No. 90 - Bucket List

I heard people on the radio this morning discussing their "bucket lists." I learned that a bucket list is a wish list of things to do before you "kick the bucket." Apparently the term originated from a 2007 movie of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. In the movie two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.

In the comment section below, let's hear one thing that's on your bucket list.

I'll go first. Before I die, I want to write a novel. Hopefully a good one :)

No. 89 - Ab Aeterno

It's Tuesday, which means it's LOST day. In anticipation of tonight's episode I reviewed last week's show notes on Lostpedia.com. The episode was called "Ab Aeterno" and it may have been one of the best episodes of LOST yet. In the episode it is revealed that...

Hold on! Spoiler Alert!

If you are a LOST fan and haven't watched the episode yet then stop here. Come back after you watch it to finish reading. I only learned what the definition of Ab Aeterno is anyway so nothing too exciting.

So in the episode it is revealed that there are two dominant forces at work on the island. One which believes that people are inherently evil and one which believes that people are inherently good. I am in the latter camp. People are brought to the island, it seems, as a game to prove which force is more powerful. The good side seems to give the participants the free will to choose for themselves while the bad side tries to manipulate them into following his will. If that sounds a lot like God versus the Devil, do not be surprised. There are numerous references and allusions to religions and ideologies in LOST.

I learned that Ab Aeterno is Latin for "from eternity."  The phrase is used to mean "since the beginning of time" perhaps implying that the struggle between good and evil has existed from the very beginning.

No. 88 - Young Forever

I heard Jay-Z's song Young Forever on the radio this morning and thought that it sounded very much like a song from the 80s. Being a product of the 80s - it cannot be proven (easily) that I ever had a mullet - I have a keen ear for the sound of the synthesizer.

Sure enough, I learned that it's a re-work of Alphaville's 1984 Forever Young (video here). Young Forever (featuring Mr. Hudson) appears on Jay-Z's latest album The Blueprint 3, which also contains Run This Town (featuring Rihanna and Kanye West) and Empire State of Mind (featuring Alicia Keys).

Alphaville's version failed to reach the American Top 40 getting only as high as #65. As of today Jay-Z's version (video here) is at #33 on the Billboard Top 100, which was up from #44 last week.

No. 87 - Chicken Nuggets

I was watching an episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. This is the show where Jamie attempts to change the eating habits of the residents of Huntington, West Virginia, the most unhealthy city in America.

In this episode he showed some kids how chicken nuggets are made. He took a whole chicken and cut off the nice meaty breasts. Then be cut off the thighs, legs and wings. What was left was a chicken carcass. He took a heavy butcher's knife and cut the bony shell into 4 sections and dump them into a food processor along with some chicken skin and ground it all up. He dumped the meat-bone-skin-bits mixture into a strainer to squeeze through the soft stuff catching the hard stuff. The mush that made it through the strainer was then combined with other stuff to add flavor and hold the mush together and then bread crumbs were added. (You can watch this during the first 8 minutes of the episode here.)

Before showing this pretty gross display, Jamie said, "Thankfully chicken nuggets in this country are not made this way."

I wondered how chicken nuggets, or more specifically Chicken McNuggets, are made.

I found this in the wikipedia entry for Chicken McNuggets:

The 2004 documentary Super Size Me states that the McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, originally made from old chickens no longer able to lay eggs, are now made from chickens with unusually large breasts. These chickens are stripped down to the bone, and then "ground up" into a chicken mash then combined with a variety of stabilizers and preservatives, pressed into familiar shapes, breaded and deep fried, freeze dried, and then shipped to a McDonald's near you.

Why does that sound a lot like what Jamie Oliver showed?

Chicken McNuggets were introduced in 1980 in test markets and in 1983 nationwide.

No. 86 - Woody

Tap, tap, tap. What was that? Tap, tap, tap. I rolled over in bed and listened carefully. Tap, tap, tap. Oh, no. The woodpecker is back! We have a friendly neighborhood woodpecker who enjoys digging holes in our cedar wood siding.

It reminded me of Woody Woodpecker, the animated cartoon character. Remember his trademark "Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha" laugh? I wasn't aware that Woody was an acorn woodpecker. Nor was I aware that such a breed of woodpecker existed. But as the name implies the acorn woodpecker relies heavily on acorns for food. The adults are black and white in color, with the male having a red cap on his head. I don't think ours is an acorn woodpecker since their natural habitat is in the southwestern United States.

Regardless, I think I'll call our woodpecker Woody from now on. And I filled his holes in today. Take that Woody! Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!

No. 85 - Highlights for Children

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I love to learn new things. I also love to teach my kids new things and try to find creative ways for them to learn and have fun doing it. The other day I saw a copy of Highlights for Children in my mechanic's waiting room. I tore out one of the subscription cards and stuffed it into my pocket. I finally got around to ordering a subscription for my kids today. It looks like a fun and educational magazine and I thought it would be neat for the kids to anticipate its monthly arrival in the mail.

I learned that Highlights began publication in 1946 and was started by a couple in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Highlights published their one billionth copy in 2006 and it is estimated that two million children and adults read the magazine annually. Highlights aims to "help children develop creativity, sensitivity, literacy and the ability to think and reason."

No. 84 - Waffle Day

On the CBS morning news I heard that today was National Waffle Day. My first thought was "why do we need a day to celebrate waffles?"

I looked it up and learned that it is not actually "National" Waffle Day - - how many times must I tell you not to believe everything you hear coming out of the talking box? National Waffle Day is actually August 24 and marks the date of the first U.S. patent for a waffle iron in 1869.

I learned that today is "International" Waffle Day. The holiday originated in Sweden where it is called Vaffeldagen. It occurs exactly nine full months before Christmas - in the Christian faith it is the day the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was pregnant with baby Jesus. This day was also considered the start of spring in Sweden and it became a custom for Swedish families to celebrate the two events by making waffles.

No. 83 - Groupon

I love to save money. Or, rather, I love to spend as little money as possible and still get the things I need or want. I recall hearing a long time ago that "it's not how much you make, it's how much you spend." Saving money is almost considered a sport in our house.

We quite frequently shop for the lowest price if quality isn't a concern. For example, what does it matter who collects our trash? As long as we drop it off in front of the house each week and it disappears the next day, it's all good. I remember one time we received a much lower price from a smaller trash collection company. So we called our current, and significantly larger, trash company to see if they would match the price. They said no, and then proceeded to tell us that they have more employees and more trucks and, therefore, more costs which makes the price they charge their customers higher. Wow! So we switched. That was years ago. And every week our trash still disappears, except now less money disappears with it.

But I digress.

Anyway, it is amazing how much money people overspend because they don't ask a simple question, "Is that the lowest price you can sell this to me for?" or some variation thereof.

How about a flat-screen TV at BestBuy?

Me: I think I'd like to buy this TV today, and I see it's on sale, but is there anyway you could take another 50 bucks off?

Them: No problem, sir, I think we can do that.

It's so easy sometimes it's almost funny.

But I digress. Again.

Today I learned about Groupon.com. Their website says they "offer daily deals at unbeatable prices through the power of group buying." Groupon solicits retailers to offer around 50% to 90% off "the best stuff your city has to offer." A local restaurant is a good example of a typical offering. They showcase just one retailer a day. If a certain minimum number of people agree to purchase the item, then it will sell for that price. Otherwise, no deal. Sounds interesting. I think I'll give it a try.

There's another similar service that's coming to our area soon called LivingSocial.com that offers a similar service, but without the minimum number of buyers needed to get the deal.

No. 82 - Drawing Room

I am really enjoying the fictional world that Ayn Rand created in The Fountainhead, the subject of Post No. 47. What an extraordinary character Howard Roark is. How many books do you remember the main character a month later, or six months, or a year? There are only a few for me. But I would find it hard to imagine that I will ever forget Howard Roark.

The story takes place in the 1920s and 1930s and focuses on the world of architecture with a few of the main characters, including Howard Roark, being architects so when I first stumbled upon the word "drawing room" I did what most people likely do - word association - and figured that it was a room, like an office or a library, used for drawing or sketching. It fit for a while but then it just didn't seem to make sense. Everyone seemed to have one of these drawing rooms, not just the architects.

I learned that a drawing room is a room in a house where guests are entertained. The origin of the word dates back to the sixteenth century and is a shortened form of "withdrawing" room, or a room in which the ladies would "withdraw to" after dinner. The word is not used much anymore but would typically refer to the American parlor or, as it is called these days, the living room.

Let's see now. When we have guests over it seems like most of the entertaining is done in the kitchen. And the kids quite frequently use the kitchen counter for drawing and coloring. So in our house it would appear that our kitchen is the drawing room.

No. 81 - Ice Cream Sunday

This day was quite busy, but soon I will be enjoying an ice cream sundae with my family. We love making sundaes and get all the good toppings - chocolate shell, whipped cream, caramel syrup, chocolate syrup, sprinkles (usually more than one variety) and cherries.

Sticking with the theme of when things were invented over the last few days, I learned that the ice cream sundae was invented sometime between 1890-1899. There are at least eight cities claiming they came up with it first although the biggest rivalry is between Ithaca, New York and Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

The invention of the sundae was in response to a law prohibiting the serving of ice cream sodas on Sundays. To get around this law, soda was omitted from the dessert. It then took the name of Sundae in honor of the day it was served.