After years of exhaustive, albeit pleasant, research; my study on various career or professional groups is completed and I'm happy to share my results.

For those of you who feel that by sharing this information I am only showing that I am shallow or superficial, I say this---do I come to your place of employment and tell YOU what to do on the job?

For years it was very difficult for me to choose the career or professional group that had, by far, the best looking men. I have evaluated many and even tried a few on for size. One portion of this experiment took over 20 years as I interacted one on one with a representative from the Carpenter's Union. Three children later, I finally figured it out. I was left alone without so much as a cordless drill while he was out remodeling every other house in town. Sometimes "good looking" isn't enough...there must some other compelling qualities that add to the appeal.

An Honorable Mention goes out to the UPS drivers I have known and loved. Collectively they are really a fine looking group of men. Kudos to their recruiting department. In the spring and summer when they wear their shorts, what a delight it is to receive a "package" from these fine fellows. I have yet to meet an unattractive UPS delivery man. Even the women who drive for UPS, many of them overtly gay, are worth a second look.

But the best looking, hottest career group I have encountered in these many years of back breaking research are Firemen. Hands down. Slap my ass and douse me with gasoline, I'd take a fireman any day.

First of all, they don't carry guns. All a fireman needs is his hose, if you get my drift. Of course, for those of you who like a man in uniform the fireman fits the bill. When there's a fire they wear those cute rubber boots, suspenders, yellow reflective jackets and those BIG hats! Couldn't you just die?!

Secondly, firemen are friendly and more approachable than most career groups. Anyone can visit the local firehouse! You can watch them wash their fast red vehicles and check their hoses. Most will even give you a tour of the facility. Ask if you can slide down their pole. They always love that!

Thirdly, firemen can cook! What a bonus! In my part of the world when I see a fire truck outside my Kroger it doesn't mean the cereal aisle is aflame--I park my car very quickly and head straight for the produce section where I know I will find a small group of firemen! What luck!

They are so cute in the store---they come in pairs and small groups like women going to powder their noses. Being that I have an interest both in fireman AND public safety, I immediately find them and offer my services in menu planning, produce selection and after dinner entertainment.

Now hopefully we are all in agreement about the dashing, daunting and perilous career of fire fighting....these guys are the hottest in more ways than one! How does one get to meet a fireman? Good question.

If you are the shy type and not at all comfortable visiting your fire station or assisting them at the grocery store, the best thing to do is to by a scanner and start showing up at fires. Some of you might say that is a bit too obvious. Perhaps you might arrange to have a small grease fire in your kitchen or a brush fire in your back yard.

Have an elderly parent or relative nearby? Go to their house and place a 911 call complaining that you smell smoke. This is an ingenious move on your part because it will bring firemen to you without there being an actual emergency. This allows you to have a good look at the whole group. You could have the pick of the litter! Once you have found the fireman of your dreams, why not ask him to come over and review your household fire safety plans and evacuation route?

You'll be pleased to know that no federal funds were used for this study. However, several kitchen appliances, mattresses and my grandmother's nursing home were destroyed in experimental fires to bring you the most accurate results. Throughout history, there have been tales of raining frogs. These stories, as crazy as they may seem, are actually real events! From Biblical tales of Egyptian storms to British towns suddenly finding themselves covered with frogs falling from the sky, such events are caused when a wind storm passes over a pond or lake, picking the creatures up and dumping them elsewhere! It is unknown why the tornado or whirlwind air currents are so species selective.

The Bible describes a rain of manna and quails more than 3,000 years ago. At that time this was looked upon as a supernatural event. The rain of manna has happened often in modern times; the manna being a lichen that grows in great abundance after rainfall.

In February 1998, it rained fine sand over parts of England. People heard radio announcements telling them the phenomenon was caused by a freak storm picking up sand in the Sahara desert and blowing it thousands of miles north to Britain. The sand was followed in March by very tiny frogs falling inCroydon.

The British are getting used to weird things falling from the sky. Fish fell on London in 1984 and six large flounders, still alive, were recovered from the streets. In the same year, starfish arrived from the clouds in North Yorkshire. The inhabitants of Bristol recalled the old song, Pennies from Heaven, in 1956. A shower of pennies and halfpennies fell for over two minutes. No one knows how much money landed, but children formed happy queues at sweet shops.

More frogs fell again in Scotland in 1995. Scotland was also the scene of a huge fall of ice in the 1800's. Ice falls in the past few years have been attributed to aircraft. Richard Griffiths of Manchester University collected ice which he witnessed falling in 1973. Obtaining some large fragments, he froze them pending analysis and checked the airport for details of any aircraft flying overhead. The airport confirmed that no planes had been in the vicinity at the time of the ice fall. When analysing the ice he found that the ice was of a similar type to that in hailstones.

We have all heard the expression "it's raining cats and dogs." There are several theories about this saying. It is possible that the word cat is derived from the Greek word 'catadupe' meaning 'waterfall.' Or it could be raining 'cata doxas,' which is Latin for 'contrary to experience,' or an unusual fall of rain. In Northern mythology the cat is supposed to have great influence on the weather, and English sailors still say the cat has a gale of wind in her tail when she is unusually frisky. Witches that rode upon the storms were said to assume the form of cats; and to this day the stormy northwest wind is called the cat's nose in the Harz mountains. The dog is a sign of wind, like the wolf. Both animals were attendants of Odin, the storm-god. In old German pictures the wind is figured as the "head of a dog or wolf," from which blasts issue. The cat therefore symbolizes the down-pouring of rain, and the dog the strong gusts of wind that accompany a rainstorm; and a rain of "cats and dogs" is a heavy rain with wind.

Another theory suggests that in medieval times cats and dogs sheltered in the thatched roofs of peasant huts during storms, and a severe storm rousted these animals causing them to fall from their perches, and thus 'rain' down onto the ground. In spite of a fish fall in India in which more than ten people picked up fish weighing up to eight pounds, and many accounts of rains of ice-coated ducks, grasshoppers, fish, and frogs, there is no account of a raining of cats and dogs.

There are lists of dozens of examples of weird rain, all over the world, including alabaster, ants, ashes, beef, beetle larvae, berries, bitumen, blood, butter, charcoal, china fragments, cinders, coal, cobwebs, coins, crabs, crayfish, eels, fish, flesh, flowers, frogs, gelatinous matter, grain, ham sandwiches, hay, iron balls, jelly fish, limestone, lizards, mud, mussels, oyster shells, periwinkles, quartz, resin, salt, sand, sandalwood, seeds, silk, snails, snakes, spawn, spiders, stones, turtles,but NEVER an actual report of "cats and dogs"!