Choose To Live! Premiering on NBC

Received the following from Julie Elerick @ the American Heart Association (heart.org):

Go Red For Women Presents® - Choose To Live! Premiering on NBC in national syndication

Whether you plan a small gathering or an all-out Hollywood-style screening, everyone will have fun watching the show while learning how easy it is to improve their heart health through small choices. Start by downloading your FREE discussion guide with helpful tips, talking points and ideas for hosting your Go Red Watch Party!

TUNE IN: OK43 (KAUT) Sunday, September 27th at 8:00pm


Reader’s Poll-Last month we asked:
"In addition to being a Go Red For Women® member, how else to you support the American Heart Association?" 78% of you said: “I live a heart healthy lifestyle!”

***SAVE THE DATE*** 2010 Go Red For Women Luncheon/Educational Conference- May 14

Co-Chairs: Jacque Fiegel and Darcie Henderson


Sponsors Committed: (corporate, individual gifts)

Benjamin, Ann and Paul Tobin/Jazzercise of Edmond, Bozarth, Stacy, Cardio Gold, Chambers, Dr. Susan, Coppermark Bank-Signature Sponsor, DairyMax, Dolese

Drake, Mary, Enterprise Rent-a-car, Fiegel, Jacque, First National Bank of Midwest City, Germany, Dr. Robin, Grant Thornton LLP, H-MD Medical Spa (Jennie Hunnewell, M.D. and Lori Hansen, M.D.)Henderson, Darcie, Hiebert, Shannon, Integris Heart Hospital, InvesTrust, Kramer School of Nursing at Oklahoma City University, Majors, Tina, Mass Mutual Financial Group, McAfee & Taft

Midwest Regional Medical Center-Signature Sponsor, Nancy Hyde, CPA, CVA, Platt College, Raymond James Investments, Simons Petroleum

Help us Get there- don’t delay securing your place!!!

“Wild Young Hearts”

II Thumbs Up: The Noisettes – “Never Forget You”

Caught the Noisettes on Ellen this a.m. Although I was offput by “the look” on the promo, I REALLY like “the sound”!

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6795058.ece

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-recordrack23-2009sep23,0,768191.story

Implementing An End-of-Life Plan

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) had published a new booklet: "A Guide to Financial Decisions - Implementing an End-of-Life Plan". This free resource was developed by certified public accountants and is the result of a vision brought to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants by Hospice of Michigan and the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants. The resource guide is available online:

http://pfp.aicpa.org/NR/rdonlyres/C9B0F760-9268-42E0-A0B3-D6763A178D9C/14367/10063378_hospiceguideWEBFINAL.pdf

http://www.feedthepig.org/

Feed The Pig - Tools to Conquer Your Inner Under-Saver

http://www.360financialliteracy.org/

360 Degrees of Financial Literacy

Mad Men: 2009 Emmy - Best Drama Series

If you are wondering how Mad Men (AMC, Sunday) won the Primetime Emmy for the 2nd year in a row, watch a recap of Episode 6 online at:

http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/.

Word to the wise: If serving liquor for an office celebration, be sure to leave the riding lawnmower at home. To be safe; if for some obscure reason there is anything with John Deere written on the side in the office, confiscate all alcoholic beverages, prescription medications, etc. and keep the number for your WC and general liability insurance companies handy.

Congratulations to the Mad Men production team, cast, and crew!

Calling A Spade A Spade

It's been a rough few weeks; but I'm Back!

A couple of days ago, I was on my way home from the doctor's office and caught the tail end of an NPR story concerning the phrase "calling a spade a spade"--is it a racist remark or not? For the life of me, I cannot find the story online. It sounded like a backhand apology that included the origin of the phrase and acknowledgment that the phrase is considered a racial slur by some. If anyone can help me out with a web link, I would appreciate it. I really would like to listen to the entire story. Based on the recent articles I have been able to find online, no doubt the original NPR story had something to do with the now infamous "You Lie" that has rang??-rung-reverberated 'round the world.

Concerning the phrase, those that readily acknowledge the racial connotation include Webster, Merriam, Oxford, American Heritage, Google, and OMG--Wikipedia! In the past, Random House maintained a website that I really like. It's still up, but I don't think they update it anymore and some of the links take you back to their home page. Check it out, I like how RH (The Maven) answers the question.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970115

Now, while we are on the subject. There is another question I would like for you to ponder. Why would the pot call the kettle black, if the pot did not believe that being black was something derogatory or offensive? This is one of those questions that make you go Hmmmm... After many years of contemplation and scholarly diatribes, I keep coming back to the same place--Black Is Beautiful; therefore:

1. I do not use the phrase "That would be like the pot calling the kettle black" to add emphasis to hypocrisy. I believe in "calling it like it is". What's wrong with, "Isn't that a bit hypocritical?"
2. When I am in the presence of someone who uses this phrase, I stare at them blankly. Like, I'm lost and not understanding the point.
3. If anyone questions my blank stare, I ask the question, "Why would the pot call the kettle black"?
4. This usually leads to an intellectual discussion to assure me that no negativity was intended and/or to convince me that the statement is not nor has ever been racist in intent.
5. Which then leads to a discussion with regard to the statement being used out of context. Since Black is Beautiful and there is no negative implication or intent, it would therefore not be hypocritical for the pot to call the kettle black. Out of context!

In effect the pot would be saying to the kettle, "you are beautiful"! Even though they look differently, come from different stock, and /or have different utility; there is a sameness; a oneness. The pot is saying "I see you, do you see me?" So the proper context to use the phrase would be when you observe some interaction that is out of the ordinary or unexpectedly beautiful--like a horse fanning flies off of a cow, or a dog and a cat playing tag in a field of daisies, or three elders--one black, one white, one brown--laughing and talking, idly lounging on the grass at a beautiful lake watching parents and children of all ages, hues, and national origins running and playing with colorful kites as sailboats dot the distance. Such a beautiful sight would be breathtaking and evoke the phrase, "Wow, that's like the pot calling the kettle black!"

Thoughts? Comments? I love to agree to disagree; you won't hurt my feelings.

Thought For Today

"Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on! "

Barbie and the Cow Tongue

I was listening to KRMP’s Open Mic this a.m. and Launa mentioned a family dish that she didn’t care much for called “Boom Boom”—which turned out to be beef tongue. Believe it or not, many countries and cultures eat the tongue of cows and other organ meats—liver, stomach, kidneys. Pork organ meats also include the intestines—chittlins, which are a Thanksgiving staple at my house—and I have family members that will walk a mile for some hog head cheese. Chicken livers and gizzards—fried and braised—are served in some of the best restaurants around the world. Unfortunately, organ meats are very high in cholesterol and are therefore no longer a part of my diet.

My Mom loved calf tongue. I think it was some kind of celebratory meal, because tongue is precisely what we had for dinner the night before I started grade school. Like so many Pre-K and kindergarten students this week, I was excited to be heading off to school and riding the big yellow bus! I had a brand new pink metal Barbie lunch box and—to my disappointment—a cold tongue sandwich on white with mayo—for my first school lunch! There was no way that my fellow 1st graders (we didn’t have pre-K and kindergarten back in the day in the country) were going to see me eating cow tongue! So, I hatched a plan!

When our class was dismissed for lunch, instead of retrieving my lunch box I took my milk money and apple out and pushed the box to the back of my cubby. Once in the cafeteria I purchased my chocolate milk and sat quietly eating my apple. When my teacher asked about my lunch I told her that I ate it on the bus on the way to school! Now this is where the story gets crazy and doesn’t make sense to anyone—except maybe a six-year-old.

At the end of the day, I left the lunch box in my cubby underneath my green nap rug! Why I did not throw the sandwich out and take the lunch box home is a mystery to me. I lied to my Mom and told her that I lost the lunch box. Needless to say she was pretty upset and told me that I “better find it” or I would wish that I did! This went on for a few days and finally I got some swats for “throwing away good money”! For the next nine months anytime my Mom was in a bad mood, she would bring up that lunch box and I would get extra swats!

I almost had my first heart attack at age six, when I walked in the classroom and my pink lunch box with the cow tongue inside was sitting on my desk! My teacher had found it hidden in the coat room and instructed me to take it home that afternoon. For the remainder of the day, I schemed as to how this could not and would not happen. When lunch time arrived, I grabbed the lunch box and returned to the coat room to retrieve my brown bag lunch. I took the pink lunch box and hid it in the cubby of a girl who had moved away and left a pink sweater behind. And there it stayed until the last day of school the following May!

What I didn’t know at the time was that one of the main duties for grade school teachers is to make sure the coat room is empty at the end of the school year. So when I arrived at school on what was suppose to be a joyous occasion, Barbie and the cow’s tongue was sitting on my desk. Despite my best efforts, I had been beaten! Gloom and doom road with me on the bus ride home. I slow dragged from the bus stop in anticipation of what was going to happen once I arrived home. I walked in the house, placed Barbie on the kitchen table and waited for my Mom to arrive.

She was filled with questions, excited that I had “found” the lunch box and that good money had been saved! It wasn’t until later that she opened the box. She shrieked and called me by my full name—first, middle, last! There was no longer a cow tongue on white with mayo, just a small ball of furry black! It looked like a baby field mouse; a perfect mold specimen. There was screaming on her part and crying (bellowing) on mine. The entire story—I “can’t” eat cow tongue, hiding the lunch box, lying to her and my teacher, deception, dread—came tumbling out. Why I spilled the beans, I do not know. She didn’t even realize that it was the tongue sandwich—it was unrecognizable!

The only answer I have been able to come up with in 50 years is quite simple. I was six-years-old. This explains why I didn’t throw the sandwich away in the very beginning and take the lunch box home. It also explains every other misstep and lie and why my Mom prolonged the inevitable for as long as she could and still make a lasting point.

After a couple of days of quaking in my sandals, my Mom instructed me to clean out the lunch box and that she wanted it looking good as new. Unfortunately, I had to go back and tell her that the box was clean, smelled good, but I could not get the rust out of the corner. With this “new knowledge” she sent me out back to the elm tree for a green, mid-May switch. With each swish came an admonishment about lying, scheming, throwing away good money, and beating some sense into me. To make matters worse, I had to carry that pink Barbie lunch box with the “cow tongue rust” all the way through 4th grade!

I think of the cow tongue sandwich on white with mayo every year when I see little children scampering off to school for the first time with their little lunch boxes and backpacks! I pray that they will retain that enthusiasm for school, for knowledge, and making new friends. I also pray that their snacks and lunches are nutritious and tasty. Most importantly, I pray that lying and deception will be foreign to them—at least until middle school!