Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The Dangers of Bread


I stumbled across this on Snopes, while looking up yet another erroneous email sent to me by a friend. The one that was sent to me attributed a speech about women over 40 to Andy Rooney. As I read it, the phrase "why buy the pig when you can get the sausage for free" was included. I thought this a little crude for Andy and I was so right. I love a good silly email, I can even appreciate a nice inspirational email (although I will never forward it to 10 people so that something nice will happen to me this afternoon), but I wish people would check (snopes is fantastic) before sending me useless stuff. They whole "magic eraser" warning was just silly, as was the "hands of God". So read this and remember, Bread is dangerous!
!!! BREAD IS DANGEROUS !!!

Research on bread indicates that:

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.

2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.

3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.

4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.

5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!

6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.

7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.

8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.

9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.

10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.

11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

12. Most American bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.

In light of these frightening statistics, it has been proposed that the following bread restrictions be made:

1. No sale of bread to minors.

2. A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.

3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.

4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.

5. The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Sneeches

I don't want to rant. It appears I've done enough of that for a while. Life has offered me a slight reprieve today and I am more than grateful. Liz, Audrey and I had a great time this morning at the Memories warehouse sale (I fear it may have been an "I hate lm" day", but we would have taken you if you didn't have to work). It was fantastical! I haven't done much since getting home, but Brian is going golfing tonight so I have a little more time to get stuff done. I am eager to get downstairs and fondle all my new scrapbook stuff.
I just wanted to make a quick comment about diversity and the unique and admirable qualities my children have. As a whole, we have no stars on our bellies, but get by just fine :)

Here's a quick list:
Becka, you never fail to make me smile. Your slightly snarky outlook on life entertains. I love that you dance when you are happy. I love that you cry...often. I wish you were never sad, that being said, you wear your emotions on your face, happy, sad, tired, you embrace your emotions. I am glad you have such a great desire to learn. I love your factoids, words of the day, books and articles you give me to read.
Lizzy, I love that you consider me a good friend. You care so much about everyone around you. You are the peanut butter in our family sandwich, you hold us all together. If you had a star on your belly it would be covered in bling, but you don't need a star, you are sparkly all by yourself. You are a great mother, a wonderful daughter, and a good friend.
Scott, stop eating all my hidden food, I know it is you. I love seeing you grow up. Not just getting taller, getting more grown upish. You are silly and carefree. I love that we can have glorious "deep" conversations, or just laugh and be ninjas. You did get a tribute blog all to yourself, but I have lots of nice things to say about you. I am especially glad that you have found your happy place again.
Ryan, you will probably never read this, as you don't consider blogging a worthwhile pastime, but I'm going to go ahead and say nice things to you anyway. You have really made an effort to be less shy and I admire that. Your sign dancing job is hilarious. Your little OCD tendencies also make me laugh. One of your unique qualities is that you manage to look either deep in thought or extremely stressed out when you sleep. The rest of the world looks relaxed when they sleep, but not you, you look very intense.
Alex, you are just a silly goose. You have self esteem at your age, which from my recollection is pretty close to impossible. You have managed to realize that having a star on your belly is not the most important thing in the world, as a matter of fact it doesn't even make your list. You embrace the family dorkiness with a zest. Look up "panache", because you have lots. I love that you want to be as tall as me. I guess that just goes along with your confidence and self esteem.
Courtney...what to say...what to say...even though you are the caboose, you act as though you are the little engine that could. You are always driving me to be a better person, a better mom, and more organized. You keep our whole family train on the tracks. You take many of the great qualities of your older sibs and magnify them in yourself. You are caring and compassionate, super genius, a deep thinker (for sure), OCD (in a good way), and you know where your happy place is and go there on purpose. You will always achieve the greatest things in life because you are have such a strong drive.
So there you go, unique and fun, I love my family.