Ponderings by Pat

"What 'chu talking about, Willis?"

So we all know that Gary Coleman died on May 28, 2010. This whole thing is just sad, isn't it? I mean the way he died and all. Did you hear the 911 call that Shannon (his wife/ex-wife) made? Watch this segment from the Today Show.

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No sound of concern or alarm in Shannon's voice - not ONE OUNCE of compassion for a man she was once married to, as he was lying on the floor bleeding to death. Okay, it's true there was some reports of domestic abuse in the past, but they were still together and supposedly loved each other.

There certainly wasn't any love left, though, when she refused to put pressure on the wound.

And when the 911 operator said, "Well, can you at LEAST give him a towel?" I thought the dispatcher kept her temper in check. I would have been screaming, "Listen, you unmerciful b*tch, give the man a freaking towel or his death will be on YOUR conscience!"

I guess I wouldn't make a good dispatcher. Too emotionally involved.

Like Matt Lauer said, "It turns out that Shannon is NOT the person you want next to you in the proverbial bunker when something goes wrong."

I couldn't have said it better myself.



I Scream, You Scream, We ALL Scream for Ice Cream!

My mother had told me long ago that she loved when she and Dad returned from grocery shopping and she'd put all the groceries away, especially the ice cream. She'd open up the carton and scrape off all the melted ice cream and eat it before putting the carton away in the freezer. (Granted, I'm sure it was only one or two spoonfuls because it was a short trip to the store!)

I remembered this little bit of wisdom that was passed down to me and started doing this a few years ago to OUR ice cream.

Unfortunately, I got caught.

"What ARE you doing?" Jim asked, taking in my ice cream mustache and my glazed over eyes as I was greedily eating right out of the carton.

BUSTED!

"Uh, I'm checking to make sure this isn't POISONOUS before YOU eat it! That's right! I'm taking one for the TEAM!"

He didn't buy it.

So now, any time we buy ice cream, we have a shoving match to see who will be the "tester". Usually we're a team, so we can die together just like Romeo and Juliet.

Well, that's the romantic version.

The truth is - neither one wants the other one to get more ice cream.





Going Rogue!

My son-in-law, Dave, teaches middle school history. School's out for the summer now, and he started a part-time job today "de-roguing" corn.

You heard me.

It's like the farmer's version of "Girls Gone Wild" only with corn. "Corn Gone Rogue."

In this case, it is corn that is growing outside of the rows, like coloring outside of the lines. "De-roguing" is pulling those wild thinking corn stalks out. They are also called "volunteer" corn stalks.

I have no idea where that name came from, unless the corn is compared to hands raised like volunteers in a group and they "stick out" from the crowd (row). That's my guess and I'm sticking to it.



Crew of roguers in a corn field just outside Sioux City, Iowa. The crew is Carrying the roguing shovels they use to take out undesired plants.

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Next Dave will supervise a group of youngsters to "detassle" the corn.

Who knew so much was involved to grow that delicious ear of corn? I'll appreciate it that much more next time I eat one! Yum!