Labrador and Bearded Dragon Share Salad

Labrador and Bearded Dragon share salad. Or rather the Labrador eats all the good stuff while the lizard eats the lettuce. But sometimes that's what friends do isn't it, take all the good parts and leave you with wilted lettuce.

Black Parents When You're One Step Ahead

 This brings back some memories.

Dogs React To Owner's Fake Death

Sometimes you read stories about dogs who, upon seeing their owner in some form of sudden distress, immediately run to alert someone else in the home, call 911, and bring or push the med alert button. These are indeed good dogs. 

Then there are dogs, who apparently having confirmed with their nose that their owner is faking it, decide to take the opportunity to play along with the game. I guess these are also good dogs. Perhaps they just have a sense of humor.

 

German Shepherd Puppy and Cat Play

Sometimes it didn't look like they were playing. But I guess all's well that ends well.

 

Don't Mess With Bulls!!!

For a variety of reasons it's important to be able to tell the difference between a cow and a bull. Fortunately I already had that piece of information stored away somewhere in my brain. Now a California cyclist also knows that a wise man ascertains if the large bovine impeding his path is a bull or cow before he proceeds.

Ferris State History Professor Goes On Rant

Occasionally I had some eccentric teachers throughout educational career. Some instructors had little interest in the subject matter, didn't like me or for that matter any of their students, or were clearly just playing out the string until they retired, married someone rich or won the lottery, which ever came first. 

That's life. But I don't recall any of my teachers (and most of them were indeed decent men and women) ever losing it quite like Ferris State University History Professor Barry Mehler recently did. To be fair, evidently the good professor was a little peeved by the University's insistence upon holding in person classes at a time when the Covid pandemic is not subsiding. 

I can understand this frustration. My employer is making unpleasant noises about ending working from home options. If you force people to choose between their money and their life you might get more responses like this. 
BIG RAPIDS, MI – A Ferris State University faculty member has been placed on administrative leave after he reportedly went on a profanity-laced rant about the coronavirus pandemic during a class lecture video that was posted online.

Barry Mehler, a history professor in Ferris State’s humanities department, called his students “vectors of disease” and blamed the university for holding in-person classes amid the COVID-19 crisis during an introductory video posted to his YouTube account on Jan. 9, 2022.

Ravens Stealing Groceries

I no longer patronize certain grocery stores or convenience stores. Maybe I don't like the service. Maybe I think there's an unacceptably high risk of encountering would be robbers. If I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, I wouldn't need to worry about people stopping me and stealing my stuff. It's the birds! More precisely, it's the ravens, apparently too smart and too organized for their own good, who have set up their own profitable shakedown racket.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Some Alaska Costco shoppers said they've had their groceries stolen by ravens in the store parking lot. Matt Lewallen said he was packing his groceries into his car in the parking lot of an Anchorage Costco when ravens swooped in to steal a short rib from his cart, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.
“I literally took 10 steps away and turned around, two ravens came down and instantly grabbed one out of the package, ripped it off and flew off with it,” Lewallen said. Lewallen said the piece of meat was about 4-by-7 inches (10-by-18 centimeters) large — a sizable meal for a sizable bird.
“They know what they’re doing; it’s not their first time,” Lewallen said. “They’re very fat so I think they’ve got a whole system there.” And once he got back home, he noticed that one of the ravens had taken a poke at another rib but did not rob it.
“I cut that meat out and started marinating it and my wife said, ‘That’s gross, we should take it back,’ ” Lewallen said. “Costco actually took it back even after we had started marinating them and gave us a full refund.”

Brooklyn Bus Battle: You Back Up!

It's unavoidable. In life we will have arguments, debates, disagreements, altercations, squabbles, or outright fights with other people: friends, relatives, spouse, lovers, co-workers, and strangers. It is of course always more important to insist that you are right and that the other person acknowledge that he is wrong than to find a solution to an issue that is affecting both people. Okay, obviously that statement is hyperbole but people do act like that often enough such that it's a permanent problem in human relations, both individual and societal. 

Fortunately in a recent Brooklyn confrontation, there were only two bus drivers who were armed with nothing more than rising tempers instead of nations armed to the teeth and looking for a reason to start trouble. In this incident there were people around who were able to intervene, lower each antagonist's temperature, and find a solution that allowed everyone involved to maintain pride and solve the issue before anything other than  harsh words were exchanged. And that was good.

Two quarreling city bus drivers locked horns and refused to move their massive rigs in a bizarre stand-off on a narrow two-way avenue in Brooklyn, a video released Friday shows. 

Old Time Snowball Fight

When's the last time you were involved in a good old fashioned snowball fight? Sometimes there's nothing better as this recently colorized video from 1897 Lyon, France shows. This short film was shot by the Lumiere Brothers, who despite being among the very first filmmakers in the world, thought that the film business was a novelty game that would never go anywhere. So they got out of it about a decade after they shot this footage. Although they couldn't predict the future, as indeed none of us can, this film they left behind is another demonstration of the fact that regardless of differences in time, culture, and nation, humans are more alike than different. I liked how dude on the bicycle almost made it through the gauntlet. 

Watching Morning Television

Scanning morning television while working from home over the past nine months I learned a few things. These include:

1) I need to call the Medicare Coverage Hotline right now to make sure I'm getting everything I deserve!!

2) I must immediately buy gold because these are uncertain times.

3) Jon Taffer can solve any problem by yelling at someone until s/he does better.

4) For just 3 easy payments of $24.99 I can have the best non-stick pan ever invented.

5) I should call a local ambulance chaser law firm because they're family.

6) Apparently people who badly lost their House, Senate, or dogcatcher race are the go to political experts on every cable channel.

7) Mike Lindell is interrupting this post to give a you a special deal on MyPillow!

8) With exceptions noted, to be an anchor on Fox News a woman must prove she has an unbroken line of "Aryan" descent to at least the 1700's. Male anchors can not have an IQ over 80.

9) Special guests on cable shows must always have their library as a backdrop to emphasize what a "SERIOUS" intellectual they are.

10) The IRS is going to come get me unless I call this tax relief firm and pay them a small fee.

11) If I order right now I can get an extra 20% off!

12) Fox News is convinced that whatever bad happens in America is either Black people's fault or is not as bad as whatever Black people are doing at this exact moment. Be scared. Be very scared!!! 

Stiller and Meara: Hate

The actor and comedian Jerry Stiller recently passed away. I was familiar with him from his work on Seinfeld, King of Queens and some cameos or roles in films featuring his son, Ben Stiller. But one of my aunts mentioned Jerry Stiller's comedic work with his wife Anne Meara. That was mostly before my time so I looked some of it up. I thought that this skit was pretty funny. It was interesting that fifty some odd years ago Stiller had perfected the choleric personality that he used to such impact in the works I saw.

Day 50 of Quarantine

My major concern about stay at home orders, working from home and quarantines is that my employer's underlying business model lacks the capacity to deliver profits if the public remains at home. So it's just a matter of time before more pay cuts or layoffs occur. That's unfortunate if it happens to co-workers. It's a disaster if it happens to yours truly.

I'm not all that worried about the social isolation effects of working from home as I'm not outgoing anyway. But being related to or friendly with some people who do need social engagement the way I need air, I can sympathize with those who have discovered that their tolerance for strict stay at home orders has just about ended. It's also true that people will have to get rid of some "bad" habits if or when this pandemic ends.

    

Introverts vs. Extroverts in Quarantine

I thought this was accurate. As an introvert I am often amazed, amused and occasionally irritated by just how much extroverts need interaction with and attention from others. It really is their bread and butter. 

And I know that at various times extroverts are amazed, amused and irritated by how little introverts need to publicly or frequently interact with other people. I know this because extroverts have routinely told me so.

Animals React To Mirrors

I just was looking for something humorous and found this.

Porcupine won't share the corn

Did you ever see someone try to take something from a porcupine and hear the porcupine tell the person to go f*** themselves? Well now you have.

Boy Notices Stinky Feet on Airplane

The beautiful thing about children is that they have no filter. They have no concept of the idea of lying or pretending not to notice something because doing otherwise might hurt someone's feelings. If you smell bad, look funny or are just someone out of the child's limited range of experience a child is probably going to tell you so. I don't know if this really happened just as it seems or if the father put up the kid to this. Either way it was amusing to me. I don't think people should be taking their shoes off in the airplane, smelly soles or not.

(STORYFUL) - A 4-year-old boy is getting some attention for calling out a woman and her plane etiquette. Darryl Small and his son, Rodney, were on their way home to Houston from Disney World when the boy realized the person sitting behind him put her bare foot up on the side of his chair.

Granny Says Batter Up!!!

Just because someone is a woman or is an old woman doesn't mean that they can't defend themselves or what is theirs. Gainesville, Florida resident Clarese Gainey recently demonstrated this lesson of life to one Antonio Mosley. GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WGFL) — It was early Sunday morning when 65-year-old Clarese Gainey heard a noise outside her apartment. As she looked out the window, she says she saw a man in his boxers pulling at her car door handle and knocking on the window, attempting to break in. Before calling police, she took matters into her own hands.
"I grab my bat, I brace myself, and I ease the door open," Gainey said.
That's when police and Gainey say 5'6, 300 pound Antonio Mosely charged her.
"I took that bat and hit him upside the head like 'pi-yah!' He said 'Ow!'"

Michigan Fan Keeps It Real

It's very important that from an early age a person learns how to stand up for his beliefs, no matter how many people say that he's wrong. After all as the possible apocryphal saying goes, one man with courage is a majority.

ANN ARBOR, MI – It’s an unspoken rule that wearing maize and blue is a no-no in the heart of Buckeye country. That didn’t stop second-grader Jackson Winters from fearlessly dressing head to toe in support of his favorite team, the Michigan Wolverines, during a recent “dress in your favorite team colors” day at Tree of Life Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio.

Seeing him rocking a fleece Michigan blanket as a cape to show his powerful love for the Wolverines amid a sea of scarlet and gray, made Jackson’s father, Kyle, beam with pride.

“It’s a total battle of nature vs. nurture,” Kyle Winters said. “We are trying to train him in the way we believe he should be brought up - as a Wolverine - but obviously living in a town that is saturated with Buckeyes.” Jackson’s courageous maize and blue ensemble was rewarded with a first-place prize during the recent spirit day. “They were pretty nice about it, but they gave me a hard time,” Jackson said. LINK

Good for Jackson for having the courage to be himself and good for the other children who are secure enough not to try to bully everyone into thinking and behaving as they do. Likely some people on twitter could learn a thing or two from these kids

Fraud Fakes Fall and Faces Felony

You have to wonder about people who spend so much of their time, energy and resources trying to rip off other people. It seems that it would just be easier to make your money legally like most other people. But some folks think that they are smarter than everyone else and don't need to be restricted by the same rules. 

Occasionally those people get away with it. Some even get elected President. Other times though they just make a fool out of themselves and wind up facing the judge. One Mr. Alexander Goldinsky forgot that you don't see everybody who sees you.

Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man is facing charges after he was caught on camera throwing ice on the ground and faking a slip and fall in an alleged fraud scheme. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said Alexander Goldinsky, 57, was working as an independent contractor at a business in Woodbridge when a security camera recorded the incident. The footage shows Goldinsky throw ice on the ground, carefully arrange himself on the floor and then wait to be discovered. 

Who Peed In Your Corn Flakes?

Well I guess we know the answer to that question now. If your cornflakes are a little soggy or your rice krispies don't go snap, crackle and pop, the fault probably lies with one Gregory Stanton.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee man faces up to three years in prison for urinating on a Kellogg's cereal conveyor belt at a Memphis facility.

News outlets report 49-year-old Gregory Stanton pleaded guilty last month to tampering with consumer products. He was indicted by a grand jury in September. Stanton worked for the plant in 2014 and posted a video online in 2016 of him urinating on the conveyor belt. The video led the company to alert law enforcement and launched an investigation that involved the Food & Drug Administration.