Message Forum

Happy🎂Birthday, Fran.

Hope your day and the year ahead are filled with love and happiness and light.

For me you are a beacon,

you lead the way to a season that is a celebration of light.

Thanks always for encouragement and support as you beckon us forward...

Happy Birthday and all good wishes, Fran.

Janis

12/11/19 11:38 AM

#1457

Saw this article at Yahoo News yesterday & then heard this story this AM on the Drive radio. "St. John Properties, a Baltimore-based commercial real estate property management and development company, provided a $10 million bonus for its 198 employees to split at its annual holiday party on Dec. 7." 'The [bonus] distribution was based solely on years of service. It had nothing to do with a person's position in the company,' Larry Maykrantz, president of St. John Properties, told 'Yahoo Finance' in a phone interview." "Individual employee bonuses ranged from $100 to $270,000...on average, each employee received about $50,000." "One employee who has been with the company with 44 years received a $270,000 bonus, while a new employee who started earlier this week received a $100 bonus." 'What occurred that night exceeded my expectations tenfold', Maykrantz said. 'It was one of the most incredible experiences I've had in my 40 years of business experience. It literally brought tears to my eyes to hear of all the great potential impact of what we did had on all 198 people.'" By the way, the cause of the bonus was a company goal, set in 2005, to try to double the size of their portfolio from 10 million sq. ft. to 20 million sq. ft. They anticipated it could take 40 yrs.! to accomplish, but they did it in 14 yrs. Oh, Carol, I have seen the spelling of Hannukah & Chanukah (and I'm pretty sure I've seen Hanukah & Channukah & I've probably seen it spelled w/o the final "h"), so I'm of the impression that it is a hard word to misspell. The hard part in pronouncing "Chanukah" or "Channukah", is the guttural "ch" sound, that gives "Chanukah" its authenticity. It's not a hard "ch", as in "cheap", or a soft "ch", as in "charlatan". So, I guess what I'm saying is, I don't care how you spell it, but it might be hilarious to hear you pronounce it. One more thing, Paul, the standard poodle in the photo - is that Maxwell or Marcie? Just wondering.

12/11/19 11:52 AM

#1458

Yes, Carol. It IS disorienting having Xmas in mid-summer. In the Outback (the Aussie one not the steakhouse)it was 106. Today in Perth it was 100 (A record). It is very weird to hear "Walking In a Winter Wonderland" in grocery stores. Weirder still are "flocked" Xmas trees. Really? Why? But I suppose it's no stranger than having everyone driving on

12/11/19 12:05 PM

#1459

...on the wrong side of the road, having buildings cast shadows on their SOUTH side, flipping the light switch down rather than up, and then there's that weird thing with the toilets flushing the wrong way. So Xmas in "July". Well why not? 😚😊

12/11/19 01:22 PM

#1460

Jack, "toilets flushing the wrong way" ? how do they flush ?

Am I correct to understand that Aussies (and all of the Southern Hemisphere) call their hot season winter, and there cold season summer - that season names are universal ? ? ?

12/11/19 09:13 PM

#1461

Frances Garfield (Brown)

Thanks so much for my birthday card. Have a great holiday and enjoy the new ear!!! Thanks again---Fran Brown

12/12/19 09:12 AM

#1462

Ah yes, the toilet bowl drain thing. North of the equator, drains swirl counter-clockwise as they empty. South of the equator they flow the reverse. If you stand exactly on the equator, it drains straight down. Weird, huh?

12/12/19 09:16 AM

#1463

In Australia they still call the hot season between December and April as "summer". Spring seems a little squishier to tie down time-wise. And there is no "fall" though there is an "autumn". Fall is strictly an American word.

12/12/19 09:22 AM

#1464

Spending a week in the Outback (the Aussie one not the steakhouse) was a real mind wash for me. No phone no internet no nothin'. It was my "Walden Pond" experience. Getting in touch with myself and the basics of life. I believe we read Thoreau at Niles but maybe later? Anyone remember?

12/12/19 10:27 AM

#1465

Scott Mermel

Jack -- I remember reading Walden Pond (or most of it) in Senior English class. Not long after, I found myself in Boston as a freshman, so I rented a car and made a sojourn to the actual pond about 15 miles outside the city. I spent an hour or so there in the wilderness and could appreciate Thoreau's writing in a way not even close to the classroom experience. I even brought back a vial of pond water that I presented to Ms. Zelznick (my English teacher) when I returned to visit Niles West during my first Christmas break!

12/12/19 12:48 PM

#1466

Janis, in explication of Jack's post about the toilets in Australia. I believe he gave you some mildly incorrect information. The toilets in the Northern hemisphere drain in a clockwise direction, not counterclockwise as Jack mentioned, & the toilets in Australia (& the entire southern hemisphere) drain in a counterclockwise direction, at least that's how I've always understood it. He also mentioned that at the Equator, the toilets drain straight down. I have no idea about that; I have never heard that, but I do believe that is probably correct. But, I don't really care how toilets drain in the Northern hemisphere, or the Southern hemisphere, or at the Equator (there are so few countries that lie ON the Equator, so who cares?), & all I really care about is that the toilet I'm using flushes when I pull the little handle. Thought this topic needed a little clarification, but if you want to believe that in the Northern hemisphere, the toilets drain in a counterclockwise direction (& opposite in the Southern hemisphere), I don't think that it will affect your toilet habits.

12/12/19 10:20 PM

#1467

Well, Carol, I wouldn't want you to think that I hadn't given the subject a decent amount of thought. And when I did, those were the thoughts I came up with. But, tell the truth, wouldn't you have been surprised (& a little disappointed) if I hadn't expounded so thoroughly? My real point is, if you got even one laugh out of it, it was worth the thought to me!

12/12/19 10:27 PM

#1468

Boris Johnson is elected prime minister of the U.K.

He may be prime minister for a long time, but he may be the last prime minister of a united kingdom. Scots are nationalists too, so are citizens of Northern Ireland.

12/13/19 06:03 AM

#1469

Whoo-boy, Carole. You caught me on that one. Yes, the toilets swirl down in different directions when they drain, depending on which side of the equator you are on. I didn't mean to imply that they belch up at the user like the recent New Zealand volcanoe. I can see how it could have been interpreted that way though. I would have

12/13/19 06:09 AM

#1470

been dinged on that by Mr. Abrams in Senior year English class had I submitted that in an essay. Now, Stewart's mentioning that I had the hemispheres switched led me to do some empirical testing on my own. Unfortunately (for my test), it appears that all of Australia has switched over to ultra-low flush toilets in the 15 years since I lived

12/13/19 06:18 AM

#1471

here. I have been trying to find old-fashioned swirling toilets all day, to no avail. It's a wonder I wasn't arrested. This old Yank madly flushing toilet bowls wherever he went: stores, restaurants, public parks, even museums. As a last resort I checked Wikipedia. And you know what? Stewart was right! And here all these years I believed

12/13/19 06:26 AM

#1472

something that was true. Makes me shudder what other false "truths" in my mind are out there. I'm starting now to question the tooth fairy. And what about that Santa Claus guy?Just how DOES he get around the world in one night? Must have something to do with time zones. Did you know that when you read this it is already tomorrow in AUS?

12/13/19 06:33 AM

#1473

And that's the truth! (said like Lily Tomlin's character, Edith Ann). When I fly back from Sydney I will arrive at approximately the same time I left. Once I flew back from New Zealand and I arrived BEFORE I left. So there are lots of things out there that don't make sense at first, but are absolutely true.. Now about St Nik...

12/13/19 07:30 AM

#1474

Forum to Jack, Forum to Jack - everything OK? you stopped on the cusp... "Now about St Nik... "

"So there are lots of things out there that don't make sense at first, but are absolutely true." "And that's the truth." We can't lose our sense about what is "right" and "wrong". Doing the right thing can be hard.

12/13/19 08:19 AM

#1475

That was a rhetorical ... (dot dot dot) 😊

12/13/19 08:28 AM

#1476

Good to know. 👍

12/13/19 09:09 AM

#1477

Scott Mermel

When I was in Ecuador years ago to visit my daughter on her semester abroad, we visited the equator at a natioanl park located along the line (Ecuador, in fact, was named for the equator which bisects the country.). There are street vendors who have the water and bowls that drain (like commodes) and for a buck or two, you can test the direction standing just one foot on either side of the equator. The direction of the swirl does change when you move only a step or two. Right on the equator it actually depends on whether you are just north or south of the line -- it's impossible to be right over the equator as (this gets geeky) it's a plane coming out of the earth and has no dimension. Hope that settles this controversy!

12/13/19 02:45 PM

#1478