Happy Halloween!

After a ghoulish night of trick-or-treating, relax with a nice cup of tea from a Halloween Teapot.

Pixie piglets populate pumpkin

These little porkers were just too cute not to feature again for Halloween.


On the other hand, this plethora of pork are for those with an appetite for larger sausage links. They would need to inhabit pumpkins like this. No pumpkin, however, will hold these nightmare inducing hellish hogs.

Black Tuesday

October 29th, "Black Tuesday" was the culmination of a three day financial meltdown in 1929 that abruptly ended the the Roaring Twenties and marked the start of the Great Depression of the 1930's. The stock market didn't completely recover from the great stock market crash until the mid 1950's.

Doesn't look her age...

...although she has had some cosmetic procedures over the years.

A gift to the people of the United States from the people of France, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886 in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.

Pint size porkers

First there were these, and now CrackedPot has discovered yet another miniaturized critter...Teacup Pigs. A friend told me that Good Morning America featured a segment about them. What is it with morning shows and miniaturized mammals?

Teacup Pigs apparently grow up to be roughly the size of a Cocker Spaniel. More bacon bits here and here (scroll down a tad).

It's all relative

One of Sugar³'s favorite quotes:

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

~ Albert Einstein

The perils of aging

One of the downsides of aging in the digital age is your friends can post your picture on their blog and announce to any and all that you're now officially Over-the-Hill Middle-Aged. Happy 40th to Bob and 50th to Steve!

They Came in Peace

CrackedPot and Sugar³ had friends who were asleep in their racks when terrorists detonated a truck bomb at their Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Two hundred and forty-one Marines, sailors and soldiers were killed on October 23, 2003. The Beirut Memorial, located in Jacksonville, NC is dedicated to those who lost their lives that day. In addition, a bradford pear tree was planted along highway 24 for each fallen man.

Here's to you Jerry, wherever you are.

Censoring colorful cliches confounds collaboration

Well I'll be damned....

Sugar³ ran across this article on swearing in the workplace.

Not sure about an all out expletive fest, but "golly, gosh, darn" does feel woefully inadequate when CrackedPot has just slipped and jabbed a needle through the webbing between forefinger and thumb or nicked a finger with the scalpel.

Old Ironsides

The oldest commissioned warship in the world, USS Constitution "Old Ironsides" turns 210 years old today. Construction on the frigate began in 1794 and she was launched on October 21, 1797. Currently she is undergoing a two year re-fit to spruce her up and bring her back to "fighting" condition.

The Captain's Clerk features some beautiful "Old Ironsides" artwork and nifty historical facts about the USS Constitution.

Black Monday for Friday

Twenty years ago today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average took a nosedive, plummeting over 500 points in one day. The 1987 crash was the largest single day drop in stock market history, resulting in a nearly 23% decline, which in turn triggered stock market crashes around the world. Because so many factors contributed to the crisis, to this day, astrologists economists can't agree on why this crash occurred.

Many Gekko "Greed is Good" investors from the late '80s lost their tailored shirts that day. CrackedPot remembers news coverage of distraught investors leaping from their high rise corner offices, or of unhinged investors shooting their brokers.

Mysterious malfunction makes mission miss moon mark

On October 18, 1962 NASA launched Ranger 5 on a mission to impact the moon. It never made it. A malfunction caused Ranger 5 to switch from solar power to battery power, and the batteries ran down. This guy could not be reached for comment.

Why catamarans are fast

Catamarans sail much faster than monohull sailboats. Not mentioned among the points outlined in this Wikipedia entry about catamarans is the main reason cats sail faster:

Because They Are So Ugly, Land Repels Them.

A man of his words

Noah Webster, famous author, lexicographer and Americanizer of the English language was born on this day 249 years ago.

Birthday \Birth"day`\, a.
Of or pertaining to the day of birth, or its anniversary; as,
birthday gifts or festivities.  [1913 Webster]

Flying high

The New York Municipial Airport was dedicated on this day in 1939. It's name was later changed to LaGuardia Airport. Minutes after the dedication, the first piece of luggage was lost.

Not particularly concerned with luggage was Chuck Yeager, who was the first human to break the sound barrier in an aircraft sixty years ago yesterday (October 14, 1947.)

"What's your sine?"

CrackedPot overheard this bad math pick-up line while at dinner the other night with Sugar³ and several of his math friends, "Can I get your integral because I want to know the area under your curve."

Perhaps the speaker would have had better luck with, "I don't have a perfect pick-up line that'll get you to take me home, but I can prove that one exists."

Or they could look here or here for inspiration.

232 years old today

The United States Navy was established by the Second Continental Congress on October 13, 1775. Happy Birthday!

CrackedPot attended a Navy Birthday Ball where all the Sailors looked very spiffy in their Dress Whites. That is until an unfortunate incident (really, honestly, it was an accident!) involving an exploding bottle of Sunkist Orange Soda. Then the hapless victims resembled these.

Pictured is the Navy's sailing vessel, USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides." She is the oldest commissioned warship in the world.

Columbus sailed the ocean blue...sideways

Columbus sailed ships like these. They were heavy, beamy, hard to maneuver and didn't move very fast, averaging around 4 knots (roughly 5 mph.) Due to their square sail rigs, they couldn't point to wind very well and they made a lot of leeway. The best these lumbering craft could manage in a stiff breeze was what we would now consider a beam reach, so basically Columbus crabbed his way sideways across the Atlantic.

To Not Quite Infinity and Beyond

Today marks anniversaries for two American space ventures. Forty-nine years ago, Pioneer I was the first spacecraft launched by a nascent NASA. Originally slated to go to the moon, Pioneer I fell quite a bit short due to a programming error which caused the 2nd stage rocket to shut down early which then threw off the planned trajectory of the spacecraft. Although it didn't reach its intended mark, Pioneer I still gathered some useful scientific information. As mentioned in a previous post, CrackedPot's father was a quality control engineer with NASA, but he didn't join them until 1959.

CrackedPot's father did work on the successful Apollo 7, which launched on this day in 1968. This mission lasted 10 days, much longer than any of the Soviet space missions. It was also the first time live tv images were seen from a manned spacecraft. As was his habit, CrackedPot's father brought back a mission patch when he returned home from either Cape Canaveral or Houston. (CrackedPot doesn't know which place he was at, only that he went. Back in those days, the parents never thought to share this sort of information with a small teacup.)

And the elephants rejoiced

One hundred and forty two years ago today, the synthetic billiard ball was patented by American inventor John Wesley Hyatt. He marketed his new substance, celluloid, as an ivory substitute. Previously, billiard balls had been crafted from ivory. Hyatt's discovery helped pave the way for the modern plastics industry.

Mysteries for tea lovers

For a relaxing evening, CrackedPot recommends curling up with a Tea Shop Mystery and a nice cup of tea. These are a series of cozy mysteries where the amateur sleuth is the owner of a tea shop. Like all cozies, the amateur sleuth stumbles across an awful lot of murders. In real life, the local police and probably the Feds would be taking a very close look at someone who always shows up with a body in tow, but suspend your disbelief and enjoy a light read.

Hot time in the old town

The Great Chicago Fire erupted on October 8, 1871 and burned for two days. Legend has it that Mrs. O'Leary's cow was the culprit, but a reporter for the Chicago Republican newspaper admitted to fabricating the story because it made good copy. Hmmm...journalism hasn't changed much over the years.

But this would cause heartburn

Wisdom off of a bookmark CrackedPot ran across:

"Eat a live bullfrog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."

Well, at least it's not advocating noshing on these.

Teacup Chihuahua?

CrackedPot caught a few minutes of some morning show which featured a scrap of fur billed as the world's smallest dog. It stood four inches tall and its weight was measured in ounces. That's not a dog, that's a yapping hamster! What is a minuscule pooch like that good for, other than inhabiting the crockery in the china cabinet? It's not like you could play ball or frisbee with it. And must it live out it's life in a cage, forever treading the tubes of a Habitrail for fear of this happening?

Happy Anniversary Sputnik!

Google is commemorating Sputnik's 50th anniversary in typical Google style.

Asteroids = Donuts

Math geek humor from the Sugar³: A topologist is a person who can't tell a teacup from a donut. What CrackedPot wants to know is why anyone would want to mangle a delicate teacup when they can use the old classic video arcade game, Asteroids, as a topological donut analogy?

Sputnik's 50th Anniversary

October 4th is the 50th anniversary of the launching of Sputnik, the little Soviet spaceball that sparked a revolution. Reprinted below is a nice email from Ken Harbit that aptly describes Sputnik's impact on us all:

"Fifty years ago tomorrow (October 4 1957) the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (as it was called then) put a 184 pound ball in orbit around the earth. They called it “Sputnik.” I remember my Dad was upset after reading about it in the newspaper. When I asked him about it he said the Soviets made a statement and ended it with the world’s biggest period.

Overnight the “Rat Race” turned into the “Space Race” and the “Computer Age” began. We got a lot of stuff from the aftermath of Sputnik. Freeze-dried food, electric shavers, transistors, the integrated circuit, and Internet.

The computers that guided Friendship 7, the mercury capsule that put Alan Shepard into space in 1961 had 32k of memory and would fill the ground floor of Joyner Library. The computers that guided Apollo 11 to the moon were comparable to two Commodore 64s and would fill most of the ground floor of the library.

On July 16 1969 we effectively ended the “Space Race” with the world’s biggest exclamation mark when Neil Armstrong said “That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind” as he stepped on to the moon.

Today we have computers small enough to be injected under the skin, cell phones millions of times more powerful than the computers that guided man to the moon … and beyond, we have “virtual” stores, libraries, virtual trips into space and to the deepest parts of the oceans.

It's strange to think that it all started with a 184 pound silver colored ball that orbited Earth every 98 minutes sending temperature and pressure readings back to Earth."

CrackedPot's father was a quality control engineer with NASA for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs in the 1960's and in particular he worked on the Saturn V rocket. He later worked on the Space Shuttle in the 1970's-1980's. CrackedPot can remember him flying off to Cape Canaveral (which was called Cape Kennedy back then) or to Houston for the rocket launches. He would return from these "business trips" with a patch just like the ones the astronauts wore on their spacesuits. To commemorate the successful Apollo 11 mission, he also brought back a tiny lunar landing module necklace. Sadly all these mementos were lost in a burglary and subsequent fire.

Violinist Yang Liu

This past Sunday the Sugar³ and I attended a concert performed by virtuoso violinist Yang Liu and his wife, pianist I-Hsuan Tsai. We first met them a few years ago when we were invited to attend their concert with some mutual friends. After that concert, we all went out to dinner, where Yang proceeded to effortlessly drink everyone under the table.

Although not as well known as other world class violinists such as this guy or this one, Yang is in the same league. His playing is simply exquisite and downright jaw-dropping. But don't take CrackedPot's word for it, listen for yourself. Or buy his cd, Song of Nostalgia.

In past concerts attended by CrackedPot and Sugar³ Yang has played a million dollar Amati violin or the famous Lady Tennant Stradivarius violin. For this concert he played on a priceless 1741 Guarnerius violin, which according to Yang, is even more rare and coveted than Stradivari.

B.O.A.T.

Break
Out
Another
Thousand


Boating is an expensive hobby, especially when a storm blows through and wrecks havoc. The carnage pictured was courtesy of Tropical Storm Ernesto from September 2006. Ten years earlier, the double whammy of Hurricanes Bertha and Fran destroyed the marina completely. The Sugar³ is in the rubber dinghy calling out helpful suggestions such as, "Hey man, your boat sank."

Added a link

Today I added a link to the website where I found all the pretty teapots. This too was really simple. All I had to do was click on Customize and select the section of the template I wanted to put the link. I chose to place it in the Footer, so clicked on Add a Page Element at the bottom of the template. From there I chose Text: Add to Blog and typed my text, highlighted the text I wanted as a link and clicked the CreateLink button from the choices in the Configure Text box. So easy, even a CrackedPot could do it!