Wrapping Paper A Holiday Must

Hi Puzzlers,

Let the countdown begin! There are 25 days left till Christmas! Or, it might be 24 days if you celebrate the big day on Christmas Eve. In any case, how many of you have thought about wrapping your presents? Have you already purchased your paper or thought of a way to, “hide”…oh...I mean, showcase your present? It may seem like a trivial item, but, wrapping paper may be the most important thing you buy for the holiday season. Has wrapping paper ever saved you?

It is a sad, but true fact, that at some point during your lifetime you will need to purchase a present at the last minute. You know the present; the one you hoped would stay wrapped until you left. It is that last second present you had to buy for Aunt Ethel who just decide to join you for tonight’s Christmas gathering. Yeah, it’s starting to come back to you isn’t it. You remember running to the only store still open, 7-Eleven, and purchasing the dreaded fruit cake or whatever that was. You remember driving home like a mad hatter, dashing to the box of wrapping paper and creating a masterpiece of deception! “Oh my, this present is so beautiful, the paper, the bows and ribbons; simply stunning! I just can’t open it now!”

Diversion tactic number 2: The Yankee Swap. The invitation said up to twenty dollars, but your budget says up to seven dollars and twenty-eight cents. What are you going to do? You deploy the “Aunt Ethel.” Wrap your present in the finest most enticing paper you have. Ooh! Look at that gorgeous foil paper, and that satin ribbon makes it look extravagant! At the party that gorgeous presents gets picked first. Great!!! As all the other presents get unwrapped everyone has conveniently forgotten all about the chinchy can of mixed-nuts. Don’t you just love wrapping paper?

Our next tip is for the re-gifters. When resorting to the fine art of re-gifting it is imperative to not, I repeat NOT, make the present look enticing. You will want to use that cheap, almost see through paper you bought on clearance that looked like a good deal. Then, take a used bow, YES USED, and attach it to the center with tape, and make sure the tape shows. Next, have your youngest child, (if you don’t have one borrow a neighbors) address a sticky label. Allow the child to place it anywhere on the present they want. This way if the re-gift gets noticed, you can blame it on the kids or in some cases the neighbor’s kids. Viola! Re-gifted like a pro.

Puzzlers as you can see by these examples, wrapping papers are a must for all your holiday festivities.

Happy Puzzling!

Internet Shopping Safety Tips

Hi Puzzlers,

Black Friday is upon us! Let the shopping begin! Below is a list of our annual internet shopping safety-tips. Please take a look at them to refresh your memory. Your safety is important to us.

Trust your instincts - If you have a funny feeling about the site check it out before placing the order. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is a scam.

Find out what other shoppers say. Several sites like Epinions.com or BizRate have customer evaluations which can help you determine a company's legitimacy.

Protect your PC - Make sure your personal computer has recent updates installed for Spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spy software, and a secure firewall.

Trusted Websites - Shoppers should know whom they are dealing with. Confirm the online seller’s physical address and phone number. Anyone can set up an online store under any name. Do not respond to the pop-up asking for personal or financial information. Real companies would not ask for this type of information via emails and pop-ups (phising). Check for security seals, such as the tiny padlock icon and the http (URL) has an “s” in it. The https:// stands for secure.

Keep your Web browser updated - “Internet Explorer 9 provides another layer of protection with Web sites that use Extended Validation (EV) Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates. The address bar turns green and has both https and the closed padlock. An EV SSL certificate not only helps ensure that communication with a Web site is secure, but it also includes information about the legitimacy of the Web site, which has been confirmed by the Certification Authority (CA) issuing the SSL Certificate.”

Don’t shop using Wi-Fi - When using Wi-Fi at a coffee shop, hotel, airport, or restaurant, you are making yourself vulnerable to identity theft. Your iPhone, Blackberry, Smartphone and laptop can easily be hacked on a free or paid public Wi-Fi spot.

Pay by credit or charge card - By using a credit or charge card you are protected by the Fair Credit Billing Act. This law gives you the right to dispute charges and temporarily withhold payment while the credit card company investigates your claims. Never use your debit card, as you have no rights protecting you from fraud or theft. Try to use just one credit card for all your purchases; this will make it easier to spot fraudulent charges.

Insure the safe delivery of your item - If you’re concerned about the safety of your package if there’s no one home to receive it, request it be sent with a signature required. Or, it may be safer to have the package delivered to your office.

Refund Policies and Delivery Dates -Make sure you know if you can return the item for a full refund and who pays the shipping for the return. Is the refund for a store credit or cash refund? Know when you should expect delivery of your item.

Print & Save - Keep documentation of your order. If confirmation was sent by email, keep the email and save any and all correspondence with the retailer.

Happy Puzzling!

Divas

Hi Puzzlers,

I have been noticing the term Diva everywhere. Sometimes the term is used as a good reference and increasingly it is not. To be truthful the negative references got my feministic side going. Why, oh why, does a woman always seem to have a name associated with a behavior? Do we call tantrum throwing men Divo’s? I didn’t even have to make that word up! Divo, in Italian, is the male version of diva. It refers to prominent male tenors. Oh, wait! I have inspired myself! Divo’s can be the title of our next all male entertainer puzzle!!! Ah, venting. It gets the creativity going! Now back to our topic…

A diva by today’s definition is a famous female singer and or actress. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna". Prima donna is also Italian for “first lady” or a leading lady that gets all the best parts.

The earliest references of divas were found in popular English literature dating back before 1505. During the 1880s most of the popular operatic prima donnas would have been considered divas. These women clearly had some serious singing skills and talent to be held in such high regard. Some of the most famous operatic divas include: Maria Callas, Nellie Melba, Renee Fleming, Leotyne Price, and Joan Sutherland. It amazes me to think the term diva originated in opera. Most people today would not even think to consider an opera star a diva.

As time passed the term began to include other musical genres. A diva receives admiration not only for their talent but for their performances, looks, style and grace. Diva experts say, “Some people associate large amounts of artistic talent with short tempers and difficult personalities, and this probably explains why the word “diva” is used to describe women who are difficult to deal with. Many actual divas are in fact known for their gentle, generous, courteous personalities, as these women are far too busy with their professional careers to be petty or hard to handle.”

And so, as my Mother always says, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Or, was that stick and stones may break my bones…?

Happy Puzzling!

Sunday Comics

Hi Puzzlers,

Don’t you just love Sundays? It is a day when you can lounge around in your pajamas, have a second cup of coffee and leisurely read the Sunday paper. Ah! It's like a little piece of paradise. The first thing I do is pull out all the coupons then I head to the comic page(s). I like starting my Sunday on a happy note not stressed out by the happenings of the world. And, it appears people have been doing this very same thing since the inception of the comic strip.

The first American comic strip was created at the end of the nineteenth century as a way to increase sales of the Sunday paper. In 1895, staff illustrator Richard Felton Outcault created a one panel cartoon called "Down Hogan's Alley" for the newspaper called "The World".

The cartoon featured a buck-toothed, big-eared, bald boy dressed in an oversized frock usually worn by peasants. Within weeks of his first appearance the color yellow would be added to his smock and the character would soon be known as the “Yellow Kid”.

Journal America also had a one panel cartoon created by James Swinnerton called the "Little Bears". This panel would soon add kids and tigers to the strip. The strip would eventually morph into the extremely popular “Mr. Jack”, which featured a philandering tiger bachelor.

The first multi-panel comic strip appeared on December 12, 1897, it was created by Journal American’s Rudolph Dirk. The "Katzenjammer Kids" were the first comics to use a “word balloon” to indicate the speaker. “The Katzenjammers combined both the aspect of internal dialogue and panelized continuity, and in the process designed and solidified the form of the modern visual narrative strip.”

An astounding 150 comic strips were in syndication by the early 1900s. Comic strips of this time consisted only of single episode-humorous strips, no political satire or storyline. It would take almost thirty years before comics strips would make references and build a story lines based on the previous day’s strip.

It's so amazing to think about how a simple thing like a word balloon can add so much life and personality to a drawing that it becomes your Sunday morning coffee friend. You know the one you have to check in with once a week to see what they are up to.

Happy Puzzling!

The Old Farmer's Almanac

Hi Puzzlers,

Today I would like to tell you about America’s oldest continuously published annual, The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Now, I’m not what you would call an “Almanacian”, okay I made that word up, but what I meant to say is I am not well versed on almanacs, other than knowing it is a book that can predict the weather months in advance. And, I do confess to once using it for planning an outdoor event under a tent that had to have great weather. It worked for me! The weather was perfect as predicted.

The first issue of The Old Farmer’s Almanac was published in 1792 under the watchful eye of its editor, Robert B. Thomas. It became an instant success, out selling several other almanacs published that same year. By the second year, The Old Farmer’s Almanac circulation had tripled from 3,000 to 9,000.

“An almanac, by definition, records and predicts astronomical events (the rising and setting of the Sun, for instance), tides, weather, and other phenomena with respect to time. So what made The Old Farmer's Almanac different from the others? Since his format wasn't novel, we can only surmise that Thomas's astronomical and weather predictions were more accurate, the advice more useful, and the features more entertaining.”

Thomas would predict the weather with an astounding 80% accuracy. He devised a secret formula made from observations of natural cycles. His secret formula is still used today and is safely stored in a protective black tin box in Dublin, New Hampshire, home of the Almanac’s offices.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac was so revered and trusted that it was once used by a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln to clear a man of murder. The witness claimed to have seen the man by moon light, but according to the almanac there was no moon that night.

The almanac almost became the laughing stock of the community in 1816. The months of January and February were inadvertently transposed with the months of July and August, thus calling for SNOW that summer. When the error was discovered Thomas scrambled to destroy all copies of the almanac but could not. Little did Thomas know that the super-colossal eruption of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa Indonesia in April of 1815 would cause temperatures globally to drop 3-4 degrees. This decrease in temperature would make the year of 1816 a year without a summer. And, it did snow in July and August saving the reputation of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. WOW! Divine intervention at its best!

Happy Puzzling!