on horseback down that entryway road. The plantation was also featured in numerous other flicks, like The Notebook. So me being me, even though we'd already visited the mighty Angel Oak, I wanted to see this impressive line-up of live oaks in person.
Boone Hall was founded in 1681 by Englishman Major John Boone, and it was his son who planted the 88 live oaks in 1743. It took nearly two centuries for the trees to become large enough to form a canopy over the road, and this Avenue of Oaks extends for 3/4 of a mile.
A view of the canopy from the car. Believe, me, it looks a lot more impressive in person than it does in this picture.
This one was taken on foot. A little better.
The Avenue of Oaks offeredthe most concentrated grouping of live oaks on the plantation, but they weren't the only ones in sight. They were all over the place... and they were all gorgeous.
Last shot of the trees. I (ahem) tend to get carried away...
The old cotton mill (circa O-L-D) is an impressive-looking building. As you can see, it's currently undergoing some extensive restoration.
It's kinda funny that I took a picture of THIS, but not a single photo of the plantation house. Without a doubt, it is beautiful, but what I would've really liked to capture is its interior. The furnishings are magnificent, and the sunroom-like area is fabulous. Unfortunately, taking pictures inside was a no-no. The McRae family purchased the plantation in 1955, and a year later, the family began allowing tours. Family members still live on the upper level of the home... which was not part of the tour. Although the number of farmed acreage has shrunk over time, Boone Hall remains America's oldest continuously working plantation.
A handful of original slave cabin remain, and they're all made of bricks... which were made by the slaves themselves. In fact, millions of bricks were made on the plantation, and they were used to build many important buildings in Charleston and far beyond. Ft. Sumter was constructed of bricks that were made at Boone Hall.
Each of the remaining cabins has been converted into small museums, each one telling a different chapter in the story of African Americans. This gal in the picture told the story of the Gullah people, and her presentation included some awesome music. Man, does she ever have some pipes! And she sang a little bit of everything...
I delighted in the music of Africa, the earliest of the slave plantation songs, the transformation into Christianity and all that Christianity brought to the lives of the Africans who were forced to come to America. [Harry Belafonte]
I'm a little sorry I didn't take more pictures. I guess I was too busy taking in the experience to bother recording much of it. Sorry... how selfish of me not to think of you guys. HA! Here... maybe this short video will make up for it. (And I don't know how the sneaky fella got away with taking a couple shots inside of the house. I wish he would've gotten the darned sunroom!)
Pretty cool, huh?
The other plantation we visited was the Charleston Tea Plantation... the ONLY large-scale commercial tea plantation in America. There, we toured the area where the tea is processed, sampled all kinds of their awesome teas, took a wagon ride all around the plantation, learned a ton of stuff about tea, and... came home with a whole grocery-sized bag full of teas. (Which I'm drinking my way through quite handily. I just ordered some more of their loose leaf tea from Amazon. The peach and mint are my favorites.)
This is one of the many fields of tea. See how flat the plants are on top? That's because the process of harvesting entails skimming off a couple inches of new growth at the top of the bushes. Every plant on the plantation today is the offspring of the plants originally brought to South Carolina in the 1700s, and for hundreds of years, each plant has been grown from shoots, which are nurtured in greenhouses for four years before taking their place in the fields.
This funny-looking contraption is called the Green Machine,and it was built specifically for harvesting tea. There are only a few of them in existence in the world, and each machine can do the work of 500 people. Where people would have to carefully pick the new growth leaves from each bush by hand, one at a time, this machine gently slices off that new growth and tosses it into a bin.
Did you know the three basic types of tea all come from the same plant? The difference between black, oolong, and green tea lies not in the tea, but in how long it's processed after it's picked.
SOME FUN FACTS ABOUT TEA:
Tea-drinking dates back to 2700 B.C. Not sure how it was first discovered to be such a tasty beverage, but rumor has it that some tea leaves accidentally fell into a pot of water that was being boiled for his consumption, and Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was so pleased with the taste, he mandated that they be purposely added to his water every day after that.
Tea became immensely popular in China and Japan, where it was considered both health-enhancing and mystical. It wasn't introduced to the Western world until the time of Marco Polo's explorations in the 1600s.
Tea is a member of the camellia family. Its proper name is Camellia Sinensis.
America provided two innovations for tea: the tea bag, and iced tea. Tea bags are now popular all over the world, but iced tea? Not so much. About 85% of the tea consumed in the U.S. is iced, but it has never become popular anywhere else in the world.
Tea is the world's most popular beverage after water.
Approximately 6 billion pounds of tea are produced every year, enough to provide every man, woman, and child with 200 cups per day. (I'm doing MY part... are YOU?)
The boiling water you pour over your tea bag or loose tea releases the caffeine. To reduce the amount of caffeine by 65%, pour boiling water over your teabag or loose tea... and then dump it out and pour some fresh water on the bag or tea. Ta DA!
Gee... suddenly... I'm very thirsty...
Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
P.S. Many thanks to all of you who left a comment on my last post, even though I wasn't available to respond. I appreciate the heck out of it. And you. We were chilling in western North Carolina with some friends who live at the top of a mountain. Lots of fun, and after seeing bear scat up there, I won't be grumbling so much about the piles neighborhood dogs leave in our yard. And Geo? Your comment gave me cause to pause, but although your account is terrific, our Huong was most definitely trying to get a rise out of me. :)
Thought for the day: Unlike a hangover, some things are worth repeating.
[source: unsplash]
Funny, but when I looked for an image to show hangover, the pics were all of men. Gee, I wonder why that is...
Anyhow, no I don't have a hangover. The truth is, I've never been much of a drinker, unless you count tea and water. Even so, I do enjoy a nice glass of wine or sip of bourbon from time to time.
But, um, yeah... this is gonna be a re-run. This post originally ran in June of 2013 with the title Cheers' Y'All! and it got a lot of comments back then, so some of you may remember it. Then again, maybe you won't. That wonderful dude Geo recently re-read and re-commented on that old post, so I figured, if he still got a kick out of it, maybe you would, too. (Heck, I'd even forgotten some of it...)
So here goes. I hope you enjoy! I'll be back with a brand new post for next Wednesday's IWSG Day. (The week after THAT, I'll show you some pictures of where we did our adventuring to celebrate our anniversary... I should be recuperated by then...)
P.S. Thank you guys so much for the anniversary wishes. (Yes, you WERE all brilliant.)
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Thought for the day: Whiskey is, by far, the most popular of all remedies that won't cure a cold. [Jerry Vale]
In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked for his opinion of whiskey. Being the true politician that he was, this was his response, as recorded in the Political Archives of Texas:
"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.
"However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it.
"This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principle."
You've gotta love a politician who can speak so articulately out of both sides of his mouth, but he's right, ya know. The abuse of alcohol can lead to all kinds of horrors, but as a social lubricant, it can also be quite... delightful.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. [Ben Franklin]
Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; Whoever sleeps long, does not sin; Whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer! [Martin Luther]
While Smarticus and I were in Dahlonega, we went to a wine tasting... in broad daylight even. How decadent! I must admit, I'm a lightweight when it comes to alcohol, so those little bitty glasses of delight put a giddy little giddy-up in my step and made the world look even rosier.
Here's to alcohol, the rose-colored glasses of life. [F.Scott Fitzgerald]
While in that wine-tasting shop, I took pictures of some stuff that tickled my funny bone. So this post is gonna take a look at the funny side of drinking. Yeah, like the good politician Sweat from Texas, I know alcohol has a nasty underbelly, but who wants to write... or read... about a nasty underbelly? Far better to share a smile or two.
A cute bar towel, huh? Not that it's at all applicable to any women I know.
I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food. [W.C. Fields]
I should've bought some of these napkins, darn it.
I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three, I'm under the table, After four, I'm under the host.
[Dorothy Parker]
Another bar towel.
I knew I was drunk. I felt sophisticated and couldn't pronounce it. [anonymous]
Yet another towel.
In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria. [Ben Franklin]
My personal favorite. This sign was next to the cash register.
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. [Ernest Hemingway]
This sign was at an antique shop we visited after the wine tasting. It cracked me up. Of course, after three teensy weensy glasses of wine, everything cracked me up.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer. [Dave Barry]
Here's one of those fun make-believe billboards from the fine folks at dribbleglass (Which reminds me, we're overdue for one of those road trip posts, aren't we?)
Actually, it only takes one drink to get me loaded. Trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or fourteenth. [George Burns]
One must always respect one's beverage.
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. [Henny Youngman]
I drink too much. The last time I gave a urine sample, it had an olive in it. [Rodney Dangerfield]
Don't try to join the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. It turns out they're apparently against all three. [Wiley Post]
Wine is sunlight, held together by water. [Galileo]
The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer. [Ancient Egyptian proverb, circa 2200 B.C.!!!]
The following video is just over nine minutes long, which may be longer than you want to hang around. No problem. But if you have time, I think you'll get a kick out of Bill Cosby's 30+ year-old take on drinking...
And one final clip. A short one, which I could hardly believe I found. This is one of the folk songs my cousin Phyllis and I used to sing when we were teenagers. Anybody else ever hear of it before?
Okay, that's it for now. Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
