TRUMP ACCOUNTS

 It slipped by me that there was something coming called "Trump Accounts."   If I've got it right, a child is going to be eligible for $1,000 savings account when born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028 as long as it is an American citizen with a social security number.  Of course, the parents will need to open the account.  The parents of older children can also open a Trump Account for them, but they won't get the $1,000 seed money.

Michael Dell (CEO and founder of Dell Technologies) and his wife, have donated $3.25 billion to extend this largess to children under 10 years old.  From the Dell's, if they live in ZIP codes with a median family income of $150,000 or less, the child will receive $250 seed money.  In either case, parents can contribute up to $2,500 each to the account each year.  No contribution is required of the parents.  

The Trump Accounts for the kids cannot be opened until July of 2026.  All the money in these accounts will be invested in the US stock markets by experts.  There is no guaranteed rate of return.  The amount available to the child at 18 years of age will, if nothing else, help teach this coming generation some things about saving money, and investing money. I love it - hope it works.

QUIZ ANSWERS FROM MONDAY

#1  AMY is the one who never kissed Elton John

#2  MICHELLE, MA BELLE were the only words that she would understand.

#3  STACY is the one whose mom had it going on.

#4  PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON lives in a land called Honah Lee

#5  Saturday night's for FIGHTING

#6  FATHER MCKENZIE saw to the burial of Eleanor Rigby.

WORDS OF WISDOM

 You can find wisdom almost anywhere - this from a recent tv ad.  I've heard it before - it is one we should never forget.

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, 

you are almost always right."

Most don't need any help interpreting this one.  Whatever you do, go in with a positive attitude and you have a great chance of accomplishing what you set out to do.  Write it on the back of your hand, post it on the fridge, or hang it on the wall - just never forget it.  Just like the little engine in the children's poem kept saying, "I think I can, I think I can."  That was positive thinking.  He did.  It works!

MIDWEEK PRAYER

Dear Lord, during this Advent season, I ask for your guidance in preparing my heart for Christ.  Help me clear away any distractions so I may focus on the hope and joy that You bring.  Let me be mindful of His love and mercy as I await His arrival, both as a child in Bethlehem and as Savior in my life.  May this time of waiting bring renewal to my spirit and fill me with peace.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen

WORDS OF WISDOM

They say it costs you nothing to be good.  Are you afraid that if you are good, people will laugh at you and say, "You are good for nothing."  Silly, isn't it?   Don't be afraid to do what is good.   

Now that we've got that out of the way, what is good to do?  Do things for other people; especially people who really need help.  Helping those who need help is the only thing that might help us remember that this time of year is not about spending as much or more than you can afford on those you love.  The world has made this season completely materialistic. Your loved ones will still love you if your gift is small yet meaningful.  I guarantee you will feel better for giving to or doing something for the needy than for anything you give to a relative. Never forget that we are approaching the celebration of the birth of the one who gave us the greatest gift ever given.  Never forget that the world has created this travesty of a holiday in order to downplay the real meaning of the day and reap an economic boom.   This year make it  not so much happy or merry as blessed.

 

QUIZ

 I'm back with music from my era, again.  See if you recognize these songs and know the answers.  I never would have known the first one.

#1  Who was it that Elton John sang he'd never been kissed by?

#2  What words "go together well?"

#3  Whose mom "has it going on?"

#4  Who lived in a land called Honah Lee?

#5  What is Saturday night for, according to Elton?

#6  What priest buried Eleanor Rigby?

I THINK AI HAS RUINED MY QUIZZES!

NAMECALLING

 Here's a rerun that I love.

12/08/2017

NAMECALLING

What do you call your food?  Meat of a chicken is called "chicken."  Makes sense.  Meat of a turkey is called "turkey."  Of course!  Flesh of a fish is called "fish."  Yes!   Meat of a lamb is called "lamb."

On the other hand:  The meat of a cow is called "beef" and the meat of a pig is called "pork."  What's the deal?  Does it revolt you to say, "I'll have another piece of cow."?   Could you live with asking for a few strips of pig with your breakfast?   Actually, we had both turkey and pig for Thanksgiving dinner.

I started thinking about this last night when I had a some cow at a restaurant.  They called it a steak - no mention of what animal it came from.  Moo!   I think I'm going to be sick.
😰

THANKSGIVING

 I wrote this 11 years ago.  I love it.  Hope you do too.

11/27/2014

THANKSGIVING

Once, I was playing basketball in the schoolyard.
More than once, I played football in an open field.
What did you do before the meal?

Once, I was was with my girlfriend's family.
More than once, I was raking leaves.
What did you do before the meal?

Once I was coaching football on TV.
More than once, I was playing in the woods.
What did you do before the meal?

Once, I was working on an Army base.
More than once, I was swimming in Florida.
What did you do before the meal?

Once, I was far away in Vietnam.
More than once, I was running in a race.
What did you do before the meal?

Once, I brought a precious baby girl
and her beautiful mother home from the hospital.
What did you do before the meal?

Be sure to give thanks before the meal - and after.
O.O

THANKSGIVING

 I was reading through old entries the other day and this is one worth repeating today.

11/25/2020

MIDWEEK PRAYER

 Let me offer my Thanksgiving prayer, today.  

Let us be thankful for all the gifts we have.

For this food, of course, and all who brought it to us.

but so much more.

For family and friends, for health and wealth

and especially time.

Time is a gift, we're never sure how much we have,

let us use it well and share it with others.

Amen

TURKEY

In the years before Columbus sailed to the Americas, a large bird was being imported into Europe from Africa.  It was a guinea fowl - guinea cock and guinea hen.  These guinea fowl were often brought to Europe by merchants who traveled through the Ottoman Empire, an area commonly known as Turkey, the major country of the Empire.

Because the birds were imported through Turkey, the Europeans began calling the guinea fowl a "turkey cock" or "turkey hen."  It was eventually shortened to turkey.

When the European settlers came to the New World and saw the large birds native to the Americas, they thought they were the same as those they called turkeys in Europe.  The name stuck.

From an entry four years ago:

Turkey facts:

"Only male turkeys gobble."   I bet it's the females that make them gobble.

"Turkeys can see better than humans."  I'm surprised they know the letters on the eye chart?

"You can identify if a turkey is male or female by it's poop."  Well, I can't but maybe you can.

"After the President pardoned the two turkeys in 2021, they were sent to Purdue University."  For higher education, I suppose!  

"Benjamin Franklin preferred the turkey to the bald eagle."   Would we have been eating eagle at Thanksgiving?

QUIZ

#1  WHAT PRESENT DAY COUNTRY WAS THE CENTER OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE?

#2  WHO SAID, "AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I THOUGHT TURKEYS COULD FLY."

#3  IN BOWLING, WHAT DO WE CALL THREE STRIKES IN A ROW?

#4  WHAT IS A TURLOCK?

#5  WHAT FAMOUS AMERICAN WAS BORN ON THIS DATE?

HINT:

NEWS - EXTRA

 I don't watch US television news sources so I'm not sure if this made the grade.  This from the BBC.

In Papiri, Niger State, on Friday morning, 303 students and 14 staff were abducted from the St. Mary's Catholic boarding school.  It is the third mass attack in one week, following the kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok state and an attack on a church in yet another state.

You should know that Niger State is a state of Nigeria in west Africa.  Nigeria has 36 states.  There is a country named Niger which borders Nigeria but this is not the place we are talking about.  It's like New Mexico is not part of Mexico.

In 2014, 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Chibok State, Nigeria by Boko Haram forces.  While some have excaped or been released, over 100 are still missing.

The incidents I have noted above have occurred in three different states within Nigeria.   Boko Haram is an Islamic Jihadist Terrorist group operating in that country. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the current abductions and attack. 

SATURDAYS

Instead of taking the day off, I'm going to start running old entries on Saturdays from now on.  Hope you find them interesting.

11/26/2024

PRE-THANKSGIVING

 This week, instead of my usual drivel, I offer an interesting Thanksgiving story I read recently.  It has become ritual for the President of the United States to "pardon" a turkey before this holiday - one turkey that will not be eaten.  President Lincoln declared this a national holiday in 1863.  This tradition of the pardoning has been consistent since 1989 when President George HW Bush preformed the ritual.

One of the strange events happened somewhere in between those years.  In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge and his wife Lady Grace, really got into the Thanksgiving spirit.  As the story goes, many farmers were intent on offering a turkey to the First Couple for their dinner; a lot of notoriety would come with it.  Turkeys were coming into the White House right and left.  One industrious farmer from Mississippi tried to go everyone one better.  He sent a raccoon.  Yes!  A racoon to be eaten on Thanksgiving.  He sent along a note swearing that these creatures were good eating.  

Well, the Coolidges were having none of that.  They not only wouldn't eat it but they pardoned the racoon and kept it as a pet.  They named it Rebecca.  Lady Grace allowed the 'coon' to walk freely in the white house and was taken on a leash outside on the property. The following Christmas they gave it a collar inscribed "White House Raccoon".   It even took part in the Easter egg roll the following year.   

The pampered raccoon was gifted with a male friend in the Spring of '27  -  they named him Rueben.  Rebecca didn't like him one bit.  Rueben had to go.  

The finicky female led a good life in the White House and vacationed with the First Couple.  After Coolidge's term, in 1929, Rebecca was donated to the Washington DC Zoo where she lived out her life. 

CONNECTIONS

Here is the definitive answer to last Monday's connections quiz.  

First group:  #5, 9, 12, 15  Things that have holes in them.

Donuts, Swiss cheese, Bengals defense, Sieve

Second group:  #3, 4, 7, 11   Things that are very far into the future in Cincinnati

A World Series, The I-75 Ohio River bridge,  a Mars landing, a Super Bowl 

Third group:  #2, 6, 8, 13  People in charge of disastrous situations

Richard Patino, Scott Satterfield, Aftab Pureval, Zac Taylor

Fourth group:  #1, 10, 14, 16  Things that are considered hot

Joe Burrow, Lava, Hell, Jalapenos

Of course, my son Andrew had the exact answers almost immediately.  I tried it on two of my daughters and they were able to flesh it out rather easily.  I hope other had fun with it.  

Have a great weekend.  

STOICISM

I've been called a stoic - in so many words - from time to time.  Stoicism is a philosphy that got started in ancient Greece by a guy named Zeno.  He and his followers believed that a wise man should be free of passion, unmoved by joy or grief.  These guys accepted whatever happened without complaint or emotion.   That all appealed to me at one time in my life.

I still have a lot of that in me.  Some people can't take it.  I have driven some people nuts trying to figure me out.  I'm a little sorry that I have that ability to completely divorce myself from some subjects and show zero emotion.  It may not have served me well over the years.

This popped into my mind the other day while I was attending the funeral of a friend.  My wife thought I only cried when I watched sad ESPN 30 for 30 shows.  Truth is that I cry when I see others crying.    Sure, big boys don't cry.  That's what everyone says. Stubbing your toe on the leg of a chair doesn't count. Being a stoic, takes it too far.  Stoics are not really great friends.

Here are some guidelines I am implementing to be more a friend than a stoic.  When a person confides in you with a problem they are having, don't blow it off.  Don't say you've had the same problem.  Don't offer solutions.  It is important to them.  Ask them for more informaton.  Agree that it is a difficult situation.  Don't be afraid to say that you don't know what you would do.  Don't think that you have all the answers.  

Here's another:  when someone goes out of their way or does something nice for you, don't say "I appreciate it;" say "I appreciate You."  Be more personal.  Be aware:  I'm going to say this in the future.