Picked this little story up from the Trailplace website. Damn lucky person. Good that they remembered a bear's nose is quite sensitive.


August 12, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VERNON TOWNSHIP, N.J., Aug. 11 - A hiker bashed a bear in the nose with her elbow, escaping with minor injuries after the animal knocked her to the ground, a state parks official said today.

The 18-year-old hiker then ran off the trail and hid behind a tree, said Jack Kaskey, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

"The bear kept looking for her, standing on its hind legs, grunting and sniffing the air," Mr. Kaskey said. "It circled the area she was hiding in and eventually wandered off."

The woman was attacked about 12:30 p.m. Sunday while she was hiking alone on the Wingdam Trail in Wawayanda State Park in Sussex County, he said.

She ran, but the bear tackled her, and grabbed her right side and left leg with its paws, Mr. Kaskey said. The bear became startled when she struck its nose, allowing her to run and hide until it left the area, he said.

The trail remained closed today and a trap was set in an effort to capture the bear alive.

"My biologists tell me that this was a classic predatory attack," Mr. Kaskey said. "Apparently, it was planning to eat her."

Had a good day today, despite turning 53! Decided to take in the movie Seabiscuit, since Janet and I had both listened to the audio version of the book, which was a great story, written by a very gifted writer. It's hard to say how the movie was, as we knew the plot, which sort of killed the suspense one felt while listening (reading) to the book. The horse filming was exceptional, that much I will say. Toby McGuire I wouldn't have picked for the role - I think he has too mousy of a voice to play the role - Red Pollard struck me as a much tougher little spitfire than Toby. All in all though, not a bad production and a tough challenge to fit the scope of the book into 2 hours. I give it a B. (according to many who signed the Guestbook at the Seabiscuit web site (see link above), those that saw the movie first thought it was fantastic and were inspired to read the book).

Janet's B'day card to me was one full of wisdom:


Life is a powerful, growing force.
To live well, we must learn
to bend,
embrace the changes,
and make the most
of every moment.

Yield to today.
Give yourself to every moment.
Take in every unexpected wonder.
Take in every joy.
Put aside convention.
Set aside misgivings
and yield to the power of today.

(inspired by Cherokee Philosophy)

Our English House of Commons guest commented today on how fat people were in America. Gee, where could those people be? Let's say a big hurrah for those buffet bars! I did point out to him, however, that Krispy Kreme was getting ready to invade the shores of England, so in a few years, they will also be lard asses (and considering this article, they won't have a tooth left in their head!) Cheers! (on the other hand, there was some discussion over whether Krispy Kreme would really succeed, since the English aren't quite as much into sweet stuff as we are - Dunkin Donuts failed there, but then Dunkin Donuts aren't much to write home about. Whereas a Donut coming off the Krispy Kreme line when the neon Hot Light is showing in the window - is enough to get me salivating right now! LOL. Actually they are like eating a gooey, sugary puffball - don't worry, they won't have any effect on your blood sugar - have a dozen on me! Starbucks has taken London by storm, so don't see why Krispy Kreme can't - after all they succeed everywhere! (I'm still beating myself on the head for not having bought their stock a few years ago!).

I've heard that Gary Martin will be spearheading this move into the Emerald Isles, although at last word, he was unable to fit through the front door of his house, due to the some 1000 Krispy Kremes he has consumed in the last few weeks. Welcome to the South, Gary! Land of fried chicken, biscuits and gravy , and Krispy Kreme!

Sorry Sarah, you're gonna have to wait for Krispy Kreme.

Picture of the Day:

Willow and Turbo taking a break from eating and beating the stuffing out of each other. (click on pic for larger image)



(Note* - You will notice in the upper right corner of this blog that there is an archive section. If you've come to this blog late, then you would need to go to the archives to read the original postings. The screen is set to show 7 days - if you want to catch up, then you will need to go to the archives. Since I'm including pictures, I wanted the page to load fairly quickly, thus the reason for only 7 days at a time).

Instituted a new comment section to this blog. You will notice under each post that there is a comment line. Give it a try so I can see if it is working correctly. All you do is click where it says 0 comments (or 1 comment, 2 comments,whatever).

Wondering where the term "blog" came from? (Well, maybe you're not wondering, but now that you're reading this, you're stuck with having to find out!). Actually it is an abbreviation for "Web log" or "Weblog". GuruNet (you're all using that, correct? ha!) defines it as (WeBLOG) A Web page that contains links to Web sites that cover a particular subject or that are based on some other criterion, such as interesting or entertaining sites. The blog typically provides a short summary of the referenced sites and may also contain commentary and humor. Blogs have become a form of artistic expression, enabling anyone to personally publish a directory about a subject that interests them. I can now put "Artist" on my resume. LOL

The first blog tool that made all these blogs possible (there are millions of blogs on the net now) was Blogger. Also a big reason why the term "blog" stuck in the vocabulary. It's the program what I use to produce this one.

Sarah (my Arkansas buddie) passed along an interesting blog to me the other day. It's an American Soldier's blog from Iraq. Makes for quite interesting reading. Guess I'll have to go to Iraq in order to spice my blog up!

My quote for the day:

"I'm at the age where food has taken the place of sex in my life. In fact, I've just had a mirror put over my kitchen table."
—New York, 5 May 80
Rodney Dangerfield

Are you a Pho person? Well, if you're in any big city or in some town with a Vietnamese ethnic community, you should give it a try. Janet and I tried this out a few years back in DC, during one of our trips to the NIH. Recently, we revisited this tasty dish during our trip to Chinatown in Vancouver, where we ate a bowl in a Japanese grocery store, that happened to have a Vietnamese Pho shop inside.

For an interesting look at the story of Pho, click here. Might just make you hungry!

I've changed the font to Comic MS Sans to make this blog easier to read so let me know if you like it better. Should be darker and thus easier to read.

There is a new virus (worm) that has a severe threat warning issued by Norton. So make sure your computer's virus program is up to date. This one could cause some nasty business on your computer.

Got a member of the House of Commons staying at the Inn tonight. Quite a nice chap, if I do say so myself. Need Gary up here to do some translating! I'm trying out all my English pet sayings, like "Cheers" "Bollox", etc. Ho,ho!

Returning to our Canada trip for a moment, heres a picture of the famous sculptor/artist Bill Reid (who was largely responsible for the revival of the Haida culture) with this gorgeous carving (you will see my reflection in the glass, because it was a photo under glass and I had no polarizer to wipe out the reflections). Gives you a sense of scale of this piece of work. There is an excellent web site discussing his life and his works. Reading this article made me realize we missed one of his great pieces of work at the Vancouver Airport and we stayed within blocks of that for 3 days! bummer.





Click here to see what the work above looked like in reality (as shown previously on my vacation blog). Remember all pictures shown on this blog are clickable and lead to full sized images.
Here's another sculpture of one of Bill Reid's works outside the Vancouver Aquarium.



For some other examples of exquisite Northwest Indian art, visit this
link.

"Of all the arts of which traces remain that of the Indians of the Northwest coast is certainly one of the greatest. But at a time when the statuary of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, those of Soong China and of the European middle ages have irretrievably disappeared along with the men whose dreams they fed, our debt to Bill Reid, an incomparable artist, is that he has tended and revived a flame that was so close to dying. That is not all; for Bill Reid by his example and by his teachings has given rise to a prodigious artistic flowering, the results of which the Indian designers, sculptors and goldsmiths of British Columbia offer today to our wondering eyes." Claude Lévi-Strauss, from the catalogue for "Bill Reid: A Retrospective Exhibition", Vancouver Art Gallery, 1974

Here's an important issue to our health that you may be aware of. About a year ago, I read an article discussing the unse of antibiotics in farm animals in the Sunday magazine section of the NY Times. It described in lurid detail the process of fattening up beef with corn (which they can't digest) and in order to keep them alive, farmers stuff antibiotics down their throats. Then shortly before heading off to market, they pump them full of steroids to really get them in "buff" condition. Nice, huh? Of course, the use of all these antibiotics over such a long period of time, makes us resistant to them when we need them. So, you can go to this link, where you can easily write your congressmen,senators, etc. That's my health note of the day!

What's your take on this?. A guest staying with us, who has cholesterol problems, indicated that he couldn't eat eggs for breakfast due to their cholesterol. I suggested to him that research would indicate otherwise, but don't think he was buying into it. I did a Google on "Are eggs bad for you"? and came up with the following, which would seem to indicate that they really are probably pretty good for you. Eggs - bad for you?. A rather amusing look at this whole debate is found at this link and is good for a chuckle. Another viewpoint from WebMD points in favor of eggs due to researchers finding an ingredient called "phosphatidylcholine, or PC" which supposedly keeps the majority of the cholesterol in an egg from even entering your bloodstream. Dr. Weil, the alternative doc, even now agrees that an egg a day won't kill you.

Of note however, is the damage things like bacon, sausage, whole cheeses,etc, crackers, muffins,etc can do to you due to their saturated fats and transfats. Funny, the guy at breakfast wouldn't eat eggs , but gobbled down sausage, bacon and was asking for muffins. What can ya say?

Hey - how bout' that B'Day girl in Arizona! How do you like the new Ferrari I shipped you? What???? Still hasn't arrived??? Wonder what's up with that? Oh well, keep looking out the window and in the meantime have a GREAT DAY Jessica!

 If you wish to check in easily to this blog's updates, you can make a shortcut to this blog on your desktop. (thanks for the reminder, Ralph!). With Internet Explorer, it's easy. Just click on the little IE globe in the left corner of the address bar (where you type in a web address) and drag it to the desktop. After that, you can just click on the shortcut to the blog on the desktop and see the latest version. If you use a different browser than IE, you can still highlight the address in the address bar, right click and click on "Copy" and then go to the Desktop, right click again and press "paste". Just a little bit easier with IE.

Meant to post this picture from vacation that I saw on a sidewalk in Nainomo, BC. Thought it was an amusing ad. Reminded me of how I felt during some of my more unstable moments in college! You'll have to click on this pic to see the larger one in order to see the picture clearly.


Was sorry to see that Gregory Hines died today. Only 57 - hard to believe. This guy could really tap dance. His movie "Tap" was a great flick - you could get it in rental, I suspect. Also his mini-series "Bojangles". If you want to read some more about him, here's a short biography.

On a health note (seems to be the story of my life!), if you have diabetes, it's important to have a dilated eye exam at least once a year and to let the doc know you have diabetes. I'm due on this one myself. And here's some more fun info on diabetes - 2 out of 3 people with diabetes die from heart disease and stroke. Diabetics are 2-4 times more likely to develop heart disease than those who don't have it. For women it is even a bigger problem - 5x more likely to develop heart disease. A person with diabetes who has no history of heart disease is just as likely to have a heart attack as a person without diabetes who has already had a heart attack. Ain't that grand news? Boy , I bet you can't wait to tune in to the next version of this blog! Incidentally, fish oil is known to lower trigycerides, so eat some wild salmon or drink some fish oil - yummy stuff - I take 4 tsps a day of some super potent brand myself. I have been seen leaping upstream in the bathtub recently. Janet attempts on occasion to club me over the head and drag me out and feed me to the cats.

While working on my vacation pics (I have many more that were not included in the blog), I did run across this dolphin shot at the Vancouver Aquarium. Thought I'd include it, as it is usually quite difficult to catch an action shot with these little digital cameras.

Had hoped to see a better whale show at the aquarium, but they only had beluga whales which didn't do much , but spit water on the crowd. Good for camera electronics!

Once again, I've included a Discussion section on this blog, so if you want to tune in, you can. If you "subscribe" in that comment section, you'll even be sent an email whenever someone posts something. Now if that doesn't get you salivating, nothing will. Well, that is about all of this I can take for one evening - so enjoy or get sick - it's your choice! LOL