Altoid & Other Cuties' Thread

[Mahlersfifth]

Would like to see some costumes please.

[piqaboo]

Me too! I hope OT has some pix. I didnt take any.

[Schmeelkie]

Would like to see some costumes please.

Ha, ha - that's funny. Haven't even gotten around to sending out the pictures of Pumpkin's Kindergarten 'moving up' ceremony yet....maybe by December.

[BigJon]

Here's lil'bit and her new pink an purple toolbag full of pink and purple tools that she got as a Christmas gift.

[jamiebk]

HA! BJ...very cute shots. I loved the first one. She should be a model ...striking up a perfect pose to show off that fancy toolbag. What a great gift idea. Cheers and Merry Christmas to you.

[piqaboo]

Way cool! Cute girl!

[BigJon]

You might have seen in the background of the shot one of our new "cuties" Max and Ruby.


They came into our lives this summer. They are brother and sister Newf / Bernese Mountain Dog mixes. 'lil'bit named them Max and Ruby after the brother and sister in the popular children's book series. Max is a big love-muffin who just wants to kiss everyone and carry around their shoes. Ruby is a bundle of nerves and wants to see everything, do everything and rule everyone. She wants to be the Queen.

We almost lost Max at Thanksgiving. He was in the doggy hospital with a high fever for a week. Lost 14 pounds in that time and was just skin and bones when we retrieved him. He could hardly stand on his own. But he has come roaring back, putting on over 25 lbs in the month of December. He's showing a few minor long term effects of his illness, but he has astounded us with his recovery. He will probably be 150 lbs before he stops growing.

[BigJon]

She should be a model ...striking up a perfect pose to show off that fancy toolbag. What a great gift idea. Cheers and Merry Christmas to you.

Thanks. She's going to be whatever she wants to be. Stubborn little cuss. She can out-stubborn five adults . . .

[Trumpetmaster]

They are beautiful!!!!

[piqaboo]

Purrrrty dogs!

[Schmeelkie]

Interesting linguistic difference:
When Pumpkin was 3 and had the standard difficulty with double consonants, he would say, 'ky and 'cool, for sky and school.
Bella, on the other hand, says sy and sool.

About six months ago, I think she got confused when we were talking about taking the toppings off of pizza, so called pizza 'toppy' for quite a while. She goes back and forth now. My current favorite Bellaism is 'beckwift' for breakfast. Have to enjoy this sort of thing while it lasts...Pumpkin's only remaining linguistic issues are those funny verb tenses that don't always make sense in English, eg., he didn't 'loosed' his toy, he lost it, etc. And of course, learning to read the nonsense that is the English language!

[Shapley]

Just teach them this poem, and all the complexities of the language will be made clear:

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye your dress you'll tear,
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles.
Exiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing.
Thames, examining, combining
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war, and far.
From "desire": desirable--admirable from "admire."
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier.
Chatham, brougham, renown, but known.
Knowledge, done, but gone and tone,
One, anemone. Balmoral.
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel,
Gertrude, German, wind, and mind.
Scene, Melpomene, mankind,
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, reading, heathen, heather.
This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rime with "darky."
Viscous, Viscount, load, and broad.
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's O.K.,
When you say correctly: croquet.
Rounded, wounded, grieve, and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive, and live,
Liberty, library, heave, and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven,
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover,
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police, and lice.
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label,
Petal, penal, and canal,
Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal.
Suit, suite, ruin, circuit, conduit,
Rime with "shirk it" and "beyond it."
But it is not hard to tell,
Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion,
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, and chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor,
Ivy, privy, famous, clamour
And enamour rime with hammer.
Pussy, hussy, and possess,
Desert, but dessert, address.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants.
Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rime with anger.
Neither does devour with clangour.
Soul, but foul and gaunt but aunt.
Font, front, won't, want, grand, and grant.
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger.
And then: singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
Query does not rime with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post; and doth, cloth, loth;
Job, Job; blossom, bosom, oath.
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual.
Seat, sweat; chaste, caste.; Leigh, eight, height;
Put, nut; granite, and unite.
Reefer does not rime with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Hint, pint, Senate, but sedate.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific,
Tour, but our and succour, four,
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria,
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay.
Say aver, but ever, fever.
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
Never guess--it is not safe:
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralph.
Heron, granary, canary,
Crevice and device, and eyrie,
Face but preface, but efface,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scourging,
Ear but earn, and wear and bear
Do not rime with here, but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, clerk, and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation--think of psyche--!
Is a paling, stout and spikey,
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing "groats" and saying "grits"?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict, and indict!
Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
Finally: which rimes with "enough"
Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
Hiccough has the sound of "cup."
My advice is--give it up!

I've always seen that attributed to my favourite author, Anon. However, It seems currently to be identified as follows:

The Chaos
by G. Nolst Trenite' a.k.a. "Charivarius" 1870 - 1946

This version is slightly different, and definitely more British, than one I am accustomed to seeing.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Back in the dawn of time, I had a blue truck named Terpsichore. I do think your poem must be written by a Brit: we Americans spell it "rhyme", not "rime" (actually, there is a "rime" but it's a thin layer of ice) and we don't spell it "groats" and say "grits", we just spell it "grits" and say it the same.

[Shapley]

I believe it was still spelled 'groats' here up until the early- to mid- 20th century. I remember seeing packaging on which it was spelled that way. (Although, I suppose, it could have been foreign packaging...)

Rime, Rhyme. That would be a rare instance in which the British use less characters to spell a word than we. I always thought the spelling in the title of the Rime of that Ancient Mariner was merely poetic license. I borrowed it when I penned my Rime of the Atomic Mariner back in my Navy days.

Certainly some of the geographical references would imply British authorship, as they would require the British pronunciation in order to make the rime work. We Americans have our own way of pronouncing some of those places, or at least of the American places we've named after those places.

[Haggis@wk]

Researcher Who Sparked the Vaccine/Autism Scare "Acted Unethically"

Hopefully this whole shameful episode can be put to bed

[piqaboo]

It wont be. The retractions will never outpace the original rumor/fear/bs.
Myne own syster required some serious armtwisting to get her to allow her kid to be vaccinated.
I sent her PAGES of reports on 1) concentration of mercury in vaccines 2) effective dose for mercury poisoning 3) deathrates attributed to mercury 4) autism rates in the vaccinated 5) autism and death rates in the unvaccinated 6) environmental sources of mercury exposure.

Interestingly, on the autism tangent -
it seems that while Dr's cant say for sure who will be autistic, they can identify a subset of those who wont, with great surety.
This is greatly reassuring to the parents of those particular children.

[Shapley]

Apparently, there is a cottage industry that continues to spread the autism/vaccine story despite the evidence to the contrary. I believe I linked to a few of their sites a while back when we were discussing the vaccine issue, noting that many parents refuse vaccinations, and that is one of the justifications. Many Chiropractors are on the anti-vaccination bandwagon as well, Mercury is the latest justification for that, I believe.

[lliam]

I believe it was still spelled 'groats' here up until the early- to mid- 20th century. I remember seeing packaging on which it was spelled that way. (Although, I suppose, it could have been foreign packaging...)

Rime, Rhyme. That would be a rare instance in which the British use less characters to spell a word than we. I always thought the spelling in the title of the Rime of that Ancient Mariner was merely poetic license. I borrowed it when I penned my Rime of the Atomic Mariner back in my Navy days.

Certainly some of the geographical references would imply British authorship, as they would require the British pronunciation in order to make the rime work. We Americans have our own way of pronouncing some of those places, or at least of the American places we've named after those places.

The author of The Chaos was a Dutchman.

[Shapley]

The author of The Chaos was a Dutchman.

Thanks. I didn't Google him to check on that. The version I had posted previously was an 'Americanized' version, and included some changes to the original. As I noted, it was attributed to Anon, my favourite author. I'm glad the true author, and the original version, is finally finding recognition on the internet.

[Schmeelkie]

Pumpkin's current fascination is snakes. He now has 4 stuffed ones (emerald tree boa, horned-nosed viper, timber rattlesnake, king cobra), and two plastic ones. Now he's asking for a real one... His grandfather (husband's dad) has 3-4 - he's a biology teacher. Not sure if Pumpkin is really up for the responsibility at age 6 1/2, and I worry that by this time next year he'll be fascinated by something else and we won't know what to do with the snake. I had said that after we moved, we could get fish, but he keep saying, no, he'd rather have a snake. I'm pondering the notion of getting fish and saying it's a 'test' - he does a good job taking care of them for a certain period of time (maybe until his birthday?) then we'll get him a snake. Will also consult with grandfather - see what he thinks... Any thoughts from you guys would be appreciated!