I just started a series on my own blog - I expect it to run for a month or more - but I wanted to share the lyrics to this song as soon as possible, so I'm posting them here. I hope you find them as lovely as I did.

Don't Laugh At Me

I'm a little boy with glasses, the one they call a geek
a little girl who never smiles cuz I got braces on my teeth
and I know how it feels to cry myself to sleep

I'm that kid on every playground, whose always chosen last
a single teenage mother trying to overcome her past
You don’t have to be my friend if it's too much to ask

Don't laugh at me, don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
some day we'll all have perfect Wings
Don’t laugh at me

I'm a cripple on the corner
You pass me on the street
I wouldn't be out here begging if I had enough to eat
and don't think I don’t notice that our eyes never meet
I lost my wife and little boy when someone crossed that yellow line
The day we layed 'em in the ground was the day I lost my mind
Right now I'm down to holding this little cardboard sign

Don't laugh at me, Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don’t laugh at me

I'm fat, I'm thin
I'm short, I'm tall
I'm deaf, I'm blind
Hey aren't we all

Don't laugh at me, Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me

Written by Allen Shamblin and Steve Seskin

There is a program for educators and others, utilizing this song (among others) and aimed at providing an environment free from teasing and such in schools. Go to:

http://www.operationrespect.org/

Thanks for reading.

Suldog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_cherry

I ask because I had the most amazing stomach ache on Tuesday morning, lasting well into Wednesday. It was bad enough to send me home from work early on Tuesday. MY WIFE also came down with a bad stomach ache, hers starting on Wednesday.

We deduced that they were probably caused by these cherries. They appear to be the only food we had in common during that time period. I, being a gluttonous freak, ate about a half-pound of them on Monday evening. MY WIFE had a small handful on Tuesday. My ache was much the worse.

Upon talking to my sister-in-law last night, we found out that she, too, had eaten some of these cherries. She had also had a bad stomach ache a few hours after ingestion. She lives in a different community from ours and bought hers at a different store, so it wouldn't have just been our bag of cherries.

So, any other people with problems from these fruits, either recently or in the past? I've eaten them before in my life with no adverse effect, so I'm assuming no allergy. I did not rinse the fruit before eating, so I thought that might have been a cause - pesticide residue - but MY WIFE did rinse hers, as did my sister-in-law.

(MY WIFE, in caps. Just a literary device I use on my blog. Sorry, but too late to break the habit now.)