In loving memory of Tom Hogg, 1943–2023
MoFunny for
May 2, 2027
How do silkworms make silk?
+----- Answer At The End -----+
Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command. -- Alan Watts
When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective. -- George C. Marshall
All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience. -- Henry Miller
Which President fathered a child at age 70? John Tyler, father of 15.
Q. What do the following have in common: awe, off, ooh, owe, oww, uff? A: They are all phonetic representations of the letters "ough" in various words: brought (awe), cough (off), through (ooh), dough (owe), bough (oww), and tough (uff).
Why do hair shampoo instructions say "Lather. Rinse. Repeat"? If you did this, would you ever be able to stop?
Former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite was traveling through an airport with his wife, Betsy, when he was approached by a woman who thought he looked familiar.
"You know, you look a lot like Waler Cronkite before he died, only a bit heavier," she observed.
"I've heard that," said the gravelly-voiced newsman, who then turned to his wife and asked, "What did Cronkite die of?"
Without missing a beat, Betsy responded, "Thinness."
The cowboy walked into the tack shop. "How much for a pair of spurs?" he asked the sales clerk.
"Forty dollars."
The cowboy looked in his wallet, thought for a moment, then pulled out a twenty. "I'll take one spur."
"What'll you do with just one?" the clerk asked.
The cowboy replied, "I figger if I can get one side of the horse movin', the other side'll go too."
Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own pants.
There's a scuba diving geologist who has made it his business to measure the relative sizes of the rises, drops, cavities and undulations of coral formations. Of course this can only be done in the summer months so he takes the winters off to avoid the frigid air.
You may tag him as a frost-free reef ridge rater.
Jon was talking to Amanpreet.
"So, Preet, how's it going with the ladies?"
"Women, to me, are nothing but sex objects."
"Really?"
"Yep," Preet shook his head. "Whenever I mention sex, they object."
You might be a redneck if…
You've been on TV more than 5 times describing the sound of a tornado.
Morris complained to his friend Irving that love making with his wife was becoming routine and boring. "Get creative Morris. Break up the monotony. Why don't you try 'playing doctor' for an hour? That's what I do," said Irving.
"Sounds great," Morris replied, "but how do you make it last for an hour?"
"That's easy...just keep her in the waiting room for 59 minutes!"
An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with the wife or a mistress.
The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship.
The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because the passion and mystery he found there.
The engineer said, "I like both."
"Both?"
"Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done."
Random Cartoon Title: First pessimist
How do silkworms make silk?
Silkworms, offspring of moths, produce their highly-desirable, pricey silk, by spewing out thread from tiny holes in their jaws, which they use to spin into their egg-bearing cocoons. This entire production takes a mere 72 hours, during which time they produce between 500-1200 silken threads. These miniature, mulberry leaf-munching marvels lay, at minimum, 500 eggs each spring, thereby increasing the number of workers for the production line.
The ancient Chinese unearthed the silkworm's secret, and were the first to spin the silkworm's threads into cloth. They kept this covert, top-secret operation, from the rest of the world by imposing the death sentence upon those who smuggled the worm and/or its eggs out of China. Eventually, however, the secret was out, and silkworms are now farmed for their silk, in China, of course, in Japan, in India, in France, in Spain, and in Italy. These countries harness the power of the silkworm through a tedious, labor-intensive, time-consuming process, a process which prominently figures into the price of silk.
Farm workers painstakingly place the 500 plus eggs the prized grayish-white moth lays, upon strips of paper or cloth (not made of silk!), until the following spring, when the incubated eggs hatch, and the tiny, black worms emerge. Once hatched, workers transport the worms to trays brimming with the worm's favorite fodder of finely chopped, white mulberry leaves. After approximately 6 weeks, the satiated worms begin slowly to sway their heads back and forth to signal that show time is at hand.
Once the silkworm completes its cocoon, the farmer snatches his cocoon from him, to prevent the shrunken chrysalis, carefully encased inside, from hatching into a moth in 12 days. The silk farmers ensure that this event does not transpire, and does not kill his moneymaking venture, by exposing the cocoons to heat, thereby executing the chrysalis. Now, the silkworm's labor of love is prepared for the silk production process.
The process begins by bathing the now-empty cocoons in troughs of warm water, which serves to soften the gum binding the silken filaments together. He now proceeds with the arduous task of unraveling several cocoons, and winding the filaments onto a reel that twists 10-12 filaments together into a "single" thread of silk. The end product is a skein of raw silk, which the farmer profits from by selling to the highest bidder.
Cloth and clothing manufacturers, use the trade terminology, in labeling their product, as being either 2 or 3 threaded, depending upon the number of threads woven into the cloth.