Would you pity her?

Soon my blog will celebrate its sixth anniversary and over the years many readers have asked me where I find inspiration for my posts. One word … Facebook. Whenever I’m short on inspiration, all have to do is scroll through the Facebook posts and something is sure to jump out at me.

Take today for instance. Someone posted a video of a 22-year old African American woman that was aimed to gear up sympathy for the woman’s "dire" situation.

She works at McDonalds at minimum wage, she had a young kid, and has to make do with what she earns, plus what she gets from child support, plus government assistance.

After seeing the video, I got to thinking and watched it again and again and I found quite a few interesting details.

She complained that she only earns minimum wage at McDonalds. Well, at least she has a job. Millions of people don’t and for one reason or another are refused unemployment benefits.

My neighbor also used to work for McDonalds, but he didn’t stay there. He went to night school, put himself through college and obtained a government job.

The woman lives in a two story house with a beautiful big kitchen. Now it so happens that I have friends and acquaintances who are not exactly well off and I can tell you, none of them live in a two story house. One lives in a cheap apartment, the second shares an apartment with a roommate, the third lives in a trailer and the forth rents one room in a house.

None of these people have children (they can't afford them) so they don’t have the benefit of child support and when they applied for government assistance, they were turned down. Subsequently they turned to The Salvation Army, United Way, and other charities and were sent packing.

The woman in the video states that she only buys frozen foods (as fresh food might spoil and be wasted). Not very smart in my opinion. Frozen food is the most expensive. Take carrots for instance. A tin of carrots costs 65 cents, a bushel of fresh carrots costs 99 cents, while a packet of frozen carrots costs $2.45. If she’s worried about wasting food, she can go to the market on a daily basis for what she needs.

She complains that she had to have a tooth pulled because she couldn’t afford root canal. 

I have news for her, I know quite a few people, working people with medical insurance, who can’t afford root canal either. As for me … I wouldn’t want root canal if you offered it to me for free. 

As for the woman herself … she is African American, yet she has long glossy hair. This indicates a) her hair is straightened, b) has extensions, or c) is a wig. Either way, an expensive look.

As for her clothing … she is seen wearing a GAP T-shirt. Anyone who has ever shopped for clothing knows that GAP is an expensive store. Her jacket I recognized as Tommy Hilfiger (designer gear). Some might say that her T-shirt and jacket are knock-offs, but knock off items are still more expensive than no-name clothing.

All in all, my less than rich friends would trade places with this woman any day. She has a job, she lives in a furnished two story house, she receives child support and government assistance … what exactly is she complaining about?

Why Use the Plus Sign When Searching the Internet

With the arrival of the Internet, the world is your oyster.  Unfortunately, it’s not just your oyster, it’s anybody’s and with a pearl of information, you find a whole lot of junk.  Along with reputable companies, advertisers, spammers, bloggers, and other Internet users all vie for your attention.  If you’ve heard of the plus sign and you’re wondering, why use the plus sign searching the Internet, your life is about to become a whole lot easier.

The problem

If you’ve never used the plus sign when searching the Internet, you probably shake your head in frustration wading through pages and pages of useless information.  You know what you want, you formulated your request in your favorite search engine, but you still have to put up with bogus sites, websites with misleading ads, link farms, and false listings.

The solution

Next time when you use a search engine, start you search with the plus sign (+).  As an experiment, say that you’re looking for information on owls.  Type “owls” in the search engine and you’ll be presented with 72 million listings.  Now type “+owls” in the search engine and you’ll only get 71,000 listings.  The plus sign removes all the rig raff.

What does the plus sign do?

The plus sign removes (almost) all undesirable info from your search.  The plus sign tells the search engine that whatever you’re looking for has to include the word that you specified.  If you’re looking for owls, the search engine will only bring up information on those birds and will ignore pages that link themselves to info about owls.

Broaden your search

In addition to the plus sign, try broaden your search for a particular item.  For instance, if you’re looking for sugar free drink, don’t type just drinks in the search engine.  Typing “+drinks” produces about 8,660 results, while “+sugar free drinks” generates only 2,300 results.  Try to be as specific as possible.

Where it goes wrong

Clever advertisers know that subjects such as “love”, “employment”, “pets” and “cars” are hot topics.  They link their marketing pages to those popular sites and as a result you get flooded with millions of search results.  Fortunately, a few search engines are on to those advertisers and eliminate their ads automatically.  Still, it doesn’t take long to type a plus sign before the word or term you are searching for, letting the search engine know that you are not willing to put up with useless pages.

When it gets worse

You might find that, at certain times of the year, you get presented with more and more junk pages while looking for valuable information.  The problem is obvious, annual celebrations such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother and Father’s Day bring on a stream of advertisers all trying to lure you to their sites.  

Wonder no longer about why use the plus sign searching the Internet, try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised and save a whole lot of time finding what you’re looking for.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

So much for the vow of poverty

(CNN) In a sweeping address to the United Nations on Friday, Pope Francis presented himself as a champion of the poor and dispossessed, urging world leaders to adopt concrete solutions to combat war, widespread poverty and economic destruction.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/25/world/pope-un-speech/index.html

When I read an announcement like that I can’t help but snort. The Pope presenting himself as a champion of the poor … who is he kidding?

The first thing I did after reading this announcement was Googling “How rich is the Vatican?” and this is what I found:

Bankers' best guesses about the Vatican's wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of this wealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market.

The Vatican’s wealth is not only measured in money though. When I visited St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, I was amazed at the amount of paintings, marble statues, jewel encrusted Bibles and jewelry that was on display. 

We’re not talking a worth of millions, but of billions of dollars.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2480683/Rare-Italian-San-Gennaro-collection-gems-said-worth-Englands-crown-jewels.html

The Pope also implored nations to embrace refugees, but he himself doesn’t want anyone to set foot in Vatican City uninvited. The whole of the Vatican is protected by a huge wall and heavily guarded at every entrance.

http://www.theamericanmirror.com/photos-pope-calls-for-us-to-embrace-illegals-while-maintaining-massive-wall-around-vatican/

Remember the saying … “Practice what you preach” … I guess it doesn’t apply to the Pope.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Love the Bright Foreigner - Book Review

 The story starts off alright. Ann Grange is suddenly widowed and her whole world falls apart.

After a year of grieving, and with the help of a friend, she returns to the land of the living and does so with determination. She opts for a new hairdo, new makeup and new clothes.

Thanks to her new look comes a new found confidence. A confidence that makes her an independent woman, rather than the pathetic sidekick she was when her husband was alive.

In a museum she meets Alex, a Greek, who sweeps her off her feet.

If Burgh wanted to sketch Alex as appealing, she failed horribly. Right from that first meeting, it’s clear that Alex is an asshole. It’s his way or the highway. Still, Ann (who he insists on calling Anna) falls for his charms hook, line and sinker.

A whirlwind romance follows, during which Alex reveals himself as not only an asshole, but an asshole with a temper.

At this point I started to wonder what Ann sees in him. He’s self-centered, super arrogant, flies off the handle when he encounters resistance, and unreasonably possessive.

To be fair to him, he knows that he’s an asshole, that he’s self-centered, arrogant, and possessive. And while he’s insanely jealous, he admits that she doesn’t have to expect fidelity from him. He will continue to sleep around if it suits him.

Once again I started to wonder just how tolerant Ann is. What woman would agree to have her man on the loose like a dog in heat, while he practically has her on a leash?

I also wondered if his money had anything to do with it. She states that money is not important, but Ann went from being rich to being VERY rich. Would she have felt the same if her beloved was a bank teller, an accountant or an insurance salesman with an average salary?

The story went horribly wrong about halfway in the book where Burch makes a colossal mistake. 

When Ann complains to her 27-year-old daughter Fay that Alex is too dominating, Fay boldly states that all women secretly want to be dominated.

Really? All women want to be dominated? This certainly was news to me. I for one most certainly do not want to be dominated and I know quite a few women who feel the same.

Very strange for Fay to make such a statement, as she is a successful business woman herself. Makes you wonder if a dominating male had to say to her “Quit your career and stay home to clean my house, cook my meals and polish my shoes” how such an order would have been greeted.

Next big surprise, after the wedding, Ann finds herself pregnant. This was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. This woman is in her 40s, her twin children are 27 and now she’s expecting a baby! Has the woman ever heard of birth control? At her age it’s just plain stupid to get knocked up.

All in all, a disappointing book. It made me wonder where the Anita Burgh was who defended women’s rights and gay rights in “The Broken Gate” and “The Heart’s Citadel”. Since her book “Lottery” was also a disappointment, I’ll think twice before buying another book from Burgh.

How do you feel about fall?

I select a turtleneck instead of a shirt, pull on a jacket and wrap a scarf around my neck.  Outside it’s chilly.  Not really cold, but there is a definite nip in the air.  The wind makes me turn up the collar of my jacket. 

When I look up I see a gray sky packed with low hanging, fast moving clouds.  I feel like turning around, going back inside and crawling into bed.  I feel like joining the bears and the squirrels that hibernate until March or even April. 

As I leave the subway station and climb the stairs to street level, I zipper my jacket and walk face down, looking at the pavement.   Instead of a flimsy skirt, I now wear slacks.  Sandals have been replaced with shoes.  Soon shoes will have to make way for warmer boots.

On my way to work, I see plenty of people who are dressed like me.  They wear sweaters, jackets and scarves.  They no longer sashay, but stride with a sense of purpose and urgency.  They no longer look around, checking if they are seen.  Now they, too, walk with bended heads.

Looking up now, I don’t like what I see.  Some trees are still green, but they are thinning.  Others are turning yellow.  Were they yellow yesterday, or has this happened overnight?  Leaves in various shades of gold and brown rush along the pavement and swirl around my feet.  When I step on them they make a crunchy sound and turn to bits.

The lilies in the flowerbeds are hanging their heads.  They look sad, like they know their days are numbered.  The geraniums are still there, but they don’t look as radiant anymore as they once did.  They have not seen the sun in a few days and they seem to suffer from a lack of warmth.

I suffer from lack of warmth too.  It is bad enough that the fall has arrived; but, that Torontonians have not had a proper summer makes it all the worse.  We had a few warm days, but those days felt more like spring than summer. 

Where are the days when it was already warm early in the morning and one could just feel that it was going to be scorching hot later on?  Where are the days that people were sitting in the shade, huffing and puffing, fanning themselves against the heat?  There has been no heat this summer.

Although I am not a big fan of the scorching heat, and I moan and grown at the sun like everybody else when it is really hot, the notion of heat when one is desperate with ice cold hands and feet is a nice prospect.  It’s something to get one through the moment, through the day and through the long winter.  But somehow we have been cheated.  Summer has passed us by. 

As I stand in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil, I look out the window.  It has suddenly gone very dark, it is raining and drops of water are steadily trailing down the glass.  It is like Mother Nature is crying.  Down below the red and white lights of traffic contrast against the wet, black street.  The reflected colors remind me of a lit-up Christmas tree.

During lunchtime, I go outside to clear my head.  There is some blue in the sky now, but still far too many gray clouds.  A few intrepid souls are braving it and are going for a walk.  I have no such intentions.  I would rather stay inside and go in search of a hot bowl of soup.

The park, usually packed with lunchtime office workers and tourists, is now almost empty.  There is nobody strolling along the gravel paths; nobody squatting on the grass; nobody sitting under a tree on a shaded bench.  Now there are only pigeons and seagulls pecking at whatever they can find.   A few people are standing around in a watery sun, bundled up with coats and scarves.

Just before I go back inside I look up and see a flock of Canadian geese.  Are they heading south already?   I wish I could grow wings and join them.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Why Was the Leaning Tower of Pisa Built

His flaw made him famous

Gleaming in the sunshine in Tuscany, Italy, stands the tower of Pisa.  If the tower had been straight, it would have been just another building, but the fact that he leans at a precarious angle has gained it worldwide attention.  Why was the leaning tower of Pisa built?  It was constructed for a very specific purpose.

Why the tower was built

In the 11 century, the citizens of Pisa were sailors who set out to conquer countries and islands such as Spain, Norway, Britannia, Norway, Mallorca and Ibiza.  The citizens of Florence were their enemies and the sailors wanted to display a sign of their wealth.  A fancy tower seemed just the thing.

Building the tower of Pisa

An architect’s nightmare right from the start.

·       Field of Miracles  was chosen as its location. 

·       Construction was started on August 14, 1173. 

·       After the foundation was laid and three stories were build, the city of Pisa ran out of money and construction was halted. 

·       Unknown to the architect, Field of Miracles used to be a river delta, now filled with sand.  This made the surface unsuitable for heavy buildings.

·       Shortly after the third floor was built, the architect realized that the tower leaned toward to south.  In 1272 counter weights were added to prevent the building from collapsing.

·       In that same year construction was interrupted, Pisa declared war on Florence.  Funds that were assigned to building the tower were now spend on warfare.

·       In 1372 the tower was completed.

·       In 1838, Alessandro Della Gherardesca wanted to show off the detail that went into the base of the tower and ordered a path to be constructed around the tower.  When the workers struck water, the tower began to lean even more.

Specifications of the tower

The brainchild of Bonanno Pisano.

·       While the exterior of the tower is marble, the interior is constructed from lime and lime mortar.  The architect probably didn’t know that the lime is the reason why the tower stood the test of time without breaking or cracking.

·       On the low side, the tower measures 183.27 feet from the ground, on the high site its height is 186.02 feet.

·       At the base of the tower, the walls are 13.42 feet wide, while at the top they are 8.14 feet wide.

·       The tower’s weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons. 

·       Between 1990 and 2001 restoration work was done to straighten the tower.  While the tower used to lean at an angle of 5.5 degrees, this was reduced to 3.99 degrees.

·       Visitors can climb the tower via 196 steps at a price of 20 Euros.

Field of Miracles

Other than the tower of Pisa, the Duomo the Baptistery and the Baptistery of San Giovanni were built on the Field of Miracles. 

·       The latter was built in the 11th century and finished in the 14th century.  

·       Even though the diameter of the Baptistery is 115 feet, the acoustics of the dome are so good that you can whisper on one side and be heard perfectly on the other.  

·       Students fear the baptistery as, according to legend, should they walk around the building they will never get their degree.

Why was the leaning tower of Pisa build?  So the people of Pisa could show off their wealth to the city of Florence.  Which didn’t help them in the end, as they lost the war with Florence and were enslaved.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Friday is Cat Day - Is Cheese Good for Cats

Is your cat or dog a beggar? I’ve had cats all my life and never was there a beggar in the family. Until now. Holly has turned begging into an art form.

She never begs when I have my breakfast or dinner, but come lunchtime she positions herself near to me and looks at me.

When I ignore her, she shifts position, letting me know … “Hello, I’m here. How much longer is this going to take?”

When I’m eating something that I know is not good for cats, she can look at me all she wants, I won’t budge, but if I have something that cats can eat I (eventually) give in.

And Holly knows this. She knows that if she gazes at me long enough, something will come her way.

And this is exactly what happened on Wednesday, with regretful results.

I was eating a sandwich with cheese. Holly was sitting on the floor, looking at me, begging me with her eyes to give her a piece. So I did. Followed by another piece, and another piece and another.

Everything was fine, until the next day. Holly vomited in the morning, again around lunch, and three more times throughout the day. I felt so sorry for the poor thing. She kept to herself in my bedroom, she didn’t respond to anything, even went hiding under my bed.

I came close to calling the vet when I suddenly remembered her eating cheese the previous day, so I Googled “Is cheese good for cats”. Turns out, it isn’t. Cats are lactose intolerant. While kittens might enjoy watered down milk, grown cats should not be given milk, nor cheese, or any type of dairy.

Fortunately, it was just a 24-hour thing and no visit to the vet was required. Yesterday Holly was back to her usual self: lounging on my bed, chasing flies, talking to the walls, and all those other kitty things.

Goes to show though, we might love our cats, and have their best interest at heart, but sometimes we make mistakes. So, when in doubt, don’t do it or research it.