LISSA’S: Men Get Older Too!

Richard Gere





Roger Moore





Arnold Schwarzenegger





Pierce Brosnan





Clint Eastwood





Rod Stewart

BILL’S: Thought’s On Economic Stimulus Package

I have been concerned about people’s plans with the Economic Stimulus Package which is on the way. Bush tells us that they saw the problems facing the economy before it happened, and that is why they are sending us money. But as a friend of mine pointed out, when the government starts handing out "No-Strings Attached" money, it is out of an act of desperation, not concern. Wal-Mart is preparing for the Stimulus Package to arrive. They are praying that everyone comes to their store to spend it. Economists are saying that this is just a way to make the "recession" a "W recession". I guess Bush will get his namesake. A "W Recession" means that as the economy goes down, the government gives money to spend, which brings it up momentarily before it drops again, which could be even further, before starting recovery. I have heard of talk of gas reaching over $4.00 per gallon by Memorial Day. That is just around the corner, and the other day a financial advisor mentioned that the smart thing to do, would be to take the Economic Stimulus Package and put it aside for gas. The amount of money we are getting would cover the cost of the next gas increase from now until the end of the year. That’s it. But knowing the loyal people who need to buy useless items, and spend unnecessarily, I can honestly say that Berkeley Breathed has true knowledge of the people of the U.S. At least those of Texoma. Be assured, Wal-Mart has stocked up on Turnip Twaddlers ready for your burning pockets.

LISSA’S: Texas

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas ...

If someone in a Lowe's store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Texas ;

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Texas ;

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas ;

If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Texas ;

If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Texas ;

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Texas ;

If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Texas ;

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Texas ;

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and
everybody's passing you, you may live in Texas ;

If you find 60 degrees 'a little chilly,' you may live in Texas ;

If you actually understand these jokes, and share them with all your Texas friends, you definitely live in Texas .

Need to be cheered up?

Happy, Texas 79042
Pep , Texas 79353
Smiley, Texas 78159
Paradise , Texas 76073
Rainbow , Texas 76077
Sweet Home , Texas 77987
Comfort , Texas 78013
Friendship, Texas 76530

Love the Sun?

Sun City , Texas 78628
Sunrise , Texas 76661
Sunset, Texas 76270
Sundown, Texas 79372
Sunray , Texas 79086
Sunny Side , Texas 77423

Want something to eat?

Bacon , Texas 76301
Noodle , Texas 79536
Oatmeal , Texas 78605
Turkey , Texas 79261
Trout , Texas 75789
Sugar Land , Texas 77479
Salty, Texas 76567
Rice , Texas 75155
And top it off with:
Sweetwater , Texas 79556

Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!

Detroit , Texas 75436
Colorado City , Texas 79512
Denver City , Texas 79323
Klondike , Texas 75448
Nevada , Texas 75173
Memphis , Texas 79245
Miami , Texas 79059
Boston , Texas 75570
Santa Fe , Texas 77517
Tennessee Colony , Texas 75861
Reno , Texas 75462

Feel like traveling outside the country? Don't bother buying a plane
ticket!

Athens , Texas 75751
Canadian, Texas 79014
China , Texas 77613
Egypt , Texas 77436
Ireland , Texas 76538
Turkey , Texas 79261
London , Texas 76854
New London , Texas 75682
Paris , Texas 75460

No need to travel to Washington D.C.

Whitehouse , Texas 75791

We even have a city named after our planet!

Earth , Texas 79031

And a city named after our State!

Texas City , Texas 77590

Exhausted?

Energy , Texas 76452

Cold?

Blanket , Texas 76432

Winters, Texas

Like to read about History?

Santa Anna , Texas

Goliad , Texas

Alamo , Texas

Gun Barrel City, Texas

Robert lee, Texas

Need Office Supplies?

Staples, Texas 78670

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus , Texas 76084

You guessed it..it's on the state line..

Texline , Texas 79087

For the kids...

Kermit , Texas 79745
Elmo , Texas 75118
Nemo , Texas 76070
Tarzan , Texas 79783
Winnie, Texas 77665
Sylvester , Texas 79560

Other city names in Texas , to make you smile.....

Frognot , Texas 75424
Bigfoot , Texas 78005
Hogeye , Texas 75423
Cactus , Texas 79013
Notrees , Texas 79759
Best, Texas 76932
Veribest , Texas 76886
Kickapoo , Texas 75763
Dime Box , Texas 77853
Old Dime Box , Texas 77853
Telephone , Texas 75488
Telegraph , Texas 76883
Whiteface , Texas 79379
Twitty, Texas 79079

And last but not least, the Anti-Al Gore City

Kilgore , Texas 75662

And our favorites...

Cut n Shoot, Texas
Gun Barrell City , Texas
Hoop And Holler, Texas
Ding Dong, Texas and, of course,
Muleshoe , Texas

Here are some little known, very interesting facts about Texas .

1. Beaumont to El Paso : 742 miles

2. Beaumont to Chicago : 770 miles

3. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas

4. World's first rodeo was in Pecos , July 4, 1883.

5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water.

6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in Houston .

7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America .

8. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America 's only remaining flock of whooping cranes.

9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.

10. The worst natural disaster in U.S . history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane, in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island .

11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was ' Houston .'

12. King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island .

13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43' in
24 hours in and around Alvin in July of 1979.

14. Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, (known as the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union ) instead of by annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the U.S. Flag, and may divide into 5 states.

15. A Live Oak (known as Big Tree) near Fulton is estimated to be over 1000 years old.

16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.

17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.

18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington -on- the Brazos,
Harrisburg , Galveston , Velasco, West Columbia and Austin .

19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington DC (by 7 feet).

20. The name ' Texas ' comes from the Hasini Indian word 'tejas'
meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas .

21. The State Mascot is the Armadillo (an interesting bit of trivia
about the armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into four, and they either have four males or four females.).

22. The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston .

LISSA’S: Your power of Observation

This is a really neat test. Take it and see how observant you really are. I scored an 18.

Good Luck!!

OBSERVATION TEST

LISSA’S: Balloon Fashions

Very unique! I love the ideas these designers came up with! Let's hope this doesn't become the latest fashion! I can't even imagine how it would be in a strong wind or if you're wanting to sit down. Can we say "instant whoopie cushion"?? HaHa!

LISSA’S: Catching up with the cast of Dirty Dancing.

Jennifer Grey
Playing Baby was great-but having a baby was better.

She and Swayze haven't stayed in touch But "I would be thrilled to see him". One thing she did hold onto: the famous pink dress. "I took it and have it in storage." she says.

"There's so much of my soul in the movie. I still dance all the time-I just don't do it for show. It was a perfect part of me", says Grey, who was 26 when she landed the lead role, Frances "Baby" Houseman.

"I had that kind of double life as a teenager, being a daddy's girl and a good girl, and then this rebellious, darker side ready to break out."

Break out she did, but her overnight success, combined with trauma from a serious car crash just days before the movie opened, left her too stunned to take advantage. "It was enough to mess with my whole experience with fame, " says Grey, 47. "I didn't properly take the wave I was on."

A year later, "I wasn't getting the offers I wanted," says Grey, daughter of Broadway's Joel Grey, so she opted for a nose job, thinking it would broaden her range as an actress.

"My idea was to look the same-just slightly different, a little better," she says. "But it was like a really bad dream. I went from being completely recognizable by everyone to not at all by anyone."

Making light of her situation, Grey played a woman whose nose job makes her unrecognizable in the '99 sitcom It's Like, You Know …"But by then", she says, "I wanted to take a break."

In '01 she married actor Clark Gregg (The New Adventures of Old Christine) and later had daughter Stella, now 5. She recently went back to work, starring in the upcoming HBO series John From Cincinnati, "but raising Stella is by far the most rewarding thing I've ever done" she says.


Patrick Swayze
Still dancing and still making the ladies swoon.

"Dirty Dancing taught me how to do a love scene. It's about connecting on a soul level".

Casting Dirty Dancing rebel Johnny Castle was easy. "There was only Patrick", says screenwriter and co-producer Eleanor Bergstein. "Nobody else was really in contention." Playing the swirl-hipped dance instructor was harder.

"It was working through puiled muscles until 4 o'clock in the morning." recalls Swayze, who had studied with the Joffrey Ballet before getting his big break in 1983's The Outsiders. Still, Swayze knew he was part of something special. "It was goose bumps", he says. "Energy that something electric and wonderful might happen."

It did. Dirty Dancing just blew the lid off my career. " says Swayze, 54. He followed up with another romantic lead, in 1990's Ghost, with Demi Moore. But stardom took its toll. In 1993, he checked into rehab. "I played with trying to deal with frame and got stupid and drank too much" he says. "I feel real fortunate that I've come out on the other end of it all". He put his life back together by stepping away from Hollywood and running a 20,000 acre-New Mexico ranch with Lisa Niemi, his wife and dance partner of 31 years. "I get on a horse and disappear in the mountains with my dogs" he says. Not that Swayze is done performing. He starred in last year's London production of Guys and Dolls and is now shooting Christmas in Wonderland in Canada. As for his fan base? I've still got 18 year-old girls hugging me" says Swayze. "And I constantly have some old lady pinching me on the rear. I turn around and see blue hair running back to a group of other blue hairs going, "I did it, Martha! I pinched him!"


Lonny Price
Who played Neil Kellerman

Then: "I remember how embracing Patrick Swayze was to everyone," says Price, 48, who played Neil Kellerman, the camp owner's son who has his sights set on Baby. "And I remember the mud-days of trudging in mud to shoot I've Had The Time of My Life over and over."

Now: He's single, dating, and directing the new Broadway musical 110 in the Shade.


Cynthia Rhodes

After playing Penny, the dancer who gets pregnant, Rhodes, now 50, married to musician Richard Marx and moved to the Chicago suburbs to raise three sons. Says Eleanor Bergstein: "She loves being a mom."


Wayne Knight

Best known as Newman on Seinfeld, Knight, 51, played Stan, the camp activities director. "I didn't know much, not having been to resorts" says Knight, who was supposed to have just one scene. But they liked me! It was a lot of fun.


Kelly Bishop
The Mom

Then: Originally cast to play Vivian (the married older woman who hits on Swayze's Johnny Castle). Bishop, 63, arrived onset only to discover they wanted her to play Mary, the mom. "Jerry Orbach whispered in my ear, 'Take it, it's better', recalls Bishop. "So I did it. He took me under his wing". When I wasn't learning the meringue, we played Scrabble" she says. "Scrabble was a rough game with Jerry, he knew all the two-letter words".

Now: For the past seven years Bishop has played Emily, the grandmother on the WB's Gilmore Girls. "I was just hooked into the show" she says. Since then the series has been canceled. "I've got to get back onstage" says Bishop, who lives in New Jersey with her husband, TV personality Lee Leonard, and was in the original 1975 Broadway cast of A Chorus Line. "I love theater it's my home".

LISSA’S: Seinfeld was right!

Double dipping? 'Seinfeld' was right!

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Keep an eye on the salsa this Super Bowl Sunday: A researcher inspired by a famous "Seinfeld" episode has concluded that double dipping is just plain gross.

That's like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!" George Costanza was admonished on the show after he dipped a chip twice at a wake. That's not too far off, said Clemson University professor Paul L. Dawson.

Last year the food microbiologist's undergraduate students examined the effects of double dipping using volunteers, wheat crackers and several sample dips. They found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from an eater's mouth to the remaining dip sample.

"I was very surprised by the results," Dawson said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I thought there would be very minimal transfer. I didn't think we would be able to detect it."

The professor said the students' research didn't get into the risk behind such a bacteria transfer, but they got the idea.

"I like to say it's like kissing everybody at the party — if you're double dipping, you're putting some of your bacteria in that dip," Dawson said.

The results of the research are scheduled to be published in the journal Food Safety within the next six months, he said.

LISSA’S: Ahhh, that’s the spot!

Ah, that's the spot: Why scratching brings relief

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Oh, it brings such blessed relief and now scientists can tell you why -- scratching an itch temporarily shuts off areas in the brain linked with unpleasant feelings and memories.

"Our study shows for the first time how scratching may relieve itch," Dr. Gil Yosipovitch, a dermatologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in a statement.

Prior studies have shown that pain, including vigorous scratching, inhibit the need to itch. Yosipovitch and colleagues looked at what goes on in the brain when a person is scratched.

He and colleagues used a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging to see which areas of the brain are active during scratching. They scratched 13 healthy people with a soft brush on the lower leg on and off in 30-second intervals for a total of five minutes.

Scratching reduced activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex -- areas linked with pain aversion and memory.

And the more intensely a person was scratched, the less activity they found in these areas of the brain.

"It's possible that scratching may suppress the emotional components of itch and bring about relief," Yosipovitch said.

But they also found why one scratch often begets another.

Scratching increased activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, a pain center, and in the prefrontal cortex, which is linked with compulsive behavior.

"This could explain the compulsion to continue scratching," Yosipovitch said.

The researchers noted that the study is limited because people were not scratching in response to an actual itch.

But they said understanding what goes on in the brain may lend clues about how to treat people tormented by chronic itch, including people with eczema and many kidney dialysis patients.

The study, which appears online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was paid for by the National Institutes of Health.

source: Yahoo! News

LISSA’S: One Sheet of Paper

These are entries for an art contest at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC. The rule was that the artist could use only one sheet of paper.