Blue and Green

(click to enlarge)

Walk down memory lane with me here at the Daily Item.

Who are these delightful young ladies with the beautiful eyes?

It's Amber and Veronica that's who.

Starz! Bun-o-vision!

Here's something really fun. Ever seen Bun-O-Vision? You haven't?? Well shoot, Bun-O-Vision is an animated short of 30 seconds that features bunnies enacting your favorite movies.

Bun-O-Vision is great. Say you're really not interested in sitting 2 hours through a movie, Bun-O-Vision will play that whole movie for you (more or less) in 30 seconds, acted out entirely by bunnies.

For instance: Haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite? Don't have the time? Just click the play button below!




Pretty cool huh!?

Perhaps you haven't seen Star Wars. Well go here: http://www.angryalien.com/1205/starwarsbuns.asp

How about Jaws? Go Here:http://www.angryalien.com/0804/jawsbunnies.asp

All the movies can be seen here: www.angryalien.com but be careful the R rated ones contain foul language and bunnies using foul language is not cool.

The Daily Item is one year old!!

It was one year ago in January that the Daily Item hit the world wide web. It's been a lot of fun posting different things over the year. It's a triumph in many ways as I seldom do anything this consistent for a whole year. It's also a type of journal. I suspect I'll just print the whole thing out (yes even the "Magnesium Citrate" piece) someday and slap it in my regular journal. I'll admit that some of my humor is a stretch and not everyone will get it. But it is funny to me.

I've included two pictures in this post.

1. A picture from my second ever post entitled "Merry Mullet Christmas." (Mullet's never get to old to look at! Right?)
2. An internet high five celebrating 1 year on the web. If you've tuned into the Daily Item during the past year go ahead and use it over and over, careful not to damage your monitor though.

Original Hope Family
(Name them all win big dollars)

Rarely do you see anything as innovative as an internet high-five so...Enjoy!

Penny has Chicken Pox!

My sweet daughter Penny has come down with the Chicken Pox and I am staying home with her this week and telecommuting from home thanks to the good folks at Cox Communications.
In Penny's honor I've written her a song!

Chickenpock Penny
Sing the below song to the tune of
Paperback Writer by the Beatles.



Chickenpock Penny (Chickenpock Penny)

Dear Mr. Cox, will you take some time?
There's a problem that I need solved of mine.
My Wife's in Tacoma and the kids in school
But there's no one home to stay with, Chickenpock Penny,
Chickenpock Penny!

There'll be no music lessons or visits soon
And several days home from elementary school
She'll be scratching, itching, all the day away
I hate to miss work but I've got to stay with Chickepock Penny,
Chickenpock Penny!

Chickenpock Penny (Chickenpock Penny)

I will need some days off say perhaps a few,
She'll be missing school for a week or two.
I can work from home if you could be so kind,
Cause my daughters sick and I've got stay with Chickenpock Penny,
Chickenpock Penny!

Can you let me stay home can you see the light?
In the coming weeks I'll work day and night.
If you let me stay home, I'll work extra hard
Cause there's no one else and I've got to stay with Chickenpock Penny,
Chickenpock Penny!

Chickenpock Penny (Chickenpock Penny)

Chickenpock Penny - chickenpock penny
Chickenpock Penny - chickenpock penny

------------

by B.Hope

Incidentally you can go to Chickenpock Penny's new blog located at:
http://penalertdirt.blogspot.com

A sweet new baby boy!

A New Grandson!

At 2:51 pm PST Jessica Hatch gave birth to

- Felix Norman Hatch -

Who weighed in at 7 lbs 11 ounces!!

(cheers, hoopla!!)

Lets also give a great big Daily Item round of applause to the proud parents that brought baby Felix to the planet...


Jessica and Travis Hatch


Pictures Soon!!

Mountain Oasis

(Click pictures to enlarge)

From the chairlift

Hailey and Bellevue in background

Living in Sun Valley/Hailey Idaho has it's advantages.  The sky is blue most of the time and we are surrounded by mountains.  

Here are a few pictures of Brent and I on top of Bald Mountain, which is Sun Valley ski area. Behind Brent you can see the "Seattle Ridge" restaurant and ski runs.  Behind that slightly below the horizon is the towns of Hailey and Bellevue.  

For those of you who haven't been here, it's time that you pointed the car to Sun Valley!  And for those of you who have been here, it's time to come back!!

I Have A Dream...

Happy Martin Luther King Day!!

Below is one of the best speeches ever given in the history of the United States. The day was August 28, the year was 1963.
Please read!

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Cable Queen 2009

Let's give a big Daily Item round-of-applause to the winner of this year's Cable Queen award: Ruth Hope!
That's right she's won again, for the 18th straight year. What is the award you ask? Well for you people not in the "know." It is a yearly award given to the prettiest woman (either in or married to somebody) in the telecommunications business. Ruth's husband is a "cable guy" so she more than qualifies for the award.

When interviewed by the "Daily Item" she gave some very "down to earth" answers to some tough questions.

(Daily Item Guy) "So you've won the prestigious "Cable Queen" award for the 18th straight year, do you have any comments?"
(Ruth Hope) "Yeah, you're stupid."
(Daily Item Guy) "Do you anticipate winning again next year?"
(Ruth Hope) "You're stupid."
(Daily Item Guy) -unfazed- ""Well there you have it! Back to you guys in the studio!"

Top 5 things to tell a telemarketer!

5. Say you are hard of hearing and see how loud they will shout into the phone.

4. Keep repeating, “I knew you were going to say that”.

3. Allow the telemarketer to fully explain his offer. When he is finished explain that his company hired you to randomly spot check telemarketers on their performance. Tell him that he did a good job overall, but that he is a bit monotone and needs to fluctuate his tone of voice more to sound convincing. He also should pause longer between sentences, and more clearly pronounce the letter ’s’. Tell him you won’t report him if he repeats his speech to you with the appropriate corrections. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

2. Every few minutes repeat, “You’re going to have to bear with me, I have a slight short term memory loss problem, who is this again?”

1. Mid pitch, stop him and complement him on his wonderful voice. Explain that you are a voiceover scout and might have a breakthrough commercial job for him. Ask if he wouldn’t mind doing a quick test. Ask him to say in a deep husky voice “May cause dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting and shortness of breath. A small number of participants in a recent clinical trial experienced weight loss, irregular clotting, abnormally frequent and/or painful urination and hair loss. Results may vary”

CFS - Christmas Fatigue Syndrome

Does this outfit make me look fat?

Another Christmas is over. Gone is the excitement of giving and receiving for another 12 months. Every year I fret during the season and inform the children that it is going to be a "meager Christmas." They laugh and inform me that I say that every year. If it were up to me I would be over-the-top at Christmas time. Presents galore for everyone I know. Parties with lots of food, presents, that white pasty candy stuff and live bands! Every year, Ruth has to settle me down and say we've done enough!! Begrudgingly I sit down with my eggnog and brood. It's probably good that Ruth puts these restrictions on me. But it still is hard for me not to, buy, buy buy!! Shoot, Brent, Penny and I are the only ones that like shopping. I like the hustle and bustle and could stay out until dawn shopping. When I'm in charge someday I'm going to change the name of the seasons. Instead of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter it will be Spring, Summer, Fall and Christmas. Man, won't that be great?!! Gift giving and receiving for 90 straight days!

Foo Fighters cover: Brent Hope and Elise Reagan

Brent and Elise just messing around on guitar singing The Foo-Fighters, "Virginia Moon." Both of them were embarrassed that I would film them singing. They had only sang this song through once but even this raw unedited take reveals that these two can sing and play well together. What do you think? Do you hear the same potential that I hear?

Blog Madness

Elise Reagan comes to Hailey town

Elise Reagan, our oldest daughter spent the week with us. Interesting things happened while she was here:

1. There was no fighting in the Hope Home

2. There was a special cheeriness vibe going on

3. The house looked uncharacteristically cleaner than normal.

All of these things can be attributed to Elise. Being the oldest Hope child, Elise has always had very strong leadership skills to the others. Having her home again calibrated everyone's sibling compass back to default. Everyone just fell in and listened to what Elise had to say and there was no bickering!

Elise is cheerful. She has the ability to get inside someone's bubble and brighten their day. She's relentless that way. Not only vibrant to us but I've seen her at her employment in Washington where she takes care of infant children. She's so vibrant to the children and her co-workers! They absolutely adore her.

Elise is organized. I can say for sure that she did not get organizational skills from me! Elise is clean and tidy and she brought that mantra to our home for us to follow.

Elise had wonderful insights and "out of the box" ways to look at things that I appreciated a great deal. In fact, they caught me off guard they were such good insights. She was a delight to have for the week and we'll miss her!

This is how real brothers treat each other.

If aliens from another planet approached me and wanted to know about male sibling relationships, I would include this picture in my description. This totally reminds me of my brothers David and Jeremy. Potlickers.

Top 10 Accidental Discoveries

1. Viagra
Men being treated for erectile dysfunction should salute the working stiffs of Merthyr Tydfil, the Welsh hamlet where, in 1992 trials, the gravity-defying side effects of a new angina drug first popped up. Previously, the blue-collar town was known for producing a different kind of iron.

2. LSD
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann took the world’s first acid hit in 1943, when he touched a smidge of lysergic acid diethylamide, a chemical he had researched for inducing childbirth. He later tried a bigger dose and made another discovery: the bad trip.

3. X-rays
Several 19th-century scientists toyed with the penetrating rays emitted when electrons strike a metal target. But the x-ray wasn’t discovered until 1895, when German egghead Wilhelm Röntgen tried sticking various objects in front of the radiation - and saw the bones of his hand projected on a wall.

4. Penicillin
Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming was researching the flu in 1928 when he noticed that a blue-green mold had infected one of his petri dishes - and killed the staphylococcus bacteria growing in it. All hail sloppy lab work!

5. Artificial sweeteners
Speaking of botched lab jobs, three leading pseudo-sugars reached human lips only because scientists forgot to wash their hands. Cyclamate (1937) and aspartame (1965) are byproducts of medical research, and saccharin (1879) appeared during a project on coal tar derivatives. Yummy.

6. Microwave ovens
Microwave emitters (or magnetrons) powered Allied radar in WWII. The leap from detecting Nazis to nuking nachos came in 1946, after a magnetron melted a candy bar in Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer’s pocket.

7. Brandy
Medieval wine merchants used to boil the H₂0 out of wine so their delicate cargo would keep better and take up less space at sea. Before long, some intrepid soul - our money’s on a sailor - decided to bypass the reconstitution stage, and brandy was born. Pass the Courvoisier!

8. Vulcanized rubber
Rubber rots badly and smells worse, unless it’s vulcanized. Ancient Mesoamericans had their own version of the process, but Charles Goodyear rediscovered it in 1839 when he unintentionally (well, at least according to most accounts) dropped a rubber-sulfur compound onto a hot stove.

9. Silly Putty
In the early 1940s, General Electric scientist James Wright was working on artificial rubber for the war effort when he mixed boric acid and silicon oil. V-J Day didn’t come any sooner, but comic strip image-stretching practically became a national pastime.

10. Potato chips
Chef George Crum concocted the perfect sandwich complement in 1853 when - to spite a customer who complained that his fries were cut too thick - he sliced a potato paper-thin and fried it to a crisp. Needless to say, the diner couldn’t eat just one.

I miss the little things...

There's very few things I miss living in the less-populated Wood River Valley. Obviously I miss my old friends, my sweet daughters and their husbands, good Thai food and walking through mass population just observing people. Perhaps the thing I miss most is the lack of those "big-box stores" that the rest of our culture gets to enjoy.

We have zero big-boxes in the valley and I don't get to observe people a great deal.

What do you get when you cross an observer of people and a famous big-box store??

You get a guy that likes to play: Wal-Mart Bingo!!

(Please Click to Enlarge!)

(I hope my readers aren't too terribly offended by Wal-Mart Bingo. In fact, as a lover of Wal-Mart I could easily have a square from the bingo card all to myself. It could read, "big guy that is way too happy" or "guy who goes to Wal-mart just to use the restroom." or "guy who will talk to the Wal-mart greeter for 20 minutes.")

50 mph in a shopping cart! You know you'd like to do it!

Random Sampler

We just returned home from Washington. We brought Elise home with us to stay for the week. Here is a nice photo of Elise the oldest and Penny the youngest. Cute girls wouldn't you say???


We got to go out with my brother David Hope and his sweet girl friend Christy. Christy is an angel and is the sole reason why my brother smiles so big. You're the best Christy!

While at my sister Kelli's house we dug through some pictures and found this great picture of my dad (Clive Sr.) from 1989. In this photo he was wearing a Japanese outfit intended for my mother at Christmas time. Nice Dad!

Here's a sweet photo of most of the family minus me, Brent and Penny. They are from left to right: Amber, Jessica, Ruth, Elise, Jake and Sarah.

Everyone with their best foot forward!