RETRACTION: Please forgive me. I have such a difficult time with presidents and astronauts. Last week I was trying to explain in one paragraph, simple terms, the difference between a Bear (down market) and a Bull (up market). I also listed the past three Bear markets, the years that they happened, and the presidents that were in office at that time. I said, “So far this century we have had a bear market in 2000-2002 (Clinton & Bush), in 2008-2009 (Bush), and in 2011 (Clinton).” Well, I must have lost my place while I was typing because I got a president wrong. Bill Clinton was president from January 20, 1993, to January 20, 2001, and George Bush was president from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009, so the 2000-2002 and the 2008-2009 were correct. But in 2011, Bill Clinton was not president, Barack Obama was president from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017. Thank you to the person that found this erroneous blunder and sent us such a nice message. Here you go.
A 66-year-old father from Scotland was told he couldn’t donate blood this time, which he had been doing since he was 18-years-old, almost 50 years. He had actually donated over 125 pints of blood. Why you ask, did they tell him he couldn’t donate blood after all that time? The form he was told to fill out asked if he was expecting a child or had been pregnant in the previous six months. He explained to the staff that the question did not apply to him because it was impossible, and the staff told him he had to fill it out anyway. “I told them that was stupid and that if I had to leave, I wouldn’t be back,” the man said. “And that was it, I got on my bike and cycled away.”
Cooking Hint: When a cake sticks to the bottom of a springform pan, just slide a piece of unflavored floss under the cake and gently saw it free. This way you don’t scratch the pan with a metal spatula.
A 62-year-old California man was attacked by what is now considered to be one of the biggest great white sharks in the world, according to the bite marks which estimated it to be about 20 feet long. The shark viciously attacked his leg, stomach, and arms. Two paddleboarders and a surfer rushed to his aid, laying him on their largest board, and then back to shore for medical help. They knew it wasn’t a prank when they heard the yelling of “shark” because of all the blood in the water. The world’s largest known great white shark is Deep Blue, which is 20 feet long, weighs over 5,500 pounds and is thought to be over 50 years old. duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn (Jaws theme song in case you didn’t get it.) Shark Week 2022 starts July 24th on Discovery and discovery+. It is a perfect opportunity for us to learn more about these great creatures. Starting July 10th, SharkFest premieres on National Geographic, streams on Disney+.
If you don’t like me, you should get tested. One of the symptoms of Covid, is no taste.
As I flipped through my Costco magazine, I came to an article about sustainable and renewable coconut COIR products. I have mentioned using the ground-up outer husks of coconut shells in this column before. I have been using them in my garden for years. You buy them in bricks, float them in a bucket of water, and bingo… you have a bucket full of good stuff to work into your garden that helps retain moisture. Costco is now selling PlantBest MegaMulch expanding coconut coir in a 2-pack for $23.99, which covers up to 40 sq. ft if you use it as mulch. You just take a block, put it into your wheelbarrow, or directly on your garden bed and wet it. Within ten minutes, you’re ready to use it like soil or mulch. A plus for using coconut coir is that you’re not contributing to the environmental harm caused by peat harvesting, this product absorbs up to 6 times as much water as traditional peat moss and transforming coconut husk into soil and mulch, helps eliminate environmental waste and makes coconuts 100% sustainable. I just ordered some. Watering is expensive. If we want to continue to grow things, we are going to need to properly prepare our beds and soil, so it has the ability to retain water for longer.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Singer Patty Smyth is 64. Drummer Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac is 74. Actor June Lockhart is 96. Lassie and Lost in Space. Singer Billy Davis Junior of the Fifth Dimension is 83. Actor Michael Cole of Mod Squad is 82. Singer Judith Durham of The Seekers is 79. Country singer Johnny Lee is 76. Lookin’ for Love. Writer Dave Barry is 75. Actor Betty Buckley is 75. Actor Tom Cruise is 60. Talk show host Montel Williams is 66. Country singer Aaron Tippin is 64. Actor-singer Audra McDonald is 52. Musician Huey Lewis is 72. Heart and Soul, I Want a New Drug, The Heart of Rock & Roll and If This Is It. Singer Gene Chandler is 82. Groovy Situation. Actor Burt Ward of Batman is 77. Actor Tom Hanks is 66.
Singer Annette Beard of Martha and the Vandellas is 79. TV personality Geraldo Rivera is 79. Actor Shelley Hack of Charlie’s Angels is 75. Percussionist Ralph Johnson of Earth, Wind and Fire is 71. Actor Sylvester Stallone is 76. Actor Allyce Beasley of Moonlighting is 71. Singer David Hodo of The Village People is 75. Bandleader Doc Severinsen is 95. Drummer Ringo Starr is 82. Singer-guitarist Warren Entner of the Grass Roots is 79. Construction worker. Actor Shelley Duvall is 73. Singer Steve Lawrence is 87. Singer Debbie Sledge of Sister Sledge is 68. Actor Kevin Bacon is 64. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 71.
Actor Anjelica Huston is 71. Drummer Jaimoe Johanson of The Allman Brothers is 78. Actor Kim Darby is 75. Children’s singer Raffi is 74. Singer-actor Ed Ames of The Ames Brothers is 95. Actor Kelly McGillis is 65. Actor Richard Roundtree is 80. TV personality-turned-musician John Tesh is 70. Actor Jimmy Smits is 67. Singer Courtney Love is 58. Actor Fred Savage is 46. He was recently fired from his Wonder Years reboot following multiple complaints of misconduct in his role as executive producer and director. Actor Eva Marie Saint is 98. Actor Gina Lollobrigida is 95. Country singer Toby Keith is 61. In 2006, he launched the Toby Keith Foundation which provides support for children with cancer. And is now fighting his own stomach cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Ben Affleck’s 10-year-old son was at a LA luxury car dealership with his actor dad and Jennifer Lopez, when he received permission to get in the driver’s seat of a Lamborghini SUV ($230,000 estimated value), put the car in reverse and immediately backed into a BMW. Oops. Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls for at least a decade. Remember to report your in-home positive COVID testing to the county. I didn’t realize that we were supposed to do that. Fifty-one migrants from Mexico and Central America died in an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio. What a horrible way to die!
We’re Back, Witches. Since 1993, we have been waiting for Hocus Pocus 2. It’s finally here and will be released on September 30th just in time for Halloween season. I must say, Hocus Pocus is one of my very favorite movies. Twenty-nine years after the events of Hocus Pocus (1993, has it really been that long?), three high-school students work together to stop the Sanderson sisters (Winnie, Sarah and Mary) aka Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker, who returned to present-day Salem.
It’s so much fun to cheer on all the rich guys as they race to space and take regular ordinary (and very rich) people with them…but there is such limited information on what the potential impact is to Earth and our precious, vulnerable atmosphere. According to the Earth’s Future journal, the more rockets that get launched, the more black soot is injected into the upper atmosphere, along with pollutants including nitrous oxide, aluminum oxide, hydrochloric acid, and chlorine, as well as water vapor and carbon dioxide. Together, all of that output not only contributes to global warming but also to the depletion of the ozone layer. Where we have never been before, we must go in with eyes wide open.
When you stop and think about how hot it is right now… be sure to remember this could be the coolest summer of the rest of your life. Scary thoughts, unfortunately we have to get used to it. In Minnesota, temperatures soared above 100 degrees, buckling streets and shattering car windows. Thousands of cattle perished in Kansas. Temperatures in France reached nearly 110°F and set or tied more than 200 monthly heat records across the country. A heat wave in the Pacific Northwest boiled hundreds of millions of marine creatures, and during a recent European heat wave, water temperatures in the Mediterranean were 9°F above average. Nine degrees. Wildfires, loss of lives, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, and testing of our electric grid systems are coming. We have filled our world up with concrete and asphalt which soaks up the hot and retains heat through the night. Much of the world’s infrastructure, policies, and planning is based on historical averages, but our new future will never look like the past.
This is Charles Barkley’s take on the PGA Tour players taking money to join the Greg Norman led LIV Golf series that is funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. “If somebody gave me $200 million, I’d kill a relative.” Hmmm.
Last weekend AE and I drove to Houston and dropped her off at a friend’s house, then I rushed to a nearby Costco to pick up paper towels and TP for the office. We use plenty of paper products here, and one of the most important and interesting parts of my job is the ability to select very affordable paper products. ☹ Afterwards, we visited 99 Ranch Market, an amazing Asian grocery store, full of interesting items and several delicious Asian restaurants. Our grocery basket was full, including a bag of garlic & vinegar pork skins, which we devoured on the way home. Did you know, when you eat too much salty/sour food or chips, you end up irritating your tastebuds (you know what I’m talking about) even scraping some of them off. Hmmm. Since vinegar would make the chips soggy and un-preservable, acetic acid is added in its place. Although it’s weak, any exposure to any acid in large quantities will leave you with minor burns and discomfort. If you look in the mirror, you’ll notice those tiny little bumps called lie bumps, may be swollen, or missing. But I love vinegar chips so much that I am going to take a chance on continuing to lose a few of my lie bumps. But here I am, three days later, and my mouth is still messed up.
For the past couple of weeks, I have been watering my neighbor’s plants, trying to keep them alive in the horrible heat while she was gone. Her Boston ferns were immediately, totally roasted with too much sun, but everything else was looking pretty good, considering how hot it’s been. One day on the way to work, I stopped, using her code to open the garage door, then placed the key she left me to the back door into the house. A house alarm was not on my radar, because I didn’t have a clue what the code was. Since my own alarm company calls me immediately, I really didn’t worry much because I figured they would call her and she would say, “it’s ok. I have a friend watering.” I kept watering. What was I supposed to do? Call the police and tell them that I was the person breaking into the house, but it’s OK, I’m a nice person. I probably spent another ten or so minutes watering the inside and front porch plants before I headed back to the garage. As I was punching in the code so I could close the garage, I sensed someone moving in on my left. Oops. Police officer #1. Police officer #2 came around on my right. I was glad I had dressed nice that day. I smiled and introduced myself. They requested identification which I quickly supplied after making sure it was ok to walk to my car and purse. I thanked them for taking such good care of us and our neighborhood, and they thanked me for being such a good sport. Wow. Have a great 4th weekend, and be sure to take cookies, donuts, iced drinks, or something wonderful to our local police officers this week. They deserve the best! It’s likely they will spend their whole weekend taking care of people that drink and act stupid with fireworks. Don’t be one of them.
LISA
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
