The comedian’s theme for the night happened to be mother-daughter relationships.

I wanted to take her home, but she insisted on staying. She was laughing so hard at the comedian’s jokes that I became uneasy.

I thought she was over compensating for the lost of her mother. She had had a few more drinks than usual so I insisted that we go home.

I apologized again about the topic of the comedian. She said it was okay because he was right on on most of his jokes. She said that he hated her mother and that she had been planning on killing the bitch if she had not slipped and fell down the stairs.

I am stunned.

Greg

If you or your significant other plans to sit around and watch college football at every opportunity these next few weeks, it may be that what looks like laziness actually can be called an exercise in self-improvement. According to a new study, watching sports is not just fun and relaxing, it’s also a good brain workout. Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that fans improve their mental function by stimulating the brain’s ability to understand the sometimes arcane language of sports.
GAME ON
In the study, associate professor of psychology Sian L. Beilock, PhD, and her colleagues asked a group that consisted of 12 hockey players, eight fans and nine individuals who don’t watch games at all to listen to phrases that included specific hockey jargon — for example, finish that shot. Next they listened to sentences about everyday actions, such as ringing a doorbell or pushing a shopping cart. As participants listened, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map brain activity to see which areas of the brain were most active, then participants took simple tests to measure how well they had understood the sentences.
Everyone had approximately equal understanding of the ordinary action sentences, Dr. Beilock reports, while (no surprise here) the hockey players and fans better understood the hockey-related language. The unexpected finding was that the motor areas of the brain associated with planning, controlling and performing actions — not just those involved with language — were activated in fans when they listened to the sports-related sentences, even though they had no intention to, say, make a slapshot. This shows that neural networks normally geared to producing action were activated even in people (the fans, in this case) who hadn’t spent time on the ice. Said another way, both players and fans worked multiple areas of their brains, rather than just a single area.
This study adds to an increasing body of evidence suggesting that the adult brain remains flexible and dynamic and is able to absorb and use new information and language. Dr. Beilock notes that it also indicates that when we watch sports, the brain areas associated with language interact with those normally focused on physical action. It’s mental multi-tasking. Results of the study were published in the September 9, 2008, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
THE BEST DEFENSE
No doubt there will be nay-sayers who contend there are better ways to sharpen mental skills — crossword puzzles, chess, book groups, learning a foreign language or playing a new instrument, to name a few. But for a simple boost in brain fitness and maybe even better brain flexibility and language skills, you can just settle yourself on the couch and watch a football game. Take a pass on the beer and chips, though — this workout burns very few calories.

Source(s): ?
Sian L. Beilock, PhD, associate professor in the department of psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

I was sitting in a coffee shop when the weird guy who had been pacing the store talking to himself approached our table. He looked at me, and in all seriousness, said, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your butt crack is showing.”

Here’s an opportunity to make a little money on some rare Guam quarters.
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GUAM – The first heads-up, double-die mark on a Guam Quarter has been reported to a coin collecting news site. The as-yet ‘unique’ irregularity is a double-die mark below the earlobe of George Washington on the obverse side of a Philadelphia-Mint Guam coin.

That, according to Numismaster.com.

Due to what’s been described as extremely low production volumes (less than 90 million coins), the Guam Quarter had already been declared the rarest of the U.S. Treasury’s new-series quarters. And that may make George’s double earlobe all the more valuable!
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Peter

Q: Do you have any advice on how to ask for a favor — when it is something you really need to have them do?

A: How to get people to do what they don’t want to. Say: “I know you don’t want to do this, but…” People are 29% more likely to grant a favor when the person asking for it uses this phrase. Why: Showing that you understand that someone is reluctant empowers him/her to feel that he/she has a choice — and to decide it might not be so bad to grant your request.