I Made Santa's Nice List!

That's right people - it's official! Never doubt Santa! Now I know these are supposedly personality quizzes, but honestly I believe a lot of scientific research went into this particular one!

Christmas Naughty or Nice List
You are on the The Nice List

After checking the North Pole database we found you had :


609 nice entries

119 naughty entries


Check your name on the Christmas Naughty or Nice List

Wounded Vets Asked to Pay Up

The Associated Press
Monday 26 November 2007

New York - Service members seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan after they received a $10,000 bonus for enlisting are being asked by the Pentagon to repay portions of the incentive money, says a U.S. senator who calls the practice an example of military policy gone wrong.

For the full article check out Truthout.

Yes, you read right. We send our military off to "fight terrorism," they do their duty without hesitation, believing they are fighting the good fight, a noble cause, risk their lives and then they owe us? What's wrong with this picture? Nearly 300,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. 120 war vets commit suicide each week on average. Those who don't live the rest of their lives mentally and emotionally scarred. And we screw them. Why aren't we taking care of these people who do so much to take care of us?

Give Peace a Chance? Not at this Florida school!

See these beautiful kids? Michael, Connor, Cheyenne, Lauren, Kirra (back row) Siobhan and Skylar are members of the Peace Shirt Coalition of Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School in Florida. The group has almost 30 members. Read their story here and see why I salute these amazing and brave young people.

That's right folks! These young people are being harrassed and attacked for wanting to start a school group to promote peace. This school has its war groups but a request to have a peace group has been turned down, even though they filed the complete papers and have a sponsor. That's bad enough, but the harrassment and attacks have been waged by their fellow students and this behavior seems to be acceptable.

"I Love America, Because America Loves War." "If peace is the answer, it must be a stupid question." What is wrong with our society and our next generation? And why is hate more acceptable than love?

Aloha Thanksgiving!

In true Hawaiian form my son and I have decided to have a Spam Thanksgiving -- yes that's right, Spam, heaven in a can for Hawaiians. We don't eat a lot of Spam ourselves but Hawaiians consume nearly 6 million cans a year, or almost six cans for every man, woman, and child. Some call the gelatinous pink pork "Hawaii's soul food."

Spam worked its way into the hearts - and arteries - of Hawaiians during World War II. Fresh meat was scarce at the time, so civilians loaded up on the brand-name C ration well known to GIs. Needing no refrigeration, the proletarian pork product soon became one of three items islanders stock up on (along with toilet paper and rice) during threats of hurricanes, tsunamis, or dockworkers' strikes. More recently, McDonald's added Spam to its Hawaiian breakfast menu and every year the Hawaiian Spam tradition is celebrated at Spam Jam (the 6th annual Waikiki Spam Jam will be April 26, 2008).

Now living in central California, it's impossible to get the seaweed required for Spam masubis (which I love even though I have heartburn from them for three days) but I do have the Hawaii Spam cookbooks and decided to make Spam Fried Rice with the official recipe from Aloha Joe.

1 1/2 cup SPAM, diced
1 egg
1 TBS. Shoyu (soy sauce)
3 stalks green onion, chopped

Fry SPAM in a small quantity of oil in skillet. Lower heat and add rice. Mix egg and soy sauce and add to skillet. Stir everything around just like they do in Chinese restaurants. Just before serving add green onions.

With Hawaiian sweet potatoes and Polynesian pumpkin pie (my own recipes) we're bound to have a truly Aloha Thanksgiving!

Believe it or not, Spam Haiku is a very popular form of poetry. Here are some of my faves:

Above all others
porcine treat without equal
there is but one Spam

And who dares mock Spam?
you? you? you are not worthy
of one rich pink fleck

Like some spongy rock
A granite, my piece of Spam
In sunlight on my plate

Oh tin of pink meat
I ponder what you may be:
Snout or ear or feet?

Here's Something You Don't See Every Day!

Sim Jae-duck, also known as "Mr. Toilet," has made a career in South Korea by beautifying public restrooms and has nearly completed the building of a commode-shaped house. Although I wouldn't want to live in it, you have to admire the creativity and ingenuity!

Check out the story at USA TODAY

Goodbye Sara!

My fave TV show is "CSI" and tonight Sara said goodbye. Jorja Fox had verified months ago that tonight's episode would be her last, and as sad as it is for fans like me it was a very good send-off. Unlike so many TV characters Sara didn't die and I'm glad, because to have her die would have made an already very intense and emotional episode even more so and when have been a disservice to her.

Sara was my fave character for so many reasons. I can identify with her dysfunctional family background, her sensitivity, her intense emotions, her loyalty to those she cared about and her constant questioning of a world in chaos. And yes, like every romantic soul I loved the relationship between her and Gil Grissom (he's hot too), the man she had loved for what seemed forever and finally got. It was a great romantic story of two people who truly loved and respected each other.

Yes, Sara didn't die and they've left the door open for her to return perhaps someday. Who knows? Every season is supposed to be the last but it keeps going and I love the show. This was a classic end to Sara's run and even the letter she left for Gil (because she couldn't tell him goodbye) was beautiful:

“Gil, you know I love you. I feel I've loved you forever,” she wrote. “Since my father died, I’ve spent almost my entire life with ghosts ... it’s time to bury them ... You were my one and only ... Our life together was the only home I’ve ever had ... I love you, I always will. Goodbye.”

Across the Universe

If it's possible to fall in love with a movie I have. After months of anticipation yesterday my son and I finally traveled up to "the city" to see "Across the Universe" and needless to say it was worth the wait. Now I'm a die-hard Beatles fan -- their music has been the soundtrack of my life -- so I guess I'm prejudiced, but the movie was better than I could have imagined.

Basically a boy-meets-girl story, Jude is a dreamer, a Liverpool dockworker who travels to America in search of his father. Jude strikes up a friendship with Max, a Princeton student, and falls in love with Lucy, Max's sister. Max is drafted and Jude and Lucy are swept up in the evolving counterculture of left-wing politics, sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.

It's a wonderful film with lots of quirky and amazing characters and if you've wondered whatever happened to Joe Cocker now you know. Bono also showed up for the ride. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's quirky, endearing and surreal. Its 33 Beatles songs (two without words) have been re-recorded and sung by the actors and I was in pure heaven as the audience (all of us slightly off-tune) sang along. Emotionally true to the Beatles the music is refreshing, idealistic and joyful -- as it should be. And for a moment you can truly believe that love really is all you need.