From today's wire services:
SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.
Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.
One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.
"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.
"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.
"Leave Santa alone."
A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.
In a separate article, Santa's are being told to slim down because a fat santa presents a bad image for children and promotes obesiety. The world continues it's downward spiral into idiocracy....
Rowena's daughter has started day care and amazingly enough, she has homework. She needs to learn her "nursey rhymes". One that was sent home was something called "Indian Child" which I'd never heard of before, but I think you just say the phrases and do the arm actions with it. I don't think it's a chant.
The other is "10 Little Indian Boys" which evidently has not been changed to "10 Little Indian Boys and Girls". Well, if you're going to be that politically correct about the situation, maybe we should change it further to "10 Little Native American Boys and Girls"?
Rowena wails "That's too long." I said I don't care. Send her back and tell her you refuse to teach her this stuff because it's racist. "But she's three years old!" Never a better time to start learning. "It's supposed to be Thanksgiving themed!" That's an excuse to be racist? I mean, really!
Show us a book that scared you as a child.
I am not Trixie the Destroyer.
Give me treats!
Howl-&-Scream began as the human's Pegan festival of Samhain. It was later named All Hallows Eve which got changed to Halloween and now, more recently Howl-&-Scream for the noise the small humans make when they run down the street from house to house.
During Samhain, humans would guide the spirits of the those that died during the year to the Sunlit Lands where they would grow younger and eventually be reborn into the world. They did this by burning candles and by leaving offering of food on their doorstops to help their spirits in their journey.
It wasn't long though before some humans, scavengers that they are, got the idea of dressing up like ghosts and other spirits to steal the food left out by the pagans.
Eventually this got more or less formalized into children getting dressed up and going door to door to collect candy in the more modern western world including Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and in some parts of Australia and New Zealand.
Candles were place in the carved out pumpkins. The faces carved into the pumpkins were supposed to ward off evil spirits, while the light guided the spirits of the recently departed to their destination.
The concept of witches and their familier black cats did not become a part of the celebration of Howl-&-Scream until the religion of the Crucified God got involved. All Pagens were suddenly branded "witches" and cats because of their supposed association with the Godess Freya were included in this because the Religon of the Crucified God named Freya - who was a fertility godess - as a demon.
While it is nice to believe we live in more enlightened times then our forebearers, there are still many humans who believe that Black Cats in particular should be harmed today. They think this is funny.
Humans have a very weird definition of the word "funny" if they think causing pain to living creatures is humorous in any way.
As a result and to protect me from these strange members of human kind, I am not allowed out of the house on Howl-&-Scream. I did however press my case to get some Temptations first thing this morning, and will be asking for lots of treats during the rest of the day.
Some of my earlier writings related to this are Cat as Diety and Once you try black...
I was going to do White Cat Wednesday, but human did not scan papers I need for it. So I am doing What Wednesday instead.
FAQ #2: What Kind of Cat am I?
I am a Domestic Shorthaired cat. The Domestic Shorthair is the same basic cat that first associated with humans thousands of years ago, making us the oldest "breed" of cat although we are not really any breed at all. The name Domestic Shorthair refers to any cat that is not a "purebred" cat. Yet all "purebred" cats originiated from the Domestic Shorthair. (Making us best breed to be!)
The Domestic Shorthair is also known as the Mixed Housecat or the Domestic Cat. In addition to having a wide and almost endless variety of physical characteristics, the Domestic Cat can have almost any personality type. Someone who's looking for a pet cat can pretty much find a cat that is "perfect" for him or her. Additionally, the Domestic cat can be found anywhere. These are the cats that one can rescue from an animal shelter or even adopt through a "free kittens" advertisement in the newspaper. As long as they are properly taken care of, the Domestic cat doesn't generally suffer from the same ailments that many purebred cats do.
The Domestic Shorthair (and Medium and Longhair) can include any cat that comes from two parents that are either unknown, or unpedigreed. This leads to great variety. However, for show purposes (Yes, we CAN be shown), there are ten different color divisions. They are: Solid, Solid and White, Tabby, Tabby and White, Tortoiseshell, Tortoiseshell and White, Shaded, Shaded and White, Pointed and Pointed and White. Because there are no breed standards, these cats, when being judged, are judged upon the distinctive appearance of the cat, as well as the cat's personality. (I am a solid color cat.)
As the name would imply, the Domestic Shorthair, Mediumhair or Longhair may have short, medium or long fur. The Domestic Cat doesn't really have a size requirement, although most Domestic Cats are of medium size. (I am a big cat, as big as a Maine Coon female - 12 pounds - but not as fluffy!)
Great news! Agility competition is no longer for the dogs! Iams now offers feline agility competition at CFA cat shows. Find out more at CFA-Iams Cat Championship.
I get my free sample of Feline Greenies in mail today. You can get your free sample Here.
A Naples Daily News special report on the state of the Florida panther. Check out a collection of photos and videos highlighting the endangered animal.
I am sorry Panther 151 losed both sets of kittens this year. That is very sad for poor Panther mother. but wait until you see Panther kittens 236, 237 and 238! They are so adorable!
Also, someone stealed our trash can. It is beige, about waist high on human and rectangle shaped, have wheels on it and have my address stensiled on side. If anyone see it, could you please return it to my house?
I am nocturnal. Most cats are. By definition, these means we sleep during the daytime and are active at night. However, because we live with humans, we often get used to their time schedules.
Still, I tend to get up around 2 or 2:30 in the morning every day. Even when I am outside all day, I tend to catnap a lot on the porch, and so I'm still ready to get up in middle of the night.
If you think about it, it make sense for us to be nocturnal because we use stalk and ambush style of hunting and this is most effective in low light situations when we can hide. But even when I not hunting, I get up because I want to have a snack and to use the litter box.
Then I like to sit in the window and look outside. This is time of night when everything gets going outside. It is an interesting to sit there and watch these soap operas that humans find so facinating. I find out who is messing with who, and which males cats want to make kittens and which female cats want to make kittens and which cats do not like each other. We have lots of cats that live mainly outside so this is when the are most active.
Normally this would not be a problem but Bean like to sleep with bedroom door closed because it make it cooler with the Air Machine. It used to be should could not sleep with me, but I brainwash her and now she can not fall asleep without me in the bed with here. So when I want to get up, I have to wake her up to let me out of bedroom.
Anyway, my Bean have her purrrthday last Wednesday. We do not make big deal of it because she servent and I would not want her to get any ideas above her station. My purrrthday is next month, we will have big dinner for it and I will get many presents. But for her purrrthday we do not do much.
I wake her up 2:00 AM. We just finished reading "Dragons of the Dwarven Depths" (Weis & Hickman return to the Dragonlance series that they cut their writing teeth on 20 years ago) night before and somehow my badgering of her translated into a Dragon-Cat banging on the gates of Thorbardin in her dream.
I kind of like the idea of Dragon-cat! I make her draw a Dragon-cat for me!
"You forget whiskers," I tell her. So she puts in whiskers. "Maybe I could have blood dripping off claws and could breath fire," I suggest. "No," she says.
NO???!!!
Any case, when I wake her up for her purrrthday she could not go back to sleep. She have noisy bone disease which the humans call arthritis. So I guess her bones hurt her, even when they not making noises like when she walk, so sometimes it hard for her to sleep. She take pill, but still could not fall back asleep.
Finally she give up trying, and decided to clean up the bookshelves and take a bunch of books over to One for the Books. This good idea as she can us more books with cats in them. Dragon book was okay, but it do not have any cats in it, not even Dragon-cats. She need to get us new Harry Potter book too. I want to know how story end.
No matter what you think it is not mean of me to wake her up though. She get up then and use her litter box too, so it good thing I wake her up. No telling what kind of mess she'd make otherwise.
Mickey give me this award:
Thank you Mickey! I love your blog too!
I was going to give it to Black Cat, but Ramses already give her one. So I would like to give it to Spying Cat, =^..^=ICat and Pepper, Queen of Cheetahs.
Dolores came into my office and wanted to know where my Halloween decorations where. I said these ARE my Halloween decorations:
Seriously. They've now lost 10 straight. What could possibly be more horrifying????
Cole Devries
"Camp Day" started out Saturday morning with the Twins pitching staff engaging in a game of whiffle ball. Played on field 2, the pitchers used a wooden bat on poor little plastic balls that took quite a beating.
For the pitchers, it seemed like a lot of fun. Short little underhand tosses and great big hits. Charles Nolte distinguished himself as the premier whiffle ball hitter in a contest with a made up score of 26-3 at the end. No one was really keeping track, and it really didn't matter.
It was just a fun way to get a bit of work out, and to do something just slightly different from that the guys have been working on all through camp.
And yes, it seems the pitching staff knows how to run the bases too.
The "real" game, came later. While the Saturday games are slated to start at 10:00 AM, this one got underway at 1:00 PM, with Team Red taking on Team Blue in Hammond Stadium.
Cole Devries took the start for Team Red. For my second look at the former Golden Gopher, the Eden Prarie native was throwing like a candidate for a Miracle starting spot, which he is. He worked 3 solid innings, giving up 4 hits, and striking out only 1, but he kept Team Blue off the board.
Miracleman Brian Dinkelman greeting him with a single to start the game, but Ben Revere flew out, and Rene Tosani hit into a force out that nabbed Dinkelman at 2nd. Deibinson Romero struck out to retire the side.
Team Blue would put Appalachian Pitcher of the Year David Bromberg on the mound. Bromberg issued three straight strike outs, sitting down Esterlin De Los Santos, Alejandro Machado and Brandon Roberts to end the inning.
Chris Parmelee would hit a single to start off the second inning, but Devries got Angel Morales to hit into a double play and Jon Waltenbury ground out. Bromberg went back out and started up right where he left off, by striking out Juan Richardson. He then got Matt Moses and Garrett Olson on line outs to end the inning.
Ben Petsch and Roldolfo Palacios both singled, but Petsch would be taken out attempting to steal, James Beresford would fly out and Dinkleman ground out to end Devries stint on the mound.
Bromberg made short of Greg Yersich (fly out), Alex Soto and Reggie Williams (both on ground outs to end the inning.)
Southpaw Henry Reyes took over for Devries in the fourth, going 3 up, 3 down with Romero picking up his second strike out of the game.
Curtis Leavitt
Team Blue retaliated by putting Mike Tarsi on the mound. This would be my first look at the lanky lefty.
Tarsi got Mark Dolenc to ground out and De Los Santos popped out before putting Machado on base by plunking him, while Roberts drew a walk. He would strike out Richarson though, to end the inning.
Reyes got Parmelee on a ground out, then walked Morales. Waltenbury hit into a double play and I was beginning to wonder if the Twins pitching staff could blank each other for nine innings. I shouldn't have wondered.
Richardson lined out with an arrow to 3rd, but Olson then slugged a pitch over the right field wall for the first run of the game. Yersich would ground out, Soto would pick up a walk and Williams would fly out to end the inning.
With the fifth over, several new players made their way into the game. Ben Petsch started out by striking out for Team blue, and Palacios never made it to the bag either, but then Parmelee jumped in there for an extra at bat, picking up a walk. James Beresford would then line out and Danny Rams would get his first at bat, picking up a walk. He'd take over behind the plate for Rocky as well.
Nick Papasan replaced Williams in the line up, grouding out for his first at bat. Dolenc struck out, but De Lo singled his way onto the plate. Machado would hit over to short though, so De Lo was taken out at second to end the inning. Danny Lehmann would replace Yersich in the line up and took over behing the plate for the seventh, which also saw Tyler Robertson take to the mound for Team Red.
They're going to have to fix the Kwick Kopy "K" board if Robertson is going to pitch for the Miracle this season. They may even want to consider making it larger. Frank is certainly going to have his work cut out for him.
Dinkleman ground out, but Robertson got Revere and Tosoni out on strikes for a quick top of the 7th. Curtis Leavitt would come in to handle the pitching for Team Blue.
Brandon Robertson singled his way onto base and moved over to second on Richardson's ground out. With Moses batting, he would then steal 3rd. Leavitt would unleash a wild pitch that would put him over the plate to make it 2-0 Team Red. Moses then hit a double, but he'd be stranded when Olson ground out and Lehmann flew out to end the inning.
Romero and Parmalee both hit singles off Robertson to end the inning. He'd take Morales out on strikes, but then Waltenbury slammed a ball out to center field for a triple to tie up the game. Petsch and Rams would both be issued strikes though, leaving Jon standing on 3rd with no where to go.
Leavitt would get Soto to ground out and Papasan and Dolenc to strike out for a quick bottom of the 8th. He didn't want to kill off Team Blue's offesive momentum.
Caleb Moore would come into the game in relief of Robertson, who'd be awarded the blown save. He allowed a single to Beresford, but got Dinkelman to ground out. He then walked Revere. Tosoni hit a single to load the bases. Romero then followed that up with another deep single that saw Baby Bear-Cat Bearesford, and Speed Demon Revere over the plate to make it 4-2 Team Blue. Moore would get Parmelee and Morlaes out on fly balls to end the inning.
Rob Delaney came in to close out the game for Team Blue. You know how Delaney is, he HAS to make things interesting.
He got De Lo to ground out, but Parmelee would not handle Machado's hit, putting the man on base on a fielding error. Roberts then drew walk to put a man in scoring position. Juan Richardson and Matt Moses would both fly out though, handing the loss to Moore, and giving Delaney the win, and sending Team Blue back to the locker rooms quite happy.
The Twins play at home Monday and on the road Tuesday before another camp day on Wednesday. Fall Instructional League closes out at home Thursday with a game against the Reds.
NOTES: Joe Benson "did something" to his elbow. It's not serious, but he's exited camp early. Former Miracle slugger Brock Peterson is in town "working on his shoulder".
Jose Mijares pitching at Terry Park in 2006
Aragua 2 at Caracas 3
W: C. Bohorquez (1-0, 0.00); L: Y. Pino (0-1, 6.75); SV: J. Plummer (1)
HR: ARA: M. Aviles (1).
The Leones de Caracas defeated the Tigres De Aragua 3-2 Friday in Venezuelan Winter League play.
Former Miracle pitcher Yohan Pino took the loss, giving up 1 run on 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 1 in 1.1 innings worth of work.
Twin prospect Brian Bass took the start, working 4 innings for the Tigres. Caracas' Carl Loadenthai (Atlanta) singled on a ground ball to center to start out the Leones offense, then stole 2nd. Peeter Ramos (Philadelphia) ground out, but Loadenthai moved to 3rd. A passed ball by Raul Chavez (NY Yankees) saw Lodenthai across the plate for the first run of the game.
The Tigres answered back in the 3rd, when former Miracle Luis Maza (LA Dodgers) doubled out to right. He was followed onto base by Fort Myers Alumni Alex Romero (Arizona) who reached on a fielding error. Mike Aviles (Kansas City) sac-fly brought in Maza to give the Tigres their run. Twin prospect Brian Buscher singled, moving Romero to second, but Ramon Castro (f/a) ground into a force out to end the inning.
Bass final line would be 1 run, earned on 3 hits and no walks, while striking out 3 in 4 innings. Rosman Garcia (Baltimore) would replace him on the mound, getting into a jam in the 6th inning with 1 out. Again, it would be Loadenthai that picked up the run when he reached on a sac-bunt. He would again steal second, and would move to 3rd, this time on a fielder's choice that took Cesar A. Quintero (Houston) out at home. A pitcher change did not help, as he scored off Eduaro Perez's (LA Dodgers) single.
Aviles would homer for Aragua in the 7th. Pino would allow a double to Mario Lisson (Kansas City) in the bottom of the inning, and a fielding error by Jesus Feliciano (NY Mets) moved him to 3rd. He come home on Gregorio Petit's (Oakland) sac-bunt for the game winner.
Buscher would be 2-for-4 at the plate with Romero going 0-for-5 and Maza taking 2-for-5 with a run. Former Twins catcher Henry Blanco was 0-for-4 for the Leones. Former Miracle Jose Mirajes worked .1 innings in relief of Pino and Frank Mata finished up the game, allowing 1 hit and striking out 1 in 1 inning.
Caraca 0 at Aragua 4
W: V. Moreno (1-0, 0.00); L: J. Cummings (0-1, 7.36)
HR: ARA: J. Martinez (1), R. Salazar (1).
The Tigers got out of the slump on Saturday, blanking the Lions 4-0 at home. Former Miracle Victor Moreno (Baltimore) picked up the win, working 1.2 hitless, walkless, innings while striking out 2. Rochester's Bobby Korecky threw 2 innings of relief ball, allowing 1 hit, walking 1 and striking out 1.
All in all, 6 Aragua pitchers held Caracas to only 3 hits and 1 walk in the game.
Alex Romero (Arizona) capitalized on a walk in the 4th, scoring on Jose Martinez's (St. Louis) home run. The Tigres also got runs from Ruben Salazar (f/a) and pinch runner Aarom Baldiris (f/a) who replaced designed hitter Alex Nunez (f/a) in the game.
Jeremy Cummings (Toronto), who spent time this last season in Rochester, suffered the loss for Caracas, giving up 3 runs (earned) on 5 hits and 1 walk in 3.2 innings worth of work.
Aragua host Margarita on Sunday for a 4:00 PM (Venezuelan local time) game.
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