1894-S Barber Dime

Some of you may, or may not, know that I am a coin collector,
not a real serious one, but above average. I generally stick to
U.S. coins, mostly silver ones. My faves include the 3 cent
nickels (yeah, sounds weird, but they do exist!) and all Barber
coinage. Barbers are what we collectors call all dimes, quarters,
and half dollar coins minted between 1892-1916; the coins
were designed by Charles Barber. One Barber I DON'T have is
the 1894-S dime. Only 24 proofs were made, none for general
circulation. Of the 24 proofs, only 9 are documented to be in
existence. One of those got sold a few days ago by someone in
California to a lucky soul in New York. Lucky, and rich I may
add, as the coin sold for 1.9 million dollars. The 1894-S Barber
dime is considered by many in the coin world as the Holy Grail
of coins. I know I will never get to own one, but I do hope to see
one at some point, hold it in my hot big hand and just pretend
for a few seconds.....and then grudgingly give it back. Unless I
finally hit the lottery, then maybe I can get my own, right after
I buy the Porsche Carrera convertable and a beachfront villa!

Girls Behaving Badly

So y'all know that most men, my husband included, have a 

thing for the television remote control. One evening not too 

long ago, while roaming the channels, hubby came across an 

amusing hidden camera show. Apparently when he was 

younger he was a big fan of 'Candid Camera'. Well, the show 

he discovered is similar to it, but with a twist. It is called 

'Girls Behaving Badly' and it stars 4 lady pranksters who 

pull rather outrageous, and sometimes raunchy, gags on 

unsuspecting victims. Some of the pranks are cute, others on 

the verge of indecency, and a few are just silly. But all in all,

'Girls Behaving Badly' is good 1/2 hour of entertainment. 

You can find Kira, Chelsea, Melissa, and Shondrella, the 4 

crazy gals, on the Oxygen Channel, available on basic cable. 

it never ends.....

.....the food recalls that is. This week the FDA has had to handle

yet another food crisis. Castleberry Foods of Augusta, Georgia

has recalled more than 80 versions of canned corned beef hash,

chili, chili sauce, and beef stew. Apparently the meat products

have been connected to a botulism outbreak; botulism is a

muscle paralyzing disease brought about by a bacterium. So 

far, cases have been discovered in Texas and Indiana. Most of

the Castleberry products are sold as the store or generic brands

of many grocery stores. Equipment malfunction seems to be the

culprit of this latest recall; a Castleberry official stated "we 

believe we have isolated the issue to a situation of under-

processing on one line of our production facility...we have shut

down this line altogether and are recalling all products produced 

on it." Guess we just have to wait for the next food or other

recall, I am sure it will be just around the corner, since corners

keep getting cut on a regular basis.

The curse of the moto razr

Spoke to gal pal Lola earlier this evening. Her plans to acquire

the iPhone were temporarily postponed last week, but in the

meantime, her current phone decided to cease operations. So,

as one of her good friends did indeed buy an iPhone, she had 

an extra phone to give to Lola.....a Motorola Razr. Now, let me

fill you in on my humble opinion on this matter. I am by no

means superstitious, nor do I believe in psychic stuff or spells,

but I kind of have to wonder about Lola and her relationship

with Razrs. This will be the 4th one she has had in about a 

year. Her first one was stolen, the second suffered a painful

death in a washing machine, and the third suffered an unfor-

tunate demise in the snow and ice of Alaska. So I really have

to wonder a couple of things - first, why would she take 

another one after her string of bad Razr luck? Secondly, I 

can't help but wonder what the Fates hold for this latest 

Motorola - perhaps it will be run over accidentally as it falls 

out of a pocket under the tire of some vehicle, or maybe it will 

end up slipping into some dingy toilet of a bar where Lola has

had too much to drink! 

Sounds like a plan!

Reuters.com occasionally provides me with some rather 

cute stories. The latest one that caught my eye was titled 

"Jail break timed with guard toilet break."! Naturally, I 

could not resist. In Manilla, capital of the Philippines, 

7 men escaped from a police station detention cell by 

sawing on the bars (albeit very old, rusty bars) of the cell 

they were in. They were able to time their sawing with the

numerous bathroom visits the lone guard took that evening; 

the guard was nursing an upset stomach and had to make 

several toilet pit stops. It wasn't until several hours later 

that the guard noticed the damaged cell and the missing 

prisoners. What made it worse is that of the 7 escapees, 2 

were being held on murder charges (the other 5 for theft 

and robbery). Needless to say, the guard was suspended, 

as was his commanding officer. I suppose the possible loss 

of work will really make the poor guy's stomach churn!

Another transfat free chain

Yet another fast food chain has recently announced that they

will go trans fat free in their cooking oil. Burger King is the 

latest to join the anti-trans fat trend; they even stated that

they had already starting using trans fat free oil in several

hundred of their 7100 restaurants and will do so in all of 

them. I am pretty sure that we are witnessing a positive

trend here, with all these chains announcing how they have

seen the importance of going trans fat free. Not to sound

cynical, but could it be that some of these companies are

enjoying the publicity they attract when they announce

that they are following more health conscious choices? 

Maybe one company gets jealous when another announces

menu alterations? Whatever the case may be, these are all 

instances where change is indeed good. 

work and money

I am just positively getting spoiled....almost regular visits by

Sandra lately! She has started a new job, and so far, it seems 

to be working out great for her, other than the fact that she

has to wake up at the very awful time of 4:30am!!! ick, yuck

Another one of my gal pals who has had quite a time at work

lately is Michelle. She works for the cell phone retailer who

just happens to be the exclusive here in town for the over-

hyped iPhone by Apple. Needless to say, her workplace has

been a madhouse lately. At least Michelle will have extra 

bonuses on her next paycheck thanks to the commissions.

And speaking of the iPhone, the one and only Lola called me

last night and declared that due to an unforeseen bump in her

paycheck from her summer job, she is going to go to buy the

iPhone TODAY.  I knew it was only a matter of time before

Lola broke down and bought it, she just can't help herself!

Happy 4th of July!

Yes, time for your history lesson! On this date in 1776, the

Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental

Congress by the 13 British Colonies in America. The Declara-

tion listed all the grievances of the Colonies against the

British monarch (at the time, King George III) and declared

the Colonies to be free and independent states; it was

unanimously endorsed by all the delegates. As the website

for the History Channel states, this event "marked the cul-

mination of a political process that had begun as a protest

against oppressive restrictions imposed by the mother

country on colonial trade, manufacturing, and political liberty

and had developed into a revolutionary struggle resulting in

the establishment of a new nation." Wow, I couldn't have

said it better myself, Happy 231st Birthday U.S.A.!

Some odd food notes

Unusual food notes that I ran across over the weekend. According
to Reuters, McDonald's Corporation in Britain has announced that
starting this week, they will convert part of their 155 vehicle
British delivery fleet to run on biodiesel fuel made from their own
recycled cooking oil. It will start with 45 vehicles, with the rest
being switched over the next 12 months. The fuel will be 85%
cooking oil collected from the approximately 900 Mickey D's
around Britain, the remaining 15% will be pure rapeseed oil. My
question is, will the discharge smell like fries? On a more serious
note, Veggie Booty Snack Food has issued a recall of all their
snack foods due to possible salmonella poisoning. Veggie Booty?
Is this name for real? I was quite surprised to read the CNN
online article about "a popular snack food sold nationwide....in
supermarkets, health food stores, vending machines, and online
in the U.S. and Canada." As most of you know, I shop alot, hit all
the grocery stores (depends on what I need and who has specials),
but I have never seen a snack food with such an offbeat name....I
would have remembered 'Veggie Booty'!!! I mean, up until this
article, I just assumed booty was a popular subject in many of the
rap music songs I hear on the cook's radio in the restaurant's
kitchen, and trust me, the lyrics (those that I can actually under-
stand that is) definitely do NOT refer to veggies!