Cereal Eatin's

Cereals have become increasingly varied over the last 10 years or so. Way back, the novelty cereal was Cheerios for shape. Other shapes were flakes (boring) and puffed rice (sugarless and pretty bland, unless you made Rice Krispie cereal blocks). Other cereals that come to mind are puffed wheat and puffed rice, which tasted surprisingly bland to me. Nabisco Shredded Wheat, to my recollection, came three pillow-shape, haystack-textured rectangles to a box, as unexciting as all getout for looks and taste.

The shapes that later came along to capture imaginations were Post Alpha-Bits and Chex shapes (wheat, rice, corn). Alpha-Bits seems to have spawned other shapes, like Lucky Charms and Trix. (Watch the Trix youtube video of the commercial for Bugs Bunny cameo.)

Lots of the cereals come and go. Most I can't remember. Seems that disappeared cereals are similar to mall store closings and some comic strips for me. When one disappears, I sense something changed, but unsure what had formerly occupied the space. Three cereals that come to mind are General Mills Fingos, Kellogg's Nut & Honey Crunch, and Post Crispy Critters. Just ran across a link for discontinued cereals. Read 'em and weep.

Fingos seemed to straddle between obvious snack and cereal. It didn't stay long. Some background info indicates that a $34 million launch in 1993 didn't guarantee market longevity. Nut & Honey cereal was maybe more famous for the catchphrase than the product itself. Crispy Critters had a jingle and catchy product name. Unfortunately, the cereal disappeared long ago also. Of course, the term crispy critters has evoked more of a negative image as years have passed.

I went through a long period that I skipped cereal, but have been eating them heartily for the last few years. What choices these days! Lots of different shapes and flavors!

I've recently been eating some cereals more out of the box instead of just than eating them with milk. They're yummy for munching while watching TV or working at my desk. Most of the munchable ones I pick are sub-bite-size and not messy or crumbly. They don't melt in my hand or mouth. They're nice alternatives to other, faster calorie-delivery munchies or snacks, like candy bars, bite-size candies, ice cream, snack crackers, chips, roasted peanuts, etc. (You know, those evil foods that often jump into the shopping carts.)

Nearly very week, I slowly amble along the supermarket aisle to see what I'm in the mood for to pick up. The following cereals often make it into my cart, not every week, of course.

• Kellogg's Cinnabon
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Touch of Fruit in the Middle Mixed Berry
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Blueberry Muffin
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Cinnamon Streusel Bite Size
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Little Bites Chocolate
• Post Shredded Wheat Honey Nut
• Post Shredded Wheat Vanilla Almond
• Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola
• Post Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches Cinnamon
• Post Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches Honey Roasted
• Post Churros

I don't list any General Mills cereals. I would if they would make the Cinnamon Toast Crunch and French Toast Crunch cereals twice the square size. They're tasty, but too, uh, small for my taste. Not as much fun when I have to pull out several in each grab. Most of the munchie cereals I listed actually have some healthful aspects, of sorts.

• The shredded wheat ones, Chocolate Granola, and Just Bunches, have 5 to 10 grams of fiber per serving in them.
• They take longer to consume than candy bars, chocolates, cookies, and ice cream. (The yummies, with more fat and calories, go down much faster and have fewer nutrients.)
• They cost less by the mouthful. For example, Oreos and chocolate chip cookies don't seem to last as long in the house as cereals.

Munchie cereals are a little less fun to eat and messier as I reach towards the bottom of the box. When clumps become niblets, it's definitely better to mix the bits in milk. For that matter, it's fun to mix several cereal types and flavors together.

My cereal tastes don't extend to those that I consider to be really sweet. Sure, the ones I list are sugary, but not quite sugar bombs like Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops, both by Kellogg's. Actually, I do buy cereals that I pour milk into and eat, without regard to munchiness versatility. I definitely go for variety!

• Uncle Sam
• General Mills Fiber One Honey Clusters
• Cascadian Farms Vanilla Almond Crunch

As a result of eating lots of cereals, I empty out lots of boxes and bags. At another time, I'll write about handy ways to reuse them, up to a point.

Spoken Out

Pronunciations interest me for how words and names often sound different than their spellings. Even as a native English speaker, I trip up. I've started this article talking about EU (not you) and skipped along names, consonants, words, and contextual pronunciations.

EU
In a TV show about Paris, the narrator pronounced unique as YOO-nik, like the word spelled eunuch. Phonetically related is the name Eunice, a name I heard of at a young age. I heard it as yoo-nis, but thought it would be spelled Unis. If I’d never known the pronunciation of Eunice, I might have thought the name should sound like ee-YOO-nise (long i) or EU-nise.

More observations about name pronunciations

• Basil—if if’s a name, pronounced BAAA-zul. If it’s a spice, pronounced BAY-zul.
• Herb—it it’s a name, pronounced herb. If it’s a spice item, pronounced urb.
• Lincoln (LINK-un) and palm (pom) spell with l’s, but don’t sound with them.
• Bret Favre (farv)
• Bode Miller (BOH-dee)
• Bono—BOH-noh if you're talking Sonny, Cher, or Chaz. BAH-noh if you're talking about the Irish singer.
• Gabriel vs. Gabrielle. The guy's name has a long a, and the woman's name gets a short a. I would think it should sound like gay-bri-ELLE.
• Paul Krugman (long u or short u?), John Boehner (pronounced bay-ner), Matt Groening (pronounced grayn-ing)

More OE pronunciation
Three names with "oe" vowel combinations can seem unpredictable and confusing besides the ones I just mentioned. Why is Joe pronounced joh, but Zoe is ZOH-ee and Chloe is KLOH-ee For that matter, if I hadn’t heard of Chloe, pronunciations could include chloh, shloh, SHLOH-ee, CHLOH-ee, kloh. Hmmm, Joe needs a y for the pronunciation of JOH-ee. Seems the other two names should be spelled Zoey and Chloey.

A segue to CH, a major consonant-pair confuser
While I'm discussing ch pronunciations, I think it must be difficult for people who are not native English speakers to decide on the sound as ch (chair), sh (machine), or k (chemical).

• Melancholy (MEL-un-KAH-lee) looks like it should be pronounced mel-AN-CHO-lee, something related to a pepper.
• Chamomile (CAM-uh-myul) is a tea flavor made from dried flower heads of a particular plant. This word is a minefield for mispronunciation possibilities.
• The ch sound is in truck. I hear the pronunciation as chruk, not truk.

More visual consonant-pair and single-consonant confusers

• I think the combinations can be difficult if the word is not familiar. Is it pronounced like thermometer or there? Think of a thimble there that is close to those thermometers.
• One consonant that stumps me constantly is "g" ("g" or "j" sound)? The other day I saw an ad for Allergan's Allegra. I have no problems with Allegra, but I want to pronounce Allergan with "g" and not "j". General, germ, galaxy, garble, gin
• Another consonant with dual pronunciations is "s" ("s" or "z" sound). State, states, status, statuses.
• Close—"z" sound or "s" sound? Depends on the context. Related: the movie "Closer". Not having seen it or heard the name pronounced, I don't know whether the title pertains to relative distance or something or someone who closes a deal.
• Of, off, oof are three words with two letters in common but pronounced differently from each other Odd that pronunciation of "of" is "ov". Stick an "a" between the letters to get a long "o" pronunciation (oaf).

A meandering to relative speakings
Uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, cousin don't really spell as simply as they sound.

UNG-kul, ant or ont, NE-few, nees, KUZ-un

Anomalous spellings considering the pronunciations

• Knuckle, knee, and knight are odd for starting with k’s.
• Muscle (MUS-sul) actually evolved from mouse, little mouse, which a muscle resembles as a body shape under skin.
• Scissors (SIZ-urz)—Vanna, get me an s. What a strange way to spell the device.
• Iron (I-yern), irony (I-yern-ee) are mystifying because no one pronounces them as I-ron or I-ron-ee. Iran and Iraq sound like they’re spelled. Of course, the pronunciations for residents of those countries wind up with short i’s.

A few town names to try the spelling or pronunciation

• Worcester, Ma (WEST-er)
• Quogue, NY (kwog)
• Phoenix, AZ (FEE-niks)
• Coughran, TX (unsure)
• Manor, TX (MAY-nr)
• Burnet, TX (BURN-et)
• Manchaca, TX (MAN-chak). I want to pronounce it man-CHAK-a. (Now thinking of Chaka Kahn's "I Feel for You" song and lyrics.)
• Pedernales, TX (pur-deh-NAH-less)
• A couple of similar sites that address some Texas town pronunciations, not that I necessarily agree—Rules of Austin, Keep Austin Weird

Different pronunciations depending on context

• read—present tense and past tense verb that are spelled the same but pronounced differently.
• lead—noun and present tense verb. The past tense of lead is led. If attempting to apply similar rules to that rhyming word read, past tense seems like it should be red. But red's a color.
• live—adjective and verb. Pronunciation of long i or short i depends on usage.
• sewer—nouns. Pronunciation of SOO-ur or SOH-ur depends on usage, which I have written about.
• minute—MIN-it or my-NOOT. Odd that it looks like it could be pronounced min-NOOT. Seems like the word should be spelled minit if talking about the time unit.
• woman—weird that the plural form is pronounced wimmin. For that matter, the singular form sounds like WUH-mun, not WOH-man.

Other mysterious word spellings, attributed to French origins
Even though I took French classes in the past, I don't have explanations for some of the following words: soldier (SOLE-jer), colonel (KER-nul), lieutenant (LOO-ten-unt). Hmmm, lieu tenant (an officer in place of a tenant).

While I'm on the topic of military ranks, I'm bringing up private. The private has the lowest rank, yet the word implies choice and control over self-disclosure. On the opposite end of the rank, we have general. A military general is highly ranked. As an adjective, general indicates ordinary status. Exceptions might be if general is part of a proper noun, such as General Electric, General Motors, General Dynamics.

Written words that surprised me when I first heard the pronunciations

• Cupboard (KUB-urd). I want to pronounce it CUP bord.
• Preface (PREH-fus). I want to pronounce it PREE fays.
• Tuberculosis (too-BER-kuh-LOH-sis) looks like it should be pronounced TOO-ber-kol-OH-sis. And it looks like it should mean some sort of potato disease.
• Vacation. The first time I saw it spelled was in the first grade. I had not yet learned about long and short vowels. I immediately spotted "cat". I might have wondered why "tion" was pronounced "shun".

Home and Hermione
I see the word home, and I think homage should sound like HOME-age or home-AZH. The pronunciation is "\ ä-mij, hä-\ ". I mentioned "homage" and other puzzlers in my Hermione pronunciation article a year ago.

Heart 2 Heart

My theme today is hearts, the iconic symbol for the day. I've written about it in the context of things nearest and dearest that pop into my brain for this article.

Valentine's Day! It seems to have sneaked up on me very quickly this year! Last year, I had plenty of time to publish my convenient cooky recipe for making heart-shaped, red cookies using two flavors of cake mix. If you feel you have time to run to the store to get the ingredients and bake them, go for it! OTOH, you can just stretch the Valentine celebration (observation) for the whole week and wait until the weekend to bake them.

The pixstrip at the top of the article is an assemblage of some pictures I took at my most previous visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center These prickly pear cacti caught my eye because of heart shapes. At that time, I knew I'd want to write something up and include cropped pictures of them.

Another heart theme item I'm including in this article is info about PaintShopPro's picture tube feature, specifically hearts. (PaintShopPro is a graphics editing tool.) The associated pixstrip is a screen capture with the Picture Tube icon, icon label, my "spray" of hearts, and the Tool Options dialog box with option selections. My version of PaintShopPro is very old, so the interface does not resemble the ones from a webpage that discusses PSP picture tubes.

If you use PSP and want to download picture tube images, visit Corel's Paint Shop Picture Tubes webpage

This year, I myself am skipping making the cookies. I think I had been making them annually for about five years straight, sometimes for two to three different groups of people I'd see. Several conditions have converged to nudge me to forego the activity. Although I had re-entered the working world back in July after a 17-month hiatus, my perception of decreased discretionary time seems to have settled in only right after the new year started. Even towards the end of 2010, I managed to adhere to my self-imposed goal of publishing an article three times a month, one for every 10-day division. So far, I've managed to post only one last month and this one this month. Not sure if I will manage another article before February ends.

Here's a thought if you have enough fortitude to resist the psychological exertion to DO SOMETHING TODAY. Wait till tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow (Tuesday). That's the day the stores and drugstores knock off 50% for the cookies and candies. The meal? Just offsetting it a day. For an article that provides a different view of Valentine;s Day, read the New York Times' "When Love Outgrows Gifts on Valentine’s Day"

If you feel you must DO SOMETHING TODAY, here's a list of last minute suggestions for the day. Pick any, some, or all:

• Card
• Candy
• Stuffed animal
• Trinket, gadget, or bauble
• Heart-shaped cookies
• Favor coupons that you create
• Meal out
• Meal in
• Other thing(s) that come to mind

Have a happy day, whatever you do!

Names on the Brain

On and off over the years, I've thought about various aspects of names. In my article, I muse about four aspects:

• Names of characters in soap operas, for which I'm citing one digest's compilation
• American gender-neutral names
• Popular names I've run across during my schooling and work career
• Hurricane names

Soap Opera Names

I originally started to write about names I spotted that were in a Sunday insert soap opera digest a few weeks ago. I mused about characters' names. While Googling for the online source of the soap opera digest, some of the non-soap opera hits intrigued me enough that I clicked some of them. Some sites pertained to name origins, several of them pertaining to naming babies. One website had input fields for searching databases for popular names for boys and girls by year. (I've put URLs at the bottom of my article to avoid breaking up the reading continuity.)

I've not been a big soap opera watcher over the years. A long, long time ago and far far away, as far as I can recall, I regularly watched at least a couple of soaps with my mother. (I think I was in-between jobs at the time.) Some time after I quit watching them, I would read digests in the Sunday newspaper inserts. It amazes me that events that broadcast five days a week for half an hour each could be summed up in about six sentences. Well, someone else watches soaps so I don't have to. Sure, I could probably record soaps and zip through commercials, but I have other shows I'd rather lose my thoughts in.

I try to avoid getting involved in any of the soap opera digests anymore, but one soap seems to beckon me occasionally still. That would be Bold and Beautiful. I'm curious about how many of the main characters look now, as I hadn't watched the show in maybe 15 years. I can't seem to muster the energy to turn on the TV to look in on them. Maybe I'm apprehensive of getting sucked into watching again. As if I have spare time to shoehorn more activities.

Anyway, back to Bold and Beautiful. I'd always thought some of the characters' names were a bit unusual. The name Ridge has always struck me as odd. I myself don't know anyone named Ridge. I could say the same thing about almost all the other names I saw—Thomas, Brooke, Taylor (woman, pre-Swift), Whip (!), Amber, Liam, Hope, Tawny, Oliver. Thomas is one common name among guys (or the familiar form, Tom). The rest of the names seem to belong to mostly actors rather than everyday people. Besides several Toms/Thomases and one Oliver I know, I don't personally know anyone with those other names. Whip? Egad!

The digest's other soap operas and characters' names I collected are as follows:

All My Children
Madison (woman), Greenlee, Zach, Kendall, Marissa, Scott, JR (making me think of Dallas series), Annie, Amanda, Cara, Caleb, Asher

Days of Our Lives (aka DOOL)
Daniel, Chloe, Kayla, Caroline, Parker, Philip, Melanie, Philip, Nathan, Stephanie, Sami, EJ, Nicole, Vivian, Brady, Sidney

General Hospital
Sonny, Brenda, Luke, Tracy, Carly, Dante, Nik, Brook Lynn, Michael, Edward, Patrick, Robin, Lisa, Johnny

One Life to Live
Matthew, Inez, Nora, Bo, John, Natalie, Marty, Jessica, Brody, Clint, Viki, Joey, Aubrey, Joe, Kelly, Layla, Cristina, Blair

Young and Restless
Sharon, Skye, Adam, Daniel, Daisy, Kevin, Phyllis, Victor, Kyle, Diane

The digest I cribbed from is Scoopin' the Soaps, posted 12/15/2010, Toby Goldstein for Tribune Media Services. My Sunday insert excluded Desperate Housewives and Gossip Girls. For my article, I also passed on mentioning characters' names from those shows.

American Gender-neutral Names

The following non-gender-specific names have occasionally popped into mind: Dale (Evans, Earnhardt), Taylor (Swift, Lautner), Chris (Simms, Evert), Pat (Pat from skits in SNL, Boone, Nixon), Alex (Trebek, Doonesbury—fictional), Sidney (Lumet, Simpson). Most of the names seem to be popular now or had been in the past in movies or TV. Speaking of which, if you want to find links to celebrities with names you have in mind, Google "celebrities named [name]". Surprisingly, the websites themselves don't seem to have easy search tools.

Popular Names from School and Work

The following names are popular ones I've encountered over the years: Kathy, Linda, Mary, Deb or variations, Jennifer, Jessica, Karen, Jean, Sharon, Sue and variations, Carol, Dave or David, Steve, Bob, Bill, John, Mike, Dan, Scott, Paul. In some of my school classes or workplaces, I'd know several people with the same first names. Differentiating required actions like adding their surname initial, in written reference, quietly approaching them, ..., but not shouting out just the first name.

Hurricane Names

Used to be that they gave girl names to hurricanes. For some time, they've also tossed boys' names into the mix. For info about names, visit http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/tcfaqHED.html and click Section B questions. Because the website is a FAQ, you might want to open Section B in a new window so you can easily return the other four sections for more hurricane items of interest.

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The names in the two following sites are clickable for name origins and meanings.

• 100 most popular names for boys, based upon Social Security Administration statistics as of May 2010
• 100 most popular names for girls, based upon Social Security Administration statistics as of May 2010

Visit The New Parents Guide for links to most most-popular names for boys and girls by certain years, decades, and eras.

If you've been curious as to your own name's popularity rank for the year you were born, or any other year, for that matter, this SSA page has filters you can play with.

Buy Buy Buy Ay Ay Ay

Only another couple of shopping days left! Borrowing from an article I wrote about this time last year, I'm thinking gadgets again. Not that I'm going to buy any myself. This year for inspiration, I looked to three local advertising inserts, accompanied by web searches. This article can serve as a mini-shopping list to keep shoppers out of the malls, which I imagine are crowded. If you're cybershopping, it's another matter. If you're bricks-and-mortar shopping, get thee out there!

To provide some mystery and also avoid appearances that I'm pushing specific b&m places, I'm omitting store names. Let's say two of them are drugstores (pharmacies, apothecaries, mini-marts that coincidentally also dispense prescription drugs in teeny corners, …}. The third b&m place is a stand-alone electronics store that seems to have gotten on the holiday-gadget bandwagon. My table format has a heading row for places identified as "A", "B", and "C"—followed by rows for items and prices. To view images of items, copy and paste the item names in Google image searches.

The price focus is for items priced $19.99, $14.99, and $9.99. I listed one notable exception because the item looks so cute. The 99¢ price ending is no accident. My article "The 99¢ Effect and Other Saver Thoughts" includes discussion about the psychology of the pricing something just under the next dollar threshold.

One electronics store that I patronize places those impulse-buy snacks near the bank of cash registers (typical merchandise location). The price signs show the dollar and cents values with different type size. Not that I can recall at this moment, but it seems the cents value is about one-fourth the size of the dollar value. Anyway, happy celebrations of whatever you're celebrating!

	A	B	C
Pillow Pets	$19.99		19.99
34" Jumbo Teddy (bear)		19.99
Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball	19.99	19.99	14.99
Big Box of Fuzzoodles	19.99
Homedics Neck and Shoulder Massager	19.99
Dr. Scholl's Full Cushion Massager	19.99
Homedics Hand Sanitizer Dispenser	19.99
EnviraScape Home Fragrance	19.99
Dr. Scholl's Foot Spa	19.99
Paper Jamz Guitar	19.99
Paper Jamz Drums	19.99
Shake Weight	19.99
Belly Burner	19.99
Discovery Kids Motorized Pottery Wheel		19.99
Discovery Kids Adventure Play Tent		19.99
Mister Steamy (dryer ball that you put water into)	14.99		14.99
Yoshi Blade (Looks like successor to Ginsu knife)	14.99	19.99	14.99
Amazing Wand	14.99		14.99
Total Pillow	14.99
Chef Basket	14.99
Snuggle	14.99	14.99	9.99
Pet Zoom	9.99
Finishing Touch Personal Hair Remover	9.99
Handy Caddy	9.99
Cami Secret	9.99
Might Fix It	9.99
Pasta Boat	9.99
Dropps Detergent	9.99
Voice Recording Photo Frame	9.99
13 in 1 Pocket Tool	9.99
Golfer's Tool	9.99
2 Pack LED Book Lights	9.99
Open It! Any Package	9.99
Sara Peyton Wand	9.99
Sarah Peyton Two Headed Massager (!!)	9.99
Homedics Foot Massage Pillow	9.99
Homedics Mini Bath	9.99
Homedics Exfoliating Shower Massager	9.99
Wexford Glass Personal Scale	9.99
Emerson Triple-head shaver		9.99
Emerson wet/dry shaver		9.99
Soft-Sided Pet House		9.99
Doggy Stairs		9.99
Discovery Kids moon lamp		9.99
Money Farm piggy bank		9.99
Slap Chop			9.99
Anti Static Dryer Balls			9.99
Wonder Hanger			9.99
HD Vision Ultra Sun Glasses			9.99
Slippers	9.99
Rainbow toe socks	3pr/10

A Convenient Ganachey Icing

I don't have a good name for my hybrid icing, so I'll refer to it as ganachey icing. Ganache is a term for a chocolate icing with two main ingredients—chocolate (squares, chips, candies, etc.) and heavy cream. The white icing equivalent is white chocolate and heavy cream. A typical ganache to me is the chocolate icing on Hostess cupcakes.

My alternative to heavy cream is canned frosting. The convenience is microwaving two items and not having to boil cream. Anyway, the ratio is typically half "candy" and half frosting, by weight. For cupcakes, I tend to use 8 ounces of candy (Wilton, chocolate or other flavor chips, candy bars, "bark", ...) and 8 ounces of frosting for a batch of cupcakes cut into 48 halves.

You can be as flexible and adventuresome with icing flavors and cake shapes as you want. For that matter, the ganachey icing is good also on cookies and rice crispy bars/squares. I have not ever tried icing a whole cake because I tend to make bite-size desserts.

Melt the candy in a microwave. Follow instructions for melting if the package has them. Otherwise, microwave a minute at a time, using a spoon to test for meltedness each time. When it's melted, spoon in the frosting, stir, and microwave the mixture until it's a syrupy texture. Spread or dip items as desired.

• The first batch of images show icing one mini-cupcake. Coverage should be about 60 (one cake mix box recipe). YMMV for how many bite-sizers you ice.
• The second batch of images show icing a sheet of chocolate rice crispy treats, then cutting and arranging the squares into a container. Yes, that's a squeegie handle I use for spreading the warm ganachey icing—clean!

In case mentioning Hostess cupcakes triggers a Pavlovian response and you want to try making your own, do a Google search for "homemade hostess cupcakes recipe". Of several recipes I've viewed, these bakers are serious scratch-recipe people! One recipe that is particularly eye-catching for details and pictures is Faux Hostess Cupcakes - Childhood Lunchbox Memories. A secondary source for reasonable information is Homemade Hostess Cupcakes.

I myself would probably just be casual enough to bake from a box cake mix recipe, squirt in canned frosting, pour and spread my ganache recipe, and draw the squiggle with more canned frosting. Wouldn't these cupcakes look cute as mini versions?

Visit my other baking recipe articles:

• A Convenient Triple-dose Pnutty Butter Cooky Batch
  Cookies using PB cookie mix, turbocharged w/chopped peanuts & Wilton PB flavor candies
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--German Chocochip Bites
  Cookies using cake mix—German chocolate cake taste with predominance of chocolate, coconut, and pecans
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--Easter
  For Easter, cookies using cake mix, decorated with color sugars, then imprinted with small cooky cutters.
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch
  Easy cooky recipe using cake mix for making red cookies for Valentine's Day. Includes a strip of images at the top of the article.

Post-TDay Travel--Part 3 of 3

YouTube playlists for this article (1, 2),
playlist compilation article

This article is the third of three parts of the Thanksgiving week travel theme. In the first article, I wrote about songs about planes, trains, and cars, based on the movie title Trains, Planes, and Automobiles. As I dove into writing about other travel modes, I wandered around from song to song. I concluded I have enough material for three parts. Part 2 is about water travel songs—boats, surfboards, submarines, ….

This article covers the rest of the travel modes I can think of. I've listed songs, artists, lyrics sites, and video sites (if possible). Take another trip down memory lane.

One Foot in Front of the Other

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Walk, Don't Run	Ventures	NA	V
25 Miles	Edwin Starr	Click	ES
Stroll	Diamonds	Click	D
Hitch Hike	Marvin Gaye	Click	MG

Non-car Wheelies

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Surrey with the Fringe on Top	Various	Click	BD, GM to SJ	from Oklahoma play
Bicycle Song	Red Hot Chlit Peppers	Click	RHCP
Bicycle Race	Queen	Click	Q
Bicycle Built for Two	Various	Click	Chipmunks, computer
Acoustic Motorbike	Luka Bloom	Click	LB
Little Honda	Hondells	Click	H, [imagery]	2nd video—montage
Highway In The Wind	Arlo Guthrie	Click	AG
Motorcycle Song	Arlo Guthrie	Click	AG	Significance

Mass Transit (of Sorts)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Bus Stop	Hollies	Click	H
Magic Bus	The Who	Click	Who
Another One Rides the Bus	Weird Al	Click	AY	parody of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust"
Promised Land	Chuck Berry	Click	CB	Prominent in MIB w/Tommy Lee Jones singing with radio while driving upside down
Convoy	C.W. McCall	Click	CWM, [imagery]	1st video—movie trailer w/complete song, 2nd video—montage w/twist on lyrics

Clippity Cloppity

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Over the River and Through the Woods	Various	1, 2	Chipmunks	Lyrics for Thanksgiving, Christmas refs
Horse with No Name	America	Click	A
El Paso	Marty Robbins	Click	MR	Performance from father, then son
Ghost Riders in the Sky	Johnny Cash, Pukipu/Ramrods	Click	JC, P/R	1st video—Johnny Cash 2nd video—Pukipu/Ramrods

Up in the Sky (Not Planes)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Superman/Can You Read My Mind	John Williams composer	Click	JW
Up, Up, and Away	5th Dimension	Click	5D
Yellow Balloon	Yellow Balloon	Click	YB
Magic Carpet Ride	Steppenwolf	Click	S
Whole New World	Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle	Click	PB&RB

Up in the Stratosphere (Also Not Planes)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Rocket Man	Elton John	Click	EJ
Fly Me to the Moon	Frank Sinatra	Click	FS
Star Wars	John Williams composer	NA	JW
Star Trek	Various	NA	classic, Next Generation
Telstar	Tornados	NA	T	Trivia: Band member George Bellamy is father of Muse’s Matt Bellamy.
Martian Hop	Ran-Dells	Click	RD
Bennie and the Jets	Elton John	Click	EJ	All these years, I never knew it was Bennie, and Bennie’ a she. ("She's got electric boots a mohair suit")

Just Moving On

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Wayward Wind	Gogi Grant	Click	GG
Travelin' Man	Rick Nelson	Click	RN
Ramblin’ Man	Allman Brothers	Click	AB
The Wanderer	Dion	Click	Dion
Different Drum	Linda Ronstadt, Michael Nesmith	Click	LR, MN	Lyrics link plays LR's song immediately. 1st video—LR, as part of Stone Poneys 2nd video—MN (ex-Monkee), DD writer
Me and You and a Dog Named Boo	Lobo	Click	Lobo
On the Road Again	Willie Nelson	Click	WN
On the Road Again	Canned Heat	Click	CH

Post-TDay Travel--Water Water Everywhere

YouTube playlists for this article (1, 2),
playlist compilation article

This article was going to be the second of two parts of the Thanksgiving week travel theme. Previously, I wrote about songs about planes, trains, and automobiles, based on the movie title Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. As I dove into writing about other travel modes, I wandered around from song to song.

I concluded I have enough material for a third part, coming out in about a week. (Visit http://whilldtkwriter.blogspot.com/ about the first week in December for it.) This article focuses on music for a prominent mode of travel NOT in the movie title —boats (and other water travel methods). I've listed songs, artists, lyrics sites, and video sites (if possible). Take another trip down memory lane.

Surfboard Travel (On the Water)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Surfin' USA	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Surfin' Safari	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Hawaii Five-O	Various	NA	classic, 2010
Wipeout	Surfaris, Ventures	NA	S, V
Pipeline	Chantays, Ventures	NA	C, V	1st video—Chantays' Lawrence Welk appearance: Check out the Beatles' suits, pre-Beatles
New York's a Lonely Town	Trade Winds	Click	TW
Surfer Joe	Surfaris	Click	Surfaris
Surfer Girl	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Catch a Wave	Beach Boys	Click	BB	same tune as Sidewalk Surfin'
Sidewalk Surfin'	Jan and Dean	Click	J & D

Boat Travel (Also on the Water)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Sea Cruise	Frankie Ford	Click	FF
Come on Down to My Boat	Every Mother's Son	Click	EMS
Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)	Enya	Click	Enya
Sailing	Christopher Cross	Click	CC
Come Sail Away	Styx	Click	Styx
Advemtures in Paradise	Lionel Newman composer	NA	LN
Sloop John B	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Sail On, Sailor	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Beyond the Sea	Bobby Darin	Click	BD
Blue Navy Blue	Diane Renay	Click	DR
Kiss Me Sailor	Diane Renay	Click	DR, DR & ER	1st video—live performance 2nd video—duet w/Ed Rambeau, one of the song writers, who also wrote and recorded "Concrete and Clay"
Brandy	Looking Glass	Click	LG
In the Navy	Village People	Click	VP

Underwater Travel (In the water)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Yellow Submarine	Beatles	Click	Beatles	Legos video animation
Pink Shoelaces	Dodie Stevens	Click	DS	“He takes me deep sea diving in a submarine!”
Sea Hunt	David Rose composer	NA	DR

The catchy song that takes you from land to water is "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" (Brian Hyland): lyrics, video.

Turkey Week Travel--Planes, Trains N Cars

YouTube playlists for this article (1, 2),
playlist compilation article

The day before Thanksgiving is supposed to be the most heavily traveled day, at least for flying. I'm thinking that lots of people travel during the entire week. As we're rapidly approaching the big day itself, I'm bringing up a Thanksgiving-theme comedy movie and putting a music wrapper around it. Planes, Trains & Automobiles. which came out in 1987, stars Steve Martin and John Candy. From the IMDB site, the short introduction states, "A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving, with an obnoxious slob of a shower ring salesman his only companion."

The movie title is about the modes of travel that the two main characters use to get from here to there, and there, and there, …. The time setting is long before 9/11, and well before TSA. It's amazing how air travel rituals have changed. Even now, maybe especially now, who knows the next paths that air travelers follow, willingly or not?

This article focuses on music that feature the movie's three modes of travel—planes, trains, and cars. I've listed songs, artists, lyrics sites, and video sites (if possible). During my web research travels, I had encountered songs that featured additional travel modes. Having accumulated lots of references, I'm publishing two parts. For this part, take a trip down memory lane with songs that feature the movie's travel means. The second one—well, wait for it (the next article). Let's say it'll be another trip with more ways of locomotion to sing about.

Planes

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Leaving on a Jet Plane	Peter, Paul, Mary; John Denver	Click	PPM, JD	Catch the duet with John and Mama Cass Elliot.
Daniel	Elton John	Click	EJ
Jet Airliner	Steve Miller Band	Click	SMB
Back in the USSR	Beatles	Click	PM; Beatels	Paul McCartney in Red Square 2003, Beatels—decent Aussie tribute band
Eight Miles High	Byrds	Click	Byrds

Trains

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Night Train	James Brown	Click	JB
Midnight Train to Georgia	Gladys Knight and the Pips, 2012 Yale Whiffenpoofs	Click	GK & Pips, YW	I encountered links to the Yale Whiffenpoofs during research for this article.
Midnight Special	Johnny Rivers	Click	JR
City of New Orleans	Arlo Guthrie	Click	AG younger, AG older	Arlo sounds the same after all these years.
Folsom Prison Blues	Johnny Cash	Click	JC

Automobiles

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Fun, Fun, Fun	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Little Deuce Coupe	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Little GTO	Ronny and the Daytonas	Click	R & D
Hey, Little Cobra	Rip Chords	Click	RC
409	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Pink Cadillac	Natalie Cole, Bruce Springsteen	Click	NC, BS
Hot Rod Lincoln	Commander Cody, Asleep at the Wheel	Click	CC, RB
Mustang Sally	Wilson Pickett	Click	WP
Sister Christian	Night Ranger	Click	NR	"You're motoring, What's your price for flight …"
Little Old Lady from Pasadena	Jan and Dean	Click	J & D
Nadine	Chuck Berry	Click	CB
Maybelline	Chuck Berry, Johnny Rivers	Click	CB, JR
No Particular Place to Go	Chuck Berry	Click	CB
Drive My Car	Beatles	Click	Beatles
Vehicle	Ides of March	Click	Ides
Taxi	Harry Chapin	Click	HC
Cab Driver	Mills Brothers	Click	MB
Low Rider	War	Click	War
Beep Beep	Playmates	Click	Playmates
Shut Down	Beach Boys	Click	BB
Dead Man's Curve	Jan and Dean	Click	J & D

Visit my other music-topic articles:

• Moe-SKI-Toe--I've Got Me Under Your Skin
  Info about mosquitoes, accompanied by links to content and images, my parody "I've Got Me Under Your Skin", and links to my target song.
• Fish Fries Telephone
  Mini-lesson about commas and an abbreviated parody of Lady Gaga and Beyonce's "Telephone" song.
• Bad-Prose Rants from Lady Wawa
  Technical communicator parody (abbreviated) of Lady Gaga’s monster hit “Bad Romance”.
• Body Parts Express
  Huey Lewis' "Hip to be Square" triggering thought of "hip" as a body part rather than a social attribute, which results in my article about various body-part usages in songs and expressions.
• Year-end Fun-AT-tix and More Same Song Titles
  Seasonal homophones for year end and more same-song-titles/different-song examples.
• Dual-theme "Weird Al" Yankovic Songs
  Weird Al parodies that capture music from one song and integrates lyrics and visuals of his vision from another song.
• Same Song Titles, Different Songs
  Example songs that have same song titles but are different songs entirely.
• Some Wordplays Placed in the Wicked Play (and Other Wicked References)
  References to "For Good", "Defying Gravity", "I'm Not That Girl", "As Long as You're Mine", "The Wizard and I". I also include some background about main Wicked characters.

A Convenient Bean Soup

Now that the weather's getting cooler, thinking about soup. My basic *convenient* soup recipe calls for a can of refried beans and fluid. The image at the top of this article is an idea guide, usable as an auxiliary shopping list. If you can boil water, you can easily make the soup.

The ratio of fluid to canned refried beans is one to one. YMMV for soup thickness, depending on the brand you buy. You might want to start out with half the amount of fluid in case the brand put in more cooking fluid for their processing. (Yes, have done that before, too.)

These instructions make one quart of soup if using a standard 16-oz can of beans. If you want, you can halve the recipe and save the other half of the beans for another time. Or you can store the other half of the processed soup for another sitting.

Instructions

1. Open the can of refried beans.
2. Spoon the beans into a saucepan.
3. Use the can to measure fluid, then pour the fluid into the saucepan.
4. Stir and heat the contents.
5. Add whatever ingredients from the list, or anything else that sounds good. (If you want, add these ingredients AFTER you pour the soup instead of before.)
6. Pour into bowl(s).

If you buy the packaged refried beans, double the amount of fluid and follow the package instructions.

One additional idea—for a group gathering, heat several cans of refried beans and water in a large pot. Set aside bouillon powder. Acquire all the suggested add-ins. Let the guests ladle their own soup and add in what they want. Remember to have extra bowls and spoons on hand. Expand on a party idea. With a bunch of the ingredients, you could even move sideways with the thought and try queso dip and chip ideas.

Another convenient soup recipe you can try is my veggie lentil soup.

Q4 Lights N Decor, Halloween Sights N More

More and more, appearances by outdoor lights and decorations have been creeping backward and forward in the calendar in the 4th quarter. What formerly had been prominent displays only during the end of the year started showing up near Thanksgiving, staying around into the following year. This year, Halloween lights and decorations seem to have started as soon as early October.

In past years, simple paper-bag-shape lights lining driveways and walkways seem to have made way for Christmas lights, air-pumped lawn balloons, tree-hanger illuminators, and other lawn decorations. During the years that Christmas displays have become more elaborate, illuminating, and animated, Thanksgiving themes have been creeping in as if they were preludes to the BIG EVENT. Think inflatable pilgrim-outfitted turkeys.

In more recent years, Halloween decorations have gone on display since much of October. There are ghosts and ghouls, jack-o-lanterns, black cats, graveyard scenes, and more. Lights? Lots! A few years ago, they seemed to be primarily orange. Black is a common color for Halloween, but pretty impractical. This year, I've seen several houses that have multiple-color lights.

I think a possible trend could be lights and decorations that segue from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas. Well, maybe not all three events. You CAN have common items for Halloween and Thanksgiving using a harvest theme—pumpkins, orange lights, straw brooms, maybe more. Thanksgiving to Christmas might be less likely for common items. Hmmm, maybe make up an inflatable turkey wearing a red suit? (Yow!) I think that's a worthwhile marketing idea, maybe not too far-fetched! In any case, multicolor lights can make it through all three holidays, starting in early October through a few weeks in January.

Technologically, I wonder how feasible it might be to make strings of lights that are programmable for color. I know there are already light strings that blink, flicker, and chase. If someone could come up with lights that are programmable for motion and color, the lights would be REALLY multifunctional. Maybe a three-color lights gadget (red/blue/green) in a string of many that can display any one color or combination? Maybe a chasing-lights rainbow display? Programmable lights for color could be useful even for Valentine's Day and Easter! Well, one possible obstacle might be the association of red lights to a different meaning ("red light district").

For decorations versatility, companies could come up with inflatable balloons of cutesy kids that wear velcro-fastener outfits of holiday-theme clothing. How about witchy or batty for Halloween, pilgrimy for Thanksgiving, Santa Clausy for Christmas, …. Further use of my hypothetical kid balloons could include outfits with red hearts for Valentine's Day. For Easter, they could wear springy outfits (maybe including duck-bill hats and rabbit-ear headgear) and hold Easter egg baskets.

It might only be a matter of time before marketeers successfully induce mass use of outdoor decorations for Valentine's Day and Easter. They are very good at getting people to prep for those days, seducing us to buy holiday main-course food, desserts, and candy. Speaking of which, we sure don't need to wait for THOSE events to start in on the consumables. There's a lot going on this quarter!

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For more articles about Halloween, enter "Halloween" in the search box at the upper left of this window. Or find and click "Halloween" link at Partial Index of Keywords section (just below Popular Posts section).

DIY Bizcards and Name Tag

Attending meetups and attaching sticky-back name tags that you print or write your name on? Attending meetups and NOT having any name tags at all? Prepare for the next event by making your own tag and also having your own DIY business cards. Visit https://www.box.net/shared/usayfv8pv4, download my Word file, and modify it using instructions farther down in this article.

When I attended a networking meetup about a week ago, I received compliments about my name tag as I introduced myself. The tag was black on white, business-card size, double-side-tape attached to a paper trade-show card—all tucked into a clear, trade-show badge. I explained that I had attended so many networking events that I made up my own name tag.

As a writer, I considered the appearance of my tag to be an opportunity to display typography know-how. The tag displays my name and occupation, readable for type size and type face. Furthermore, I inserted Webdings that I felt symbolized my occupation—computer, sheet of paper, open book, stack of books, world globe, spider, and spider web. For subtle grouping, I enclosed a dotted rectangle around the globe, spider, and web.

The name tag is one of 10 cells that fit on a 2 x 5 grid, suitable for printing onto perforated card stock, commonly available at office supply stores. (Do a Google Image search for "perforated business card paper" to see packaging.) My process represents an alternative to getting business cards from Vistaprint and similar companies. And you also get a name tag as a bonus. With the Word file I have made available at https://www.box.net/shared/usayfv8pv4, anyone can use it to create their own business cards and name tag.

Instructions

1. Download the file and save it to your drive.
2. Edit each line of one business card cell to suit yourself. Save the file.
3. Select and copy that cell's information to your clipboard.
4. Paste the information onto one of the business card cells to see if the pasting looks good.
• If the pasting is good, continue to paste the information onto the other eight business card cells.
• If the pasting is not good, undo the paste. You might need to copy/paste special, line by line.
5. Modify the name tag cell as you wish. Save the file.
6. Print a test copy of the file onto plain paper. (Don't worry about the paragraph markers, non-printing symbols, and borders printing. They won't.)
7. Overlay the paper over a perforated card stock sheet, checking that the information aligns and also that each cell's information is well within its borders.
8. Adjust information alignment and looks as necessary.
9. Print the file onto a sheet of the perforated business card stock.

Suggestion: Save the file under a slightly different name. Copy a business-card cell, replace the name tag cell, and save the file so you have a file with only business cards.

For those who want to consider name tags that attract more attention than static ones, get one that scrolls. In my article—"Inventions Running Around the Blockhead"—I mention scrolling name tags (accompanied by URLs) and someone who has created her own to wear at events.

PDF2W--Converting PDF to Word-recognizable Format

You have a PDF file that you would like to convert to .doc or .rtf and you don't have access to an Adobe Acrobat version that will. How to convert for cheap? Even better, how about for free? Try two free online converters—Free File Converter (.pdf to .doc) and PDF Online (.pdf to .rtf). I have tried both procedures using an experimental PDF file, listed results for both tools, and discussed the results.

Free File Converter

1. Visit http://www.freefileconvert.com/.
2. Click the Convert File tab.
3. Browse to your input file, a pdf in this case.
4. Select the output format, doc in this case.
5. Click Convert. Wait as instructed.
6. On the new screen, click the file link to open it.

In my own case, my converted .doc file opened as a read-only file and had hard breaks at every line instead of line wrap. It also showed weird lines (correlated to no-longer-functioning hyperlinks) across some of the text. Just as an experiment, I did a save-as to the desktop. I closed the newly saved-as file, then re-opened it to view the actual new results.

The doc file ended up with extra pages, far beyond my experimental doc file of two pages. My observations:

• The converted PDF-to-doc file wound up as six pages:
• 1st page totally blank
• 2nd page with lines that had correlated to the hyperlinks and an image that had been on the first page
• 3rd page with content from original 1st page with no-longer functioning hyperlinks
• 4th page also totally blank
• 5th page also totally blank, but with some weird anchoring
• 6th page with content from the original 2nd page
• The page header converted to regular text.
• The font appearances and section breaks stayed.
• Style names and table formatting didn't carry over.

Cautionary note about Free File Converter results: If your PDF file has anything besides line-breaking text, you can kiss everything else good-bye—line wraps, headers (and presumably footers), tables, selectable images, styles. If you care to apply the PROPER techniques to obtain the looks (not just settle for the looks), you can be looking at all sorts of formatting and adjusting.

PDF Online

• Visit http://www.pdfonline.com/pdf2word/index.asp.
• Click Browse, then browse to your input file, a pdf in this case.
• Click Upload and Convert. Wait as instructed.
• Click the right-click here link to download the zip file.
• In the dialog box, save the zip file to your drive. Extract (uncompress) it. View it.

My observations:

• My PDF converted to rtf.
• Almost all my content turned into tables with extra columns.
• Hyperlinks no longer worked.
• Image was no longer selectable at all.
• The page header converted to regular text.
• The font appearances stayed.
• Style names, table formatting, and section breaks did not carry over.

Cautionary note about PDF Online results, which are similar to Free File Converter results: If your PDF file has anything besides line-breaking text, you can kiss everything else good-bye—line wraps, headers (and presumably footers), selectable images, styles. Table modifications could be a major issue. If you care to apply the PROPER techniques to obtain the looks (not just settle for the looks), you can be looking at all sorts of formatting and adjusting.

Using Free File Converter vs. PDF Online

The major contrast between these two converters is that PDF Online didn't add extra pages. If you want to convert for only looks, the PDF Online results file would probably be easier to work with than Free File Converter results file. You should try both free converters and decide which one to go with.

Free File Converter does all sorts of file conversions, including image formats. Now, here's my shameless plug where I cite Free File Converter and numerous other handy online tools—Tooling Around, at http://whilldtkwriter.blogspot.com/2010/05/tooling-round.html.