But I Was Never Allowed To Chew Bubblegum!

Because you have nothing else to do.

Everyone over 50 should have a pretty easy time at this exam. If you are under 50 you can claim a handicap.

This is a History Exam for those who don't mind seeing how much they really remember about what went on in their life. [Remember! Googling is cheating!]

Get paper & pencil & number from 1 to 20. Write the letter of each answer & score at the end.

Then before you pass this test on, put your score in the subject line. Send to friends so everyone can HAVE FUN!!!! Also send it back to me.

1. In the 1940s, where were automobile headlight dimmer switches located?
> a. On the floor shift knob.
> b. On the floor board, to the left of the clutch.
> c. Next to the horn.

2. The bottle top of a Royal Crown Cola bottle had holes in it. For what was it used?
> a. Capture lightning bugs.
> b. To sprinkle clothes before ironing.
> c. Large salt shaker.

3. Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern winters?
> a. Cows got cold and wouldn't produce milk.
> b. Ice on highways forced delivery by dog sled.
> c. Milkmen left deliveries outside of front doors and milk would freeze, expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

4. What was the popular chewing gum named for a game of
> chance?
> a. Blackjack
> b. Gin
> c. Craps

5. What method did women use to look as if they were wearing stockings when none were available due to rationing during WW II.
> a. Suntan
> b. Leg painting
> c. Wearing slacks

6. What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn't tell whether it was coming or going?
> a. Studebaker
> b. Nash Metro
> c. Tucker

7. Which was a popular candy when you were a kid?
> a . Strips of dried peanut butter.
> b. Chocolate licorice bars.
> c. Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.

8. How was Butch wax used?
> a. To stiffen a flat-top haircut so it stood up.
> b. To make floors shiny and prevent scuffing.
> c. On the wheels of roller skates to prevent rust.

9. Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?
> a. With clamps, tightened by a skate key.
> b. Woven straps that crossed the foot.
> c. Long pieces of twine.

10. As a kid, what was considered the best way to reach a decision?
> a. Consider all the facts.
> b. Ask Mom.
> c. Eeny-meeny-miney-MO.

11. What was the most dreaded disease in the 1940s and 1950s?
> a. Smallpox
> b. AIDS
> c. Polio

12. 'I'll be down to get you in a ________, Honey'
> a. SUV
> b. Taxi
> c. Streetcar

13. What was the name of Caroline Kennedy's pony?
> a. Old Blue
> b. Paint
> c. Macaroni

14. What was a Duck-and-Cover Drill?
> a. Part of the game of hide and seek.
> b. What you did when your Mom called you in to do chores.
> c. Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. What was the name of the Indian Princess on the Howdy Doody show?
> a. Princess Summerfallwinterspring
> b. Princess Sacajawea
> c. Princess Moonshadow

16. What did all the really savvy students do when mimeographed tests were handed out in school?
> a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you high.
> b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs out the window.
> c. Wrote another pupil's name on the top, to avoid their failure.

17. Why did your Mom shop in stores that gave Green Stamps with purchases?
> a. To keep you out of mischief by licking the backs, which tasted like bubble gum.
> b. They could be put in special books and redeemed for various household items.
> c. They were given to the kids to be used as stick-on tattoos.

18. Praise the Lord, & pass the _________?
> a. Meatballs
> b. Dames
> c. Ammunition

19. What was the name of the singing group that made the song 'Cabdriver' a hit?
> a. The Ink Spots
> b. The Supremes
> c. The Esquires

20. Who left his heart in San Francisco ?
> a. Tony Bennett
> b. Xavier Cugat
> c. George Gershwin
------------------------------------------------------------


ANSWERS:

1. (b) On the floor, to the left of the clutch. Hand controls, popular in Europe, took till the late '60's to catch on.

2. (b) To sprinkle clothes before ironing. Who had a steam iron?

3. (c) Cold weather caused the milk to freeze and expand, popping the bottle top.

4. (a) Blackjack Gum.

5. (b) Special makeup was applied, followed by drawing a seam down the back of the leg with eyebrow pencil.

6. (a) 1946 Studebaker.

7. (c) Wax coke bottles containing super-sweet colored water.

8 (a) Wax for your flat top (butch) haircut.

9. (a) With clamps , tightened by a skate key, which you wore on a shoestring around your
neck.

10. (c) Eeny-meeny-miney-mo.

11. (c) Polio. In beginning of August, swimming pools were closed, movies and other public gathering places were closed to try to prevent spread of the disease.

12. (b) Taxi Better be ready by half-past eight!

13. (c) Macaroni.

14. (c) Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. (a) Princess Summerfallwinterspring. She was another puppet.

16. (a) Immediately sniffed the purple ink to get a high.

17. (b) Put in a special stamp book, they could be traded for household items at the Green Stamp store.

18. (c) Ammunition, and we'll all be free.

19. (a) The widely famous 50's group: The Inkspots.

20. (a) Tony Bennett, and he sounds just as good today.

SCORING:

17- 20 correct: You are older than dirt, and obviously gifted with mental abilities Now if you could only find your glasses. Definitely someone who should share your wisdom!

12 -16 correct: Not quite dirt yet, but you're getting there.

0 -11 correct: You are not old enough to share the wisdom of your experiences.

Then before you pass this test on, put your score in the subject line. Send to friends so everyone can HAVE FUN!!!!

Or POST IT ON YOUR BLOG!!!

Surprise, surprise! I scored a perfect 20.

From a friend in Texas, who gave me the title for the post.

John Updike On the Resurrection

Whether John Updike was a great writer, a great American writer, a great writer who was a mysogynist, a great short story writer, or something else, and I've read all of those categorizations online on various blogs, I can't say. I did my own tribute, which was not much, as it was mostly a cut and paste affair.

What I can say is that I love the poem below. His beautifully expressed view of the Resurrection is quite close to my own.

SEVEN STANZAS AT EASTER

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

Thanks to Bishop Alan and to Ann for the reminders of the poem.

Other blog posts on Updike that I've enjoyed are below:

Jane at Acts of Hope

Rmj at Adventus

They Make Me Crazy

From the Baton Rouge Advocate:

Louisiana legislators debated Tuesday whether insurance companies should be forced to cover the cost of vaccinating teens and pre-teens to prevent a cancer-causing virus.

At issue is the fact that the virus — human papillomavirus or HPV — is sexually transmitted.

State Sen. Gerald Long, R-Natchitoches, spoke for many opponents who feared a state-mandated coverage of the vaccinations would lead to increased sexual activity among teenagers.

“It would seem to me,” Long said, “… that we almost tell our young people, ‘It’s OK. It’s OK to practice sex.’ ”

State Rep. Juan LaFonta, D-New Orleans, said the virus can lead to cervical cancer.

He said he knows a 19-year-old woman who had to have a hysterectomy because of the virus.

“Why aren’t people talking about this?” he said. “It’s really a woman’s health issue.”

Folks like Sen. Gerald Long make me crazy. As though the young people need a license to "practice" sex. They just do it. Of course, the state run sex education programs in Louisiana are pathetic, leaving such gaps that the young people might believe that the vaccine protects them from all STDs, or even from pregnancy. The short version of sex education for teen-agers in Louisiana is, "Don't do it until you're married."

As Sen. LaFonta says, it's a woman's health issue. It's not about teen-agers having sex.

UPDATE FROM THE COMMENTS:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "They Make Me Crazy":

This of course ignores the fact that some young girls get HPV because they are sexually abused by an infected man. That's what happened to me, but I'm remaining anonymous at the moment because it's just to personal (however, y'all do know me). It is something I have to live with for the rest of my life, and be vigilant about testing. I've already had one cancer scare because of it (thankfully, was not cancer). No one ever talks about children who get STDs from rape and sexual abuse, and have to live with that legacy the rest of their lives -- something they did not ask for and wholly do not deserve. It often causes problems forming relationships later in life, as potential spouses often don't care how you got it, the stigma remains. No one wants to date someone with a known STD, you know? I was lucky and found a spouse who understood, but dated some that did not. I'd love to hear the politicians discuss this issue in those terms. They'd be lining their daughters up to get the vaccine.

Anon1

Good News From Ellie!

Blogger Ellie Finlay said...

Dearest friends,

I'm seem to be okay. I haven't had a heart attack but the medical people said I did the right thing in calling the paramedics. I'm in the hospital overnight for tests. They're not sure why I had the symptoms - jaw and neck pain, some nausea (symptoms that women tend to have when they sometimes don't have chest pain). I have several risk factors: both parents died from heart disease, I'm well past menopause and I have high cholesterol (despite my vegetarianism!) Also, they've found a couple of spots on my chest X-ray that weren't there in 2007 (and I'm an old TB patient) so they wanted to check that out.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. I know this community is a POWERFUL prayer force so, of course, I had to email Mad Priest before getting in that ambulance. (Then fortunately, some friends brought me my laptop after I was admitted.) No doubt all the prayer power had something to do with the (so far) positive outcome. (DON'T ask me how that works. I'm in no condition to do heavy-duty theology tonight.)

David, I'm so, so sorry about the job loss. I will definitely give that situation prayer time (I do have my rosary with me) and Jim, may your surgery go well. I promise to pray.

Again, thank you all so much. I love you dearly - each and every one of you.
Ellie

Thanks be to God, dear Ellie! Now we'll pray about the spots on your lung.

And remember JimB, who will have his gallbladder removed tomorrow.

Urgent Prayer Requests

From ELLIE FINLAY (40 minutes ago):

Hi, Jonathan.

Please get people praying. I'm going to the hospital with heart attack symptoms.

The medics are here.
Bye.
Ellie

Also further to this prayer request:

DAVID writes:

I'd appreciate the continued prayers, as I was part of a large layoff at work today...

Also, please don't forget JimB, laid off from work and laid up in hospital.

Posted by MadPriest at 9:34 PM

What a load of bad news in one night. Prayers for all.

UPDATE from the comments at OCICBW:

Jim said...

Prayers ascending for Elle and David. Latest news on my own case is that the pathologists say the gallblader must come out. We will schedule surgery in the morning. (It is the evening of the 27th here as I type this.

MP, you have forged an amazing community here. You and the Spirit do good work together.

FWIW
jimB

Prayers that all goes well with JimB's gallbladder surgery.

"Girl In A Hotel Bar - Priceless!"

It's only just over a minute. Take the time.

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

John Updike - R. I. P.

From the Washington Post:

John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76.

Updike, a resident of Beverly Farms, Mass., died of lung cancer, according to a statement from his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

Norman Mailer didn't like his writing.

He captured, and sometimes embodied, a generation's confusion over the civil rights and women's movements, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Updike was called a misogynist, a racist and an apologist for the establishment. On purely literary grounds, he was attacked by Norman Mailer as the kind of author appreciated by readers who knew nothing about writing.

I'd say Updike did pretty well for himself with his "readers who knew nothing about writing".

But more often he was praised for his flowing, poetic writing style. Describing a man's interrupted quest to make love, Updike likened it "to a small angel to which all afternoon tiny lead weights are attached." Nothing was too great or too small for Updike to poeticize. He might rhapsodize over the film projector's "chuckling whir" or look to the stars and observe that "the universe is perfectly transparent: we exist as flaws in ancient glass."
....

"I am very prone to accept all that the scientists tell us, the truth of it, the authority of the efforts of all the men and woman spent trying to understand more about atoms and molecules. But I can't quite make the leap of unfaith, as it were, and say, `This is it. Carpe diem (seize the day), and tough luck.'"

I'm with Updike.

He received his greatest acclaim for the "Rabbit" series, a quartet of novels published over a 30-year span that featured ex-high school basketball star Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom and his restless adjustment to adulthood and the constraints of work and family. To the very end, Harry was in motion, an innocent in his belief that any door could be opened, a believer in God even as he bedded women other than his wife.

H/T to the Episcopal Cafè.

Please! This Is Flim-Flammery, Mr. President

From TPM:

Obama meets this afternoon with the entire Republican conference. "I think what our big moves will be today are to ask the President to help us. Help us make this plan better so that it will put Americans back to work," said Boehner before the meeting.

House Republicans have worked closely with Obama while the plan has been crafted, but have complained that House Democrats have been less open to their ideas than has the president.

In the recent election, the people of the country made it quite clear that they do not want a continuation of the policies of the Bush maladministration and the Republicans in Congress. The problem is not the Democrats, Mr. President. The problem is congress critters like Mitch McConnell and his cohorts. You won by a landslide, Mr. President. Listen politely to the Republicans, and then do the right thing, Mr. President. Please! We're counting on you.

Video from TPM-TV.

A Word From Pip Across The Pond

Posted by Pip Dawkins:

Well bless my 'eart and call me Cromwell! The yank election 'as come to an end at last. Isn't it wonderful? A new leader across the pond. And without even cutting off the 'ead of the old president! Blimey, those Americans sure know 'ow to pick a ruler, don't they? Did it with class they did. I only wish I knew 'oo they picked.

It's my own fault, that is. Time and time again Mr. Greystone 'e told me not to bleed on 'is things, but I never listen. So until I clean every last speck off 'is brick, 'e won't utter one word to me about a winner. In my defense, chaps, I didn't know I was bleedin' at the time, as I'd made the unwise decision to faint on the sidewalk in front of 'is 'ouse. I don't see why 'e should 'old it against me. The front stoop is 'ardly inside the 'ouse. And my blood can't be that 'ard to clean off, being as though I'm right iron deficient.

Poor Pip. Read the rest. Perhaps Mr Greystone's heart will melt, and he'll let Pip know the outcome before too long.

Pip was orphaned at age three when his parents died of cholera. He resides at the Bethnal Green Workhouse in London, and is ever so excited for this year's election in America.

From The Onion.

Padre Mickey Speaks

From Padre Mickey's fingers to Wounded Bird:

Hi everyone,
I rarely send out a single email to a group; that's Mona's department with our Missionary Newsletter thang, but I wanted to notify you all that Mona and I will be in los estados unidos on a sabbatical of some four months this year. After the sabbatical, we'll return to Panama for one year to wrap up our ministry here and, hopefully, return to a new position in the U.S.A.

We are really looking forward to the sabbatical, but we're a little concerned about funding. Our income here in Panama is small but we're able to live simply as the standard of living is not so high, but four months in EEUU would be next to impossible on our income. We are looking for grants to help, but since I hates to beg, I came up with another idea. I'm writing you folks as you are all familar with my blog Padre Mickey's Dance Party and many of you are fans of that silly Friday Red Mr. Peanut Bank and Gallito Mescalito Blogging thang I try to do every Friday. I've opened a Cafe Press store which sells t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, etc, which have Gallito Mescalito or Red Mr. Peanut Bank or Miss Egyptian Hippo of Love on the front. I'm hoping that this stuff will sell and that this income will help us fund our sabbatical. Of course, we'll also take donations to our Missionary Fund at St. Francis' website, too.

Click here to check out the Dance Party Store of Love, and if interested, please purchase some stuff.

I'm sending this email as I am well aware that you all have lives and aren't able to visit the blog every day.

So, thanks for any help you can give, and maybe we'll see you while were in los estados unidos, hopefully!

Gracias a todos,
Michael aka Padre Mickey

--
Padre Mickey's Dance Party

Padre Mickey is an Episcopal priest and missionary who has served the Parroquia San Cristóbal for three terms. He and his wife, the Lovely Mona, sacrificed a great deal in their years of ministry in Panama. I have enjoyed the crazy, but occasionally serious, blog of El Padre for some years now. If you haven't checked it out, you should, especially his Friday evening dramas with the fascinating assembly of characters, some of whom are pictured above and featured in the merchandise at his store.

Padre Mickey posts many pictures of the parish activities at San Cristóbal. If you visit his blog, you will see the beautiful members of the parish in which he serves. The children are adorable.

UPDATE: Regarding the Dance Party Store of Love. Please! The "Store of Love" part is not what you're thinking.