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What is the best website (OR membership) for last-minute travel Specials for Hotels and/or Rental Cars only? What is the best website for last-minute travel Specials for Hotels and/or Rental Cars only? (I am not looking for package deals!) Or as an alternative, What is the best membership card program- ie- AAA, etc that offer good discounts at hotels?

Where can I find excellent last minute deals for 3-4 nights departing from NYC this Christmas? I have 5 days off work from Dec 23-27 and I'll be traveling with my gf, we prefer to go somewhere warm and would like to spend around $350 per person. I already checked 'last minute vacation' specials on airlines websites and travelocity, expedia, orbitz, etc.. but didn't see anything good. Oh and we can travel ANYWHERE in the world, it doesn't matter if it's cold, anywhere besides Central US and New England.

Is Global Resorts Network better than YTB as both are travel businesses? I joined global resorts then found ytb. YTB seems to be an excellent business, but for last minute travel. It concentrates on hotel vacations, has an upfront cost & monthly fee. But I loved their owner's speech on the travel biz, & their site is excellent. Global Resorts Network is very new on the net, started dec 06. Its affiliated with a company that has been in business 20 years.. its the marketing arm. It has a onetime fee only, no monthly fees. Plus their market is different ... grn concentrates on luxury travel to 4 & 5 star resorts worldwide (though it covers hotels & does cruises & travel same as YTB) But you can book in advance with GRN (as well as up to 72 hours before a trip).They encourage you to call them for special arrangements. Their prices are better GRN owners setup Global Resorts because of timeshare experiences, as owners & sellers.Timeshares have maintenance fees & no travel choice Which biz do U like? http://www.globalresortsnetwork.shorturl.com

Can I buy insurance for travel costs if my parents die? My parents live in my home country (New Zealand) and I am an expat, living in Germany. Where can I find insurance for travel costs, in the event of their death? I know they will die one day, and last-minute flights around the world can very expensive. Alternatively, does anybody know if some airlines still offer special rates for family members in mourning?

I will be traveling to To Lunenberg mid August, Fly into Halifax, for my God daughter's Christening, any ideas The planning is very last minute. I am traveling from New Orleans and my Very Good friends are traveling from Charleston. They decided at the last minute to have their daughter's Christning in Nova Scotia. It is where the baby's father and his father before him for four generations have been Christened. I need help, fast. My seven year old daughter will be flying with me I HAVE VEVER BEEN TO NOVA SCOTIA. IAM AFRAID IT IS TOO LATE TO FIND LODGING IN LUNENBERG, SO I AM LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS OF PLACES TO STAY WITHIN A MAXIMUM 30 MINUTE DRIVE. I REALLY WANT A NICE HOTEL, I PREFER A RESORT WITH A SPA TYPE HOTEL, SOME WB SITES MENTIONED NON-PRIVATE B/ROOMS, I CAN'T DO THE HARE A BATHROOM THING. PLEASE GIVE EM SOME IDEAS , I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE YOUR ADVICE. I WOULD LOVE A QUAINT LITTEL INN JUST AS MUCH IF IS IS SOMETHING SPECIAL , WITH CHARACHTER. PEASE REPLY ALL WHO HAVE BEEN TO THESE PLACES

Why do travel companies leave it so late to send tickets ? We're flying out on Monday. Virgin only posted our tickets out last Monday, and the website says allow 7 days for delivery ! I phoned them on Thursday and Friday before they finally agreed to send them again by special delivery as they hadn't arrived. Finally got both sets today (Saturday) - 48 hours before we're due to go. Then when we looked at the tickets, they'd made a mistake so I had to spend an hour on the phone sorting it out. Of course being Saturday half the departments weren't there so it took longer than usual to sort out. Can anybody who works in this industry explain to me why they can't just send your tickets as soon as you've paid the full amount, i.e. 6 to 8 weeks before you go, instead of giving their customers this last minute stress ?

Trip to China cheated by Ming Ming Travel Service?

What's the best way to get an expedited passport? I have a chance to travel to Spain in the next two months, and I'm going through a last-minute process to apply for a passport. Due to a back up, the current expedited wait at my post office is about ten weeks (although some have been sent back to the post office in only two to three weeks), but I've been told that a special courier service may ship it even faster. Should I take my chances and go through the post office, or is there some recommended online service out there I should use? Sorry, I forgot to mention that I'm a legal resident of California.

Wedding Gift Ideas? My cousin is getting married next week. We're already spending close to $1000 for travel expenses and to hire a babysitter the day of the wedding. Money is very tight for us and I'd like to give a thoughtful, creative gift that doesn't seem "cheap." My family traditionally gives money, however we can't afford what is typically expected (cost of the meals plus gift money), which is why I would rather not get something from the registry. My cousin is doing very well in his career and his bride also comes from considerable money so its not like they need money to start their lives together (although I'm sure its what they want). The bride's family is paying for the wedding. Any ideas? I think it is important for family to be there for each other on special days, and I want to give a special gift to remember the occasion, but without having to choose which bills don't get paid this month (I would have budgeted for this but the bride is pregnant and the wedding is very last minute).

Anyone seen these facts? Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33. The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.) Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord. The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container. David Prowse, was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY There are only thirteen blimps in the world. Nine of the thirteen blimps are in the United States. The existing biggest blimp is the Fuji Film blimp. Naugahyde, plastic "leather" was created in Naugatuck, Connecticut. The Swiss flag is square. The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation. Sames goes for the Italian lira which uses the same abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as "pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d" (libra/solidus/denarius). The three largest land-owners in England are the Queen, the Church of England and Trinity College, Cambridge. The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline. If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian. No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die. The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula. Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river. The name for fungal remains found in coal is sclerotinite. The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. Emus cannot walk backwards. It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear. The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America. Both writer Edgar Allen Poe and LSD advocate Timothy Leary were kicked out of West Point. The word posh, which denotes luxurious rooms or accomodations, originated when ticket agents in England marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient. Since there was no air conditioning in those days, it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area. Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra to get cabin's on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia, and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe. Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH. The top layer of a wedding cake, known as the groom's cake, traditionally is a fruit cake. That way it will save until the first anniversery. The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm and often hid the fact by posing with his hand resting on a sword, or by holding gloves. The forward pass was created by the football team at Saint Louis University. In every show that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks) wrote, there is at least one song about rain. A kind of tortoise in the Galapagos Islands has an upturned shell at its neck so it can reach its head up to eat cactus branches. The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii, located approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu. Parthenogenesis is the term used to describe the process by which certain animals are able to reproduce themselves in successive female generations without intervention of a male of the species. At least one species of lizard is known to do so. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat", which means "the king is dead". The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen. "Quisling" is the only word in the English language to start with "quis." All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel. Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag (it looks like two pennants glued on on top of the other) Libya has the only flag which is all one color with no writing or decoration on it The only borough of New York City that isn't an island (or part of an island) is the Bronx. The 1957 Milwaukee Braves were the first baseball team to win the World Series after being relocated. The tune for the "A-B-C" song is the same as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield it's first consumable fruit. The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light. Linn's Stamp News is the world's largest weekly newspaper for stamp collectors. Tennessee is bordered by more states than any other. The eight states are Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. Des Moines has the highest per capita Jello consumption in the U.S The Western-most point in the contiguous United States is Cape Alava, Washington. There are only three animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard. The first fossilized specimen of Austalopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the palentologists' favorite song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, by the Beatles. Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head." The geographical center of North America is near Rugby, North Dakota. The infinity sign is called a lemniscate. Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey. If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long. There are six five words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate and duumvir, residuum. The "Calabash" pipe, most often associated with Sherlock Holmes, was not used by him until William Gillette (an American) portrayed Holmes onstage. Gillette needed a pipe he could keep in his mouth while he spoke his lines. Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F. Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211. The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular. The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau" meaning bird. Camel's milk does not curdle. "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison. The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck. A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality. The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate." Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state. Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time. Hamsters love to eat crickets. The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts. The word "queueing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels. The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried in San Marcos, Texas. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. Roberta Flack wrote "Killing Me Softly" about singer Don McLean. The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint. Spencer Eldon was the name of the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's album All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole and Perot, are left-handed. The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs. The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention the name of God. Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortned to Sheriff. An animal epidemic is called an epizootic. Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third. The silhouette on the NBA logo is Jerry West. The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus. Soweto in South Africa ws derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship. Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants. The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history. It was a spin-off of the Danny Thomas Show. Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils. Walt Disney's autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo. Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes. The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used. The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths." Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps. Hence, the postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. However, every stamp carries a relief image or a silhouette of the monarch's head instead. Images for picture stamps in the United States are commissioned by the United States Postal Service Department of Philatelic Fulfillment. Artist Constantino Brumidi fell from the done of the U.S. Capitol while painting a mural around the rim. He died four months later. Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games. There were no squirrels on Nantucket until 1989. Cathy Rigby is the only woman to pose nude for Sports Illustrated. (August 1972) Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan. Will Clark of the Texas Rangers is a direct descendant of William Clark of Lewis and Clark. When ocean tides are at their highest, they are called "spring tides." When they are at their lowest, they are call "neep tides." February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. The last NASCAR driver to serve jail time for running moonshine was Buddy Arrington. Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000. The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly.) The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol. It takes a lobster approxiamately seven years to grow to be one pound. The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding. The lot numbers for the cyanide-tainted Tylenol capsules scare back in 1982 were MC2880 and 1910MD. Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds. The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator. At latitude 60 degrees south you can sail all the way around the world. A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes. The hyoid bone, in your throat, is the only bone in the body not attached to another bone. Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra. Sunbeams that shine down through the clouds are called crespucular rays. Very small clouds that look like they have been broken off of bigger clouds are called scuds. On a dewy morning, if you look at your shadow in the grass, the dew drops shine light back to your eye creating a halo called a heilgenschein (German for halo.) The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself." Giraffes have no vocal cords. Joe DiMaggio had more home runs than strikeouts during his career. All porcupines float in water. Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio. A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins. Many northern parishes (counties) of Louisiana did not agree with the Confederate movement. To show their disapproval, they changed their names. That's why there is a Union Parish, Jefferson Parish, etc. The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.) The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' symbolizes 'two women living under one roof'. German has a wood for the peace offerings brought to your mate when you've committed some conceived slight. This is "drachenfutter" or dragon's food. In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same. No word in the English language rhymes with month. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired." The poisonous copperhead smells likefresh cut cucumbers. In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.) The smallest mushroom's name is "Hop-low." Anne Boleyn had six fingernails on one hand. Mustard gas was invented in the McKinley Building on the American University campus. Additionally, preliminary work on the Manhattan Project was done in that building. The government used the McKinley Building because of its unusual archticture. If there would be any type of large explosion inside the building, the building would implode onto itself, containing any lethal gas or nuclear material. The building now houses the Physics Department. When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. The naval rank of "Admiral" is derived from the Arabic phrase "amir al bahr", which means "lord of the sea". The Les Nessman character on the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati wore a band-aid in every episode. Either on himself, his glasses, or his clothing. A coat hanger is 44 inches long if straightened The roads on the island of Guam are made with coral. Guam has no sand. The sand on the beaches is actually ground coral. When concrete is mixed, the coral sand is used instead of importing regular sand from thousands of miles away. Mt. Vernon Washington grows more tulips than the entire country of Holland. Jamie Farr (who played Klinger on M*A*S*H) was the only member of the cast who actually served as a soldier in the Korean war. The southern most city in the United States is Na'alehu, Hawaii. Alaska was the only part of the United States that was invaded by the Japanese during WWII. The territory was the island of Adak in the Aleutian Chain. Woodward Ave in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere. Michigan was the first state to plow it's roads and the first to adopt a yellow dividing line. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119. The shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept." Way back when they were using marble columns, the people selling the columns would carve out the centers and fill it with wax.So the people buying them started asking "Is it without wax?" Or in other words "Are you sincere?" Zaire is the world leader in cobalt mining, producing two-thirds of the world's cobalt supply. No modern language has a true concept of "I am." It is always used linked with are in reference of another verb. Little known Cathedral Caverns near Grant, Alabama has the world's largest cave opening, the largest stalagmite (Goliath), and the largest stalagmite forest in the World. The only person ever to decline a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was Sinclair Lewis for his book Arrowsmith. Maine is the only state that borders on only one state. There are almost twice as many people in Rhode Island than there are in Alaska. Kudzu is not indigenous to the South, but in that climate it can grow up to six inches a day. Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ? The word 'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.' The word 'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element.' Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz. Bananas do not grow on trees, but on rhizomes. Astronauts in the Space Shuttle are weightless not because there is no gravity in space, but because they are in free fall around the Earth. St. Augustine was the first major proponent of the "missionary" position. Lizzie Borden was acquitted. Alexander Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr in the groin. Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every Dewey-decimal category. Roger Ebert is the only film critic to have ever won the Pulitzer prize. A scholar who studies the Marquis de Sade is called a Sadian, not a Sadist (of course). Tribeca in Manhattan stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal street. Soho stands for SOuth of HOuston street. Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church. Theworld's largest wine cask is in Heidleberg, Germany. Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an aligator while he hosted "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom." Cat's urine glows under a blacklight. Seven Olympic gold medal winners eventually went on to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World Kerimski Church in Finland is world's biggest church made of wood.The St. Louis Gateway Arch had a projected death toll while it was being built. No one died. The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows. A cat has four rows of whiskers. Vincent Van Gogh comitted suicide while painting Wheat Field with Crows. An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes. Jelly Belly jelly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space when they went up with astronauts in the June 21, 1983 voyage of the space shuttle Challenger (the same voyage as the first American woman in space, Sally Ride). Baseballer Connie Mack's real name was Cornelius McGilicuddy. If you were standing in the northernmost point in the contiguous (48) states, you'd be standing in Minnesota. Only thirty percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are actually from Maryland, the rest are from North Carolina and Virginia. Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Not all of West Virginia voted to go with the North. When the State of West Virginia was formed from Virginia in 1863 the three western counties in Virginia voted to go with West Virginia, but West Virginia didn't take them because they were poor. Instead they took three counties that voted to stay with Virginia, because they were richer and they had the B&O railroad. Those counties since split and are 5 Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley, Mineral, and Morgan. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines. The Dodge brothers Horace and John were Jewish, that's why the first Dodge emblem had a star of David in it. Studebaker was the only major car company to stop making cars while making a profit from them. Studebaker still exists, but is now called Worthington. Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star. On the new hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10. The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and Algeria. (Cork comes from trees.) In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mail box. If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the late M*A*S*H star McLean Stevenson were both once assistant football coaches at Northwestern University. The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three. All swans and all sturgeons in England are property of the Queen. Messing with them is a serious offense. Michael Di Lorenzo, who plays Eddie Torres on New York Undercover is one of the lead dancers in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video. Only two people signed the Decleration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on Augest 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 year later. October 4, 1957 is a historic date to be remembered, it is the day both "Leave it to Beaver" and the Russian satellite Sputnik 1 were launched. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. It takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni, and about a gallon to clean the pot. The antifungal, nystatin, which is sometime used for treating thrush, is named after New York State Institute for Health (Acronym) QANTAS, the name of the Australian national airline, is a (former) acronym, for Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service. The world's largest four-faced clock sits atop the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Almonds are members of the peach family. The first video ever played on MTV Europe was "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits. If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) the total is 5050 The "Grinch" singer and voice of Tony the Tiger is a charming man named Thurl Ravenscroft. The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe. Ham radio operators got the term "ham" coined from the expression "ham-fisted operators", a term used to describe early radio users who sent Morse code (i.e. pounded their fists). While the Chinese invented gunpowder, they were not the first to develop firearms. Sam Colt invented the "revolving pistol." Therefore, all revolvers are correctly called pistols. A 12 gauge "rifled slug" does not spin, even though there are grooves on it's bearing surface. A slug actually travels like a dart. Revolvers cannot be silenced, due all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel. A bullet fired from the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge (also called the .308 Winchester) is still supersonic at 1000 yards. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." The home team must provide the referee with 24 footballs for each National Football League game. The maximum weight for a golf ball is 1.62 oz. A flea expert is a pullicologist. A bear has 42 teeth. M&M's stands for the last names of Forrest Mars, Sr., then candymaker, and his associate Bruce Murrie. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle. Table tennis balls have been known to travel off the paddle at speeds up to 105.6 miles per hour. In Irian Jaya exists a tribe of tall, white people who use parrots as a warning sign against intruders. In the Dutch province of Twente people live on average half a year shorter than in the rest of the Netherlands. Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties in climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil. Duddley DoRight's Horses name was "Horse." If the Spaceship Earth ride at EPCOT was a golf ball, to be the proportional size to hit it, you'd be two miles tall. On Sesame Street, Bert's goldfish were named Lyle and Talbot, presumably after the actor Lyle Talbot. The word "hangnail" comes from Middle English: ang- (painful) + nail. Nothing to do with hanging. Louis IV of France had a stomach the size of two regular stomachs. Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain smoked forty cigars a day for the last years of his life. Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Haley's Comet came into veiw. When He died in 1910, Haley's Comet came into view again. Pepsi originally contained pepsin, thus the name. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. If you were born in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the Manhattan project (where they made the atomic bomb), your birthplace was listed as a post office box in Albequerque. Robert Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel, the same hotel that housed Marilyn Monroe's first modelling agency. Ronald Regan sent out the army phoyographer who first discovered Marilyn Monroe. Carbonated water, with nothing else in it,can dissolve limestone, talc, and many other low-Moh's hardness minerals. Coincidentally, carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda pop. Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox, Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T. The newest dog breed is the Bull Boxer, first bred in the United states in 1990-91. The first hard drive available for the Apple ][ had a capacity of 5 megabytes. South of Tucson, Arizona, all road signs are in the Metric System. In many cases, the amount of storage space on a recordable CD is measured in minutes. 74 minutes is about 650 megabytes, 63 minutes is 550 megabytes. The real name of Astro (the dog fromThe Jetsons) is "Tralfaz" -- his real owner appeared one day to claim him but wound up giving him back to the Jetsons. Charlie Brown's father was a barber. The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy." Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intraveinously When a film is in production, the last shot of the day is the "martini shot", the next to last one is the "Abby Singer". Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp.) Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union. It is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly -- so says City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar. Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life! What about milk, you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is living! When Saigon fell the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio. The Fort George Point in Belize City was formed by the silt runoff of Hurricane Hattie. If you lace your shoes from the inside to the outside the fit will be snugger around your big toe. Only 1/3 of the people that can twitch their ears can twitch only one at a time. The expression "What in tarnation" comes from the original meaning: "What in eternal damnation" Gary Burgough who played Walter Radar O'Reily on M*A*S*H has a deformed left thumb. If you watch closely you will see that he never shows his left hand. Only two states' names begin with double consonants: Florida and Rhode Island. The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean Ingrown toenails are hereditary. The Cincinnati Reds baseball team name was officially changed to the Redlegs during the anti-communist movement. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance. "Xmas" does not begin with the Roman letter X. It begins with the Greek letter "chi," which was used in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation for the word "Christ" (xus = christus, etc.) The ampersand (&) is actually a stylised version of the Latin word "et," meaning and." The largest city in the United States with a one syllable name is Flint, Michigan. The most common name in the world is Mohammed. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. On the cartoon show 'The Jetsons', Jane is 33 years old and her daughter Judy is 15. In Mel Brooks' 'Silent Movie,' mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who has a speaking role. Only humans and horses have hymens. No NFL team which plays it's home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl. (Texas Stadium, home of the Cowboys, is not a dome, there is a large hole in the roof.) The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver". Wally and Beaver had a baby alligator which they kept in the toilet. In the great fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 people were injured The most eastern part of the western world is located in Ilomantsi, Finland. "Hara kiri" is an impolite way of saying the Japanese word "seppuku" which means, literally, "belly splitting." The term the "Boogey Man will get you" comes from the Boogey people,who still inhabit an area of Indonesia. These people still act as pirates today and attack ships that pass. Thus the term spread "if you don't watch out the Boogey man will get you." The Saturn V moon rocket consumed 15 tons of fuel per second. The state with the longest coastline in the US is Michigan. Race car is a palindrome. We will have four consecutive full moons making two blue moons in 1999 (January 2 and 31, March 2 and 31.) The only other time it happened this century was in 1915 (January 1 and 31, March 1 and 31.) The Basset Horn, a kind of alto clarinet, was named after its inventor -- a man named Horn. "Basset" is from "Basetto," or "little bass" in Italian. There are more bald eagles in the province of British Columbia then there are in the whole United States. Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. The "second unit" films movie shots that do not require the presence of actors. Pulp Fiction cost $8 million to make - $5 million going to actor's salaries. The world's second largest pipe organ is located at the Organ Grinder on 82nd avenue in Portland, Oregon. Games Slayter, a Purdue graduate, invented fiberglass. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition. It is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine. Olympic Badminton rules say that the bird has to have exactly fourteen feathers The music group Simply Red is named because of its love for the football team, Manchester United, who have a red home strip. In case you ever find yourself piloting a dogsled, shout "Jee!" to make the dogs turn left and "Ha!" to go right. Richard Nixon left instructions for "California, Here I Come" to be the last piece of music played at his funeral ("softly and slowly") were he to die in office. The earliest document in Latin in a woman's handwriting (it is from the first century A.D.) is an invitation to a birthday party. Spot, Data's cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was played by six different cats. Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fish was named Livingston. Hydrogen gas is the least dense substance in the world, at 0.08988 g/cc Hydrogen solid is the most dense substance in the world, at 70.6 g/cc The longest U.S. highway is route 6 starting in Cape Cod, Massachusetts going through 14 states, and ending in Bishop, California... The movie "Paris, Texas" was banned in the city of Paris, Texas, shorty after its box office release. The 'y' in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced with a 'th' sound, not 'y'. The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England use the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y". Pickled herrings were invented in 1375. The number of the trash compactor in Star Wars (20th Century Fox, 1977) is 3263827. Each year there is one ton of cement poured for each man, woman, and child in the world. At McDonalds in New Zealand, they serve apricot pies instead of cherry ones. The word "samba" means "to rub navels together." The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The international telphone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. A byte, in computer terms, means 8 bits. A nibble is half that: 4 bits. (Two nibbles make a byte!) A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer. Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball. If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. The airport in La Paz, Bolivia is the world's highest airport. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. Chicago is closer to Moscow than to Rio de Janeiro. Original copy of the Declaration of Independence is lost. The copy in Washington D.C. is what is referred to as a holograph. That is a term for a handmade copy of a document and is not the same as a laser produced hologram. Singpore is the only country with one train station. The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive--so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor. When measuring fonts 'point size' refers to the height of capital letters (one point being one 72nd of an inch). 'Pitch' is a horizontal measurement of the number of letters which can be printed in an inch. The only capital letter in the Roman alphabet with exactly one endpoint is P. In the movie "the Right Stuff" there is a scene where a government recruiter for the Mercury astronaut program (played by Jeff Goldblum) is in a bar at Muroc Dry Lake, California. His partner suggests Chuck Yeager as a good astronaut candidate. Jeff proceeds to badmouth Yeager claiming they need someone who went to college. During the conversation the real Chuck Yeager is playing a bartender who is standing behind the recruiters eavesdropping. General Yeager is listed low in the movie credits as 'Fred.' "Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when your talking about someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil" Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable. There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. Nauru is the only country in the world with no official capital. (Its government offices are all in Yaren District, but there's no official capital.) South Africa is the only country with three official capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein. Lucy Ricardo's maiden name was McGillicudy. Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy. The red giant star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the Earth's orbit around the sun. If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon wil be about three statute miles away. The one-hundred eleventh element is known as "unnilenilenium" The longest muscle name is the "levator labii superioris alaeque nasi" and Elvis popularized it with his lip motions. The longest time someone has typed on a typewriter continuously is 264 hrs., set by Violet Gibson Burns. The Dutch town of Leeuwarden can be spelled 225 different ways. There was once a town named "6" in West Virginia. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older A cat has 32 muscles in each ear An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. The oldest word in the English language is "town" The sea wasp is half an inch long at best and more poisonous than any other jellyfish known to man. Tigars have striped skin, not just striped fur. Gerald Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee posthumously of all crimes of treason. The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie Barbarella. There are 22 stars surrounding the mountain on the Paramount Pictures logo. After human death, post-mortem rigidity starts in the head and travels to the feet, and leaves the same way it came -- head to toe. Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue. A Laforte fracture is a fracture of all facial bones. It would allow one to pull on another face and remove it like a mask if not held on by skin. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T. Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were all cousins through one connection or another. (FDR and Eleanor were about five times removed.) The Earth-Moon size ratio is the largest in the our solar system, excepting Pluto-Charon. Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5! Though it goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tetonic destruction (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.) Most snakes have either only one lung, or in some cases, two, with one much reduced in size. This apparently serves to make room for other organs in the highly-elongated bodies of snakes. A twelve-foot anaconda can catch, kill, and eat a six-foot caiman, a close relative of crocodles and alligators. While these snakes are not usually considered to be the *longest* snake in the world, they are the heaviest, exceeding the reticulated python in girth. Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her. Cinderella is known as Tuhkimo in Finland. If you come from Birmingham, you are a Brummie. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with, e.g. Asia, Europe. There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times: Indivisibility. The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia. According to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, it is possible to go slower than light and faster than light, but it is impossible to go at the speed of light. In most advertisments, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch. Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. The "heat" of peppers is rated on the Scoville scale. Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5pm. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize *this* was the day of the changeover. In left hand drive countries, such as the UK, Ireland, Japan, and Australia, drivers sit on the right hand side of the car. Except for Sweden, where drivers sat on the left, as in North-America. Japan is the third most densely populated country in the world. First is the Netherlands, followed by Belgium. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery. The "D" in D-day means "Day". The French term for "D-Day" is "J-jour". Female orcas live twice as long as male orcas. The larger numbers of female orcas in a pod are because of the female's longer lifespan, not because the males have collected a harem. Most spiders belong to the orb weaver spider family, Family Aranidae. This is pronounced "A Rainy Day." The Mongol emperor Genghis Khan's original name was Temujin. Genghis Khan started out life as a goatherd. The type specimen for the human species is the skull of Edward Drinker Cope, an American paleontologist of the late 1800's. A type specimen is used in paleontology as the best example of that species. The first word spoken by an ape in the movie Planet of the Apes was "Smile". The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum. Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan" Hummingbirds are the only animals able to fly backwards All the dirt from the foundation to build the World Trade Center in NYC was dumped into the Hudson River to form the community now known as Battery City Park. The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York are an engineering feat. The air circulators in the tunnels circulate fresh air completely every ninety seconds. The dirt road that General Washington and his soldiers took to fight off General Clinton during the Battle of Monmouth was called the Burlington Path. The only social fraternity founded during the Civil War was Theta Xi fraternity, at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1864. The Hudson River along the island of Manhattan flows in either direction depending upon the tide. Several buildings in Manhattan have their own zip code! The World Trade Center has several. Lucifer is latin for "Light Bringer". It is a translation of the Hebrew name for Satan, Halael. Satan means "adversary", devil means "liar". A cat's jaws cannot move sideways. Geller and Huchra have made three-dimensional maps of the distrubution of galaxies. In each layer of the map some galaxies are grouped together in such a way that they resemble a human being. Avocado is derived from the Spanish word 'aguacate' which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning testicle. The company providing the liability insurance for the Republican National Convention in San Diego is the same firm that insured the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. The smallest port in Canada is Port Williams, Nova Scotia. The Canadian province of Newfoundland has its own time zone, which is half an hour behind Atlantic standard time. Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes. The second longest word in the English language is "antidisestablishmenterianism". Rats like boiled sweets better than they like cheese. Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock. The Velvet Underground was named after a book on the S&M culture. The Velvet Underground's first manager was Andy Warhol, who also produced their first album and designed the cover artwork. The cover artwork for the album (called "The Velvet Underground and Nico") featured a bright yellow banana that could be peeled off to reveal a bright pink banana underneath, with the label "Peel Slowly and See." "Peel Slowly and See" is the title of the Velvet Underground comprehensive boxed set, which is the only currently-available Velvet Underground recording to feature a peelable banana. The peelable banana caused substantial delays in the production of the VU's first album and contributed to Lou Reed's firing Andy Warhol as the group's manager. The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild. Native speakers of Japanese learn Spanish much more easily than they learn English. Native speakers of English learn Spanish much more easily than they learn Japanese. New Zealand kiwis lay the largest eggs with respect to their body size of any bird. Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean. When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau." Sting got his name because of a yellow-and-black striped shirt he wore until it literally fell apart. Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton. The topknot that quails have is called a hmuh. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth ... and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint -- no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers. There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber strips that line car windows. New Zealand is also the only country that contains every type of climate in the world. Cockroaches' favorite food is the glue on envelopes and on the back of postage stamps In 1969, the last Corvair was painted gold. Ralph Kramden made 62 dollars a week. The only way to stop the pain of the flathead fish's sting is by rubbing the same fish's slime on the wound it gave you. Betsy Ross was born with a fully formed set of teeth. Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her basement. Devo's original name was going to be De-evolution. They shortened it to Devo. Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book 'The Naked Lunch'. Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman. Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone's emblem depicting the big tongue. It first appeared on the cover of the 'Sticky Fingers' album. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left-handed Beatles. Chris Ford scored the first ever NBA three-point shot. Of all the East Coast States, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline, about fourteen miles. New Hampshire is also the only State name the has four consecutive consonants in it (in the same word). Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes. Alaska has the longest border with Canada of all the fifty states. Montana has the longest border with Canada of the lower forty-eight States. Montana also borders the most Canadian Provinces of all the fifty states. It borders three of them. Arkansas is the only US State that begins with "a" but does not end with "a". All the other States that begin with "a", Arizona, Alabama and Alaska, also end with "a". Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer. Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice." Wilma Flinestone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker. Lenny Kravitz's mother played the part of "Helen" on "The Jeffersons." The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should become a saint, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view. Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works. The term "Mayday" used for signaling for help (after SOS), it comes from the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me" Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 did start in a barn belonging to Patrick and Katherine O'Leary. The O'Leary's house was one of the few that survived the fire. The O'Leary's house had to be guarded by soldiers for weeks afterwards, however, because many enraged residents wanted to burn it down. The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733. It weighs 216 tons, but alas, it is cracked and has never been rung. The bell was being stored in a Moscow shed which caught fire. To "save" it the caretakers decided to throw water on the bell. This did not succeed in -- the water hit the superheated metal and a giant piece immediately cracked off, destroying the bell forever. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. The smallest mountain range in the world is outside of Marysville, California and is named the Sutter Buttes. The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. Many species of bird copulate in the air. In general, a couple will fly to a very high altitude, and then drop. During their descent, the birds mate. Sometimes the couple gets too involved and SPLAT! If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die because they need gravity to swallow. There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein. You would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "A" in the English language to spell a whole number. The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard. Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sidewards, like a scissor, to extract the juices from the food. The letters H I O X in the latin alphabet is the only ones that look the same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind. The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator". When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city. In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott". Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. The metal part of a lamp that surrounds the bulb and supports the shade is called a harp. The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur. John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins. Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting while he was alive, Red Vineyard at Arles. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. Skin is thickest is at the back -- 1/6 of an inch. The most sensitive finger is the forefinger. Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state; it also has the highest latitude,the most eastern longitude and the most western longitude. Some of Beethoven's symphonies were performed in Kentucky before they were performed in Paris, France. The word denim comes from 'de Nimes', or from Nimes, a place in France. Dublin comes from the Irish Dubh Linn which means Blackpool Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called Gaeilge. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life" A penguin only has sex twice a year. Mr. Spock's (of Star Trek) blood type was T-Negative The Dutch town of Abcoude is the only reasonably sized town/city in the world whose name begins with ABC. A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring over 5,400 spoons from every state and almost every country. Eleven square miles of southwest Kentucky (Fulton County) is cut off from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River. If you wish to travel from this cut off section to the rest of the state or vice-versa, you must first cross a bordering state. Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada. If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including Canadian and U.S. customs A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. The only city in the United States to celebrate Halloween on the October 30 instead of October 31 is Carson City, Nevada. October 31 is Nevada Day and is celebrated with a large stret party. On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner. No words in the English language rhyme with orange, silver or purple. A peanut is not a nut; it is a legume. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. "Evian" spelled backvards is naive. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Maine is the toothpick capital of the world. "Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters. Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife. The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war. The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope. It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright. A baby eel is called an elver, a baby oyster is called a spat. Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box. The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like a stick person with a large head. Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time. On a trip to the South Sea islands, French painter Paul Gauguin stopped off briefly in Central America, where he worked as a laborer on the Panama Canal. The Ganges River in India boasts the only genuine fresh-water sharks in the entire world. The gene for the Siamese coloration in animals such as cats, rats or rabbits is heat sensitive. Warmth produces a lighter color than does cold. Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the fur on that ear lighter than on the other one. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts." The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root. "John has a long moustache" was the coded-signal used by the French Resistance in WWII to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed on the Normandy beaches. Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed. Brooklyn is the Dutch name for "broken valley" There are four states where the first letter of the capital city is the same letter as the first letter of the state: Dover, Delaware; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a ten-dollar bill. Venetian blinds were invented in Japan. The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought at neighbouring Breed's Hill. Former US Senator Barry Goldwater attended the opening night ceremonies and festivities at Bugsy Siegel's famous Las Vegas casino. They left him out of the movie Bugsy. He is pissed. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.) The first electric Christmas lights were created by a telephone company PBX installer. Back in the old days, candles were used to decorate Christmas trees. This was obviously very dangerous. Telephone employees are trained to be safety concious. This installer took the lights from an old switchboard, connected them together, strung them on the tree, and hooked them to a battery. White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees) The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him. There is no such thing as naturally blue food, even blueberries are purple. In the 1983 film "JAWS 3D" the shark blows up. Some of the shark guts were the stuffed ET dolls being sold at the time. Walt Disney had wooden teeth. The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Perriwinkle Blue. Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off. The coast line around Lake Sakawea in North Dakota is longer than the California coastline along the Pacific Ocean Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. The legbones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk. Kitsap County, Washington, was originally called Slaughter County, and the first hotel there was called the Slaughter House. Seattle, Washington, like Rome, was built on seven hills. Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly common. School busses in the United States are Chrome Yellow and used to be Omaha Orange. The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles at a religious retreat in India. The tailless dinner jacket was invented in Tuxedo Park, New York. Thus it is called the "tuxedo dinner jacket" and is named after the town...not the other way around. The state of Maryland has no natural lakes. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. Rhode Island is the smallest state with the longest name. The official name, used on all state documents, is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The chemical formula for Rubidium Bromide is RbBr. It is the only chemical formula known to be a palindrome! St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man who ran a saloon there. The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON. The first letters of the names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES. The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand. Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. Sarsaparilla is the root that flavors root beer. The U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its pennies. A full moon always rises at sunset. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation. Moon was Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name. (Buzz Aldrin was the second man o n the moon in 1969.) The only two Southern state capitals not occuppied by Northern troops during the American Civil War were Austin, Texas and Tallahasse, Florida. Rabbits love licorice. Ogdensburg, New York is the only city in the United States situated on the St. Lawrence River. Rene Descartes came up with the theory of coordinate geometry by looking at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling. Kelsey Grammar sings and plays the piano for the theme song of Fraiser. Alan Thicke, the father in the TV show GrowingPains wrote the theme songs for The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his f

I wrote a poem...PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK? Music What is so special about those melodies? And words That can even make you feel happy on Mondays The time that you spend listen to it makes records… Music will always be there for you when you’re happy Or when you’re sad It’s hard to resist because it’s too catchy And for some minutes it makes you to stop feeling bad… You travel to a world where everything is perfect And you wish that those minutes would last longer Because there is no conflict And everything is better If you’re happy it can make you feel sad If you’re sad it can make you feel happy It can give you something that you never had… And for some minutes you no longer feel empty But then you wake up And face the real world Everything breaking up And you no longer can relate to the word happy

I wrote a poem...PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK? Music What is so special about those melodies? And words That can even make you feel happy on Mondays The time that you spend listen to it makes records… Music will always be there for you when you’re happy Or when you’re sad It’s hard to resist because it’s too catchy And for some minutes it makes you to stop feeling bad… You travel to a world where everything is perfect And you wish that those minutes would last longer Because there is no conflict And everything is better If you’re happy it can make you feel sad If you’re sad it can make you feel happy It can give you something that you never had… And for some minutes you no longer feel empty But then you wake up And face the real world Everything breaking up And you no longer can relate to the word happy OMG! If you're really gonna make an album, I would LOVE to write some songs on it. That would make be happy...

the kamal karna roy strategy to close gap of right viz leadership viz u s president 08 elite vs. have_nots ?

A Good story ? It is March 31st,2009 My name is Steve Weattie. Alot of people call me Steve Wheaties, my wife calls me Steevey Weevey. I live in the busy city of Boston. I have a job as a manager of internfal affairs at the Boston Public Library. It may sound a bit espionage saying that I handle internal afairs but I'm the head boss for all that goes on at the library. I'm the man that handles security. Someone steals a book in front of our cameras Im the man that security tells first,I'm the man that handles books coming in to this library and out and know what books should be banned from this library.I wasnt all that good in math as a kid but I deal with library funds at times. Im not the head man to handle that but I work with everyone. It's alot to handle for one man. It may seem a bit unrealistic. How can one man be handling all these things for a library? Sounds like something out of a story. I would have thought so too,but its all true. Im a busy man but I worked hard in my life to get this far to the top. As a kid I always wanted to be a librarian,I did too when I was a teenager,I just became something more at the end. It's alot of responsibilty but I'm an organized man. I have enough time to be here at this library everyday except for Sundays and be home by 6 or 7 to spend the night with my wife. Today is March 31st,2009. It is 5:29 A.m. Im laying down next to my sweet wife _____. She's sleeping peacefully and I feel like everything is right in the world with me. She lays there so sweet. Her bosom rising and falling with every breath,her beautiful face in peace,every aspect of her is beautiful. With her next to me I feel like I can do anything. As usual she sleeps with her pink fluffy pillow,her pink fluffy blanket,in her pink pajamas. If I didnt know by now that her favorite color in the world is pink, I would have to be a very stupid person.It's funny to be sleeping with a pink blanket,a pink pillow underneath my head as well. At least I dont wear the pink pajamas. I have still some man dignity on me. For her though, I would walk down the street in pink. I would be laughed at but it would be worth it to make her happy. My colors for me have always been black and yellow. I cant seem to know why I like both. I cant just like black or just like yellow. I only like these colors in a combination. Their too distinct colors but I seem to enjoy both colors as well as pink which I began after I met ____. It is 5:45 A.m now and that means I should take a shower now. I get out of our king sized Serta Bed, thats one good bed never had a bad nights sleep with that bed, and walk to the bathroom to take a shower.It feels nice under my feet to walk on the pink mats in the bathroom. Sigh. Well... I do this everyday and I wouldnt change it for the world. I always feel content with my life. I mention pink so much and I tolerate my wifes adoreness with pink. Its a fine color just as red or blue would be ,but I dont consider myself to be less a man to like the color. Its funny that I always assure myself that everyday when I reach the bathroom. It's just a funny habit I have. I dont think its a bad habit at all. It keeps my life in balance doing almost the same thing everyday. I say almost since I never know what me and my wife will do. Shes very engergetic and outgoing so one minute we could be eating and next me and her could be throwing water at each other for fun. I also never know what will ever happen at work. THeres always something that could happen at work...a book stolen, a disturbed patron making a scene in the library entrance, you just never know. It is 6:03 A.m and I have finished taking a shower. Im dressed in one of my best suits since today I know I have a meeting with a few members of the Children Donation FUnd. I will be making sure that the libray has the theme of children and caring for needful children. Ill prob prospose the idea of putting childrens faces around the library and donation boxes near the childrens room,near entrances and such. It shouldnt be a bad day. Its Tuesday and Tuesdays are the days where usually activity and such is very slow. No problem for me though..if work is slow then at least Ill have my house to come home to with ____. It is 6:25 A.m and Im eating breakfast at my polished table with pink flower designs. Im eating Cocoa Puffs from a pink bowl with a pink flower spoon. Im reading yesterdays Boston Globe since the newspaper doesnt come to our house till 7 o clock. I usually am behind the news by one day but thats ok for me since I read the news just to know current events or to bring up some such thing I read in the newspaper in a meeting like "Why are we all acting like the Dubois family that fought over their dog for ? Lets just be the state of Massachusetts and get rid of the Dubois family?" It is 6:45 A.m. Ive cleaned my cereal bowl ,put away the cocoa puffs and am heading upstairs to kiss ____ goodbye. I would be a fool to try to wake her up since she never can wake up early. If I tried to wake her up with me in the morning she would be cranky the whole day. Well,she'll be waking up soon since she may want to go to the mall later. As she told me there will be a new purse out on sale today that will have a built in cell phone holder,a mini tv screen to watch the latest soap operas and it even has satellite so you can watch any nationality of soap operas wheter it be Japanese or Russian or even Arab. Hmm...I also think this new purse will be pink and have an automated cell phone operator meaning I think if you click some certain button the purse it can put your phone on to answer a call. Shes always saying how sometimes I call her and she can never pick up the phone because its in her purse and she has to try to find the phone in her purse and by that time she misses the call. So..maybe this will be a good purse for her. "____ Im leaving for work ok? I left you some goodies on the kitchen table and a surprise in your make -up kit. ON the kitchen table I have for her a pumpkin pie for her that I bought last night . In the make -up kit ive left for her 200 $. Of course shes not a spend thrift we have to do some food shopping, so I dont expect her to use all that money for the purse. Well I hope so. "hhmmm..ok my steevey weevy Ill see you later then." I moved for the usual good morning kiss . I kissed her on her lips. Most of the time that would wake her up but today I could see she was a bit tired so I gave her a not too long kiss on the lips and one on her forehead and cheek. I Then I put my hand threw her hair and said Ill see you later _________" "Mhmm k Steevey I love you." I love you so much more _____ ,I told her. It is 7:21 A.M. I kissed my wife goodbye earlier. I walked out of the house,into the garage, entered my black Beemer that was next to my wifes Beemer, a pink convertible. My beemer was the usual sedan. It had the usual leather seats,GPS system, pink dice in the mirror one pink one actually and the other one black,heating on the seats,and a kickin stereo system. Yeah kickin..well for listening to music it always makes me feel cool and young. It is 7:27 A.M. and I m close to the library. Theres plenty of traffic at this time. I just have to drive down this street,pass Boston Common,take a right at Lowe's Theater and just head straight down and I'll be there. As of now Im close to nearing Lowe's Theater. Too many s toplights and people passing. So many commuters are clogging up this street. Every damn minute Im stopping for them! It's just annoying that they pop up every few feet when you gain a foot. I remember my days as a commuter so I cant get pissed at these people. I use to try to run past cars and people to reach the train station to catch my train. Hmm...my commuter days are one of my greatest years in my life as well. Its how I met ______ in fact. Hmm...something also happened on a train back then but I cant seem to remember. It is 7:35 A.m and I am now at Lowe's Theater just have to turn right and Ill be on the street that leads to the library. Look both ways and hmm...wow look at that black dump truck there. Jet black with a shade of yellow on the side to spell some words. I cant read the words. Aha funny my favorite two colors on this weird dump truck black and yellow. So..anyway look left. To the left I have the dump truck here and to the right just that street and just looking for pedestrians. It is 7:36 A.M and I flick the switch to turn my right signal on. Tick Tick Tick the green arrow ticks and tocks on my dashboard. I turn my wheel slowly to the right. I look fast again to my left while my Beemer is in motion. The black and yellow truck is coming up fast to me. My heart is getting faster. Maybe I should wait for this thing to pass. Im in the middle of the road though. I just cant stop. I keep on moving and hope that the driver will realize his mistake and stop. My car is still in a turn and suddenly the truck is somehow so close to me that I can see the driver inside. I cant believe my eyes. I thought I would never see HIM again. How is he here? All I know is that this thing I once knew but I dont have time to think. I have to get out of his way!. Before I have time to think of what Im going to do for a motion with my car the dump truck smashes hard into the driver side of my car. My side. I feel an intense pressure on my left like someone just took my whole side and squeezed it all together. My heart is being crushed by pounds of metal. I cant breathe. THe light of day is gone and I only see complete darkness. Im going to die. Why must I die? I dont want to leave _____. I love her too much. How could she handle it? I dont know how I can be thinking when I probably have serious injuries. I feel the pain so intense and yet I expected to lose consciousness. My sight is of blackness and I think maybe Ill be able to stay awake threw all this,maybe I will stay alive. As soon as I even begin to think this I feel like I'm rolling over and over and over and over. My head is crashing against the ceiling of the car I think. What the hell is goin on? I cant think anymore. I cant breathe. I cant breathe. I cant breathe. I cant............................ "Goooood morning everyone. This is abc News in the Morning and I'm Patrick o DOnell " "And im Sara Fontaine who will give you your traffic updates. "Im Lindsey Hamilton who will be giving you your Boston weather for the day. "Aaaand I;m Johnny Repp who wull be giving you your update on who married who,who broke up with who,and who wants to break up with who on your entertainment news. THIS IS abc NEWS IN THE MORNING. "Good Morning to our viwers. Today is Tuesday March 31st 2009. Its 7:59 on this windy day wouldnt you say Sara? "Ill tell you it sure was Patrick. I almost was blown away today by the winds but thats for Lindsey to tell us right ? "Of course of course" "In this mornings news, two Turkish planes bombed Kurdistan today due to PKK militants killing 10 Turkish militants outside of a customs building in the Istanbul District. "OOO doesnt sound good now does it Patrick?" "Well...that may not sound good but today in Boston there will be the annual Children week. "Oh yes I was looking forward to that." "So for all those people that would like to chip in and help some children...the event will be held at the Boston South End pubic Library today at 3 p.m and should last till 7 p.m tonight and then of course same time tomorrow . There should be groups for children to play in and for adults,small workshops on how we can help our chidlren. "O yes that does sound nice. For anyone thats trying to get anywhere near the Boston Library you wont have much luck. " Why is that Sara who is with the traffic who should have said that she was the traffic woman. "AHAHAH well Lindsey it's a bit shocking to find that there was an accident right across from the Boston Common nearly a half hour ago. " "Oh wow right in a public street too. " "Yes so dont try going down Winter,Summer, or Franklin ST. Besides that there was one accident on Rt. 128, there is a bit of a bulge there but there shoud be an estiamted wait time in traffic of 5 -10 minutes. Besides that the roads are clean this morning. "Yes thank you Sara. Back to the news, it seems that on the story of that accident that Sara told us there are 7 people injured,one man it is said to be believed dead and there is one person missing as well. It's a strange accident. Lets go with Rebecca Chong with more details who is live now at the scene". "Yes Patrick. The scene here is devastating. It seems at 7:36 this morning a man who is yet to be identified at the moment was in a 2009 BMW 202 X when as he was taking a turn he was struck by an incoming dumpster truck stricking his drivers side. The bmw was smashed completely on the drivers side and if you look down the street here you can see that the dump truck was actually moving the bmw along the street. No drivers were hurt but the Bmw hit a curb and spun over injuring at least 7 pedestrians. From what we know,these injured people have not serious injuries. It seems to be that these people were harmed not by the car itself but by metal pieces of the car. In fact we have here with us a man that saw the whole collision while sitting on a bench waiting for the 7:40 bus. Say your name sir." "Yeahh hi my names Bill Shawmut. I was sitting here on this bench and Im looking at this Bmw right? Im thinking to myself what would I do to get me one of those babies? One second im looking at this beaut and the next second Im seeing a huge dump truck like a big mother beep beep." "Excuse me sir?" "O yeah sorry about the swearing but this thing was pretty big. Like black and yellow I aint ever even seen a truck with yellow and black maybe white and yellow but not black. Anywayss this truck smashes into the driver side of the car right? and its still moving! This truck is still pushing this Bmw along the street! Im thinking what the hell aint the driver realized he just crashed into somethin? So this truck is just plowing this car down the street and Im standing up to see down the street now. Then the bmw kind of moved away from the truck and hit the sidewalk. All I know is then I be seeing this car flip over. Then like all these pieces of the car start flyin around everywhere and im thinkin to myself shit (beep) it better not be explodin now. Luckily it didnt. But yeah I saw the metal flyin everywhere. From my angle I could only see the car and the truck but not any people. God bless anyone involved in this accident. Might I add that this whole morning is ruined and its all to blame for one motherfucker (BEEP)driver on the road It was the scariest shit (beep) I seen in my life." "Thank you Bill for that insightful account of what has happened here today. As Bill has told us the bmw is completely wrecked. We did manage to see the driver of the BMW in one quick glimpse. We'll have some footage of him later live. From what we could see he had wounds to his head. We can see from our distance the BMW did have the use of airbags. As for the truck ...it seemed to have stopped a few feet after the BMW. THres not much we can say for the truck. Its a truck so...not much damage has been done to this truck. Theres dents on the front. Theres no driver found. Witnesses say they did see people running after the accident. It is possible that this will turn out to be a case of Hit and run and if the driver of the BMW dies...well then this will soon to be called manslaughter. Back to you Patrick. Hmm....Steevey. Why does he always do that? He thinks he doesnt wake me up when he kisses me but he does! Hes such a romantic though doing that. Let me check the time. Only 6:54! Steve must have just left like a few minutes ago. I didnt even get to sleep in . Grrrr. Well im up now might as well get my shit done. Lets see first thing is bathrooom. Didnt he say something about something in my make-up kit? Hmm..whats in there? Probably some nice book he got from the library. I never use to like to read but hes so convincing. "Just read it honey! Come on you know you wanna _____! Come on ____ everyone lets go! Come on lets get to it,You know you wanna do it!" "Steve be quiet Ill read the book. " "Fine read the book and then you'll come up to me all thanking me honey. Yup thats my Steevey. The book he picked out for me was great and yeah I did give him a hug. Hes just so sweet who wouldnt want to hug him besides me? Ahaha yeah so lets see whats in the make-up kit. My make -up kit is near the sink on the shelf. Its one big shelf so definitely my stuff wont be falling down. Hmm...lets see whats in here. He left a note on the kit. _____..I know how much you wanted that special thing youve been wanting and today you can get it! Yay for you! Dont forget though dont go too crazy because Im gonna be hungry tonight so I was thinking maybe like Steak with rice or whatever you want. Either way we need to do some shopping for food. Dont forget ______ I love you =) Awww thats nice of him but whats in here. I hate it how he likes to build the suspense of things just give whatever it is to me now! I opened the box and there it was two nicely folded hundred bills and a beautiful ring next to it. O my God! When did he get this?! Its soo beautiful! Of course! Today was the day we first met ! How could I forget? Aghh mornings they make me stupid. Ill like never take this ring off. Its like at least 2 karot or 3 whatever! Its real diamond for sure! Like I cant believe it! How could he do this? I never would have guessed! Pheww ok..I have to calm down. Whats the 200 dollars for though? All on food? We're not that low I think. Lets see I know hes bad at math but we usually worry about just what to eat for tonight and go day by day, not stack up on food. So...he should know we usually use about 50 for a good meal. 150 dollars what could I do with that? He couldnt want me to get....? No way. He wouldnt be that nice to me in one day! I already have a beautiful ring on me! He wouldnt want me to get the purse! Let me see that note again. "I know how much you wanted that special thing you've been waiting for and today you can get it!" He really wants me to get the purse! I cant believe he actually listened to me always talk about it. I thought he was half asleep at the table when I always told him the special features to that purse. He would always act like he was sleeping too! I never thought....he is sooo getting that steak and rice tonight! I better hurry up, get in the shower and eat something real quick. The malls open up at like 7:30. Ok its 7:15 . I had to rush a bit and it was hard to choose which pink shirt I wanted to wear for today and the shoes too but I did it and I have still time to eat something reall fast. Lets see...Im in the kitchen and whats that on the table? A pie and chocolate? Can this day get any better for me? I love pie! How could he do this to me?! I dont have the time to eat the pie now,I could eat it in the car but then Ill get my pink floor mats messy and then I'll have crumbs! Theres chocolate too though. Um... come on choose ____! Pie or chocolate! Thats it screw the chocolate. Pie your coming with me! Let me just get a fork then me and you are out of here mr. pumpkin pie. 7:30 in the morning. I cant believe I'm awake this early and not in a grouchy mood. If it wasnt for this ring and that pie and this purse then I probably would be in a shitty mood today. I made it to the mall at 7:25. It's close to our house. I actually half finished the pie...it was soo good! I just couldnt stop eating! Well...here Iam now at Sears waiting for the teenage girl to ring me up for my nice purse. "O MY GOd your actually getting this? This is like the coolest purse ever!" "Yeah I know right? So..how much will it be ? "Its going to be $148.13" "I handed her the cash and I received back my change. I liked this girl . She had a good style to her. I could see she had good style and her eyelashes...those were so nice . "Did you know you have nice eyelashes?" "Really? Awww thank you! Well ive been tired like shit but that just really cheered me up thanks! " I nodded to her and left the store. It felt good to feel like a young girl. Im usually not always like this saying cool and stuff. But...I still sometimes feel like a teenage girl . Whenever I walk into a mall, Im just 16 years old again. Lately Ive just been feeling like that age since I heard of that new purse. But...I think Ill be acting my age after tomorrow. I still have to finish that essay professor grant gave me. I'm still at Northeastern going to finish my masters in Science. Soon Ill be finished this year so.. I dont know where Ill go from there, but im glad that at least im not a bum to sit around the house all day. I dont know ...maybe after this degree..I can have the thought of children. At least if kids come into my life now there would be a loving father who has a firm and high job and at least a mother with a degree that could get her a decent job if someday Steevey lost the job or took ill. Always have to think for the future. It's 7:37 as of now and Im on the way to my car. I feel sad now for some reason like I forgot something or Im missing something important though I dont know what it could be. Well..maybe its just my mind telling me get back home and finish that term paper now! Well..Im in my sweet pink BMW and ready to get back home! It is 7:50 and I'm out of my car and have my keys in the hole of the door. My cell phone rings. This would be the perfect chance to see how my purse does its magic. I press the brown button on the side of the purse,you can barely even see it it blends in so well with the purse. Instantly I know that the purse has put me threw with whoever is calling. I say "Hello?" "Is this Mrs. Weattie?" "Yes this is she, who is speaking ?" "This is Seargent Nick Randal from the South End Boston Police Department." "O wow, I wasnt expecting a call from an officer. Um...is there a reason that your calling me so early? Did I do something wrong? "No maam no. Its not that, maam as a procedure I usually tell people that if you are standing now you may want to sit down. "For what reason, besides Im like right about to get into my house so I just cant sit on the ground. "Well maam if you must you should sit on the ground. Maam..this morning at 7:35 your husband Steve was struck by a dump truck across the Lowe's Theater. It was a very serious accident. Your husbands car is completely ruined,in fact barely recognizeable. As of now, for sure we know that he is in the ER. The paramedics told us that your husband's heart had stopped twice and that they had to inject adrenaline to get his heart beating again. He has received serious head trauma and multiple bruises to his body. He is living and is not in I believe ICU, I dont know why he is not there or in an operating room but for sure we know that he is in the ER and that it would be wise if you could come down to the hospital. " "Steevey no how could Steevey...it it cant be him. It must be some one else. He was just on his way to work. He doesnt take a highway or anything! It cant be him!!! NOOO!!" "Maam we are completely sure it is him. He had the id of Steve Wheatie,27 years old, resident of 245 Andalos St. Boston." "Its just....will he be all right??? "Maam I cant say for sure. I suggest you go see him at the hospital and now maam I have other matters to attend too. Good day. "Good day? Good day! What the hell do you mean a good day? My husbands been in an accident and your going to tell to have a good day!You stupid cop pig!" I cant take what he just told me. How can Steevey be in the hospital? He could be dead! Steevey! WHY?! I fell to the ground and my door opened to the entrance of my house. Steve, no you cant die. How? I feel like my heart will burst how can this happen? I look up and see my house. Steevey its like hes here in front of me. Memories of him here come bac to me. Him bringing me into this house the first time with me in his arms as we walked into his house,walked on where im sitting as husband and wife. Steevey kicking our stair case there by accident when his team won the soccer match,him screaming GOOOAAAAALLLLL! Him taking a kick and slapping him his foot on the staircase and him hopping in pain still saying "OWWW,goalllll! ___I need some ice!" How can this have happened to him? "Steevey,no. Please God dont let this happen to him". 5 minutes ago seems like a whole other world. I only feel pain,fear,and love for my husband in this new world. O God,I have to go get there fast. I cant let him go. Nooo. Steevey. Tears flow down my eyes as I drive to the hospital with our memories together racing threw my head. Steve.Dont die. Dont. 8:35 in the morning. Im at the hospital and I'm speaking to Dr. Roknilajah that has seen Steevey. "How is he ? Will he live? Please tell me yes please. "Maam someone upstairs must sure like him. Hes fine." "He is! O my God! YES! I start jumping and down not caring that others are looking at me as they pass by. My husband will live ! YES! "Maam if you could please calm down for a moment." "What? Dont tell me theres some kind of other problem." "Maam,your in some way scaring the patients with your yelling for joy." "The patients dont know that my Steevey is going to live! You hear all that you patients! My husband will live! Take that! "Mrs. ____ please calm down. I have to tell you your husbands situation here." "What? Dont tell me you just made me do all that for nothing. Hes okay right?" "Not per say. As of now he is sleeping as both you and I would sleep. He is not in a coma or such at all. We know that his heart stopped on the way here. Im very suspicious of this since his damages to his head are not fatal. You see maam...I was under the impression I would be receiving a patient with severe head trauma,enough that would have the brain so badly affected to stop the heart. Your husband has inguries that could be healed in less than 2 weeks. He has only a deep scratch that will be located near his eyebrow. As I said he can be healed. I can not say how he will be when he wakes up since he has not gained consciousness per say. He has spoken though so that rules out coma. He will have to stay the week for us to monitor his vital signs and see if he has been affected by this accident. "But...hes still well right?" "Yes he is well. We will on the safe side though monitor him. We could even discharge him tonight but its not that. Its just he almost died in the ambulance and it would be recommended that we see if some thing like that will happen again. It could have just been from shock that his heart stopped but you understand me right? "Yes, I completely understand. As long as my husband is well then im well. So.. can I see him now? " "Yes if you would just follow me this way we should be at his room in a minute or 2. So..follow me. I have to admit your husband is a lucky man to be alive.We know that the accident was very severe. The car is completely wrecked We were told plenty of times by the paramdedics. Your husband must have had worn his seat belt and probably had good German airbags. " "Ahahaha yeah. Well...I love Beemers. I had a car one time that was like a death trap when I was 16. It was soo unsafe. But..I got a car from my dad and even that wasnt safe. The beemers though are just so adorable,fast and dependable. My husband well..he just saw my car when I met him and he just fell for BMWS. We're BMW people so..its good we are if it was those airbags that helped to prevent him from hurting himself." "Bmws you say? My family hates BMWS. By the way we are almost to his room. Anyway my family,we are Desi,my father forbid any German cars. He say first they too expensive and that they are too small and are unsafe for drivers. My father tried to make my family Toyota lovers. He still has his Toyota but I went for the Honda instead. "You go for Hondas! AHAH I dont know why Im laughing,we're in a hospital,but a Honda! Their so bad! Everyone knows that! Back in teh day they were good with the accords but the new gxs and all are soo bad.! Wow, sorry I just lately have had a weird experience. I feel like im 16 again lately. Just a little stage im going threw." "Hey its no problem o we all have our stages and no offense I take for the Honda thing. I know myself Honda is bad, I want to trade for NIssan,it is much cheaper than Honda. Anyway here is your husbands room,room 613. Shall we go in?" "Yes obviously!" "Ok.' "Steeevey.Steevey, Steevey Weevey get up. Come on my Steevey Weevey!" I was in darkness but I could here her voice calling to me. I couldnt see but I tried to move my arm to the dark to reach her. It sounded like ____ was above me calling for me. I had to reach her . ______! _____! Im here . Im here! "Are you little man? Are you here or are you just talking to yourself? "Who...whos there?" "An old friend just saying hi. I'll keep in touch." That voice in the darkness ...it sounded familiar. It was a raspy voice that sounded too old to even speak...a voice that evoked fear threw me. I felt myself shiver. Where am I? "STEEVEY! GET UP! COME ON GET UP STEEVEY! PLEASE!" I heard her voice and all fear was washed away from me. I couldnt even remember who spoke to me. All I knew was ____ back and I had to find her. I saw light in front of me. I could see it and I ran to it. I ran to her voice. I saw the light grow and grow and grow until my whole sight was filled with light. I opened my eyes to look into my loves eyes ____. She was kissing me and I kissed back. I felt like I had run a thousand miles and my reward after the struggle of running was to be with ____. "mmmm...this is a nice way to wake up,can we do more things?" "Steevey! Dont ever scare me like that again! I thought that you would never wake up! I almost was going to shove water down your head! Dr. Roknilajah though said it would spoil the equipment. " "What did you say? Doctor? Where am I ____?" "Steve its ok. Your in a hospital. Its like 8:45 in the morning". You had an accident this morning at 7:35. " WHAT?! I had an accident less than an hour ago?! How am I?" "Calm down Steevey." She gave me a hug and rubbed my hair. I was beginning to get scared but her hug calmed me down. It was like she had a mystic power to somehow remove all all the pain and fear from me. She spoke to me in whispers like I was her child rubbing my hair threw. "Shhh. Steevey its ok. You had an accident but its ok. Your ok. You just came out of it with a scratch." Thats it a scratch?" "Isnt that funny Steve? The doctor says you have the same scratch as me right near your left eyebrow except yours is going to be a a whoole lot bigger than mine. "O real nice way to cheer me up ____" "Ahahah im sorry I just lately have been feeling like I'm 16 again. Its strange I even said like! I've been using like today like at least 100 times!. "____ thats fine...when do you think I fell in love with you? I fell in love with you when you were 16. If your going to be 16 then I;ll fall in love with you all over again. "Awww Steevey. You always have something sweet to say dont you? "Baaby I may be lying down here but Ill always be sweet for you and Ill keep on being sweet. I was beginnning myself to feel like I was young again. Strange. I hadnt said those kind of pick up lines since I was 16. It must just be that my mind is believing from ____ that we are 16 again. "sO... Steve. Do you feel better?" I feel great now ____ but when do I get out of here? Thats the question I want to get answered. "Steve your not allowed out of here for like a week. Ooops I said like again. I mean your not allowed to leave this hospital until a week has passed. "Oh wow. What am I going to do the whole time? " "Rest of course. Get your strength back. You'll need your energy. "Energy?" "Well...did you think I would forget about this ring and this purse? I think you'll need to get your energy back because honey you and me will be busy with some fun work soon. "Oooo well dont get my heart racing for you ____ or else the doctors will think Im going crazy over here. "Ahahah well Steevey Ill be bacK in a bit to get you something to cheer you up.! "Ok ____ I cant wait to see what it is . I smiled to her and she gave me another of her gorgeous smiles. I layed my head down on the pillow more and couldnt believe that I was here in a hospital,feeling completely normal with only a scratch on my head. Im in a hospital and my BMW is probably trash now. Its funny how my life changed in less than an hour. I guess I'll be missing that childrens week at the library. I dont think they let cell phones in here so I'll have to ask ___ to call Charlie because he'll have to cvoer for me. Hes my assistant so he knows most of my plans of what I was going to say and do...well.. the boring stuff. Its the funny that he wont have or the wit but at least he;ll get my point across with everyone. I wonder what ____ will bring me. Maybe a pie. I could go for some pie right about now. Poor Steevey. He must feel like crap right now. Im so thankful that at least hes alive. He still has his sweetness going for him. He seems normal so Im so glad that at least hes all right. I think some pie,though,will cheer him up. Good thing I saved half of it. Im in the hospital's parking lot,its an elevated parking lot so I'm on the 3rd floor. I'm now in front of my pink Beemer putting my keys into the doors lock. "Dont think he likes that pie. I think he likes chocolate better." What,WHERE THE hell did that voice come from? "Who's there?" "An old friend paying my regards to an old friend." "Well...ok old friend,stay the fuck away from me you hear?! You sound like a perv and I've seen movies,I'm not going to be the fool girl to keep on talking to the killer so that he can get closer to me to get me!. "Ooo feisty little girl arent you?" "Well ____ dont worry you will be seeing more of me around lately. Eve heard of taking a chill pill? HAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Aghhh that laugh. This mans laugh sent goosebumps running down my spine. I started shaking a bit. It must just be the wind and its cold so...thats just a laugh. I better get in my car now...this pervert could be like right next to me! I turn the key in the lock and quickly get in my beemer. I shut the door and quickly hit the automatic lock for the doors. I put the key in the ignition. Im backing up from my parking space. I look behind me. "BOOO!" "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" He's right there sitting in the seat in the back. I scream uncontrollably and run from my car. I quickly take the keys out of the ignition quickly,run out of the car like theres no tomorrow. Other people looking for parking spaces drive by me "Watch it you dumb broad!" "Shove it Im friggin running here!" Whoa..why am I talking like this and what am I running for? Maybe I'm seeing things. Maybe there was no guy in the car. My door was locked when I entered so...maybe im just imagining things. I think maybe I need a quick nap. Whats happened today has made me feel like I've been awake straight for a week. I feel like a fool walking back to my car. What if there is someone in the car? What the hell am I walking back to the pervert guy? My cars just right there,I can see it. Its about 45 ft. from me. I dont see anyone in the car. I definitely think I was imagining things. A car suddenly comes around the corner. I feel safer if there was a witness around when I get near the car. If there was someone here they woudnt try shit to try and get me. I run to my car and the driver looking for a space passes by me when I reach my Beemer. No one is in my car and my door is open still. I definitely think I just imagined that guy. What am I fooling myself? Of course I saw him. Maybe though he was behind the car outside and not inside the car. It doesnt matter. It was probably just some lonely hobo looking for some money and prob from me a piece of ass. AHAHAHAHAHAAHAH! Likes he gonna get it! I dont think so! AHAHAHAHAHAH! Ok...im so not surprised now that Im thinkinng like this and randomly laughing. I think Ill just go with the flow with what my minds doing. I've been too serious lately. Now just in case I think Ill put my Beemer in a different space. Maybe on the 1st floor. Then im soo giving Steevey his pie. Then he can have the pie to eat...and me to cheer him up! He's already had a bad day but Im going to try to make it better since he made the beginning of my day the greatest. "Phewww that tasted good." I told ____ after finishing a plate of pumpin pie in my room. "I know right? You bought like the best pie for me. Whered you get it from anyway? " "Hmm...I think I think I got it from BJ's." "You went to BJ's last night? Thats like almost all the way near Cambridge! You went all the way down there last night just for me?" "Well...I was low on aftershave so I had to get that too." "Steevey, you went all the way to BJ;s just for aftershave? Couldnt you just get that from Sams club,its like a few streets away from our house! " "____ your right but then again, Bj's makes some good pie dont they? " "Awww so you did go all the way out there just for me!". "Did you think I would forget the day that we first met? It was the best day of my life. How could I forget it? It was when I met you and that was the best thing to ever happen to me. I met you ____ ,you my best friend in life,my companion" "Steevey shut up. Your like going to make me cry! I understand. I'll admit that at first I thought you were just another guy from their little gang trying to suck up to me. I was thinking what a lame kid pretending like he actually wants to protect me? Could you do a better job acting ? "Ahahaha" "Yeah,Steevey. Im glad I met you that day. I remember I was having a shitty day too. Its like when I started speaking to you,like everything just cleared up and I felt so happy and glad to be around with you. "Aww ____ now im going to cry. I dont have that kind of affect on you. " "Of course you do,your my Steevey." She rubs my cheek and looks at me. Her face is so sad. I know how hard it must be for her to see me in this bed,looking like I;m helpless. I see a tear come from her eye and fall down onto the bed. "___ dont. Please dont cry. I dont want you to cry. I'm ok,I'm going to get threw this for you. "No Steevey. Its not fair! How could this have happenned to us? You left for work like any other day! You left me the most beautiful gifts that no one has ever given me,you didnt do anything wrong and look whats happened to you! I cant stand to see you here. It's not you. I'm use to seeing you happy and dancing all weird and all that other stuff you do to try to make me laugh." "_____ come here." I open my arms for her and she enters into my arms. I give her a long hug and a tear falls from my eye into her hair. "I will get threw this. Dont worry ____. Ill get threw this for you. I'll take us away from this pain. Ill take the sadness and pain away from you like I did back at the station." I'll take it all away soon ______. It is 4:45 P.M March 31st,1999. "Can I have your attention please? Now boarding for the 4:58 Worcester Express on traaack number 7. I repeat now boarding for the 4:58 Worcester Express on traaaaaaack number 7." Finnaly, theres my damn train. I'm 16 years old. I'm in South Station in Boston. It is 4:45 P.M. I am sitting at a table with my backpack on my shoulders,eating a Milky Way candybar. I'm sitting with hundreds of other people waiting for other trains to pull in,to Needleham,to Attleboro,to Marlborough,and for others to Florida and Washington D.C. I dont have much time to waste,since if I move slow then I will probably not get a seat for myself and I will have to sit with someone,probably a smelly lady who hasnt taken a shower in days,or maybe next to someone eating a smelly sandwhich. Either way if I want my own whole seat I should move now. The Worcester Express gets packed pretty fast. It is 4:46 P.M. I get up from my chair and walk to the closest trash bin. I look back to make sure I did not leave anything behind. My seat has in less than 20 seconds been already taken by another person. Seats in the station are hard to get in the afternoon due to packs and packs of people trying to get home from here. I turn my head back from that person who took my chair and look for the trash bin which I find is near the bookstore they have here. Not a bad book store but the prices are soo damn expensive. $21.95 is the price for one Dr. Seuss book. I'm like what the hell? How many commuters are suckers here too actually buy from this store? It seems alot are because this store is still in business. It is 4:47 P.M. Im turning away from the trash bin and walking a bit faster to the doors that leads to the track. I'm passing by the food court with passing Au Bon Pain,Mcdonalds,Som Dum Guy Chinese food,and I'm outside where the trains are waiting to be boarded. The intercom once again says "Now boarding on the 4:58 Worcester Express on traaaaaack number 7. Also now boarding on the 4:58 train to Providence on traaack number 9. Now boarding on the 4:58 train to Providence on traaack number 9. I'm walking down the train platform to chooose a car to go too. Hundreds of people are walking with me looking for a car to choose . I walk a bit down since the further cars you go too the less people there are. Everyone takes the first 3 cars and thats where its most packed. Theres some hold up a bit up front. Why is everyone kind of slowing down? Hmm...I try to see more on my tippy toes and I can see that its just a group of kids my age their in the middle of the platform. Well..they should move. Im not going to wait here on this platform all day. "You know what Jack? I dont like pink. I think pink is for fags,and for girls well then you must be for girls with girls right baby? "Shut the fuck up and leave me alone. Just let me get in the damn train. "Ooo but what if we dont want too ?" "Well then I'll just have to kick your ass wont I? "Oh you hear this Jack?" "O yeah I be hearing this Johnny. This girl got fangs watch out." "Ahahah.. how bout this baby dolll, why dont you come with me and Jack here and we'll show you a good time around Boston. "No thanks I dont need a couple of fags to show me the gay bars around here. I dont go for fags,their not my type." "You stupid little bit.....! "Excuse me Johnny is it? Leave the girl alone." I dont know why I stepped forward. I didnt even know I had the guts to do this. But..I saw that this Johnny was gonna take a hit at this girl. I knew that if he did one hit that someone would stop him if he tried for another but I couldnt allow for even one hit to hit her precious face. I could not just go on with my business without protecting this girl. She was too beautiful. I never saw a girl as pretty as her. I felt like I had to protect her from these scumbags. I had a feeling he was going to make a move so I pushed threw the crowd,got close to Johnny and caught his hand in mid-air before he could do anything. "Yo,what the hell this kid doing Jack? Let go of my damn hand you little....." "Hey I dont need to hear any swearing from your mouth. Ill let your hand go if you can leave this girl alone,good idea? "Like shit it is" " I was soo occupied with this Johnny and me thinking I was saving the day for this girl that I forgot about Johnny's other hand and the other guy Jack. He took his other hand and punched me hard in the chest. No one saw that move because Jack moved in and got behind me and punched me in the back. I was on the ground. I was thinking what is the girl doing now? What the hell,theres a fight going on here and no one is saying anything. These people,commuters,are so fucking dumbasses! I was on the ground,in a kneeling position. "I think little boy you picked the wrong fight to play in. Why dont you come with us and we can all have a little fun, Me,Jack and this bitc..... "I told you shut the hell up! " My temper came suddenly threw the pain of being punched. I took my hand and punched Johnny behind his leg. His leg by reaction bent down and I took that oppurtunity to rise up and me be above him I took my knee and slammed it hard against his face. As for Jack he stood there in shock and so...for him I turned around and tried to give him one good punch from me. He tried to run away from me . I didnt want to let him get away without some pain so I tried to kick his leg. I did and he ran into a few commuters knocking down a 2 men. His face hit the pavement and I could see at least there was some burns there to let him feel some pain. I turned around and looked for the girl. She was stepping on the hand of Johnny. "Who's the bitch? WHo?" "Owww owwwww. Let me go!" " Not until you say it.!" "All right All right Im the bitch!" "And what color do you love?" "I love pink,all right owww oowwwww! damn stop! I said it! I love pink! "Thats right you better be loving pink! Pink everything got it?! "Yeah yeah let me go!" "Hey anything you want to say to this guy? I was just in shock of how she was handling him,then I realized she was speaking to me. "Ooo yeah. Who loves pink Johnny? I couldnt hear you from over here." "I love pink. Im sorry, I wont say anything about you guys,just let me go! "All right get out of here then no ones stopping you!" The girl let go of his hand and he tried to get up and she kicked his butt. Literally she kicked his butt and he went falling flat on his face on the hard pavement of the platform. I was laughing and we both laughed together. We were laughing like crazy. It was just soo funny. It was something you think you would see on Madtv but this was just too funny. Johnny got up and I saw that he had a scrape on his face and a bloody nose but at least nothing serious from me giving him a knee. My knee kind of hurt but I thought that is definitely worth it to feel some pain. It means that you had a fight and kicked butt at the end. Johnny ran back down the