Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

When I toured the Lowell Wastewater Treatment plant, Brian and Cody both let me know that "flushable wipes" are NOT something you want to flush down the toilet. They do not break up and they can cause clogs in sewers drains. Fast forward a couple of years and for some reason I decided to conduct an experiment. I purposely chose the Cottonelle wipes because of the wording on their package. "Tested With Plumbers" and the picture of a happy dolphin gave a quick visual impression that maybe things had changed since the guys delivered their warning. In case you cannot read the lower right, here is what it says, "Cottenelle Flushable wipes start to break down immediately after flushing and are septic and sewer safe. For best results flush only one or two at a time." So I took an equal size piece of Angel Soft 2 ply toilet paper and put it into a container of tap water. To simulate a flush, right after I put them in the containers I swirl...

If you find the image above even remotely funny, then we need to have a heart to heart talk (notice how that rhymes with fart to fart? - see how the Universe is calling us to change?) It is estimated that the dog population in the US is at 89.7 million currently. I ask you - of that number how many of Man's Best Friend are catching the blame for the noxious wind passed by the humans with whom they live? My years of research and personal experience clearly indicates that a safe estimate is 67.8% (with a 1.8% margin of error) so MILLIONS of innocent dogs are being blamed and humiliated because we as a species are afraid to own up to our fumes. For me, this issue reared it's ugly hinney with the passing of St Otter (seen above) a few years ago. It is with a heart heavy with regret and shame that I now confess to the hundreds (maybe even into the thousands) of times Julie and I might be enjoying a movie and my cry of "Oh, Otter!!" was nothing more than my vaingl...

All though it seems a different lifetime, it was just a few weeks ago that my wife and I sponsored a series of concerts at LowellArts in our favorite town. There was supposed to be a total of 13 concerts featuring local and regional bands and/or musicians. The schedule included some whose work I was very familiar with as well as some musicians completely new to me. Fun thing for me is that I was able to serve as the host for the concerts which entailed introducing the talent. (Some might say we sponsored the concerts just so I could get in front of folks with a microphone, but.......) One of new ones was Patty Pierzchala who appeared as a solo act opening for Chain of Lakes. Kyle Rasche, from Chain of Lakes, knows what its like to have your last name mangled, so he gave me the phonetic version of Patty's last name - Pershayla - which she uses when she is playing with her 3 piece band The Mayhaps. (Wrote all this to splain the aka business noted above.) Patty took the stage ...