I'm Brilliant!

Yesterday's Final Jeopardy category was revealed, and I immediately gave my answer without seeing the prompt.  I said "Turquoise," the program went to commercial, then returned with the question.

Category:  Color Etymology
Question:  This word for a gem & a shade of blue derives from the name of a Eurasian country from which gems came to W. Europe

The contestant's responses were: topaz, azure, and sapphire.  But I was the only one to get it correct!  And before the question was even revealed.

I won!

BTW, turquoise was named from French "turques" meaning "Turkish," the original material found on the south slopes of the Al-Mirsah-Kuh Mountains (Iran), but which found its way to Europe via Turkey.

"Fear" / by Bob Woodward

Leonard Pitts, columnist for The Miami Herald, said this about Woodward's book:

Remember This

Change is Good

Today I changed the name of this blog.  For lack of a better title, I named it Nancy's Stuff when I first started it 10 1/2 years ago.  And while that description was appropriate for the miscellaneous remnants that I posted, I never really liked it, probably because it wasn't very "catchy."

The new title came to me while on my morning walk at the rec center.  I think about a lot of things while putting in my 60-70 minute circular trudge 6 days a week.  Quite a variation of topics pass through my thoughts -- most are quickly forgotten while some are replayed back on occasions.

My blog's new title, Wisdom or Foolishness, pays homage to my dad.  It was the title of his weekly email post that he shared with all of his cyber buddies.  He picked up quite a few email contacts over the years ranging from close family to distant family, former co-workers, neighbors and friends, and he even reconnected with high school classmates whom he hadn't seen in many, many years.

Over the years, Dad collected "sayings" from a variety of sources.  Just about any little ditty he might come across would be saved in some form in a folder in his file cabinet.  He would sometimes include these bits and pieces in his weekly memos to his faculty/staff at the Grade School.  But once he had a captive audience of email friends, he started compiling these proverbs and apothegms into lists which he shared on Thursdays.

The WOF lists are numbered.  I still have two in my work email: #305 from 2004 and #326 from six months later (see below).  Based on these numbers, he was well into his 6th year of disseminating his WOF newsletter.  It is a bulleted list using Dad's unique symbol [}.  He signs off 73, which is ham radio code for "best regards."  You might think the B in the signature is for Bob.  But it's actually for his last name.  Most of his faculty/staff called him Mr. B and, sometimes, just B.

RJB's "Wisdom or Foolishness" newsletter

I enjoyed reading these through the years.  I was especially fond of challenging my dad when some of the "facts" were not accurate.  And I took glee when I could prove that information incorrect.  

You might notice that the "to" recipient in the image is The News-Gazette.  Dad was a faithful contributor to the "joke" section of the entertainment supplement of the local newspaper.  I suspect he routinely emailed jokes and his WOF newsletter to them, and they occasionally selected some of his foolishness when they needed filler.  I think he would have been amused to see his submissions included in two editions of the newspaper's supplements after he died in 2007. 

"Smile when picking up the phone."  I know this piece of wisdom is something that Dad followed.

I've Been Wanting .....

A couple months ago I had the desire for a chicken pot pie for lunch.  My go-to pot pie is Marie Callender's.  But I decided it was too much for lunch, not to mention that it cost more than I would want to spend for a simple lunch.

Banquet pot pies are sub-par.  So they were out.

But I remembered that I used to take Swanson pot pies to work and heat them in the microwave.  They worked well for a lunch meal.  In fact, I remember one specific day when I removed the pot pie from the microwave, and for reasons I no longer recall, I dropped it and it landed top side down on the floor.  I was sooo disappointed because I was really looking forward to this pot pie.  The smell of it already had me salivating.  All was not lost -- I just flipped it back over onto a plate and ate it for lunch.

But I digress.

I looked in four grocery stores for Swanson pot pies and could not find them.  In fact, I did not see any Swanson frozen products.  (I used to like the Swanson fish and chips meals, too.)  I looked in County Market, Schnucks, Meijer, and Walmart.  I was certain I would find Swanson pot pies in one of these stores.  But I came away disappointed each time.

Today I was at ValuCheck.  I casually looked at the pot pies.  Just as I figured: no Swanson pot pies.  I had not looked here previously because ValuCheck is County Market's budget store, and I figured if it was not at County Market, it would not be at ValuCheck.

Boy, was I wrong!  On the very last shelf (bottom) of the vertical freezer case, I found a couple stacks of Swanson Chicken Pot Pies.  I purchased two and left the store feeling victorious.

Two Things I Like About Winter

1.  The weather is not hot and humid.

2.  Tap water is really, really cold.

Fireworks

Did you have smiley faces in your fireworks last night?

I did!

Courtesy of “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS last night.

I also watched “Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular.”  (I think I liked the previous title better: “Pops Goes the Fourth.”)

I recorded both programs and watched them this morning.  It made it really handy to fast-forward through the parts that I wasn’t really interested in.  That was mostly performances by current musicians.  I’d listen to a few seconds, and if it didn’t appeal to me, zip to the next.

I have not seen the Boston Pops in quite a while.  They no longer have a program on PBS.  I used to watch the Pops 4th of July program on A&E channel.  But when it went to network TV, it lost its “hometown” feel.  Seemed like they had to make sure to keep it within time constraints in order to get all the commercials in.  I found the show this year on BTV.  Wha’?  Yeah, I’d never heard of it either.  Bloomberg Television, whatever that is.

Keith Lockhart is no longer the boyish youngster he looked in 1995 when he became conductor of the Pops.  Guess that is to be expected.  I missed seeing some of the familiar faces in the orchestra.  There was a trumpet dude whom I’d recognize.  And the older lady who played the piccolo in “The Stars and Stripes Forever” is gone.  I missed her.

One thing that I really like is when these outdoors performances use real cannons during the “1812 Overture.”  I wish they would show how the military personnel are directed to shoot the cannons at the appropriate time.  My guess is there is a musician holding a score and indicating the proper time to shoot them off.