I was visiting jsolberg's xanga and it reminded me a little thing by Mark Twain that at the time was funny, but now is ironically becoming a reality.  With all the acronyms, shortcuts and word bending that texting is bringing to our language, this may happen faster than Twain predicted.

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling


   by Mark Twain

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped
to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer
be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained
would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2
might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the
same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with
"i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear
with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12
or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi
ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz
ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud
hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

LOL!

Whew!

The week's up.  My Irish bride (mostly her) and I have been watching a house, three kids (two teenagers), and a dog for our daughter and son-in-law while they were in Italy and France.

They arrived back about two hours ago and now we're finally back in our home, sweet home again.

We're tired!

I have been working my Canon printer/scanner overtime lately.

My Irish bride and I have been putting together scrapbooks/photo albums for our grandchildren as a high school graduation present.  We take them on a journey from cradle to graduation using pictures and copies of documents, artworks and anything embarrasing we can find.  It has been a rewarding and emotional experience for us and everyone absolutely loves it.

We didn't start until the third grandchild so we missed the two oldest.  Now we're playing catch-up and making albums for Pat and Vicki.
 
We spend a lot of time putting them together and to give you an idea of what they look like, these are the first two pages for our oldest, Patrick.  On the first page, for instance, the footsteps are Pat's actual footprints taken from his birth certificate that I photoshopped.
  

I can't certify that these are true, but they're entertaining  And you never know, you might be on a quiz show some day when the MC says "For a million dollars what is the name of the dot over the letter i?"

1. Money isn't made out of paper. It's made out of cotton

2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.

3. The dot over the letter "I" is called a "tittle".

4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller. (The reason you probably don't know this is because it isn't true.)

6. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

8. The 'spot' on 7-UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino. (Also not true according to Scopes.com.)

9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily.

10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.

12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

13. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww).

14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.

16. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

17. Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time hence, multitasking was invented.

18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before!

21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!

22. Leonardo DaVinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white.

25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar (good to know.)

26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless.)

27. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples!

30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!

31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

32. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

The following was written by Lewis Napper from Mississippi who ran for Senate in 2000 as a Libertarian and is a self-described armchair philosopher.

'We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, and delusional. We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights.'

ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to
a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to
never be offended This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone --not just you! You may leave the room, change the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to
be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.

ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to
free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary  of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. This one is my pet peeves....get an education and go to work..don't expect everyone else to take care of you!

ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to
free health care. That would be nice, but if it would turn out the same way as current public housing, we're not interested in public health care.

ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to
physically harm other people..If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you put away for the rest of your sorry life.

ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to
the possessions of others If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to
a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.

ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to
happiness. Being an American  means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over-abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

ARTICLE X: You do not have the right to
change our language. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from!

(and Last but not least....)

ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to
change our country's history or heritage This country was founded on the belief in one God. You are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all, with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!

Who was the first American President?

Most likely George Washington was your answer.  After all, no one else comes to mind.

But think about this - The United States Declared itsindependence in 1776, yet Washington did not take office until April30, 1789. So who was running the country during these initial years of this young country?   It was the first eight American Presidents.

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPEARANCE OF EIGHT PRESIDENTS

The eight missing Presidents (Actually. they were presidents of the 2nd Continental Congress that preceded the United States as we know it today, but that makes it no less interesting).

The new country was formed on March 1, 1781 with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation. This document was proposed on June 11, 1776, but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777.  Maryland refused to sign this document until Virginia and New York ceded their western lands (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land).  Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the country.

In fact, the first President of the United States was John Hanson. He is one of those great men that are almost lost to history. Your encyclopedia might actually mention his name briefly.

John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress. No one had ever been President and the role was poorly defined. His actions in office would set precedent for all future Presidents.

He took office just as the Revolutionary War ended and just as the troops demanded to be paid. However, there were no funds to meet the salaries. As a result, the soldiers threatened to overthrow the new government and install Washington on the throne as a monarch. He somehow managed to calm the troops down and hold the country together. If he had failed, the republic would have fallen almost immediately and we would be 'The Kingdom of America'.

Hanson, as President, ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as well as the removal of all foreign flags. This was quite the feat, considering the fact that so many European countries had a stake in the United States since the days following Columbus. Hanson established the Great Seal of the United States, which all Presidents have since been required to use on all official documents. He also established the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department.

Lastly, he declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today. The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one year term during any three year period, so Hanson actually accomplished quite a bit in such little time.

Seven other presidents were elected after him -
1. Elias Boudinot (1782-83),
2. Thomas Mifflin (1783-84),
3. Richard Henry Lee (1784-85),
4. John Hancock (1785-86),
5. Nathan Gorman (1786-87),
6. Arthur St. Clair (1787-88), and
7. Cyrus Griffin (1788-89) - .....all prior to Washington taking office.

So what happened?

Why don't we hear about the first eight presidents?  It's quite simple -- The Articles of Confederation didn't work well. The individual states had too much power and nothing could be agreed upon.  A new doctrine needed to be written - something we know as the Constitution.

George Washington was the first President of the United States under the Constitution we follow today.  And the first eight Presidents are forgotten in history.

NOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE HISTORY BUFF TO APPRECIATE THIS!!
It took us eight years to establish a successful government. You might just remember this when you hear that so little progress has been made in establishing a Government in Iraq.
 

This year we had two grandchildren graduate from high school that will be going on to college.

Lauren will be attending Ball State in Indiana and studying Radiation Therapy.


Mike will be attending West Point Military Academy where he'll be playing lacrosse and embarking on a military career.

That makes five in college and five more to go!