late night musings
"The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. Godlike he blandly assumes that he can express everything in words; whereas the things one loves, lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis completely expressible in words." --- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
late night musings
Is there more than what meets the eye?
Humans hold themselves above others in the animal kingdom, and rightfully so in most cases. The problem is that we often
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Beatle Bailey
We are constantly reminded that we are growing old. There are our birthdays. There are the birthdays of our family and friends. There are the birthdays of celebrities. In each and every case, we
can see the changes time had ...
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No letter today - or anymore
Much has been written about the younger generations and their propensity to use email (now going out as a favorite), texting, Facebook and tweets on Twitter. I have even weighed in on the
subject once or twice. What is ...
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A 1950s songs quiz - Repeat?
For some strange reason, I am unable to find a musing I published sometime back about popular songs of the 1950s. I have no idea which black hole of the internet it got sucked into. So, to
keep my mind ...
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Fact to fiction
I don't know where it came from, but the other day a thought crossed my mind. It wasn't even fully formed thought. It was just a simple saying that resonated within me. As I considered
it, I felt there ...
Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream - Repeat
The following speech, I Have A Dream, was delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. It is one of the greatest speeches ever given. It is worth reading again ...
<< MORE >>A quiz - 1990s songs
It's time for another quiz. In the past I have published quizzes of the top songs of the 1950s and 1960s. In thinking about it, I realized those who were born during the past 30 years or so were
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A quiz - 1990s songs
It's time for another quiz. In the past I have published quizzes of the top songs of the 1950s and 1960s. In thinking about it, I realized those who were born during the past 30 years or so were
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Awash in technology
I have a twitter account but I don't tweet. I guess that is like owning a car but not driving it. I got the twitter account for www.latenightmusings.com. At one point I thought ...
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Looking back while on the beach
While walking the beach the other day, I really noticed the often seen golf
carts that are allowed on the beach. Many of them have a seat up ...
Hit the brakes?
In the past I have written musings about the way time seems to speed up as we get older. That idea crossed my mind again the other day. As I thought about it, I thought about Toyota vehicles and
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But that isn't the way I imagined it
My latest addiction, not counting food or writing these musing, is Rex Stout's novels about his protagonist, Nero Wolfe. I have written other musings about Nero Wolfe. In some of them I
have talked about slowing reading through Mr. Stout's ...
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A time machine of sorts
It was in the movie, Back to the Future, where Marty McFly drove Dr. Emmett Brown's special car back in time. Of course there have been many movies about time travel, both into the
future as well as into ...
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Absolute musing isn't relative either
While I am sure subscribers and casual readers of www.latenightmusings.com
consciously or unconsciously judge my musings based on many factors, I do as well. So it is that in rereading my musing, ...
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Quo Vadis. medical science?
A recent issue of the Scientific American magazine had an article titled Robotic Pills. (Just a reminder to the reader that a significant
portion of what ...
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Dreaming never ends
Just as you can't really appreciate what it would mean to live in Paris if you never lived there, so it is that you can't really appreciate what it means to live as a senior unless you are
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Nero Wolfe continues to speak
My previous musing in the form of a quiz regarding Nero Wolfe's vocabulary (Out of the mouth of Wolfe
) seemed to generate much interest, so I thought I'd do another. Again, they are words I ...
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Growing older? You have company
The following musing is a result of my wife mentioning that Marjorie Lord (Danny Thomas' wife on The Danny Thomas Show) is 92.
In the past I have written about birthdays and getting older. Aging is something ...
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Is love a flame?
The following appeared on a Facebook
account owned by a young niece of mine. A bit of research has shown that it is somewhat similar to the ...
So long Barney, goodbye gang
It's like watching the curtain going down on a smash hit Broadway show. It is never wanting it to end but knowing it is, and now you have to watch it off Broadway in some Mid-west
town So it was ...
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Longer than a day and farther than the corner drug store
There are some terms and concepts we throw around like we really understand them; I know I do. I'm sure you can think of many, but two in particular came to mind recently.
They both have ...
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I needed a computer fix (pun intended)
It is said that no drug addict sets out to be one. Those few first hits are for their weekly recreational pleasure. However, that occasional ...
<< MORE >>A sad truth about some beach students
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Mark Lane, one of my favorite columnists in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, had an interesting and provocative column about the beach. While in my beach muisings I see
the metaphors for life in ...
1960s songs
Some time back I wrote a musing, a quiz actually, about the top songs of the 1950s. In thinking about it, I realized that was unfair to the kids of the 1960s. So I thought it only fair that
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Tomorrow arrives every day
They say tomorrow never comes, but it does. The thing is that it arrives in a package called today. And so it is for all our tomorrows until we are no longer around to get the
packages. While we feel like ...
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Is that frenemy a sock puppet?
If you are a user of the internet as I am and especially if you are about as adept as I am, then you know that getting from point A to point B has many twists and turns leading you ...
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Oh,oh - here comes 55
My wife will soon be turning fifty-five. She is not greeting it with open arms. As she sees it, after fifty-five she is on that steep, downhill slope to sixty - old age in her mind. We who are over ...<< MORE >>
A typical senior? Bah!
A week or so ago the Daytona Beach News-Journal carried what they call a guest editorial written by a reader. In this case it was written by what sounded like a recent
retiree who moved to this part of Florida.
John, always the son
As I thought about my musing to my father on Father's Day (Fathers Day and Happy Birthday ),
another musing came to mind. I'm not sure what science might call it, but there is ...
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Music for all
Driving along A1A, heading back from the store, I had the radio on listening to the 60s music exclusively. The first song I heard was "I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops. As I listened I
smiled and ...
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No recess on the beach
When I walk the beach, it refuses to let me have a day off. It is a teacher that won't stop teaching. It reminds me of a few teachers I had back in Middle and High School. So the ...
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Fathers Day and Happy Birthday
This Sunday, June 20th, is Father's Day so to all the Dad's out there - have a good one!
The following is probably of more importance to me than my readers, so I ask your indulgence. Some time back ...
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The final words
In an episode of Barney Miller, Barney and the Inspector were talking about their obituaries. The Inspector was lamenting that his could probably be written on the back of a chewing gum wrapper,
that is to say he didn't ...
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Hey, it's me!
Someone who reads my musings wrote to tell me how things were going for her. In addition, she wrote the following: "I would like to tell you a few things about my life. Why? I don't have
any idea!" ...
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Life does begin at forty
It is said that life begins at forty. To a close relative, Michelle, and others like her, that old saw is is hard to believe. Rather what they see is their thirties in their rear
view mirror and life slipping away. They ...
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Reflections on education
Since I'm not a student, teacher or administrator in middle or high school and since I don't have a child in school, I can't with speak any authority regarding the curriculum or teachers in
schools today. But I once ...
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Technology vs. reality
One of the big movies of early 2010 was Avatar. It is a movie that that many of my friends saw and enjoyed. Interestingly enough, the movie drew as many raves for being in 3D as it did for
...
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My Nero addiction
In previous musings I have mentioned Nero Wolfe, the protagonist in Rex Stout novels. Those novels have become my latest addiction. Like any addict I never seem to be able to get enough. I'm
always after my ...
My apologies
In writing the musing, Memorial Day 2010, my original musing had two glaring errors in it. First, I wrote Declaration Day when I meant to write Decoration Day. Secondly, although the ...
My mind, my menu
My mind often seems to be absent from class when it comes to foods. It has this preconceived idea of what is good for me and refuses to change in spite of the latest research. It clings to a
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The "Big Twelve"
The June 2010 Scientific American arrived in the mail the other day. I started to read it; actually it was skipping and scanning with brief periods of reading. I do rather well
with the "50, 100 & 150 Years Ago" feature. ...
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Why do they die so young?
If you have followed my last two musings, A Crushing Loss and Living a Crushing Loss, then you know they deal with a mother's loss of her young daughter. I did not undertake those musings
lightly; the subject matter is too ...
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A graduation day keynote speech
(To readers: I originally wrote this in June, 2007. Since the graduation season is upon us again, I thought I'd reissue it. If you know someone who is graduating from high school or
college and you think this worthwhile, you ...
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If only we always used it
There is so much to be learned by going to school. Be it just high school or continuing on through college for your Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate, each step up the educational ladder is
helpful as we navigate through life. ...
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Back in my day we...
I recently heard from someone I worked with nearly two decades ago. In our email exchange we talked briefly about what happened those many years ago and what we accomplished. I think we each had
some reason to take ...
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Just a summer love
While we seniors remember much about our past years and reminisce about them, I think we also keep secret some of the events from "back then" or maybe just set them into a corner of our
mind and rarely dust ...
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Different beaches - same teacher
In some respects a beach is a beach is a beach. And since they are very much alike, all beaches can teach us or remind us about life. So it was last week that my wife and I decided to
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Maybe it's not quite as bad as it seems
There are many ways you can evaluate the state of our country, many ways to take the pulse of the land. It all depends on what/who you are looking at in terms of behavior or opinions. If
one only considers ...
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The beach - still teaching
Spring has returned to Florida which means warmer weather which means walking the beach again. As always, the beach - the teacher, is there waiting to instruct those who take the time to
observe and learn.
A few things about Late Night Musings
I thought it might be appropriate and timely to mention a few things about my blog, www.latenightmusings.com. There might be a few things readers don't know or realize and subscribers might have forgotten since ...
Everything new isn't new
There are many ways to judge the passage of time. One of the most commonly used in all those forwarded emails is to list the technology available today that didn't exist those ...
Rick and Ilsa had it, have you?
If you ask me what my favorite movie is, I would answer without a moment's hesitation - Casablanca. It almost always is ranked near the top of the 100 best movies and sometimes claims top spot.
In my mind ...
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Those pale blue eyes
The other day was another day for a late bagel and coffee. Part of the reason for that was that I had a doctor's appointment shortly before ...
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We don't give up
Recently I had an exchange of emails with Frances, a classmate of mine. As part of that exchange she spoke of her health problems. I guess each
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Out of the mouth of Wolfe
This is just a brief musing. In one of my previous musings I mentioned I am
on a reading kick of Rex Stout's novels involving his main protagonist, Nero
Wolfe. The words Stout puts ... << MORE >>
on a reading kick of Rex Stout's novels involving his main protagonist, Nero
Wolfe. The words Stout puts ... << MORE >>
Songs of the 1960s - A quiz
Some time back I wrote a musing, actually a quiz, about songs and artists in 1950s. In thinking about it, I realized two things. One is that I overlooked those who came after me -
i.e., those who graduated in the 1960s. ...
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Do you know your wines? A quiz.
The other night my wife and I joined a few friends for a wine tasting at a nearby liquor store. They hold these events about twice a year. While many attend to get a chance to
taste the different wines, I ...
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Early 1900s quiz
While writing a musing about the early decades of the 20th century, I was doing bit of research. I realized that there were many significant events that occurred in the first three decades of
that century. Consequently, it seemed ...
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26,635
In the December 2009 issue of Popular Science there was an article about Stephen Wolfram who, along with his team, is developing the mother of all search engines. As opposed to giving you
links based on your query, it attempts ...
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Late Night Musings - the book
As many of you know, during the past few years I have been writing a blog, www.latenightmusings.com . Since I started I have written over 300 entries or
musings. I had no idea I'd be so prolific, ...
Facebook and Late Night Musings
If you are a Facebook user, much of what I have written below is already familiar to you. What might be of interest comes further down. Still, you might enjoy a laugh by reading my feeble attempt in trying to explain Facebook.
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