What do you prepare when you're giving someone food for thought?

In response to last week’s question, "What do you prepare when you're giving someone food for thought?," my temple friend Richard suggested these oxymora, "You prepare and serve jumbo shrimp, sweet & sour chicken, baked fries, banana peppers, and for dessert, fried ice cream, of course!"   My networking friend Andrew then offered these savory clichés, "When offering 'food for thought', don't bite off more than you can chew. Make sure your audience can stomach a bitter pill, and avoid getting cheesed off before chewing the fat with them. If you can't cut the mustard with them, they will drop you like a hot potato. Then you would have egg on your face and have to eat humble pie. On the other hand, you may find it easy as duck soup and become the apple of their eye, if your input is the greatest thing since sliced bread. In a nutshell, know which side your bread is buttered on and avoid laying an egg."

My temple friend Vivian proposed, "How about fried brains?  For the recipe, go to matadornetwork.com," to which my sailing friend Norm added, "Calf's brains - baked of course but could be fried."   And my equestrian friend Royce wrote simply, "their mind."

My birthday bud Jon lamented, "You prepare for a smart-ass answer, if you are Hal on a Monday."

And my cousin Valarie recommended, "I usually offer something sage to chew on, but I've been given some half-baked advice from others."

Please share your thoughts about this week's "things that make you go 'Hmmm' “:

If Apple made a car, would it have windows? anonymously submitted from a kind friend from Dish Network

We don't stop laughing because we get old. We get old because we stop laughing.  Make it a priority to have fun and make others laugh.

Hal

A few notes of interest:

L'shona Tova to my Jewish family, friends and honorary Jews.  My this be a year of health, prosperity and good times.

Saturday, 9/19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. This is a non-violent, fun day to not act your age.  And if you are near one of the few participating Krispy Kreme donut stores, you could score a sweet treasure.  Avast me matey.  Have ye a grog for me.

My sailing friend Dawn, who works with CARE, shared that she could write a book about "Somewhere in the world a woman gives birth to a child every minute.  What should we do for her?" based on all she's seen throughout my work.  What can we do? 

• If we could educate communities that their girl-child is a human being and not a commodity to be traded or given away, we would avoid girls as young as 10 years old becoming teenage mothers.
• If we could ensure that all mothers have a skilled and "warm" (i.e. someone who cares) birth attendant and access to information to help the newborn through their first most difficult year to get the nutrients she/he needs (a message from one of my co-workers), the child will have a fighting chance to survive and thrive.
• If we could provide women and men access to information and services that help them make informed decisions, we would have a significant impact on the economic livelihoods of the extremely poor families.

And for separating good religious people from extremist, my networking friend Andrew added to list of Christians, Jews and Muslims that have killed in the name of their religion that "a Hindu extremist assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, since he was a Hindu but did not want British India partitioned into two state based largely on religion (Muslim Pakistan, majority-Hindu India)."

Thanks to Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin for the inspiration for Hmmm.  Stop by www.nichelabs.com to see what else I'm up to.