Saturday, February 27, 2010

The man in black

Johhny Cash - The Immortal Johhny Cash


Who can forget Johnny cash? When I was a kid my Dad listened to Country Music.  Some people just hate it, I love it.  I still love to hear Johnny Cash singing.  

Ring of Fire is my favorite.  Don't know why, just is.

He just looked like someone that would stop at your house for coffee, like a real guy I guess.  

His birthday was yesterday and because I am so organized I forgot to post stuff about him so I am doing it today to bore you all to death.

Talk later,

Annie

Johhny Cash

Johnny Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), born J. R. Cash, was an American singer-songwriter, actor,[2] author,[2] and Biblical scholar,[3][2][4] who was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.[5] Although he is primarily remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists, among them the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.[6]
Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" freight train sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his demeanor; and for his dark clothing, which earned him the nickname, "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."
Much of Cash's music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption. His signature songs include "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "Get Rhythm" and "Man in Black". He also recorded humorous numbers, such as "One Piece at a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue", a duet with future wife June Carter called "Jackson", as well as railroad songs including "Hey Porter" and "Rock Island Line".
Cash, a devout but troubled Christian,[7] has been characterized "as a lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges."[8][9] A Biblical scholar,[3][2][4] he penned a Christian novel entitled Man In White,[10][11] and he recited the entire New King James Version of the New Testament[12][13] on a spoken word recording.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

job application for the whale job?

OK so this husband comes home and announces to his wife that he has just come home from the unemployment office and the conversation goes like this.

"I saw this Job Ad at the unemployment office today dear"

"Oh, yeah what did it say dear?, you know you have been layed off for a long time and you have ruined our credit and the house is going to be repossed"

"Oh, it's for the whale trainer job in Florida, you know I love to swim.  It says no experience necessary, they will train me on the  job".

The wife hides the newspaper with the article that tells about the whale killing three of it's trainers.

"Great dear, let me find your swim trunks".

She then quietly takes the portable phone and makes a call to her insurance company, putting a million dollar policy on the idiot.

Talk later,

Annie

the whale

OK, Tim tells me about this whale thing this morning.  This giant whales eats its trainer. What in the hell, they still have the whale?  

That whale would be "Canned whale blubber" if he lived here.

What in the hell are they thinking?

Oh yeah, he's gobbled up more than one trainer.

What in the hell????????????

Talk later,

Annie

Here is a job opening for someone looking for a job!!!!!! no experience necessary

At some time, most Gainesville families have probably made the familiar a trek to Orlando, just two hours away, to visit one of the many theme parks. Visitors to Sea World on Wednesday experienced a show they’ll never forget. Spectators watched, horrified, as Tilikum, a 30-year-old Orca (aka Killer Whale) swam around the tank with a trainer in his mouth. Dawn Brancheau, age 40, was a veteran trainer at Sea World. The incident occurred after an afternoon show at the famed Shamu Stadium.

The Sherriff’s department has reported that there are some inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts. However, according to most reports, the 12,000 Killer Whale grabbed Brancheau and pulled her into the water. By all accounts, Brancheau was petting the whale while the audience exited the stadium. During this time, audience members are allowed to come down to the tank to get a closer look at the whales and to talk to trainers.

Some eyewitnesses have reported to AP that the whale swam around excitedly and then suddenly came out of the water and grabbed Brancheau. Others stated that the attack occurred while Brancheau was petting the animal and that it went from this apparently soothing time to attack without warning. One particularly horrifying account tells of a couple who had gone down to the tanks to get a better look when all of a sudden the whale swam by them with the trainer in his mouth.

This is not the first time that Tilikum has been involved in human death. Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for the death of a trainer who fell in the water in 1991 in British Columbia. In 1999, a man sneaked past security at Sea World and was later found draped over Tilikum. The man was clearly scratched and bruised by Tilikum, but it wasn’t clear if he had fallen in and died due to an accident or if Tilikum was to blame.

Because of these incidents, Tilikum was kept in a separate tank from the other orcas and trainers did not get in the water with him. Several eyewitnesses reported that the animal was not behaving normally both before and during Wednesday’s deadly show. According to some accounts, the killer whale was agitated and was not following directions well.

An investigator from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been sent to Orlando to investigate. No doubt, this incident will raise concerns about while animals, especially such large and at times ferocious ones, being used for shows such as this. It also remains to be seen what will happen to Tilikum and why he was even in the show in the first place if he wasn’t behaving appropriately. The Sea World website is down this morning.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Duck and Cover was a suggested method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear weapon which the United States government taught to generations of United States school children from the early 1950s into the 1980s. This was supposed to protect them in the event of an unexpected nuclear attack which, they were told, could come at any time without warning. Immediately after they saw a flash they had to stop what they were doing and get on the ground under some cover—such as a table, or at least next to a wall—and assume the fetal position, lying face-down and covering their heads with their hands.[1] Similar instructions were given in 1964 in the United Kingdom by Civil Defence Information Bulletin No. 5.[2] and, in the 1980s, by the Protect and Survive series.[3]
Proponents argued that thousands could be saved through this precaution, without which people would instead run to windows to find the source of the big flash. During this time a shock wave would cause a glass implosion, shredding onlookers.[4]
Similarly, "Drop, Cover and Hold On" is taught in areas prone to earthquakes. Schools in some tornado-prone areas of the United States also practice tornado drills that involve children squatting and covering the backs of their heads.[5][6]

cold war crap i stole

Air Raid Drills

Duck and cover!Kids have things to worry about now, for sure. In the 50's and 60's, we didn't know what ozone was. Global warming? Never heard of it. Gas stations were fighting to gain the business of our parents, not putting surly clerks behind bulletproof glass to sell them fuel at per-gallon prices approaching the minimum wage.
But today's children have never felt the paralysing fear that an air raid siren would cause, as a kid would scramble to get underneath a desk in a futile effort to cover up from the effects of a nuclear blast.
Some communitites would sound the awful siren, some would simply rely on the schools to conduct the air raid drills as they saw fit. But the schools were required to do so by many city and state governments.
And this was a source of contention for many. You see, the proactive nature of ducking and covering implied that the practicers of such a tactic might have a snowball's chance in a very hot place of surviving an actual nuclear blast.
Chrysler air raid siren, the Chrysler of warning devicesFear became a daily part of the average American's life beginning on August 29, 1949. That was the day the Russians, who had blockaded Berlin and had also pushed their way into Poland and Eastern Europe, turning the hapless nations into godless communist regimes, joyously announced the detonation of their first atomic bomb.
The ecstasy of winning WWII now seemed a distant memory. The threat of widespread death and destruction at the hands of the enemy now became very real to the average American.
In 1951 the film Duck and Cover was released. Don't worry, kids, animated Bert the Turtle will teach you how to survive those pesky nuclear bombs. The first thing that you do is take cover at the first flash of a nuclear blast or first sound of a warning siren. Duck to avoid the things flying through the air, then Cover to keep from getting cut or even badly burned. Kids were also encouraged to wear metal identification tags. That way their bodies would be able to be identified by survivors.
That naive, optimistic reptile also appeared in comic books handed out to the class.
Is it any wonder that this generation would soon take to the streets to protest war?
It got much, much worse on August 12, 1953. That's when the Russian Bear exploded its first hydrogen bomb.
Many schools began duck-and-cover drills as early as 1950. The h-bomb blast caused many, many more to join the routines.
Students are checked out by a teacher to make certain that they are safe from nuclear falloutThe kids' experience of air-raid drills ranged from boredom to terror. Teachers would sometimes lead the class in comforting prayers or religious songs as they cowered from the imaginary incendiary devices.
As the drills took place more and more often, eventually students' fears diminished. And this was what got the dander of many up.
Realistically, there was little chance of surviving nuclear war. And the protestors viewed the drills as a way to brainwash a future generation into believeing that the Russians could be outslugged if push came to shove.
Their voice was heard, at least to a degree. Local governments began seeing the folly of educating kids on how to survive the unsurvivable. By the time I started first grade in 1965, the air-raid drills were long gone.
Sadly, nowadays kids in some communities are taught to duck and cover for another reason: the potential of a crazed gunman opening fire at random.
At least they have a shot at survival if they follow the teacher's instructions

those duck and cover drills

OK you will only understand this if you went to school during the "cold war"  I have the definition of it.he Cold War is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War Two. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. For many the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying issue.


I found it on the internet, really didnt even know what the heck it was.  We had to do these fire drills in our classrooms that were so dumb it was ridiculous when I think about it.


From kindergarten up until about 5th grade we had to duck and cover under our desks and after that it was out in the  hallway against our lockers.

I remember wondering why in the hell we were under there.  I asked once and the reply i got was "that is not for  you to ask Anne".

Wow, if that wasn't a great answer.  I asked our 5th grade teacher why she wasn't under her desk and that got me a free pass to the office.  Our teacher weighed about 300 pounds, it would have had to have been one hell of a BIG desk for her to croutch under it.

I often wonder if they really thought we would survive an attack.  Would our desks protect us from a nuclear bomb, or were we simply put under there so when we all croaked, they could put the numbers on our dead little toes easier.


??

I am told they stopped around 1985.  It is different from school to school, state to state.  

You have to wonder about this crap sometimes.  We never asked, just got under there.  If they would have told us to jump off the Springville high level bridge, we would have.  I would have asked why, and probably would have been spared because I would have been in the principal's office.

Makes a person wonder.

Talk later,

Annie

definition of the cold war

he Cold War is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War Two. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. For many the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying issue.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Facebook comments

OK, I admit I am drawn to Facebook like a fly to a bug zapper.  I just can't believe what people post on there.  

In "the day", we were taught that some things in your life were private. You know, "you don't need to tell everyone in the world you have your period", stuff like that.

I am amazed at the stuff people actually post on there.

Here is a list I have compiled of things I am sure someone has posted I just haven't seen them yet. 
1:  I am having an affair with my husbands best friend, I sure hope he doesn't find out.

2.  I just robbed the bank, sure hope no one finds out.


3.  I just cheated on my final exam for high school, sure hope no one finds out.


4.  I lied on my income tax return, sure hope no one finds out.


5.  I am sleeping with the neighbor, sure hope no one finds out.


6.  I have my period.


7.  I am just leaving a bar and I am drunk as hell, sure hope no one finds out.  Maybe I will get a DWI tonight.


These are the types of comments you read.  For God's Sake people why don't  you just put your social security numbers and bank account numbers on their too.?


Talk later,


I think I am getting my period.


Annie



Tuesday, February 16, 2010

i stole this for proof that i am not full of crap

According to Wayne County Emergency Management Office Director Thelma Wideman, in
1985, the order came down to “decommission” or remove supplies and equipment from all shelters
within the county. She said that suitable non-perishable items were distributed to various county
facilities and hospitals. Some items had to be disposed of or destroyed, and any food items that
were still sealed and therefore fit for consumption, were passed out as well. On the lighter side, she
said that her office staff ate Fallout Shelter candy for a long time, and she believes they still have
some paper products on hand in their storage rooms to this day.

there were symbols like this on the cans of candy

pig candy

I called a girlfriend of mine today and we got talking about crap we used to do when we were kids.  She asked me if I remembered her dad and the "pig candy"

"Oh my God, of course I do" was my reply,  laughing outloud.

Her father raised a few pigs and one day he came home with a truckload of candy he had bought from an auction.  He told us it was for the pigs.  "Came from those weird fallout shelters", was his answer when we asked where it came from.

We were in absolute heaven.  We would feed the pigs and fill our pockets, bags and anything else we could.  Just imagine an endless supply of hard candy.  It was like Willy Wonka only out in the pig barn.

My girlfriend and I would fill up baggies of the candy and bring it so school and sell it for 50 cents a bag.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was in 6th grade.  We got busted and got sent to the principal's office.  

"Where are you getting this candy?" was the stupid question the principal asked us.


I looked at Lori.


"From the pig barn".  I said.  Trying not to laugh my but off while saying it.  I knew the principal pretty well, had alot of conversations with her over the years.


"I have not idea what you are talking about Anne, but you are  not to sell candy in school any longer, am I clear?"


"I guess so".


My first attempts at retail were foiled.


Talk later,


Annie


ps i actually found a picture of the candy on the internet.  I can prove this story, I swear I am not full of crap on this one.

Here are a couple of photos of the carbohydrate supplement. This hard candy is still good today if the cans are still sealed. Carbohydrate Supplement pieces were made about the size of a piece of bubble gum. I got an email from a Emergency Management director a while back and he said the red dye in the carb. supp. is most likely the same stuff that was banned because it caused cancer. This makes sense to me. These things were made in the early 1960s before the dye was banned.

Carbohydrate Supplement Can With Top Open

Here are a couple of photos of a can of carbohydrate supplement with the top open. These photos were sent to me by Platte County Emergency Management.
Gumby is a green clay humanoid figure who was the subject of a 233-episode series of American television which spanned over a 35-year period.[1] He was animated using stop motion clay animation

Gumby!!!

OK, so I get this article in the mail from my mother.  The guy who invented "Gumby" has passed away.

Moment of Silence.


..............................

I loved Gumby.  "He can walk through any book, with his pony pal Pokey too".

Sigh,..............................

I grew up with Gumby.  Everyone either had a Gumby or Pokey or had a friend with one. We would watch Gumby and then Davey and Goliath every weekend without fail.  It was a ritual.  

Hats off to the little green guy.


Sigh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


Talk later,


Annie

Mr Gumby passed away

Art Clokey, Animator Who Created Gumby, Dies at 88






Published: January 11, 2010
Art Clokey, the animator who half a century ago created Gumby, that most pliant of pop-cultural figures, died on Friday at his home in Los Osos, Calif. He was 88.
Skip to next paragraph

D. Ross Cameron/Associated Press
Art Clokey poses with a stuffed version of Gumby in 2005.

Blog

ArtsBeat
ArtsBeat
The latest on the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia extravaganzas and much more. Join the discussion.
His son, Joe Clokey, said he died in his sleep.
Asparagus green and fashioned from clay, Gumby made his television debut in 1956 on “The Howdy Doody Show.” The next year, he became the star of “The Gumby Show,” in which he embarked on a string of gently quixotic adventures with his supple steed, Pokey. The series was one of the first extended uses of stop-motion animation on television.
Though the 1950s show was fairly short-lived, Gumby reappeared in new series in the 1960s and in the 1980s and continued for years in syndication. He also starred in a feature film, “Gumby: The Movie” (1995), directed by Mr. Clokey.
Gumby is now firmly ensconced in popular culture. He dangles from rearview mirrors, appears in video games and crops up ubiquitously in references in film and on television. Millions of Gumby dolls have submitted to their owners’ manipulations. The character has been satirized, notably by Eddie Murphy, who played him as a cigar-chomping vulgarian — “I’m Gumby, dammit!” — on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s.
With his first wife, Ruth, Mr. Clokey also produced “Davey and Goliath,” the adventures of a boy and his dog, broadcast in the 1960s and ’70s.
Mr. Clokey was the subject of a documentary film, “Gumby Dharma,” released in 2006.
Arthur Charles Farrington, as Mr. Clokey was first known, was born in Detroit on Oct. 12, 1921. After his parents divorced when he was about 8, he lived with his father; when Art was 9, his father was killed in an automobile accident. Rejoining his mother in California, the boy was banished by her new husband and placed in a children’s home.
At about 11, Art was adopted by Joseph Waddell Clokey, a well-known composer of sacred and secular music. By Art’s later account, Joseph Clokey was a loving father who opened up a world of books and culture.
Art Clokey earned a bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Ohio and later attended Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, intending to become an Episcopal priest. He left before graduating and settled in California, where he and Ruth planned to make religious films.
Entering the University of Southern California, Mr. Clokey studied with the modernist filmmaker Slavko Vorkapich. In 1953, he made a student film, “Gumbasia” — the title was a nod to “Fantasia” — in which clay shapes dance to a jazz soundtrack. (The film is included on the DVD “Gumby Essentials,” released in 2007 by Classic Media.)
Mr. Clokey created Gumby soon afterward. As he often said, Gumby’s asymmetrical head, resembling a rakish pompadour, was a tribute to his biological father’s prominent cowlick.
“The Gumby Show” had an undercurrent of tender, if slightly surreal, spirituality. (A lifelong seeker of enlightenment, Mr. Clokey tried LSD — but only once, under medical supervision and not till long after he created Gumby, his son said in a telephone interview on Sunday.)
“Davey and Goliath” was spiritual by design. Underwritten by what is now the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the series was meant to teach values like charity and tolerance.
Mr. Clokey’s first marriage, to the former Ruth Parkander, ended in divorce; his second wife, Gloria, died in 1998. In addition to his son, Joe, from his first marriage, he is survived by a stepdaughter, Holly Harman; a sister, Arlene Cline; a half-sister, Patricia Anderson; and three grandchildren. A daughter from his first marriage, Ann, died in 1974.
With the rise of slick, titillatingly violent cartoons in the 1970s, Gumby’s popularity waned. According to many published accounts, Mr. Clokey struggled financially. Then along came Mr. Murphy, and suddenly Gumby was everywhere.
Mr. Clokey adored Mr. Murphy’s performance, his son said. But he was also gratified that it was broadcast late at night, when no child was awake to see it.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 15, 2010
An obituary on Monday about Art Clokey, the animator who created Gumby, using information from his production company, misstated the year he made the animated film “Gumbasia.” It was 1953, not 1955. The obituary also misidentified the materials used to make the title characters of the animated series “Davey and Goliath,” which Mr. Clokey produced with his wife, Ruth. The characters were puppets made of foam and other materials; they were not made of clay.

Monday, February 15, 2010

gotta love the snow? is it spring yet? aggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

where did your roses come from? i didnt get any so i am not worried

(Feb.13) --This weekend, Americans will buy dozens and dozens of roses to prove to their loved ones that they don't not care about them. But beauty comes with a price: a human price and an environmental price.

Getting local roses in February is nearly impossible in much of the country. Those being distributed Sunday will be coming from factory flower farms in Colombia and Ecuador.

"The trick is, once you're buying flowers from far away, they're wildly less regulated," says the director of the Sustainable Food Project at Yale, Melina Shannon-Dipietro, who runs a subscription flower service from the school's urban garden.
Worker holds a bunch of roses at a flowers plantation
Patricio Realpe, LatinContent/Getty Images
A worker holds a bunch of roses at a flowers plantation last month in Cayambe, Ecuador. Many of the Valentine's roses sold in the U.S. this weekend came from flower farms in South America.

According to the AFL-CIO, there are 100,000 workers on flower farms in Colombia who cut, trim and package flowers for $8 a day -- less than some of the cheapest Valentine's Day bouquets in America. About two-thirds of those workers are women, and according to a 2005 study by the International Labor Rights Forum, 19 percent of flower workers had been forced to have sex with a co-worker.

Organizations like the independent union Untraflores have been fighting for increased wages and improved conditions, but unionization can be dangerous in a country where 2,697 unionists have been killed in the past 23 years.

In addition, flower workers are exposed to a broad spectrum of dangerous pesticides used to ensure pristine blossoms.

Shipping flowers from South America also consumes excess energy. To ensure freshness, flowers have to be shipped in refrigerated planes, sometimes racking up a large carbon footprint as they are transported from South America to distributors in the Netherlands and then back across the Atlantic to the United States.

Some independent organizations that monitor production practices of flower growers include Florverde, Veriflora and Fair Trade.

For a greener winter alternative, try forcing narcissus bulbs. Just buy a bulb or two from any number of online distributors or local flower shops, then put them in a container filed with small rocks. Fill them up with enough water so the plant can reach it with some short roots, but not so much that the bulb is sitting in water. Don't worry about soil; the flower has all the nutrients it needs stored in the bulb. Put it in a sunny place, and within a few days, you should see a green shoot that will blossom in a few weeks.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

so you give this one to the chubby kid?

Dumbo Dunce card?

And they wonder why most of us that grew up in the 70's are in therapy?  For God's sake:  Dumbo the elephant Dunce Valentine's Day card?  You might as well just shoot the person.

How would you like to be on the receiving end of this card?

cupid?

OK, when I was a kid I used to hear  about "cupid".  The pictures actually scared me.  I mean who in the hell wants to be shot in the ass by a baby with no diaper on ?  That to me didnt look like fun at all.  I knew how sharp those arrows were,  for God's sake, my uncle had a bow and arrow in the backroom.  

Why in the heck do they make up crap like that.  

Ouch!!

Keep your arrows to yourself you chubby little weirdo you.

Talk later,

Annie

cupid?

Cupid has long played a role in the celebrations of love and lovers. 
He is known as a mischievous, winged child, whose arrows who would pierce 
the hearts of his victims causing them to immediately fall deeply in love. 

those candies

OK i saw BFF on a candy heart today.

If My mother saw that she would have a fit.  If something has the letter F in it, she has a fit.

 

Conversation Hearts

  • About 8 billion hearts will be produced this year; that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.
  • The peak selling season for conversation hearts last only six weeks, but confectioners produce the candy for nearly eleven months of the year.
  • At least 10 new conversation heart sayings are introduced each year. Recent additions include "Yeah Right", "Call Home" and "Puppy Love."
  • Each year the television game show JEOPARDY! includes questions about conversation hearts on its Valentine's Day show.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Those heart candies

When I was in school we used to exchange those little heart candies with your cards. I am sure they were cheap, that's why our mom's bought them.  They really didn't taste all that great.  I think that the candy factory, NECCO that makes those little suckers also makes chalk.

They save all the chalk dust during the year and compress it into candy hearts.

Who the hell are they kidding anyway?

Talk later,

Annie

Valentines Day

OK, so today is the Valentine's day party in school.  I am more excited than the kids.  It really brings back some awesome memories for me.  I can remember filling out those little cards for all my friends in school and passing them out.  I remember the excitement of opening those little suckers up and seeing the pictures on them.  

The cards back then were alot different.  This year we got Hannah Montana and Bratz cards.  These are just not the same.  

I know times change.

OK, so if there was a boy you didn't particularly like, you gave him the card with the skunk on it.  You saved the cutest ones for your bestest  friends and gave the rest to everyone else.  There was always a larger card for the teacher.

I remember making cool things to put the cards in.  This was half the fun.  Paper bags colored red,  construction paper hearts put together to make a card holder, paper plates stapled together and  decorated.  

We would save these cards forever.  I think I still have some of them in an old notebook I made into a scrapbook.


Have a great Valentines Day this year and don't forget the excitement you had as a kid,  and.... oh yeah don't forget to give the person you don't like the skunky card.  

Do they make whole packs of skunky cards?

Talk later,

Annie

i stole this

Fifty-two years ago, when Earl and Marilyn Northrup’s hot dog stand had the floor space of an Edsel, one of its regulars was Bobby Noel, a 12-year-old who would have been in hot water if his mother knew how far he had pedaled his bike.
The boy was among the first in a cast of thousands who grew the Northrups’ simple stand in Chaffee to 150 seats, 37 employees and five-dozen menu offerings — the setting for countless yarns about the grandchildren and the fish that got away.
Together, the masses of “working people” as Earl describes them, elevated his diner into a full-fledged landmark where everyone feels at home.
That is, until one ominous day that will dawn next week, or perhaps the week after.
Marilyn died a little over five years ago, and Earl, at 73, has never known a week of work that didn’t span 80 hours. He’s ready to retire.
When the cupboards are finally bare, he will close Earl’s Real Food Family Restaurant for good.
“I’m sure there will be quite a few people dismayed by his decision,” said Don Bivolcic of Lancaster, finishing his Saturday-morning eggs at Earl’s counter as he and his wife, Mary Ann, chewed on the specter of no more Earl’s.
Dismayed, indeed. The news had made the rounds Saturday, so Earl — you can’t miss him with his cherryred cowboy hat, muttonchops and patriotic shirt — was busy posing for pictures with well-wishers who wanted their memento.
“There has to be something that you can’t see, something you can’t feel or whatever, that keeps drawing you back,” he said later, trying to explain his restaurant’s success.
Earl Northrup was always ambitious, always “a goer,” said boyhood friend Jim Kirchmeyer, a retired boilermaker who lives in Chaffee. He and Earl went to the same one-room schoolhouse and both know the duties expected of a boy growing up on a farm.
When Earl delivered milk in his early 20s, he noticed the success of a simple hot dog stand he would pass nearly every day. So he decided he and Marilyn would start their own simple place.
This was the age of mobile Americans, liberated by their cars. So the Northrups drew families venturing south for Christmas trees and couples out to view the autumn palette that surrounds the stretch of Route 16 near Route 39, in the southeast corner of Erie County.
Over the years they served no liquor and nothing fancy. Meat. Potatoes. Omelets. Waffles. Even today, a third-of-apound burger can be yours for $3.15. And then there are the pies. “New York’s eyes are on our pies,” the sign says.
He never accepted checks or credit cards.
“We’re just old-fashioned,” the menu says. But he does have a Web site, earlsdrivein. com.
They turned the space out back into a park for countrymusic concerts. He moved the original hot dog stand back there. He stores his collection of farm machinery nearby.
The business consumed the Northrups, but Earl is proud to say that in the three sad years preceding the death of a son at age 7, they saw him each day he was in the hospital except one.
You don’t have to know Earl well to see he’s not the same since Marilyn died in 2002. A picture of her hangs in the dining room. And there are a couple of pictures of the smiling couple on the menu.
The waitress who has been with him 22 years, Cathy Paran, agreed he took it hard.
“You know what? I go to the cemetery like five times a week,” he told a customer coming to say farewell. “And I will say without any hesitation, I am anxious to meet her.”
He’s not sure what he’ll do with the bullhorns and the pieces of Americana that give Earl’s its character. He’s not sure what the employees will do. He only knows he’s giving the place to Houghton College and Houghton Academy, a decision he and Marilyn agreed upon years ago. A spokeswoman said Houghton does not yet have a plan for Earl’s.
Over the years, Earl noticed that diners were coming from miles away. His quick poll of those in proximity to him Saturday showed that most had driven 20 to 30 miles.
Which is not to say he doesn’t draw locals, too.
“Here’s a local boy,” he says, beckoning a familiar face.
“Bobby. . . . ”
Bobby Noel’s hair is whiter and thinner than it was 52 years ago, when he rode his bike down Route 16. He still loves Earl’s, and his dish of choice is no longer the hot dogs but the roasted chicken dinner and the hot roast beef with gravy.
Where will he go after Earl’s closes? A pause, then:
“I don’t know for sure,” Noel said. “Don’t know for sure. . . .

In

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

When your tips suck, hem your uniform

One of my very first jobs I ever had was working as a waitress at a restaurant called "Earl's Diner".  It was a neat restaurant.  The owners names were Marilyn and Earl Northrup.  They used mason jars as drinking glasses, played all sorts of old country music and the legs on the tables were covered with blue jeans and had cowboy boots on them.  Kinda corny, kinda neat.

One day Earl came back from a vacation he and Marilyn had been on down south somewhere.  The minute they got back we had a "meeting".  "we are going to have all the waitresses wear white uniforms now, we saw it in a diner in Tennesee and we liked it so much, we decided to buy uniforms for all you girls." 

You could have heard a pin drop.

These stunning beauties were white and were supposed to look like "Mel's Diner" uniforms.  Marilyn bought everyone size large.  We were mostly small girls at the time.  


The next few days at work were awful.  The uniforms looked nothing like the sexy waitresses on TV.  We looked like Nurse Ratchit, all of us.  Then one day I had an idea.


"OK guys, friday night after work, instead of going to Chaffee Hotel, I want all of you to bring your uniforms and plan on staying after we are closed.  


Friday came and I was prepared.  I had my sewing machine, sharp scissors and pins.  One by one, I had the girls put on their uniforms inside out.  They thought I was nuts.  I pinned the darts so they actually fit their boobs, cutting out the fabric.  The darts that were in these uniforms were meant for someone with  DD  boobs,  we did not have DD boobs. Nurse Ratchits must have big boobs.


Then I   would pin up  the hem on the dress, make the girl pick up something off the floor.  I would pin it up so you could see her underwear, then let it down a few inches.  I cut off that excess fabric and hemmed away.


The girls were happy as hell.  We looked like Mel's diner and not the Nurses from Hell.


Marilyn got used to the new look, Earl really liked it and everyone was happy, especially the customers to consisted mainly of truck drivers.


Moral of the story:  don't freak out over the problems in your life, just figure out how to fix them.  Or hem the hell out of your uniform and you will get better tips.


Talk later,


Annie

Sunday, February 7, 2010

It's all in the attitude

It's no secret, I hate football.  My Dad watched it, my ex-husband watched it.  I hated it. 
Years ago, when I was first married,
I was complaining about it to one of my best friends, Bonnie one day.  She listened to my whining for a while and then said "You are doing it all wrong. come over to my house next weekend during a game and I will show you what I mean."

I waited until the next weekend and then went over.  I really didn't want to go.  She was in the kitchen cooking.  "Come on in".  There was a bunch of people there laughing and having a ball.  How in the hell did she do this?

"OK, listen, Anne, first of all you invite fun people over, you make a ton of fun food and you buy a bottle of Captain Morgan's rum."

She then proceded to tell me that she hardly even went in the room where the "game" was playing, too busy having fun in the kitchen.

"As long as my husband is happy out there, I am happy in here!"

"Holy crap, that's it".  I was doing it all wrong.

The next week I made a grocery list of things to make, invited people over and we had a ball.  After that, I loved football.  Still don't know a damn thing about it, couldn't  have cared less, but it became fun for me.

I never forgot what she taught me.  Something so simple, but so smart.

Thanks Bonnie!!

Talk later,

Annie

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Friday, February 5, 2010

Here is The Shining's plot for those of you young people who are emailing me telling me they have never seen this film

The film tells the story of a writer, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), who accepts the job of the winter caretaker at a hotel that always gets snowed in during the winter. Jack's son shares psychic abilities with the hotel's chef who calls it "shining". They can see things in the future or past, such as the ghosts of murdered people in the hotel. As the hotel becomes snowbound, Jack Torrance becomes influenced by the ghosts in the haunted hotel, descending into madness and trying to murder his wife and son.
The novel's author Stephen King had very conflicted feelings about the film (see Reception and Comparison with the book) which have oscillated over time. A TV mini-series adaptation of the novel broadcast in 1997 saw King more actively involved.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Plot

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) arrives at the Overlook Hotel for a job interview. Manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) warns him that a previous caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and himself during the long winter in which the hotel is entirely isolated. The hotel itself is built on the site of an Indian burial ground. Jack’s son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), has ESP and has had terrifying premonitions about the hotel. Jack's wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), tells a visiting doctor about Danny's imaginary friend "Tony" and that Jack had given up drinking because he had physically abused Danny after a binge.
The family arrives at the hotel on closing day and is given a tour. The elderly African-American chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) surprises Danny by speaking to him telepathically and offering him some ice cream. He explains to Danny that he and his grandmother shared the gift; they called the communication "shining". Danny asks if there is anything to be afraid of in the hotel, particularly Room 237. Hallorann tells Danny that the hotel has a certain "shine" to it and many memories, not all of them good and advises him to stay out of room 237 under all circumstances.
A month passes and Jack's writing project is going nowhere. Meanwhile, Danny and Wendy have fun and go in the hotel's hedge maze; Jack discovers a model of this maze, showing Wendy and Danny inside it, in one of the hotel lounges. Wendy is concerned about the phone lines being out due to the heavy snowfall and Danny has more frightening visions. Danny’s curiosity about Room 237 finally gets the better of him when he sees the room has been opened. Later, Danny shows up injured and visibly traumatized causing Wendy to think that Jack has been abusing Danny. Jack wanders into the hotel’s Gold Room where he meets a ghostly bartender named Lloyd (Joe Turkel) who serves him bourbon on the rocks. Jack complains to the bartender about his relationship with Wendy. Afterward, Wendy shows up and apologizes for accusing Jack, explaining that Danny told her a "crazy woman in one of the rooms" was responsible for his injuries. Jack investigates Room 237 and has an encounter with the ghost of a dead woman there, but tells Wendy he saw nothing. Wendy and Jack argue about whether Danny should be removed from the hotel and Jack returns to the Gold Room, now filled with ghosts having a costume party. Here he meets who he believes is the ghost of the previous caretaker Delbert Grady (Philip Stone) who tells Jack that he has to "correct" his wife and child. Later, Jack sabotages the hotel radio, cutting off communication from the outside world.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Dick Hallorann gets a premonition that something is wrong at the hotel and takes a flight back to Colorado to investigate. Danny starts calling out the word "redrum" frantically and goes into a trance now calling himself "Tony". Wendy discovers Jack's typewriter and that he has been typing endless pages of manuscript repeating "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" formatted in various ways. Horrified, she confronts Jack, but he threatens her before she knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat and locks him in a kitchen pantry. Jack converses through the door with Grady, who then releases him.
Danny has written "REDRUM" in lipstick on the door of Wendy’s bedroom revealing itself in the mirror to be "murder" spelled backwards. At that moment, Jack, armed with a fire axe, begins to chop through the door leading to his family's living quarters. In a frantic maneuver, Wendy sends Danny out through the bathroom window but she is unable to fit through the window herself. Jack then starts chopping the bathroom door down with the axe and leers through the hole he has made, shouting the now iconic "Here's Johnny!" line, but backs off after Wendy slashes his hand with a butcher knife. Hearing a running engine outside (from Hallorann's snowcat), Jack leaves the room and begins to wander about the hotel; Hallorann is killed in a surprise attack moments after entering the lobby. Jack then begins to pursue Danny and is led into the hedge maze. Jack follows Danny's footsteps, but is misled when Danny manages to walk backwards in his own tracks and leaps behind a corner, covering his tracks with snow. Wendy and Danny escape in Hallorann's vehicle while Jack slowly freezes to death in the hedge maze.

The photograph on the hotel wall: Overlook Hotel, July 4th Ball, 1921. A young Jack stands smiling in the bottom center.
The final shot of the film is of an old photograph taken at the hotel on July 4, 1921 in which Jack Torrance is clearly visible while Midnight, the Stars, and You[3] is being played through the hallways. It is worth noting that the actual song, however, was not written until 1932.