one in 1.75 Billion...

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A recent online solicitation I received:

"WIN $5,000 A WEEK for Life!"

Geezus..!! Where do I go to sign-up..!?!


Of course, once I check it out a little more thoroughly ...this missive from Publishers Clearing House ...once I check it out thoroughly I see the odds of winning are "1 in 1,750,000,000"..!! One in one point 75 Billion..!! And I thought the Powerball lottery odds were long..!!


Lets see, what is the current world population ...sleeper runs off to 'Google it'. Hmmm, just over 6.8 billion peeps, number courtesy of your tax dollars.


So if aliens were to swoop down and abduct 4 random earthlings from the entire world's population . . .that would be about my odds of being implanted with an anal probe. Or of winning the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. Ha. Like that is gonna happen

Image source: Clinton Steeds via Creative Commons license

Hey, did you hear that..?!? Strange lights and noises outside my bedroom window ...I better go investigate. Well ...as soon as I complete my Publishers Clearing House entry..!!



...tom...
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' Say what..?!? ' Number 5

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It has been more than a while since I have posted one of these 'unique phrases' posts. I would like to think I have a ton of new and entertaining phrases to share.


Well sure . . .I would like to say that...

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As always, these are simply short phrases that I have encountered while reading on the web. They either strike me by their 'musical sound' or their discordant cacophony. As always, the artificial arbiter I use for this 'unique' label is, of course, the ubiquitous Google dot com.

What defines my 'unique phrases'..?? Generally they are two or three words with a handful or less of distinct 'Google hits'. They also have to have been used intentionally, in some unique (there is that word again) way that communicates an idea in a novel manner. Kinda like pornography: hard to define ...but you know it when you see it.


You would think with all the millions of monkeys, like you and I, pounding on all our keyboards out here on the web ... you would think everything that could be said would have already been said. But not true ... thank gawd.


Unique two word phrases are worth more than three or four word phrases to me. I mean, obviously the more words you start stringing together the more likely you are to craft a new phrase. But much longer than four just gets silly ... so I try to notice and identify only two-, three-, and four-word phrases. Think of it as gold, silver, and bronze medal-worthy.


Anyway, enough explanation. Let's see what we got this time...




Unique phrases I have crafted or discovered:





One unique result found for "homosexual yard sale"

A phrase used by an Epinions user while reviewing the novel The Time Traveler's Wife. Is a puzzler to me how a 'yard sale' could be 'homosexual'. But there it is.

No results found for "veiled linear veneer"

A phrase thrown out in a longish message board thread: "So I think this whole thread is much more cyclical in nature than its rather thinly veiled linear veneer would have one believe."

To this day I have no idea what they meant, in the context of the thread. But it sounds good.

Four unique results for "drowsily sunny"

A writer on Epinions was thinking of warm summer days while reviewing Henry and Mudge in the Green Time.

"But reading the drowsily sunny Henry and Mudge in the Green Time made me long just a little for warm summer days with shorts and bare feet, with picnics and hoses."

Sure evokes time and setting for me.

A unique find of "nobly ignoble trickster"

If you were to try to identify a fictional character that phrase might describe . . .well, Robin Hood seems as good a match as might be made. 'Nobly ignoble' has more than a few Google hits. But pairing it with 'trickster' is unique phrasing of the highest order.

Anyway, there is the next installment of my little web reading-n-writing obsession. Hopefully I will not be so late with the next 'unique phrases' post.


Hey, if you have any examples of your own please share them in a comment..!!


...tom...
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How to write a love letter...

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A review I wrote a couple of years ago on Epinions.

Somehow, it seems appropriate right now, given the season...


Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See

OK, OK. I confess. This book is not really about 'how to write a love letter'. I am just shamelessly throwing myself at the web search engine spiders.

Perhaps my sticky net caught you also my dear reader. If it did perhaps you are searching for the perfect words to reveal your heart's anguished desire to claim that of another. If you are on such a mission ...I envy you.

I envy you that feeling of your bursting heart that has so muddled your thoughts that you are having trouble embellishing 'I love you..!!' When perhaps that is all your desired one really needs to read ...and to hear.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See are the random samplings of love letters collected from ordinary people with ordinary lives yet extraordinary loves. We all know that no flame burns as hot as the one in our own heart. We all know that no pain stabs as cruelly as that felt in our own broken heart. Luckily many of us are driven to tell each other just that. Just as luckily, we often find the written word an empowering way to 'speak our heart'.

Those extremes, and every feeling in between, are captured between the covers of this book. Editor Bill Shapiro first read a love letter not meant for his eyes when ...

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Read the rest at the review page on Epinions dot com.



...tom...
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The Snowman

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Like a carefully arranged photo album, the pictures of The Snowman share one special day, and night, of one little boy. We know nothing about him, neither his name nor where he lives. We only know this special day is cold and snowy.

Told without words, dozens of smaller and larger pictures tell the story of the creation of 'the snowman' and his interactions with the young boy as he comes to life. The previous reviewer described the artwork as "crayon-brushed" while I might describe them as chalk-drawn. Regardless, they are soft, warm, and inviting and easily flow together to tell the story.


Our young man wakens to a fresh and still falling snowstorm and hurries outside to build a snowman. Rather than a typical '3-ball' snowman, this snowman is piled high with arms carved into his sides. The obligatory pieces of coal, scarf and hat, and other household items complete his form.

That evening the young boy awakens from his sleep (or is he dreaming..??) and goes outside to find his snowman doffing his cap and shaking the boy's hand. His arms work..!! He has legs..!!

Our new friends proceed to explore the house, the world, of the little boy. A pet cat, TV, lights, stairs, clothes, hot water, the flames of a stove, a skateboard and many more household items are all shared with the snowman. The joy of the snowman climbing into a deep chest freezer in the garage is a favorite pic of mine. What could be more natural for a snowman..?!?

As if to repay the boy for sharing the delights of his human world, the snowman takes the boy flying into the winter sky. Yes, a snowman can fly ...you did not know this..??



Read the rest of my review of The Snowman at the review page at Epinions.com.

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The Lovely Bones

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No. Not a review of the recently released film. But my thoughts about the novel on which the film is based.


The Lovely Bones does not waste your time. Seventeen words into the story you learn of the ultimate horror:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie.
I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

By the end of this first chapter Susie Salmon is dead and you know the murderer.


I can tell you this 'spoiler', author Alice Sebold can write this 'spoiler', because The Lovely Bones is so much more about the loss of a loved daughter, sister, friend than it is about 'who-done-it'. So much more about everyday moments of grief that erode the strong foundations of a family, moments of grief that break the strong bond between husband and wife, moments of grief that fracture the the strong love of a mother for her children. The Lovely Bones is so much more about budding youth and innocence lost than it is about police, chase, clues, law-and-order.

Lured, raped, murdered, dismembered, hidden . . .perhaps never to be found, Susie narrates this tale from the safe, comforting confines of her heaven. Did you know everyone has their own 'personal' heaven? Susie's heaven is the imagined environs of a High School campus that the earth-bound—the murdered—Susie will never know. She shares her heaven with others, their heavenly desires intersecting with hers. Music, playful dogs, peppermint ice cream, glorious sunsets fill her heaven. From the gazebo of her heaven ("our neighbors, the O'Dwyers, had had a gazebo. I had grown up jealous for one") she watches the earthly world she will never walk again.



Read the rest of my review of The Lovely Bones at my review page at Epinions.com.


...tom...
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Do the Right Thing...

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They are the hot topics of today: the economy, health care, the war on terror, energy, taxes. They were hot topics in the last presidential election cycle; Nostradamus is not needed to predict they will remain hot topics for many years, and many elections, to come.

Mike Huckabee, former Baptist pastor and Republican Governor of the Democrat-controlled state of Arkansas, shares his thoughts on these topics and more in Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America. As the book is subtitled, he shares his view from inside the movement and from his perspective as a past candidate for the highest office in the land.

There have been other calls for 'common sense' in government: the seminal call of Thomas Paine in 1776 in his pamphlet Common Sense,

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

... the liberal views of Dr. John Ekerd found in A Return to Common Sense, and the conservative rantings of Glenn Beck in his Common Sense: ... book.


The thing about common sense is ...it is not so common, a thought attributed to many over the years, Sun Tzu, Euripedes, and Voltaire among them. This tasks the reader of any tome calling for 'common sense' to measure the validity of the author's plea and motivation.


Mike Huckabee roots his call to "do the right thing" in his experiences during the 2008 Republican presidential primary campaign. In a long and winding tale that is at times biographical, at times a travelogue, at times a 'psychology 101' tome, and at times history lesson he never leaves his reader lost or bored.

...

Read the rest of my review of Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America at my review page at Epinions.com.


...tom...
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Christmas fever redux...

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For some reason I just seem to have had a rekindling of my Christmas spirit...

Surely it could not have been finding this pic that perked up my mistletoe..?!?

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...please scroll down . . .hey, it is a cheap ploy to build some suspense...

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Picture is from the website of the Bakken Amusement Park in Klampenborg, Denmark.

Apparently each July, for forty-some years now, they have a gathering of Fathers Christmas & Christmas Elves ...to celebrate the off-season I guess. See this webpage for more information in English. Or the Danish website here, with a direct link to the Christmas pages found here.


Almost enough to make me believe in the big guy again...



...tom...
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Ink, Paper, Holiday gift ideas...

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One of the earliest Christmas presents I remember receiving as a child was a set of Hardy Boys mystery books. One in particular, about a lost gold mine, really caught my imagination. I have never been able to pin that early memory down to one specific book but the imagined world of the Hardy boys swallowed me up. Frank and Joe were my BFF.


From that gift, and probably others before it and many since, has grown a love of books, their words, and their images, both on the page and in the mind. That so many writers are able to create and 'bring alive' both fiction and reality is a wonder to me.

It is no coincidence that decades later I found myself writing a silly review of another book--a tale I had loved forever--and posting it as my first review ... on Epinions.

Since that pitiful start years ago I have kept the focus of my 'Epinions time' on writing book reviews and reading the reviews of others.

In that time I have found myself reading so many wonderful reviews of books that I just knew I had to read . . .but sadly, most remain unread.

Regardless, these reviews were gifts to me. As a pointer to this book or that one, as a brief moment enjoying the thoughts of another Epinions member about a favorite or not-so-favorite book. Any 'book lover' loves to hear the thoughts of others about their favorite books ...and books they have never heard of before. Those shared thoughts are true gifts any day of the year. Those are gifts I find every day here on Epinions for all to enjoy.

Image courtesy of jurvetson at flickr.com

In that spirit I will share some links to reviews of books that I have loved discovering and reading here. These are links to reviews and 'bottom lines' from some of the most helpful book reviews I have found on this site. I guarantee that if you click on one or ten you will find a gift suitable for some member of your extended 'gift-giving tree'.

Who would not love a charming book for Christmas..??




Always a mix of sweetness and sorrow
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
review by befus

The Bottom Line: A wonderful book to read and to savor, and to enjoy with a young person you love.



Tori Amos Inspired This Female Empowerment Poetry...Written by a Man
Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman
review by smiles33

The Bottom Line: Beautifully illustrated, this poem celebrates young girls becoming strong and independent women. It would be a unique gift for pregnant moms and likely to captivate older girls.



Letters of Love to Christopher Reeve ~ Care Packages
... by Dana Reeve
review by Jev04again

The Bottom Line: This book has it all – touching moments, humor, surprise, spirit, and above all else – abiding love.


--snip--

Make sure to read the rest of my book gift idea essay:

Paper, ink . . .and the journey of a lifetime..!!

. . .at Epinions dot com

--snip--



The Bottom Line
So there ya go. A 'baker's dozen' of the fifty-some book reviews that I have rated 'Most Helpful' here on Epinions.

Click one, click 'em all ...and read. If none of them inspires you to click a shopping link to consider the possibility of gifting one of your loved ones . . .then I have failed my task here miserably. My task in this essay and my task on Epinions for the last 9-plus years.

But not to worry ...I guarantee you will find at least one to be just the right book for someone on your gift list . . .or even for yourself.


Enjoy.

Comfort and Joy

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Lifetime cable network is currently in the midst of their 'Falalala Lifetime movie marathon' for the holiday season. If you need your first light dose(s) of holiday schmaltz/cheer ...flip the channel over to Lifetime. (Can I use 'schmaltz' to describe a Christmas-time movie..?? Is that kosher..??)

Jane (Nancy McKeon) is a yuppie career businesswoman, too busy enjoying the perks of her VP position for a family life. And her boyfriend ...what a jerk. Flirting with other women right in front of her, taking business calls on his Bluetooth, refusing to turn it off for her while they dine out. I know he is screwing around behind her back. Scumbucket.

On Christmas Eve she slides her car on a snowy street and crashes. Coming to, she finds her husband(!!) opening the door and helping her out of the car. She has crashed right in front of their house. Well, his house. No ...their house.

Husband, house, two kids . . .everything but a dog..!! What is this strange world she now lives in..??



It is movie time with sleeper..!!

Image courtesy of eye of einstein at flickr.com.net

Of course, she immediately tries to touch bases with the people in her 'old' life. Her secretary at work knows her ...but not in the same situation she remembers. Her boss at work has no idea who she is, certainly not as one of his VPs. Someone else is living in her apartment.

Luckily her parents still remember her. Veteran character actor Paul Dooley and TV-veteran Dixie Carter (best remembered as Julia Sugarbaker / Designing Women) are delightful in limited roles. Though they do little to help Jane adjust to her new life.


Will Jane ever accept what has somehow happened..?? Will she ever recapture the ten years she has apparently lost..?? Will her husband Sam (Steven Eckholdt) worm his way back into her heart..?? Will her kids find the Mom they know and love inside this now-amnesiac mom..??

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Read the rest of my review of Comfort and Joy at my review page on Epinions.com.



...tom...
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Pink Glove Dance...

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Something fun and catchy, just because.

. . .and because it is for a good purpose...





If only my 'hospital employer' was this fun..!!


Hat tip to dianapinions at Epinions dot com.



...tom...
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100 words almost everyone confuses & misuses

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The large precinct room was open and claustrophobic at the same time. Large, solid columns spaced too close together told you immediately this was not modern construction. Old worn chairs butted up against too-small desks piled too high with papers, folders, and open, crumb-filled donut boxes. From the overflowing trashcans it was hard to tell when the cleaning crew had last been through.

From a desk near the back the tired (even at this early hour) police captain pointed a bony finger at a sergeant and beckoned him over.

Murphy, get over here..!!

Yes cap'n..??

Whadda ya mean 'yes cap'n'..?! Give me your report, damn it..!!

Sorry captain.

He quickly jabbed both hands into his pockets. One eventually found and drew out a wrinkled sheet of paper; the other came out empty, going to his forehead to wipe a thin film of sweat from his furrowed brow.

We done what you ordered, captain. Me and Lebowski rounded up all the (his eyes dropped to the crumpled paper and he slowly, almost moving his lips, read the words...) we rounded up the '100 words almost everyone confuses & misuses'. I got the list of 'em right here.


A wordle of the words used in: 100 words almost everyone confuses & misuses
Image courtesy of wordle.net



He stuck the sheet out toward his captain, but when he showed no interest Murphy pulled his hand back. He waited impatiently, his eyes had the look of a dog's eyes, waiting for a reward after obeying a command.


The captain slumped deeper into his chair, if that was possible. This was really the best man I had for this job..?? he thought.



Read the rest of my review of 100 words almost everyone confuses & misuses at my review page at Epinions.com.


...tom...

Gaylord Texan Hotel/Resort

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When I volunteered at my workplace to travel out of state for special training I had no idea of the sweet perquisites that would come with it.

Traveling to the Dallas area and staying at the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas was the best part of the experience. If only that annoying 'workplace training' nonsense had not kept getting in the way of really enjoying myself..!!

The Gaylord Texan is one of four colossal U.S. resort facilities operated by the Gaylord Hotel corporation. At their website, the company's founding and ongoing business philosophy is said to be recognized as the "only multi-property hospitality company guided by a single focus: extraordinary meetings and conventions."

View of hotel atrium, from a ninth-floor room. Image source: tripadvisor dot com

With 1500-plus rooms it might seem it would be easy to feel that you would be lost as an individual guest. But I never felt that way. Every question or need I had was met with prompt and helpful answers or solutions. I am sure part of that was simply the fact I was but one guest sponsored by a much larger local corporation that provides hundreds of guests per year at six nights each. It surely represents a business niche worth protecting.

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...Read the rest of the review at my Epinions dot com review page.


...tom...
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Route 66 Backroads || journeys from 'the Mother Road'

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'Route 66'

The name conjures an icon of the American way of life: always on the road seeking the next grand vista ...the next travel adventure, breaking through all obstacles of geography, climate, and native populations unfortunate enough to stand in the way of manifest destiny.

As the Old West and the frontier vanished and the automobile became a fixture in American life, Route 66 became the 'Mother Road' of the American dream. "From Chicago to Santa Monica, Route 66 Backroads takes you on a tour of the Main Street of America and beyond."

Image source: kbeeg at flickr.com

... snip ...

The Bottom Line
So how does Backroads work, as a total package..??

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...Read the rest of the review at my Epinions dot com review page.


...tom...
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Customer service is NOT dead...

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I am on the generic Amazon dot com customer e-mail list. Occasionally users receive offers and suggestions for products based on their previous purchases and ratings at the site.

Several days ago I received an e-mail with this one, 100 Words for Lovers. as a featured product for me.

Any reader of this blog would know this is a product that might interest me, no surprise there. But what was a surprise was the fact it was tagged with a '1% Off' 'sticker'.

My gawd..!! 1 percent..!! Quick, do the math, six cents..!! Be still my beating heart..!!





Well, that was just too rich and too silly to let pass 'uncommented'. So I dug through the Amazon website, found the customer service email address and dashed off a quick note to them:

hey there...

I appreciate in these tough economic times that you are going all out to help the struggling consumer.

Your recent e-mail notice of a $5.95 book offered at 1% off is a great example. It is not every day that a consumer can save _six_cents_ on a purchase. I mean, every penny counts . . .I guess.

So thanks again.


...tom...

I mean, I just had to thank them for their marketing savvy..!!


They state at the site that they will try to respond in less than 24 hours . . .and respond they did:

Hello,

Thanks for sending us your comments! We want to provide service on a level customers will remember, and it's great to know we've succeeded.

We look forward to filling your next order!

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

--snip--

Best regards,

Anu S.
Amazon.com
We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

...sigh...

"...and it's great to know we've succeeded."


Well, I guess I should have expected the 'form letter approach' rather than a 'yeah, that is a pretty silly offer, ehh..??' reply.


Go get 'em, Amazon dot com. You certainly wowed this customer.


...tom...
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My desktop, October 15, 2009...

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Yes, there is a theme here. Astronomy pics often take my breath away. Particularly those of Astronomy Picture of the Day. The one shared here is from September 27, 2009.


At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.


Beautiful, just beautiful. Certain worthy of greeting me each day as I sign onto my home computer...


...tom...
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Dad Hits a Home Run...

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Any baseball fan knows catching that ephemeral foul ball is the crowning moment of any baseball game. Well, other than that bottom of the ninth game-winning comeback. It is rather silly to attach so much value to a simple foul ball; but it does make you a part of the onfield struggle if only for that brief moment.


Now imagine catching that elusive foul ball, highfiving with the fans around you, handing the ball to your daughter as a special souvenir . . .and seeing her toss it back toward the field. Arrgggghhhhhhhh..!!





Just that scenario played out for a dad at a Philadelphia Phillies game overnight. But instead of being upset about it or standing dumbfounded with the realization of what his young 3-y/o daughter had just done . . .instead he reacts immediately to her questioning look -- 'What did I do wrong..?!?' -- as the fans around her gasped. Dad immediately envelopes her in the biggest and bestest daddy-hug ever. Letting her know that nothing was wrong and he loved her soooo much.


That my friends is what sports and baseball and family and dads and daughters are all about. It dont get better than that.


See the video here, on a local Phillie-area newscast clip. (And do note the video has already been ripped down from youtube.com "due to a copyright claim by [ the cold-hearted thugs of ] MLB Advanced Media." Sorry, a little editorializing there...)


Very nicely done Dad.



...tom...
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My desktop, September 7, 2009...

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"Today (September4, 2009) planet Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings. From the perspective of earthbound astronomers, Saturn's rings will be edge-on. The problem is, Saturn itself is now very close to the Sun, low on horizon after sunset, so good telescopic images will be difficult to come by." Read more.


Photo courtesy of Astronomy Picture of the Day, September 04, 2009.


...tom...
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Talking nonsense

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Sorry, no deep analysis of 'talking nonsense' to follow. Just an observation.


An old (circa 2006) thought found while reading on Epinions dot com:

"I originally had a lot more to say, but a lot of it makes less sense than what I just typed, so I should just stop here."




Damn it people..!! That is why we read on the Internet: to find nonsense..!! Quit self-censoring your thoughts..!!


Talking nonsense, posting nonsense . . .opposite sides of the same coin...


...tom...
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I remember like...

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I remember like it was yesterday...

American League Rookie of the Year in 1970.

Seven-time All-Star.

Runaway AL MVP in 1976.


I hated the NY Yankees ...still do. But I admired the talent, play, and heart of one Thurman Munson.


Thirty years ago today he died when his private jet crashed as he was making a series of practice landings.

Image source: wallyg at flickr.com

Image source: NY Daily News

Rest in peace, Thurman. You are gone but definitely not forgotten.


...tom...

Short ESPN video remembering Thurman.

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Zeus' thunderbolts

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The Greek god Zeus is considered the king of all the gods. Zeus rules Mount Olympus and bears the thunderbolt as but one symbol of his power and glory.


When Mother Nature looses her thunderbolts on us I am always reminded of Zeus and the ancient Greek gods.





The pic above is from The Big Picture, a 'photo blog' found at Boston.com, the website presence of The Boston Globe newspaper. Once again they excel at collecting and presenting a number of photographs capturing a single subject or topic.


This time they turn their attention to the force of nature we know as lightning. The results are stunning. You really need to take a look if you appreciate the beauty of nature, particularly as expressed by the beauty, power, and portent of terror found in lightning.


...tom...
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