Some Picks from Our September Conversations

I’m a little slow getting this published…

September was a busy month.  There was a post on Don’stuff nearly every day.  Many of you were kind enough to read and comment. 

The month started with books (Alex Award Winning Books for Mature Teenagers, then Teen Books that Adults will Love) and ended with chocolate (Ten Things You Should Know about Chocolate).

You liked reading about Sarah Palin (The Times story about her kill on Bullwinkle was the top read of the month), stories about her comprised five of the top fifteen you read.

Since it was such a busy month, and since summarizing would virtually recreate all the posts, I’ll instead present a few picks:

Top Picks of September 2008

 The picks begin with the Most Comments during the month, Leaving Evangeline:

Most Comments during September 2008

 Move on to the Most Unique Comment (“drop dead droolable phew”) by Sanity Found:

Most Unique Comment - "Drop dead droolable phew."

Slide over to Leisure Guy, who provided the Most Helpful Tip about Marianne’s Ice Cream Parlor at 1020 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz, CA.

Most Helpful Tip - "Marianne’s makes their own and have some terrific flavors."

 Dig into the Most Kind Comment by Amber:

Most Kind Comment - "...great post Don! One of my favorites!"

Knuckle up to New Friends: Chirax , Mssc54, Jeff, and Unfinished Person who seem to think like I do (frightening):

The Keystone Kops

 

 

 

 

I was double knuckled to Heart ur Club: I was picked by Literate Housewife for I Love Your Blog and by Chartroose as a honorary member of the Kool Kidz Klub:

Big Pickers: Chartroose and Literate Housewife

The most frequently visited and Most Commented On Post: Sarah Kills Bullwinkle.  Concerned Citizens included: Leaving Evangeline, lizzygram, Mssc54, JT Hartman, Matthew E, Burt Parks, Rock Golf, Left Right and Centered, Virgomonkey, joannemarie, ilegirl, Jimmythegreek, Blue Dog, Shawnbarr, jointefforthost, steadycat, Mark Gibson, WordPress Hawt Post, Alaskan For Palin, Ken, and Keith Pitts.

Post with the Most Comments - Sarah must be one of the friends.

My pick for Favorite Post: Deja Vu with a Twist of Sons

http://donstuff.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/deja-vu-with-a-twist-of-sons/

Dredged up as Best Suggestion for a Post : Beaverboosh suggested Spinal Tap

The nugget as Best Suggestion for a Post (Part Deux): Lucid Lunatic and Literate Housewife suggested Golden Earring

Let's Rock: http://donstuff.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/radar-love-in-the-twilight-zone-two-great-videos-by-golden-earring/

Snot unkind is Stacy at Stacy’s Bookblog who is kind enough to allow me to play guess who games and win books:

http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/

Almost Finally, thank you to David and Tonya for playing along – even though they don’t have a blog.  They are the only people I communicate with on this blog that I actually see (we live about a half a mile apart).

Thank you to all of you for joining in on the fun.

Finally, this is for Sanity Found (the original Cookie Gangsta), Amber, Lindsey, and all others who comment regularly on cookies:

Ten Things You Should Know about Chocolate, Particularly if You are the Mother of a Teenager

Chocolate!  Enough said…almost.  I’m not a huge fan of regular (if there is such a thing) chocolate, but I do like dark chocolate.  I happened across a post that describes “10 facts about chocolate” (found at Info Barrel).  I’ve listed their ten facts and found at least a couple of facts somewhat surprising.  I’ve also added some commentary for no apparent reason:

1. It is a known fact that chocolate has caffeine in it. But did you know that you would have to eat more then a dozen chocolate bars to get the same amount of caffeine from a cup of coffee? There are about 5 to 10 mg’s of caffeine in one ounce of bitter chocolate, 5 mgs in milk chocolate, and 10mgs in a six-ounce cup of cocoa.  So, when a police officer eats a chocolate donut while drinking coffee, will the total caffeine content have any effect on her/his aim if they find it necessary to shoot at someone?  This might make an interesting study (if it hasn’t already been done).
2. Chocolate is actually a valuable energy source. A single chocolate chip can provide enough energy for an adult human to walk 150 ft.  I might walk 150 feet for a chocolate chip cookie.  It’s good to know I would have the energy to return to the sofa.
3. Chocolate has great health benefits. It helps with depression, high blood pressure, Tumors and Pre-menstrual syndromes.  Helps how?  Does it enhance or diminish these conditions?  I’m hiding the chocolate in our home if it enhances PMS.
4. Chocolate does not cause or aggravate acne, this is a myth.  This information is about 30 years late to be of any benefit to me (thanks, mom).
5. One ounce of baking chocolate or cocoa contains 10% of the daily recommended intake of iron.  Which is why one should consume at least 10 ounces per day – 11 should be even better.
6. Chocolate can be deadly for dogs. Chocolate contains an ingredient called “Theobromine” which can be toxic to a dogs central nervous system and cardiac muscles.  And for female dogs it enhances PMS.
7. People spend more than $7 billion dollars a year on chocolate.  If the people of the world will set aside their chocolate consumption for only 100 years, together we can bail out the American economic system and set the world right again.  Of course, we would run the risk of becoming depressed, pre-menstrual individuals who suffer from high blood pressure and tumors – Hey!  That sounds like today’s Wallstreet.
8. The per capita consumption of chocolate indicates that each person consumes 12 pounds of chocolate each year.  Chocolate must also inhibit weight gain, because my weight doesn’t increase by 12 pounds per year… it’s more like 8 or maybe 10…
9. Milk Chocolate is the most preferred type of chocolate, however dark chocolate is especially popular among men.  It’s good to know I hang with the “in” crowd.  I love dark chocolate – I must just ooze testosterone.
10. In Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho” chocolate syrup was used to indicate blood in the famous shower scene.  I had heard this.  Apparently chocolate films better (as blood) in black and white than anything else Hitchcock tried… plus he was able to use the leftover chocolate on his ice cream (ok, I made up the part about Hitchcock’s ice cream).

Pretend this is dark chocolate...

Enjoy!