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*Shinnen omedeto gozaimasu. (637) (Japanese – Happy New Year.) *January 1, 2000. (2000) *Merry Christmas ‘95 (393) *Merry Christmas ’97 (1091) *Merry Christmas ’99 (1975) *Merry Christmas 2001 (2563) *Merry Christmas 2002 (2710) (Christmas tree ornaments) *Happy Hanukkah 5761 (2467) (Hanukkah tree ornament. Yes, it’s year 5761 in the Jewish calendar.) *THEODORE J. EGGAN (2430) *Take my advice. I’m not using it. (1692) *1,000 (1000) *HALFWAY TO 5,000 (2500) *Life’s a beach! (950) *GARNET (1331) *NUMISMATIST (2058) *PHILATELIST (2046) *BIBLIOPHILIST (2051) *Birds (1325) *I could eat! (728) *Outta my way, I’m off to Granny’s Buffet! (307) *Duo tomacula bubula, condimentum peculaire, lactuca, caseus muriae, unions, in pane sesaminata. (2080) (Latin) *HOW ‘BOUT THEM MARINERS! (2471) *We will root, root, root for our own team! (2502) *Jeepers, creepers, where’d you get those peepers? (1582) (around-the-neck hanging eyeglass holder) *Don’t hang with a gang. (673) *HANG UP AND DRIVE. (2404) (The chances of causing an accident due to the distraction of talking on the phone are the same as driving drunk. How soon will it be before we have to start another M.A.D.D. organization – Mothers Against Distracted Drivers?) *PLEASE BUCKLE UP. (2445) One-third of our traffic fatalities would be alive today if they had put on their seat belts. Isn’t the rest of your life worth a couple extra seconds when you get in your car? You might have heard a foolish person say, “I’d rather be thrown clear.” Oh, he’ll be thrown clear, all right – clear through the windshield! The lives of our police are difficult enough without them having to scrape body parts off of streets and dashboards from people who are too stupid or too lazy to put on their seatbelts. Here in Washington State it’s illegal to be driving or riding without your seatbelt on. There are malcontents who think this is going too far. Their reasoning is, “Give us a chance to act responsibly without shoving the law down our throat,” or, “It’s nobody’s business if I don’t buckle up.” Well; “You’ve had your chance and you blew it,” and, “How many people who enjoy being stupid or lazy are going to make sure their children are buckled up?” So if you’re going to be traveling through the great state of Washington: “click it or ticket.” *DON’T SMOKE. JUST DON’T SMOKE. (2745) (Actor Yul Brenner. Anti-smoking campaigner. Died of lung cancer after smoking for many years.) (So far, smoking has killed 66 million Americans, and costs $109,000,000,000.00 a year in lost productivity, health care, fires, etc. Secondhand smoke causes 53,000 deaths a year. Half of all colds and lung aliments in children of smokers are the direct result of their parent’s smoking. How more thoughtless can parents be than to put the kids in the car, roll up the windows, and take off on a trip, all the while smoking their lungs out with the kids turning blue in the back seat? And besides, kissing someone who smokes is like licking an ashtray.) *Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. (2761) As a person who has been hit by drunk driver s (yes, plural), I appreciate the Washington State Patrol’s motto “Drive Hammered – Get Nailed.” Every 10 days in America there are 3,000 deaths attributed to alcohol from all causes. That’s a 9/11 every week and a half. Alcohol causes 40,000 birth defects a year, and 54% of murders, 52% of rapes, 68% of manslaughter, and 48% of robberies are alcohol related. So why not get your act together and quit drinking. I did. Maybe some of your drinking friends will realize that life is possible without alcohol, and quit too. “[W]hen one, who has long been known as a victim of intemperance (drunkenness), bursts the fetters that have bound him, and appears before his neighbors “clothed and in his right mind,” a redeemed specimen of long lost humanity, and stands up with tears of joy trembling in eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, and renewed affection; and how easily it all is done, once it is resolved to be done; however simple his language, there is a logic, and an eloquence in it, that few, with human feelings, can resist.” Abe Lincoln February 22, 1842 |