When I was an 8th grade savage, me and another kid used to shoot spit wads through Bic pen tubes onto the seat of our math teacher's pants when he turned toward the blackboard, while the rest of the class looked on approvingly. Then, when that thrill faded, we shot straight pins shoved through a tiny, rolled-up pieces of cotton ball (sorta like feathers on an arrow). We ended up tossing sandspur clusters. Nothing seem to get his attention. Good thing we ended up graduating the eighth grade when we did. We would have probably escalated to firearms eventually. I think all 8th grade teachers should receive combat pay! SAVAGES!

Hi, replying to bertibob54.....Pagoda Dogwoods are very susceptible to army worms, I watch for them through the spring and summer, and spray with the appropriate worm killer. (They can defoliate branches of leaves very quickly) It works very well. Also I spray any of my deer/rabbit munching plants with "Liquid Fence'.... Deer like Pagodas - do that on a non-windy day if possible, or upwind otherwise. BTW my tree gets strong morning sun for about 4 hours, the closest tree to it is an oak of which the trunk is about 12 feet away, and prevents full sun for the rest of the day. I fertilize it with Osmocote in the Spring only. Pagoda's are beautiful trees, unusual in it's form...don't plant other trees closed to it, so the structure of it stands out. Angela, Jenkins, MN

The Israelis and Arabs finally realized that, if they continued fighting, they would someday end up destroying the world. So they sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with a dogfight. The negotiators agreed that each country would take five years to develop the best fighting dog they could. The dog that won the fight would earn its country the right to rule the middle east. The losing side would have to lay down its arms. The Arabs found the biggest, meanest Dobermans and Rottweilers in the world. They bred them together and then crossed their offspring with the meanest Siberian wolves. They selected only the biggest, strongest puppy from each litter and continued to breed them together. They used steroids and trainers in their quest for the perfect killing machine. After the five years were up, they had a dog that needed iron prison bars on its cage. Only the trainers could handle this beast. When the day of the big fight arrived, the Israelis showed up with a strange animal. It was a nine-foot-long Dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for the Israelis. No one else thought this weird animal stood a chance against the growling beast in the Arab camp. The bookies predicted the Arabs woul win in less than a minute. The cages were opened. The Dachshund waddled toward the center of the ring. The Arab dog leapt from his cage and charged the giant wiener-dog. As he got to within an inch of the Israeli dog, the Dachshund opened its jaws and swallowed the Arab beast in one bite. There was nothing left but a small of fur from the killer dog's tail. The Arabs approached the Israelis, shaking their heads in disbelief. "We do not understand. Our top scientists and breeders worked for five years with the meanest, biggest Dobermans and Rottweilers. They developed a killing machine." "Really?" the Israelis replied. "We had our top plastic surgeons working for five years to make an alligator look like a Dachshund!"

Caroline, I love your 'Great Aunt Matilda' thing.... wouldn't it be fun to make an entire book like that? I'm thinking photos, especially if the time period could be identified, names, and stories! Stories told either about or 'by' the person in the photo. 100% fictional of course. I'd do it in a big (preferably old) scrapbook. My DH and I both love old stuff and digging out treasures at garage sales and second hand stores. This might be something we could do together this summer. Last summer, we bought a old trunk/wardrobe. The kind people used to carry on ships. The mother of the woman we bought it from had used it when she came to the US from hawaii, to marry this woman's dad who was shipping home from the service. We have information on the year, where she came into the US, how she traveled to Michigan, etc. What a treasure!