The Queen's Meme

The Queen's Meme #108 ~ The Chinese Dragon Meme

2012-01-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Happy Chinese New Year! All over the world today - January 23 - people are celebrating The Chinese New Year, ushering in the much acclaimed Year of The Dragon 2012. There will be fifteen days of food, firecrackers, incense burning and revelry. It is considered to be the luckiest of all lunar Chinese new years. Prosperity and good fortune are central themes during this time of traditional hoopla. Let's participate in the Queen's Castle today. What do you know about this phenomenal worldwide event?

1. In a traditional Dragon or Lion Dance, the loud drums and cymbals are thought to chase out evil spirits. How do you do YOUR traditional Dragon Dance to drive out any evil in your life? (Do you dance with dragons?......or just old Elvis records....inquiring minds want to know)

2. Have you experienced any good or bad omens this year?

3. I believe that good fortune has more to do with personal integrity, honesty and character than ancient symbolism. Treating people the way you would want to be treated goes a long way in warding off that pesky negative Karma. Dragons are considered evil creatures according to European culture , but in Chinese culture the dragon symbolizes supernatural power and goodness. Which one do you believe? Or would you rather just try the good ole' Golden Rule.......

4. Chinese couples will attempt to have "Dragon babies" in the year 2012. In order to take advantage of astrological predictions of wealth and success, name one thing you should attempt to "birth" that could bring you good luck.

5. You are in charge of the Chinese New Year Parade in your town. Who will ride on the first float?

6. What is your favorite Chinese food?

7. Chinese people often think of themselves as descendants of the mythical Dragon creature.
Do you have any mythical creatures in your family closet?

The Queen's Meme #107 ~ The Relationship Meme

2012-01-16T17:24:00.000-05:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #107

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Relationships, relationships, relationships. They can be soooo complicated. And yet so simple. I don't think it's rocket science. What do you think?

1. What is the one thing in a relationship you will not compromise?

2. What is the one thing in a relationship you will not tolerate?

3. What is the main difference between the male and female brain?

4. Instead of Mars and Venus, what would you name your love planets?

5. Do you believe in love matching astrology charts? Have you ever found them to be helpful?

6. Is it more important that your partner be attentive to your practical needs or your romantic needs?

7. How much do past relationships have to do with your present relationship?

Ah. Love. It's all good.

The Queen's Meme #106 ~ The Political Caucus Meme

2012-01-09T16:37:00.006-05:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #106

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

It's caucus time in the good ole' USA. We're trying to elect a Commander in Chief this year. Whenever I hear the rhetoric known as American politics, or business-as-usual, I try to remember that I'm really after someone of leadership and honesty. Hard to tell these days. Hard to tell.

What is the meaning of a caucus? By definition in U.S. Politics it is "a meeting of party leaders to select candidates, elect convention delegates, etc."

It's the "etc" I'm worried about. We seem to be talking about a lot of etcs these days. Can't anyone say what they mean and mean what they say? Bonnie Raitt said it best. They should listen to her.

For purposes of this meme, let's focus on these political forces: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman. I submit these questions to be of vital interest and importance to the welfare of our country. And let's hurry.

By the time we all finish this meme, someone else could drop out.

Or move to China.

The first United Farmers of Alberta legislative caucus in 1921.

1. What topic would you like to see the candidates discuss that they haven't already discussed?

2. Which one of these men would run in and save you and your family from a burning building if he knew it would cost him the election?

3. Who is the best dressed candidate?

4. Who would be the best hostage negotiator?

5. Who has the prettiest and most First-Ladyish wife? (look for the nails..)

6. Which one of these men would you trust with the nuclear code?

7. If I, Queen Mimi, invited one of them to Bloggingham for dinner, what should I cook and what question would you like me to ask him?

OK, Bonnie. Your turn.

**all images in public domain**

Holiday Hiatus

2011-12-18T23:06:00.000-05:00

May you and your family have a peaceful Christmas season.

See you in the year 2012 with a fresh blogging perspective and a new meme or two.

Happy Holidays!

The Queen's Meme #105 ~ The How Many Christmas Meme

2011-12-12T21:22:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #105

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The How Many Christmas Meme

This meme is so easy it's ridiculous. And that too.

Enjoy.

1. How many Wisemen were there?

2. How many reindeer pull Santa's sleigh?

3. How many gifts are under your tree?

4. How many classic holiday movies can you name?

5. How many stockings are hanging from your mantel?

6. How many Christmas trees do you have?

7. How many days are in the twelve days of Christmas?

The Queen's Meme #104 ~ The Birthday Meme

2011-11-28T20:33:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Queens's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Someone in the castle is having a birthday today. Homer says it's not him. Who, oh who, could it be?!
Whether or not it's your birthday, you should be able to answer these age-related questions. Sounds like fun, eh? Or not. I'm going to talk to the birthday girl. She needs a good talking to.

1. If you could turn back the hands of time, where would you go?

2. What was your favorite age and why?

3. Travel into the future 10 years. How do you picture your life?

4. Did you ever take part in a birthday surprise? Tell us about it.

5. Pretend it is your ultimate birthday party. What five people, living or dead, would you invite?

6. Let's have cake! Forget about candles and flavors and balloons.

Who jumps out?

7. And finally, make a wish but not just any ole' wish. Make it count.

The Queen's Meme #103 ~ The Wild Fowl Meme

2011-11-21T21:14:00.001-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

With the holidays staring us straight in the face here in the United States of America, it's difficult to know whether to be happy, depressed, thankful, or just stay in denial. After all, while we eat our dressed turkeys with dripping gravy and biscuits, people are still homeless, families go to bed hungry, and millions of others have no work or prospects of work in this country. And yet, no one canceled Thanksgiving. Looking at the state of our world, sometimes I wonder why. I am thankful, nonetheless, for friends and family near and far. I am thankful for YOU.
I hope you and your loved ones have a blessed Thanksgiving....while we wait for the world to heal.

The Queen's Meme #103 ~ The Wild Fowl Meme

1. How many people will you be cooking for this Thanksgiving?

2. What is your specialty dish?

3. Can you give me a quick mini course in basting a turkey?

4. What is your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

5. Which one of the real turkeys in your life do you think deserves a pardon?

6. It's your chance to change the course of holiday history. In your opinion, what animals or animal besides wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, and turkey) should have been eaten on the First Thanksgiving?

7. What are you most thankful for in your life?

The Queen's Meme #102 ~ The Cow Jump Meme

2011-11-14T20:48:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The Queen's Meme #102

1. What do men really want in a woman?

2. Should marijuana be legalized?

3. Why did the cow jump over the moon?

4. What do women really want in a man?

5. When you are having a really good day, what usually makes it good?

6. What can make your good day turn into a bad day?

7. If you could "start from scratch" and turn back the clock for a re-do, what would you re-do?

The Queen's Meme #101 ~ The Miscellaneous Meme

2011-11-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

It' been a lonnnnng week. Queen is tired. Before Ihttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6116578306260727144&postID=2973342785363906574 snuggle under the covers tonight, let me set before you a totally random set of questions. They just popped off the top of my pencil head five minutes ago. Freshly baked for you! I can barely keep my eyes open. Got any toothpicks? I know you will come up with entertaining and maybe even earth-shattering answers. The world could use a little shaking up. Just don't wake ME up. Goodnight!

The Queen's Meme #101 ~

The Miscellaneous-Queen-Needs-Sleep Meme

1. All your dominoes just fell down. Who pushed them?

2. Have you ever danced in a car?

3. What is your horoscope reading today?

4. The iPhone just gave birth to the next generation of phones. What would you call them? The i______?

5. Do you believe Justin Bieber should take a paternity test?

6. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy this. Occupy that. What would you most like to occupy?

7. What is the last groovy thing you did?

Shhhhh!!! The first person to make a noise is going to the dungeon.

See you next week. I promise to be awake for the meme.

Dona Nobis Pacem ~ The Cabinet

2011-11-04T11:06:00.000-04:00

Something led me to the potting shed this morning. So, I put on some leaf-walking shoes to follow the muse.

It is clear and beautiful in Bloggingham today with a bit of breeze and the sound of falling acorns. Leaves are changing faster than I'd like for it's only a matter of time before they lay bare and naked the strength of my trees, losing their protection and grace.

For weeks now I've thought of spring. Remembering scenes in my life that happened - only - in springtime. I wondered why. The images so strong as if I were re-living them again. I could smell spring. Touch spring. In my chilly foggy forest surroundings, a season I love most of all, I needed, I suppose, to feel spring.
So on my way to the potting shed I stopped at my patch of wild mums and descended upon them with the camera lens. They were waiting like old friends to give me a breath of spring.

But back to the muse. The shed the shed shed. I must get to the shed.

Just inside the door of the little building in my grove of trees and overgrown wildness...is this

It belonged to my Papa. It was his tool cabinet. It hung on the wall of the garage where he made things and sawed things and stored things in it; including the secret stash of chewing tobacco in a can in the corner beside nails and rags and oilcans. He made picture frames and tables, stools and odd furniture pieces. I made mud pies and tried to leave him be while he measured and thought hard. It was a steady stream of stirring inedible cuisine (some things have not changed, my friends), him spitting in the can while I tried not to look, sawdust, the swing of the hammer and the sound of my grandmother's voice trying to shout above the bzzzz bzzzz saw that supper was ready and we'd better wash up.
He'd scoop me up in his grease covered arms and let me do my favorite thing of all: I got to close the wooden latch.

Opening it today without the benefit of hugs and the promise of butter biscuits was bittersweet. But something had led me to the shed today and I aimed to open it.

Hmmmm...not much left in here except spider webs and dirt. A very old can of something to do with grease, some iron rings, a few nails...and a brand new water hose head I bought last spring lying on the bottom shelf.

How did that get in there? I didn't put it there.

At that moment a large gust of wind starting spinning Bloggingham's trees above the A-line roof of the shed, branches swaying heavily above me soaring and tall in the blue sky while the bam bam bam of acorn bullets descended upon the roof at the same time above my head. Yow! It scared me so I ran out the door. Find the wild mum patch, Mimi! Mums aren't scary. Don't you go back in that building. That was a sign I tell ya, a sign!

Go back in, silly, it's just the wind.

OK. But only because you're a droopy mum and need cheering up. I'll go back.

I crushed a few acorns with my leaf-walking shoes and went back inside. Reaching into the deep storage shelf on the bottom, I gingerly removed the out-of-place water spout and laid it elsewhere. But what I saw underneath startled me so that I ran out again. This time stopping in the yard to put my face in hands, tears on my face with memories of dusty nails flying into walnut, pine and oak, now pounding in my mind as I wondered....

How did THAT get in there?

It was Papa's hammer.

All tools near and far were lost in the divorce, gathered from this cabinet and absconded with the swish of a legal pen. I never saw this before. His hammer. His hammer. How could I have missed it? His hammer. Why hadn't I seen it before? How long had it been there? No logical answers could I find, even after a phone call to said absconder-of-the-tools. He didn't remember it being there either. "I'm sure I cleaned everything out of that cabinet," he said. No matter. It's peace day ya know. It doesn't matter how it got there. But I have no doubt I was supposed to find it.

We might need a hammer you know.

To be builders of peace it isn't enough to declare it so, will it so, pray it so or blog it so. In between the words, which indeed are powerful ideas and mantras, we have an arsenal of tools at our disposal just begging to be utilized for good. Some have been lying around for years but all we want to do is talk about them. We're too busy sometimes to actually pick up a nail and pick a spot - any spot - to inhabit peacefully in our world. To make it better for someone we don't even know. We don't see the connectedness of lack in one person bringing the whole planet into a state of perpetual lack. And how one area of unrest brings the whole planet into jeopardy. Cause I'm here to tell ya...it's easy to cohabitate peacefully with people you love. But it's darn near impossible to build peace with perfect strangers across a ragged world of war.
Yet peace builders we must be with weapons of saws and plowshares.

And let's throw in some beauty, shall we?

It isn't enough to elevate people in dire need with food and clothing and somewhere-out-of-a-cardboard-box. They need - we all need - artists and writers and painters and dancers to lift our spirits to a place far beyond the basic tenets of existence. I never saw my grandfather's day end without a book in his hand, a song playing on the stereo

or a Spring in his smile.

In the meantime...we need sowers of seeds for crops of food and medicine, laboring hands to shingle roofs, diggers of wells and drillers of land, mattocks and shovelers, sweepers of oceans and singers to soothe those who can't understand this peace you say in front of their hungry children. We have to pick them up - these building tools - and make them happen in our homes and communities before we can expect anyone to buy into a word we're saying on the subject of peace. Then and only then can we call ourselves peacemakers. In my own personal space of planet Earth I will hold myself to that standard. I will try. I will try. But I don't believe it will take the world as long to arrive at the inevitable wisdom of peace as it did to lunge into the abyss of universal war. It seems to me that the tide of consciousness and awareness is turning.

But it won't last unless we get out of the realm of consciousness-raising and into the physical realm of working the work with more than manifestos. You all know how firmly I believe that words are powerful - but they are not the only tools we have. I have no trouble nailing my purpose to the plate with words. It is who I am. It's a bit more daunting to get my skirt dirty with your problems when I have a world of my own.

Have you ever noticed that in the cold dead winter of warring with someone, there comes a time when you just get tired of warring and you wonder, "Isn't there a better way?" Do I think there are people hellbent on destruction for the sake of destruction? Yes. Do I see and understand that not everyone in the world wants to go searching for spring? Yes. But I have to hope that somehow deep down even in the hearts of evil men lies a human seed of desire for survival. And if they can't reach peace for any other reason than that, then so be it. Because we're on a collision course that peace treaties and scribbled sanctions can't fix. The heart of man has to change...and that is nothing akin to changing our minds. It goes as deep as long-grained wood. That brand of human evolution requires that we sometimes allow the other person to open the door and sometimes we must allow them to lift us up to reach the door.

When my grandfather began a new project, he first chose the strongest of materials, the most sturdy wood. He knew that to lay a foundation on anything else was a waste of time. He knew that building things without the proper tools was a recipe for destruction. Then he threw in his ingredients: Solitude. Contemplation. Pride. Patience. Hard work. And a sense of service. He didn't build things to sell. Giving them away gave him great pleasure.

I was reminded by a friend today that it's good to use the tools of our fathers and grandfathers. There is something organic about it. I hope as the world churns and turns toward a new season, that we don't discard the hard-won sacrifices made before our time nor the wisdom those experiences bring to the table of peace building.

It is not enough that we learn to unmake war.

We must learn to remake peace.

Wanna borrow my hammer?

We Interrupt This Meme To Blog Peace

2011-10-31T22:52:00.000-04:00

The Queen's Meme will return Nov 8, 2011 with Meme #101

Peace globes fly Nov 4th ~ I believe my dance card is full (smile)

Please join us

BlogBlast4Peace

The Queen's Meme #100 ~ The Centennial Meme

2011-10-24T20:30:00.003-04:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #100!!!!

The Centennial Meme

We're 100 today! Happy birthday to us! In honor of all things that can be multiplied by ten, we'd like to invite you to our birthday party. Gifts and all handsome men welcome... not necessarily in that order.

Let's party!

1. Ten x Ten = 100. What thing or person or experience in your life would you like to multiply by 10?

2. Today you get to go shopping with a one hundred dollar bill. What will you buy?

3. How many centenarians do you know or have you ever known one?

4. Have you ever weighed 100 pounds?

(107 yr. old Chaldean man!)

5. The "First One Hundred Days" is the benchmark of performance for a United States President. Tell us what you accomplished in your first one hundred days of blogging.

6. What is the secret to longevity?

7. You are invited to The Queen of Memes 100th Meme birthday party! We are going to play Pin The Tail On the Blog. Blindfold yourself and pick a blog that you enjoy reading and tell us about it. No need to throw darts dripping with sarcasm (I so despise mean-spirited blogs ~~and you will end up in the dungeon~~ - not that any of YOU would of course just sayin'.....gosh, being 100 sure made me fiesty tonight!) It's been a long day and I've seen some crazy blug-slinging lately. (That's blog+ mud +sludge for all you non-blog speakers) I digress. That's a post for another day... Just give someone the gift of recognition they deserve. There are lots of wonderful blogs out there. Who would you recommend?

The Queen's Meme #99 ~ The 99 Meme

2011-10-18T12:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #99

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Today I thought I'd give you 99 questions to answer in honor of the 99th meme. Just kidding! Instead, I'll give you 7 questions that just seem like 99.
Here we go.

Surprisingly, it's called The 99 Meme

1. Let's take that famously irritating song, Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on The Wall. Tell me....What would you substitute for those bottles of beer? Your song would be "Ninety-nine ______ of ______ on the Wall."
Fill in the blanks.

2. Let's go to the 99 cents store. What do you think should be made available for 99 cents at the 99 cents store?

3. The great world of Wikipedia tells me that scientists claim 99% of all documented species are extinct. Which remaining species in the 1% category would you really like to see extinct. And which species in the 99% category would you like to bring back?

4. Why is merchandise always priced as 1.99 or 20.99 or 50,287.99? Do they think we're stupid?

5. If you live to be 99 years old, what would you like your life to be like in that last decade?

6. Tumblr has a new blog called "We Are The 99%" brought to you by "the people who occupy Wall Street." Everyday people are writing notes on paper about their experiences and living conditions right now. Can you identify with the 99% on this page?

7. I think armpits should get more respect than this. According to the advice of medical personnel: If your child's temperature is more than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit measured rectally, or more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit measured in the mouth, or more than 99 degrees Fahrenheit measured in the armpit (for 4-5 minutes), he or she has fever.
Why do you think armpits are so slow to register heat?

The Queen's Meme #98 ~ The Picture Caption Meme

2011-10-10T20:52:00.002-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #98

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

It's simple. Provide a caption for the pictures below or write a commentary.

I hope your imaginations are running amok tonight! These are rather interesting depictions. Good luck! (images: public domain)

The Queen's Meme #97 ~ The Games Meme

2011-10-04T09:07:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #97

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

People play games. Children play games. Sometimes adults acting like children play games. Facebook people play games. All God's chillun play games. What kind of games do YOU play?

The Games Meme

1. What was your favorite outside game as a child?

2. What is your board game of choice?

3.What are your favorite apps or games on Facebook?

4. If you could design a game about your life, what would you call it?

5. Have you ever tried billiards?

6. Are you a card player? Gambler? Rook player? Go Fish? Do tell.

7. Do you prefer the summer or winter sports games?

The Queen's Meme #96 ~ The Cat Meme

2011-09-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Queen's meme #96

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

I would like to confess. About the cats.

I know it's un-American and a downright insult to my beloved Cat Blogosphere to not be a cat person but alas, I am not. Do you see the grief I put my poor dog Homer through? And he's just an internet dog!

I tried to be a cat person. Once. But I failed. Cats just don't like me. They hiss and spit and run in the other direction. Cats do not meow softly at me, they crouch in attack position and prepare the claws. I cannot retaliate because I might break a nail. Hence, I cannot even protect myself from cats. The only cats I get along with are the cats from The Cat Blogosphere. They are wonderful wonderful kitties with hoomans to look after. Of that I am sure. And none of them - yet- has spit at me.

And they sure fly some marvelous peace globes.

We shall talk cats this week. Puuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

1. Do you have a cat?

2. What is your cat's name?

3. What makes you love cats?

4. If you are not a cat person, why not?

5. What is the funniest thing your cat has ever done?

6. Do you think cats have feelings and can talk to their owners?

7. The Rainbow Bridge is the place where cats go when they pass away. I think it's a lovely idea. If humans could have a bridge of their own in the afterlife, what would you name it?

BONUS POINTS! Post a picture of you and your cat.

This is my Persian Patticakes. If you go to my blog you can see me pet her. She has been sitting on my blog for five years now. I've never had to feed her! She's not grumpy and cantankerous like Homer either. Maybe if I had a real cat like Patticakes, I could be a cat person too.

The Queen's Meme #95 ~ The Falling Into Fall Meme

2011-09-19T19:08:00.000-04:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #95

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Fall is my favorite time of year. I can think of many wonderful things that just happen to have happened to me in the fall. The birth of my son, the beginning of semesters, new fall clothes, Dona Nobis Pacem in the blogosphere began in the fall..... The season also brings memories of grief and transition. I lost my dad in the fall of 2009. When the air turns to crisp and cool, I think of those last days with him. What does fall remind you of?

1. What is your favorite fall memory?

2. Have you ever fallen in love in the fall?

3. Do you like the current Daylight Savings System when we all "fall back" the clock.

4. Tell us a thing or two you've done by a crackling fire? **we won't tell**

5. Have you ever been apple picking?

6. Do you like to take a walk and play in the fall leaves?

7. Do you and your family have a special fall tradition in your house?

The Queen's Meme #94 ~ The Love Match Meme

2011-09-13T19:50:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #94

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

This week has been wide open. In case you haven't noticed, I tend to meme-blog about those things that are concerning me at the moment. Or making me laugh. Or driving me crazy.

I can't get my mind off a conversation I had with a new guy ~~possible love match maybe kinda sorta we'll see~~ acquaintance this week.

He's conservative. But edgy. Liberal with his opinions. But not haphazardly. Tall. A littttttle younger (I said a "little!") and downright challenging. But in a good way.

The Love Match Meme

1. Which is more important.... romantic chemistry or friendship?

2. Would you date someone who is much taller or shorter than you?
How about older or younger?

3. How soon should you bring up past relationships in a new relationship?

4. What is the one red flag you KNOW from past experience to pay attention to when getting to know a new person?

5. When dating someone, what would you consider the ultimate deal breaker?

6. Tell us about a date you had with someone that went all wrong.

7. Imagine you have a teenage daughter. She just asked you to give your best dating and relationship advice. What will you say?

The Queen's Meme #93 ~ The Strange Stupid Meme

2011-09-05T13:15:00.003-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #93

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Is it just me or is the world getting stranger by the minute? Every time I turn on the news there is some stupidity amongst humans and all living mammals, reptiles, and aliens to report. Do we walk among the insane or do they walk with us? Did you get that? Think about it.....
Answer these questions based on weirdness, unfairness and just plain stupid circumstances. Apparently, stupid is as stupid does. Or is it?

The Strange Stupid Meme

1. According to a news report, Medicare in the US stops plans to stop paying for preventable health problems or complications caused by hospital mistakes, including operations on the wrong person or wrong body part. These mistakes are called "never events." What would you call them?

2. It is the policy of some TV news broadcasters to show automobile wreckage photos as soon as they can possibly get to the scene of the accident. Sometimes the family has not been notified. They get away with it by "not releasing names." How do you feel about this?

3. Did you know that some car dealership service departments charge extra for "shop supplies"? This includes the ever expensive shop rag (retail 99 cents) which can be billed for 10x that much.

Have you ever been ripped off by a car mechanic?

4. In some states, including California, Alaska, Florida and Hawaii, a motorist can be cited for driving too slowly. What would make you drive under the speed limit for a long period of time?

5. In Arkansas the law states: No person shall drive a motor vehicle onto the premises of a drive-in restaurant and leave the premises without parking such motor vehicle, unless there is no unoccupied parking space available on the premises.
Explain this to me. Please.

6. But in Indiana, a horse cannot be ridden or driven on the street in excess of 10 miles per hour.
Do you drive a fast horse?

7. And in the great city of Youngstown, Ohio, you must keep your rats under control.
Do you find this to be a problem in your life?

The Queen's Meme #92 ~ The Happy Hokey Pokey Meme

2011-08-29T19:45:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Sometimes strange and silly questions run through my pencil brain. Don't try to look for connections. There are none. Just have fun answering a non-serious set of 7 royal questions. **We would really appreciate a photograph as evidence for question #6**

1. Who should run for United States President in 2012?

2. Have you ever gone to a party and snooped in the medicine cabinet?

3. Why are Happy Meals happy?

4. Have you ever done the Hokey Pokey?

5. What song sticks in your head and drives you crazy?

6. Do you dance like crazy around the house when no one is looking?

7. Have you ever been involved in a food fight?

The Queen's Meme #91 ~ The Upside Down Question Meme

2011-08-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Questions you say? Today we shall ask questions about..well....questions. I shall pose a question. Your answer must be a question.

Behold your brain-twisting activity for the day.

If you could ask one question of the following .....what would your question be?

1. Your iPod

2. Casey Anthony

3. Your ex's last ex

4. Your pet

5. John Lennon

6. Your great-grandmother on your father's side

7. Your mirror

The Queen's Meme #90 ~ Mimi's Old Memes Meme (and a history of the evolution of memes)

2011-08-16T17:15:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The first meme I ever did was The Book Meme in October 2006, tossed from the Philippines by a blogger named Lizza who turned out to be one of my best online girlfriends ever, even after all these blog years. She received it from a guy in England who talked about his underpants. Eventually I was crowned Mimi Queen of Memes by a man who wore underwear on his head.
But I digress.

The first meme I ever created was The Peace Meme. I asked people to tag 5 other people and we were on a roll. So to speak. Tagging is not so much an internet sport anymore but it sure was back in the baby days of blogging. Then I did the 9 Weird Things Meme in which I attempted to list 9 weird facts about myself. I thought it was scandalous but most people did not think I was weird enough. #1 was "I hate clocks." See? Not weird at all. Boy, have memes come a long way since!

**I know. You're wondering...will she ever get to the point?**

Well, the point is that since I've been revamping my blog, re-labeling, revising, editing photographs and sending some to the dump heap, I came across a gold mine of memes unheard of for years! Back then we listed things a lot. Tell me 3 Things You Did Today, 4 Things You Ate For Breakfast, 5 Things You Want To Say To Your Mother-In-Law etc. After a whole bunch of friendly tagging and whatnot in 2006, finally in January 2007 along came a question meme. I was tagged by Duchess Linda Upon The Thames (who wasn't a Duchess yet), Princess Sanni from Germany and Gemmolina who wrote a blog nobody could pronounce - all at the same time. So I named it "Triple Tagged and Slapped Silly." It was called the Silly Questions Meme.
I've taken one question from each of the first 7question memes I ever did and put them into this meme.

Mimi's Old Memes Meme

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought? (from The Silly Questions Meme)
2. Name something about humanity you absolutely hate. (from The Monday Melee Meme)
3. What was the first lie your mother ever told you? (from Ten Lies My Mother Told Me meme)
4. Name one thing you should never say around a Ouija Board. (from The Ten Things You Should Never Say Around a Ouija Board meme - from Frank @ Honk'n'Hollr)
5. What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? (from the I Think I Caught Something Meme)
6. If a doctor told you today that you were pregnant, what would you say? (The Honesty Meme)
7. Are you in a complicated love situation? (from The Don't Call Me, I'll Call You Meme)

The Queen's Meme #89 ~ The Random Meme

2011-08-09T10:12:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The Random Meme is well...random. Haphazard. No synchronicity. No rhyme or reason. I'm allowed once in awhile to be random. So I looked deep into the recesses of a tired pencil brain today and wrote down the first thing that popped into my head. That's a dangerous proposition.
I hope you enjoy this totally random meme.

1. What is your favorite summertime flower?

2. Are you behind on your blog?

3. What has irritated you the most recently?

4. What was your last Facebook status post?

5. When is the last time you laughed?

6. What can absolutely ruin your day?

7. What is the one thing that always brightens your day?

The Queen's Meme #88 ~ The Phobia Meme

2011-08-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Welcome to the Queen's Meme. I am happy to be back amongst the memesters! I've made up a brand new meme for your memeing entertainment. Let's talk about fears today. A phobia is an irrational fear of something and is classified as an anxiety disorder. Do you know that millions of people are deathly afraid of bugs? That's called entomophobia: a fear of insects. It's a virtual epidemic! I personally have 3 phobias at the moment that I can think of. Motophobia (I'm working on that one), murophobia (fear of rodents) and forgetfulphobia (fear of...of....sorry, I forgot)
I trust you to be honest and not look in the dictionary for the correct answers until after you've completed your ~~assignment~~ meme. Do I have your word of honor? (The correct answers will magically appear on my blog tomorrow)

The Phobia Meme

Why did I stop at 12? Because I'm afraid of the number 13.

That's triskaidekaphobia for all you non-phobia speakers.

Identify these six common (and uncommon) phobias. You can answer rightly if you know the correct answer or spoof them all! Define the following phobias.

1. What is mysophobia?

2. Ailurophobia

3. Technophobia

4. Novercaphobia

5. Dipsophobia

6. Gymnophobia

7. Hippophobia

8. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

9. Lachanophobia

10. Uranophobia

11. Levophobia

12. Make up your own phobia word and explain what you are afraid of.

The Queen's Meme returns Tuesday with a brand new meme!

2011-07-30T08:51:00.004-04:00

Time off prioritizing, recuperating, organizing, re-energizing ~~and flirting with beach gentlemen~~ has been good.
Meet me here Tuesday (Monday for you early birds).

I hear a sand ~~dude~~ dune calling....

The Queen's Meme will Return August 2, 2011

2011-07-11T20:00:00.000-04:00

Be kind to each other while I'm gone or it's the dungeon for you.

Proceeding with caution. Just sayin'..

The Queen's Meme is On Temporary Hold.....

2011-06-21T14:31:00.000-04:00

I am home recuperating from a car accident over the weekend...and being taken care of by some very special friends near and far.
Thank you for all the prayers and love I've already received on my Facebook page and through email.

I need time for bruises - inside and out - to heal.
I need time to process what happened and write about it....just not in an upright position!

The doctor said to watch for "any strange behavior" after a head trauma. I told him they'd better watch for normal behavior. THAT would be out of the ordinary.
See you soon. Back to bed.
P.S. Homer is being nice to me for a change.

The Queen's Meme #87 ~ The Crazy Medical Meme

2011-06-13T18:56:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

(I'm prolific today. There are 9 questions.)

It's time for your annual check up! I always say "knowledge is power" when entering the stressful confines of a doctor's office. I take a pen and paper, armed with questions and a medical encyclopedia at my disposal. My doctor is not amused. Let's see how well you do on the medical exam I have prepared for you.

The Crazy Medical Meme

1. The smallest bone in the human body is about the size of a grain of rice. What is it?

2. How fast is a sneeze?

3. What percentage of the human body is water?

4. True or False: A human's thumb is as long as his or her nose.

5. What should you do if you are bitten by a snake?

6. It is a fact that humans get an entirely new skeleton every 12 years. What do we get every six years?

7. Happiness is directly related to the size of your _________________.

8. If there are 9,000 taste buds on your tongue, how many hairs are on your head right now?

9. I believe that the size of the needle is directly related to the mood of the nurse. However, sometimes it's necessary to get shots. If you could be vaccinated against anything in the world, what would it be?

The Queen's Meme #86 ~ The Cell Phone Meme

2011-06-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Ring Ring! Viiiibbbbbbbrrrrraaattte. Buzzzzzz Buzzzzz

It's Mimi on the line. Electronic gadgets have taken over our lives it seems. I can't go anywhere without seeing someone talking on a cellular phone or fixated on one of the newest toys. Doesn't it annoy you? On the other hand, how did we ever get along without them?
Call or text 1-800-Bloggingham. We'll chat!

#86 The Cell Phone Meme

1. How important is a cell phone in UR life?

2. R U addicted to UR cell phone?

3. R U a texter, an emailer, or a photo sender?

4. In the normal course of a day, about how many times do U touch UR cell phone?

5. R U guilty of distracted driving?

6. What is the 1 app never invented that needs to be made for UR cell phone?

7. What annoys U the most about cell phones these days?

The Queen's Meme #85 ~ The Memory Meme

2011-05-30T20:15:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Since it's Memorial Day in the states, I thought we'd talk about memories today. It is fitting. We all have them. Sometimes they disturb us, oftentimes they make us smile. What kind of memories do you have? And will you share them with us?

The Queen's Meme #85

The Memory Meme

1. Are you someone who keeps memory boxes and makes scrapbooks?

2. What is your most disturbing memory?

3. What is the one thing you will always remember about your childhood?

4. When you drive down memory lane for the last five years of your life, is it a happy journey or a bumpy ride?

5. What is the last thing you memorized?

"Nun's Dream" by Karl Briullov (19th c)

6. Tell us about a dream you remember.

7. On this Memorial Day is there someone you'd like to honor and remember?

The Queen's Meme #84 ~ The Workaday Meme

2011-05-24T19:25:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Let's talk that 4-letter work today: W.O.R.K.

We all have to make a living one way or another. It's a necessary part of life. Sometimes it's good to evaluate where we are and what we want. We spend too much time each day "on the job" to be unhappy. I did a little soul searching today. Join me.

1. Are you in a job/career you always wanted?

2. Do you find you workaday world fulfilling and rewarding?

3. If you could change jobs, what would you do?

4. What about your job irritates you the most?

5. Would you rather have a high pressure meaningful career or a mindless clock-punching job?

6. I believe in the concept of "paying myself first" as in tucking away dollars for emergencies and vacations. If you started a special savings plan and could save a certain amount each week to do something only for yourself, what would that be?

7. What do you think is the hardest paying job on earth?

The Queen's Meme #83 ~ The Weekend Meme

2011-05-16T18:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme!

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Let's talk weekend this week. They seem to go by waaaay too fast these days. I could use a longer break. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the entire world suddenly went to a 4-day work week? I'd vote for that candidate. Do you live for the weekend? Take a moment to answer my ~~nosy~~ meme questions.

1. What is your favorite weekend activity?

2. How does the weather affect your weekend plans? Does it matter?

3. When does your weekend start and when does it end?

4. Can you recommend a good weekend getaway place?

5. Do you spend weekends alone or with other people?

6. What would your fantasy weekend look like?

7. Do you have any special weekend rituals?

Now get back to work. It's almost Monday! Leave it to me to spoil your weekend...

The Queen's Meme #82 ~ The Wheel of Fortune Meme

2011-05-09T19:40:00.001-04:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The Wheel of Fortune Meme #82

You are a contestant on the game show Wheel of Fortune.
Take a spin. Buy a vowel. Shout out a consonant. Solve the puzzle!
Play it straight or spoof it. The puzzles and questions are all about blogging. But first!
Introduce yourself to the studio audience.
"Hello Pat! My name is __________. I'm from ________ and I work as a __________. I have ____ lovely _______and ______ wonderful ____________ in the audience with me today."

Let's begin with a Toss Up for $2,000.....

1. Place for links:__ ___ D E ___ ____ R

Wildcard Question: How long has Vanna White been on the show?

2. To keep you out of Bankruptcy: P __ Y __ E ___ P ___ S T

3. Where the blog title goes: H ___ A ___ E ____

4. Oops..you lost a turn. Name at least one thing you need to do on your blog while you're waiting for the big wheel to come back around again.

5. What I love my readers to do: _____ O M _____ _____ N ___!

6. Where the old stuff goes: A ___ C ___ ___ ____ E

7. You are the highest scoring contestant and get to play the bonus round.
Final spin for the $35,000 cash prize:
Just like the real game, use the letters RSTLN and E, three more consonants, and a vowel to say anything you'd like about blogging.

Good luck!

The Queen's Meme #81 ~ The Elevator Meme

2011-05-03T18:14:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

This week we are going on a very short trip inside a very small space. In fact, we are going to make several stops along the way. Ding! Step inside the elevator. You will visit seven floors. Be prepared to face the question and/or situation when the door opens on...

The Elevator Meme
Going UP!
Oh, one more thing. You must answer the questions in the order given. The reason will become clear on the last question.

Psst! I hope none of you are claustrophobic.

1st Floor: When the door opens you are faced with a crowd of people staring at you wiggling and jiggling around trying to make room for you to fit inside with them. But you must have the elevator all to yourself to finish this meme (by order of The Queen!)
Make up a story that will make them all leave.

2nd. Floor: Now that you are alone and laughing at your lying wicked ways, choose your elevator ambiance and music. What does your Party Elevator look like?

3rd Floor: You decide to push the CLOSE button repeatedly because you want more time inside to yourself and besides...it's fun (!) and you're in charge of your Elevator Universe. Finally, you realize you must open the door. You are faced with a pregnant woman about to give birth and a very angry man pushing her wheelchair. Do you let them on or do you shut the door and leave them stranded once again?

4th Floor: An obviously wealthy woman shares your space to the next floor. She is rude, condescending and reeks of expensive perfume. Her over-sized wide brimmed hat keeps smacking you in the face. As she steps out, a $100 bill accidentally falls from her purse. Do you keep it or do you return it?

5th Floor: Ding! Oh joy! In steps the last person who broke your heart or someone you seriously dislike. The elevator gets stuck for 30 minutes. It is going to be a very long ride. What do you say or do?

6th Floor: No one gets on the elevator. You are alone again. You decide to make a prank phone call to one person. Why not? No one can see or hear you. Who do you call and what do you say?

7th Floor: Just before you arrive on the 7th floor you notice that there is a hidden camera on the elevator that has been videotaping your every word and deed since the 1st floor lie began. The door opens and there stands a police officer. Which one of the people in the previous questions do you stop and pick up on your way back down who would vouch for your good character? (You may not go back and change your answers to any of the questions. Whatever you did, you're stuck. So to speak.)

The Queen's Meme #80 ~ The Royal Wedding Pain Meme

2011-04-26T11:20:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday
#80 The Royal Wedding Pain Meme

I am grumpy because I've not received an invitation from Prince William and Kate Middleton to attend their upcoming nuptials in London. I'm sure it's been lost in the mail but that doesn't ease my anxiety. If it doesn't arrive soon I'll be forced to crash the event and that would be most undignified indeed - even for me! And since I'm being a royal pain in the patootie today, you may replace any of the questions you don't like with a new question. Just humor me.
Please.

1. If you received an invitation to the Royal Wedding, who would you take with you and why?

2. If the Prince and his fiancee had a blog, what would the title be?

3. Are you going to watch The Royal Wedding between Prince William and Catherine "Kate" Middleton this week?

4. Imagine you only have $5.00 and you must buy a wedding gift for them. What would you buy?

5. What day-to-day marital advice would you give the couple?

Prince William seen here with his father, Prince Charles, as William is installed as a Knight of The Garter.
What other woman can say she has a man with those credentials, huh?

6. You have been employed as the caterer for the reception at Buckingham Palace.
What are you serving?

7. This is the Royal Wedding Route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. What location is missing? You must add a location along the way that you feel is a must stop for the couple before they get married.

I'll see you there!
I hope.

The Queen's Meme #79 ~ The Give and Take Meme

2011-04-18T22:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

#79 The Give and Take Meme

We've all been givers. We've all been takers. Is it better to give than to receive? Hmmm.....always a question up for debate. Depends on the circumstance I suppose. Who wrote that line anyway? Quite possibly the person who didn't get what he gave. Or maybe a selfless soul full of true righteousness. Maya Angelou wrote that "giving liberates the soul of the giver." I would tend to agree. Another favorite quote of mine on the subject is by Khalil Gibran: "Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need."
What are our motivations for giving? And what, pray ye, will ye take? That is my question.

Why am I suddenly speaking Quakerish?

I'd better get on with this meme.

1. IS it better to give than to receive?

2. Can you name a special or unique gift you've received? What made it special to you?

3. What does it mean to "give of yourself?"

4. Tell us something you once took that you wish you could give back.

5. Have you ever been robbed of something that changed the course of your life?

6. If you could give one thing to the people that you love most and give it in abundance, what would it be?

7. When is the last time you GAVE yourself a good talking to?

I will leave you with one of our brightest minds on the subject of giving, Albert Einstein. He wrote:

Albert Einstein: Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

Wise man that Albert.

The Queen's Meme #78 ~ The Spring Done Sprung Meme

2011-04-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #78

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Today we are discussing the wonders of Spring. But it's not all about blooming flowers and Easter cards this time. Just a simple play on words with a twisted smack of alliteration and snark thrown in. You know, the usual. Now do me a favor and add your smack to the smack.

1. What about spring ticks you off the most?

2. How many blooming idiots have you met lately?

3. If spring springs early when you're in the middle of a spring fling, does that mean you must flung 'em out of your life early or can it wait until summer comes?

4. If you could toss one thing or person out the window during your annual spring cleaning, who would it be?

5. Do you have seasonal defective disorder?

6. If you left the windows open on a cool spring night, what would the neighbors see?

7. Name your most potent allergens during this season of (achoo!) bliss.

**photo Public Domain**

The Queen's Meme #77 ~ The Grocery Meme

2011-04-05T16:37:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #77

Seven Royal Questions on Tuesdays

The Grocery Store Meme

The last time I went grocery shopping I came home with way too much chocolate. It wasn't supposed to be that way. I went for mangoes. But the chocolate kept calling my name.

1. Do you make a list when you go grocery shopping?

2. Do you buy more groceries when you're hungry?

3. Coupons. Use 'em?

4. Have you ever complained to the manager of your grocery store?

5. Do you like to buy groceries at huge chain stores like WalMart? Or do you shop exclusively at food stores?

6. How much time do you spend reading labels in the grocery store?

7. Do you push your own grocery cart to the car and return it?

8. What is the one food item you always buy at the grocery store that you can't live without?

The Queen's Meme #76 ~ The Prissy Meme

2011-03-28T17:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #76

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The Prissy Meme

Many things have been said about me. Some are true. Some are lies. Some are fair. Some are sinister. But there is one indisputable not-so-secret secret about Yours Truly. I love being a girl.
That is a fact.

I know what you're thinking, guys. You can't possibly do a prissy meme even on threat of dungeon duty. Not to fear. And quite frankly, unless you're a metrosexual and want to talk about yourself, you can still answer this meme about the females in your life. So let's powder up and get on with the makeover.
(**warning** I couldn't stop at 7 questions this week)

1. What is your favorite lipstick color and why?

2. How long does it take you to get ready to go to work in the morning?

3. Do you have your nails professionally done? Mani? Pedi?

4. Tell us about your latest spa experience - real or imagined.

5. Is there something you'd like to change about your appearance? Would you ever have cosmetic surgery?

6. How do you take care of your skin?

7. Tell us your secrets for vibrant, shiny, healthy-looking hair.

8. What is your favorite fragrance?

9. Everyone has a certain color they love to wear. What is yours?

10. Do you have ink?

11. How would you describe your personal style?

Comment here or below!

The Queen's Meme #75 ~ The Mimi Moon Meme

2011-03-22T18:12:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme
7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

#75 The Mimi Moon Meme

The SuperMoon graced the Universe Saturday evening! Since it was a much publicized worldwide event, I thought that we as global blogging citizens should share in the telling from our respective corners of the world. And if you didn't happen out this weekend to have some lunar fun, play along anyway. I'm sure I can think of SOMEthing to ask of relevance. And besides, the lunar phase has made me antsy to do a little dungeon throwing. I haven't in a long time.
Can you moon the walk or just talk the talk?

Do your best, my friends.

Do your best.

Your future depends on it.

There's a bad moon rising.

1. Did you take a picture of the moon SuperMoon Saturday evening?
If so, please post it. If not, steal one and post it.

2. Have you ever howled at the moon?

3. Do you believe that feelings and emotions are affected by the changes in lunar phases? (ie: children misbehave, lovers misbehave, tempers fly)

4. In the language of astronomy, the two extremes of the moon are called ''apogee'' (far away) and ''perige" (nearby). Who or what would you like to be apogee and who/what perige?
(Crikey! I can now talk moon talk!)

5. Name a famous moon walker.

6. Scientists claim there is no relation whatsoever between a Supermoon and natural disasters. Yet we have experienced tsunamis and earthquakes in the last 7 days on Earth. Do you believe them?

7. Creedence Clearwater Revival sang about the evil of the moon.
Is there a Bad Moon Rising in your life?

moon photo: Public domain

The Queen's Meme #74 ~ The Disaster Meme

2011-03-14T20:15:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #74

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Have you ever wondered how ready you would be if disaster struck your home or your town? Are you prepared for it? The horrific events in Japan this week and my own mini-disaster at home (of little consequence in comparison) caused me to start thinking about maintaining my Emergency Kit. I actually made one after 9-11 for Bloggingham and made kits for my parents and members of my family. Let's see how ready you are. Here's a link to The US Department of Homeland Security FEMA just in case you need it.

According to FEMA: A disaster supplies kit is a collection of basic items that members of a household may need in the event of a disaster.

1. How many days worth of food, water and supplies do you need in your Emergency Kit?

2. You should prepare supplies for home, work, and vehicle.
What item do you need in your car that is not needed at home?

3. If you are evacuated from your workplace.
You grab your "grab and go" bag. What is in it?

4. How many gallons of water should each person in your household need for 3 days?

5. Tell us your favorite non-perishable food items.

6. How much cash are you going to hide in your emergency disaster kit?

7. Do you have a basic emergency plan developed for you and your family? Have you written it down, practiced and discussed it? Does everyone know where the emergency supplies are?

The Queen's Meme #73 ~ The Green Meme

2011-03-08T09:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #73

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

We will attempt to "go green" here on the Queen's Meme blog today. Even I'm green. Even Mr. Linky is green! (don't tell him) I am woefully ashamed of my non-green status in this country and wish to do better. Recyling is not my forte unless we're talking fingernails. Let's find out how green we really are. I went to this website and was SHOCKED to learn that not only am I un-American and globally unwise in this regard, but I deserve to be smacked with a non-toxic noodle as well. I hate pain. I'd rather reform. Shall we?

The Green Meme

How green are you?

1. Do you recycle?
2. Have you ever hung clothes on a line instead of using the clothes dryer?
3. Do you walk or bike to work to save energy?
4. Do you use a water filter for your tap water or do you buy bottled water?

5. How many trees do you kill each year buying new books?

6. Have you ever considered recycling your cellphone?

7. All you need are a few simple non-toxic ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, lemon, and soap to clean your home. Are you willing to throw away the bottled chemicals?

**Remember! March 26, 2011 is Earth Hour!** I'll be asleep.

The Queen's Meme #72 ~ Return To Sender Meme

2011-03-01T19:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #72

I've been on a short hiatus due to illness but glad to be back! Now that I've returned, let's talk about returns. Why not? I'll bet you have a lot to say about that. I know I do!

1. When is the last time you returned a library book?

2. Is there anyone you'd like to see return to your life?

3. Have you finished your income tax return?

4. Do you ever return things to the store for refund, credit or exchange? Have you had a bad experience with customer service over this issue? Tell us your story.

5. You would like to see your favorite movie named The Return of ___________________.

6. Is there something you're still waiting to be returned to you?

7. You are in a canyon. On the other side stands your beloved. You stand and shout something to him/her making a large echo. What do you want to hear in return?

8. If you could turn back and go in the reverse direction in your life, making things better for yourself and those you love, how would your journey begin?

The Queen's Meme #71 ~ The SuperBowl Meme

2011-02-08T19:12:00.001-05:00

**I had this scheduled to post early this morning and Blogger once again reverted it to draft. Sorry. I wish they would fix that bug.**
Welcome to the Queen's Meme #71

It's a meme about sports!

(**1919 Green Bay Packers**)

Now that the Superbowl is over, I thought it would be fun to take a little football quiz. I already declare failure but that is beside the point. There are many things about football that endear me to the game. Men in tight pants come to mind, ballet moves, food and music. What could be better?

1. In football, the "ball" is not round. Does this concern you?

2.Can you decipher just one of the sideline hand signals?

3. What did you think of the halftime show?

4. I do not understand why it is so important to knock people down if the object of the game is to get back up and run with the ball. Wouldn't it be simpler to just toss it back and forth and see who could catch it first?

5. What is a down?

6. Besides the obvious testosterone flying around (ladies) and the cheerleaders in short skirts (gentlemen) what else about the game of football fascinates you?

7. If you could add a rule to the game, what would it be?

The Queen's Meme #70 ~ The Afterlife Meme

2011-02-01T21:15:00.001-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #70

The AfterLife Meme

Put on your pondering hat today. Let's get serious, silly and philosophical all in the same meme.

1. Have you ever seen an angel? If not, do you believe in them?

2. Tell us a real ghost story. Ever seen one?

3. Have you ever had a near-death experience?

4. It is midnight in Heaven. You have just arrived. You are told that you can choose any kind of "Heaven" you want. What would that be?

5. You have come back to Earth as something or someone else. Describe that entity.

6. It is your first morning in Hades. What fascinating aspect of the underworld will you visit first?

7. Scientists have just created a new pill that induces immediate immortality. You can live forever! What are you going to do with the rest of your life?

The Queen's Meme #69 ~ The Board Game Meme

2011-01-25T19:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #69

Are you bored? Well I'm about to perk you up with a few board game questions. Ever played Pick Up Stix? It's a blast. My brothers and I used to play every weekend at my aunt's house. Pretend you're 12, pop a big bowl of popcorn, stretch out on the carpet or set up the card table and let's play! Oh, BTW... These are my games and my rules. Just so ya know...

1. Twister

Who would you like to get your arms and legs tangled up with?

2. Monopoly

You have just landed on Boardwalk and collected a nice sum in rent payments.

Which Monopoly token do you want to be when you grow up?

3. Candyland

This game is based on The Legend of The Lost Candy Castle. Did you know that? The object of the game is to reach the Candy Castle. But in my game, the object is to avoid the dungeon that is in the Candy Castle. You must swim through the Ice Cream Sea to be victorious.
What is your flavor?

4. Operation
You are the surgeon. You have the tweezers in your hand. It is time to remove the most irritating person or thing in your life.
What is the name of this organ?

5. Sorry!

I often say that success is the best revenge. Lucky for you!
Sorry! is a game of sweet revenge.

What is your strategy for success today?

6. Wheel of Fortune!

It's your spin. You have just landed on a surprise vacation package.
It's yours if you can name the destination with 3 vowels and 2 consonants.

7. Clue

Miss Scarlet (that's you) is in the Library with the knife. Who did she kill and why?

The Queen's Meme #68 ~ Music Meme 101

2011-01-18T10:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #68.

It's called the Basic Music Theory Meme 101

It's simple! Answer the questions and/or identify the following very basic music symbols and tell us what you think they mean. You can answer correctly (don't peek in the dictionary!) or you can spoof 'em. I'm talking to you, Coopernicus. Can you snark something this academic?

1. What is the symbol above called?

2. Imagine you are playing saxophone and suddenly see the symbol above in your music score. What do you do?

3. And this ornate object is???

4. Are these two rests equal or unequal in value?

5. Name at least 2 things missing from the Treble and Bass clef show below that would be seen in an actual piece of music.

6. Why is the treble clef above always getting in trouble? What is wrong with it?

7. What is the name of this note?

8. What is the key signature in the piece of music below?

BONUS! The correct answer will keep you out of the dungeon for awhile.

9. What is the last note on a piano keyboard?

The Queen's Meme #67 ~ The Strange January Meme

2011-01-11T11:02:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #67.

It's called The Strange January Meme.

There are some strange traditions associated with this month, many of those noted here are British customs, however, strange customs hail from every corner of the globe. Help me decipher the January mysteries of the Universe below. And I sincerely hope you remembered to bake a cake for the cow.

1. January usually has ample amounts of snowfall in parts of the world. Did you ever make snow cream as a kid?

2. January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. The name comes from the Latin word ianua meaning door and is named after the god of the doorway, Janus.
Is there a particular door you'd like to step through this year?

3. January is one of the months with 31 days. What are you going to do with that extra day?

4. In medieval times superstition dictated that the 1st day of January was significant for prosperity, or lack of it, in a person's life. Farmers put a flat cake on the horns of a cow and they danced and sang songs around the cow until the cake was thrown to the ground. If it fell in front of the cow that meant good luck; it if fell behind the cow that meant bad luck for the rest of the year.
Do you have strange New Year customs in your household?

5. Did you know that it's unlucky to see the first new moon of the year through a window? You should, instead, look through a new silk handkerchief! Did you remember to do this?

6. On January 14, 1986 motorists were required for the first time to wear seat belts?
Do you always buckle up? Why or why not?

7. If you are single and want to find a mate, legend has it that on January 20th you should walk backwards up the stairs to bed. If you don't have a staircase you should recite The Lord's Prayer while transferring pins from a pin cushion to your sleeve.
I couldn't find a male ritual to attract women.
Make one up.

Europa and the Bull by Gustave Moreau, watercolour, c. 1869. Public domain

The Queen's Meme #66 ~ The 2011 Meme

2011-01-03T20:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #66. We're all about ones today in the year of the ones. Do the math.

1. What were you doing at 1:11 am on 1/1/11?

2. Did you watch the New Year's Eve hoopla on television at midnight or did you make your own hoopla?

3. I know this is a tired meme question and really should be retired, but can you tell us just ONE of your New Year's resolutions?

4. What was the one greatest lesson you learned in 2010.

5. Can you recall a news story from 2010 that affected you greatly and/or personally?

6. If you could have just one thing in 2011, what would it be?

7. Pick an age: 20 or 11. Which one was best for you and why?

The Queen Is On Vacation This Week

2010-12-26T19:31:00.000-05:00

She went to Never Neverland with a very tall adorable man in a uniform...oh, read it here yourself.

Returning Tuesday, January 4 in the new year of 2011 with a brand new meme for you.

Meanwhile for me....second left and straight on til morning.

Happy New Year! See you in a few days!

Merry Christmas from The Queen

2010-12-25T14:51:00.002-05:00

From my castle to yours....
May your day be filled with peace and love

Mimi

The Mimi Boop Meme (Shhh...It's really the Queen's Meme #65 in scandalous disguise)

2010-12-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #65. Yes, you're in the right place. I just changed costumes for the week. It's Christmas. I'm allowed. And anyway, I had to send my Queen frock out to the cleaners for the New Year's Eve Party at Bloggingham. I'm going as Betty Boop (it's a Hallo-Christmas theme) and wanted to see if you approved of my red new dress. Yes? I've been practicing my Poo-Poo-Pi-Doo all week just for the occasion.

I wrote this meme on Mimi Writes in 2008.

I thought a resurrection at Christmas would be a nice touch. Enjoy!There are only 5 days left 'til Christmas. I don't know about you but if I hear Brenda Lee sing "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" one more time on the drive into work, I'm going to go blostal (that's blog + postal for all you non -blog speakers.) So I thought I'd spice things up a bit and burst out of a stocking. So to speak. It's worked for Betty Boop all these years, why not me? She's a cross between my hero, Scarlett O'Hara (I met her once here and here) and yours truly but with less clothes on. At least in public. And besides, she really knows how to wear a pencil skirt.

A girl could learn a lot from Betty Boop.

The Mimi Boop Meme
Take it and tag it.
Tempting, eh..?

1. I am good when I _________.

2. I am naughty when I ________.

3. The world would be a better place if people would Deck the Halls with ______ of _____instead of ______ of _________.

4. Have you ever snuck into the living room in the middle of the night, unwrapped your gifts and wrapped them back just to see what was under the Christmas tree for you? Come on.....you can tell me.

Sidenote: I've always wanted to know what really goes on in the Gingerbread House after dark. I've never seen any cookies come out of that place. Have you?

5. Have you ever been stuck in a chimney?

6. Who would you like to stuff in a stocking and why?

7. Could you name the 12 ~~Disciples~~ Days of Christmas, the 3 ~~Musketeers~~ Wise Men and all of Santa's ~~medications~~ Reindeer if your life depended on it? OK wiseguy. Prove it.

8. On the 13th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me ____________??

9. Imagine that Santa Claus really does exist for a moment. (I can say that this week. Baby Boy is not listening right now ) Anyway, if the Big Guy could grant you any wish, what would your most hedonistic and self-centered wish be? (You can say it. I won't tell. I'm Mimi Boop today.)

10. When you make your list, do you check it twice and find out who's been naughty or nice or do you just get everybody a box of chocolate covered cherries and call it a day?

If you're reading this meme, consider yourself tagged. That is my Christmas present to you!! And don't try to hide from me. I see you.....

I'll see ya later. I'm busy trying to wiggle and stuff myself into a Christmas stocking without breaking a vital organ. So far one leg is in and all systems are go. This gig is perfect for me! I need only invade half of the stocking. Now if I could just figure out which half. And besides, I'm booped!

The Queen's Meme #64 ~ The Forgetful Meme

2010-12-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

Sometimes silly. Sometimes serious.

#64 is aptly called The Forgetful Meme

I would try to describe the premise in my usual royal manner but I've forgotten how.

1. What is the last thing you forgot to do?

2. What is the one thing you are always afraid you will forget to do?

3. Can you remember when you were 3 years old?

If so, tell us a cute story. If not, make one up.

4. Fill in the blank. I would like to forget _________________ but I will always remember _____________about this person.

5. Fill in the blank. I will never forget the first time I ____________________.

6. Who, in your opinion, is the world's forgotten hero?

7. Find a word that rhymes with forget and use it to write a funny sentence.

The Queen's Meme #63 ~ The Frivolous Christmas Meme

2010-12-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #63

Let's talk Christmas. I'm in a naughty and nice mood. Some are one-word answers, others need a little explanation. Feel free to elaborate when the blog spirit moves ya. And above all else...Have fun!

1. Amazon.com or the Mall
2. Bows or ribbons
3. Expensive or sale tags
4. Long list or short
5. Wrapped packages or gift bags
6. Eggnog or vodka
7. Have you finished your shopping?
8. A Christmas Carol or The Bible Story
9. Are you Scrooge or Santa's Helper?
10. Did you ever catch Santa Claus in the act?
11. Tell me about your Christmas tree...gotta pic?

12. Christmas carols or Rock Station
13. Do you believe in Elves?
14. I am looking for Santa. Describe him for me.

15. Do you leave cookies out or bourbon?
16. White lights or multi-colored
17. Wreaths on the doors, windows, outside?
18. Who are the 3 wisest wise men in your life?
19. Is Christmas religious or commercial for you?
20. Ever kiss under the mistletoe?
21. Stars or angels on top of the tree
22. Who deserves to get a lump of coal for Christmas and why?
23. Who is #7 in the 12 Days of Christmas song?
24. Snail mail cards or e-cards
25. What do you want for Christmas?

And remember....Santa Claus (and Mimi) are watching you. Be good now!

The Queen's Meme #62 ~ The Crazy Question Meme

2010-11-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #62 ~

Sometimes silly. Sometimes serious.

It's called The Crazy Question Meme

I would be ever so appreciative if you could supply me with the answers to these questions. I've pondered them my whole life!! They represent some of the most important quandaries of the human condition! The burning ~~and ridiculous~~ questions are....

1. Why doesn't McDonald's sell hotdogs?

2. How far east can you go before heading west?

3. What happens to the missing socks?

4. Does love = sex or does sex = love?

5. How much wood did the woodchuck chuck?

6. Why do prison buses have emergency exits?

7. Do you believe that an alien ship stole question #7?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

I've decided to eat dessert first this year.

Join me!

The Queen's Meme #61 ~ The Silly Serious Thanksgiving Meme

2010-11-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #61 ~ The Silly Serious Thanksgiving Meme!

In Canada, it is celebrated on the second Monday in October. In the United States, the fourth Thursday in November. Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest, loved ones near and far, the blessing of simply breathing everyday. Let's pause for a moment and think about what we're thankful for. My goal this year is to focus on the small things that I should be grateful for - even without a holiday looming. Having said that, this is serious and silly simultaneously!
Enjoy. Have seconds!

1. If you knew this would be the last Thanksgiving holiday with your family, what would you do differently?

2. What is your favorite Thanksgiving dinner dish?

3. Why did John Smith fall in love with Pocahontas? Was it her beauty or her bravery?

4. Fill in the blank: Over the river and through the woods to ________________ 's blog we go.

5. What is a cornucopia?
A. A foot ailment B. Freud's hidden coping strategy C. a Enuch with a very large vocabulary D. third cousin of Onomatopoeia

6. Find a word that rhymes with Thanksgiving

7. Do you have any holiday traditions you'd like to share with us?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Queen's Meme celebrates #60 ~ The 60 Meme

2010-11-15T15:44:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #60!

Since we are having a meme birthday I thought I'd wax celebratory. Do you mind?

Let's walk in the footsteps of one Mark Twain, who said..."
"When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not."

So imagine you're 60 even if you're not and answer the questions.

Please.

There will be cake.

I promise.

1. When I'm 60 I hope to know more about ____________ and less about __________.

2. At my 60th birthday party, I can only invite 3 people. They are....

3. "To me old age is always fifteen years older than I am" said Bernard Baruch.
What do you consider old age?

4. Tom Stoppard was overheard saying, "Age is a high price to pay for maturity."
What does "maturity" mean to you at any age?

5. Joan Rivers said "Looking fifty is great… if you're sixty."
Do you worry about age lines and wrinkles?
How do you plan to preserve your wonderful selves?

6. Comment on this quote by Euripides
"If we could be twice young and twice old we could correct all our mistakes."

7. Pablo Picasso said, "One starts to get young at the age of sixty and then it's too late."
What do you do now to stay young and enjoy your life?

I told you there would be cake.

The Queen's Meme #59 ~ The Fire Meme

2010-11-09T17:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #59

It's on fire!

And in the words of Steven Wright.. "I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place."

I guess not! Answer these simply seething questions on the subject of fire.
It could be quite revealing. If it gets too hot far ya, just Stop Drop and Roll. We'll wait.

The Fire Meme

1. You are stranded on a desert island. There is only one match left in the matchbox.
What would you use it for?

2. Do you burn bridges in relationships?

3. Name one thing you'd like to set on fire today.

4. Have you ever burned a cupcake?

5. If you had your choice and could change nature's ways, instead of smoke and lava, what should spew out of volcanoes?

6. When is the last time you used a Fire Extinguisher?

7. Have you ever known anyone with a fiery uncontrollable temper? How did you handle it?

8. You are with your significant other. What song are you singing around the campfire?

9. What is the one thing you'd gladly leave IN your house in case of fire.

10. When is the last time you got fiery fighting mad?

11. Do you believe in hell?

12. Do you or have you ever smoked?

**Thanks to all who blogged for peace in last week's BlogBlast For Peace. You were amazing.**

Dona Nobis Pacem ~ Write On My Heart Every Word

2010-11-04T17:59:00.002-04:00

When my Papa was middle-aged, he found the love of his life.

She was my grandmother. And through the years I was privileged enough to watch them live out that love right in front of me. While they surely had struggles and bumps like everyone else, they had something else too. What was it?

I am pleased to report that I don’t know.

But I saw it when he looked at her.
And I heard it in his laugh.

I learned what to expect from men in my faraway future by watching him treat her with respect, with dignity, with never-ending fascination. I learned what a real man worth his salt in this world should look like, should act like, should be. For all her many quirks and eccentricities and no matter how many times the wigs flew off or the cigarette dipped in the morning coffee cup, he gifted her with unwavering love and devotion. Sometimes it was eye-rolling twinkled-eyed devotion - but devotion nonetheless.
She was and would always be the love of his life.

There were many things about my beloved grandmother that could-make-a-preacher-cuss (some might say I inherited some of that cussability factor) and many differences in the way they went about coping with their worlds and dealing with people - she, a colorful and semi-raucous individual with a sly and wrinkle nosed glance, a hopeless and rather comical hypochondriac and a penchant for high heels and gentle dancing. He, a protective bear of a man at every turn, confident, happy and a hopeful sufferer of legitimate ailment, yet incapable of feeling anything but gratitude for each day he lived, whether or not he was in pain and more than determined to make her imaginary illnesses tolerable by ministering to her every need even when we all knew that the bat of her eyelash was more for his benefit than needed salve for any ailment. It wasn’t in his nature to argue with the beautiful and whimsy creature he called wife.

She was a character foreign to his outward way of living but crucial to his inward way of loving.

The inward was always more important to my Papa.
They were delicately and diametrically different.
All of that disappeared the minute she looked across the table at him. I saw it many times.
She never smiled at him; she smiled into him. He smiled into her.
What WAS that?

I am happy to report that I do not know.

All I know is.....
You don’t know you have it until you’ve got it.
You don’t know you don't have it until you’ve got it.
You don’t know you need it….until you don’t.
Enter gothic grandmother and a tall praying man in a fine starched shirt and matching hat.

It occurred to me this week in preparation for peace week that as much as I’ve focused on what my Papa and those marvelous marbles have taught me in my spirit and heart since this whole peace globe movement began and how the whole blessed thing is in reality based on NOTHING I can logically explain and how it was birthed with the little girl in my heart who missed her grandfather ….and wanted to honor his influence in my life, that really, in essence, the entire scope of the peace globe movement is based on coincidences of random occurrences that blossomed into a cohesive ball of fire and substance - much like their relationship, much like their example, much like their love.

I wrote a post. I made a graphic. I found the earth marble made by my Papa in the 1920s.
I write a story. I tell it to you. You tell it to others. A movement begins.
And it makes perfect sense, no?

Like the round agate blue earth ball in the middle of the wooden bowl I love so much, there is a never-endingness in the idea that when one story, one idea, one truth touches the global heart of man, as many of you write on this day every year, it spontaneously perpetuates into all manner of mutated species and cultures, blind to the differences, tolerant of the language barriers, spinning wildly out of control on the same blue rock we call planet Earth. It still maintains the composite structure of rocks and of people and of Earth, building strength as it cohesively binds to the next rock and the next rock and one after that.
Until finally there is nothing but a big blue rock of all that is, hopefully, peaceful and good.

Somehow in a roundabout collision course of uncanny coincidences from start to finish, it makes perfect sense and it makes no sense at all. And on a personal level it seems the salty lessons are engraved on my heart in reams so deeply true that I can’t tell where one memory ends and another begins.
And that’s just it.

The most eternally rich experiences in life make no sense at all.

If I knew how to explain it all in scientific cosmic terms that make sense, I would. I would tell you why it is that out of my pen keeps spinning tales of a life that began nearly a century ago and speak to me now …I would tell you how that came to be if I knew how to do so.

I am pleased to report that I do not.

And really. Why do I want to mess with a perfectly imperfect chain of events that led me here…to one of the happiest places in the span of my life?

And then I remembered the Cokesbury.

And the song.

What WAS that song?

I've had that book on my mind for days. Where is it? What have I done with it? What does it have to do with peace globes? Here I sit on another Dona Nobis Pacem Eve and have not finished my own post. It is perfect imperfection! Again! Four hours 'til the stroke of midnight and I have a half-baked peace post. When the muse stops speaking, I stop writing. That is how it is in my pen-shaped pencil skirt world.
So this afternoon while Australia and New Zealand blogged peace on the other side of the world, their fearless leader went outside to pick a few wild pink mums. I had visions of hippie flowers in my hair and silliness for BlogBlast For Peace Day.

The muse had another idea.

The song...the song....Something about moving along and being tempted and tried and it had a certain predictable lilt that made you want to know more and yet somehow you knew there would be no answers really and that the same song would be sung next Sunday in the very church you see here by the same out-of-tune grandmother and all would be right with her out-of-tune world.

I decided to find the hymnal.

So I went downstairs to a box of music books and fished it out from the dust of funeral services gone by. It was Papa's personal copy. I ran my fingers across the inside cover scribbled with the name of a man who could not sing above a mumble. And I remembered…and heard the music....and remembered. The smell of the wooden pews. The polish. The carpet. The altar. The tinny tuned piano. How joyfully my grandmother stood in the little country church you see here and held that proud brown Cokesbury with his name in it. She was an “alto“ and proud of it. On the back row. Middle. She sang. And sang. And sang. And even as I use that term loosely in her dearly departed presence I remember how she made me learn to read shape notes. It made her happy. It made my piano teacher crazy. It didn't matter. Nobody could sing as badly and with as much joy as my grandmother. Truly. (don't tell her I said that) Oh I knew I'd get a rap on my knuckles from my teacher. It didn't matter. I'd rather have my grandmother's joy.

Opening the leather-bound 1939 "Favorite Books and Hymns" I sang the song.

There it was. Page 38.

I laid Bloggingham's flowers on the page.

"Farther along we'll know all about it. Farther along we'll understand why. Cheer up my brother. Live in the sunshine. We'll understand it. All by and by."

NOW I remember why that song bothered me so. Who wants to wait to understand? Sigh. I found it uninspiring... so....so....depressing. Yes, that's it. Depressing. Except for one thing.

My grandmother. She always smiled through the whole thing. Every square sour note. Like there was some secret between the tempteds and trieds and the toils of the wicked verse that I just didn't get.
What WAS that?

I am happy to report that I do not know.

But I'm betting she did. Maybe I was more than a little irritated that she could grin through natural spiritual disasters and I couldn't. Who wants to "cheer up and live in the sunshine" when the world is falling apart?

Certainly not moody Mimi.

I was a serious child. When things worth being serious about show up in my world, I tend to be a serious adult. And I see the enormous challenges we face as a global community. I know you do too. As a people struggling to live in peace with one another on the world stage of mismatched choirs, fearful that this great blue earth ball of dirt and water we inhabit will one day implode under the weight of it all…we are perpetual experts at the struggle. It is sobering. I understood Grandmother's song better than she thought. We are brilliant at round tabling. We are bodacious builders of peace-seeking strategies. PowerPoint pacifism. Stupendously adept at the fine fine art of peace-building on paper.

We fail miserably at retreat.

We run screaming from surrender.

We don't want to believe in anything we can't see, smell, touch and understand.
I understood that grandmother couldn't sing.
I understood that I hated that dreary song.
I understood that grandmother understood that there was no rhyme or reason in her Pollyanna philosophy.
And I understood that it mattered not one iota to her.

I wondered why....why the winks and smiles in church...why the knowing nods between the two of them.....why the certainty that every uncertainty known to man was a certain source of their joy. They didn't need to understand why.

I was certain of that.

My grandmother couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. But she thought she could. And when she would sing in the old country church choir, it would make my ears hurt (Don’t tell her I said that).
But Papa didn’t mind. He couldn’t sing either. And to him, her voice was as beautiful as her face…or her Hollywood sunglasses, her long dark hair under the hats they shared or the strange strange way their unlikely union seemed to jell into one - despite her minor-keyed world of wigs and harmonies unknown to man.

He learned to surrender.

No. I take that back.

He loved to surrender.

And that is the word we must put before any attempt at laying down of arms

We have to teach each other not how to unmake war but how to remake peace. Because truly, if we believe that words are powerful and if we believe those incredible words of Mother Teresa’s about how peace is unattainable because we have simply forgotten that we belong to each other, then we wouldn’t have to think at the think tank of perpetual peace talks at all.
We could just step out of struggle and live in the shiny world of Cheer up my Brother and actually live in the sunshine.
All it takes is a life force on this planet willing to take the first step.
And show the other side that trust is not only a scary thing, but the only way.

Which brings me back to my grandfather's Cokesbury Worship Hymnal.

I needed to trust the muse.

The last time he held this book in his hands was the Sunday before he died. In the back of the book there are Responsive Readings. He often led the congregation in those readings. I could not get that book off my brain this week. I needed to find it. After I brought it upstairs, sang from the shaped notes hymnal of cheer-up doom and gave my mums to my grandmother's memory, I started thumbing through the back of The Cokesbury.

Would you like to take a wild guess where his page was turned down?

Why is that?

I am happy to report that I do not know.

But here in Bloggingham tonight, bound to my grandparents' memory is a small bouquet of wild pink peace mums laid on a bed of uncommon love, shaped oddly like the sound of a far away tune in a church full of cheer in the middle of plowshares and pruning hooks.

"Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

Maybe we keep asking for the same struggle and getting exactly what we ask for because we’re not ready to lay down the most powerful weapon we have

Love

An Invitation From the Queen of Memes

2010-11-01T21:09:00.000-04:00

Hello Queen Memers!

I don't know if all of you are aware of this or not since there are a few newbies here (yay!) but...when I'm not busy throwing people in my imaginary dungeon and writing silly memes, I'm blogging for peace.

BlogBlast For Peace began in 2006. I founded it based on a single blog post and watched it mushroom into something truly awesome in my life. It has grown this year into a Facebook phenomenon, earned a Top Ten Twitter honor last week and keeps me hopping the first week of November. There are currently 50 countries participating with writers posting peace globes and writing articles on peace this Thursday, November 4th.

Thank you so much for joining me here each week on The Queen's Meme. Today I'd like to extend an invitation to join me Thursday on my blog for BlogBlast For Peace.
If you would like help making a peace globe, write me! There are peace globe workersbees from all over the world standing by to assist you! If you use Facebook and Twitter, you can participate there as well.

I hope to see you there! Just see the tabs at the top of my blog.
I will get back to regular memeing of a silly kind next Tuesday, November 9th.

Mimi

The Queen's Meme #58 ~ What's In A Name Meme

2010-10-26T18:14:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #58

It's called the What's In A Name Meme

Today we are going to talk about names. Some of these questions I am going to steal from someone else because....because.....I can. (And because I'm tired) Some of these questions I'm going to make up because...because....I can. And what the heck does this have to do with a doughnut? You'll have to wait til the end of this meme to find out.

1. Your Superhero Name (2nd fave color + fave drink):

2. Your Peace Name (Zen + your last peace globe #) OH! Don't have one yet? Go here.

3. Your American Idol Name (fav car and seafood)

4. If you could pick another name for yourself, what would it be?

5. Your Twitter Name (Chirpie + your favorite bird)

6. Name 1 thing you wish you'd said today that would have made your day go better?

7. Go HERE to find your Royal Name and reveal it to us. Last week I discovered that I need extra padding on the walls of the dungeon for SOME of you who shall remain nameless....I might need placards for dinner too.

Mine came out like this:

My Royal name is The Pretty Lady Seraphine.

I kid not!

which I much prefer to my Doughnut Name which came out

Munchkin Glenda Sprinkled

Who wants to be sprinkled by Glenda??
Certainly not a Seraphine

Next BlogBlast For Peace NOVEMBER 4, 2010 ~ Details HERE and at mimilenox.com ~ Peace!

The Queen's Meme #57 ~ The Threes Meme

2010-10-19T18:14:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #57.

We're talking THREES. Answer these questions all having to do with the number 3. I predict this meme will take about 3 minutes to do.

Of course I could be wrong.
It's been known to happen.

And watch out! Question #3 is a doozy.

3. Where were you 3 hours ago?

3. Is there anything pink within 3 feet of you?

3. Name the 3 scariest places in the world.

3. Name the 3 loveliest sights you've seen lately.

3. Name the top 3 Bands in the year you were born.

3. Walk to your front door. Go outside and get in your car. Drive 3 miles East. Describe 3 things you saw on your way.

3. I, Queen Mimi, have sentenced you to a 3-day diet of your most sinful cravings.
What will you be partaking?

3. Go back to question #3. Change the first word to "travel" and let me know if you survived.
I'll hold a room for you in the dungeon in the meantime.

3. If you are the 3rd person to do this meme and sign the Mr. Linky as #3 you win a prize! The prize is you don't have to do this meme. Oops. **Don't you know you should always read all the instructions/questions FIRST??**

The Queen's Meme #56 ~ The Numbers Meme

2010-10-12T18:14:00.000-04:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #56 ~

It's a Numbers Game

Today we will discuss the fascinatingly cerebral subject of numbers.
I must warn you...the questions are excruciatingly difficult. Only the strongest will survive, thereby dodging the dreaded dungeon.
Alliteration! See, I told you I was cerebral.

**and no calculators**!!

1. Do you ever play the lottery? If so, what are your lucky numbers? Don't worry. I won't tell anyone.

2. Did you do something special on 10/10/10 yesterday? I heard that lots of people got married. Are all of you still the same status as of today?

3. "I've got your number!" Who would you like to say that to or who is the last person you said that to?

4. How many sheep do you count before you fall asleep?

5. It's almost birthday time for the Queen. Do you believe that age is "just a number"....or is it something else more insidious and frightening???!!! **I am suddenly having a panic attack**

6. How many zeros are in a trillion?

7. How many sixteenth notes does it take to equal a whole note?

8. (because I can) How many 8 balls are on a pool table?

The Queen's Meme #55 ~ The Falling Meme

2010-10-04T16:51:00.004-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #55

It's All About Falling

Falling up, falling down, falling right, falling left, falling in love, falling out, falling hard, falling easy, falling loud, falling soft, falling. Got that? Falling.

I seem to be in a very bad evil Queen mood today and have devised some lame questions for you. Got that? Lame. L.A.M.E.

Let's play.

1. What is your favorite part about the Fall season?

2. When was the last time you fell in love?

3. Have you ever injured yourself falling down?

4. Imagine that your head is on the guillotine block and the blade is about to fall on your head. What is your last thought?

5. Do pumpkins scare you?

6. You are free-falling from the sky to Earth. It has taken you 3 days to fall from the galaxy and you are hungry. Where do you land?

7. I found this painting by John Everett Millais: Autumn Leaves
(1856) It struck me totally funny. Look at their faces. What are they saying?
What is going on??!

**Yes, I know these questions are tres weird but that is what I do.
Deal with it.**

And the first person to put a picture of a Jack-O-Lantern on their blog for this meme is in the dungeon. Jack-O-Lanterns are from the devil!!!
Have a nice day.

The Queen's Meme #54 ~ The Funny Word Meme

2010-09-28T22:17:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #54

We are going for the funny bone today. Ouch. I hate it when that happens. Technically speaking that is the ulnar nerve. Definition: The ulnar nerve originates from the C8-T1 nerve roots which form part of the medial cord of the brachial plexus, and descends on the posteromedial aspect of the humerus.
I told you this meme was humorous!

Confession: I stole this idea from Jamie at Duward Discussion. She used British and Australian slang words recently in a challenge to her readers. I found a site today called Inherently Funny and decided to do the same with words that sound ridiculously humorous when you pronounce them....IF you can pronounce them.
I have given you 8 funny sounding words. You have to supply a definition without looking at the website or dictionary first. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Let's get started.

1. diphthong
2. Houp-doup
3. Skullduggery
4. reintarnation
5. glom
6. gobsmacked
7. assmosis
8. lugubrious

And trust me, I will know if you look in the dictionary.

The Queen's Meme #53 ~ The Change Meme

2010-09-21T17:22:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #53
The Change Meme

Norman Vincent Peale said, "Change your thoughts and you change your world." It was interesting to see how many meanings I could find for the word "change".....some are serious, some are silly. Have fun!

1. Name one thing you'd like to change about yourself.

2. If you could wave a magic wand and be done with all the small petty nuisances in your life, what you would have "be gone" first?

3. Do you collect and save your spare change in a jar?

4. Change your world. What is our biggest concern as a global humanity?

5. What would you have changed about your last relationship or the one you're in now?

6. If you could reverse the course of history in a time machine, what would you do and how do you think the world would be different today?

7. Who would you like to change into a toad?

8. What is the first thing you change into when you get home from work?

9. If you could change places with anyone in the world for one day, who would that be?

10. Have you ever heard the expression "turn over a new leaf?" What is under your old one?

11. Name one thing that can cause you to immediately change your mood.

12. What have you recently (or ever) had a change of heart about? And why?

13. When is the last time you changed the oil in your car?

The Queen's Meme #52 ~ The Meet Up Meme

2010-09-14T21:40:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #52
It's called The Meet Up Meme

I've given you 10 common places where "meeting" is the game plan. Simply answer the questions about your meet and greet habits. And don't be late for the meeting!
I have a dungeon you know.
And I know how to use it.

You are going to a....

1. Business meeting
Do you prefer a structured agenda with a time frame or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants brainstorming session?
2. First Date meeting
Where are we going and what are we going to do? (Yes, I said you!)

3. Coffee House with your best friend
Do you prefer a collegiate bookstore atmosphere with coffee and WiFi or a fancy restaurant with a beautiful display of expensive desserts? Oh. And what is your favorite coffee flavor?

4. Bar/Pub with friends
What is your poison?

5. Your old high school for a 25 yr. reunion
Who would you like to see the most after all these years?

6. Blogger meet up
What is your fantasy blog meet up with your favorite bloggers? Where would you go and what would you do?

7. Google Search Bar
What are you searching for today?

8. Your favorite tattoo artist at the parlor
What is your next tattoo going to be and why?

9. AA or Al Anon Meeting
You are the designated driver to this function. What advice would you give a room full of folks who desperately need inspiration?

10. An video podcast meeting with your mother or significant other who doesn't know about your blog
Tell us how you would introduce them to the blog that is you.

On Vacation Until September 14 ~ See you then!

2010-09-05T20:26:00.002-04:00

The Queen's Meme #51 ~ The Cooking 101 Meme

2010-08-30T17:10:00.006-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #51

It's called the Cooking 101 Meme

I could use some cooking advice. In fact, I could use a LOT of cooking advice. Would you indulge me? If you've read my blog very long you know that my kitchen disasters are legendary. I have a few culinary questions for you. Please feel free to share recipes!! (and instructions on how to decode them)

1. What is the best dish you can cook?

2. Do I have to beat eggs or can I whip them gently? Sounds so violent to me.

3. I am reading a recipe right now for Hearty Beef-n-Cheese Pie from a recipe book I dug out of the cabinet. The instructions read..."Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large frying pan, brown ground beef, onion and green pepper."
I am already lost. Why must I turn on the oven and put the frying pan in it? And how does one turn beef AND peppers brown at the same time?!
What color should the onion be?

4. Did you ever cook something for your family that no one enjoyed and you had to throw out?

5. Why do all recipes say "mix sugar, flour and salt?" Don't they cancel out the other?

6. Why must you add eggs "one at a time" to a mixing bowl? Does anybody really know the answer to this question?

7. Please post the recipe to something you think even I can cook.
I am begging you! It is no fun being a afraid of my own crockpot.

Signed,
Your Hungry Queen

The Queen's Meme #50 ~ The Back To Fools Meme

2010-08-24T21:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #50
The Back To Fools Meme

For those quietly insane adults hanging around after the kids have returned to school.

The house is quiet. No more carpooling twelve kids to the mall. No more fighting over the computer and the TV. I wonder if you learned your lessons this summer. Answer the questions in complete sentences, double-spaced, typed with footnotes, annotations and a bibliography. I'll take that by Tuesday afternoon if not sooner. And please, if you have any questions, raise your hand..
There will be a pop quiz tomorrow.

1. Do you know your primary colors? Describe for me, if you will, the colors red, blue and green to a blind person. (*hat tip special friend for this most excellent question!*)

2. What was your adult summer reading?

3. When you assembled your clothes last night for today's activities - you did do that, didn't you? - what did you choose to wear?

4. What's in your lunchbox?

5. Imagine that your teacher is your fantasy crush. What would you bring her/him on the first day of school? Hmmmmm???

6. No rest for the weary. Your child's teacher just called. A big ole' bully knocked your precious one into a locker for no good reason at all.
What is your response to the principal?

7. You have been given a pair of scissors, a glue stick and copy of Entertainment Weekly. Whose picture do you cut out and who do you glue to your headboard?

8. TEN POINT BONUS QUESTION! Now that you have time to watch all those Gilligan's Island reruns, tell me....What was the Professor really doing with Mary Ann all that time they were lost in the jungle?

And remember this uplifting quote:

"If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers."

— Edgar W. Howe

Did someone just throw a spitwad at me?!!!

The Queen's Meme #49 ~ The Watch Me Watch You Meme

2010-08-17T01:25:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #49

It's called The Watch Me Watch You Meme. So hunker down with your spyglass and bourbon, don dark sunglasses if you choose and tell us your deep dark and guarded secrets. Or not.

1. I have given you a pair of binoculars. If you could watch anyone in the world in the act of being creative or creating something, what would you choose to watch?
2. Turn your head to the left. What do you see? Explain its significance in your life.

3. You are watching a parade. You see a float float by (they float, don't they?) with three of your favorite people on it. Who are they?

4. What do you like to watch on television?

5. Your blog is under surveillance by the Blogwatchers Association.
What are they watching for?

6. Watch out! Your greatest superstition has befallen you. What do you "watch out" for on a daily basis?

7. Have you ever "watched" at a wake in the deceased home or funeral parlor?

8. Name one thing you always want to be awake for.

9. What is the next opportunity you are waiting or watching for?

10. You are standing guard in Central Prison. It is your job to watch the prisoners online activities. What site would you recommend to someone in prison?

The Queen's Meme #48 ~ The First Thought Picture Meme

2010-08-09T16:01:00.022-04:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #48

The First Thought Meme
(sans the ink blots)

I would like to pick your brain today. Let's see what's lurking under the old cranium pot. And since I have to do TWO memes today due to my recent affliction with all things sea and I haven't finished building my sandcastle yet.... I'll make this one easy.
Here are the guidelines:

I will give you a picture. You will give me the first word that pops into your head upon seeing the image. It doesn't have to be just one word. It can be a sentence, a question, a joke, a caption, an explanation or whatEVER your gray matter conjures.
Scary. No? Don't cheat!

Just relax on Mimi's couch and do what the good Doctor Pencil Skirt says. Ready?

(They are made of chocolate. You may buy them here.)

10.Oh. I forgot to tell you. Based on my astute psychological evaluation and pencil chewing abilities, your answers could land you in my graces....or in the dungeon. Padded cell optional.

The Queen's Meme #47 ~ The 'If I Could Say Just One Thing' Meme

2010-08-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

Reporting live from the shores of the Atlantic, we have The Queen's Meme #47.
Welcome to my beach castle.

Did you think I'd go away again and forget to post these questions? Not likely. Ahem. Well...I did that once but that's beside the point. Here I am with sand in my flip flops and a new set of questions for you. It's called the "If I Could Say Just One Thing'. If you could say just one thing to the so-and-sos of the world and in your life what would you say?
Don't think about it too much. Just write the first thing that pops in to your head. It doesn't have to be just one word.

If I could say just one thing to.......

1. Mel Gibson

2. Lindsay Lohan

3. Chelsea Clinton

4. The Pope

5. BP Oil Company

6. My ex

7. My IPOD or computer

8. My favorite or least favorite teacher

9. My family

10. My blog (What? You don't talk to your blog?)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish building my sandcastle.

See you soon on Mimi Writes with more pencil skirt beach reporting.
Have fun with the meme.
And pass the sunscreen......

The Queen's Meme #46 ~ The Song Lyrics Meme

2010-07-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #46.
The subject is music.

*sorry this meme is a tad late. I was quite literally under a tree. Details on my blog later*

I had lunch this week with bloggers Ferd and Gail. He described a game his kids played recently while they were visiting in which a word was given and the players had to come up with a song title using that word and then sing the song. I said, "What a great idea for Monday's Queen's Meme!" sans the singing (unless you want to make a video and that would be extra bonus points with the Queen!!!) ...and possibly no dungeon for the rest of your blog life.
So Song Lyrics it is. Thanks to Ferd and his happy family.

I used a random word generator to find the words.
Your job is to find a song that uses this word either in the title or lyrics. Give us the title or part of the lyric that fits and the artist. Then say a little something about the tune and why you chose it. Posting a YouTube video of the song would be great! (but not required)
Here we go.

A website called "Who Does That Song?" might help.
Just type in the word and your choices are endless.

1. Want

2. hell

3. smack

4. ugly

5. beast

6. Romeo

7. God

Good luck!

The Queen's Meme #45 ~ The What Would You Do Meme

2010-07-20T11:22:00.000-04:00

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #45
The What Would You Do? Meme

A mixed bag of miscellaneous scenarios

1. You start out on your road trip. You are 90 miles down the road with not a care in the world until you remember you forgot the most important ingredient needed for your vacation. What was it and would you turn around and go back to get it?

2. You are standing in the checkout line at the grocery store. A homeless man walks by and asks for food from your grocery cart. What would you do?

3. The mailman delivers the wrong mail. It is your neighbor's. You can't stand your neighbor. You realize that inside the small brown package there must be something very secretive, very intriguing and possibly incriminating. What do you do?

4. Photography Class 101. First exam. The slide show you are presenting is the wrong one. You accidentally left last weekend's party pics in the camera instead. The whole class is watching....

5. You find your boss's wife on Facebook. She is obviously carrying on with another man in blatant fashion and behind his back. What is the first thing that pops into your head when you see your boss the next day at work?

6. Your plane lands in the wrong vacation spot but you like this one better.

7. You walk out of the doctor's office. The news after your yearly checkup is very very good but the news for the person you'd been sitting beside and chatting with in the waiting room is very very bad. You see them in the elevator on the way out and they are in tears. You.....

The Queen's Meme ~ The Queen Beach Report

2010-07-13T16:45:00.000-04:00

Due to the Queen's sudden addiction to sun, sand and ~~handsome men~~ surf....there will be no Queen's Meme this week. Talk amongst yourselves. And please, oh please, don't do anything dungeon worthy. Homer, my trusty Palace Dog, is in charge. I will be back next week with a full report. At least the reportable parts.
Carry on! Wish you were here!

The Queen's Meme #44 ~ The Firsts Meme

2010-07-06T23:50:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queens's Meme #44 ~
The Firsts Meme
(a totally random and useless meme about firsts)

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

2. Where did you go on the very first vacation of your life?

3. Open the door of your refrigerator. What is the first thing you see?

4. Tell us about your first kiss OR your last first date.

5. If you had wings to fly about the universe, where is the first place you'd land?

6. What is the first thing you do when you get in your car?

7. What is the first thing you ever said to your firstborn?

8. What is the last thing you heard about your first love?

9. If you had created the world in seven days yourself, what would you have created on the First Day?

10. What is the first song in your IPOD or song list?

11. What is the first tangible thing you lost that you could never find again?

12. Who is your favorite First Lady of all time?

13. Post a link to your first blog post.

14. When was the last time you needed FirstAid?

15. Can you explain what a first down is in football?

The Queen's Meme #43 ~ The Freedom Meme

2010-06-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #43 ~
Let's do a little freedom dance.

French philosopher, Voltaire (1694 - 1778) wrote….
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
This is your moment. What sayeth you on the subject of freedom?
Fill in the blanks. Make your own Declaration of Independence.
Freely choose your destiny. Embrace your inner freedom.
Some questions are serious. Some are silly. All are revealing. Have fun!

I hold these truths to be self-blevident! (That’s blog + evident for all you non-blog speakers)

I declare myself to be free from ____________.

I wish I could free myself of _____________.

I am thankful that _________ freed me from _________.

I don't mind paying for __________but __________should be free.

I am free to make (this mistake) over and over again. In fact, I look forward to it!

If I could choose one freedom I don’t have today it would be ____________

In a free and perfect world there would be no __________________.

I am going to write my Declaration of Independence on a piece of ____________.

I wouldn’t mind being taxed on __________but I highly resent being taxed on ______________.

When I was younger I was free to _____________but now that I’m older I prefer to ____________.

I declare myself free from the destructive habit of ________________

I declare myself joyfully addicted to _______________!!!

I don’t think the world will ever be totally free of ______________.

With complete abandon, I free fall into _____________________.

In a hypothetical Superman existence, I would use my power to do good doing ____________.

I wickedly use my my power to do evil doing _______________________.

If I weren’t so dependent on ____________I could be truly independent about _____
_________.

When I need to free my thoughts from stress and worry, I ________________.

I would like to freely kick ________ in the seat of his/her hypothetical pants.

I want to do this (one illegal activity) every single day and pay no consequences.

I want the freedom to let my silliness run amok also and enjoy __________this every single day.

If I could re-write the Freedom of Information Act I would remove __________ from the public record.

I daily need the freedom to create _______________and I don't give a bamn what anybody else thinks about it.

If I had the power to throw one person in jail it would be _______________

If I had the power to free one person from bondage of any kind it would be ________________.

If I could “speak truth to power“, I would say to the world ____________________

The 3 most important freedoms I have in my life are:

My favorite freedom song is _____________________.

Now, present your work to the Blogosphere and sign it.
I choose bloggers __________and ____________and _____________ to sign my Bloggers Declaration of Independence as witnesses. They will hold me accountable and share in my ~~debauchery~~ lofty ideals.

Now go forth and be free, my children.

The Queen's Meme #42 ~ The Beach Meme

2010-06-22T17:29:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #42 ~ We're going to the beach!

Sometimes silly.
Sometimes serious.
Always fun!
Step out of the box.
Be creative.
Use your imagination.
No one's answers are quite like yours

I apologize for the lateness of this meme posting. I was shopping for a bathing suit. I kid you not. More on that later. Right now....let's hit the beach.
#42 The Beach Meme

1. When is the last time you saw the ocean?

2. Where is your favorite stretch of beach shoreline?

3. Are you planning a beach vacation this year?

4. Bikinis or one-piece?

5. Do you sunbathe or sit under an umbrella?

6. Have you ever been to a nude beach?

7. Favorite activity at the beach while on vacation?

8. Condo, hotel or cottage rental?

9. What beach in the whole wide world would you like to visit for the first time?

10. Did you ever have a special romantic time at the beach?

11. Tell us about a favorite beach memory.