2009 Thanksgiving Wordle Challenge [#11]

Hello, Gentle Reader.

Here is the third of four 2009 Thanksgiving Wordle Challenges, the eleventh overall. To see the entire Incredible History Of Wordle Challenges, click here.

The object is to unscramble the wordle, then identify the novel from which it came, as well as the author.

Don't cheat.

If -- after a good, solid *90* seconds -- you cannot place your unscrambled wordle, you may ask two people, in turn, to aid you in identifying novel and novelist. The prohibition against search engines and other underhanded treachery remains in place for your smarty-panted friends.

We're offering a new prize with Wordle Challenge No. 11 -- the exact address and phone number of its author, plus one Richelieu faux pearl clip on/screw earring, goldtone.

Good luck!

Thanksgiving Wordle Challenge 2009 [#10]

Happy Thanksgiving Eve, Darling Readers! I sense the frenzy of defrosting, parboiling, baking, and scrubbing of toilets going on out there. I feel, and share, your pain.

Oh, who are we kidding? We love it!

Still, it makes all kinds of sense to take the occasional Wordle Break, cleansing the mind even as we make devious culinary plans to cleanse palates.

This is the second in our Thanksgiving Wordle Challenge 2009 series. Ms. Marmy the Fluffy Butted Feline has been reading over my shoulder, advising me on wordle style and color choices. At her suggestion, I reined in my urge to use weird fonts and out-of-this-world color choices, and have stayed in the realm of plodding realism.

The Magical Ms. Marmy has given this wordle her famous "*ack*:*ack*" of approval.

{cough::cough} [What do you think, La Fresca? Too many hints? Well, in my defense, 'tis the season for giving, yo.]

Directions: Unscramble the Wordle below, then identify the novel and author from which the Wordle was formed.

To see the History of Wordle Challenges, go here.


At this time, we're thinking that Thanksgiving Wordle Challenge 2009 will consist of a total of four Wordle Challenges. Two down, two to go. And yes, as promised on Twitter by @The_Castafiore, we are attempting to represent a different continent per wordle. Should you happen to be a representative of the continents we fail to honor, I beg your pardon and beseech your forbearance.

Because @The_Castafiore could not restrain her wagging tongue and tip-tapping fingers, we are also committed to featuring Island Nations during the Xmas Wordle Challenges.

What's that? Hmm? Oh, the prize! Tickets for you and four of your closest friends to the 2010 New Year's Day 9:20 AM début of Gounod's Faust, that which keeps La Bonne et Belle Bianca Castafiore busy and out of trouble. Unfortunately, we cannot swing the cost of transportation to Tête de Hergé and hope that won't deter you from the competition. We'll get you here somehow, even if we have to send the submarine.

Thanksgiving 2009 Wordle Challenge [#9]

If you are as close to brain death as I am, you will welcome this straightforward and fun task of bringing order out of chaos:

Yes, it's Wordle Time.

This time out, Fresca need not refrain. She is the Reigning Wordlemeister of the Known World and it was bad of me to ask her to hold back last time out. She's also something of a writer, filmmaker, photographer, and All Around Good Egg.

Particularly as she went on to win...
And was the only respondant!

We have new prizes as incentive! Okay, it's the same prize. {put:upon:sigh}What can I say? Fred and I are downright hungry for an evening alone. It is The Opera Hiatus Season -- meaning that all Manor residents are home. All. Day. Long.

How long can you listen to "ah, je r-i-i-i-i-s de me voir si belle dans ce miroir-oir-oir!" before becoming complètement dingue?

Winner of Thanksgiving Wordle Challenge 2009 [#9] will have the chance to escort La Bonne et Belle Bianca Castafiore to the local Dairy Queen, just a few kilometers south of Captain Haddock's Ancestral Home. You can pick her up anytime...

We'll leave the drawbridge down and take the alligators out of The Moat.

Directions: Unscramble the Wordle below, then identify the novel and author from which the Wordle was formed.

To see the History of Wordle Challenges, go here.


At this time, we're thinking that Thanksgiving Wordle Challenge 2009 will consist of a total of four Wordle Challenges.

Army suicides set another yearly record

Since January, 140 active-duty soldiers have killed themselves while another 71 Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers killed themselves in the same time period, totaling 211 as of Tuesday, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, U.S. Army vice chief of staff, told reporters at a briefing Tuesday. But he said the monthly numbers are starting to slow down as the year nears its end.

"This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way," Chiarelli said.

For all of 2008, the Army said 140 active-duty soldiers killed themselves while 57 Guard and Reserve soldiers committed suicide, totaling 197, according to Army statistics.

"The general trend line with the exception of a couple of months has been down."

[addendum, 11/25/2009: The sentence above rankles. Pisses off. Depresses. When last the military issued statements about the alarming number of soldier suicides, it was wayyyyyy long ago -- as far back as FEBRUARY 2009. So, between February, traditionally our second month of the year, until now, NOVEMBER 2009, which I consider our eleventh month, that makes... a whopping NINE MONTHS. I have trouble with any establishment of a statistical "trend" based on nine months of data, and even more trouble when "a couple of months" belie the claim. I'm just sayin'.]

In February, when I was reacting to another anouncement of record-setting soldier suicides, one of my posts engendered the following comment:


Anonymous said...

http://www.healthieryou.com/harm.html
this article relates that 31000 people committed suicide in America....a rate of 85 per day. So the soldiers rate of 5 per day seems to be a little lower then civilians.....so whats the problem?
Steve

February 8, 2009 11:01 PM

I answered this way then, and suspect that an investigation into the mathematics of the current figures will reveal similar prejudices:

Bianca Castafiore said...
Hi Steve,

Well, first, any loss is one loss
too many -- on that, we can all agree.

Second, you are quoting data from 1996/7!

Lastly, "so what's the problem?"

The numbers, if it is gonna remain a numbers game, need to be relative in terms of demographics.

February 9, 2009 9:06 AM

New Left Media: Interviews with Palin Supporters

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, so I have decided to alternate every 45 seconds, with a few brief interludes of silent, bleak despair.




This is the script as posted on YouTube by New Left Media:

On November 20, 2009, at a Borders bookstore in Columbus, Ohio, Sarah Palin held a book signing event in support of "Going Rogue." Palin's supporters wanted her to run for the presidency, but they weren't exactly sure what she'd do as president. Short on specifics, most of them were uncertain what her policy positions are. They just felt that they liked her. She's "real." And that the solution to all of our country's problems—health care, energy, the deficit, unemployment, and the economy—was to cut taxes and lower spending, and Palin, they said, would solve them by doing just that.

This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera).

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Donations to New Left Media will go toward the production costs of future videos. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in keeping us online.

I've *NOT* checked New Left Media out, and therefore do not endorse them. Be sure and do your due diligence before donating any money.