A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....12-10-02

FreeTheHostages and Billie | Billie; FreeTheHostages

[Billie]

A Few of FR's Finest.....
......Every Day

FR is a Treasure Trove of talented, compassionate, patriotic, wonderful people who gather every day to discuss the latest news and issues; salute and support our military and our leaders;  tell a few jokes;  learn a new word;  write poetry;  pray for those in need;  and congratulate those who are deserving. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for giving us the vehicle in which we can express ourselves.

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   I can remember lurking when there were only a few regulars who posted, and now there are over 60,000 who have registered for posting privileges. The forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest November 11, 2001

So many people have written me since my original Veteran's Day Tribute, asking how they, or a loved one, could be included in that tribute. Since I can no longer add the photos to the body of the thread, I've been including them in additional posts as I received enough to make another collage.

Still that doesn't seem to be enough. I think there's never been a better nor more appropriate time to keep the faces of our own Veterans and Active Military in front of FReepers--every day! That's why I wanted to do yet another Daily Thread .....ABOUT FReepers .....and FOR FReepers. But not only about our Military FReepers; for all FReepers! Wouldn't it be nice to get to know a few of the other FReepers as well? That's why, in addition to seeing FR's Finest Military Personnel every day, I thought it might be fun to feature a different FReeper (or FReepers) each day. If you would like to be pictured, or know someone who would, please FReepmail me and we'll turn the spotlight - on YOU - for the day!

And do let me know if you'd like your picture added to the groups of Veterans/Active Military below. I will keep this page updated, and continue to add them to the comment section of the original Veteran's Day thread as well.

<

TOP:  g'nad, AgThorn's son Justin, SLB, AgThorn's son Brett.
MIDDLE:  fish70, razorback-bert, CheneyChick,Leroy S Mort, Mark17.
BOTTOM:  Terry's Take, Taxman, DinkyDau.

TOP:  ValerieUSA's son Grant, SK1Thurman, kd5cts, RangerVetNam,
dansangel and .45man's son-in-law Tony
BOTTOM:  rangerX, Old China Hand, Trish, Howlin's dad, Mustang

TOP: ohioWfan's son, MamaBear's father-in-law, MamaBear's dad, ladtx
MIDDLE:  The Mayor's niece, M.Kehoe, Beach_Babe's son-in-law
BOTTOM:  deadhead's dad, HiJinx, Severa's hubby, viligantcitizen's granddad.

TOP:  spectr17, RightOnline, SERE_Doc, Tet68.
MIDDLE:  FutureSnakeEater, RightOnline's wife, CIApilot, Clamper1797
BOTTOM:  usmcobra, onedoug, DiverDave, Joe6-pack

We now have eleven groups of veterans/active military; we will post each group of three or four twice a week, with thumbnail/links of the remaining seven or eight groups on each thread. Click on any of the thumbnails below to see the group full-size.

         

GROUP 1A: TOP: Logos, SwedeGirl's hubby, Neil E Wright, FallGuy, 1John, Sneakypete MIDDLE:  T'wit, COB1, LadyX, Dick Bachert, 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub BOTTOM:  YankeeinSC, Delta21, JoeSixPack1

GROUP 2A: TOP:  Bosniajmc, AFVetGal, Archy, A Navy Vet MIDDLE:  4TheFlag, Aeronaut, 68Grunt, Xinga BOTTOM:  Codger, AAABest, Clinton's A Liar, Duke809, dcwusmc

GROUP 3A: TOP:  mc5cents, Norb2569, LBGA's son, VanJenerette MIDDLE:  Jim Robinson, KJenerette, davidosborne, KG9Kid BOTTOM:  gwmoore, Equality7-2521, SAMWolf

GROUP 4A: TOP:  porgygirl, Phil V., MudPuppy, NorCoGOP MIDDLE:  RaceBannon, OneidaM, rdb3, jwTexian BOTTOM:  USMC Vet, TheMayor, Vineyard, rhododogma

      

GROUP 9A: TOP: Q6-God, Scan59, Mama Bear and JKPhoto's son, ofMagog. MIDDLE:  Big'ol_freeper, JustAmy's great uncle, Prodigal Son. BOTTOM:  JustAmy's husband, JustAmy's brother-in-law, JustAmy's brother.

GROUP 10A: TOP: dakine's wife, MeeknMing's dad, Auntbee's nephew, MilitiaMan7, AlasBabylon. BOTTOM:  Joe Brower, Temple Owl, Temple Owl's wife, dutchess' dad, Aomagrat.

GROUP 11A: TOP: ladtx #2 son; DiverDave's twin Don; petuniasevan and husband poorman; Mustard; ladtx #1 son. BOTTOM: AlamoGirl's brother Floyd; AG's dad; AG's brother Jim (inset); WVNan's husband; ladtx' Aunt Eva.

                     

by FreeTheHostages
Graphics and layout by Billie

Welcome to a Gingerbread House party!   Today we're going to have a contest with a REAL prize!!  If you win, we'll snail-mail you a *real prize* -- your choice of:

Lynne Cheney's "A Patriotic Primer,"
a great book for kids of all ages......

or Carlo3b's

The Clinton Legacy Cookbook

A fun and fanciful look at the world of Great Food and Hilarious Politics, blended by a world renowned Chef Entrepreneur Carlo Morelli! This 375 page recipe, cartoon, and original humor collection, is a real world cookbook and is a true recipe for sidesplittin' and tummybustin' fun and a body of collaborative effort with over 200 contributors and two years in the stirring presentation!

To enter and win, you just have to follow these rules.

1.  No fair complaining about how the judging is impulsive and the judges were probably drunk when they made their decision.  You're not supposed to know that . . . .

2.  The judges will accept bribes.  The judges are Mudboy Slim and FreeTheHostages.  We tend to agree on things and if we don't, we'll just have a big public fight on this thread and resolve the issue violently.  So don't worry about there being an even number of judges.  Mudboy Slim has only half a brain anyway.  If I were you, I'd focus on persuading me, FreeTheHostages!

3.  This being FReeper's Finest, cheerfulness, beauty, and humor count.

4.  For purposes of this contest, "Gingerbread House" is *very* liberally defined.  (Apologies for using the word "liberal" -- I'm a guest host you see, just helping out for the holidays; you can't expect much of me!)  Your entry can be a picture stolen from the web, something you drew yourself on Paintshop Pro, a verbal description of a gingerbread house, blueprints for a gingerbread house, or something just generally gingerbread-housey.

5.  If there are FReeper kids who post cute, patriotic gingerbread house pictures of houses they actually did, you should know that I (FreeTheHostages) will totally get teary-eyed and probably give them extra points just for being Right-wing children!

6.  Knowing a lot about cooking and the history of gingerbread house-making won't impress the judges.  We're not terribly learned, although we did read a bunch (well, maybe not a bunch, but a little) of background info on gingerbread houses to earn our keep as guest hosts!

7.  The judges reserve the right to pick something submitted in total violation of these rules.  Just for fun!  So go ahead and have your daily chit-chat and fun on this thread.  Who knows?  Maybe one of loddy's puppy photos will charm us in the end!!

8.  Post must be made to this thread by midnight PST today and winner will be pinged in an announcement in this thread by December 12th!  Isn't this FUN?!

A Good Recipe for Gingerbread "Lumber" for a Real Gingerbread House...

Never made a gingerbread house?  FreeTheHostages has 6-8 gingerbread parties every December.  She uses the following recipe, passed on to her from her Vermont relatives, and it works pretty well in creating sheets of good construction material from which, when cooked, to cut out your walls and roof.  (Psst... the secret to solid gingerbread for house construction:  work the dough TOO MUCH before rolling it out, and after it comes out of the oven, leave it in the pan a second so that one side gets tough -- not burned, but tough).

If you're going to cut out the walls after it's cooked, why not roll out the dough right onto an edged cookie sheet, and prong it a few times with a fork?  The dough's expansion along the edge of the cookie sheet makes a nice flat bottom for walls.

Nancy's Gingerbread Construction Material

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses
1 egg
2/3 cup water
6 cups flour (maybe more)
1 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger,
allspace, and ground cloves
2 tsp baking soda

Sift the flour and spices and baking soda together.  Mix the shortening and the sugar.  Add the egg and water to it.  Then mix with the flour mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes -- until done.

When it's cool, cut it to the size you want for your walls and roof.  Use foil-covered sturdy carboard for your yard.  On the yard, make two of the four walls have a point atop them, a triangle to support the roof.  Use melted chocolate chips to put the walls together, and hold them in place with toothpicks until the seams dry before putting on the roof.

When the house is done, consider decorating with candy using a frosting that hardens as it cools.  Everyone has their favorite, but here's a frosting recipe that hardens quite well:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
5 TBLS of ice-cold water
2 egg whites.

Atop a double boiler with boiling water below, vigorously beat with electric beater on "high" for 7 minutes. Frost and decorate as desired!  ~ FreeTheHostages

With special thanks again to FreeTheHostages, who has written another fun and entertaining thread for our holiday reading, and is also providing the prize for First Place in today's contest. This thread, and Mud's "Life Story" on Friday, were such fun to 'get creative with' in the layouts and graphics - just my cup of tea!

A big thanks also to our judges, MudboySlim and FreeTheHostages, for taking the time from their busy holiday schedules to offer their votes-for-sale to the highest bidder. ~ Billie

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 12-09-02 PaulAtreides

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me an FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

Time's Running Out! ~ Billie

[Billie]

TODAY'S THREAD IS VERY LATE, BUT FINALLY HERE!

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

LOL! That is a keeper. Too funny.

[Mudboy Slim]

"...there was much late-night revelry here!"

You musta had that second Rolling Rock, dint'cha?!

LOL...MUD

[FreeTheHostages]

I dunno, this so impressionistic, judging these, and we'll each have our own favorite. I suggest that you and I both choose our own personal favorite and that we award 2 first places.

What would mine be? Hmmm. Well, you know, it seems like being Flyer is it's own reward. Flyer had a *lot* of fun here already and I have praised his work muchly. But GailA's Post 252 is an actual gingerbread house that she did take time to protect from the dog, and we have to take that into account. And as a gingerbread house, it really does have everything.

For me, sweetliberty and balata and maybe diver dave are interesting dark horses. I really don't *want* to punish sweetliberty for the relatively poor photo quality, and I love the fact that it's one she did with her niece and nephew, but the photo quality does prevent me from seeing those glistening details of GailA.

Aquamarine is the second in the category of "the perfect house" but since GailA gets first for the all-round perfect house/photo, if we're to go with a straight up, non silly best house, GailA would win.

Hmmm.

So I'm thinking we should do two awards. I've got a nice back-up prize we can use. I'm thinking one of the awards might go to GailA and I'm interested on your thinking on the second award.

[Mudboy Slim]

"I shudder to think what a gingerbread house created for x42 and #97 would have looked like."

If it was anything like the DespoticDuo's Christmas tree, it wouldda had to include multi-colored condoms and used syringes...MUD

[FreeTheHostages]

Alright I'll stop posting my silly pictures. Sorry I ticked you off so badly.Excempt me from the contest I am just having fun.Sorry, have a great day. Sorry I ruined the 400's. You know the saying somebody STOP ME!!! LOL thanks.

?? Honey, honey, your stuff was GREAT! It was wonderful!! When I said you ran rampage through the 400s, that was a *compliment.*!! You totally might make finalist, like I said, but we're looking at the top of our list of finalists now and even if we give an award for rampaging, well, Flyer did that for the first 1-400! You're up there, please don't get us wrong. It was *great* to see what fun you had here last night!! LOL, we would never never have "STOPPED YOU" if we saw you here. I like your 445 -- the one with the gingerbread baby -- best. Most in keeping with the spirit of the contest.

So don't get me wrong -- it was very good work and appreciated. But -- gasp - look at post 252. That's everyone's competition right now in eyes.

[FreeTheHostages]

Alright I'll stop posting my silly pictures. Sorry I ticked you off so badly.Excempt me from the contest I am just having fun.Sorry, have a great day. Sorry I ruined the 400's. You know the saying somebody STOP ME!!! LOL thanks.

?? Honey, honey, your stuff was GREAT! It was wonderful!! When I said you ran rampage through the 400s, that was a *compliment.*!! You totally might make finalist, like I said, but we're looking at the top of our list of finalists now and even if we give an award for rampaging, well, Flyer did that for the first 1-400! You're up there, please don't get us wrong. It was *great* to see what fun you had here last night!! LOL, we would never never have "STOPPED YOU" if we saw you here. I like your 445 -- the one with the gingerbread baby -- best. Most in keeping with the spirit of the contest.

So don't get me wrong -- it was very good work and appreciated. But -- gasp - look at post 252. That's everyone's competition right now in my eyes.

[FreeTheHostages]

Or Flyer's is first. I dunno. Diver Dave's is interesting. I dunno. Or still GailA. Or the family-roots Sweetliberty neighborhood complex. Help help.

[Mudboy Slim]

I really like the second entry on post #403, too...but I'm still surfin' through all the entries...MUD

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

252 Gail's is the best. Hands down. The American flag in the front yard brings it right home to FIRST PLACE. And then Flyer and Balata.... I am glad I am not a judge.

[Mudboy Slim]

I like the glockenschpiel music...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"if you can just imagine the following song I wrote being sung in the background as you are doing the judging you will understand my plight. (Well, I really don't have the song completely written yet, but I do have the title.) Hey, MUD, what do you think? If you help me with the lyrics I'll split the royalities."

I clicked on the picture, but no sound came out...am I right to assume the song you have in mind for ***ALL MY EXS ARE WEARING ROLLEXES*** is "All my EX's Live in Texas"?! If so, I'm drawing a blank...who was the original artist?

FReegards...MUD

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

I have an idea for your difficult task. Both of you finish surfing this thread then...

GO HERE

And click on the chat room to discuss your decisions.

I pinged Agitator to assist you.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

George Strait.

[FreeTheHostages]

The second entry in 403 is good too, I agree. I don't know if it detracts that it was all stuck together with other not-so-good ones. 'Course the poster has an excuse -- she reports and well we believe her, she's been busy agitating in the real world for conservative causes. That has to count for somethin' . . . .

[FreeTheHostages]

P.S. I'm not in a hurry. Take your time. We never promised them a lightening-fast decision.

[Mudboy Slim]

"All My Ex's Live In Texas"
(By George Strait)

All my Ex's live in Texas
And Texas is the place I'd really love to be
All my Ex's Live in Texas
And that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee

Rosanna's down in Texarkana wanted me to push her broom
Sweet Eileen's in Abilene, she forgot I hung the moon
And Allison's in Galveston, somehow lost her sanity
And Dimples, who now lives in Temple's got the law lookin' for me

All my Ex's live in Texas
And Texas is the place I'd really love to be
All my Ex's Live in Texas
And that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee

(Instrumental)

I remember that ole three hole river
Where I learned to swim
But it brings to mind another time
Where I wore my welcome thin
By Transcendental Meditation I go there each night
But I always come back to myself, long before daylight

All my Ex's live in Texas
And Texas is the place I'd really love to be
All my Ex's Live in Texas
And that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee

Alright TaRaRa, here's the original and you know the story better than I.

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"Take your time."

Not sure I have any other choice...there're a lotta great entries to sort through...MUD

[FreeTheHostages]

Mud, I can do lots of second places. Wall calendars etc. We can have a couple of second places if we have to.

[FreeTheHostages]

Mud, in terms of summarizing the 400 series, I would also note:

(1) awww, look again at post 484, lodwick's teddy bear with a rolling pin and a bowl of flour in the background!! That's got to improve lodwick's chances . . .

(2) Kayak has confirmed that her white house gingerbread is Bush-era White house and has given us a close-up that shows marzipan versions of the Bush's pets. That's very cute.