Quiz Info; Ice Flower; Photo Quiz Part 2; Sushi and Kirin! “Take 4 Pills Before Sx...”

Okay, I’ve started getting some quiz responses, which means that I didn’t make one point clear: please hold your answers until the last day and then send all 10 answers to me directly in a single email at ftgiesemann@aol.com. If you post them on the blog, you may be giving out some hard-earned points to other players.

Also, yesterday’s flower picture is not part of the quiz. I just didn’t know what they were. I thought they might be pansies, and that flower got 4 votes (Terri, Jennifer, Lynn and Flo), but Bob thinks they are Johnny Jump Ups (viola cornut).  I didn’t keep any samples for analysis by the Horticultural Society, so the final decision is up to The Big Gardener in the Sky, and He/She hasn’t spoken up (down?) yet. Here is the photo again for info. 

As an aside, I wondered how Terri from the Frozen North knew flowers, since the permafrost up in Minnesnowta doesn’t melt until July 31^st, and freeze-up usually occurs around August 3^rd, not giving flowers much of a season. I have heard anecdotally that there is one subspecies of flower, Flora frigidus Minneapolis, that can actually bud and bloom during the state’s 361 day winter; regrettably, it hasn’t been sighted in a decade or so because of the perpetual snowdrifts covering the state. Fortunately, there are several photos from the archives of the National Horticultural Museum and a few hardy specimens struggling to survive in a hothouse in St Paul. (This photo is actually identified as an ice flower, even though the rest of the information in this paragraph could be called apocryphal.)

Photo Quiz Part 2: Here are Photos 3 and 4 of this week’s 10-photo, 5 part quiz. Don’t forget that a few descriptive words (whether or not they are correctly related to the photo in question) will probably help in this contest. Imagination could well be the tie-breaker!

Photo # 3: Who is this, where did he live, and why is he famous?

 

Photo # 4: Where is this location, and what are these rock formations called?

 

Last night was a treat - we had sushi and Kirin Ichiban beer during a delightful dinner out with Michelle and John Uss, folks from Connecticut who are staying in The Villages for a couple of months. They have wintered down here since 2008, and are looking forward to finishing the W word (that’s spelled w-o-r-k... c’mon, all you retirees out there remember what that was, don’t you?). Michelle had attended a talk that Suzanne had presented to the Virginia Trace Ladies Club; then Michelle and John attended Suzanne’s S.O.A.R! Workshop last week. It was great getting to know them both; Michelle is a gifted pianist, but has a day job as a realtor. John is Michelle's paperwork gopher, sign poster, and all-around dog'sbody. Oh, and he has a realtor's license as well, but he is really a sailor. I don’t often get to hear sailing stories anymore, and John had some good ones, like when he got hit in the head with the sailboat’s boom. That’s why it’s named that, John. We will overlook who had the wheel when this incident occured. It didn’t seem to affect his sense of humor, but he did have this little twitch that worried me a bit.... This photo is of us and Uss’... (I know they have never heard that one before...) 
 

I will close with a brief recounting of my recent discussion with a cute, young, buxom nurse at the dentist’s office.  “Sir, you have to take these antibiotics before your procedure. Here is the prescription.” “Thanks, Buffy, let me make sure I can understand the directions... let’s see, take four pills before sex? Is that right? Ha-ha... snort...”  Lovely nurse Buffy instantly mutated into Nurse Diesel from "High Anxiety", gave me a withering look and said, “Sir, Sx is an abbreviation for surgery, not sex.” “Oh. Sorry... I’ll just see myself out...”  (I related this episode to My Lovely Bride, and strangely enough, not only didn't she laugh, but she threw a shoe at me. Women... I will never understand them.)