Which Came First? "Buffalo Soldier" or "The Tra-La-La Song"?

 I realize I'm old enough to be contemplating things things of a much more serious nature, but this was brought up recently and I felt I needed to find out the answer: which came first, Bob Marley's song "Buffalo Soldiers":

(check out what he sings at 1:33 in the song)

or the theme song from The Banana Splits, also known as "The Tra-la-la Song"?

I had to dig a little, but I've indeed found that the tv theme debuted with The Banana Splits in 1968, and the pop song was recorded in 1980 and released in 1983 (posthumously).  Makes you wonder what Bob Marley was watching when he composed the song.  But wait, he was a rasta, which makes me wonder even more...

What Exactly IS a "Lolcat"?

A "Lolcat" is a picture of a cat - or kitten - that has a cute caption appended to it. The "lol" part of the name refers to the im shortcut which means "laugh out loud," which I do A LOT when I see these.  There's a certain new "lolcat" language that's developed too; it takes a bit to get used to it, but once you do it's great (and cute).  There are some wonderful ones out there: cute ones, funny ones, scary ones. Some of my favorites can be found on http://icanhascheezburger.com. This is a great site with thousands of funny pics, mostly of cats. Go there, have some fun, enjoy!

Big Black Dogs = Marshmallows (at least ours is!)

As you can see from the pic to the right, we have a big beautiful black doggy.  When our last (big black) dog died, and I became lonesome, I specifically looked for a large dark dog for our family.  I learned during that search that black dogs - specifically big black dogs - take the longest to get adopted out.  (Note: we're an "adopt" family; we didn't consider buying, as we think there are so many unwanted animals out there)  I was really amazed that so many people have a "thing" about black dogs, especially large ones, as I've found they've the best personalities and are great with children.   That's been my experience anyway.  And to point out how great they can be, I've tried to show people the big baby that is our dog.  He's sweet, energetic when he wants to be, swims better than most humans, and is not aggressive to other animals (he doesn't care about squirrels and is often scared by small dogs (really!!) ).  Relative to other dogs I know, he's the epitome of the well-trained family dog.

This article was in an area paper recently and it discusses the "black dog situation".  I hope you read it and consider a black dog the next time you go animal-shopping.  They're wonderful!

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080811/LIFE05/80811005/1006/LIFE

PS  Don't forget to look on Petfinder to see what animals are available to be adopted in your area:

http://www.petfinder.com/

Cheer Up Kids!

For whatever reasons, it's seemed to be a bit stressy around here lately.  So I've taken it upon myself to cheer you all up.

First off, a video from a classic movie, featuring two actors the likes of whom we won't see again:



And I thought of this last night, as the rain cleared and we chased a beautiful rainbow that seemed to end over the ocean:



Hope your day gets good!