For the "Ring Around the Rosie" explanation, I am going to need a little better theory than, "It just seems to make more sense if *this* happened..." I've heard numerous variations of the song, and most of them have that Black Plague ring to them.

What's the likelihood that a poem had been sung by kids for generations to help them cope with disease and death -- a little dark humor among kids -- and just wasn't written down for a while? You see a bunch of kids outside playing, singing gibberish songs, with half of your household dying: writing a book, detailing every version of the song you hear, isn't the first item on your to-do list.

Or do kids everywhere just come up with darkly ironic and coincidental lyrics just to get away with dancing and spinning in a circle and falling down at the end? I'm going to go with the Black Plague theory on this one.

Nigger, nigger, nigger.

Also, honkey, yellow, wetback.

These words only have power behind them because people give them the power. The words have no intrinsic evilness or offense. I can say the word "nigger" in front of black friends because it's obvious to them that I have no intent of harm and they give it no power in receiving it. Altering a piece of American historical literature due to a certain word is giving that word way too much power. If we could all shrug and let the word roll off our back, this wouldn't be an issue.

Now, if we could only rid the world of Aussies. (I kid... though a quick search through Wikipedia showed that there were no derogatory terms for someone from Australia (other than Aborigines)).

It looks like the trick people do with sealed cans filled with steam then quickly cooled where the air pressure squishes the can. But on a much larger scale.

I have the food dehydrator, and I love it. I love fruit, but I never eat it in time before it goes bad. So, I dehydrate everything right when I get home from the store, and I put it in a plastic baggie. So, I'll just grab a handful here and there. The jerky I made with it was the best I've ever tasted.

Just so you know... Dehyrdated Spam is pretty terrible. But, Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage links in the dehydrator are delicious!

I **HATE** the Dual Action Cleanse infomercials with Klee Irwin. He talks about his 4-year old's bowel movement and actually shows someone's humongous poop dangling from a stick. Those "detox" things are all a bunch of hooey anyway, but this creepy looking guy makes them downright disturbing.

Despite being from an Oprah Winfrey quote, I kind of like the title of this album. If I could pronounce the name of the band, I'm sure we'd take off!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jp-land/2187830928/