I remember when gas was this price!

I remember a time when my dad was so happy that he could buy 5 gallons for a dollar! Gas wars of the 60's as I recall. I was just a yungun....


OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A misplaced decimal point gave drivers a surprisingly good deal on gas, and even inspired some threats of violence at a west Omaha filling station Wednesday night.
Carolyn Folsom, who occasionally helps her brother and father run the self-service, attendant-less Shell station, said she goofed Wednesday afternoon when entering prices into the computer that runs the fuel tanks. A gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline was supposed to cost $1.89 but ended up costing only 18 cents.
"I don't know if my finger missed the nine or what," Folsom said. "The whole family is laughing about this. I will never live this down."
Folsom said about 500 gallons of gas were sold during the several hours the price was down, costing the business about $1000. The station does not have an attendant and the only way to pay is at the pump, so the mistake went unnoticed for hours.

A fuel truck driver who came to deliver gas discovered the problem and tried to block the entrance of the station with his truck, Folsom said.
But by then word was out and the rush for cheap fuel was on.
Folsom said one person threatened to hit the fuel truck driver with a hammer if he didn't stop blocking the entrance.
"That's the thing that upsets me," Folsom said. "I mean, grow up."
Folsom said her father fixed the price about 7:15 p.m. And he's forgiven her for the mistake, she said.

A geezer bike owned by a geezer

For 75 of his 95 years, William Wagstaff rode the same bicycle -- until a brush with a car finally made him decide to stop pedalling and donate the bike to a transport museum.Wagstaff, from Croydon in southern England, bought the bicycle for £14 in 1929, the Daily Mirror newspaper said on Wednesday.Over the years he pedalled more than 80 000km on the bike, which he named "Evans" after its manufacturer.He replaced the saddle twice, used up 15 sets of tyres -- but kept the original saddlebag and tool-kit, plus a World War II oil lamp masked with blackout paper."Even into his nineties, he used it two or three times a week. But a car knocked him off and upset his confidence," Wagstaff's daughter told the newspaper.Robert Excell, curator at London's Transport Museum to which Wagstaff donated the cycle, said: "It's remarkably well preserved, partly because they were made out of stronger steel in those days and partly because Mr. Wagstaff soaked everything in oil to preserve it. It's a real gem." -- Sapa-DPA

What did you think?

They probably lack the capability the people of Vietnam did....don't care!



"The Iraqis lack certain capacities, and if we focus in this next period after the election on helping them to build those capacities beyond where they are now, I think we will have done a major part toward the day when less coalition help is needed."
- CONDOLEEZZA RICE

Comet crashing rocket

Sort of worried about NASA sending a rocket to crash into a comet. I can only think of bad things that could happen.

1) The rocket hits the comet. It changes the course of the comet which then runs into the earth and kills us all. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!

2) The rocket hits the comet. Really pisses off the aliens that are using it for their observation site. They attack the earth and kill us all!

Hmmm, you can see there are all sorts of bad things that can come of this!

Tourist says he has been stumped by this situation!

A German professor who went on a dream holiday to Costa Rica woke up in an airport departure lounge to find his leg had been amputated. The professor said he had gone to see a doctor at a hospital in San Jose because his left foot was swollen. He said: “An aspirin usually did the trick. I have had the problem before - it was nothing serious - just something caused by my diabetes. “When I got to the hospital they put me on a bed and I heard the word amputate. I tried to protest, but before I knew it they had given me drugs to black me out, and when I woke up I was at the departure lounge. “My suitcases were by my side - and then I realised my leg was missing. I couldn’t move, and when I checked my wallet I found that £200 had been taken out and replaced with a receipt for the amputation.

GET DOWN AND DO YOUR PUSH UPS YOU MAGGOT!!!!

"Tonight eat only half the dessert. And then go out and walk around the block. And if you are going to watch television get down and do 10 push-ups and five sit-ups."
- TOMMY THOMPSON, secretary of Health and Human Services, on new diet
guidelines.


Tommy doesn't look like he misses too many desserts!

How forward looking they are in Wisconsin

In 1972, my first job out of college, paid $6 an hour. I could have gone to work at a newspaper for $5 an hour, but I went to the higher paying job in surveying. It is nice that 32 years later, the great state of wisconsin thinks $6 an hour might be a fair minimum wage. GET A LIFE!

Madison - The Assembly's leader said Friday that he would be willing to raise the statewide minimum wage to $6 per hour - a sign that Republican lawmakers are increasingly nervous about the possibility of Milwaukee becoming the second city to set its own wage.
The Push for a Wage Increase
"I don't believe we should have all these communities doing all these different things," Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo) said, explaining why he could support a compromise that would lift the minimum wage from the current $5.15 per hour.
Gard offered no details of how or over what period the current wage should be boosted.
But Democratic Gov Jim. Doyle immediately said a $6-per-hour minimum wage would be too low. He would not agree to a scale of less than $6.50 an hour, saying that figure had been recommended by a bipartisan group of business and labor leaders.
The exchange came the day after Milwaukee leaders followed Madison's lead, and said they were looking into raising the minimum wage in Wisconsin's largest city. Madison increased its minimum wage to $5.50 on Jan. 1, and it is scheduled to rise to $7.75 per hour in January 2008.
Madison is being sued by business groups over the city's wage increase.
Last year, a committee Doyle appointed recommended a two-step increase to $6.50 an hour - a process the Legislature should seriously consider, another Republican leader, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), said Friday.
A co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, Fitzgerald said he had talked to Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) about a possible increase in the minimum wage, but Fitzgerald did not offer his own plan.
Wisconsin's minimum wage "should be closer" to the recommended two-stage boost of $6.50, Fitzgerald said. Republicans in the Legislature this week delayed until the end of 2006 a state agency's rule that would have implemented that boost, however.
Doyle has said he wants the state to have a uniform minimum wage, but he understands why frustrated municipalities might take action on their own.
"Like I've always said, I'm in favor of a statewide minimum wage, and we would make sure then that it's uniform across the state," Doyle said Friday.
"We have a process in Wisconsin that was established decades ago that. . . is intended to keep legislators from playing these kinds of political games."
State Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) offered his own compromise Friday. It would raise the minimum wage to $6.50 per hour and forbid any city from enacting any higher wage.
Also Friday, Gard said the Legislature should act quickly next week to refinance long-term state debt to save $11 million. But he said that $7.5 million of that should go to pay for a 2005 state income tax credit for Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs.
HSAs offer federal - but not state - tax deductions for setting aside money to pay future health-care bills. Gard said the state tax code should mirror the federal rules.
Gard said the Assembly could pass the debt-refinancing, which the governor wants, and add the HSA tax breaks as early as Tuesday.
But Doyle said: "Not much chance I'm going to agree to that. Here's $11 million of taxpayers' money. Let's not spend it before we even have the money."
Lawmakers bent on spending the $11 million should "restrain themselves," Doyle said. "It's simply a matter of making this (refinancing) so that we can save taxpayers the money and resist the temptation to go out and spend it as quickly as they can."
Senate leader Schultz said Friday that the $11 million should be set aside as a down payment on a deficit of more than $220 million in state health-care costs.

Be careful with those thermometers

DETROIT (AP) -- The sign on the toilet brush says it best: "Do not use for personal hygiene."
That admonition was the winner of an anti-lawsuit group's contest for the wackiest consumer warning label of the year.
The sponsor, Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, says the goal is "to reveal how lawsuits, and concern about lawsuits, have created a need for common sense warnings on products."
The $500 first prize went to Ed Gyetvai, of Oldcastle, Ontario, who submitted the toilet-brush label. A $250 second prize went to Matt Johnson, of Naperville, Ill., for a label on a children's scooter that said, "This product moves when used."

A $100 third prize went to Ann Marie Taylor, of Camden, S.C., who submitted a warning from a digital thermometer that said, "Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally."
This year's contest coincides with a drive by President Bush and congressional Republicans to put caps and other limits on jury awards in liability cases.
"Warning labels are a sign of our lawsuit-plagued times," said group President Robert Dorigo Jones. "From the moment we raise our head in the morning off pillows that bear those famous Do Not Remove warnings, to when we drop back in bed at night, we are overwhelmed with warnings."
The leader of a group that opposes the campaign to limit lawsuits admits that while some warning labels may seem stupid, even dumb warnings can do good.
"There are many cases of warning labels saving lives," said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy in New York. "It's much better to be very cautious ... than to be afraid of being made fun of by a tort reform group."

Dixie is a nice unity song for the Republicans!

Band's version of one-time Presley tune hits sour note with someAssociated Press
MADISON, Wis. - As if the incoming Legislature didn't have enough problems, a high school band's rendition of a tune that was an Elvis Presley hit decades ago drew a complaint from a newly elected member of the Senate.
The Richland Center High School band played "An American Trilogy" at the Senate's inaugural ceremony at the Capitol Monday - the first day of a session expected to be dominated by battles over budget-cutting, a tax-freeze amendment and a myriad of other issues.
Sen. Spencer Coggs, who is black, said he was shocked, as were his family and other guests, to hear the strains of the Southern anthem "Dixie" played in the Senate chamber as part of the trilogy, along with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "All My Trials."
Coggs, a Democrat from Milwaukee, complained in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center.
"Whether the slight was intentional or not, the selection was not appropriate," he wrote, noting that "Dixie" is often associated with slavery.
"While now it should be unnecessary to suggest, in the future a list of songs should be submitted prior to a performance and the list should be reviewed for its appropriateness," he said. "It is unfortunate that this special day was marred by such an unnecessary event."
Schultz had invited the band and choir to play at the ceremony.
He said the complaint caught him by surprise.
"A simple apology is what's needed," Schultz said, "and I will certainly be happy to do that."
He said he wasn't aware of every musical selection the band prepared for the event, and the piece has some historical significance.
"But I want everyone to feel included. If Sen. Coggs felt offended, I would want to extend my hand in apology."

Why we should not be in Iraq...

On Dec. 27, 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.


And it went so well for the next decade....

Get rid of cars!

"We're having too many fatalities. The streets are too wide," said Stanton, District 6. "We need to let pedestrians know that they are welcome on our streets."

Some geezers are not too bright....

Robbery note has thief's address on back
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Call it the case of the perfect clue. A man handed a note demanding money to a teller at the Wells Fargo Bank Thursday, took the money and fled.
Left behind was the note — written on the back of a paper from the state probation and parole department, complete with the man's name on it, Deputy Police Chief Brian O'Keefe said Friday.
The 60-year-old man was soon in custody. He was on parole for bank robbery.

Bah, Humbug

Maybe we should write a different letter to Santa?

Santa at Mich. middle school cited for pot possession
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (AP) — A man who visited a middle school dressed as Santa Claus on Thursday left with a citation for misdemeanor marijuana possession.
The 40-year-old Detroit man faces up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine after a small plastic bag of marijuana was found in the pocket of his street coat, which he left in a school restroom, Wayne County Sheriff's Department officials said.
A deputy who works at the school found the marijuana while searching the coat for identification after a teacher found it in the bathroom. The man dressed as Santa approached the deputy a short time later and identified the coat.
The man denied the pot was his. His wife, who was at the school to take pictures of Santa with the students, apparently did not know the marijuana was in her husband's coat, officials said.
"She was not happy," Lt. Paul Jones said. "It's going to be a long ride back to the North Pole."

Baseball and drugs

What would a geezer say about the drug news from sports? Geezer Bush says they will do something if baseball does not. I wonder if that includes cocaine testing for members of the White House staff and family?

Geezer McCain says the senate will do something if baseball does not. Of course, it was ok for his wife to cut a deal with the government when she was caught with her hand in the percodet jar. The rest of us would have gone to jail for stealing drugs from kids. She went through rehab. The pictures I have seen of her lately mnake you wonder....He will never run for President. The press would have too much fun....

Drugs have been in sports since day one. One time, people thought smokes improved performance. There are great pictures of tour de france riders smoking while they were riding. Hmmm, that test did not work well.

Steroids were first available during Babe Ruth's time. Don't you think the Babe would try them if they were availab.e Booze probably relaxed him too.

Steroids are the latest fad. Who didn't know that players were juiced. All you had to do was look at them. Does anyone care? NOOOOO

Is it a bad example to kids? Of course, but people are willing to take the risks for the rewards. Always will be, always has been. Get real, acknowledge it. Talk about risks and side affects. Get on with life.

We love our pro wrestlers. Don't tell me they are not juiced. We don't want to look at normal people playing. We like the sex of big muscles.

There are more important things to think about. Like deaths in Iraq and a hopless policy against terrorism....

Get real....

geezers are us

By The Helena IR - 12/05/04
As is often pointed out, it's difficult to make predictions — especially about the future. But there's one fact about the future that is inescapable. It will have a lot of old people in it.
A story in the business section of today's newspaper reports on a presentation made in Helena last week by Bob Morton, a consultant from Washington state who urges business people to take advantage of the quickly growing market of aging customers. Today, he said, about 14 percent of the U.S. population is 65 or older. In just 20 more years, that figure will jump to 25 percent. For businesses, it will be a different world.
But it isn't just corporations that will feel the change. Look around. Those older people are going to be us.
It is striking to realize that for 99 percent of human history, only 2 to 3 percent of any society on any continent ever reached the age of 65. In fact, two out of three humans who have ever existed and lived to reach 65 just happen to be alive today.
Credit better health care, coupled with smarter life styles, for the ballooning numbers of elderly people. Back when Social Security was invented in 1935 — a time when life expectancy was just 55 years — nobody was worried about cholesterol, and you weren't cool if you didn't smoke.
Another factor involves a declining percentage of young people. For decades in the United States and most other developed nations, the fertility rate has been below the "replacement rate" of 2.1 live births per woman of reproductive age. That means the geezer percentage will loom even larger.
Changes brought about by the graying of America will ripple throughout society. Some of them, such as the impact on Social Security and Medicare, are easy to foresee. Others are certain to surprise us.
But we can be pretty sure that one other truism will remain: Getting old is never going to be for sissies. But hey, we'll sure have a lot of company.

Nuts....

MARGATE· He had spent the day after Thanksgiving with his granddaughter, looking for a Christmas tree.As the sun made its way down, Robert Oris, 81, bid his granddaughter and two great-grandchildren goodbye and hopped on his baby blue bicycle to make his way home.His bicycle had become his mode of getting around, since epileptic seizures ended his driving about a year ago.But a couple of blocks from his Margate condo, Oris' journey took a fatal turn. At 6:06 p.m. on Friday while crossing Northwest 31st Street, Oris was struck by a vehicle heading north in the right lane on State Road 7.Margate police said Oris was crossing against the traffic signal from west to east, and failed to yield to a 2004 Saturn driven by Stacie Silberstein.The left front of the Saturn struck the right side of Oris' bicycle. He died as a result of the injuries he sustained, according to police.Family and neighbors remembered the retired engineer as a youthful senior who made time for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren and who could be seen around the neighborhood on his bicycle.They all said they were surprised to hear that Oris crossed against the light because he was always careful when riding. "He was always so cautious," said his neighbor Doreen Zappala.Cherie Alley, his granddaughter who dropped him off at the bus stop where he had parked his bike, said her grandfather didn't usually cross at the intersection where he was struck."He came to my house almost everyday," said Alley, of Pompano Beach. "He would push my girls on their swings for hours. He was basically their playmate."Oris moved to South Florida in 1962 and lived in Margate since the early '70s. He started as a tool and dye maker at IBM and climbed his way up the ranks to staff engineer, before retiring in 1988 after 47 years with the company.Marion, Oris' wife of 59 years, died in 2001 and shortly after he moved into Coral Gate Condominiums. His days were usually shared with his seven grandchildren and despite his age, he was very independent, Alley said."He used to ride 14 miles a day," said Alley.A viewing for Oris will be held on Monday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Jennings Funeral Home, 1801 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. His funeral service will be held on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at Grace Baptist Church, 501 N.E. 48th St., Pompano Beach, where he was an active member.

And I came across the United States in a covered wagon!

Proposed changes in math don't add up
BY MIKE COHENMike Cohen, an assistant superintendent in the Amityville school district, taught math for 30 years.November 23, 2004We are the folks that everyone in high school hated - the ones who sat in the middle seat in the front row of every mathematics class. When asked for the value of pi, we immediately responded with the approximation 3.141592654, while our classmates snickered.We proudly proclaim our status as "math geeks." Someone once said that most teachers choose to teach a particular subject, but mathematics teachers receive a calling. Our passion for the power, for the beauty and for the perfection that we found in mathematics compelled us to pursue a career in which we could spread our passion to others.The sheer love of mathematics continues to energize us. What we discovered when we got in front of a classroom was that, with the exception of the present and future "math geeks" seated before us, the vast majority of those we taught could care less. Instead, we are bombarded with the eternal question, "When are we ever going to use this junk?" In most cases, we responded simply, "I don't know, but when you get to college, you'll find out!"Beginning in 1987, when the National Science Foundation ran a conference in Washington, D.C., on the improving of calculus instruction in America, a radical new idea took root - applying mathematics to the real world. For those of us in the trenches, this notion meant that we needed to retrain ourselves and, heaven forbid, learn that mathematics could be applied to all aspects of human endeavor.Fast forward to 2004. In the wake of the debacle surrounding the administration of the Mathematics A Regents in June 2003, state Education Commissioner Richard Mills asked Northport-East Northport Superintendent William Brosnan to head a committee to examine all aspects of the state's mathematics curriculum and testing program and to make specific recommendations. Well, the committee finished its well-meaning work and, to say the least, many in the mathematics community are not impressed.To put it simply, the end product seeks to take mathematics back to the days of mindless manipulation and drill and kill. If you read the 87-page document in its entirety, there are two words that you will not find: real world.What you will find is obscure geometric theorems that mathematicians don't even use and algebraic techniques that hand- held calculators carry out at the push of a button in a fraction of a second.For example, the proposed 10th-grade curriculum includes the following: "Show, justify and use the theorem that states that the point of concurrency of the medians of a triangle divides each median into segments whose lengths are in the ratio 1:2."Trust me when I tell you that not even the uber-math geek can find any applications for that chesnut.If that's not bad enough, the proposed changes require formal or informal proofs of approximately 20 additional geometric theorems. Math geeks like us love proving mathematical theorems, but any classroom veteran will tell you that the vast majority of 10-grade students hate the entire process. They simply lack the intellectual maturity to value the tediousness of this enterprise.We believe that there is both power and beauty in mathematics for its own sake, but there is even more power and beauty that derives from using mathematics to solve the kind of problems that people from all walks of life encounter every day. Shockingly, that power and beauty is sadly lacking in the proposed "improved" curriculum.In the current curriculum, students use mathematics to solve problems that arise in business, science and the social sciences. They use mathematics to model the "real world."A recent Mathematics B examination posed a question in which students were asked to use a mathematical model for the total annual profits of a clothing company projected over three years.Instead of graphing calculators, let's give the students slide rules, quill pens, parchment and candles to provide light when they do their homework.If you believe that the best way to move forward is to move backward, then you will love the "new" curriculum. No more applications of mathematics. Now, we will produce a new generation of mindless manipulators.

Really old geezers

I don't remember some of this, but I am not old enough yet. Don't remember wwII. Don't worry about cursing in front of a woman....hell, they can curse worse than us!

At sporting events during the playing of the national anthem, old geezers hold their caps over their hearts and sing without embarrassment. They know the words and believe in them. Old geezers remember Word War II -- Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Normandy and Adolf Hitler. They remember the atomic age, the Cold War, the jet age, the moon landing and Vietnam.If you bump into an old geezer, he will apologize. He will nod or tip his hat to a lady. Geezers trust strangers and are courtly to women. They hold the door for the next person, and always, when walking, make certain the lady is on the inside. Geezers get embarrassed if someone curses in front of women and children. And geezers seldom brag, unless it's about their grandchildren.
Old geezers know our great country is protected not by politicians or police, but by the young men and women in the military. More than ever, this country needs geezers with their decent values.Marion Thiel

It is a JOKE!

ABC Puts N.F.L. in 'Desperate' SituationBy The National Football League, still chastened by the "wardrobe malfunction" that exposed Janet Jackson's right breast during the Super Bowl halftime show on CBS in February, was stunned Monday night by another incident, this one on ABC.
In the scripted introduction to "Monday Night Football," Nicollette Sheridan, who portrays the serial divorcée Edie Britt on the popular ABC series "Desperate Housewives," wore only a towel as she flirted with Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens in an otherwise empty locker room. After asking Owens to miss the game, Sheridan dropped the towel; the camera showed her upper body from behind. Owens, smiling broadly, said the Eagles would have to win without him, and Sheridan leapt into his arms.
Yesterday, a league spokesman called the sketch "inappropriate and unsuitable for our 'Monday Night Football' audience," and the league office expressed its displeasure to ABC executives. ABC Sports apologized, saying in a statement, "We agree that the placement was inappropriate."
The N.F.L. said it had received dozens of calls and hundreds of e-mail messages in complaint. ABC said it also received complaints.
ABC Sports tapes an introduction to "Monday Night Football" each week, but the N.F.L. does not see it before the broadcast and does not have approval privileges. The introductions occasionally feature stars of ABC's prime-time shows, but the network's entertainment division did not request any cross-promotion for "Desperate Housewives."
The decision by ABC Sports to produce a racy introduction is curious for several reasons. The network is clearly aware of the N.F.L.'s sensitivities in the wake of the Jackson incident. It announced before the season that it would use a five-second delay in its football broadcasts to avoid any embarrassments.
"Desperate Housewives" needs no promotion; it is one of the top-rated shows on television. But ABC may have been looking for ways to increase the "Monday Night Football" ratings. It is the only broadcast network still negotiating for rights to N.F.L. games, and some executives speculate that ABC loses $170 million a year on Monday night games. CBS and Fox completed their long-term television deals with the league last week, but the prime-time and cable packages currently held by the Walt Disney Company for ABC and ESPN were left unresolved.
The Philadelphia Eagles released a statement that said: "We appreciate that ABC has taken responsibility and has apologized for the opening to 'Monday Night Football.' It is normal for teams to cooperate with ABC in the development of an opening for its broadcast. After seeing the final piece, we wish it hadn't aired."
The Eagles declined to say whether they knew about the content of the introduction before it was shown and whether it was taped in their locker room. Philadelphia won the game against Dallas, 49-21; Owens caught three touchdown passes.
As a result of the incident at the Super Bowl, in which Justin Timberlake tore away part of Jackson's costume and exposed her breast, the Federal Communications Commission fined the CBS division of Viacom $550,000, or $27,500 against each of the 20 stations CBS owns and operates. It was the largest fine ever levied against a television company.
Paul Tagliabue, the N.F.L. commissioner, told the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet in February that he had been "deeply embarrassed" by the halftime show, adding, "It happened under our operation and we take responsibility for it.''

I always push when I am expelling methane gas!

A real headline from the NY Times:


U.S. and 13 Other States Agree on Push to Gather Methane Gas