Happy Saturday Everyone

-Doc

It was 40 years ago today

Normally we are all about fun here at YJKOBT but every once in a while there is something a bit more serious that needs to be discussed. It was 40 years ago today April 4, 1968 that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis Tennessee where he was attempting to help solve a sanitation workers strike. As a child I was told about Dr. King by my parents. They were part of the civil rights movement and part of my childhood was spent in a mostly black neighborhood in Greensboro North Carolina where my father was the pastor at a mostly black Lutheran Church. For some small part I lived part of the civil rights movement and learned of the nastiness that people in the south even during the 1970s showed towards those who supported integration and equality for African Americans.

Later when we lived in Salisbury, North Carolina we attended a church that was all white except for my sister who is bi-racial. I have never been the same since the day that my innocence was taken from me when on the phone someone claiming to be with the KKK threatened to blow our house up because in his words my dad was the "one bringing niggers into the church". I cried and asked my mom why they hated my sister so much and she answered that they were people filled with hate and not love and they were cowards to threaten children and work in secret. I was 10 years old and my innocence was lost that day and I still do not understand the hatred and racial tensions that still seem to exist in this country. We are all just people, human beings, what deep down does skin color really matter anyway? Sometimes I wonder if another "King" Rodney King wasn't onto something when he asked, "Why can't we all just get along?"

On this day let's take pause for a minute and reflect on the closing words from Dr. Kings most famous speech, The I have a Dream Speech given August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I think the are still applicable today:

'when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" '

My wish for today is for each of us to do our own small part of letting freedom, TRUE freedom ring.

-Doc

Friday's Top Ten List

What is your favorite McDonald's food product? I hope it is none of these...

The Top Ten Worst McDonald's Food ideas.

10. McHaggis
9. Pom Frites Donaldaux
8. Edible McUndies
7. The Feel Happy Meal co-sponsored by Zoloft
6. The Grimace House charity quadruple bypass cheese burger.
5. McHalloween party pack including an official John Wayne Gacy clown outfit.
4. Orca Sized Meals.
3. Mayor McCheese's 'special sauce'
2. Is it McBeef, Chicken, Fish or all three? You guess right and have your meal Super Sized for free.
1. The Senator John McMcCain diabetic Veggie low cholesterol meal for seniors.

Do y'all know of any other bad ideas from our favorite fast food giant? A Lion Award awaits for the best one....

Have a great Friday. I am off today from work and therefore I am going back to sleep now.

- The Mountain Cat

Thursday Random Thoughts 4/3

Stuff that I have been thinking about:

-Other than Mt. Cat does anyone else off the top of their head know what "The politics of Contraband" is ?? (without looking it up)

-There is this restaurant here near where I work called Johnny Burrito that has been giving out free burritos for lunch all week. I am not sure if that is a good thing or if their food is so bad that they have to give it away.

-Speaking of Mexican food, my wife and I are trying to eat healthier and lose a few pounds so this past weekend I made tacos with ground turkey instead of beef. They were not bad at all!

-I found another funny name in my customer follow up list this week that I want to share but the last time that I did that that actual person e-mailed me wondering why I posted their name, so maybe I shouldn't post this new one.

-Odd search note of the week: Someone from Tehran Iran on the "Islamic Republic" government IP site googled us and read Mt. Cat's Al Pacino post on Monday. Hey Vin - you better not get a fatwa started over our blog!

-If any of you go to see the movie Leatherheads this weekend this may interest you. Most of the movie was shot in and around Charlotte, NC including most of the football game scenes. OK so maybe that doesn't interest you... but it does me.

-Thank goodness they finally got around to voting Ramiele off of American Idol. I guess it's Goodbye Malubay.

-On our trip last week as we were driving through rural Alabama my wife spotted a billboard for (no joke) coffin sales. It was quite unique to say the least and she was cracking up. Has anyone else ever seen a billboard advertising coffins before?

-Check this out. I went into a Wal-Mart in Panama City Beach while on vacation and inside was not only a full surf shop complete with an entire station for airbrushing t-shirts but there was also a liquor store. Yes you read correctly there was a liquor store in the Wal-Mart in Panama City Beach. And people wonder why that area is referred to as the "Redneck Riviera"

-If you are ever bored (REALLY bored) sometime check out the show called Yo Gabba Gabba on Noggin TV. This show is a trip. It's kind of hard to explain but they have these creatures who dance around to hip hop type music and teach kids valuable life lessons like keep your hands to yourself, how to eat healthy and brush your teeth, and clean up after yourself. It's hilarious to watch and they even get celebrity guests on there to dance with the creatures. Does anyone else out there know what I am talking about? Now why didn't Mt. Cat and I think that idea up?

-I think that I am going to get a chance to do something really cool next week but I am not positive yet so I don't want to jinx it. Stay tuned though because I will tell you all about it if it happens.

-Doc

No Coffee for Old Men

- TMC

#1 Binge Drinking State

Here's a little ditty that comes from my home state of WI. Now, most people know us for our cheese (ask me about fresh cheese curds sometime, YUM!!) or the cows. What they don't know is that we actually only hold the record for being #1 in Binge drinking. Now there's something to be proud of!!! However, back in my day, we didn't have keggers like this.

Since I work with Youth all the time, I can truly appreciate the sentiment that went into this article. I mean, really, that must have been a huge bummer for the police. Here they are, thinking they're going to bust a bunch of kids and instead got it thrown in their faces! It just proves what our society believes in how our youth act. I love that some of them proved the authorities wrong!

Now I'm not saying that there isn't rampant teenage drinking going on. That's where all the fun is! It brings back some fond memories of my late teen years (I was a late bloomer) of hanging out back in a coulee with a bonfire and music blaring out of somebody's supped-up second-hand car. Let me tell you, cold weather isn't the only reason Wisconsin teens keep a blanket in their trunks! Gives a whole new meaning to the term "tail-gating". Post your thoughts or share a story from your drinking days.

Cheers!

-As American as Apple Pie

Pictures from My Vacation

So, last week the family and I went on vacation to Florida and Georgia. We had a great time and saw a bunch of friends and family so I figured that I would share some pictures with my blog family. So here they are. (I think you can click on them to see full size)


Here is a picture of Absolutgator and I posing by this big cannon in St. Augustine Florida (the oldest city in the USA):
Here is Absolutgator holding my son Patrick and trying to corrupt him with Florida Gator non-sense. I had to take the gator head away from him:
Here are a couple of pictures taken in Tallahassee Fla at Florida State University. Patrick, Mommy, and I all enjoyed the FSU hall of champions. Got our picture taken with the Bobby Bowden statue, and even ran into coach Chuck Amato...Way cool!
Here are a few pictures taken in Panama City Beach. We went to "ZooWorld" which is this really cool little zoo they have there. If you are ever there I suggest checking it out. It would be worth your while. This pic is of Mommy, Patrick and I near the turtles :

My favorite animal that we saw at ZooWorld was this really REALLY cool Panther We were really close to him and he was stalking all over the cage and growling and stuff. It was GREAT. I think he just liked the Panther shirt I was wearing that day. (as you can see in the above picture) My wife makes fun of me because I took a lot of pictures of him, but what the heck I love Panthers:
Here I am holding my son and introducing him to Sydney the giraffe:
Here is a picture my wife snapped of me while I was taking a nap after all the kids wore me out. My little buddy "Thor" had curled up next to me:
Here is a picture of me holding my son in Newnan, Georgia near Atlanta at my sister's house:

Here is Patrick wearing his new FSU hat and playing with one of his toys in Georgia: Yes he tried to jump that ramp in the background, I have pictures of that too:

Those are some pictures of our great trip that we had last week. There are others but I didn't want to bore you all to death. I hope you like and of course I use any excuse to show pics of (in my humble opinion) "The cutest kid on the planet" LOL!

-Doc

Tuesday Word Game Winner

Thanks to everyone who participated in Tuesday Word game. This weeks was really funny as heck! All the submissions were great but of course I had to pick one. This week I have to go with Knight who writes Knight Ramblings for this histerical entry:

During questioning, he reportedly admitted to having sex with the table. Police said he also admitted to arranging an orgy with the lawn gnomes.

Hey Knight, thanks for making me laugh, come and get your peach...

Thanks again to everyone... Check out Knight's blog when you get a chance and of course we will play Word Game again next Tuesday!

-Doc