He cannot tell a lie, and he didn’t lie

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A lawyer, who had a wife and 12 children, needed to move because his rental agreement

was terminated by the owner who wanted to reoccupy the home. But he was having a lot of difficulty finding a new house. When he said, he had 12 children, no one would rent a home to him because they felt that the children would destroy the place.

He couldn’t say he had no children because he couldn’t lie. Now we all know lawyers cannot, and do not lie… So, he sent his wife for a walk to the cemetery with 11 of their kids.

He took the remaining one with him to see rental homes with the real estate agent. He loved one of the homes and the price was right — the agent asked: “How many children do you have?

He answered: “Twelve.”

The agent asked, “Where are the others?”

The lawyer, with his best courtroom sad look, answered, “Well, they’re in the cemetery with their mother.”

MORAL: It’s not necessary to lie, one only has to choose the right words… and don’t forget, most politicians are unfortunately lawyers.

via

Friday Firesmith – Summer of 2025

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It’s with great difficulty I come to terms this summer is less than a week old. My plants

are dying from the heat. That’s the bad news. The good news is the water from the previous two

years is finally drying up. The pond is going with it. That would be the body of water that for the

last twenty-five years has been a body of weeds.

All over America the heat is rising. Roads are buckling under the heat, and Interstates are

closing due. They’ll have to do the repairs at night I imagine. I spent twenty-seven years doing

bridge and highway work, and it’s brutal in this sort of weather to try to work.

In 1997, we hit a spell where it was brutally hot but this was in August. They sent a

nineteen-year-old new hire out to learn a few things from me, and the first thing he learned was

we were not going to sit in the truck. We had shit to do.

This guy had poked fun at me for a while for being “old.”

He bragged he could put up with the heat much longer than I could, and when I got out of

the truck, and took the keys with me, he wasn’t daunted. After about an hour he had drank all the

water he brought with him. He was sweating, but still not giving in. About an hour later, he

wanted to sit in the truck and cool off. I told him he had to do ten pushups for every minute he

spent sitting in the AC. I did fifty. I told him I was going to check on a few things and I would be

back soon. I walked away. He freaked out.

An hour later he was in full panic mode. Three hours in direct sunlight next to an asphalt

operation and he was wilting. He wanted to call someone in the office to come get him but cell

phones hadn’t taken over the world yet. He tried to get the contractor to let him sit in his truck

and no.

Red faced and not sweating anymore, I was getting worried about him. He told me he

quit and wanted me to take him in. I dropped him off at a pay phone and waited until I was sure

someone was on the way. He looked bad.

When I got back the asphalt crew had quit. Not finished for the day, but mutinied. Out of

twelve men, ten of them had gotten into the work van and left. It was three in the afternoon. I

stopped by a bridge project and got into the water with my work clothes on. Spring Creek is cold

and clear and I soaked for a while.

The young man went back to the office and told them I was horrible and had tortured

him. When I got back, clothes already drying, I told them he had quit, and refused to work. They

didn’t so much as slap his wrist. Later, I found out the actual temperature was over 100 degrees

and the heat index over 110.

They don’t make teenagers like they used to. But the heat is getting worse every summer.

Take Care,

Mike

take that, crossfit gurus and midlife crises moms

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In 1965, a young Scottish man named Angus Barbieri walked into the University of Dundee hospital with an extraordinary request: “I want to stop eating—completely.” At the time, Angus weighed 207 kilograms (456 pounds) and wasn’t interested in traditional diets or calorie restrictions. He wanted to eliminate food from his life altogether. What sounded like madness at first became one of the most remarkable and carefully monitored fasting experiments in medical history.

Under strict medical supervision, Angus began a fast that was initially intended to last only a few days. He consumed only water, tea, black coffee, and small amounts of vitamins and electrolytes. But something unexpected happened—he didn’t feel hungry. His body efficiently burned through its fat reserves, and he steadily lost weight without major complications. Week after week, month after month, Angus kept going, amazing doctors with his resilience. “I forgot what hunger feels like,” he said at one point.

After 382 days without a single bite of food, Angus ended his fast in July 1966 with a modest meal: a boiled egg, a slice of bread, and some butter. By then, he had lost 125 kilograms, dropping to 82 kilograms (180 pounds). Even more astonishing, he never regained the weight and lived the rest of his life without major health issues. His feat remains the longest recorded fast in medical history. However, doctors strongly caution against repeating such an extreme fast without professional oversight, as it carries significant risks. Still, Angus Barbieri’s journey stands as a powerful story of discipline, transformation, and one of the most unusual medical cases ever recorded.

thanks, Jeff!