I Hope She Has the Time

A New Zealander, a sheep and a dog were survivors of a terrible ocean storm. They found themselves stranded on a desert island, and after awhile they got into the habit of going to the beach every evening to watch the sun go down.
One particular evening, the sky was red with beatiful cirrus clouds. The breeze was warm and gentle, a perfect night for romance. And the sheep started looking better and better to the Kiwi. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it. The dog got jealous, growling fiercely until the Kiwi took his arm from around the sheep.

After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together but there was no more cuddling.

A few weeks passed by and lo and behold there was another terrible storm. The only survivor this time was a beautiful young woman, the most beautiful woman the Kiwi had ever seen. She was in a pretty bad way when they rescued her, but they slowly nursed her back to health. When the young maiden was well enough, they introduced her to the evening beach ritual.

It was another beautiful evening: red cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze; perfect for a night of romance.

Pretty soon the New Zealander started to get "those feelings" again. He fought them as long as he could, but he finally gave in and leaned toward the young woman, cautiously, and whispered in her ear:

"Would you do a favor for me?" he asked.

"Certainly," she said.

"Would you mind taking the dog for a walk?"

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A farmer stopped by the local mechanic shop to have his truck fixed. They couldn't do it while he waited, so he said he didn't live far and would just walk home.

On the way home he stopped at the hardware store and bought a bucket and a gallon of paint. He then stopped by the feed store and picked up a couple of chickens and a goose. However, struggling outside the store he now had a problem: how to carry his entire load of purchases home.

While he was scratching his head he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost. She asked, "Can you tell me how to get to 1603 Mockingbird Lane?"

The farmer said, "Well, as a matter of fact my farm is very close to that house and I would walk you there but I can't carry this lot," he replied. The old lady suggested, "Why don't you put the can of paint in the bucket, carry the bucket in one hand, put a chicken under each arm and carry the goose in your other hand?"

"Why thank you very much," he said, and proceeded to walk toward the lady's house.

On the way he said, "Let's take my short cut and go down this alley. We'll be there in no time." The little old lady looked him over cautiously and then said, "I am a lonely widow without a husband to defend me. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won't hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and have your way with me?"

The farmer said, "Holy smokes, lady! I'm carrying a bucket, a gallon of paint, two chickens and a goose. How in the world could I possibly hold you up against the wall and do that?"

The old lady replied, "Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the paint on top of the bucket and I'll hold the chickens."

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My favorite word today is aging. N., getting way old like me. Def.: Eventually you will reach this point, when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Get 'em One at a Time

It is hard to know if I have a measle.  There is this angry-looking blotch on my chest-bone that looks like I have the measles.  But there is only one blotch, so my brain is wondering:  How can you have measles when there is only one measle?

If you get scarlet fever twice do you have scarlet fevers, or have you had scarlet's fever?  Or was that roseola (roseolas?).  Or rubella/rubellas?

Psoriasis....Now there's one for you.  And sebhorrea.  That's another one for you.  How come those don't come in plurals?  Chicken pox.  A poxes upon you, I say.

And here's another one you don't want to get:  Chagas' disease.  And I know this was named for Mr. Chagas because only one of him was the first to find it.  So much for Chagases' disease.

This (Chagas') is caused by little insects, mostly down in the tropics, that are called "blood- sucking assassin bugs."  Yuck.  (Yucks?)

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Here's a poetic done by my Scamp:

Bird food hangs under leafless birches
Where ice has formed on all the perches.
The goldfinch flocks seem unaware,
Nor do the blackbirds seem to care.

Bamboos have arched and seem quite rigid.
(The weatherman has just called it frigid.)
Seven inches coming so we debate,
But there's ice on top, so now that makes eight.

It snowed last week, and then it melted,
Relief was felt, and again we got belted.
So bundle up, and fluff those feathers,
And let's all hope for warmer "weathers."

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My favorite phrase today is Oliver's Law of Public Speaking.  N., sounds good to me.  Def.:  A closed mouth gathers no feet.

He's Seen Better Days

                                Right after Santa's last stop.....
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My favorite phrase today is bah humbug.

He Knows How to Lose His Load

And the Blonde Knows Her Stuff

As a trucker stops for a red light, a blonde catches up.  She jumps out of her car, runs up to his truck and knocks on the door.

The trucker lowers the window and she says, "Hi, my name is Heather and you are losing some of your load."  The trucker ignores her and proceeds down the street.

When the truck stops for another red light, the blonde catches up again.  She jumps out of her car, runs up and knocks on the door.  Again the trucker lowers the window.  As if they've never spoken, the blonde says brightly, "Hi, my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load."

Shaking his head, the trucker ignores her again and continues down the street.  At the third red light, the same thing happens again.  All out of breath, the blonde gets out of her car, runs up, and knocks on the truck door.  Again she says, "Hi, my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load."

When the light turns green, the trucker races to the next light.  When he stops this time he hurriedly gets out of his truck and runs back to the blonde.  He knocks on her window, and after she lowers it, he says.....

"Hi, my name is Mark, it's winter here in Oregon and I'm driving the sander!"

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I almost cried when I saw this picture.  It is absolutely gut-wrenching.  It shows the importance of being strapped in.

A friend sent this photo of a horrible highway accident in Germany.  The picture may be kind of hard for some of you to take.  If you look closely you can see what appears to be some survivors of the accident still in the wreckage.  Although the picture is quite graphic, it makes you realize how quickly our loved ones can be taken from us.

My friend stayed on the scene to help out, and even though he performed mouth-to-mouth on quite a few of them, not one of them survived.

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My favorite word today is Yahoo.  N., sort of like yah humbug.  Def.:  What you yell after selling your stock to some poor sucker for $120 per share.

                          

         

                                                         

And a Merry Ribbit to You

Exhaustion hits everyone!

This is one of the cuter Christmas photos going around this year.  You can
have it.  Or just ignore, like I do.

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A guy is 80 years old and loves to fish.  He was sitting in his boat the other day when a heard a voice say, "Pick me up."

He looked around and couldn't see anyone.  He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again, "Pick me up."

He looked in the water and there, floating on the top, was a frog.  The man said, "Are you talking to me?"

The frog said, "Yes, I'm talking to you.  Pick me up, then kiss me and I'll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen.  I'll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous because I will be your bride."

The man looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up carefully, and placed in his front breast pocket.

Then the frog said, "What, are you nuts?!  Didn't you hear what I said?  I said, 'Kiss me and I will be your beautiful bride.'"

He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said, "Nah; at my age I'd rather have a talking frog."

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The dentist looks into the patient's mouth and says, "Holy smoke!  That plate I installed in your mouth about six months ago is badly corroded.  What have you been eating?"

The man replied, "The only thing different I can think of is, my wife made me some asparagus about four months ago with this stuff on it.  She called it Hollandaise sauce."

The dentist responded, "That's probably it.  Hollandaise sauce is made with lemon juice, which is acidic and highly corrosive.  I'll have to make a new plate, but this time make it out of chrome."

"Why chrome?" the patient asked.

The dentist replied, "Well, everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise."

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My favorite word today is water.  N., don't ruin it with whiskey.  Def.:  I never drink this because of all the disgusting things fish do in it.

At Least They All Got Pistolas

A Mexican, an Arab and a Redneck girl are in the same bar.

When the Mexican finishes his beer, he throws his glass in the air, pulls out his pistol, and shoots the glass to pieces.  He says, "In Mexico, our glasses are so cheap we don't need to drink with the same one twice."

The Arab, obviously impressed, drinks his beer, throws his glass into the air, pulls out his AK-47, and shoots the glass to pieces.  He says, "In the Arab world we havr so much sand to make glasses that we don't need to drink with the same one, either."

The Redneck girl, cool as a cucumber can be cool, picks up her beer, downs it in one gulp, throws the glass in the air, whips out her .45 and shoots the Mexican and the Arab.  She catches her glass, sets it on the bar, and calls for a refill.

"In America," she says, "we have so many illegal Mexicans and Arabs that we don't have to drink with the same ones twice."

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In Wellington, Florida, 20-year-old Frantz Leger, was arrested at a mall for wearing droopy jeans.

Said Palm Beach County Sheriff's Lt. Jay Hart, "The Mall doesn't put up with that tom foolery-buttcrap.  His pants were down below his butt.  No one goes to the mall and wants to see the crack of someone's butt."

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Hers and my, favorite pastimes......

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New Office Policy

Dress Code

1.  You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.
2.  If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci Bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raiser.
3.  If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therfore you do not need a raise.

4.  If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Sick Days
 

We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of illness.  If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to go to work.

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My favorite phrase today is hard work.  N., when you break out in perspicacity.  Def.:  Hard work pays off in the future.  Laziness pays off now.

Six MORE Months; Will It Ever End?

I (Gene to you) is no longer 77, as I have told you.  The clock has rolled over to 78, and that deal where the doctor said I had 6 months to live hasn't worked out so well.  In fact, this is the third dose of that kind of advice I have been given; I reckon I am not very lucky at dying on time.  I am now on my fourth six-month stretch of having just 6 months to live; maybe I can get it done this time.
                                 (Maybe I can catch one of these.)

Anyway, what we're doing here today is wrapping up our Third Annual Christmas Letter.  I know you been waiting.  So here we go.

I think I told you last year that Scamp is 39 (again) this year.  She looks good in a size 39.

Thanks to the current economy, we here are learning some new Wall Street terms.  For instance:  "Value Investing:  The art of buying low and selling lower."  And what with the economy being so dour, we are making money selling our Haiku.  Haiku is not easy, either:

"The deal with Haiku
"You just get started and then

We again have spent a lot of time with doctors -- heart specialists, lung merchants, fat doctors (well, not fat fat doctors, the ones that thin you up or down, whichever way you want to go.   I once went into the doctor's office and said "I have a serious memory problem?"  The doc says, "When did it start?"  And I say, "When did what start?"

My Scamp has been busy this year, improving body and mind.  She's doing Qi Gong, tai chi, oil painting, water coloring, camera technique, and her regular bicycle workout.  She also did the Thanksgiving dinner, which was just as good as Mother used to make (well, MY mother; I don't know about YOUR mother).

A funny thing happened last summer.  Three of us baseball fans were walking toward the train at Safeco Field in Seattle one night, and one of us noticed a foot sticking out of the bushes by the sidewalk.  We looked and discovered a nude woman, drunk and passed out.  In respect of the lady, I took off my Cubs hat and placed it over her right breast.  One of my buddies, who was wearing a Red Sox hat, took off his beanie and put it over her left breast.  Following our lead, the Yankee fan took off his cap and placed it over her crotch.

When the cops came, the Sergeant lifted the Cubs' hat, replaced it, and wrote down some notes.  Then he lifted the Red Sox cap, replaced it, and wrote some more notes.  The Sarge then lifted the Yankees' cap, replaced it, then lifted it again, replaced it, then lifted it a third time and replaced it once more.

By now the Yankee fan was getting upset, and he finally asked, "What are you, a pervert or something?  Why do you keep lifting and looking, lifting and looking?"  "Well," said the Sergeant, "I am simply surprised.  Normally when I look under a Yankees' hat, I find an asshole."

Oh, by the way, if you ever reach total enlightenment while you're drinking a beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose.

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My favorite word today is men.  N., you've seen 'em around: bald heads, no teeth, needing a shave?  THOSE are men.  Def.:  They are all the same; they just have different faces so you can tell them apart.

Life Sucks

Even man's best friend has his limits, wooden you say?

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Say you're going to have one beer.  Then in turns into a couple of beers, then a six-pack and soon enough, a cascade of beer.  You don't know what hit you, but the next day it turns into a

One-Star Hangover

No pain.  No real feeling of illness.  You're able to function relatively well.  However, you are parched.  You can drink 5 Cokes and still feel this way.  For some reason, you are craving a steak and fries.  Unless, of course, it's a

Two-Star Hangover

No pain, but something is definitely amiss.  You may look okay, but you have the mental capacity of a staple gun.  The coffee you are chugging is only enhancing the rumbling of your gut, which is still tossing around the fruity pancake from the 3 a.m. Waffle House excursion.  There is some definite havoc being wreaked upon your bowels.  You sure hope it isn't a

Three-Star Hangover

Slight headache.  Stomach feels crappy.  You definiely not productive.  Anytime a girl walks by you gag because her perfume reminds you of the peppermint schnapps your alcoholic friends dared you to drink.  You've had 4 cups of coffee, a gallon of water, 3 iced teas and a diet Coke -- yet you haven't peed once.  It's looking more and more like a

Four-Star Hangover

Life sucks.  Your head is throbbing.  You can't speak too quickly or else you might puke.  Your boss has already lambasted you for being late and has given you a lecture for reeking of booze.  You wore nice clothes, but that can't hide the fact that you shaved only one side of your face.  Your eyes look like one big red vein, and even your hair hurts.  Your butt is in perpetual spasm, and the first of about five dumps you take during the day brings water to the eyes of everyone who enters the bathroom.  No, it isn't a four-star job; it is easily becoming a

Five-Star Hangover

You have a second heartbeat in your head, which is actually annoying the employee who sits in the next cube.  Vodka vapor is seeping out of every pore and making you dizzy.  Your body has lost the ability to generate spit so your tongue is suffocating you.  You don't have the foggiest idea who the hell the stranger was who had passed out in your bed this morning.  Any attempt to take another dump results in a fire-hose-like discharge of alcohol-scented fluid with a rare floater thrown in.  The sole purpose of this floater seems to be to splash the toilet water all over your buns.  But all this helps you add to your list of

Things Impossible to Say When You're Drunk

1.  Thanks, but I don't want to have sex.

2.  Nope, no more booze for me.

3.  Sorry, but you're not really my type.

4.  Good evening, officer.  Isn't it lovely out tonight?

5.  Oh, I just couldn't.  No one wants to hear me sing.

6.  Sorry I'm being such a jackass.

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My favorite word today is bachelor.  N., one of them cute little button flowers.   Def.:  A man who has missed the opportunity to make some woman miserable.

The Punday Pun

Here they are, the long-married couple, going out for dinner.  They decide on Chinese.  After looking over the menu, they each decided to have Chinese Surprise, the chef's special.

The waiter brings their meal in a lidded pot.  As the wife reaches for the lid, it rose a few inches -- and she could see two beady eyes looking at her before the lid slams shut.

Startled, she asked her husband if he had seen the eyes.  Just then, the lid rose again, revealing the two eyes before slamming down again!  Perturbed, the couple called the waiter over and explained all this hoo-rah and foo-foo-rah.

"Ah, so, I aporogize.  I make mistake and bring you Peeking Duck."

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The only friction in this couple's long marriage was his habit of f**ting each morning when he awoke.  He tooted loudly, and it would wake his wife.  And then the smell would make her eyes water, and she would gasp for air.  Every morning she would plead with him to stop ripping them off because it was making her sick.  He responded that it was perfectly natural, and he could'nt stop it.  She told him to see a doctor because she was concerned that one day he would blow his guts out.

The years went by, and he continued to blast them out.  Then one Thanksgiving Day as she was preparing the turkey for dinner and he was upstairs sound asleep, she looked  in the bowl where she had put the turkey innards and neck, gizzard, liver, etc., and a malicious thought came to her.  She took the bowl and went upstairs where her husband was still sound asleep and, gently pulling back the bed covers she pulled back the elastic waistband of his shorts and emptied the bowl of turkey guts into his underwear.

Some time later she heard her husband waken with his usual troubling toot-toot -- but this time is was followed by a blood-curdling scream and the sound of frantic footsteps as he ran into the bathroom.  The wife could hardly contain herself as she rolled on the floor laughing, tears in her eyes.  After years of torture, she reckoned she had got him back pretty good.  About 20 minutes later, her husband came downstairs in his blood-stained underpants with a look of horror on his face.  She bit her lip as she asked him what was the matter.

He said, "Honey, you were right.  All these years you have warned me and I didn't listen to you."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "you always told me that one day I would end up tooting my guts out, and today it finally happened.  But by the grace of God, some Vaseline and two fingers,  think I got most of them back in."

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My favorite word today is envelope.  N., and it could be a No. 10, you know.  Def.:  No matter how much you push it, it still will be stationery.

And No Dumb Bumpkins, Either

A friend who worked away from home all week always made a special effort to be with his family on the weekends.  Every Sunday morning he would take his 7-year-old granddaughter out for a drive in the car for some bonding time.  Just he and his granddaughter.

One particular Sunday, however, he had a bad cold and really didn't feel like being up at all.  Luckily his wife came to the rescue and said that she would take their granddaughter out.  When they returned, the little girl anxiously ran upstairs to see her grandfather.

"Well," he said.  "Did you enjoy your ride with grandma?"

"Oh, yes, PaPa," the girl replied.  "And you know what?  We didn't see a single dumb bastard or lousy shithead anywhere we went today."

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Now, this here is a fish, or maybe a fishie.  I know that, because its name is Blobfish.  That's how I can know it's a fish.  Boy I am swift.

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In the first three weeks since the election, President-Elect Obama has broken with tradition established over the past either years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.  Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on "Sixty Minutes" witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had him employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," said Mr. Logsdon.  "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."  The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate.....we get it, now stop already."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

(Thanks, Vicki.)
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My favorite word today is armor.  N., I'm doing the jingle, jangle, jingle.  Def.:  During the Middle Ages, probably one of the biggest mistakes was not putting on your armor because you were "just going down to the corner."

It Takes a Lot of Water to Be Conceited

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The Washington Post has asked its readers for their pet peeves (good or bad):

Total strangers telling me what to do, especially square-dancer callers.

When a woman stands near me and people think her ugly baby is mine, and it is.

Big conceited bodies of water, especially Lake Superior.

I've been all over the world and have lived among every kind of culture and I can say, without any hesitation, that the most ignorant, rude, selfish and self-centered people on Earth are babies.

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Once there was an old coal miner who loved to paint.  Sadly, he could not afford canvasses.  But he found a solution:  he would paint on the walls of his house.  And so the walls became covered with his paintings.

One day, a group of wayward youths broke in and defaced the paintings.  The youths were soon apprehended and arrested for.....wait for it.........corrupting the murals of a miner.

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And The Post also asked for samples of a comically terrible ending to a novel, such as this one:

"As he left, the captain flashed a smile -- a wide, satisfied grin with lips parted a quarter-inch, the right corner of the mouth raised slightly above the left, and a dry lower lip slightly stuck to the teeth -- that defied description."

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Then there is the karate form of martial arts, in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world.

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My favorite phrase today is dollar bills.  N., save some for me.  Def.:  When the little boy's grandmother called to see if the young lad who had swallowed these is improving, the nurse said, "There's been no change yet."

Some Things Happen; Some Things Don't

This here is a rabbit.  Says so on the back of the card.  And it's here because we always show you a picture of a rabbit on the first of the month so you'll have good luck all month long (pervided you also say Rabbit! Rabbit!

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I got an interesting question in my comments a couple of days ago:  "Is it true that you are not alive?"

There is no way to answer that.  If I said, "I am, indeed, not alive,"  I would have lied to you.  If I said, "It is true that I am not alive," I would have lied, again,  because anybody knows dead men don't type.  Or eat quiche.

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I also got some other, more serious questionables, to which I will pay honor and keep.  For instances:

Did you have a career in newspapers or magazines?  This, I think, was a serious questionable, so I'm going to treat it seriousity.  So the answer(s) to your question is:

Right the first time.  And the third time and the fourth time, and the sixth time, and the seventh time.  But not the second time, the fifth time, or the eighth time, or the ninth time, or the tenth time, or the 11th time, or the 12th time.   That describes the number of times I was in the newspaper business, and the times I wasn't.   By the end of it, I was on Social Security.  Funny career, that.

When are you going to write a Dear Hoss B**g?  Paul Nichols

Right now.

Dear Hoss:

Q.  Is that a piece of big acne you got there, or is that a case of cleft palate?  OH

A.  You been lookin' into my profile, ain't-ch?  Sneak.  Well, if it's any biziness of yourn, it ain't neither none.  But if you want one, I can tell you how to get it fixed.  Send me dollars two.

Dear Hoss:  Tell us a bunch of things about you that we don't know about.   Tlp. 

A.  No.

Dear Hoss:  What is your favorite sweet?  Miz Mell

A.  Boy, I sure wish I knew which one of you honeys asked this.  Yum Yum Yumster!!

Dear Hoss:  Can we send you something for the holidays?  Miz Mell

A.  When people offer to send me something, I am all GIMME!  See, it's because they

don't HAVE to, but they WANT to.  Which makes me so delicious.

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My favorite word today is heart.  N., It's gettin' near Valentine's day, right?  Def.:  The quickest way to a man's heart is through his chest with an axe.