Today is Sunday, July 29 and there are only 105 days until my birthday, just in case anyone was wondering.  Today we remember the birthdays of Booth Tarkington, Benito Mussolini and Dag Hammarskjold.  On this day in 1874 Major Walter Copton Wingfield patented a portable tennis court, in 1914 the first transcontinental phone link was made, between New York City and San Francisco, and in 1987 Ben and Jerry’s and Jerry Garcia agreed on the new ice cream flavor Cherry Garcia.  In Norway it is the Olsok Eve Festival and in the US it is National Lasagna Day and National Chicken Wing Day.

Let me start off by apologizing for some misinformation.  Last week I said there were 158 days until Christmas when in fact there were only 156 days.  I hope this did not cause too much consternation or present any scheduling problems for baking and stuff.  Just to set the record straight, as of today, there are only 149 days until Christmas.

While watching a commercial for toilet paper recently, I had to stop and wonder why we need commercials for that product.  Are there people out there who are not buying toilet paper?  I understand that there are a number of brands, but generally speaking, few of the current commercials would actually encourage me to buy a product.  It is a tough choice – do I want the one that makes me want to walk around without underwear or do I want the one that is recommended by blue bears?  I am not going to go into a big thing about commercials, but I just wondered about the need for those.

I have developed a habit of watching the news at night, through the weather report, and then getting ready to retire for the evening.  I would point out that I mean the 11 PM edition, not the earlier one.  While I am a senior citizen I do stay up later than 8 or 9 o’clock.  The thing I have found interesting is the weather reports.  I have discussed other ideas about the news, including live reports from dark streets where something happened eight hours ago … but I digress.  The weather reports have come a long way from when Uncle Wethby used to give us the forecast.  For most of you, Uncle Wethby is a head scratcher.  

Briefly, Uncle Wethby was the cartoon creation of weatherman Tex Antoine.  He appeared on TV in the ‘60’s.  Uncle Wethby had a variety of hairpieces and mustaches that were drawn to indicate what the weather was going to be, i.e. windy, rainy, cold etc.  Nowadays, we have radar, satellites, diagrams, dew points, wind speeds and more to give us the information.  In our area, one network even has a theme song for its weatherman.  The fact that there is a staff of four weather people and only one has a song is interesting, but a topic for another time.

A typical forecast starts out by showing us the current temperature and a picture of what it looks like outside, in New York City, which does not always show what is happening where I am.  We are then told the high and low and the average and the record for the day.  Frankly, I don’t see how the fact that the temperature was 102 in 1914 has any bearing on today.  It might make me glad I wasn’t around then, but otherwise I don’t care … I am sorry, I am digressing again. 

Next we see the local weather map that shows us the radar picture.  We hear about highs and lows and see depictions of them on the map.  All of this is accompanied by arrows and red and blue lines and other stuff that is never really explained.  Then we get the person’s opinion of what is happening and what is going to happen.  Next we get a future cast showing us a radar projection for the next couple days.  Finally we get the seven day forecast.  This is followed up by the weather person walking over to the news desk and chatting about weather for a few minutes with the talking heads that read the regular news.  Frankly, I have yet to see why this guy gets a song, but that’s just my opinion.

My name is Bill and I am a watchaholic.  I have always liked watches and felt that a watch was a part of how you presented yourself.  I had a variety of styles that matched what I was wearing, whether it was casual or dressy.  Last year, I saw a watch that I liked and Barbara bought it for my birthday.  When we were in South Carolina for Christmas, her son noticed the watch and he and I got to talking about watches.  He showed me a particular brand that he liked and I thought it was an interesting brand, but never looked into it.  A few months later, we were in a mall that I knew had a Starbucks so while Barbara shopped I went for coffee.

As I sat there drinking my coffee, I noticed that the brand her son had told me about had a store.  I walked over and started to look.  They had a number of great looking watches, but what got my attention was that they had a BOGO sale going on.  Yes, I got two watches!  I had to go back a couple days later to have a link removed from the band of one watch and ended up getting another watch for myself and one for Barbara.  Then I found a shopping network that had shows dedicated to this brand and ended up getting a number of additional watches.  I knew I had a problem when I went back to the store.  They were having an incredible sale – buy three get seven free.  I stood there trying to figure out who I could get watches for so that I could take advantage of this deal.  I came to my senses, but only because I couldn’t come up with enough people.  Presently, I have over 20 of that brand alone.  I may have to find another place to keep my underwear so that I have room for my watches.

This week our fact tells us that there are over 100,000 different species of butterflies.  All I can say is prove it!  How can anyone possibly know that there are that many species?  If you are going to make that statement, I expect you to be able to prove it.  Let me know when the list is ready.