Gary Stapp Weblog

 

      GOOD TO KNOW

If your toilet ever plugs up and you're afraid to flush it again YOU HAVE GOOD REASON TO BE .....because....if the water level in the toilet bowl is "ABOVE" the level that it always sits at.......it will overflow. If the water level in the bowl is lower than it usually is, it won't. REMEMBER,  those tanks fill up with about five gallons of water and if that five gallons won't fit in the bowl.. ...uh oh.....you get the picture.

And another thing, never put those one foot linoleum squares that just stick on.....in your bathroom, because the first time they get wet the comers will curl up and you'll have to replace the whole floor. It's not a good idea to put those squares in the kitchen either. ....not if you intend to mop.

Remember in last month's newsletter I told you about getting a senior discount on your taxes if you were 61 or older and did not make over $30,000 a year .....let me give you a better phone number.. ...(206) 296-3320 and be sure to ask for previous years' forms. I'm told they don't just automatically tell you that you can back up three years, I hear you need to ask for those forms.

I hear you can now learn your own credit score by going online and filling out some information..... beeeeeeeeee carefulllllllll. It sounds like another GET YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS SCAM, to sell you to all the solicitors .....just like that one that will tell you WHAT YOUR HOME IS WORTH over the intemet.. THAT'S UTTERLY RIDICULOUS. All they really want is your name and address to sell. You didn't really fall for that did you? If you did .....you now know why your junk mail has just increased 50%. Never give out your information to these people over the intermet, or over the phone and remember when these solicitors call you on the phone NEVER SAY THE WORD "YES". That's all they need you to say. They can then edit the tape and have you saying yes to buy something. Their favorite trick is to ask "IS THIS MARY SMITH" if you say YES, You could be in trouble. Just say who's calling please and when you find out it's a solicitation just hang up. NEVER SAY THE WORD YES.

With a baby being born in this country every 8 seconds, someone dying every 12 seconds and the nation gaining an immigrant every 31 seconds on average, our population is growing by 1 person every 14 seconds. At that rate, our population is expected to reach 300,000,000 sometime this October.

When you hear someone talk about a ship or boat by weight (she's a 20,000 ton freighter or she "displaces" 20,000 tons), they are saying that the ship takes up the space of an amount of water that is equal to that weight. So, if you put a 1 gallon jug in water and it sank halfway, it would "displace" approximately 4lbs of water ..... since 1 gallon of water weighs approximately 8 lbs.

Caves: People that explore caves are call SPELUNKERS. Those icicle looking things that hang down from the ceilings and come up from the floors are called STALACTITES and STALAGMITES (just in case anyone ever asks you) STALACTITES hang down and STALAGMITES go up. I think  about "mites" crawling on the floor, thus I can remember which is which.

The first recorded celebration of Christmas took place on December 25th 336 A.D. in Rome.

The first state to celebrate Christmas was Alabama in 1836. .

The term "red neck" was given to farmers and field hands for the sunburned necks they received by being bent over working in the fields all day in the hot sun.

The term "The Real McCoy" came from people impersonating and saying that THEY WERE Joseph McCoy (the man that got very rich by first shipping cattle by rail). It got to be so bad that Joseph McCoy actually went by and was called "THE REAL MCCOY".

The term bootlegger was given to whisky makers that would carry their goods in their boots and usually always had one or two half-pints for sale.