Companion blog to The Social Poets for my favorite links:  coffee sites, favorite fellow poets, how to improve your writing and poetry, art,  educational links, social issues, social responsibility groups, politics, my Libation Friday! and Cheeky Quote Day! segments, Popular Posts on The Social Poets, Dennys Poems, word puzzle sites, music, cultural magazines, mountain climbing, music and travel.  

Thanks for visiting! Join me for coffee at The Social Poets, the main blog.  Photo by Ahmed Rabea @ flickr. - Denny Lyon

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28 March 2010

Weekly Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 28 Mar 2010




From Denny: This funny polar bear says it all: Whew! Time to take it easy after a long harsh winter!

If you are a blogger like me with the Blogger platform at blogspot.com, and you haven't already heard about it since it came out a couple of weeks ago, you might want to check out this new feature from Blogger: Blogger in Draft. I spent the entire weekend playing around with the possibilities and decided to change over to this new dashboard and template offerings.

Blogger has come out with some outstanding new templates and the ability to widen margins of all your columns to imitate the old stretch template or create your own ideas of what appeals to you. Be as creative as you like! Read that as embedding videos and cartoons will now work better. Before, if you had a background from somewhere else - like I was doing - you had to reduce the width of your template down to the Minima template offered by Blogger. Then you could not run the cartoons at all as they were chopped off on the right side.

You now have many choices of how to arrange your columns just like a newspaper. There is a good variety of stunning backgrounds from which to choose - and believe me I've been choosing all this weekend for 12 blogs! :) I would like to see them expand their background choices in various colors and genre but what they have offered so far is plenty for most bloggers.

What am I still looking for from Blogger? To the folks at Blogger: I'm looking for more seasonal choices that have a sophisticated look, peaceful or spiritual, as opposed to just fun or downright cheesy. Backgrounds tailored to writing, poetry, art and literature other than the standard stack of books would be great - like beautiful calligraphy pens and parchment papers, stylized handwriting or fonts offered on the background and for the blog. You might want to consider backgrounds of America's cities like New Orleans and others for those of us with regional food blogs.

I'd also like to see the ability to post headlines and 200 word summary excerpts of up to 10 posts per page so people could easily choose what they want to read much like Wordpress already offers. Scrolling at the top of the page or at the header of the most recent posts would be cool like you see at newspaper sites online. Dreamer, that's me! So far, Blogger is on a roll so keep up the good work, guys! Oh, and if you could ever get that Google Connect or Followers Gadget to work with Google AdSense ads on the same page it would be much appreciated too.

On to the posts of the week and a few extra recipe posts from the past two weeks in case you missed anything good! :) Finally got caught up over at my science blog this weekend with some interesting stories so be sure to check out their offerings. Please bookmark this post to catch up on all the interesting news, great recipes and beautiful photography in our world! :) Enjoy...






The Social Poets:


51 Funny Political Cartoons - Sex Scandals, Rove, Obama, Health Care, Tea Party - 27 Mar 2010

Bullying Death Threats Against Congress Because of Health Care Law

Origins of the Funny Easter Bunny - Cheeky Quote Day 24 Mar 2010

Senate Parliamentarian Rules Against GOP to Stop Passed Health Care

Fleecing America: Political Hypocrites Drenched in Stimulus Money

Roundup of Late Night Comedy - 22 Mar 2010

The 11 Choices poem - Libations Friday 19 Mar 2010

Funny Late Night Comedy Roundup - 15 Mar 2010


41 Post Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 21 Mar 2010





Dennys Global Politics:


How New Health Law Affects You, Comics Review The News, Tea Party Antics - Headlines 26 Mar 2010

Health Bill Bounces Back to House for Final Push - Headlines 25 Mar 2010

More Hideous Molestation Sex Scandals - Headlines 24 Mar 2010

Sweeping Health Care Reform Signed into Law Today, Headlines 23 Mar 2010





The Soul Calendar:


Now Peru Faces Water Wars From Climate Change

Come to Iceland: Experience Living With a Volcano in Your BackYard

Moon Water: Order Up Your Cocktail Today

Check Out This Tripping New Look for the Milky Way

New Finding Under Antarctic Ice: Stinky Greenhouse Gas Ready to Go Boom

Friday Trivia: 14 Useless Random Facts






The Healing Waters:


Good News: 12 Year Old Walks to Raise Awareness About Homeless Kids

Good News: How New Health Care Law Affects You, Marines Rescue Tangled Seal

Good News: Afghan Orphanage Female Director Honored





Beautiful Illustrated Quotes:


Does Your Life Feel Like a Disaster?

3 Quotes About Facing Tough Times





Food Blogs:


Louisiana Crawfish Etouffee From Lafittes Landing

Kid Chefs Offer Tasty Recipes 4 Sandwiches Adults Will Like

New Orleans Recipes: Crawfish Etouffee, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, Jambalaya, Sazerac Cocktail

Super Bowl Food: Jumbo Shrimp and Gouda Grits

Chef Sandra Lees Quick Baby Back Ribs

7 Easy Recipes for Relaxed Weekend Food

5 Super Easy Chocolate Desserts: Only 5 Ingredients

Gorgeous Whiskey Chocolate Brownies

Moistest Low Cal Chocolate Cake, Pesto Veggie Lasagna, Quick Salad

Spring Food: Chef Kellers Marinated Skirt Steak, Ice Cream Sandwiches

Easy Rich Yellow Loaf Cake with Chocolate Ganache





Photo blog:


Dennys Photo Gallery: Beautiful Blues in Our World

Photo History: 1st Lady Gowns, Michelle Obama Donates Hers

Photography, Beautiful Metaphor for Life: 17 Boats

Only White Theme: 26 Photos

16 Beautiful Creative Angel Photos

10 Make You Think Fantasy Photos

30 Funny Creative Animal Ads





Humor Blogs:


Funny Comics Review The News - 26 Mar 2010

Outrageous Dog: Chews Car Bumper Off Police Car

Funny Rules of Chocolates, Origins of the Funny Easter Bunny

Funny Video: Movie Trailer 4 Death at a Funeral

Friday Trivia: 14 Useless Random Facts

Funny Sarcastic Sayings 4 Any Day

Funny News: Italys World Slow Day

Weird News: Watching Porn in Church

7 Funny Quips 10 Mar 2010

8 Funny Quips






*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

24 March 2010

Funny Rules of Chocolates, Origins of the Funny Easter Bunny

From Denny: Finding a lot of funny things about the Easter bunny for Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets was totally crazy! I went looking for funny Easter quotes, only to find very few. What I did find were plenty of late night show "top ten lists" and funny videos. This is a sampling of the funnies. Be sure to check out the full post for lots more grins and how to dye your own boiled eggs the way it was done before it became commercialized.


Check out this kid friendly music video of the Easter Bunny Rap to give you a smile:





Since Easter morning involves the giving of lots of chocolate, please abide by these "important" rules:


The Rules Of Chocolates


If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.

The problem: How to get two pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car.
The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.

Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal.
It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.

A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top of the fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves.

Money talks. Chocolate sings.

Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.

Why is there no such organization as Chocoholics Anonymous?
Because no one wants to quit.

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

Chocolate is a health food. Chocolate is derived from cacao beans. Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived either from sugar beets or cane, both vegetables. And, of course, the milk/cream is dairy. So eat more chocolate to meet the dietary requirements for daily vegetable and dairy intake.

Check out the full post of the latest Cheeky Quote Day from The Social Poets for more grins and how some Easter traditions got started from the beginning:

Origins of the Funny Easter Bunny - Cheeky Quote Day 24 Mar 2010


*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

17 March 2010

Comics Point of View: Our Weird Politicians

From Denny: Every Monday at The Social Poets I post the latest roundup from the late night show comics. This week was brutal for Congressman Eric Massa. He was lampooned from all sides. Tiger Woods got off easy this week.






Excerpt of the quips from David Letterman:

We had a lousy audience last night. You couldn't tell if they were laughing at the jokes or if they were being tickled by New York Congressman Massa.

He admits to groping, fondling, and tickling. And I'm thinking, well, why isn't this guy governor of New York?

Massa goes on the Glenn Beck show and he says that he was having a birthday party tickling his staff. And he said one guy couldn't breathe, he was tickling him so hard. And then Dick Cheney said, 'Well, we should have done that at Gitmo.'

So now this Congressman Eric Massa is claiming that he was bullied in a gym by Rahm Emanuel. The President's guy is bullying him in a gym, naked. And I know you are thinking to yourselves, 'Well gee, thanks a lot, Dave, for searing that image into our brains because that's something we'll carry for a long time right there.'

He admits to groping, fondling, and tickling. And I'm thinking, well, why isn't this guy governor of New York?






Here is a sampling from comic Jerry Seinfeld on his take on just who "Really?!" is this guy called Massa. The messy weird news from politician Massa just keeps on giving to the comics:






*** To view the entire hilarious rocking good post that includes lots of funny quips from Letterman, Leno, Kimmel, Fallon, video clips from Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart lampooning the GOP and Fox News, go here.


*** Happy Saint Patrick's Day! THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

10 March 2010

Saint Patricks Day Funnies Sampler

From Denny: Every Wednesday there is Cheeky Quote Day over at the flagship blog, The Social Poets, my funny quirky place that spun off 12 blogs. Here's a little sampling of what I found for Saint Patrick's Day, even some serious stuff - like the guy's real name.

Quotes

In order to find his equal, an Irishman is forced to talk to God. - Stephen Braveheart

An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade of grass to keep from falling off the earth. - Irish Saying

Never iron a four-leaf clover, because you don't want to press your luck. - Anonymous





This is an excerpt from the history of the man and his experiences.

Snakes Legend

OK, moving right along to the snakes legend of driving them all out of Ireland for which he is so famous. The word is on that story that he stood on a hill and with his wooden staff like some Irish Moses he commanded the snakes to leave town and drown in the sea, banishing them forever from Ireland. It is true that Ireland has no snakes.

Another version of the legend is a bit cheeky as those storytellers like more conflict and spice to their stories. They tell it that the snakes resisted Patrick. So, Patrick tricked the snakes into entering a small box that he then threw into the garbage dump of the sea.

OK, but the snake symbolism still bothers you? Yeah, me too, so I looked into it further. Turns out in Celtic thought that snakes represent esoteric knowledge much like in the Egyptian culture. Because of this snakes were sacred to the Druids.

Snakes are also associated with the Celtic father god called The Dagda, "the good god" who is the god of good and plenty. It's what we now today call the spiritual energy of abundance. OK, that was the family friendly version. For more on this particular peculiar god, go here.





Of course, Guinness Beer has to get into the act with some cheeky ads:









*** To view the already popular full post, including a funny comedy video of a succession of stand-up comics telling Irish jokes, go here.

*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

03 March 2010

Funny Groundhog Phils Says 2 More Weeks of Winter

From Denny: Here we are now four long weeks into an extended winter, proclaimed by the celebrity groundhog himself to last a full six weeks. Punxsutawney Phil is known around the globe for his famous forecasting abilities even the psychics envy. And he does it all on a non-cash basis, preferring to barter for great room and board, yummy treats, lots of petting and celebrity status adoration. Read that as he is one spoiled pampered little guy. His fan club is known as the Inner Circle and is made up of local dignitaries dedicated to providing his lavish style.

Since we are still stuck in another two weeks of winter it was fun to check out the official site of the famous groundhog himself and discover some funny facts about the celebration. After all, this famous psychic was correct yet again this year.

Phil has quite the devoted fan base. There are T-shirts with his loving face, coffee mugs with his morning "mug." Stainless steel travel coffee mugs are lovingly adorned with his message. Groundhog cookies come with a recipe you can make your own or available for purchase. Powerful refrigerator magnets remind you of his presence in your life!

There are groundhog jokes, groundhog cookie cutters (I kid you not), groundhog lesson plans for teachers, a poetry competition and more.

While researching the origins of this crazy celebration that now millions of people watch all over the globe, I had a laughing good time. It was time to share. Here is a sampling of the funnies to get you started grinning.

*** For the full post over at The Social Poets, go here.





Noteworthy highlight in Phil's long history:

* During Prohibition Phil threatened to impose 60 weeks of winter on the community if he wasn't allowed a drink. (Psychics must need a stiff shot every now and then.)


Top 11 Reasons to Celebrate Groundhog Day


11. It's on nearly every calendar.

10. Helps relieve cabin fever.

9. Spring or not, it's six weeks till St Urho's Day.

8. Forecast is no less reliable than the National Weather Service.

7. At least one of them critters is bound to see things your way.

6. Valentine's Day is too depressing for nerds.

5. Unlike the Easter bunny, he keeps his dirty paws outside.

4. As they used to say on radio: "The Shadow knows."

3. It's fun to say "Punxsutawney."

2. If a rodent can bring us an early spring, more power to him.

1. In Minnesota, either way we come out ahead.


Quote

* The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears. - Bill Vaughn


*** For the full post over at The Social Poets, go here.


*** THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout to awesome current subscribers - and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe!

The Institution of Silly & Meaningless Sayings