Wow! I remember seeing that commercial, too. Way cool, FoTi…way cool!
Face
Lakey,
I have two older brothers. The oldest around your age and the other one was a couple of years younger.
Around 20 years ago my oldest brother went through a divorce…he was just under 18 and she was just under 17 when they got married. They didn’t “have to get married”…it was a different time (‘58) and a different place (deep ‘Country’). He was, and still is, one helluva a horseman and cowboy.
They had two children, first a boy and then a girl. The boy graduated high school with a full scholarship for the Rodeo Team at a major Ag University. Two weeks after my nephew graduated high school he died, saving the life of his best friend.
The death of this fine, fine young man tore my brother’s soul apart and, over a period of years, became a fulcrum in his marriage. He threw himself into even harder into building his horse and cattle operation and worked long and physically hard hours that would make an SO Member feel “out ethics”.
Then the IRS came and it turns out my brother’s wife, the bookkeeper for the business, had been “fudging things” for years and, overnight to him, he was in trouble.
As things unfolded, they separated and, in my brother’s mind, somehow they’d get through this but he had to take care of the cattle and what he had slaved for all his life and he couldn’t do that when he had to come in from the pastures every night with his wife telling him how everything was his fault. His determination in the face of profound disappointment and sadness is one of the most magnificent displays of courage, honor and drive I have ever seen.
My second oldest brother lived “in the City”. He, and his wife, had Masters Degrees and were, in “City Terms” affluent. He was very close to my oldest brother, whom had “watched out for” and sought to defend him, in a physically abusive household during childhood. But my second oldest brother’s wife was very “position and appearances” conscious and looked “down” upon my agrarian oldest brother and over the years, though they lived a few hundred miles apart, the two brothers saw less and less of each other.
Shortly after my oldest brother and his wife separated my second oldest brother’s wife contacted my oldest brother’s wife and began a vitriolic and calculated “friendship” to advise just how to go about “deal” with my oldest brother. The results were quick, irreversible and very deadly. The ensuing divorce was very acrimonious and my oldest brother’s wife with the help, support and advice of our brother’s wife, succeeded in nearly destroying this fine and noble man. Between my two sisters-in-law and the IRS the fruits of 30 years of blood, sweat and tears evaporated in one year and he was near bankruptcy.
My oldest brother never asked me for any help and the only help I offered that he would accept was love and someone to talk to now and then. I took it upon myself to call our brother and ask him just what in the hell was he doing. His response was that he was “trapped” and “not taking sides”. My response to that was that this isn’t a sides taking issue, our oldest brother is our brother and he isn’t looking for “sides” to be taken but your wife sure has taken sides and she’s helping someone to hurt your brother. My second oldest brother is the one that is now deceased. He was a fine and beautiful man but I will never understand why he responded as he did to what I had just said.
After a long pause, he said, “Well, you don’t know the whole story.” To which I replied, “I don’t? No, my brother, you don’t know the whole story. The WHOLE story is this; there’s gonna be a divorce, your wife is helping to ensure your brother is gonna lose his horses, his cattle, his ranch and may well go bankrupt and you know what? The one thing that will still be unchanged when this is all over is that he is still your brother.” He thanked me for my opinion and hung up. We did not speak again for several years.
Over the next fifteen years or so, due in large measure to the efforts and “good offices” of my sister, we brothers spent some time together and got along just fine in short get togethers but there was always the dark cloud of the “issue” pervading our time together. The “issue” was left untouched until the final days of my brother number two’s life.
When the call came from my sister, telling my oldest brother that our brother was in the hospital and not expected to live more than a week or two, he dropped everything (he had rebuilt his life and has a first class little horse operation) and drove hundreds of miles into the hospital. For the next 10 days he barely left my brothers side…he slept in a big chair in my brothers hospital room every night so that his brother would not be alone. The sister-in-law that had caused him so much pain and sorrow was a basket case, heavily sedated and my brother took the lead.
Over the days, the years fell away and they were once again “thick as thieves” like they’d been when kids. A couple of days before my brother passed on, during the night when it was only the two of them in the room, he told my brother he was sorry for had happened re: the “issue”. My oldest brother, being the rascal that he is, said that that was OK, it was his actually fault as to what happened and not his brother’s…he just hadn’t “whupped” him enough when they were growing up.
I hope that you and Reuben will mend your fences some day. You’re a fine feller and I’m sure Rueben is, too. Time is fleeting, life is short but bonds of brothers run deep and are unique.
Face
Foti,
You look nothing less than stunning in that commercial, beautiful.
Lakey, I wish you well too.
Foti, I did not get until just now that you were in the video! Wowser. Pretty lady You !
When I hit the 50 mark I was still having an occasional cola. The next day I would wake up from a night's sleep as a cripple. Really crippled. I couldn't walk. I couldn't figure out why. But being the persistent fool that I am, I eventually figured the drink was leaching calcium and magnesium out of my body. The worst of these poisonous drinks are the store brands--worse than Coke or Pepsi.
When I was a kid we knew that if you spilled a Coke on your car it would eat the paint off if you left it on there too long.
what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/
When I hit the 50 mark I was still having an occasional cola. The next day I would wake up from a night's sleep as a cripple. Really crippled. I couldn't walk. I couldn't figure out why. But being the persistent fool that I am, I eventually figured the drink was leaching calcium and magnesium out of my body. The worst of these poisonous drinks are the store brands--worse than Coke or Pepsi.
When I was a kid we knew that if you spilled a Coke on your car it would eat the paint off if you left it on there too long.
what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/
:confused2:
Nope. I protest.
I used to work outside in the heat at the a large Disney World resort as the pool bartender. Now, with all that concrete an sun you get HOT. The soda comes out of the gun. You just push the button and fill up your mug when you get thirsty. I did this for 10 years and eventually my body broke down. My blood pressure was incredibily high. It put weight around my middle. It made me crave more. All day long evey day filling up on Coke behind the bar. When I came out of the hospital I started to drink the bottled water instead. Big difference. It almost killed me. I had no idea I was drinking a litre a day.
Reading my Wall Street Journal on-line this morning and I see the Ozzies at the top of the OECD happiest list
here's the link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...2.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews#printMode
Though it's possible only subscribers can access it, so I copy in below the text of it . . . there are graphs and fun pictures in the original.
___________________________________________________
Australians Among Happiest, OECD Lifestyle Index Shows
By ENDA CURRAN
SYDNEY—Shrugging off worries over the rising cost of living and a two-speed economy, Australia ranks among the top nations in the world for lifestyle and well-being, with its people working less and getting paid more than 33 other nations measured by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, in its new Better Life index.
Getty Images
An OECD index found some 75% of Australians were satisfied with their life, well above the index's average of 59%. Here, beachgoers celebrates Australia Day at Bondi Beach in Sydney in January.
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See each country's score in selected categories.
Click to see each country's rank in selected categories.
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OECD: Rank the Nations
From education through to health and community networks, Australians rank highly, according to the group's survey of 34 nations, which also showed an overwhelming number of New Zealanders expressing satisfaction with their lives.
Amid growing global concern over the rising cost of living and the social impact caused by shifts in economic power towards Asia, economists and policymakers are increasingly looking at measures that gauge changes in the quality of life and affordability across industrialized nations. Last year, the U.K. government launched its own "happiness index" as an alternative to relying on gross domestic product as a basic guide to the nation's progress.
Drawing on recent polling, the OECD index found some 75% of Australians were satisfied with their life, well above the OECD's average of 59%, while 83% expect things to be even better five years from now. Life expectancy in the Pacific nation is longer too, at 81.5 years, more than two years above the OECD average. Average household disposable income is US$27,039 compared with an OECD average of US$22,284, although average wealth is below the mean.
Known for its strong economy driven by a mining boom and an unemployment rate of 4.9%, recent consumer sentiment surveys have indicated a gloomier mood amongst Australians, who complain about rising costs of living and an emerging two-speed economy, with non-resources industries like tourism and retail suffering from a high exchange rate and consumer reticence.
Australia's high ranking in the OECD survey was matched by New Zealand, which has struggled with an underperforming economy and the cost of the earthquakes that devastated its second largest city, Christchurch. According to the OECD, 78% of New Zealand respondents report having a positive experience and 90% say they are in good health, even though the average household earns less than the OECD average. The Pacific nation is famous for its breathtaking scenery and unspoiled wilderness, scoring highly in the OECD's environmental gauge by enjoying some of the world's cleanest air.
Data for the index mostly come from official sources such as the OECD or National Accounts, United Nations Statistics and National Statistics Offices. A couple of indicators are based on data from the Gallup World Poll, a division of the Gallup Organization that regularly conducts public-opinion polls in more than 140 countries around the world. More than 80% of the indicators used have already been published by the OECD.
In the methodology, the index allows users to put different weights on each topic. Each topic on the index is built on three indicators. For instance, work-life balance uses the number of employees working long hours, the percentage of working mothers and leisure time. The data are mainly dated between 2008 and 2010, although some numbers are drawn from earlier years.
The organization plans to include six partner countries, comprising Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa, to represent the world's major economies.
Write to Enda Curran at [email protected]
When I was a kid, Coke was my favorite. I loved Coke. I never drank Pepsi, even though I did the commercial.
I read this article you linked to. It mentions that after drinking Coke the pupils dialate. I drank a ton of Coke on the Purif in '83 and quit drinking it shortly after. I remember, for years, that people always used to comment on my pupils being dialated and asked me if I was on drugs.....I wasn't.....but I did drink A LOT of coke as a teenager and as an adult. Some time after doing the Purif in '83, I noticed that my pupils weren't dialated any more. I always wondered why they changed. Now I'm wondering if it was because I quit drinking Coke.
