An example answer:

9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
•    a.) The cite which was given as a source for the quote was incorrect.
•    b.) The site was surveyed yesterday.
•    c.) My rifle has a front and a rear sight.
•    d.) We celebrated the re-birth at fane.
•    f.) She would fain stay with her husband.
•    g.) Can she feign surprise and excitement?
•    h.) The vanes on the windmill are broken.
•    i.) It is vain to think you are better than others.
•    j.) Mother has a varicose vein in her leg.
•    k.) Tomorrow they will raze the old barn.
•    l.) Today they started to raise a new barn.
•    m.) The rays of the sun feel good in the spring.

HT: Patrick D.

HT: HG.

We offer hundreds of vintage radio shows for you to listen to online in mp3 format, all for free. Before the days of video games, shopping malls, MTV, and the Internet, families used to sit in their living room each night to listen to radio shows such as Superman, Groucho Marx, The Avenger, Gunsmoke, Sherlock Homes, and many others. When TV become popular in the 1950′s, most of these shows went off the air, but they now live on at websites such as this one and on weekly nostalgia radio broadcasts worldwide.  © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Some of the shows they have are:

Comedies: Amos & Andy | A Date with Judy | Barrel of Fun | Benny Goodman | Bob Hope Show | Blondie | Evening with George Burns | Camel Comedy | More..

Dramas: Avenger | Defense Attorney | Charlie Chan | More..

Mysteries: Boris Karloff | Cloak and Dagger | Dark Venture | More..

Variety: Al Jolson Show | Arthur Godfrey and his talent scouts | Artie Shaw | Authors Playhouse | Big Bands | Eddie Arnold Show | Ernie Ford | More..

Westerns: Hopalong Cassidy| Death Valley Days | Gene Autry | Gunsmoke | More..

SciFi/Superheros: 2000 Plus | Batman | Buck Rogers | More..

© 2009 All Rights Reserved.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10).  I’ll pick 3.

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold). This gives us 6.

3.  Add 5.  This gives us 11.

4. Multiply it by 50 — I’ll wait while you get the calculator. This gives us 550.

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759 …
If you haven’t, add 1758.  Let’s pick July 26, 1980. So we add 1759 to 550, to get 2309.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.  This gives us 2309 – 1980 = 329.

You should have a three digit number.  Yup: 329.

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).  Yes, it is! It’s 3!

The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)  Yes, again! It’s 29! (This is a hypothetical; I am not 29.)

What’s happening is that we are coming up with 2009 by a round-about, hidden way. We start with 5,

multiply it by 50, then add 1759: 5(50) + 1759 = 2009. And yes, of course, we determine our age (if we assume we’ve had a birthday this year) by subtracting our year of birth from 2009. If we have not had our birthday yet, we call ourselves one year younger in age, hence this “calculator” uses 1758, which is one less than 1759.

When you multiply the 3 by 2, then by 50, you are multiplying effectively by 100. This has the effect of moving the 3 to the hundreds place, so it will not be added into your age (unless you are 100 or more!!).

We can see what’s going on more clearly with algebra. Let’s call the number of times we want chocolate “x.” Then, following the steps of the “calculator,” we have:

1.  Pick the number “x.”

2.  2x

3.  2x + 5

4.  100x + 250 which we could call x00 + 250 (“x hundred plus two hundred fifty”)

5.  100x + 2009 which we could write as x00 + 2009 or 2×09

6.  100x + 2009 – 1980 = 100x + 29 which we could write as x00 + 29 or x29

And there you have it.

The email says that this “calculator” will work this year only — to further distract and confuse you, I guess. The email is correct; but the trick would work next year if you used 1760 and 1759 instead of 1759 and 1758, respectively.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10).

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold).

3.  Add 5.

4. Multiply it by 50 — I’ll wait while you get the calculator.

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759 …
If you haven’t, add 1758.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number.

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

How does it work??  (I’ll post the answer in two days.)

Nice that the evil horseflies are gone, that they have finished their one-month cycle of attacking animals for blood, so I can ride back in the woods again! Last week, the ride after this pictured ride, I went back out in the woods after a two-week absence. I did not want my horse to have to suffer horsefly attacks. They are horrible (see also URI‘s Factsheet): they swarm in groups of 5 or 10 or 25; they cut into animals with knife-like “teeth” instead of sucking blood like mosquitoes; they leave trails of blood a few inches long; they are so bloodthirsty that no amount of flyspray or Deep Woods Off will keep them away. They deserve to die.

But today and Monday I had good two-hour, unmolested rides in the woods. Sunshine, blue sky, green trees, dark shadows, brown earth, my horse, me, and peaceful, pleasant solitude.

Looking at some friends.

Can you tell Heiric is being ridden bitless, halter only?

Eyes are a window to the soul. And in those eyes I see the world. I see blue skies, I see heaven and earth.

Heiric the Red.

Here you can tell I’m riding bareback? That’s my jeans — and no saddle — that you see bottom center of the picture.

I could not do that in a million years…