A woman answered the knock at her door and found a destitute man. He wanted to earn money by doing odd jobs, so she asked, “Can you paint?”

“Yes,” he said, “I’m a pretty good painter.”

“Well, here’s a gallon of green paint and a brush. Go behind the house and you’ll see a porch that needs repainting. Be very careful. When you are done, I’ll look it over and pay you what it’s worth.”

It wasn’t more than an hour before he knocked again. “All finished!” he reported with a smile.

“Did you do a good job?” she asked.

“Yes, but lady, there’s one thing I’d like to point out to you. That’s not a Porsche back there. That’s a Mercedes.”

Bonus Pun:

I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.

Range wars in suburbia.

The LA County Arboretum in Arcadia is a visual feast.  I took these pictures of details during a visit with Lillian and Rebecca during Passover.

The first three photos are of the backyard scuba variety.  The last shows the purpose of our visit which was to see the Olive Tree that we helped to get planted in the new edible garden.

“The scientific method is nothing more than a series of rules

to keep us from lying to each other.”

Ken Norris

In 18 days I will be diving with the Codger Divers in Cozumel.

I’ll even have my own equipment. (hopefully) explanation to follow.

I am hoping for a sighting of the rare and endangered red sea horse.

blowing bubble with Brock Siegel

“To live is to maneuver.”

Whittaker Chambers

One day, a man from the Czech Republic came to visit his friend in New York.

When asked what he wanted to see, the visitor replied, “I would like to see one of the zoos in America.”

To his delight, the New Yorker took him to the Bronx Zoo. They were touring the zoo, and standing in front of the gorilla cage, when one of the gorillas busted out of the cage and swallowed the Czech whole.

Shocked, his friend from New York quickly called over the zoo keeper. He quickly explained the situation and the zoo keeper immediately took steps to save the man’s friend. The zoo keeper got an axe and asked the man, “OK, which gorilla did it? Was it the male or the female?” The New Yorker pointed out the female as the culprit. Quickly, the zoo keeper split the female gorilla open and found nothing of the Czech.

He looked at the man from New York, who shrugged and said, “I guess the Czech is in the male.”

Bonus Pun:

This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore.

Or what?

My Brother Tom sent me a link to an Australian web site that purports to sell placebos.

http://www.placebo.com.au/

What a great business idea but not what we are talking about today.

The discussion of the Placebo Effect on the web site got us thinking about other placebos.  The ones that aren’t pills but that make us feel better without any measurable or scientific reason.

One of them is beauty.

We feel better, happier or more joyful in the presence of beautiful things.

Another thing that gives a placebo effect is feeling like we are helping.

So actions like “Raising Awareness” are a placebo for actually doing something.

Which raises the final question: Is god a placebo that for some people makes life worth living?

‎“Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation,

the four pillars of our prosperity, are most thriving

when left most free to individual enterprise.”

President Thomas Jefferson