A woodchuck could (and does) chuck around 35 cubic feet of dirt in the course of digging a burrow. Reason dictates that if a woodchuck could chuck wood, he would chuck an amount equivalent to the weight of the dirt, or 700 pounds.

Oh… was that a rhetorical question?

Everybody knows a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Goin’ to bed. Nitey nite! Sweet dreams, folksies!

hmm… I really like adding the graphics to the last poll.. when you go to view results, it’s much simpler for me to see a colorful breakdown of results.

Wow… one type of ramen is really winning by a landslide… i’m going to have to try the chili ramen sometime soon.

My favorite comment so far – ‘s Ew!

There are many types of ramen designed for fast, convenient preparation. All contain the same basic ingredients: flour, water, salt, dough conditioner, and seasonings/spices.

Nissin Chicken Ramen was considered to be the first fast cook (instant) ramen in the world. Nissin’s Top Ramen brand was introduced in the U.S. in 1972. For many years, this product was known as “Oodles of Noodles” in the Eastern U.S. Due to it’s popularity, “Oodles of Noodles” was reintroduced throughout the United States in 2000.

Much more information can be gleaned from http://www.nissinfoods.com/ , the makers of top ramen.

Just what does kumbaya mean?

Oh Lord, kumbaya. Also spelled kum ba yah, cumbayah, kumbayah, and probably a few other ways. If you look in a good songbook you’ll find the word helpfully translated as “come by here,” with the note that the song is “from Angola, Africa.” The “come by here” part I’ll buy. But Angola? Someone’s doubtin’, Lord, for the obvious reason that kumbaya is way too close to English to have a strictly African origin. More likely, I told my assistant Jane, it comes from some African-English pidgin or creole–that is, a combination of languages. (A pidgin is a linguistic makeshift that enables two cultures to communicate for purposes of trade, etc.; a creole is a pidgin that has become a culture’s primary language.) Sure enough, when we look into the matter, we find this conjecture is on the money. Someone’s grinnin’, Lord, kumbaya.

Kumbaya apparently originated with the Gullah, an African-American people living on the Sea Islands and adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. (The best known Sea Island is Hilton Head, the resort area.) Having lived in isolation for hundreds of years, the Gullah speak a dialect that most native speakers of English find unintelligible on first hearing but that turns out to be heavily accented English with other stuff mixed in. The dialect appears in Joel Chandler Harris’s “Uncle Remus” stories, to give you an idea what it sounds like. In the 1940s the pioneering linguist Lorenzo Turner showed that the Gullah language was actually a creole consisting of English plus a lot of words and constructions from the languages of west Africa, the Gullahs’ homeland. Although long scorned as an ignorant caricature of English, Gullah is actually a language of considerable charm, with expressions like (forgive my poor attempt at expressing these phonetically) deh clin, dawn (literally “day clean”); troot mout, truthful person (“truth mouth”), and tebble tappuh, preacher (“table tapper”).

And of course there’s kumbayah. According to ethnomusicologist Thomas Miller, the song we know began as a Gullah spiritual. Some recordings of it were made in the 1920s, but no doubt it goes back earlier. Published versions began appearing in the 1930s. It’s believed an American missionary couple taught the song to the locals in Angola, where its origins were forgotten. The song was then rediscovered in Angola and brought back here in time for the folksinging revival of the 50s and 60s. People might have thought the Gullahs talked funny, but we owe them a vote of thanks. Can you imagine sitting around the campfire singing, “Oh, Lord, come by here”?

got me started thinking about ramen noodles, and my sweetie is a cup-a-noodle head, too.

so, for you ramen-o-philes, I present = The Ramen Recipe Database! Enjoy!

Ramen & Chicken in Vodka Sauce? Salsa Ramen Surprise? Apocalypse Stew? What’s your favorite?

i want a Rubber Track Conversion for my 4×4! oh wait, i don’t have a 4×4. or a car for that matter. never mind.

egress EE-gress, noun:
1. The act of going out or leaving, or the right or freedom to leave; departure.
2. A means of going out or leaving; an exit; an outlet.

intransitive verb ee-GRESS:
To go out; to depart; to leave.

In order to keep the crowds moving through the exhibits in his traveling show… Mr. P.T. Barnum posted signs that read: “This Way to the Egress.” Eager to view this presumably strange and exotic exhibit, the throngs would push through the door labeled “Egress” — and find themselves in the street.

Land Sakes… Have I been chained here a year already? I can’t believe that Fritz has been gone so long, and that the goon squad I hang with now, I’ve known the vast majority of my pals since at least last August. (When the interests list made it easy to find folks!) Thanks to for being my very first friend! *hug*

I think I’m in a better place than I was a year ago… a wonderful woman, none of my friends are irritating transient mobile types, Newt’s happy and healthy, as am I…Lj seemed more innocent, and there were no features… no interest lists, no privacy settings, only one lj user pic, and, it seemed, no petulent children or mean folks either. For wat seemed like forever, some folks thought that Darktrain and I were the same person…I’d post one word, and set of a rhyming game that went of over a hundred entries… romantic lovey words to my darling. 🙂 A bunch of fun stuff.

I love the memories feature… I’ve got a zillion links and fun posts marked. 🙂

Thanks to everyone who has made the last year here fun!I hope to see the lot of you in the next year, too!