ZOOBORNS April A to Z

http://www.zooborns.com/

My post for today is about the website ZOOBORN.  I love this site, every day there is a post about baby animals just born to an accredited zoo somewhere in the world. What better way to end the 2013 April A to Z than with baby animals?

YES and NO April A to Z

YES, I am dragging the bottom of my brain with this post and NO I don't think I will do this again. 
I don't think I am the only one who will be glad to see the end of April, I have noticed a great drop in comments and I am guilty as well.  I have added a lot of Blogs to my reader that I will be happy to read and comment on as the days go on.  I will also be able to participate in Writing Prompts as usual and participate in some of the weekend memes that I enjoy, both reading and playing.

Wish List - Sunday Stealing

 

 

 The Wish List Meme, Part 1
1.) What are 3 things on your Wish list and why?
Wood work painted.
Wall paper removed.
Kitchen update.   

2.) What do you miss about your childhood? 
I posted about my Carefree neighborhood here.  

XENOPHILE and Proud April A to Z

Posh Mom

Xenophilia means an affection for unknown/foreign objects or peoples It is the opposite of xenophobia  A xenophile is person attracted to that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures. It also extends to fictional themes found in science fiction, which explores the results of love and sex between humans and  extraterrestrials, particularly humanoid ones. Think of Spock's parents.

Twist and Shout - Saturday 9

 

1) In the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris climbs up on a parade float and enthusiastically lip synchs this song, encouraging the entire crowd to join in. Do you know the lyrics of "Twist and Shout" well enough to sing along? (Watch the impossibly young Matthew Broderick as Ferris here.)
Yes, I do know the words well enough!  I love it!

 

WATERBEAR-April A-Z

VICTORIOUS? April A to Z

Will I be VICTORIOUS? Will I make it to the end of the alphabet?  I have only three scheduled posts left and then NADA.   I have a word document that has list of V words and Y words, that may be an option, but my mind is a blank.

    Valuable, Velcro, Vibrations, Virga. I will go with virga.

UNITS of Silliness/April A-Z

A unit of measurement is defined as the magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law. We are all familiar with meters, miles, gallons, pounds and sagans.

TALK Like Shakespear Day-April A-Z

 

Forsooth, today is Talk like Shakespeare Day and also believed to be Shakespeare's birthday.  A lot of controversy around whether ol' Will actually wrote what is attributed to him swirls around the literary world. Some scholars, those jackanapes and canker-blossoms.  have maintained that Shakespeare did not write the Shakespeare plays, with at least fifty writers having been suggested as the “real” author. They question how a provincial who never went to college or wandered very far from Stratford and London, could know so much about international affairs and history, as well as royal courts. Methinks it matters not, after 400 or so years, the combined works are amazing. It is known that he did collaborate with other playwrights and there are a number of lost manuscripts that could have been attributed to him gone forever

SONDER April A to Z

themetapicture.com/

Sonder:   in French it means to probe or survey and as such, it could be the basis for the definition above which came from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a very interesting Tumblr in its own right.

REASONABLE People, Hard to Find April A to Z

I guess reasonable people have always been missing in politics, as the quote above would seem to illustrate.  I guess moderation and reason of thinking have always been lacking in certain individuals and groups  This is only my opinion and I include it, among the small assembly of reasonable people out there in the world. This would include the originators and authorship of the art below about the unreasonable.

Saturday 9

I Don't Want to Talk About It

                                  

             I haven't done this for a while because of the A to Z Challenge. 

  I am ready for April to be over.

1) Crazy Sam is beyond sick of all things Kardashian! What's a topic you're just tired of and don't want to talk about anymore? Jodi Arias's Murder Trial.
I don't talk about it except to grouse about it.....she is guilty.  Keep her and Nancy Grace off TV.

QUANTUM Fruitloopery-April A-Z

 

 Quantum Fruitloopery (QFL) is the theory that the word "quantum" could be sprinkled on any New Age, spiritual, "alternative" medicine, or better-than-magic technological claim This instantly transform it from "crazier than a shit-house rat" to "scientifically plausible" in the minds of many credulous people.  So we might logically define it as the use of scientific language inappropriately and without comprehension in order to increase believability of a concept. 

Me a PROCRASTINATOR? I'll prove you wrong someday!

 

 

 

 

 

April 18   A-Z

Today I am celebrating National Procrastination Day, the fact that it is traditionally observed on March 26, should give you an idea about Bankerchick vs Procrastination.  Everyone procrastinates sometimes, but 20 percent of people chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions—which, unfortunately, are increasingly available.

ODDS and Ends

Stuff I Found Looking Around

Odds and Ends from my Picture Files.

 

Thorns-WOE & Trifecta

www.layoutsparks.com

Softly, slowly, she turns her face

Toward the sun

Dew glistening in her eyes

Her color glowing

As if blushing,

Belies

The scented honey of her words.


Softly, slowly, she turns her face

 Towards me

 Duplicity gleaming in her eyes

 Her pirate smile shines

Warning danger,

Confirms

 The thorns of her embrace.

 

WOE offers us a quotation and a song to Merge.

        The quotation is from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë:

“It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn.”

The song is Elton John's Tiny Dancer

 Third definition.
3: Color; complexion tint:

a: the tint characteristic of good health

b: blush

NOTABLE Peepshows of TV

I had these pictures for and Easter/Spring post but forgot, so I will use them here for the letter N.  Creative people have made the pictures/dioramas's of some of the Bankerchick families favorite TV shows.  I am one of the few people in our family that love Peeps (stale).

Neatora

Peep Benedict's abdication and resultant Peepal election is not necessarily a favorite  show 
but it was on TV a lot recently.


Mental Floss

The third series of Peeptonton Abbey was especially (spoiler alert) deadly for some family members.  It is still my #1 favorite Masterpiece Theater presentation.

The MUPPETS-April A-Z

  

I miss The Muppet Show and it seems the internet and Sesame Street on Utube is the place now to find their satirical take on Television and Movies.  These spots are fun on several levels.  The kids may not have seen the programs the spots are based on but the learning piece is still in there.  I use to watch television with my kids and when I can I watch media with my grandsons. I say media as the grandsons watch from videos, not from broadcast or cable. It is a good thing when adults and kids can enjoy the same programming.

I truly enjoyed watch TMS and Sesame Street with my kids. The Muppets are a phenomenon that I still enjoy,  I am glad that the Muppets are still available to another generation.

 

This is Tax day....take a break from filing to enjoy the Muppets.

 

Where is my Flying Car, at the Very Least? Trifextra

The Trifextra prompt for this week is 33 words:

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” ― Paulo Coelho, Alchemist

 

Perhaps for  My Grandsons

 

She dreamed of dancing to the stars

To  see worlds in galaxies afar.

So much promised

In her youth.

The millennium and proof

Of life nearby.

The dream is gone, but not forever.

A LIMERICK April A to Z

       April is National Poetry Month so I submit some verse for your approval....

                                         

                                      The Limerick.

Basically, the limerick is a five-line poem consisting of a triplet split by a couplet. That is, lines 1, 2, and 5 are a bit longer and rhyme, while the shorter lines of 3 and 4 rhyme. After studying many effective limericks, there is not a precise syllable count per line, but the norm is about 8-10 syllables in the longer lines and around 6 syllables in the shorter lines.

KALE, Super Inedible-April A to Z

"In case you're not aware, kale—a bitter, cabbage-like vegetable often seen being swallowed by Gwyneth Paltrow—is now the only food worth the trouble of digesting"
-Scott Jacobson-Slate Magazine-

JANEITES - April A to Z

The term Janeite came in to use by the devoted Readers of Jane Austen, and later used as a term of ridicule for the fanaticism and idolatry of everything Jane Austen.  The term came into being, after the publication of J. E. Austen-Leigh's, A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1870. That I know he is a nephew of Austen, places me precariously in the fanatic column.  (Don't read this book in Kindle, as it is ever so hard to read in that format.)

I Can Write Good-April A-Z

Amazon.com

Words to live by...Since I have started this blog I have dredged up everything I learned about writing from school.  I read all the writing pointers, that my fellow bloggers shared with me before starting this challenge.  I think I write well enough, but this list of rules that I originally found as a posting on mlkshk, (a really fun place to visit.)* They are really rules that I need to remember when I write.

Forsaken-WOE

http://imgur.com/a/D9iDC

 

The wind blows, scattering the wreckage,

Of a world shattered.

Sand drifts through, to fill the stage,

Left empty of all that mattered.

Allowed to decay,

Forsaken by love,

Abandoned to the elements.

A dwelling place no more,

Dead.

Aire and Skye Alchemy-Trifecta

Part 6 of Ariadne's story- See tab above

 Count Reiner strode into the courtyard with his courtier, who began probing about the garden. When Reiner bobbed his head in her direction, every pleasant buzz and bird song stopped. The sun moved behind a cloud, turning the garden shadowy and ominously silent.

My HOMESTEAD'S Front Doors April A to Z

My House-Commonly know as the Homestead

Our house, built in the mid to late 19th century (we have plans to check it out), has 2 front doors. Many of you know, we inherited this house from Mr BC's mom, and since she has owned it, we have noticed a lot of houses here in the mid-west that share this architectural oddity. 

GADZOOKERY - April A to Z

http://www.booktryst.com/2010/11/adopt-obsolete-word-save-it-from.html

Gadzookery is the use of archaisms in literature  It is also the name of a game app but, we are not discussing that here today.  The word is coined from gadzooks, once used as a mild oath, which may have been an alteration of God's hooks, a reference to the nails of Christ's crucifixion.  It's okay to use an archaic expression to bring out a certain effect if necessary, but their overuse leads to gadzookery. Legal terminology can be an excellent example of gadzookery as in:   to wit and hereinbelow.

FRIENDS April A to Z and Saturday 9

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

The theme this week fits perfectly with April A to Z. F is for Friends!

1) How did you meet your best friend?
I met Lauretta in my freshman year of high school in Gym and we became friends in our Junior year.  We have kept up with each other over the years. My Best Friend whom I see regularly is Maggie, we have been friends since 1966. Now that we live in the same town we see each other all the time.  I refer to them on my Blog as Maggie and Jigs.

ERMAHGERD - April A-Z

Who is this girl?

The question should be what Is 'Ermahgerd'? What Does It Mean? I see it on MLKSHK all the time but last night since I was trying to come up with an E for my A-Z, I decided to investigate.

DIGGING Up the DEAD April A to Z

I am stretching Mama Kat's Prompt-Something New You Tried.

I am currently participating in the A-Z challenge without a theme, which is the something new.  I am posting and commenting every day which is something, I have never tried before and it is time consuming. Yesterday I spent all day on the computer. It has been a challenge to come up with a post for every letter of the alphabet this April.  I am glad I have a few done already, so that I can still be doing some posts for my other favorite memes. I hope I can keep all this going, until the end of April.

 

                                  Digging Up the Dead

My good bloggy friend, Comtesse Olympe de la Tour D'Auvergne, over at Amphorae keeps me apprised of many things, historical. Apparently the Brits have been digging up their history in carparks.

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The BBC was first to let us know about King Richard lll being found buried, just where history said he would, be hastily buried by the Greyfriars Priory near Leicester.  He has at least two modern-day descendants of his family, who were able to provide the DNA and it is...without a doubt, mean ol' Richard lll. Found in a modern day parking lot. So cool to witness history in the news.  It should be easy to link to link the DNA of Richard to the bones of the two boys found in the tower, to determine if they are the two Princes, however, those remains are interred in Westminster Abbey and they are not willing to have the tests made even to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the young princes, during Richard's Protectorate.

CANDLE in the Dark-April A-Z

Carl Sagan, Right Again!

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness..."

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark -1995

Maelstrom - Write at the Merge

www.fanpop.com 

 I hear the cacophony of disaster
I raise my head to the churning maelstrom
Fear and wind propel me forward
To the descant sound of
The hammering cellar door.

   

This week, one of your offerings is the phrase “cellar door”. “Cellar door” is considered a perfectly euphonic phrase, some say the most beautiful in the English language. Also we could use the word propeller and write at the merge of both those prompts.

BAROUCHE-April A-Z

Transportation in the 18^th and 19^th century was especially interesting and I have always loved the idea of carriages, I think it is a hangover from wanting to be a princess. One of the reasons that I watch royal events is because of the carriages. As a Jane Austen fan I first became acquainted with the Barouche in Sense and Sensibility, Mrs. Gatewood, boasts that her brother owns his own barouche, and Mrs. Elton in Emma drops the fact that her brother owns a barouche into every conversation. I love the word Barouche, it curls off the tongue.

Miss AUSTEN-April A-Z

 

Here is my first entry for the A-Z Challenge.  I want to thank Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out for starting this challenge in 2010.  I'll bet he never thought it would grow this big, when he challenged the Bloggy world to post about a different letter of the Alphabet every day in April.

 

 

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s "Pride and Prejudice.
I am such a Jane Austen fanatic, summer is on the way and I devote my summers to all things Austen. I spend it re-reading a Jane Austen novel.  I usually try to find a well written sequel recommended by some of the Austen web sites I frequent and I read something about the great lady herself.  I even read the zombie Pride and Prejudice one summer (rather bizarre actually) and one P & P sequel was some what erotic for my tastes, but it was nice to know Elizabeth and Darcy had some interesting sex at Pemberley, which they indulged in about every third chapter.