On the Horizon: True Ag Diversity

Have you ever been on a bus tour anywhere? I’ve been on several of them now and have completely enjoyed my experiences. While most bus tours are all about just seeing what’s to see, the ones I’ve been on this past year have been about not only seeing what’s to see but also about learning how to be an agritourism destination. We’ve learned all sorts of things like insurance, taxes, etc., but one of the most important lessons they’ve learned is simply how to.

All the people who have been on the bus with me have either been owners of agritourism destinations or people who want to become one. Many of them have been on most of the tours with me and I’ve really come to like these people. They are hard working, honest people and will tell you exactly what they think. And they always get ideas to take back home and try out at their places.

In this week’s video blog, meet some of these fantastic people and see some of the places we went on the most recent rolling bus workshop to South Central Oklahoma.

Alisa Hines

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Is Waldo Still a Hipster?

On July 31, 2006, the “Where’s Waldo: the Original Hipster” open Facebook group was created. The first wall post read…

“[OMG], how could I have been so blind??”

This was followed by,

this is the greatest group to have ever existed. thank you so much for opening up my eyes.

and

I wrote a paper because of this group. I’ll post it when it’s done getting edited by my teacher.

And, the posts kept coming.  Until last August.

August 5, 2011 was the last legitimate entry, and prior to that, it was December 7, 2010:

I saw Waldo last night with his GF (girlfriend) in a store and I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Waldo!”, he then turned and gave me a knowing look like he almost knew he was biting Waldos styles. My son then asked me, “what’s a Waldo?” to which I replied, “You will understand when you are older.”

So, here’s what I’m wondering.  Have Hipsters been assimilated?  Or is it just the idea that “Waldo=Hipster” is becoming passe? Further, I’m wondering…how many of YOU wear black-framed glasses, the occasional striped shirt, tight blue jeans and the cross-shoulder strapped mail-bag?

I know I own all of those things, and wear many of them at least once per week. See?

So, what do YOU think about the disappearance or assimilation of hipsters, AND, where does Waldo fit into that puzzle?  Is he now “found” within a good portion of the world population? 

Or, is Waldo just too cool to ever REALLY be found?

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The Gift of My Dear Friend’s Catch Phrases

If I were a tree and beneath my branches lay gifts adorned in lovely holiday fare, I would hide the small collection wrapped in gilded sheets of friendship tied with bows of years together.

They are from my friend Cathy, and I would hide them because I know the contents. They fall into the priceless category; not for sale.  Only to be distributed at the perfect times, and with Love’s careful delivery.

The contents are no secret, however, because they have been shared among her family and friends all her adult life.  They are the gifts of her prolific and perfect catchphrases.  Let’s open one, shall we?

Her Exclamations

If we were a comedy team, I would normally play the straight man and she the comic relief.  Cathy wears her emotions on the frayed ends of her sleeves and they are generally punctuated with exclamations such as…

“Coo-Coo for CoCo Puffs!”

“Cripes!,” or “Ye GADS!”

Sometimes she’ll see something, pick it up and exclaim,

“Gad zooks!”

Other times some mission has been foiled and it’s, “Arrrrg!”  Or, perhaps a mission has been accomplished and in her sing-song, deadpan tone I’ll hear, “Yippee Skippy”  or  “Oh joy, oh rapture.”  These exclamations, delivered in perfect monotone, then make said accomplished mission all the richer.

“Hali-Tosis!” makes me giggle. And,

“Groovy, Marcia”

is one of her favorites. I’ve heard it in a hundred different versions.  Go ahead try it. GROO-vy, Marcia.  Groovy, MAR-cia…see?  It works. Continue reading The Gift of My Dear Friend’s Catch Phrases

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Toilet Paper Diaries: “Dude” Pays It Forward

spilled latte

Last Thursday I was approaching my office door with keys in hand, briefcase in tow, and quite a few care packages tucked under my arm.  As I tried balancing my latte on my French-style door handle, I was rewarded for this very bad decision by my drink plummeting to the freshly waxed linoleum and spreading in a four-foot oblong pattern across the heavy traffic area of our hall.

Returning from my second restroom trip with twenty yards of paper towels flowing behind me, I was met with this image…

A young male student with strawberry-blonde curly hair held somewhat in place by a hippie-style, braided headband was on his hands and knees. His gold-rimmed, 70s style glasses were slightly odd-angled on his still-pubescent face and he was working diligently, cleaning up my mess.

As I approached he greeted me in a very “duuuude” voice, “These paper towels aren’t very ab-sor-bent.”
We mopped together in silence for a minute, he left and then returned again with a huge wad of toilet paper.
“THIS stuff was made for ab-sor-bency, riiiight?”  He held out the wad of toilet paper as though he had just bagged a trophy.

I grinned, agreed, and we had everything cleaned up in another minute.

With the last few finishing swipes of a wet rag to clean up any sticky residue, I looked up and said, “Bless you for all your help (I almost ended that statement with “,dude”) – I really appreciate that.”

He stood up, shifted his huge backpack and said, “Yur wel-come…have a guh-rate week.” After adjusting his glasses and flashing a lopsided smile, he walked down the now dry hallway.

I found myself parroting his voice in my head as I watched him leave:  “That dude is paying it for-ward.” 
I smiled, and started my day.

[kelly]

 

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A Face Is Worth 1,000 Words: Reporters and Congressional Insider Trading

U S CapitolLet’s have a review, shall we?

What is traditional insider trading?

According to the very clear definition offered by Wikipedia, insider trading is “the trading of a corporation’s stock or other securities (e.g. bonds or stock options) by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company.”

Then, what is so-called “Congressional insider trading?”

According to legal analyst Dace Martinez on a recent Fox News report,

“…while Congress [isn’t] a corporate insider, per se, they do have insider information that they’re obtaining in confidential briefings and private hearings, where they’re finding out for example…where the FDA is about to give regulatory authority for a new drug to go on the market…or that a defense contractor is about to receive a large appropriate to build some sort of weapon.  And when you have that kind of information, and you use it to buy and sell stocks, you can be highly successful as you might imagine.”

If you’ve been keeping up on your current events, then you know that “congressional insider trading” has been a problem.  So much so that several attempts to regulate it with bills to make this practice illegal have evolved since 2008 into the current bill called the STOCK Act.

Interestingly, however, this bill only had nine co-sponsors until 60 Minutes did a story on the practice revealing a history of patterns wherein congressional leaders heard about market opportunities, made stock purchases, then made short-term large profits from said actions.  After the story hit, NPR reported the bill had 61 co-sponsors…and counting.

I recently watched this particular re-cap on Fox News because the daughter of one of our authors is Dace Martinez, the legal analyst I mentioned earlier.  Actually, I watched it twice.

I watched a second time because I noticed that when asked the question as to whether, “…you think this is illegal?” Martinez paused, closed her eyes, and her mouth twitched in a very slight smile.  She then answered, “You know…I think there is sufficient ambiguity in the law that congress needs to clear it up.”

A pretty classy answer, considering the highly un-classy topic. Continue reading A Face Is Worth 1,000 Words: Reporters and Congressional Insider Trading

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