NYTimes Pumps Out News on Pumpkins

The race to grow a 2000 pound pumpkin is discussed in the NYTimes today.



..... ...

In 2010, the 1800 pound barrier was broken and this has energized the many competitive pumpkin growers to try to pass the one ton mark.

Mrs Coke is ready to 'shop'

With Mr. Coke at the office and panda coke in boarding school in China and junior Miss Coke at prep school, Mrs Coke has some time to herself.

In this image she has a little beverage and has her earrings on.

She says she is going shopping but she doesn't seem to buy much. She is, however, in a good mood and sort of glowing when she comes home though so Mr. Coke doesn't seem to mind.

Panda At Boarding School

At his boarding school in China, Panda has been studying the different types of bamboo.

Some get tall quick and you have to chew the tops while they are still green, others stay close to the ground.

Yum. Bamboo.

Can Mr. Pumpkin Farmer make a latte

A culture blogger posted an opinion whether drinking a pumpkin spice latte could be 'manly'. This was in response to Starbucks which, during the fall, sells a latte which pumpkin spice flavoring.

The post attracted many comments. Most of the commenters were pro-pumpkin or at least pro choice regarding pumpkin spike.

Some opined that drinking any latte was unmanly or that any drinking at Starbucks was unmanly or that any drinking at Starbucks was stupid (because of the prices).
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Mr. Pumpkin farmer was thinking how he could produce his own pumpkin drink

Mrs Coke and Jr Relax

After Panda left for boarding school, Mrs Coke and junior bear had some together time.

It went quite well until junior started asking questions like,

"how come Panda doesn't look like my father?"

Mrs. Coke told junior about recessive genes and made it too complicated to understand.

That should do for now.

Outgate enjoys the weather

We had a wet August and then the beginning of September had even more rain (from tropical storm Lee).

Outside Gator (or outgate, as we sometimes call him) was very happy about the weather but he would have liked it better if the earlier summer had been wetter.

This is because the habitat created in September can't really be used too long as the cold comes in October.

Hardrock bear has a job

When Ann was in the hospital for the mitral valve repair, she got a balloon from her office.

Hardrock bear got the job of holding the balloon and then also the job of guarding some of the drinks.

Hardrock cafe probably doesn't sell cranberry juice or grape juice so it is a new experience for Hardrock bear.

Impress Girls w Alligator

Lots of things happen in Cook County, Illinois. Here is one that, I think, was from a police file:

A charge of possession of a dangerous animal has been filed against 43-year-old Dewayne Yarbrough of Ford Heights, who claims he kept the four-foot alligator to impress women.

Yarbrough told Cook County sheriff’s investigators he kept the alligator in a small tank and fed it only 10 live mice a month to keep it from growing too large. He said he bought the gator five years ago in Indiana for $200.

Animal control investigators did not say how they learned of the alligator, which they found in Yarbrough’s kitchen.

New story is here.That story has the gator on the right (which is not the gator in the story I think).

A similar story is here. That story has the other gator (which is not identified as being the one in Cook County).

UGA Overseas

Russian Bulldogs Are Also Constantly Vigilant

or at least sufficiently vigilant

Apparently there is a smuggling operation which brings illegal products to Russia via nearly empty trucks. The products, which are hidden in secret compartments (I suppose in the driver's cab part of the truck) include items such as bear claws, elk lips and mammoth tusks which evidently have a very high value.

Russia has successfully used dogs at border stations to locate these items in the trucks.

Article on this in the NYTimes is here.

Did UGA Eat the Grades

UGA in the News

Unfortunately, not good news.

Apparently, the University of Georgia law school is slow sending out law school grades.

The post is here.

It was posted at the website "abovethelaw.com".

The post was entitled, "Did UGA Eat the Grades at UGA law school."

Coke Thinks About Panda

Mr Coke decided that young Panda should go to boarding school in the fall.

At first he was thinking of sending Panda to a school for troubled youth that has a reputation for hard discipline.

But after finding out that school had been closed perhaps due to being sued, he looked for schools worldwide and eventually decided on a school in China.

It took a lot of Coke to think his way through this and it took a lot of time.

Soccer Bear Arrives

Soccer Bear Arrived here on May 10. He had been living with Ann's mom.


He is from Dublin, Ireland - actually he is from just outside of Dublin but he gets tired of saying he is from just outside of Dublin so he says he is from Dublin.


He is very devoted to soccer. In the second picture, he was trying to find some soccer news on the front page of the sports section of the Washington Post.

He wasn't successful.

This kind of ticked him off and he started making comments about how American sports were inferior to soccer.

Soccer Bear Has Some Conversations

Soccer Bear's anti American comments got some attention from UGA (who works for the Homeland Security Administration). UGA advocates constantly vigilance and he himself is pretty aggressive in asking one overarching question.

After some of this, Soccer Bear changed his attitude. He now acknowledges that American sports have a lot of value.

However that whole episode Soccer Bear was feeling a bit threatened.

Pumpkin farmer decided to discuss green issues with Soccer Bear (Pumpkin is also greenish except where he is other colors).

After this Soccer Bear felt better and attended our sabbath meal but here he almost got into trouble asking why God didn't specifically give the Jewish people a soccer field.

Osama b Laden drank Coke

According to a report today, two couriers who worked for OBL, purchased provisions on a regular basis.

Apparently, OBL liked name brands. One of these was Coke. Another was P...i.

Other brands that OBL liked include Nestle Milk.


source of this info is here.

UGA Has Another Newspaper Article to Like

There have been several reports that the late April 2011 operation to kill Bin Laden included one dog.

As in the image, most people assume it was a German Shepard but, of course as the operation has many secret components, it could have been a bulldog with a bone its mouth saying "WASSSZ UP".

One news article here.

Another here.

Another here.

Per the articles, the DOD employs about 2700 dogs, up from about 1700 before 9-11.

In the operation, per the articles, a SEAL rappelled down from a helicopter with a dog strapped to his chest.

Gator exploited for Nefarious Activity


A man in East Hemet California (about 90 miles east of downtown Los Angeles) was using a Florida alligator to guard his marijuana supply. The man was dispensing the marijuana in an unlicensed medical treatment.

The gator weighed only 55 pounds but, heh, he was a gator and who is going to risk that (image is from the news article).

After the arrest (of the man), the gator was relocated to an undisclosed location in San Bernadino County. Personal possession of alligators in California is illegal but authorities acknowledge that a number of homes have them because of, well, the panache.


G sent me this article.

Are American Bears Different?

A blogger named Erica Grieder has done an analysis of English vs American 'literary' bears.

Her conclusion was,

" American bears are, for the most part, more assertive and autonomous than English bears."

Greider knows more about English bears than I do and she knows somethings about American bears (e.g., Yogi Bear).

However, she is apparently not familiar with several other bears, notably, our Graduation Bear, Coke Bear and Hard Rock Bear (in the image, Hard Rock Bear is showing off his certificate which identifies him as special Atlanta Hard Rock Bear number 910).

That's too bad because if she had, her "American Bears are more assertive" thesis would be stronger. As for the autonomous aspect, that wouldn't play out so well. Coke bear and Hard Rock bear depend on their corporation for identity.

As for Graduation Bear, well lets just say he has had some issues in the past.




Here is Erica Greider's analysis and also an image she used (his name is Corduroy Bear apparently).

Here is the Volokh Conspiracy post that discusses Erica's analysis and contains a number of unbearable puns.

Coke Buys the Rest of Honest Tea

Today the Coca Cola corporation purchased those shares of Honest Tea that they didn't already own.

Before the purchase, Coke Bear consulted briefly with Graduation.

Grad liked the name Honest Tea since the product says they have twice the taste but half the calories of "... those super sweet drinks with fewer than 50 calories per serving."

but they don't say what "those" are and the 50 calories is only if you drink a bit less than half a 16 ounce bottle.



Article on Coke purchase here.
Honest tea Product info faqs here.

Mr. Pumpkin goes to Atlanta

G took Mr. Pumpkin to Atlanta (Feb 28-Mar 2).

Mr. Pumpkin is a legacy of 396 Wimbledon. He came to our family sometime between 1998 and about 2008 during a 'cleaning' but had been in the Lindsey house for several decades before that.

KBL didn't recognize him when G showed her.

This annoyed Mr. Pumpkin, who complained to KBL's Reindeer about it and also the fact that he (Mr. Pumpkin) is the only stuffed animal who isn't referenced in the first blessing of the Grace after meals (this is because the blessing refers to 'all creatures that God created' and Mr. Pumpkin is something of a hybrid between a creature and a fantasy).

UGA gets a trip to Baltimore

G was taking the bar exam in Baltimore on Feb 22-23.

He stayed at a motel near the Convention Center (where the exam was administered).

UGA went with him because UGA espouses constant vigilance (whether he practises that or not is another thing) and G needed some vigilance to make sure he was at the exam on time (G also had the motel give him a wake up call and took two alarm clocks - so not all the pressure was on UGA).
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Coke raises dividend

Following a few days after their successful post merger quarter, Coca Cola announced they were raising the dividends.

It is a pretty high payout ratio with, by my analysis, about 60% of net incoming going into dividends. Of course that may be do to the fact that Warren Buffet, who holds 200,000,000 shares, is a big fan of dividends.


This article discusses the dividend.

Merger Went Well

Last week, Coca Cola announced that the first quarter after full intergration after the Coke company bought the bottling company was a big success.

Net income was up about 65% (to about $5.7B), revenue was up about 40% (to about $10.5B). Product sales was up about 6% (only 5% if you don't count the Dr. Pepper that came with the bottling company).

Coke Bear is very, very pleased with himself.


NYTimes article on the successful quarter is here.

A Wily Coyote Experience

We are doing a refinancing. A financial fact checker from Chase Mortgage called us. She needed some basic information from Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo wouldn't talk to her. Wells Fargo wouldn't even agree to a three way call with her, us and them. So we had Chase call Wells Fargo then mute themselves while we asked Wells Fargo the questions. One of the questions was "what is your name?" which was put to the Wells Fargo person answering the other questions.

She said, "Rebecca H." I asked if her last name was spelled 'Ache' but she said that it was the letter 'H'. I said that given that I've told her my name and my address and my social security number to get the basic financial information of 'account balance', that this seemed a little one sided. Rebecca H. responded that it was company policy. We hung up.

The Chase fact checker called and told me they had all the info and that she (the fact checker) had enjoyed the conversation. I told her that what we had done was similar to those contraptions that wily coyote built expect for the giant spring and the rocket and the fact checker said she loved the metaphor.

Another Alligator Movie

I watched this movie with Gate.

There were many men and women eaten whole and 1980s entertainers/actresses Debbie Gibson (plays an animal rights activist who frees captive snakes) and Tiffany (who plays a park ranger).

Debbie calls Tiffany a 'gator feeding b..ch' which starts a fight between the two. The fight takes place at an outdoor buffet and lots of different food gets thrown around. Then they make up and help stop the animals.

At one point as the giant gators and pythons get to Miami, the women see a shopping area being destroyed by the giants. One says, "well, I've always hated that mall".

Tiffany is eaten by a gator in one bite. The giant gators and pythons are destroyed by explosives. Debbie falls out of a helicopter into a swamp and is eaten by a dying gator. A park is dedicated to their memory.

Another Intervention

Only a few days after the alcohol abuse intervention, a drug intervention was held by Grad's friends.

They pretty much said the same thing as at the alcohol intervention.

However, they brought in a new friend, Hard Rock bear who commented that instead of hard drugs, you could enjoy Hard Rock and, then he started going on and on about how unique he was.

Anyway, Grad seems to have been laying off the prescription drugs but that might be because he used them all and the pharmacy won't send any more

Time for an Intervention

Grad's friends wanted to help him so they had an intervention.

Gate said, "Your drinking alcohol really hurts me because its not near a swamp."

UGA said, "I'm sad because you aren't being vigilant when you are drunk."

Coke Bear said, "It hurts me that you use only alcohol and not my company's products."

New Year starts Early

Grad, Gate, UGA and Coke got together for a new year's party.

It started early.

They partied long and hard (and didn't use many of Coke Bear's company products). Grad partied the longest and the hardest.

The next morning Grad was, well, let's just say in bad shape.

Grad Dealing with Guilt Again

Graduation Bear is still dealing with some guilt from his 'consultancy' with the hedge fund or else he has a problem again.

The pills are pretty strong given his (Grad's) weight. Sometime he actually doesn't want to be recognized. This all probably comes from the letter he received from Brandeis. They had investigated him further after the June 3 commencement speech and said they wouldn't be inviting him back.

Wile E. Coyote's Identity Crisis

Poor Wile. He had an identity crisis the other day. It is shown at this video

Eventually, he resolved it by becoming an evangelical Christian.

A few days later we had a visit from some of the J- Witnesses.

Today, I got some Old Spice Cologne for all the stuffed animals (including Wile E. and the Road Runner who are gifts from Beth).

Gate Liked Scenes in This Movie

Tonight was the Syfy movie Dinocroc vs Supergator.

This was the PREMIERE of this made of TV movie.

Dinocroc was a 2004 movie.

In Dinocroc vs Supergator, one of the actors is David Carradine (of Kung Fu TV and other fame). In the movie Dinocroc frequently walks on two legs, supergator on 4 but both run about as fast as a speeding car. At the end, the two fight and it seems as if Dinocroc wins (Gate didn't like this).

Supergator was a 2007 movie.