USMB Coffee Shop IV

[007]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

 

[Ava]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

That's pretty funny...."Cheapo Depot."

 

[Nosmo King]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

What type of fireworks do you prefer? Rockets, ground effects or explosives?

I've always been a pop bottle rocket guy myself. But I can see the attraction of M-80s and Cherry Bombs.

 

[Foxfyre]

Good morning everybody. Slept in again and it was good. Now enjoying my first cup of coffee and looking forward to a good day. Can you believe it is Wednesday again already? Was going to post a small camel here, but when I typed camel thumbnail photo into my browser to get one, I got links to all kinds of camel porn sites???????? Who would have thunk? So I didn't bother to keep looking but just imagine a thumbnail of a camel here.

<<<<<<small photo of sappy looking camel>>>>>>>>

(Since ads I see everywhere tend to reflect my browsing history, I'm almost afraid what will start coming up now.)

Sarah, I will take you off the vigil list for now and I am happy you're feeling so much better. But I will put you right back on whenever you need it.

And I too was moved by Stat's post.

And who knew that our very own Nosmo has been keeping us safe from forest fires all these years?

Tresha, I have been thoroughly enjoying your teaching on linguistics. Fascinating stuff.

And I related to your and Pogo's comments re the illiteracy of some in the family histories. I have dabbled quite a bit in genealogy and going through the old census records early in the 20th Century was fascinated to see all the various spellings of names of members of my family. I don't know if it was that the census takers were semi illiterate or whether whoever was providing the information didn't know how to spell the names.

But in these parts we're used to having pronunciations butchered:
Alamogordo correctly pronounced Ah-la-moe-GOURD-oh gets morphed into Allah-mah-gourd-ah.
Ruidoso correctly pronounced Rue-eee-DOH-so becomes Ria-doe-sah
And I won't even bother to explain how they mangle places like Tesuque and Pojoaque

More coffee. . . . .

 

[Foxfyre]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

Ewwwww fireworks. I had fun with them when we lived in country where we didn't worry about everything bursting into flame. But now I cringe when I hear them going off anywhere other than a closed, protected, professional setting. But why fireworks in October?

 

[Ernie S.]

I'm so jealous of some of you who live in the south. You guys have it goood. Eighty degrees? I wish. Temps are slowly dropping off around here. It's been in the 50s for the most part lately, and going to get colder this week. I'm sick and tired of winter, and I'm certainly not looking forward to it this year either. I'm thinking about southern part of Texas. Warm weather, no state income tax!! Woo-hoo! That would be AWESOME!

Also, something that might be of concern to everyone who has National Grid is that they are raising prices by 37% this winter here in Massachusetts. Watch out for price increases this year from NG! I'm certainly going to have look at other alternatives for heating.

There are supposedly other utility companies (or maybe just one other). However, you NEVER hear of these companies, and I wonder how reliable they are.

Warm weather, no state income tax.... ah yes, you want New Hamster. Be sure to be home about the second week of July. That's the warm weather.

I'm bordered on the north by New Hampshire! Been there a million times. They get a little more snow than we do on average, but we basically have the same cold winter weather.
a have a good 6 months of hot weather. I enjoy the summer, and it is very short-lived here in MA.


It was actually pretty warm here today, around 70, but rainy. I'll take that though!

We'll see a few days at or near 100 F but typical July highs are in the low 90's.

The #1 attraction for me is the $287 I pay in property taxes each year.

 

[Statistikhengst]

I got back about one hour ago from visiting my daughter. She saw me coming toward the Elementary School, took a running start, sprang into my arms with a force that almost knocked me over, hugged me, gave me a big old kiss and said "Papa, Du hast mir sehr gefehlt, Papa!" (Papa, I really missed you, Papa!"). Now, it's only been two days since I saw her, but the whole thing with the passing of our family dog really got to her and she was trying to tell me that she wanted to talk about it.

Since the weather was really nasty (Lord, it has turned really cold, really fast....brrr), we headed for the ice-cream cafe, but she didn't want ice-cream today. Instead, we ended up at a bakery with a sit-down area: she had a "Berliner" (jelly-filled) donut, I had one of the famous North-Rhein-Westfalian pretzels that are worth shipping overseas ( ) and some Cappucino. She was bound and determined to sit in my lap, munch her donut and be hugged by Papa. Glorious, just glorious it is to be a Papa.

After about 5 minutes, she then asked what happened on Monday with the pooch and I simply told her the timeline of how it all happened. She then asked if Klia is in doggy Heaven and I said that Klia is in a better place and waiting on us. The surprise for her was that I made a card for her with a picture of her and the pooch from just one month ago, on a Sunday where we were playing catch (she is learning baseball from Ami*-Papa!!!) and the dog was with us. In the card I wrote to my dear sweet daughter: "Klia now lives in our hearts, let's treat her well there".

It was a cathartic moment but good that it happened now. She needed closure of sorts and she needed to know that Papa is "ok".

She then did something totally unexpected. She turned around and asked me, in English (wow): "Papa, is it lonely at home now?" and I told her that yes, the place feels very empty, that is is up to us to fill "home" with our love and good deeds for others. She then drew a picture of Klia on the back of the card, thanked me for the card (which is not necessarily what 7-year olds do....) and then I took her back to her mother. On the way, I just kind of asked in a nonchalant way what she would think were we to stop by a dog kennel in the next months.... and she jumped for joy. Wait and see.

Now, that's a lot of personal information I am sharing, because I trust the CS crew here and it really does kind of reinvigorate my faith in humanity when I see my child (or any child, for that matter) respond the way mine did today.

She is learning to deal with loss in her own way. All I can do is to be at her side and love her, as I always have, and always will. Thanks for reading.

-Stat

*"Ami" is the German slang for "Amerikaner" (American).

 

[007]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

What type of fireworks do you prefer? Rockets, ground effects or explosives?

I've always been a pop bottle rocket guy myself. But I can see the attraction of M-80s and Cherry Bombs.

Well it's a pretty big store and they have a lot of everything, so I usually mix it up. But my favorites are the mortar types that fire out of a big tube and then explode up in the air, just like what you see at a show only tamed down a bit, still pretty decent.

 

[007]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

Ewwwww fireworks. I had fun with them when we lived in country where we didn't worry about everything bursting into flame. But now I cringe when I hear them going off anywhere other than a closed, protected, professional setting. But why fireworks in October?

New Years is coming.

 

[Ernie S.]

Sounds fabulous! I can't grow lavendar here because we have clay soil. My grandmother, who actually had a garden in a fenced area, had to mix sandy soil in a pot for the lavendar at the gate. Does anyone know why one must always plant lavendar at the garden gate?

I love differences. I am fascinated by cultures and religions in genreral because they tell us so much about the peoples of that time in that area. I know a lot of the roots for old wives tales, superstitions and cultural oddities like the evolution of Mardis Gras (and why it ultimately fails everywhere it is tried except Mobile, AL).

One of my employees says she always asks me the offensive "Why do y'all..." questions because I can explain it. It often involves someone being illiterate, differences between the French Catholics and the Italian Catholics, or the huge river that was rarely crossed until modern times. She's from New Jersey and wants to know, but discussion of differences like that are often unPC these days. Sometimes, in print, people think I'm bigoted because the answer often has to do with some culture or religion or paints someone in poor light (by modern standards). In reality, I celebrate the differences. In person, you can see my smile and the love of the topic in my expression, I guess. On a message board, it might sound like I think Catholics are retarded.

Donaldsonville and Gonzales are so different because the French Catholics settled one side of the Mississippi and the Italian Catholics the other. Crossing that river was rare. I have a newspaper clipping of my grandfather crossing it. That was the story, X crossed the river, and it made the paper.

Sigh. I've done it again ... gone on and on about something until eyes glaze over. Sorry lol.

I believe you meant to say it ultimately fails everywhere it is tried except New Orleans. Mardi Gras started in Mobile.

In 1703 French settlers in Mobile established the first organized Mardi Gras celebration tradition in what was to become the United States.

The first Mardi Gras parade held in New Orleans is recorded to have taken place in 1837.

From: Mardi Gras - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Nola was 134 years late to the party.

 

[007]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

That's pretty funny...."Cheapo Depot."

It's a pretty fun place. They have all kinds of stuff in the store, but a good half or more of the store is fireworks...

Shop Cheapo Depot.com Great Closeout Items Great Stuff Great Prices

 

[Ernie S.]

Good morning everybody. Slept in again and it was good. Now enjoying my first cup of coffee and looking forward to a good day. Can you believe it is Wednesday again already? Was going to post a small camel here, but when I typed camel thumbnail photo into my browser to get one, I got links to all kinds of camel porn sites???????? Who would have thunk? So I didn't bother to keep looking but just imagine a thumbnail of a camel here.

<<<<<<small photo of sappy looking camel>>>>>>>>

(Since ads I see everywhere tend to reflect my browsing history, I'm almost afraid what will start coming up now.)

Sarah, I will take you off the vigil list for now and I am happy you're feeling so much better. But I will put you right back on whenever you need it.

And I too was moved by Stat's post.

And who knew that our very own Nosmo has been keeping us safe from forest fires all these years?

Tresha, I have been thoroughly enjoying your teaching on linguistics. Fascinating stuff.

And I related to your and Pogo's comments re the illiteracy of some in the family histories. I have dabbled quite a bit in genealogy and going through the old census records early in the 20th Century was fascinated to see all the various spellings of names of members of my family. I don't know if it was that the census takers were semi illiterate or whether whoever was providing the information didn't know how to spell the names.

But in these parts we're used to having pronunciations butchered:
Alamogordo correctly pronounced Ah-la-moe-GOURD-oh gets morphed into Allah-mah-gourd-ah.
Ruidoso correctly pronounced Rue-eee-DOH-so becomes Ria-doe-sah
And I won't even bother to explain how they mangle places like Tesuque and Pojoaque

More coffee. . . . .

The different spellings of family names has always kind of tickled me. My first wife's mother was Polish. Her maiden name was one of those tongue twisters that no non Polish could pronounce, let alone spell.
Mary was the youngest of 10 children. I met, I believe 9 of them over the years and found that 2 of the brothers spelled the name differently. The oldest brother's son spelled it a 3rd way.

It involved "c's" "z's", several "h's" and far too many vowels in a row for an American boy to even attempt.

 

[Foxfyre]

Lots of interesting stuff happened on this day in history - October 22:

In 1746 the College of New Jersey was chartered. It would eventually be renamed Princeton University.

In 1784 Russia founded a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska and claimed Alaska as Russian territory. They sold it to the USA in 1867. Why did we want something so far away from the U.S. mainland you ask? The history is actually a bit murky but apparently relations between Russia and England were pretty tense at that time and Russia was fairly certain they couldn't defend Alaska if war ensued. And the USA was both interested in friendly relations with Russia and had hopes of annexing British Columbia at some point and acquisition of Alaska was a potential first step. Opinion of the American public was mixed. We didn't get British Columbia but Alaska would become the 49th state and we're pretty happy to have it now.

In 1836 Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

In 1879, after years of attempts and hundreds of failures, Thomas Edison tested the first practical electric incandescent light bulb. It lasted 13 & 1/3 hours before burning out. Moral of story: don't give up just because it is hard.

In 1924 Toastmasters International was founded.

In 1975, the USSR landed an unmanned spacecraft on Venus and in 2008 India launched an unmanned spacecraft to the moon. No doubt it is going to get crowded up there at some point. And in the desert near Alamogordo NM, a fabulous privately owned spaceport is being completed and the first planned civilian space flight is already sold out. If you want to get on the standby list, the tickets are roughly $200,000. If you had the money to burn, would you do that?

 

[Mertex]

I think I might head to the Cheapo Depot today just for fun, and buy me some fireworks. My supply is running pretty low.

Ewwwww fireworks. I had fun with them when we lived in country where we didn't worry about everything bursting into flame. But now I cringe when I hear them going off anywhere other than a closed, protected, professional setting. But why fireworks in October?

We live out in the country.....so fireworks are not restricted. Everyone comes over on the 4th of July and New Year's eve to pop their fireworks. We have an unofficial yearly contest going among residents of our sub-division.....Mr. Mertex spent $75 on one humongus beautiful spray/fountainlike firework that lasted a long time and put out a beautiful display....with loud booms, to boot....I think we won it this 4th....at least that's what everyone in our family thinks....

 

[Pogo]

Morning, all. We, where I grew up, would pronounce Lopes as "Lo-pez" accent on the first syllable, not "lopes".

Doesn't mean anything, spats.

I believe "Lopes" would be the Portuguese version of Lopez. They lean to S where Spanish likes Z.
(See Davey Lopes, Los Angeles Dodgers)
Of course, Portuguese wouldn't pronounce it "lopes" either. More like the Spanish, without the voicing of the Z. "Lo-pess" or in Brazil, "Lo-pesh".

 

[Pogo]

You go, Boudreaux!

Ha! I actually am (or was before marriage) an "eaux," although not a Boudreaux. Interesting aside: the "x" at the end of the name indicates one's ancestors were uneducated back in the day. An educated Gautreau would sign his name. An uneducated one would put his mark, an X, beside his name, making it look like Gautreau X. That's why there are so many eau names with an eaux counterpart.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Ever been to Prince Edward Island? It seemed everybody there was named either Arsenault or Bergeron.

Haven't been there, but Arsenault became Arceneaux down here. Lots of family names were accidentally changed during the war down here. When illiterate men enlisted, the guy writing his name down just did his best. It turned out to be far easier to actually change your family's name than to get the government to correct it. I worked with an Italian who is a Trepagnier instead of Tripanni.

ETA: Tons of Bergerons here. We have Martinez, pronounced like the name Martin with an ez. Ramirez is RAM uh rez
Martinez is MAR tin ez
Funny stuff

Oh, I think that was a national evolution. I went to school with Martinezes (in Pennsylvania) and we said "MARtinez" at the time. It was only years later that the general population learned to shift the accent to the penultimate: "Martínez".

I'm familiar with the French Acadian names in Louisiana. For true, my Louisiana license plate always drew some second glances when I'd go to Nova Scotia.

Awesome! If you eve make it back down to visit old friends, let me know! Hubby and I always have room for new friends, and I am not a horrible cook.

I just left there last week. What, there was a meal for me??

 

[Pogo]

Saints all the way ... next year.

You go, Boudreaux!

Ha! I actually am (or was before marriage) an "eaux," although not a Boudreaux. Interesting aside: the "x" at the end of the name indicates one's ancestors were uneducated back in the day. An educated Gautreau would sign his name. An uneducated one would put his mark, an X, beside his name, making it look like Gautreau X. That's why there are so many eau names with an eaux counterpart.

And now you know the rest of the story.

You make an interesting point there and I thank you for the information, Tresha91203

When I was doing some deep genealogical research for my family tree, I discovered than many of my ancestors who came over "on the boat" were either illiterate or simply could not write in English and when it came to Census time, like the 1910 or 1920 census, the census takers wrote down their names to the best of their ability because my relatives (many of them Jews from Poland or the Ukraine) could not spell their own name, or the americanized version of it, in the latin alphabet. It's maybe hard to believe in the 21st century, but back then, apparently, this was quite a phenomenon. And I am referring to both first name and family name. Sometimes the only way to know for sure if the ancestor is really the person in the census is to see the names of the other family members and see if the names all match up.

You can also see from the 1930 census that the Great Depression tore up a hell of a lot of families. All of a sudden, between the 1920 census and the 1930 census, the number of "boarders" listed at homes rose quite dramatically.

I thought you might also find that information interesting.

I would bet that there are a great number of names ala Francais with the x at the end of the name in Louisiana!!!

And for our "frenchophiles" out there, two places in France to recommend, in the Provence, for vacation:

Sault - is a small town where the bulk of the Lavender for the country is harvested. It is harvested every year on August 15th. My then-wife and I, we spent a month in Sault in 2004. The city is pronounced without the l and t. Like "sow". As soon as I can find the pics from Sault, I will post some of them. We rented a small summer home with no TV, just a radio, bikes and a car and just loved it there. It was one of the most relaxing vacations of my entire life. And you have never really experienced the intensity of lavender until you stand right in the middle of one of those fields. Wow. It was awesome.

Carpentras - a small city on the way due west from Sault, once you get back the ochre caves. Carpentras has the narrowest streets and most traffic circles of any small town in France. If you want to learn how to swear like a sailor at the top of your lungs, then drive through Carpentras, where all the maps of the town are wrong, too. Boy, that was fun. However, Carpentras sports the oldest Synagogue in all of Europe, a beautiful little structure. We toured it and I just loved it.

Sounds fabulous! I can't grow lavendar here because we have clay soil. My grandmother, who actually had a garden in a fenced area, had to mix sandy soil in a pot for the lavendar at the gate. Does anyone know why one must always plant lavendar at the garden gate?

I love differences. I am fascinated by cultures and religions in genreral because they tell us so much about the peoples of that time in that area. I know a lot of the roots for old wives tales, superstitions and cultural oddities like the evolution of Mardis Gras (and why it ultimately fails everywhere it is tried except Mobile, AL).

One of my employees says she always asks me the offensive "Why do y'all..." questions because I can explain it. It often involves someone being illiterate, differences between the French Catholics and the Italian Catholics, or the huge river that was rarely crossed until modern times. She's from New Jersey and wants to know, but discussion of differences like that are often unPC these days. Sometimes, in print, people think I'm bigoted because the answer often has to do with some culture or religion or paints someone in poor light (by modern standards). In reality, I celebrate the differences. In person, you can see my smile and the love of the topic in my expression, I guess. On a message board, it might sound like I think Catholics are retarded.

Donaldsonville and Gonzales are so different because the French Catholics settled one side of the Mississippi and the Italian Catholics the other. Crossing that river was rare. I have a newspaper clipping of my grandfather crossing it. That was the story, X crossed the river, and it made the paper.

Sigh. I've done it again ... gone on and on about something until eyes glaze over. Sorry lol.

Natchez has Mardi Gras too. Not sure since when, and I've never been there for it, but they do it.
Mardi Gras/Carnival came out of southern/Catholic Europe (especially France, Italy, the southern Germanic areas) and goes back to at least medieval times, some of it said to root back to Roman Saturnalia festival celebrations. Carnival (carne vale, "farewell to flesh") being the last orgiastic let-go before the ascetic tradition of Lent. Brazil is consumed by it from its Portuguese history (where it's spelled with an A: Carnaval and pronounced something close to "KAR-na-VOWEL").

I think Stats has reported to us in the past on modern Carnival events (Fasching) in Germany...

 

[Tresha91203]

Sounds fabulous! I can't grow lavendar here because we have clay soil. My grandmother, who actually had a garden in a fenced area, had to mix sandy soil in a pot for the lavendar at the gate. Does anyone know why one must always plant lavendar at the garden gate?

I love differences. I am fascinated by cultures and religions in genreral because they tell us so much about the peoples of that time in that area. I know a lot of the roots for old wives tales, superstitions and cultural oddities like the evolution of Mardis Gras (and why it ultimately fails everywhere it is tried except Mobile, AL).

One of my employees says she always asks me the offensive "Why do y'all..." questions because I can explain it. It often involves someone being illiterate, differences between the French Catholics and the Italian Catholics, or the huge river that was rarely crossed until modern times. She's from New Jersey and wants to know, but discussion of differences like that are often unPC these days. Sometimes, in print, people think I'm bigoted because the answer often has to do with some culture or religion or paints someone in poor light (by modern standards). In reality, I celebrate the differences. In person, you can see my smile and the love of the topic in my expression, I guess. On a message board, it might sound like I think Catholics are retarded.

Donaldsonville and Gonzales are so different because the French Catholics settled one side of the Mississippi and the Italian Catholics the other. Crossing that river was rare. I have a newspaper clipping of my grandfather crossing it. That was the story, X crossed the river, and it made the paper.

Sigh. I've done it again ... gone on and on about something until eyes glaze over. Sorry lol.

I believe you meant to say it ultimately fails everywhere it is tried except New Orleans. Mardi Gras started in Mobile.

In 1703 French settlers in Mobile established the first organized Mardi Gras celebration tradition in what was to become the United States.

The first Mardi Gras parade held in New Orleans is recorded to have taken place in 1837.

From: Mardi Gras - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Nola was 134 years late to the party.

Yes, it did. My twin lives across the bay from Mobile (used to be the GM of the Nautilus). Mobile has the better Mardi Gras by far, IMO. Less puking and peeing in the street!

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Just finished the book "Cold Mountain" for the first time, although I have seen the movie in full twice and various bits and pieces several times.

The narratives of Inman and Ada truly touches the soul.

Very possibly my favorite movie.

I never would have thought those actors would be that effective in those roles and Rene Zellwegger was incredible, but she was also wonderful in Chicago. Guess I'll read the book.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

BTW, anyone who likes well-researched and well-written historical fiction, try Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad Novels.