Freaky Friday.

I have ran out of failure to success stories so that is the end of those for a while. If I run into in anymore then the failure to success blurbs will return.

Friend and frequent commenter Don has been in the middle of Storm 2011. Her husband, lovely known as The Shankster, has fallen a couple of times. He is doing OK but I imagine is in some pain. They were housebound for a while as trees kept crashing around them. If you want to read all about how they are dealing with Storm 2011 and see some stunning pictures check out her blog at:

http://mrgreenjeans.blogspot.com/

Now on to Freaky Friday. Would you prefer a car made of metal or something less expensive? Check out the following article:

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/02/mushroom-roots-chicken-feathers-could-be-key-to-making-cars-mor/

We always love a freaky story involving a dumb criminal, don't we? Enjoy.

http://www.switched.com/2011/02/04/cody-wilkins-charges-phone-during-burglary-gets-arrested/?icid=main%7Chp-laptop%7Cdl3%7Csec3_lnk2%7C199182

Hope this is a good start to your weekend. Comment at will.

WHO AM I?

I was born in 1903 and died in 1988. Numbers are important today and you should alway go with four over three, two, or one. I was one of seven sons of a former United States senator who discovered the ruins of the ancient Incan city Machu Picchu in Peru. I served as a Vice-Consul in Marseille, France, during World War II. My mom was the heiress of a famous company. Before then I served in Kobe, Japan, as a civilian secretary in the United States Embassy. I worked part-time as a schoolteacher. I traveled to India and Egypt before returning to the United States to attend Harvard University. After obtaining my law degree I scored third in his class on the foreign service exam. When France fell to Hitler the French signed an armistice with Germany. In Article 19 of the document, the French agreed to "surrender on demand all Germans named by the German government in France." Civil and military police began to round up German and Jewish refugees who were marked for death by the Nazis. Several influential Europeans tried to lobby the American government to issue visas so that German and Jewish refugees could freely leave France to escape persecution. Anxious to limit immigration to the United States and to maintain good relations with the Vichy government, the State Department actively discouraged diplomats from helping refugees. I said bull and issued visas to help refugees escape France. Although I was supposed to only issue 200 visas I issued 2,000. I also sheltered Jews in my Marseilles home, and obtained forged identity papers to help Jews in their dangerous journeys across Europe. He worked with the French underground to smuggle Jews out of France into Franco's Spain or across the Mediterranean and even contributed to their expenses out of his own pocket. I helped pluck one writer from outside a prison camp and drove him to my home, insisting he dress as a woman to disguise himself for two months until he could escape. That rescue was part of an exhibition called ''Assignment Rescue." In 1941, the United States government abruptly pulled me from my position as Vice Consul and transferred me to Portugal and then Argentina. When I was in Argentina I helped to track Nazi war criminals in South America. In 1945, after being passed over for promotion I resigned from the United States Foreign Service. I did not speak much about my wartime activities. My own family had little knowledge of them until after my death. On June 27, 2002, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented a posthumous "Constructive Dissent" award to my children at an American Foreign Service Officers Association awards ceremony in Washington, DC. Do you know who Varian Fry is? If you do you will be able to answer the question to the fourth degree, Who Am I?