Bag of Randomness

  • Instead of making election day a holiday so people can get out to vote, maybe it should be moved to a Saturday.
  • I drink a lot of tea and that has given me stained teeth, so I bought a pack of Listerine Whitening Quick Dissolving Strip.  They work much better and faster than expected.  I have to admit when I opened the first strip pack, I couldn’t even find the strip because they are small, clear, and stick to the side of the packet – I thought I got gypped.  What I like about the strips is that as they dissolve they get inbetween the my teeth where I have a lot of staining.
  • When I was a teenager (early 90’s) the church I attended had a “Slave Auction.”  That’s what it was called and marketed as, seriously.  It was an opportunity for the youth to raise funds for summer activities.  It worked like this, a youth stood on the alter and people bid for his or her services to do chores and errands.  When my father found out I participated in such a thing he was irate, and was further disappointed that a church would be so racially insensitive, even though they had the best intentions.  The following year the event still occurred but the event name was changed to “Youth Auction.”  In case you were wondering how racially diverse the church was, from my memory all the adults where white, there was a few Hispanic children and one Black adopted kid.  Oh, and me.  Please know the people of the church were very loving, but in this case they didn’t fully think things through.
  • My home country is experiencing vote flipping.  Link
  • In high school I once dressed up as Liza Minelli to performed a lip-sync routine to New York New York complete with a background I made of the New York skyline and a big apple.  Somewhere, somewhere a tape of this exists that is not in my possession.
  • One thing that I appreciate now that I didn’t truly appreciate as a teen was how my parents attended every one of my high school events, sports and non-sports.  The one event my father couldn’t attend was my high school graduation as he had a heart attack just three days prior.  He later watched it on tape, and even took a picture of me on TV when I accepted an award.  In retrospect, I wish I was sensitive enough to have stayed at home and watch the video with him.
  • Obama crowd members spell his name like a YMCA song.  Flickr
  • Most of the time when someone leaves a comment I take time to reply back to them in email.  I figure if you took the time to leave a comment I can at least take the time to acknowledge it.
  • The last time I word corduroy I was in elementary school.  If I wore them today I would feel like a kid.
  • I also had to wear Wrangler Rustler jeans as a kid, the ones that were real dark colored.  I can’t stand those jeans, and I vow never to wear them again.
  • There are two words I try never to use, hate and evil.
  • You can now have your plant use Twitter.  Link
  • The McDonald’s Double Cheese Burger is about to have one less slice of cheese.  Link
  • Speaking of McDonald’s, here’s their Hungary menu. Link
  • A company tries to take advantage of the Jennifer Hudson tragedy.  Link
  • A blog about stairs.  Link
  • It’s a small world:  I got a nice little email from my neighbor yesterday.  He’s in the Air National Guard and is currently in Germany.  Names have been changed to protect the innocent . . .
    I’m 4,200 miles from home tonight in Geilenkirchen Germany (near the Netherlands boarder).  I’ll be here until next Friday, working with NATO AWACS airplanes.  I had dinner tonight with [namewithheld, old college friend].  She had good things to say about you.  Thought you’d like to know.  How small this world is!
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Transplanted cornea in use for record 123 years

OSLO (Reuters Life!) – Bernt Aune’s transplanted cornea has been in use for a record 123 years — since before the Eiffel Tower was built.

“This is the oldest eye in Norway — I don’t know if it’s the oldest in the world,” Aune, an 80-year-old Norwegian and former ambulance driver, told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. “But my vision’s not great any longer.”

He had a cornea transplanted into his right eye in 1958 from the body of an elderly man who was born in June 1885. The operation was carried out at Namsos Hospital, mid-Norway.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the oldest living organ in the world,” eye doctor Hasan Hasanain at Namsos hospital told the Norwegian daily Verdens Gang.

In the 1950s, doctors expected it to work for just five years, Hasanain said. Such cornea operations date back to the early 20th century and were among the first successful transplants.

Full Article

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