Frogs (Trick or Treat 1)

(Thanks, Burbanked!)

I rather liked science class as lot as a kid despite running into a few bumps in the road, literal warts and all. I recall almost no one wanting to dissect those pickled frogs that the teacher placed on each lab table one fine day, save for two guys in the back (why are the shady ones always in the back and equipped with sharp knives now?) who I guess either turned out later to be really good doctors or even better serial killers later on in life. That and there were a couple of too gleeful girls who obviously didn’t believe that kissing a very dead frog would generate a very dead prince or a live one, for that matter. They just wanted to gross out those that spied them doing it, Ewww.

The more amusing thing here was those girls otherwise hated the class except for this one time and a few other incidents where mayhem was a potential outcome. There was the one time they (about a year later), along with one of the two boys from the back ‘accidentally’ created ammonia gas in the lab that cleared the whole floor, eventually leading to school being dismissed for the day, whee. Uh, don’t try that trick at home, by the way. It’ll the be the perfect cure for everything that ails you with the very obnoxious little side effect of a bit of invisible but acrid smelling poisonous death (and neither a fine nor noble death at that).

(Thanks. Henridellik!)

Eventually, during the two days, I caved into the learning process and with a fellow equally skittish student (we were all paired up in the class – less dead frogs means a sharing moment for all), we took the plunge. Yes, I thought of all those company-farmed frogs taking a plunge one fine day for a final swim they didn’t know would have them a few hundred miles away dead, well-preserved and soon to be splayed out like ghastly centerfolds courtesy of class-provided scissors and scalpels. My partner in (non) crime was a girl who mentioned before we cut into the preserved formerly ribbiting animal that she had frog once for dinner and yes, it tasted like chicken.

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The Missing, The Mail, And The .19 Pork Chop

Well, Hi There.

If asked how I’m doing, I’d say I’m more very much more annoyed these days than usual, but I’m still breathing, which is a hard realization to work around with all this dice throwing going on by the political machine in spots. “Roll your dice, move your mice!” Yes, it’s hard to dance around the elephant in the room, but after seeing EMS pop by the building a few too many times over the months, plus a growing amount of undelivered mail sitting downstairs, it’s been a bit too joyless around here. Well, until I found out that the mail carrier who regularly did the job perfectly was off taking care of his parents for a spell and the person now doing his job was pretty much rushing it by what it seems was sticking the mail in whatever mailbox was laid eyes on and getting the hell out of the building as fast as possible.

Boo, Sir, Ma’am, or otherwise. At least I got to play mailman for an hour or so by dropping off some bills and letters to their correct apartments later, as did a few others who got someone else’s correspondence. Now, I’m a fan of the post office normally, but not when an employee does this to everyone’s mail on the route. Whatever miserable death count I was grimly thinking of was chopped down considerably by some mislaid mail, but that was a merely a small decline in the joylessness. One bit of a laugh came when I deposited some bills at one apartment and the guy who lived there opened the door, saw he had bills and let out a deadpan “Wow. Gee, Thanks.” he really didn’t mean.

Hey, don’t shoot (a mean glare at) me – I’m only the messenger.

(Thanks, MyMotownTunes0815007!)

Still, a few neighbors have gone and left the building (is that literally or figuratively? I forget!*), so that’s a painful fact to work with. Even though we weren’t close, a chat in the elevator, a wave and smile at the right time, or some weird conversation about ice cream are all memory banked and filed for future use now. Processing is different for all of us, but I’d say similar in how we hold onto that past. Presently I’m back and forth on a few things relevant and not so, but I try not to go under the waves more than necessary, as madness stalks that dark, dank alley and that’s a total drowning pool.

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Testing, Testing…

(Thanks, YOLO SWAGSSON!)

As I figured, there’s a test that definitely works after all, but a test isn’t a cure, just a warning sign. I’m fine, although my poor brain is leaping between being entertaining as I’m supposed to and being totally freaked out that there are too many really foolish people who believe all of this sickness is just the common flu on steroids.

Well, let me go finish a few posts up. We’re in that period where keeping up with the news is a pain as it’s all bad on many fronts because denial isn’t the name of a river in Egypt and too many people in a few places just aren’t on the ball. Stop their world, they want to get off. Me, I’m working on a playlist for all this craziness, here’s a tune from it:

(Thanks, Flowers of Romance!)

-GW

Hmm. Your Tax Dollars @ Work Circa 1943 Make For Some Interesting Food For Thought…

(thanks, allpublicdomain!)

Ha and ha. It’s kind of funny that we live in a country where some are going nuts about too much government poking in to their private lives or nanny state politicians wanting to tell people what they can and can’t eat when back in 1943, this was considered a mighty GOOD thing to want to have happen. Yeah, yeah, we were in a big war back then, but haven’t we been in a bigger and longer one this century to some extent? Yeah, I bet if this nifty propaganda flick ran in every movie theater and on every network TV station NOW, half the people watching would choke on that super-sized soda and barrel of popcorn in their extra-wide laps while the other half would be banging out a protest petition on their devices with chubby little sausage (flavored) fingers. I say look at it this way, folks – staying in better shape keeps you alive longer to enjoy some of that freedom people keep dying for just so you can gorge yourselves while they do all the heavy lifting.

Now go thank a soldier somewhere on your block this weekend and maybe have a fresh turnip for dessert…