It was 13 years ago today that I decided to try this new thing called ‘blogging’. It was hosted by a newly installed blogging platform at my university and the friendly people working there helped me get over the initial difficulties of learning how to do basic things. I did not expect to blog for long but here I am, still plugging away and having fun.

I am a sucker for good news animal stories like this one from the UK via Carla Sinclair.

According to the YouTube page:

RSPCA inspector Jaqui Miller successfully rescues a dog who had gotten stuck in a frozen river. The inspector was secured with a rope, and prones down to reach the dog without falling through the ice herself. She then frees the dog who then stumbles back to shore.

The comedian got a tweet from a stranger with a single derogatory term. Rather than responding in kind, she took the high road and what ensued is worth reading.

We are currently experiencing a prolonged period of snow and extreme cold and wind, though In Cleveland the snowfall has been a couple of inches every other day or so and not the massive snowstorms that have hit other parts of the northeast. But it was bad enough that driving required considerable caution.

This video of Mike Warner of Oregon trying to climb stairs in 90 mph wind reminds me of the old ‘walking into the wind’ mime classic.
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WINDY!! wind gusts at Vista House in the Columbia River Gorge were over 90 MPH at times this morning! Really hard to walk, knocked me down several times #LiveOnK2 #pdxtst #EquinoxLiveDrive pic.twitter.com/dBRcP0VcLq

— Mike Warner (@MikeKATU) January 2, 2018

Jacqueline Kent Cooke, the heiress daughter of the late Jack Kent Cooke, the former owner of the Washington football team that refuses to change its racist name, apparently got drunk on New Year’s eve at a fancy restaurant and used anti-Semitic slurs on a fellow patron that later resulted in a brawl on the street outside that was captured on video, with Cooke sitting on the sidewalk and bringing down her adversary with an ankle tackle.
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My family, including my grandson, are going to be visiting for the next few days and I am going to be spending some fun time with them so blogging will be suspended until early in the New Year. While 2017 was a disaster in terms of politics in the US, one wonderful thing for me personally was the birth of my grandson. I hope all of you also had at least one thing that was wonderful that enabled you to view the year at least somewhat favorably

Best wishes to all readers for a much better 2018!

Recently we had as dinner guests a colleague and his wife and during the evening he happened to mention that someone was “his first cousin once removed’. I seized on this because I had never been sure what that meant and so asked him. He said that when he talked about someone being his first cousin once removed, he meant someone who was a child of his first cousin. But when I asked him how that other person would refer to him (since he was not the child of that person’s first cousin) he said he was not sure. I have also heard some people refer to the child of a first cousin as a second cousin.
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As the holiday season kicks into gear and people get to spend time with friends and loved ones, I too would like to wish everyone an enjoyable time.

Although Donald Trump has now made it safe for people to say “Merry Christmas”, I much prefer to say the more inclusive Happy Holidays or Reason’s Greetings from Baxter the Wonder Dog and me. (The photo is not actually of Baxter but he does look a lot similar.)

At this time of year, we get holiday cards from friends and relatives, though fewer each year since some are now choosing to send electronic versions. We usually place them on a sideboard until the holiday season is over. But there has been an increasing tendency for businesses to send cards to their customers and that poses the question of whether they should be accorded the same status as the others by being placed among them.
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