Happy Friday!  It is hard to believe that 2017 is at the halfway point and that today is the last day of June! The Fourth of July is just a few days away, so, let’s celebrate with thankful hearts the blessings and freedom that we enjoy each and every day. And be safe out there around the grill!

Enjoy!

This 4th of July is almost upon  us.  A great time to celebrate independence and to reflect on the history and purpose of this country.

For many the fourth of July also means family gatherings and picnics.  With family gatherings and picnics come grilled stuff like hamburgers and hot dogs and ribs and chicken. Mankind has enjoyed a good cookout ever since the day that man first discovered fire.  It is a little known fact that immediately upon discovering fire, some saber tooth  tiger meat was put on the fire and the consensus was that barbecue was a tremendous improvement over raw meat.  

Yet from ancient times to the present day, man has always had the challenge of getting the fire to just the right temperature for proper grilling. One of the great inventions to aid in this endeavor was the invention of charcoal.  The problem with charcoal is waiting for the coals to be hot and ready for cooking. Have you ever lit the grill and waited and waited and waited only to go back expecting nice red, hot coals yet find only cold, black coals because the coals just did not catch fire?

Over the years many great minds have worked on inventions and improvements to help us reduce that long period of waiting for the charcoal to get hot so that we can get down to the business of grilling.  We used to have to get the bag of charcoal and the can of lighter fluid out. You would arrange the coals, pour the lighter fluid, light the fire (trying not to scorch your eyebrows) and wait. Then you would add more lighter fluid, light the fire again (trying not to get engulfed in the fireball) and wait some more. Then came the charcoal with the lighter fluid in the coals where you light the coals and wait, then go find the can of lighter fluid, pour the lighter fluid, light the fire (trying not to scorch your eyebrows) and wait some more. Even better are the small bags that you simply put the bag in the grill, light the bag and wait, then go find the can of lighter fluid, pour the lighter fluid, light the fire (trying not to scorch your eyebrows) and wait some more. Many people have opted for gas grills for the ease of lighting and the quick warm-up time and to avoid having scorched eyebrows.

Now comes the next great leap grilling technology.  Engineers at Purdue University have made quantum leaps in the science of grill lighting. They have put their quantitative brains to work on how to speed up this process. The first thought was to blow on the charcoal with a hair dryer to speed things along. The next thought was that if a hair dryer was good, maybe a vacuum cleaner would be even better. Then as their “Tim the Toolman Taylor” thinking took over they moved onto a propane torch then an acetylene torch. Still not satisfied, they moved onto compressed oxygen and finally to liquid oxygen. Yes the stuff that is 295 degrees below zero and is the form of oxygen used as rocket fuel. This produces a 10,000 degree fireball that can have those coals ready for the burgers in a mere three seconds. So, if things are running a little late on the grill tomorrow, just grab a little liquid oxygen and you’ll be grilling in no time. Your eyebrows can always grow back later.

Happy Grilling!

What do you get if you cut two legs off a cow?…………….lean beef!

What do you get if you cut four things off a cow?…………ground beef!

Thought for the Week

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ~Erma Bombeck

http://www.quotegarden.com

I was recently in San Francisco and was impressed by how friendly the people were.   It seemed like wherever we went, people were warm and helpful.  Looking a little bit lost in Golden Gate Park, a lady stopped and asked if we needed any help.  We went to a Giants game and all the staff appeared friendly.  This was not the obligatory, dead-panned, “thanks for coming.”  This was look you in the eye, smile and say, “thanks for coming!” After the game started a lady two seats down handed my wife the “Batting Stance Guy” book and asked, “would you like a baseball book?”  Of course I would like a baseball book!!  (As an aside, I had the opportunity to see The Batting Stance Guy live and in-person in Cincinnati last year.  So this was double cool for me.

Now I am back home in the Midwest where we assume that people are friendly. However, I find when I jog through my comfortable middle class neighborhood I get ignored by about half of the people I see.  I try to always look up prepared to say “hi” to everyone I see.  However, some don’t look up, some turn to the person they are walking with and some who are walking a dog, look down and talk to the dog as I pass.  The exception is joggers, it seems like a fellow jogger will always look up and acknowledge me.  I think that is because if you have ever trained for a long distance race, you have probably spent a lot of time outside, running alone and the brief distraction from putting one foot in front of the other by saying “hello” is always welcome.  

I do not live in a crowded, ultra-busy neighborhood,    But when I think about it, the folks I do not know personally do appear very friendly.  I remembered something one of my favorite college professors, Dr. Marc Lovelace, who taught history at Stetson University said once in class.  Stetson, where I started my college education, was a small residential campus where you may not have known everyone, but just about every face was familiar.  In class Dr, Lovelace was lamenting one day about walking past students on campus who would not look up and acknowledge  people they passed.  He said that one day he was just going to grab a student, shake them and say, “I said ‘hello’ to you!”

While that might be tempting, it would probably not go over well in my neighborhood or any neighborhood for that matter.  So, I will just keep looking up and smiling as I run and maybe slowly but surely more people will respond.  It really does not take much effort to be friendly so join me to help make the world a little friendlier.

Happy Friday!  Everyday we are inundated with hundreds of messages.  While many of these messages may be useful,  others are simply reiterating things that we already know>  Things that we know.  Things that EVERYBODY knows!

Is there really anyone left out there that does not know the following?  Are there others you would add to the list?

Enjoy!

Bridges freeze before roadways.

You can leave a message after the beep and hang up when you are done.

Close the cover before striking.

Car commercials use professional drivers on a closed course and you should not attempt.

Weight loss ad results are not typical and your results will vary.

Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times and stay seated until the ride comes to a full and complete stop.

Restrictions always apply.

A hairdryer and other electrical appliances are not to be used in the bathtub.

How to buckle a seat belt on an airplane (or anywhere else for that matter).

Contents of your coffee cup may be hot.

The little bag of silica gel is not to be consumed.

There is no running by the pool.

Take the plastic off the popcorn before putting it in the microwave.

Keep hands and feet from under the mower.

Not to hold the wrong end of a chainsaw.

A bag of peanuts will contain PEANUTS!

Thought for the Week

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright, quoted in Reader’s Digest, June 1995

http://www.quotegarden.com

Baseball season is upon us!  Once again all fans are full of hope that this will be “the year” for their team ….even if those hope are destined to be dashed before the end of May.  

As far back as I can remember, I have enjoyed baseball.  I can remember being disappointed in second grade when many of my classmates were old enough to play baseball, but because my birthday was after the cutoff date the only thing I could do was wait for one more long year to play on a team.  

But before I ever put on a hot, scratchy, wool Little League uniform, I had played hours upon hours of baseball.   I do almost everything right-handed; however, anything with a two-handed grip, I do left-handed.  There are advantages to batting left-handed:  it puts you a step closer to first base plus your momentum is  already carrying you towards first base as you follow-through on your swing.  Despite the advantages, there is only one reason why I bat left-handed: my big brother is left-handed.  

If you have an older brother, the odds are that you looked up to him when you were little.  Having a brother who is eight years older gave me a lot to look up to.  He was always bigger, faster, stronger, smarter than I was.  Of course there were times when he could be a pain – literally – like the time he said he was going to teach me to box which was really just an excuse to hit me for a while.  But I looked up to him and I wanted to be like him, so I started batting left-handed and always have.

He threw me an awful lot of batting practice and he had some unique approaches to teaching the art of hitting.  His cure for when I was afraid of getting hit by a pitch? He would  deliberately throw at me!  If I hit the pitch then it did not hit me.  I suppose there some twisted logic there somewhere.

I have three adult sons and two of them have always batted left-handed (the oldest just would not get with the program).  So, thanks Mike, for sharing your love of baseball with your little brother and for teaching me that “left is best.”

Happy Friday!  Another weekend is at the door.  This week, I thought I would keep things simple.  One of the simplest organisms I know of is an amoeba.  So, here is a little amoeba and microbiology humor for you.

Enjoy!

Why did the bacteria fail the math test? He thought multiplication was the same as division.

What is the only thing worse than a mecium? A paramecium. 

What is the definition of paramecium? Two Latin mice.

Why do bacteria like nitrates so much? They’re cheaper than day rates.

How do amoebas stay in touch? With cell phones.

Did you know that imprisoned amoeba are only allowed a single cell?

Did you know that at the National Institutes of Health Offices, the sign on the door of the microbiology lab reads “STAPH ONLY”?

Old microbiologists never die. They just get put out to Pasteur

Knock, knock!                                                                                                                                       Who’s there?                                                                                                                                     Amoeba                                                                                                                                                   Amoeba who?                                                                                                                                     Amoeba dumb, but I’m not crazy!

Thought for the Week

I never make stupid mistakes. Only very, very clever ones. ~John Peel

http://www.quotegarden.com