Aloha Attire

One of my hobbies is Genealogy or family history researching.  Part of this hobby for me is transcribing records for Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com.  The past few days I've been transcribing obituary records on FamilySearch for the Honolulu Advertiser and Star-Bulletin.

I've transcribed obituary records before but this is the first time I've ever seen mention of what to wear at a funeral.  "Casual Attire?" that's different.  But you've got to love it when an obituary gives the suggested dress for the funeral is "Aloha Attire."

I really wonder what "Aloha Attire" might be; your favorite Hawaii luau shirt? What would you wear?

By the Numbers

Hi everybody! Your are now a year older! Well you would be if your were a horse, horse's turn a year older on 1 January, did you know that?

But birthday's are important to us humans, some more that others. By the numbers here are some of our important age days.

One - Well you made it to your first birthday and that's a big deal. World wide fifty-one out of every thousand newborns didn't make it to their first birthday.

Five – Kindergarten here you come.

Ten - Wow a whole decade and now you're a Tween.

Thirteen - A teenager. A junior one, but still a teenager.

Sixteen - Sweet sixteen and you can get a driver's license and scare us all off the road.

Eighteen - You're legal. Okay, a little legal, got to wait three more years to buy that beer.

Twenty-one - Real legal, you can now get drunk legally.

Twenty-five – Your car insurance premiums will probably go down a little and you can rent a car.

Forty - They say life begins here.

Fifty-Five - Your're a "Baby Senior" and can joy AARP.

Sixty-Five - You are now old and they call you a Senior. You're now on Medicare but you may have to wait a few years yet for that Social Security check. But you do get some Senior discounts, yeah.

Seventy and Eighty - Psalm 90, verse 10, says "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." So God is watching when you hit the big seven zero.

Hundred - Lucy you! You've hit the birthday age jackpot. Did you get your letter from the President and a mention from Willard Scott on Good Morning America?

No matter how old you think you are – Happy New Year's Birthday to you!

Goodbye Earl

I'm a Classical music type of guy, not much into Country and Western, Rap or Popular music, but I do have a few pieces that I like. I also have a few pieces of C & W, Rap, etc. that I DO NOT care for at all and “Goodbye Earl” by the Dixie Chicks is one of them. Now, the song itself is not bad, it's just the way they say goodbye to Earl.

In the song Mary Ann and Wanda are BFFs throughout high school and when they graduate Mary Ann heads of to the big city and Wanda marries Earl. Wrong move for Wanda because Earl is a wife beater which of course is way wrong. Earl puts Wanda into intensive care and Mary Ann come back home from Atlanta with a vengeance. The two girls decide that bad ass “Earl has to die.” Fine, the guy deserves it; go to it girls.

In the South, including Virginia where I live, there are just certain foods you should never mess with – they are sacred to the South. You don't mess with the family Fried Chicken recipe, change the ingredients for your Mama's Gumbo, drink your Ice Tea without sugar and you DON'T poison a man's Black-eye Peas. You just don't do it! Poison his coffee, milk, mash potatoes and gravy, but, never his Black-eye Peas! Come on, it's just not right.

But that's just how Mad Mary Ann and Wicked Wanda do poor Earl to dirt – they poison his peas. Poor Earl . . .. not the way for a bad Southern boy to go. Then the girls bundle him up, put him in the trunk of their car and head off to LA to party down. Of course the Police want to pick him up for battery on Wanda but can't find him and soon everybody forgets about old Earl.

Not me! I think they should find Earl's body, see how he was Black-eye Pea murdered and throw Mary Ann and Wanda into jail for a few years. Charge? Cooking poisoned Black-eye Peas in the South!

So if you need to do away with an Earl please use something else to poison him with. Please leave the man's Black-eye Peas alone. Please.