Mike or Ike?

Thanks to the democratic way that I allow the viewers of this blog to dictate post topics, today we will discuss Mike and Ikes. Or Mike and Ike. If you don't know the candy, go get some.




I like Mike and Ikes. Mostly at the movies. Sometimes at home. Rarely at work. Actually never at work. Maybe that's why work isn't that fun. I'll note that for later, but for now, our topic.




So, to start, there was never a Mike or an Ike. Never. There really isn't a good story or anything to go with it. That's what they tell us at least. Here's what Just Born, the company that manufactures Mike and Ikes, as well as many other fine candies, says about possible origins of the name: that it was a result of a company-wide contest, was named after a 1937 song titled "Mike and Ike (The Twins)" and/or after a Vaudeville act "Mike and Ike, We're Just Alike". Obviously none of those are suitable for such a delicious candy. So, I thought I would do some digging. As many of my long time followers know, my research team always excels in this type of situation.


Take a look at this picture from the early designs of their box:

It appears that Ike, on the right, was the son of an immigrant chocolatier. Determined to get out on his own, he came up with an idea for a soft chew candy, the opposite of something his father would favor. He slowly introduced the candy to his friends and family. As word spread, demand increased and Ike had difficulty satisfying the many new orders.

Conversely, it appears from the picture that Mike was from a wealthy family and, like Ike, was looking to make his own mark. They met after Ike's uncle met Mike at a mutual friend's party and told him about Ike's fledgling candy.

When they met, they didn't immediately hit it off, but Mike agreed to front Ike the money to expand the business. Mike got first billing. He had the money after all.

The business quickly took off from there. My research team tells me that though Ike had creative control of the candy, Mike exerted significant pressure on him. This led Ike to step away from the business for months and sometimes years at a time. Little did anyone know that Ike's initial rebellion against his father was caused by this same type of pressure. Ike'd go on long trips throughout the world to clear his mind and sometimes sample new fruits. This led to the introduction of new flavors to the series. Other times, he spent time at recuperative facilities.

Mike, on the other hand, was made for business. He didn't just succeed in candy, but in real estate and dance studios. Mike never married.

Ike settled into family life and found some solace there, but never found his idea of true happiness.

So: Mike. Though I do feel kind of bad for Ike.

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Thanks for checking me out. This post has been festering for more that a month, but it's here now in all its glory.

Make sure to check out the poll! It's important. Don't just lurk. Let your voice be heard. Make it known where you stand on the important issues raised here. If you don't others might. Or might not. Anyway, GO VOTE ON THE POLL!!!!! Thanks.

Name.... That.... MARSUPIAL!!!!

Who doesn't love marsupials? I sure do. Some questions: How do those little baby marsupials have the strength and determination to make it from the womb to their mommy's pouch? And, how can the mommy marsupial stand having a little slimy creature climbing all over her on its way into her pouch?

I don't know the scientific answers to these questions, but I think we all know the real answer: LOVE! Those mommy marsupials love their little slimy creatures so much they don't mind that they climb all over them on their way into their pouch. And those little slimy creatures know there's good stuff in that pouch and that the only way to get there is to bear down and go for it. That's a good lesson for all of us to learn. Thanks marsupials!

Now here are some of our heroes! All of the marsupials pictured below were once little slimy creatures that climbed into his or her mommy's pouch, so they are already very accomplished animals from day one. Let me introduce you...


This is Eugene.




Here's Paco.




We call this rascal Scamp.




Here's Nancy.

And baby Willem.

This guy's name is Harold but everyone calls him Whitey.

Watch out for this next guy. The others don't let him around much for obvious reasons.

Oh... His name is Irving.


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Well I finally did one of the coming soon posts. See... I'll get to it. What you may not realize is that the poll topics are chosen on a completely random basis which consists of me coming up with them as I contemporaneously create the new poll. It's not rocket science... Anyway, I don't usually know what I'm going to do with a topic when I make it a choice. Thus, it sometimes takes a while before I feel up to it. Thanks for understanding.

Anyway a new unscientific poll is up for your vote. Make it count!

Is this Neverland?

Sometimes I walk a few blocks up the hill from downtown Tacoma to the county courthouse. Today while I was walking I suddenly entered what appeared to be Neverland. The Mad Hatter, the queen and those twin guys were there to welcome me. Here's a glimpse.

This was real! Just like those fields full of buffalo, longhorns and emu I used to see all the time.

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Check back soon for more posts.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Are we Human?

The term humanoid originated in the early twentieth century to describe things with human-like characteristics. I don't know what they called human-like things before 1912. Maybe they said things like: 'Boy, this here discovery reminds me of something, but I just can't place it' or 'Sure wish there was a word to describe this here fella'. You have likely deduced that the use of 'this here' was very common in the early twentieth century.

As you can imagine, humanoids come in all shapes and sizes. Well, as long as the shape has two arms, two legs, a torso and a head. I guess I should say they come in all sizes.

Early humanoids looked like this:

Hi. I'm Ardi!

and this:

I'm Lucy and Ardi ain't got nothin' on me!

Though the term fell out of favor in the scientific community after its initial introduction, the term humanoid has never fallen totally out of use. Some more recent examples of humanoids include these fine gentlemen:

They hope to one day understand you.

And these cross-over stars:

Nanu! Nanu! (some 2 year olds think the guy on the right is a cow. Be careful...)

Now... Humanoids can be man made as well. Just like these guys:

Hi there!.... Hi there!

And this gem:

Can you guess his weakness? Don't touch my handle!

Apparently, some people have trouble telling the difference between humanoids and actual humans.

Mom always said 'don't talk to strangers'

These humanoids have specialized head attire and one has a robotic arm:

But they do know how to rock!

Be particularly careful around this one:

Not sure what he's conjuring up here, but it doesn't look friendly.

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Well it's taken a while, but there you go. Was it worth the wait? I hope so. Anyway, check back in a week or so and there will likely be another post. I'm going to try to update at least two times a month. We'll see.

Check out the newest poll. This topic won the last one so the voice of the people does count for something here. Make sure to let your voice be heard!

Oh... and for those of you who regularly follow this blog, I know I have used Al Gore in a joke before in the Bankers post. He's just so versatile.

Umm...

So when you get an email on your Blackberry and want to forward it to your other email account, make sure that you select the proper account. In my quest to be more mobil with my blogging, I enabled email blogging. I forwarded the message below to what I though was my work account, which turned out to be my mobile blogging account.

Strange thing is, some of you saw this before I did.

More soon....

Fw: BuDu Racing 2010 Multi-Sport Calendar

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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From: "Deanna-BuDu Racing" <deanna@buduracing.com>

Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 10:31:17 -0800

To: <happychowjones@hotmail.com>

Subject: BuDu Racing 2010 Multi-Sport Calendar

	Greetings James! It is time to start preparing for 2010…Are you ready??
	Our 2010 calendar is posted, and if you register online prior to January 1, 2010, you will receive $10 off your registration fee. We are also sending out an email with a link to a survey on the website Survey Monkey, and would really appreciate you taking time to complete the survey. We will be randomly giving away registration coupons to 5 of the people who respond to the survey by January 5, 2010. Thank you in advance for taking time to do this.
	Sun Apr 25 – Mount Rainier Duathlon (long & short) Enumclaw Sat May 29 –Spring Festival 10K Run and 5K Run/Walk Moses Lake Mon May 31 –Spring Festival Triathlon and Duathlon Moses Lake NEW Sat June 12 Moses Lake Family Tri: For the Health of It! Sat June 19 – Five Mile Lake Triathlon Auburn Sat July 3 –Five Mile Lake Women’s Triathlon Auburn Sun July 11 – XTERRA Vashon Off Road Triathlon (still to be confirmed) Sat July 31 –Ellensburg Sprint Triathlon Sun Aug 1 –Whisky Dick Triathlon Vantage Sat Aug 28 – Lake Sammamish Triathlon Issaquah (will be USAT Sanctioned in 2010) Sat Sept 4 – Bonney Lake Triathlon (Olympic and Sprint) Sat Sept 11 –Lake Stevens Triathlon (Olympic and Sprint)
Are you still looking for a gift for someone?  We are offering a holiday gift certificate available through December 31, 2009. Gift Certificate
We look forward to seeing you in 2010. Have fun training!
Deanna Muller BuDu Racing - Event Management www.BuDuRacing.com 206/920-3983

 

Just checking in...

How are you? Good? I'm good too. Pretty good at least. October is a fun month. Some exciting stuff going on. Holidays. My birthday. Other people's birthdays.

Haven't blogged for a while. Just thought I'd check in with my devoted followers. Still hangin' in there? I hope so.

I'm trying to. Who isn't right?

It's started to rain out here in Washington. The rainy season. Summer was good though. Long days spent doing things people do in the summer. I like to swim.

What are you going as for Halloween? I'm not dressing up this year. Just not that into it anymore. I do like the candy though. Who doesn't. Thank you George Renninger.

Well, good talking to you. Sorry it's been so long since we've just chatted. It was nice wasn't it? I thought so too.

New World Man

So I was just checking out my blog features and found out you can email blog posts. Since I've abandoned the blog for over a month now, I thought I would try something new.

I may just star emailing it in. I could also text it in if I want, but don't think that's necessary.

I am writing this post via email as my first test. Wonder if I can attach a photo?

Anyway, we'll see if this adds any life to my future posts.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

I'll take "Four's a crowd" for $500...

[Writer's Note: This post was published July 11, 2009. I couldn't figure out how to change it on here.]

In May of 2009 this Blog site had a four way tie on its weekly Poll...









What is Can't we all just Blog along?





Correct!





Thanks Alex...





So I don't know what to do... Sliders/Robber Barons/Game Show Hosts and Jumping on Trampolines?







Sliders are small hamburgers. Often steemed. They are regaining popularity now. Everyone seems obssessed with little burgers.





Here's a photo.











Robber Barons is a term for an industrialist who made a lot of money through unfair business practices.








Not robbers like this:







Robber Barons like this:





Starting with (from left to right) John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and J.P. Morgan

Game Show Hosts:



Alex Trebeck is the best game show host ever. He knows everything. Enough about game show hosts.



Jumping on Trampolines:

Jumping on trampolines is fun. When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey nobody I knew that was actually fron New Jersey had a trampoline. The only people that had them were transplants from the west. For some reason, I thought having a trampoline meant you were rich. I have since come to find out that they aren't expensive. I did have an exercise trampoline when I was a kid. Wasn't that great.

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So I started this post the end of May. I couldn't think of anything to say that was funny, novel etc. but I had to get it done. It was holding me down man. I had to break the chains and set myself free. This is what you get when you have a democratic voting system for post topics and a blogger who just comes up with choices out of thin air. Unfortunately, I don't have a set of rules that come into play when situation like this arise. Someday. I'm determined to bring more next time though. I have had a couple of ideas lately that may appear soon. We'll see.

I did put a new poll up on the top left for you to vote on. Take your time, think a lot, think of all the choices you've got, cause they won't be here tommorow, so vote a lot?...(Do you know where this poorly modified line comes from?)

Anyway, til next time.

The Dead Show!

So I've liked the Grateful Dead for years. One of my favorite bands of all time. A couple weeks ago a friend of mine called me with an extra ticket to their show at the Gorge. Actually, we were going to go to their show in 2004, but Amber was pregnant with the triplets and I didn't want to be 2 + hours away in case she needed me. Turns out, she didn't have the kids for about a month after that. Chalk it up to missed opportunities and fatherly responsibility, I guess?

But, I wasn't going to miss them this time. After all, they're already down a founding member and a handful of keyboardists. And this wasn't just a Dead show, the Allman Brothers were going to be there along with the Doobie Brothers. Is it clear why I couldn't miss this show? (Though I don't necessarily like the Doobie Brothers, they do have a ton of songs in regular rotation on classic rock stations.)

Instead of giving you a complete account of the show, I thought I would address the highlights through 10 Questions About the Dead.

1. What are the Grateful Dead? The Grateful Dead are one of the greatest bands of all time okay.

2. So why do the just call themselves The Dead now? In 1995, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter Jerry Garcia died. Now when the remaining original members play together they are just The Dead.

3. How would you describe their music? I like to describe their music as American Rock. They incorporate rock, blues, jazz, country, bluegrass etc. into their songs.

4. But, aren't they just a jam band? No. They're a jammin' band.

5. What kind of people like the Dead? All kinds. I saw complete families, hippies, bikers and stoners at the concert.

6. But, don't all the fans take drugs? Pretty much. There were a handful of people there that weren't on something. In the old days there was a lot of acid and marijuana etc. Now it seems like its mainly just pot. Though in a somewhat troubling scene, there were two couples in front of us with a 5 month old and a 12-14 month old. One of the husbands came back and I caught: "you'll enjoy your walk much more if..." and then they were chewing, I should say biting into, some tablets that looked like Mike and Ike's but weren't. The left after that so I can't report on the effects. I just hope those babies made it to bed okay.

7. So, how was the concert? It was a good show. They sounded really good. The guitarist that fills in for Jerry is great. They played a diverse set heavy on the late 70's and 80's material with some other gems thrown in. They played for over 3 hours.

8. How were the other bands. The Doobie Brothers played first. We got there about the middle of their set. They played all of their hits and sounded good, but not interesting. The Allman Brothers were great. Warren Haynes, who plays Jerry's parts with the Dead also plays with them. They played 2 hours straight.

9. So, are you glad you went? Definitely. It was a great show. Even though I got a really bad headache towards the end and threw up out of the car window on I-90.

10. Would you go again? Yes. As they say, "There's nothing like a Dead show".

Here are some pictures:

Here's me. Notice the strollers and kids in the background.

Here's the view of the Gorge:

Here's the stoners that sat in front of us:

I think they just came for the drugs. They didn't seem to be affiliated with or interested in any of the bands.

Here's the band:

Here are some random Deadheads from the show:

I didn't take this picture, but they had better seats than I did.

Here's the blanket I sat on:

That's my leg!

Here's the view from where we sat:

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Thanks for checking me out this week. Sorry for the delay on this one. I started writing it last Saturday before the show with the intent that I would finish it up early in the week. Well, I tried a couple of times and didn't know where I was going with it. But, here it is. Check back soon for other great posts. I put up a new feature last week so I wouldn't forget what has been requested.

Also, check out the new poll and cast your vote. All I can say is that it's important. So VOTE okay. Last poll there was a four way tie, so who knows what you're going to get with that post. I don't know any other blog that allows as much reader interaction as this one. Use it or lose it...