ChErYlEEsKi 2009

2009-06-29T20:19:00.003-04:00

JESSICA JOAN JETT MOPAR BROWN AUCIELLO'S BACHELORETTE PARTY PICTURES (WELL, ONLY THE PG ONES)!!

2009-06-29T19:52:00.003-04:00

JESSICA AND CARLO'S BRIDAL SHOWER

GIRLS NIGHT @ THE WINNER'S CIRCLE: MARNIA

2009-05-07T21:25:00.001-04:00

DONOVAN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY @ CLIPPER CITY GYMNASTICS

2009-05-07T21:07:00.003-04:00

JEANNIE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER AUCTION

2009-05-07T21:03:00.000-04:00

SARAH MACBURNIE'S 30TH B-DAY

2009-05-07T20:57:00.000-04:00

NICKI EMAILED ME THIS CRAIGSLIST POSTING

2009-04-06T16:42:00.001-04:00

email this posting to a friend best of craigslist > tampa bay area > Survival Of The Fittest
Originally Posted: Thu, 30 Aug 14:03 EDT
Survival Of The Fittest
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2007-08-30, 2:03PM EDT

Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.
Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round. I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theater of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world. Occasionally I will get a mutation, a candy that is misshapen, or pointier, or flatter than the rest. Almost invariably this proves to be a weakness, but on very rare occasions it gives the candy extra strength. In this way, the species continues to adapt to its environment. When I reach the end of the pack, I am left with one M&M, the strongest of the herd. Since it would make no sense to eat this one as well, I pack it neatly in an envelope and send it to M&M Mars, A Division of Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ 17840-1503 U.S.A., along with a 3x5 card reading, "Please use this M&M for breeding purposes." This week they wrote back to thank me, and sent me a coupon for a free 1/2 pound bag of plain M&Ms. I consider this "grant money." I have set aside the weekend for a grand tournament. From a field of hundreds, we will discover the True Champion.

There can be only one.

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 409930561

2009-03-13T16:56:00.000-04:00

Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice

2009-03-13T16:54:00.001-04:00

ROME – An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th-century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws — evidence, experts say, that she was believed to be a vampire. The unusual burial is thought to be the result of an ancient vampire-slaying ritual. It suggests the legend of the mythical bloodsucking creatures was tied to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread and what happens to bodies after death, experts said.

The well-preserved skeleton was found in 2006 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass grave during an epidemic of plague that hit Venice in 1576.

"Vampires don't exist, but studies show people at the time believed they did," said Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist and anthropologist at Florence University who studied the case over the last two years. "For the first time we have found evidence of an exorcism against a vampire."

Medieval texts show the belief in vampires was fueled by the disturbing appearance of decomposing bodies, Borrini told The Associated Press by telephone.

During epidemics, mass graves were often reopened to bury fresh corpses and diggers would chance upon older bodies that were bloated, with blood seeping out of their mouth and with an inexplicable hole in the shroud used to cover their face.

"These characteristics are all tied to the decomposition of bodies," Borrini said. "But they saw a fat, dead person, full of blood and with a hole in the shroud, so they would say: 'This guy is alive, he's drinking blood and eating his shroud.'"

Modern forensic science shows the bloating is caused by a buildup of gases, while fluid seeping from the mouth is pushed up by decomposing organs, Borrini said. The shroud would have been consumed by bacteria found in the mouth area, he said.

At the time however, what passed for scientific texts taught that "shroud-eaters" were vampires who fed on the cloth and cast a spell that would spread the plague in order to increase their ranks.

To kill the undead creatures, the stake-in-the-heart method popularized by later literature was not enough: A stone or brick had to be forced into the vampire's mouth so that it would starve to death, Borrini said.

That's what is believed to have happened to the woman found on the Lazzaretto island, which was used as a quarantine zone by Venice. Aged around 60, she died of the plague during the epidemic that also claimed the life of the painter Titian.

Much later, someone jammed the brick into her mouth when the grave was reopened. Borrini said that marks and breaks left by blunt instruments on several among more than 100 skeletons found by the archaeologists show that the grave was reused in a later epidemic.

Such a reconstruction of events is plausible, as is the link to the superstitions about "shroud-eaters," said Piero Mannucci, the vice president of the Italian Society of Anthropology and Ethnology.

"Maybe a priest or a gravedigger put the brick in her mouth, which is what was normally done in such cases," Mannucci said.

The anthropologist, who did not take part in Borrini's research, said that at a time when bacteria were unknown, such superstitions were a way for the terrified population to explain the waves of plague epidemics that killed millions during the Middle Ages. Jews were also often accused of spreading the disease.

Borrini said the discovery shows that vampires in popular culture were originally quite different from the elegant, aristocratic blood-drinker depicted in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" and in countless Hollywood revisitations.

"The real vampire of tradition was different," he said. "It was just a decomposing body."

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

JEANNE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER

2009-03-05T16:56:00.003-05:00

ARTHUR S. PAGE IS THE PRESENTING SPONSOR OF
Join us for The Party, Jeans & Jewels
Saturday, March 21, 2009
6 pm - Midnight
The Ipswich Country Club
148 Country Club Way, Ipswich, MA

Silent & Live Auctions * Sumptuous Food Stations * Dancing
Kathy Kingston, Auctioneer and Dee Jay Al Sablone

ALSO, COME ON BY THE AGENCY AND MAKE A DONATION TO THE CRISIS CENTER AND WE WILL GIVE YOU A T-SHIRT

I AM TEACHING THIS CLASS NOW

2009-02-06T07:51:00.000-05:00

ONE OF MY TOP 5 MOVIES OF ALL TIME

2009-02-06T07:47:00.000-05:00

FLORIDA

2009-01-25T22:01:00.002-05:00

LAST WEEK I WENT TO VISIT NICKI AND HER FAMILY. WE READ STORIES, WATCHED AMERICAN IDOL, PLAYED A DANGEROUS GAME OF WII AND REMINISCED. A FEW DAYS AFTER I ARRIVED, JESSICA FLEW IN AND WE HAD AN ITALIAN FEAST AND GAME NIGHT WITH NICKI'S MOM CINDY.

MAGIC KINGDOM

2009-01-25T21:26:00.011-05:00

AUNT JOANNIE WORKS FOR DISNEY AND GETS AMAZING PERKS, LIKE GETTING FRIENDS AND FAMILY INTO THE PARKS FOR FREE. SHE WAS AMAZING ENOUGH TO OFFER TO BRING ME AND MY TWO FRIENDS: NICKI & JESSICA, AND NICKI'S CHILDREN DONOVAN & TREVOR. WE PICKED HER UP ON THE SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE ROAD AND THEN MET UP WITH HER SON MICHAEL AND HIS CHILDREN CHASE & CHEYANNE AND HER BROTHER-IN-LAW JIMMY. WE SPENT THE DAY TOGETHER ON THE RIDES, SHOPPING, SNACKING AND ENJOYING ONE ANOTHER'S COMPANY. IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY TOGETHER AND AFTER THE FIREWORKS I STAYED W/ MY FAMILY FOR THE REST OF THE WEEKEND.

SCRABBLE MANIA HITS THE COOK RESIDENCE

2009-01-25T21:24:00.000-05:00

DINNER AT THE POLYNESIAN

2009-01-25T21:19:00.000-05:00

A NEW YEAR: A NEW BLOG

2009-01-24T11:07:00.002-05:00

HELLO EVERYONE, I HAVE DECIDED TO START A NEW BLOG FOR THE NEW YEAR. MY OLD BLOG HAS BEEN IN KICK'N IT FOR ALMOST 5 YEARS AND IT IS JUST GETTING TOO ENORMOUS FOR LIFE. FOR ANYONE HE GETS NOSTALGIC, YOU CAN STILL ACCESS IT AT: http://cheryleeski.blogspot.com/.