Bastille Day

The French recognize Bastille Day, July 14, officially National Day or formally called La Fête Nationale as the end of the monarchy and beginning of the modern republic. The lasting significance of the storming of the Bastille event was in its recognition that power could be held by ordinary citizens. Today, Parisians celebrate this national holiday with a grand military parade up the Champs Elysées, colorful arts festivals, fireworks, and raucous parties.

Wordology, Lock, Stock, and Barrel

This means everything, the whole thing. The term lock, stock, and barrel refers to the parts of a gun. There are three major parts of a gun, the lock or firing mechanism, the stock or wood handle, and the barrel which the bullet travels through. If one has a lock, stock, and barrel, then one has everything that makes up a gun. In time, the phrase came to be used figuratively to mean the whole thing.

Old Time Radio Online

Download or Listen Online to over 35,000 Old Time Radio Shows. http://www.rusc.com/ (R U Sitting Comfortably)

This site features background information for each show. Less variety than RUSC. http://www.relicradio.com/otr/

This site has old and new TV shows, music, libraries,  arcades, free software, and much more. The radio portion has 2,500 shows, such as Gunsmoke, Sherlock Holmes, Johnny Dollar, Dragnet, Jack Benny, Amos and Andy, etc. is at https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio

All provide great background listening while surfing the web.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is such a staple of American childhood that it seems like it has been around forever. In fact, there are people alive today in America who grew up in a world when the PB&J sandwich was not well-known. The first known reference to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was in a 1901 cookbook.

The first reference of peanut butter dates back to about 1000 BC with the Ancient Incas. Records show both Africans and Chinese grinding peanuts into a paste early in the 15th century. Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, Quebec was the first person to patent peanut butter. He was issued with US patent #306727 in 1884. J.H. Kellogg of cereal fame, secured US patent #580787 in 1897 for his 'Process of Preparing Nutmeal', which produced a "pasty adhesive substance" that Kellogg called 'nut-butter.' George Washington Carver was born only a few years before Edson's patent was issued and he did develop a number of uses for the peanut, but he did not invent peanut butter.

US law dictates that any product labeled “peanut butter” in the United States must be at least 90 percent peanut. Eighty percent of the peanut butter sold in the U.S. is creamy, while seventeen percent is crunchy. The rest is mixed.

The jelly part of the sandwich could mean jelly, jam, or other fruit preserves. It has also been around for a long time, going all the way back to at least the first century, mentioned in 'Of Culinary Matters' by Marcus Gavius Apicius.

Mr. Welch developed Grapelade from Concord grapes in 1918, which proved to be extremely popular among the troops during World War I. When they got back from the war, they spread the practice of using it on bread. I just enjoyed a PB&J on a toasted English Muffin.

Lightning Strikes

Between 2004 and 2013 an average of 33 Americans died each year as a result of lightning strikes. The numbers have been coming down and during 2015 there were only 27 lightning deaths.

Lightning strike Washington Monument Aug 15, 2010.

Nine occurred during the first six months of 2016. On average, about three times as many men are killed as women. About ten percent of people struck by lightning become a fatality.

Wordology, Luthier

A luthier (loo ti ur) is someone who builds or repairs string instruments generally consisting of a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" comes from the French word luth, which means lute. The term originally referred to makers of lutes and is now used interchangeably with any term that refers to makers of a specific, or specialty, type of stringed instrument, such as violin maker, guitar maker, or lute maker.

Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier who lived between 1644 and 1737. Throughout his life he made around 1,100 instruments, 650 of which are still around today. Out of these, about 500 are violins. Five out of 12 of the most expensive violins in the world today were made by him, and the most expensive one, called “The Messiah Stradivarius” is worth $20 million. How he was able to craft them so perfectly still baffles luthiers today.

Happy Friday

Happiness wrinkles make us look younger.


I always feel young while celebrating a Happy Friday!

Middle Day

July 2, at noon is the exact middle of the year. It has 182 days before and 182 days following.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July next Monday. Let’s remember what Independence Day is really all about, even if they call it just another paid day off in Washington, where they have traded in Free Speech for Cheap Talk.

LEDs Making us Fat?

Am thinking they are trying way too hard to get headlines. According to the American Medical Association, which represents about 15% of physicians, "Recent large surveys found that brighter residential nighttime lighting is associated with reduced sleep times, dissatisfaction with sleep quality, excessive sleepiness, impaired daytime functioning, and obesity." It says, "the effect of streetlight LEDs on drivers and passengers lingers even after we have locked our cars and headed indoors, especially if we have LEDs in our houses."

Incidentally, Doximity, a social network for doctors founded in 2011 now has more members than the AMA.

Robo Call Blockers

I hate robo calls. A very annoying thing about my phone is that when I block a robo caller, it still lets the caller go to voice mail. So I went looking for a solution. Two apps might help. Truecaller for iPhone and Android, and Nomorobo for VOIP home phones.

Nomoromo blocks known robo and spam callers and you can add your own numbers to block. Truecaller allows saved contacts and blocks spam callers and telemarketers. It also searches for any name or number not in your contacts, so you do not incorrectly block numbers from a school or doctor's office. Bottom line, seems a bit intrusive with checking your contact list, but blocks robos and spammers.

Robot Persons

Some lawmakers in Europe want to declare robots "electronic persons" as part of an effort to anticipate a future legal framework and to be able to tax them as people.

Energy Credits and Rebates

My area was recently hit with a major hailstorm and it caused much destruction to cars, homes, and specifically roofs and skylights. Insurance has been very good to pick up most costs, but not always the total cost.

I went looking for other ways to make up the difference and found many energy companies, local, state, and federal government programs that offer credits and rebates. Energy companies favor credits toward future bills. Too many options to list here, but this federal LINK is a start. In addition, look for your local utility company specifically and your state as well as local city and local county web sites for more info.

It is also wise to ask your contractor if he or she is aware of credits and rebates. It might help when choosing a roof type, adding insulation, etc. A little research can yield big financial benefits.

Windows 10 Free Upgrade Ends

The free upgrade offer ends on July 29. 2016 and will not be extended. Any upgrades completed before that date will be valid for as long as the device lasts. It is now in use by over three hundred million people, so has long been stable.

Interestingly, The newest next major iteration of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will become available on August 2, after the July 29 deadline. That means users who did not upgrade before the deadline will be another version behind.

The cost after July 29 will be - Windows 10 Home $119 (£78, AU$156) and Windows 10 Pro $199 (£131, AU$262) per license.