So far the voting is going like this:

Olive Garden: 1

Applebee’s: 1

Hmm…. I need more readers. LOL  Part of the problem is that I really don’t know what’s around here and the interactive tourist maps aren’t helpful. I put in my zip code and all my results are for the Las Vegas Strip. Uh, the Strip is at least 5 zip codes away. Oh and something tells me that Red Square at Mandalay Bay is really not family friendly like the map said. Last time I peeked in from the outside it was more of a nightclub with rivers of following vodka. Something tells me Shark Tooth won’t get a set of free crayons with her sippy cup of juice. I could be wrong, though.

Let’s see let’s add TGI Friday’s to the list. Here’s the list as it stands now:

Olive Garden, Applebee’s, Claim Jumper (although a repeat it’s still in the running), TGI Friday’s.

Not bothering considering due to meh online menu: Romano’s Macaroni Grill and Outback Steakhouse.

Not in the running due to meh meal: Tony Roma’s, Chili’s, and Outback Steakhouse (one in TN and one in CA).

What else is there? I wish I knew of more chains.

Bearded Dragons make great exotic pets. Find out what your bearded dragon, with a forum of experts proposed in this free reptile video feeds. Expert: Cordell Jacques Bio: Cordell Jacques has worked extensively in the domestic sector for over 10 years. Directors: Travis Waack

A man was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. As he walked along he began to see another man in the distance.

As he grew nearer he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up, and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean.

As our friend approached even closer he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had washed up onto the beach, and one at a time, he was throwing them back into the ocean.

The first man was puzzled. He approached the man and said, “Good Evening Friend, I was wondering what are you doing?” And he replied, “I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it’s low tide right now and all these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they will die from the lack of oxygen.”

“I understand,” my friend replied “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach and you couldn’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many and don’t you realize that this is happening on hundreds of beaches up and down this coast … can’t you see that that you can’t possibly make a difference?

The local native smiled, bent down, picked up yet another starfish … and as he threw it back out into the sea, he replied, “It made a difference to that one!”

You may feel like you cannot make a difference in the world today, but you CAN make a difference in one life at a time.

* Never under estimate your own efforts. You too could make a difference.
* Don’t ask what the world could do for you, seek what you could do to the world.

If you have a big holiday cookout planned, you may be looking at your tired old patio furniture with disgust. If it is outdated, dirty or in need of repair, this may be just the time for new furniture. If you want to save money, follow these tips to help you do the best shopping on the net, in the stores and even in second hand stores.

Here are four great ways to find bargains in patio furniture.

The Internet:

Do your shopping on the Internet first. This is an easy way to find out the styles you like while saving time, trouble and gas. You can do all your comparison shopping on line, so even if you decide to go elsewhere, you will have an excellent idea of the the styles available and the prices ranges of the pieces you like. With this information in hand, you can find the best bargains anywhere.

Shopping the discount stores:

Discount furniture stores frequently have great bargains on outdoor furniture. Check the clearance area, or even the damaged goods area. A scratch might be on a spot that will be against a wall on your patio anyway! Don’t forget that outdoor furniture stores turn into Christmas stores after the summer, so close to the end of summer may be a good time to pick up bargain inventory that they do not want to hold onto.

Consider thrift or second hand stores:

There can be great bargains on quality items at thrift stores. Many people move out and cannot bring furniture with them and so donate perfectly good items to thrift shops. You won’t have the full choice, but the prices cannot be beat, and by just changing the cushions or adding a new umbrella you can change the look anyway.

Garage sales and Yard sales:

When spring and summer arrive, you know that garage sales are not far behind. Many people want to update their furniture and what may be old furniture that they have been looking at too long may be new and interesting looking to you. Plus, you can usually make your own price, within reason. Moving sales are a really good way to do some bargaining because if a family is downsizing to an apartment without a yard, they may have to get rid of their outdoor items at almost any price.

So check out these resources first: the Internet, discount stores, thrift stores and garage sales. Have fun and save money at the same time.

Adam Peters contributes editing long articles on staircases for http://www.home-decorating-reviews.com . Find more publications about interior balcony rail at his website.

Links : Cheap Handbags4u

Sometimes I can’t figure out where it is I am supposed to be, with whom, doing what… so when I feel this way, I write a song about it. When you connect with someone musically, you are never alone, so enjoy!

By Jeff Burnstein, RIA President

Greetings from the Show - she's a robot??!

Just before Thanksgiving I attended the International Federation of Robotics Board Meeting and Suppliers Group Meeting in Tokyo during the big IREX Robotics Show.

The last time the IFR Board met was in March and the mood was somber. Robotics business was very weak at that time and nobody had a clear outlook of what to expect going forward. Very steep declines seemed in the offing for most parts of the world.

This time the mood could best be characterized as “cautiously optimistic.” Yes, robotics business remains down year on year, but there are signs of recovery, especially as third quarter numbers show improvement and “quoting activitiy” is picking up for most companies.  The majority of industry leaders now think we’ve seen the worst and that an upturn in robot sales, likely quite modest, is on the horizon. And, strong growth is already being seen in China, where the economic recovery has begun in earnest.

As I toured the show and spoke with industry leaders, several trends emerged. One, the automotive industry, the largest customer for robotics, will remain a significant customer as new car models are introduced into the marketplace.  Suppliers to the auto industry will also need to purchase more automation as business ramps up for new model launches.

Two, there are major opportunities in high speed robotic picking applications in food, medical, and other industries. More and more companies are introducing new robots to target  these opportunities which could become a strong growth area in the future.

Three, the idea that automation is preferable to sending manufacturing overseas could be taking hold. Following the show RIA Chairman Rich Litt sent me a link to a great profile of a guitar string manufacturer that has automated in order to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

Four, interest in robotics in Japan, the world’s largest robotics user, remains very strong. The show was filled with interesting exhibits and packed with attendees. A strong contingent of exhibitors and attendees were from Korea, another major robotics market, and there also were  many visitors from China and other Asian countries looking for robotics solutions.

Wired for motion - a robot that moves like you!

Five, the amount of research going into service robotics continues to expand. While I didn’t see an immediate “game changer” at the show, there were certainly many interesting developments in terms of humanoids, mobility, and entertainment.

Overall, I came away from my visit to Japan feeling better about the outlook for the robotics industry in 2010. A recovering global economy (especially in China), growing opportunities in food & medical applications as well as other non-automotive industries, optimism about new opportunities in automotive connected to new model launches, and growing corporate awareness that automation is preferable to sending manufacturing overseas.

Though I would never have guessed it in March at the last IFR meeting, from a robotics perspective, there were plenty of reasons to be thankful on Thanksgiving Day!

[Private journal entry written on July 20, 2009]

I have been feeling much better this summer. I’m sure a large part of it is because my work schedule drops to half-time during the summer, so I have had a lot more “free” time. Well, it’s not really free time because summer is when I work on my big projects – projects that are easier to do when I have big blocks of uninterrupted time in which to do them.

Photo by Martin Chen

The looser schedule has meant I have been able to better cater to my mood swings. I can stop and climb under the covers when I’m triggered. I can get up and write when I have an “ah hah” moment in the middle of the night because I know I can sleep in, in the morning. The more relaxed schedule is an awesome luxury.

I wonder if part of my feeling more stable comes from not having to deal with the drama of being in therapy – as in therapy with a therapist – I am still very much in “therapy”, just not with a therapist. It seems my relationships with therapists are a source of unnecessary drama for me. So, no therapist equals no extraneous drama.

I believe another part of my feeling more positive comes from the fact I am progressing in my emotional healing. I can feel a shift in how I relate to my history and to the world in general. I am healing. I am feeling more confident. I am experiencing a certain consistent level of hope.

True to the trend of feeling better, I went for a hike yesterday morning. It was absolutely glorious.

After arriving home, I changed into sweatpants and t-shirt and sat down at my computer. As I was sitting there, I noticed the ball of my right foot was still a bit tender from the hike – I tend to get “hot feet”, but the burning usually subsides by the time I finish the 45-minute drive back to the house.

So, I checked it out – and my right foot had a quarter-size blister that had formed in between the layer of calluses and the very new skin – and the blister had ruptured. No wonder it was tender! I had been walking on baby skin!

I sat on my bed, cleaned up the wound and put a band-aid on it. Then, I didn’t get up from the bed. Instead, I sank backwards into the pillows and flipped on the TV.

I was starting to feel the tail-tale signs of the arrival of an acute emotional nose-dive.

In the subsequent six hours, I ate two pints of B&J ice cream and drank two classic Cokes. Then, for supper, I ate a big stack of blueberry pancakes – I only had enough syrup for the first pancake, so I sweetened the remaining ones with straight granulated sugar soaked in the last dribbles of the syrup.

In between taking hits of sugar, I spent a good thirty minutes picking at my face – and I masturbated twice to hardcore Internet porn. Now I’m left asking the question . . .

Where the hell did all that come from?

How could I go from feeling so incredibly joyous and free-spirited on my hike in the morning to a raging lunatic in the afternoon? Nothing happened – no troubling news arrived, no sickening shows played on the TV, no one broke my heart, no flashbacks hit me – nothing happened. What triggered me? Surely not discovering a blister on my foot.

The good news is that I did do one productive activity – I washed and dried three loads of laundry in between all the insane activity. But, I didn’t have enough gumption to actually put away the laundry. I was too busy contaminating my body, mind and soul.

I went to bed still craving more sugar, more numbness – with my heart doing summersaults in my chest from carb overload. My head was buzzing with a band of tightness. I made a weak attempt at swearing off sugar . . .

I was having trouble falling asleep because anxiety (and sugar) was keeping every muscle taunt – every noise, every movement in the house kept snapping me awake. So, remembering a post from Faith Allen’s blog about weighted blankets being an effective soothing tool, I laid all of my pillows, including the heavy floor pillows, on top of me, the entire length of my body and on top of my arms.

Much to my surprise, the weight of pillows did the trick. Almost immediately, I felt the anxiety dispel significantly. My body started relaxing. Even the ever-present need to “be held by a some nameless, faceless, kind and gentle man” faded. I felt calm and safe, and sleep finally came. What a precious gift . . . .

Chances are, as you innocently squeeze your blackheads, zits and any other foreign lumps on your skin, you did not realise that there are people out there who are actually addicted to the behaviour.

These addicts will squeeze their pores until there is nothing left to come out, and then squeeze several times more. They will have red marks on their faces, legs, arms and chests, or on any area of their skin where they prefer to pick. It may sound strange, but this is the plight of thousands of people who just cannot stop picking. Such addicts are called pickoderms, and the behavioural disorder has been classified under the umbrella of obsessive compulsive disorder.

While most people who are concerned with their skin are likely to engage in a little healthy blackhead squeezing once in a while, pickoderms have trouble controlling the amount of time they spend on such activities. Skin picking has become a compulsion for them, and for one reason or another, they find it incredibly difficult to quit the behaviour.

A pickoderm may start picking based on health reasons, or simply as a way to deal with stress or emotional imbalance. Whatever the reasons, the pattern of behaviour becomes very hard to break and because of this, very unhealthy. Some people have such tender, raw skin because of the disorder that they cannot stand to go out or wash the damaged tissues.

Skin picking is usually seen on the face, arms or legs, but it can also occur in unseen places such as inside the mouth. Unknown to those around them, and even family members and close friends in some situations, a pickoderm with this specific habit will use their teeth to chew and rip at the tender skin inside his or her mouth, leaving a trail of white, dead tissue along the line of teeth.

Whatever area of the body such a person focuses on, the behaviour can often be so out of control that the person is in incredible pain but cannot stop regardless.

If you have this compulsion, it is still very important to take proper care of your skin. No doubt the affected areas will be very tender and sore, so direct application of any moisturisers or disinfectants should be done very carefully. Try not to apply any products directly to inflamed skin, but if the sores are at least partially healed they will be able to handle gentle cleansing and moisturising, which are both essential in the healing process.

Severely picked skin is susceptible to infection and therefore you must be absolutely sure to keep the area clean and free of harmful bacteria. As often as you can stand it, wash with an astringent liquid and be thorough.

If you are like most pickoderms, you will go through cycles of picking and healing, so you will need to take full advantage of the healing phase and help it along where you can. Use an antibacterial wash, and use it often. You will also need to moisturise the area to help the skin cells rebuild themselves. Apply a very small amount of moisturiser several times daily until the sores have healed sufficiently, and then apply larger amounts until the skin is completely healed.

Picking your skin is a widespread habit, but it is a smaller population of people that pick to such an extent to cause permanent scarring or blatant sores. If you are one of these people, try to remember your basic skin care rules to combat scarring and take care of your skin.

[Private journal entry written on July 17, 2009]

This week, I watched an episode of A&E’s TV show “Obsessed” that featured a woman (“Vanessa”) struggling with skin picking. She showed up on-camera with band-aids on her face – and I was watching the show with several post-picking band-aids on my face – talk about hitting close to home . . . .

The Flower by Martin Chen

In the context of therapy, she came to realize that picking was the ultimate distraction for her. Each time she gets “stuff” to pop out of a pore or a zit, it is a huge victory for her. Picking allows her to experience a multitude of clear-cut successes in a life with no other form of success. When she picks, time stops for her. Her “real world” ceases to exist, along with all of her worries.

Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggg . . . so close to home.

I was mesmerized by the episode . . . a rare occurrence, to be sure, since TV doesn’t do much for me in general.

In my case . . . when I feel overwhelmed, I can slide onto my very familiar spot on the bathroom counter and put my face within a couple of inches of the mirror – close enough that I can see every single pore – and every single white head and black head and zit that is contaminating those pores. Time stops for me. My entire world becomes the size of one pore. All I have to do is “fix” those pores . . . clean them up . . . remove the dirtiness . . . remove the badness . . .

My focus on that one imperfect bump – that one clogged pore, that one prickly hair stub – becomes so intense that there is no room in my mind for any other thought – or any emotion. I am entirely consumed with plunging the straight pin into the bulls-eye of the pimple so I can see the junk explode outward. I experience the biggest rush when the explosion is violent enough to splat the junk onto the mirror . . . . . or when I finally snag that stubborn hair stub that has been at the heart of a persistent zit – and yank it out at the root . . . congratulating myself on my expert fishing technique . . .

I’m trying to think of a comparison to which a wider audience could relate . . . I can imagine a similar escape from reality occurs when people play challenging video games for hours on end . . . I don’t know from experience since video games have never appealed to me . . . but I can imagine the similarities . . . and that method of escape is usually socially acceptable . . . not considered disgusting and abhorrent . .

Anyway, maybe . . . as I’m picking, I could ask myself what emotion or feeling or thought or situation I’m avoiding . . . I could multi-task . . . picking and feeling, at the same time . . . . I wonder if it would help anything?

Me, picking a giant nose for the first time.

Carving a pumpkin is just like picking a giant nose.

I picked my first giant nose the week before Halloween at my girlfriend’s house. In Brazil, my home country, we don’t celebrate Halloween; thus, we don’t carve pumpkins.

The inside of a pumpkin is wet, hairy and gross. Carving the pumpkin felt like taking out a wet booger mixed with nose hair — but in a much larger scale.

It would be so much easier if the pumpkin could sneeze. Then, we wouldn’t need to worry about the gross part of carving a pumpkin.

Overall, the experience was worth it. My girlfriend and I made a cat face on the pumpkin.

I was in a client’s distribution center the other day and stumbled upon a clever little visual replenishment idea.  The pickers were in a manual (no WMS) environment and needed to communicate to replenishment personnel that they had a stock out in the flow rack aisle.  The maintenance department rigged up these little red flags on the replenishment side every couple bays.  The pickers could pull a cord to lift the flag.  The little flag poles were then held in place by a wire that acted like a valve.  The replenishment people would look for these raised flags and perform the replen.  They could then reset the flags by pushing them down past the wire.  I attempted a little sketch to show what it looked like.  Clever.

Brock Flower Picking
Brock Flower Picking

Brock Flower Picking Game
Brock Flower Picking Game Description : Move the honey bee to collect the flowers from the garden. At each level,collect flowers of same color,and move to next set of flowers,as otherwise you will lose the game.
How to Play Brock Flower Picking Game? Use mouse to interact.

[Book study - July 7, 2009]

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
(Third Edition, 1994)
by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

Part One: Taking Stock
Coping: Honoring What You Did to Survive

[Table of Contents]

——————–

Green text: Quotes/Summaries from the book
Gray text: My words

This transformative work (the entire series of blog posts relating to this book) constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright law.

——————–

When the Pain Gets Too Great

Mental illness: Problems occur when the line between fantasy and reality blurs. For many survivors, “going crazy” makes a lot of sense.

To a significant degree, yes. I think Borderline Personality Disorder could easily apply to me although I’m not sure where I would fit on the continuum.

Self-mutilation is one way survivors control their experience of pain. Instead of the abuser hurting you, you hurt yourself. The physical pain distracts from the emotional pain.

Yes – skin picking, big time – hours a day.

The Rise by Martin Chen

Suicide attempts: Suicide sometimes seems like the only option left in a life that feels out of control. Attempts at suicide are not always so overt. One woman spent her childhood saying the prayer “If I should die before I wake” with her fingers crossed.

Not so far, but I often hang out in the space that is a few steps prior to suicide.

Addictions are common ways of coping with the pain of sexual abuse. They are usually self-defeating and self-destructive. You can be addicted to dangerous situations, to crisis, or to sex. You may have turned to drugs, alcohol, or food to keep the memories down, to numb feelings. Addictions must be curbed if you want to heal.

Food, yes, big time. Alcohol used to be an issue, but I think I was craving the numbness more than the alcohol. I never have gotten into drugs, thank goodness.

Isolation is often coupled with addictions. If no one is close to you, no one can hurt you anymore. Survivors often shut others out, creating a half-life of their own making.

Absolutely. Especially lately.

Anorexia/bulimia: Young girls who were sexually abused sometimes develop anorexia and bulimia. In a rigidly controlled family system where the abuse is hidden and all appearances are normal, anorexia or bulimia can be a cry for help.

This doesn’t apply to me.

Compulsive overeating is another way of coping. Survivors may feel that being large will keep them from having to deal with sexual advances.

Yes – sometimes a full-fledged binge (eat as much as possible as fast as possible), but more often a slow-motion binge (eat until I feel overfull, then sleep or get otherwise distracted, then eat again until I feel overfull, wait for the food to settle a bit, then eat again until I feel overfull . . . usually it is centered around high-sugar and high-fat foods). The slow-motion binges often last for weeks, sometimes months.

Lying: When children are told never to talk about the abuse, or don’t want people to know what’s really going on at home, they become adept at lying. Sometimes this pattern of lying to cover up or protect continues into adult life.

At first I answered “no”, then I realized I do lie about who I am . . . that is what the “Pretend Marie” and “Real Marie” deal is all about.

Stealing is a totally absorbing activity. It is a way to create distraction or excitement, to re-create the feelings you had when you were first abused – guilt, terror, the rush of adrenaline. Stealing is also a way of defying authority, an attempt to take back what was stolen, to even the score. It can also be a cry for help.

This doesn’t apply to me.

Gambling is a way to maintain the hope that life can magically change. It’s also a thrill, a way to escape the difficulties and challenges of day-to-day life by entering another world – one that is totally consuming and in which the risks and payoffs are well defined.

This doesn’t apply to me.

Workaholism: Survivors often feel an overwhelming need to achieve, to make up for the badness they feel is hidden inside. Excelling at work is something that they can control and that’s given a lot of support in our high-achieving culture. While working to excess can show a strong motivation to succeed, it can also be a way to avoid an inner life or a connection to the people around you.

This used to apply to me. However, when I got laid off in 2002, then couldn’t find a job, lost all my material possessions, had to live with family and friends, and filed for bankruptcy – my workaholism disappeared. I lost my confidence and I have become somewhat of a non-achiever. I’m starting to get my confidence back, but the over-achiever part of me is nowhere to be found, at least not right now.

On the weekend we visited a couple of places and went mulberry picking. It’s a messy, messy job, and people were only too happy to have us come along and make a dent in the huge number of berries falling from their trees. Grammy came along to help out and we ended up with a few buckets full.

RJ helps get the mulberries into the bucket.

LR helps Mum by keeping the bucket steady.

Grammy came along too. She was usually helping out on the smaller ladder.

Mum really gets up into those trees.

RJ climbed this tree so he could reach the berries better.

Grammy brings the bucket over so that RJ can drop his berries right in.

LR explored the highest reaches of the tree, picking a huge number of berries.

The curse of the mulberry picker... Purple hands!!!

The reward... Mulberries!

we went apple picking yesterday, my first time.  andrea and josh met us in south norwalk.  we had brunch at chocopologie.

i can’t believe they don’t have a website, but here’s a blurb about them: http://events.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/04cndine.html

this is the quiche that rich ate:

the day was perfect and quintessentially autumn:  blue sky, wispy clouds, glowing leaves on the ground and in the trees.   it was just a 40-minute drive through winding hills to get to the orchard.  gorgeous.  stone walls and farmhouses, old stone churches, new england.

it was my first visit to an orchard i think.  rows and rows of trees with clusters of different varieties of apples.

it is the end of the apple picking season, but we still had plenty of apples to choose.

picking them is loads of fun, and sometimes a challenge.  josh had a far reach for a couple of them.  he even jumped for a couple.  i did too.

the fragrant scent from the stem after they pop off the tree makes smiles.  and then of course eating one right after picking is the best way to eat an apple.

crunchy, juicy, sweet, yum.

i discovered new varieties of apples, like the gold blush apples.  i didn’t taste one though.  i didn’t want the sandpapery skin in my mouth.

after our bags were full, we went into the store to get some extra goodies.  we got some honey, black cherry fruit spread, and some gourds.  i can’t wait to go again next year.

but first, i need to make some applesauce with our booty from yesterday.

Pride is an interesting thing; it is always present but sometimes it is so, so difficult to pinpoint exactly where it might be festering. My heart rots away and I am totally unaware of the reason. Since moving to Texas, I’ve spent much time wandering down those crooked paths of my mind and picking over some of the traits I’ve found along the way. This hasn’t been easy; sometimes I’ll blow the dust off these undiscovered things and be completely disgusted with what I’ve found. And other times, and this is much less frequently, I’ll grin a little and thank God for a simple work He’s done in my heart.

Always, though, there lingers that ugly beast of pride. It follows me everywhere I go, taunting me and (most…damaging-ly?) lying to me. My college pastor, Esca, gave a great message over the seven deadly sins, ending on this issue of pride. I couldn’t help but be shaken by it! How often does pride creep into such inconspicuous places and wreak so much havoc on my soul? I’m coming to find this is a huge issue for me, and for any future growth to occur I have to figure out how I can squash it.

Any ideas?

I think the first step is to be aware of it, to root pride out wherever it hides and expose its lies. And what a perfect example was presented to me tonight after listening to this message by Esca: Someone was trying to compliment me on my voice and ended up discouraging me to no end. What I realized is the intense amount of pride I have built up in my own opinion of myself.

So, instead of agreeing with her and thinking nothing of it, I am shaken to my core because “she just doesn’t see how good I am.” I have placed too much worth in my ability and not enough in His. Pride has tricked me into thinking that my identity and worth is found in my ability to sing well. What a silly way to think! This brings nothing but anxious thoughts, worthlessness, and self-pity to my already wearisome thoughts. Well, I can only pray that God deals with this horrible way of thinking and brings me back into reality, that I am nothing and that He is everything.

New image in the abandoned mill photoshop contest

Only source used:
Flower meadow @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurlvink/1685949141/
Thank you Juergen Kurlvink for the use of your beautiful image. …
Lovely day for picking flowers photoshop picture

Howard Stern has been pretending to be mad at Stuttering John of Jay Leno’s Tonight show lately because John supposedly stole his bit of having a chicken pick NFL games.  But long before Howard did that bit, Washington, DC sportscaster Glenn Brenner was having an elephant pick games.  This happened in the 1980s, and Howard was in Washington from 1981 to 1982 at DC-101.  I’m pretty sure Glenn had not started the elephant bit when Howard was still there.  Anyway, I have a lot of those old Channel sportscasts on tape.  So I’m not saying Stern stole it from Brenner, but at a minimum, Brenner was clearly doing this bit 15 years before Stern did.  I also include a couple of blog entries:

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/04/25/DI2008042503005.html: Easton, Md.: Your “monkey” stunt brings to mind the elephant prognosticator used by the late, great Glenn Brenner to pick NFL games. Each week Glenn would ask a celebrity guest to pick each week’s winning teams, with the winner receiving a donation to his or her favorite charity. One year the winner was a 90 year old cloistered nun! But far and away the best was his use of a trained elephant. He put the helmets of the 2 teams side by side, and the elephant would indicate his choice with his trunk.

http://dc.metblogs.com/2006/01/14/remembering-glenn-brenner/:  Also popular was the guest prognosticators segment featuring celebrities, local and national, as well as an elephant.

Brenner was one of the funniest people I’ve ever seen — possibly the funniest person I’ve ever seen in my life besides myself when I’m on (kidding).  I put him right up there with David Letterman from the 1980s.  (In the 1990s and beyond, Letterman seemed to jump the shark for me as he just wasn’t cutting edge anymore, and started being too nice to his guests – sounds a lot like the road Howard has taken).  Brenner made sports interesting and funny.  He was way ahead of his time.  His humor was a lot more genuine and spontaneous than the smug one-liners that ESPN anchors are known for.  He was in another universe than someone like Tony Kornheiser, who thinks that he is the funniest guy out there.  (Though, back in the day, when Kornheiser wrote columns, he was actually very funny – about 25 years ago).  The rapport Brenner had with his news anchors Gordon Peterson and Maureen Bunyan was unbelievable.

Check out some of the youtube clips (unfortunately there are only a few and they only begin to show Glenn’s humor): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxFBvGI_iW8&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo_Zu_uiSQc&feature=related

I have tons of Channel 9 sportscasts from the 1980s on betamax somewhere.

In interned at Channel 9 sports during the summer of 1988, though Glenn was actually off about half of that summer on vacation.  On January 12, 1992, the Redskins beat the Lions 41-10 in the NFC Championship game.  After the game, I was standing about 10 feet away from Joe Gibbs in the locker room when he said the game ball was for Glenn Brenner, who was in the hospital because of an inoperable brain tumor.  Glenn died a couple of days later at 44.  He had collapsed two months earlier while running in the Marine Corps Marathon.

The 1980s was a golden era for Washington TV sportscasters.  Glenn Brenner at Channel 9, George Michael at Channel 4, Frank Herzog at Channel 7, and Bernie Smilovitz at Channel 5 were all stars and great at what they did.  Nobody knows or cares who the current anchors are.

Stern is right that he changed radio and spawned many imitators.  But remember that Glenn did the animals picking NFL games bit first.

Are you thinking about buying a new puppy for Christmas? Here are some things to keep in mind before bringing a new puppy into your home.

A big factor to keep in mind when choosing a new puppy is your home; hence your puppy’s new home. Do you have an apartment, a condo, or a house? Is your home in the countryside or in the middle of a busy city?

Few dog owners ponder this, but your living situation should play a big role in choosing the right puppy for you and your family. Three factors to take into account are:

1. The amount of noise that the particular dog type is known for.

2. Exercise needs and whether or not your activity level will meet the dog’s needs.

3. Size restrictions put in place by the home owner’s association or your landlord (if renting).

Common Misconception

A common misconception about puppies and their ideal living areas is that only little dogs are suited to live in an apartment, whiles large dogs should live in a country home with space to run around in.

Really, it is not necessary to have a big backyard to own a large canine, and small dogs aren’t always fitted for apartments. Many big dogs do well in apartments and condos, while some smaller dogs are better off living in the country.

For example, if you are considering owning a Greyhound, you don’t have to live in a country or own a big backyard to keep him satisfied. This breed is a sprinter, not a marathoner. And although he enjoys a nice run with his owner, he will be happy with a 15 to 20 minute brisk walk in the morning and at night.

Greyhounds are also not known to be barkers, which suits them for apartment or condo living. The main worry with owning a large dog in a condo or a high-rise apartment is the owner’s strength to carry him up and down the stairs if he’s unable to do it on his own because of age or injury.

On the other hand, most terriers, like a Jack Russells for instance, may seem perfectly able to live in small spaces because of his size. But his constant barking may cause you to lose your apartment or have angry neighbors knocking on your door.

Many smaller dogs bark a lot and have enormous energy levels that it can cause them to make a lot of noise, which in return makes them a poor candidate for apartment life.

Therefore, when choosing a dog, it is important to consider the breed’s noise level, the amount of time you spend at home, and the amount of time you are willing to devote to exercising your pet.

Content provided by Amy Brantley of www.ohmydogsupplies.com, check for new discounts on memory foam dog beds online.

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