Neddy's Palaver

If you hate pigeons and duct tape, WD-40 is your friend.

It keeps pigeons away so that they will leave no disgusting residue on your balcony, and it will remove the disgusting residue of duct tape that you used to hold your balcony together. However, is it really the 45 Wonder Miracle that a current email claims? It may be, yet the WD-40 company (formerly the Rocket Chemical Company of San Diego) gives its “multi-purpose problem solver” product credit for only the following number of miracles.

3. Protects silver from tarnishing.
4. Removes road tar and grime from cars.
10. Loosens stubborn zippers.
11. Untangles jewelry chains.
14. Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing.
18. Keeps scissors working smoothly.
19. Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes.
21. Lubricates gear shift and mower deck lever for ease of handling on riding mowers.
22. Rids kids’ rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises.
23. Lubricates tracks in sticking home windows and makes them easier to open.
24. Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close.
26. Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles.
27. Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans.
28. Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons, and bicycles for easy handling.
30. Keeps rust from forming on saws and saw blades, and other tools.
33. Lubricates prosthetic limbs.
34. Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).
35. Removes all traces of duct tape.
37. Florida’s favorite use is: “cleans and removes love bugs from grills and bumpers.”
43. If you sprayed WD-40 on the distributor cap, it would displace the moisture and allow the car to start.
44. It removes black scuff marks from the kitchen floor! Use WD-40 for those nasty tars and scuff marks on flooring. It doesn’t seem to harm the finish and you won’t have to scrub nearly as hard to get them off. Just remember to open some windows if you have a lot of marks. Wash off after use.
45. Bug guts will eat away the finish on your car if not removed quickly! Use WD-40!

These remedies should be enough to keep the company in business at least until their patent expires, even if (#38 of 45) the state of New York doesn’t spray it on the Statue of Liberty. If you purchase a can of the lubricant thinking that it will (#7 of 45) keep flies off your cows; or (#36 of 45) that spraying it on your arms, hands, and knees will relieve arthritis; or (#39 of 45) that you can use WD-40 to attract fish or cats because it is made of fish oil; think again. The WD-40 Company does not make those claims. The WD-40 Company does claim that their product is NOT made of fish oil, so please, please, please do NOT add (#46) take a tablespoon of WD-40 instead of your daily fish oil tablet. It is made of the petroleum-based Stoddard Solvent, which is primarily solvent naphtha petroleum, medium aliphatic, so you don’t even have to warn your dinner guests who may be allergic to fish that you (#3) wiped all the silverware with WD-40.

If you are wondering how WD-40 got its unusual name, here is the explanation from the company:

WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That’s the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed WD-40 back in 1953. The chemist, Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion ; a task which is done by displacing water. Norm’s persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try.

See Snopes.com for more information. (Thanks Martha.)

Sunset on the Kennebunk River

Every child should learn to dance. It is a great way to have good clean fun. The mental processes used to learn the steps and body movements exercise the brain in ways that nothing else does. Group dancing, such as folk, teaches teamwork and coordination so that the dancers will be able to romp in the forest with the animals while singing The Nature Anthem.

This video was shot in 2002 for Grandaddy tour visuals. “Nature Anthem” is a single by the American rock group Grandaddy released in 2004 in conjunction with the album “Below the Radio”. The title song was played in a Honda Civic Hybrid television commercial in 2005.

I wanna walk up the side of the mountain;
I wanna walk down the other side of the mountain;
I wanna swim in the river and lie in the sun;
I wanna try to be nice to everyone.

There is more information on this video creation at WikiFur and More “Nature Anthem” Videos at UTube.

On the fourteenth day of February, half way through the second month of the year, the birds of the fields begin the choosing of their mates who will help them feather their nests and raise their brood. This yearly event went not unnoticed by ancient humans who came to celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day in emulation of the ways of the birds.

The fowl of the air continue to reveal sweet mysteries of life for humans of the female gender on Valentine’s Day. The young woman who spies a robin redbreast flying o’er head on Valentine’s Day, will marry a sailor. A young woman who first sees a lowly sparrow, is prophesied to marry a pauper who will spend his life making her happy. And the fortunate young girl who spots a goldfinch on Valentine’s Day, will marry a rich man.

I found this tip on a sewing bulletin board. It also seems like a good tip for those who cannot afford a genuine Ott-light lamp to illuminate their computer work station at home. Although Ott-light lamps do not seem to come as “goose neck” types, a similar Ott desktop lamp would cost $100 upwards.

The writer said that one can purchase a table top lamp with a flexible neck (goose neck) lamp that accomodates a standard size incandescent light bulb for $1 to $15 at thrift or discount stores. Instead of the incandescent bulb, she purchased an “Energy Saver” compact fluorescent “day-light” bulb for $7 that puts put out the equivalent light of a 75 to 100 watt incandescent bulb. The actual wattage ratings on these fluorescent bulbs is less than 1/3 of the equivalent incandescent bulb, therefore the “Energy Saver” fluorescent bulbs use less electricity and generate much less heat and last far longer.

The quality of light from the “day light” compact fluorescent bulb is very close to neutral and with the flexible neck on the fixture, it can be pointed to where light is needed. Choose a compact fluorescent bulb that is marked “daylight”, as regular compact fluorescent bulbs give off a blue or yellow cast that is not as natural as the neutral “daylight” bulbs.

Therefore, it is possible for under $10 total cost, to create your own mock “Ott-lite”.

In a previous post I referred to the author of this old poem as anonymous, however I have recently found it connected to Elizabeth Cheney.

Overheard In An Orchard

Said the Robin to the Sparrow
“I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”

Said the Sparrow to the Robin
“Friend I think that it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.”

–Elizabeth Chaney - 1859

This post has been moved to: The Nature Anthem 2 by Neddy.

April 19th is Primrose Day.

My father was born on Primrose Day, April 19th, 1901, at Forest Hill, London, England. For more about Primrose Day see my explanation at Neddy’s Nook on the Net.

Upon the death of the beloved British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), on April nineteenth, 1881, Primrose Day was instituted in his honor, as the English primrose was his favorite flower. Queen Victoria sent bouquets of primroses to his funeral according to a contempory account; The coffin lies on its bier in an alcove leading out of the modest hall of Hughenden Manor. But of its material, one might almost say of its dimensions, nothing can be seen. It is literally one mass of floral beauty. Here are wreaths from every member of the Royal Family in England bouquets of primroses sent by the Queen, with an inscription attached to them, saying that they came from Osborne Hill, and that they are of the sort which Lord Beaconsfield loved. Two years later, a bronze statue of Lord Beaconsfield was erected at Parliament Square, and it became customary to decorate it with primroses every year on the anniversary of his death. Ofttimes at Easter the woodlands of England are seen carpeted with wild primroses.
~ Primrose Day — April 19th

The Podcast:
The Tonight Show Video: Boo Boo the Chicken Does Leno

The Book of “Extraordinary Chickens”
You will crack up as you watch Marian Morris arrive carrying Boo Boo and a towel to wipe Boo Boo’s chicken poop. You will laugh even harder as every time that Marian laughs, she waves around Boo Boo’s poo-poo towel in the face of the guest sitting next to her. As all are laughing so hard, none of them seems to notice, and since the Bird Flu has not yet arrived in Arkansas, I suppose it is of no consequence. However, I do wonder why everyone, including Nurse Marian, refers to Boo Boo as a “him”. Strange indeed!

DISCLAIMER: CDC warns “DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!”

Mouth-to-Beak Resuscitation of The Arkadelphia Chicken — It’s For the Birds! And it’s for you, if you cannot get enough of Boo Boo’s unbelievable adventure. It’s a kind of Lazarus story of resurrection from the dead.

Boo Boo is a $2.37 chicken from the farm store and she fell into a pond and drowned. Marian Morris is a retired nurse who wasted no time using her skills to save Boo Boo. She described the mouth-to-beak resuscitation, “Well, you open up this little beak and it’s got this little tongue and you don’t see an airway. So, I just blew hard. It’s the first time I’ve done CPR on a beak.”

Her sister-in-law, co-owner of Boo Boo, said, “I couldn’t believe it when she put her mouth right over that chicken’s beak and started blowing into it. His eyeballs just opened up and then she would stop and they’d close and she’d do it again and his eyeballs would pop open and when Jackie came home, I says, ‘You will not believe what your sister did.’”

Jackie, the other owner, decided that Boo Boo needed to be rushed to ICU because she was still having some troubles. On Jay Leno’s show, Marian Morris described it as an Arkansas ICU—a cardboard box with a hairdryer inside. As Becky, the wife of Jackie, explained: “So, my husband put it in the box and put it out here in the sunshine and I was out here reading my bible. I just got to the part where Lazarus was raised from dead and that chicken give a squawk and jumped out of that box and sat on the side and I called my husband I said, ‘You won’t believe this chicken has come alive.’” (Thanks Martha)

Boo Boo’s Official Web Site
Linked at “basil’s blog” and “Wizbang’s” Carnival of Trackbacks.

Northern Virginia - I took this photograph yesterday at Woodlawn Plantation.