Kosher

Did you know that the glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

Uplifting Wed. #144 via Pinterest

 

Not black

                                          Black boxes from a plane are actually orange. 

Our First Ladies #13

                                                 Margaret Mackall  Smith Taylor

  

                                                            First Lady of the United States

                                                                             in role

                                                              March 4, 1849 - July 9, 1850

     

Born in Calver County, Maryland on September 21, 1788, the daughter of Walter Smith, a prosperous Maryland planter and veteran officer of the American Revolution, and the former Ann Mackall, “Peggy” was raised amid refinement and wealth.

While visiting her sister in Kentucky in 1809, she was introduced to Lieutenant Zachary Taylor, who was home on leave.

Lt. Taylor, aged 25, married Peggy Smith, aged 21, on June 21, 1810, at the home of the bride’s sister, Mrs. Mary Chew near Louisville, Kentucky. She followed him from fort to fort as his career advanced except for while he was serving in the Mexican American War; She lived at their Cypress Grove Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi.

With the rise in Zachary Taylor’s political career, his wife Peggy Taylor literally prayed for his defeat, for she dreaded the personal consequences of his becoming the president. By the time she became the First Lady in 1849, the hardships of following her husband from fort-to-fort and enduring several childbirths over the 39 year period had taken their toll. Two small girls died in 1820 of what Taylor called “a violent bilious fever,” which left Peggy’s health impaired; three girls and a boy grew up.

A semi-invalid, she remained in seclusion on the second floor of the White House, leaving the duties of official hostess to her daughter, Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Bliss.

After participating in ceremonies at the Washington Monument on a blistering July 4, 1850, President Taylor fell ill and within five days he was dead. Margaret Taylor’s health deteriorated rapidly after his sudden death. She died two years later August 14, 1852, in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was buried next to her husband near Louisville, Kentucky.

 

 

 

Brightspots #9

 

Man driving down road,

Woman driving up same road.

They pass each other.

The woman yells out the window, PIG!

Man yells out window, WITCH!

Man rounds next curve………

Man crashes into a HUGE PIG in middle of road and dies.

Moral of the Story:  If men would just listen!

Do you know where these two are going?

                                 Walmart of course!

Happy Easter

                        The napkin is folded  John 20:7                Thank you Jesus

The world's shortest aqueduct

 

The Veluwemeer Aqueduct: Netherland's Unique Water Bridge

The Veluwemeer Aqueduct is a shallow 9.83 feet (3 m) deep water bridge that allows for small boats and other shallow-draft water vehicles to pass over the road safely and easily.

Uplifting Wed. #143 via Pinterest

 

Globe

                                                                The globe for the blind.

Making things a little easier

 

Brightspots #8

 

A husband and wife are shopping in their local Wal-Mart.
The husband picks up a case of Budweiser and puts it in their cart.
"What do you think you're doing?" asks the wife.
"They're on sale, only $10 for 24 cans," he replies.
"Put them back, we can't afford them," says the wife, and so they carry on shopping.
A few aisles further on along the woman picks up a $20 jar of face cream and puts it in the basket.
"What do you think you're doing?" asks the husband.
"It’s my face cream. It makes me look beautiful," replies the wife.
Her husband retorts, "So does 24 cans of Budweiser and it's half the price."
On the PA system: 'Cleanup on aisle 25, we have a husband down.'

 

 

 

  

The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed. (Chamfort)

Laughter is inner jogging. (Norman Cousins)

Laughter can relieve tension, soothe the pain of disappointment, and strengthen the spirit for the formidable tasks that always lie ahead. (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

 

 

Behind the scenes

 Isn't it fun to get a inside peek of how things work. He is using a camera to see where he is going. 

Tell tell sign

 

Uplifting Wed. via Pinterest #142

 

First lady #12

 

1803-1891

As the eldest daughter of Captain Joel and Elizabeth Childress she was use to a life of silks and satin growing up on a plantation near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She also was one the few women of the 19^th century to be afforded an education of higher learning and it made her especially fitted to assist a man with a political career.

James K. Polk was laying the foundation for that career when he met her. He had begun his first years’ service in the Tennessee legislature when they were married on New Year’s Day, 1824; he was 28, she 20.

At a time when motherhood gave a woman her only acknowledged career, Sarah Polk had to resign herself to childlessness, but she accompanied her husband to Washington whenever she could, and they soon won a place in its most select social circles. Privately she helped him with his speeches, copying his correspondence and giving him advice. Not surprisingly when he returned to Washington as President in 1845, she stepped to her high position with ease and evident pleasure. She appeared at the inaugural ball, but as a devout Presbyterian, she did not dance.

Only three months after retirement in 1849 to their fine new home “Polk Place” in Nashville, he died, worn out by the years of public service. Clad always in black, Sarah Polk lived on in the home for 42 years, guarding the memory of her husband and accepting honors paid to her as honors due to him. The house because a place of pilgrimage. She lived to be 88 years old and is buried next to her husband. 

Asparagus

 

Did you know that asparagus will grow as tall as a tree?

Brightspots #7

  

As long as you're going to be thinking anyway, THINK BIG.
- Donald Trump

Unexpected

 

This is surely not the view you would expect to see.........

Uplifting Wed. via Pinterest #141

 

Tattoo

A moving tattoo

Brightspots #6

 

The old addage.."be careful what you wish for ....."

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. The waitress asks them for their orders. The man says, 'A hamburger, fries and a coke,' and turns to the ostrich, 'What's yours?' 'I'll have the same,' says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order ' That will be $9.40 please,' and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment. The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, 'A hamburger, fries and a coke.' The ostrich says, 'I'll have the same.'

Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change. This becomes routine until the two enter again. 'The usual?' asks the waitress. 'No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and a salad,' says the man. 'Same,' says the ostrich.

Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, 'That will be $32.62.' Once again the man pulls the exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table.

The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any longer. 'Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change in your pocket every time?”

'Well,' says the man, 'several years ago I was cleaning the attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it, a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there.' 'That's brilliant!' says the waitress. 'Most people would ask for a million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!'

'That's right. Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there,' says the man.

The waitress asks, 'What's with the ostrich?' The man sighs, pauses and answers, 'My second wish was for a tall chick with a big butt and long legs who agrees with everything I say.'

Our First Ladies # 11

 

     

                                                           Julia Gardiner Tyler 1820-1889

 

Julia Gardiner Tyler was born in 1820 to Juliana and David Gardiner, a landowner, and New York State Senator. (1824 to 1828). She was raised in the town of East Hampton and educated at the Chegary Institute in New York. In 1839, she shocked polite society by appearing, posed with an unidentified man, and identified as "The Rose of Long Island", in a newspaper advertisement for a middle-class department store. Her family took her to Europe to avoid further publicity and allow her notoriety to subside, but she was indeed a beauty.

On January 20, 1842, the 21-year-old Julia was introduced to President John Tyler at a White House reception. After the death of his first wife, Letitia Christian Tyler, on September 10, 1842, Tyler made it clear that he wished to get involved with Julia. Initially, the high-spirited and independent-minded northern beauty felt little attraction to the grave, reserved Virginia gentleman, who was thirty years her senior. He first proposed to her on February 22, 1843, when she was 22, at a White House Masquerade Ball. She refused that and later proposals he made. The increased time spent together prompted public speculation about their relationship.

Julia, her sister Margaret, and her father joined a Presidential excursion on the new steam frigate Princeton. During this excursion, her father, David Gardiner, along with others, lost his life in the explosion of a huge naval gun called the Peacemaker. Julia was devastated by the death of her adored father. She spoke often in later years of how the President's quiet strength sustained her during this difficult time. Tyler comforted Julia in her grief and won her consent to a secret engagement, proposing in 1844 at the George Washington Ball.

After a wedding trip to Philadelphia, a White House reception, and a stay at Sherwood Forest, an estate the president had recently acquired for his retirement, the newlyweds returned to Washington D.C.. Although her husband was often visibly fatigued, his youthful wife thoroughly enjoyed the duties of First Lady.

President Tyler was 54 years old, while Julia was just 24. Tyler's oldest daughter, Mary, was 5 years older than her father's new wife. The marriage made Julia the first (First Lady) to marry a President who was already in office at the time of the wedding.

It was awkward for the eldest Tyler daughter, Mary, to adjust to a new stepmother five years younger than herself. One daughter, Letitia, never made peace with her stepmother.

The anthem "Hail to the Chief" had been played at a number of events associated with the arrival or presence of the President of the United States before Julia Tyler became First Lady, but she ordered its regular use to announce the arrival of the President. It became established practice when her successor, Sarah Polk did likewise. It is still practiced today.

The first lady was known as a wonderful hostess and the President was delighted with all the compliments she received. When the President’s term was finished, they retired to The Sherwood Forest Plantation.

 All though a northerner by birth, Mrs. Tyler soon grew accustomed to the leisurely routines of daily life as the wife of a wealthy plantation owner, and between 1846 and 1860, Julia and John had seven children together.

Julia wrote a defense of slavery titled "The Women of England vs. the Women of America", in response to the "Stafford House Address" petition against slavery which the Duchess of Sutherland had helped to organize.

In response to Julia Tyler's essay, Harriet Jacobs, a former slave and later abolitionist writer, authored her first published work, a letter to the New York Tribune in 1853.

After her husband's death in 1862, lost her 60 slaves and 1,100 acres of land due to military events. Julia moved north to Staten Island with several of her children and family relations were so strained that her brother David moved out of his mother's house, where Julia had settled.

Her home there was almost burned down by enraged Union veterans when it was discovered she was flying a Confederate flag on the property. She resided at the Gardiner-Tyler House from 1868-74.

In 1865, her brother David sued to prevent her from inheriting the bulk of their mother's estate valued at $180,000, charging that Julia Tyler had exerted "undue influences" on their mother to execute a will despite her "mental incapacity". The court supported his claim on August 25 and refused to accept the will. After two appeals, David Gardiner won the case in 1867. David then asked the courts to partition the estate as if no will existed. Julia asked for a jury trial on the issue, and the jury declined to consider the contested will as an argument in her favor. The New York Times thought Julia was treated unfairly and that the dispute could be traced to "the political antagonisms of the rebellion, which have divide many a household besides that of Mrs. Gardiner". She died in 1889 and is buried next to her husband in Virginia.

Yawning

 

One theory of why we yawn is that when we are bored or tired, we just don't breathe as deeply as we usually do. As this theory goes, our bodies take in less oxygen because our breathing has slowed. Therefore, yawning helps us bring more oxygen into the blood and move more carbon dioxide out of the blood.

Uplifting Wed. Via Pinterest #140

 

A Lego bridge

 

The German town of Wupperttal is home to Lego-Brücke, also known as LEGO Bridge—a bridge that looks like it's made of candy-colored LEGO bricks, providing a foot- and bikeway for those looking to cross over the street below. Despite appearances, the bridge is not made of giant plastic bricks however, but concrete, and it was painted to look like the popular building toys by street artist Martin Heuwold.

The smallest country

Size is not a criterion in our definition of what constitutes a country. A country need only be an independent state, with distinct territorial boundaries, and its own government. The smallest country is the Vatican City.

Vatican City, a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy, is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It's home to the Pope and a trove of iconic art and architecture. Its Vatican Museums house ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance frescoes in the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s ceiling.

Capital: Vatican City

Area: 109 acres

Founded: February 11, 1929

Population: 1,000 (2017)

Happy New Year!