late night musings

It's much more real now

john — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:25:00 GMT

In one of my previous musings, I mentioned the idea of six degrees of separation. It refers to the proposal that if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth. It is also sometimes referred to as the "Human Web". Hang on to that thought for now.

Like many people I get most of my news from a newspaper, not the internet. While I do read about the major news stories on my internet home page, I rely on the local newspaper to inform me of many news stores great and small. Like most readers, some I read them thoroughly, some I skim over and some I simply disregard. One of the brief news stories I usually skim over is a brief daily mention of the number of casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

I realize in some ways it is the most important news story there is, but it is a story that has been with us for years so it gets relegated to a brief mention on a inner page of the newspaper. And that is because so many of us have become immune to what is happening "over there". A story of a few deaths or seriously wounded in a fire or a shooting takes the front page, while an equal number of deaths in those wars barely gets mentioning it seems. It is only those people, those families, who have loved ones serving there who realize the importance of the casualties in those two remote wars.

Now back to six degrees of separation. Invariably when it is talked about, it is in terms of ourselves and radiating out from there. It almost never is thought about in terms of starting with someone else and figuring out whether we are the second, third or fourth degree from that person. However, today my wife's daughter informed us that someone very close to her was seriously wounded in the Afghanistan war; he was shot in the head. So it is that we are the second degree of separation, the second ring if you will, of the people who know this young man.

Suddenly, that war is not so remote anymore. Those casualty figures now carry more meaning to us. Rob is not just some number to be reported on page two or three of our local newspaper. Even though we have never met him, he is someone real. Although he is a volunteer and was proud to be serving in that war, the pain of knowing he has been injured and his chances of survival unknown brings that war home to us.

This musing is not about a political assessment of our involvement of that war. It isn't about how important is it to stay the course or leave. This isn't about flag waving or flag burning. It is about a young man who has been seriously injured serving his country. Suddenly, those six degrees of separation have disappeared, and there seems to be no degree of separation at all.

Out of the mouth of Wolfe

john — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:04:00 GMT

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 into Wolfe's mouth are mostly old school and in
a style not seen in current novels or heard in conversations. Invariably in
the course of any story, Nero utters a few words that have me running to the
dictionary (actually the dictionary on the internet). I know the
definitions of some of the words but rarely hear them used in this day and
age.

Anyway, with that as a background, I thought I share a few of Wolfe's words
from Stout's novel, The Final Deduction. Rather than just listing them, I
thought I'd make use of them, not in a quiz, but more of a challenge. Let's
see if you know the definition of each and then ask yourself when you last
heard someone use one of them while talking or the last time you saw them in
print. Scroll down to see the answers. Have fun:

Pfui

Piquer

Ill-grounded

Subdolous

Lucidity

Flummery

Broach the idea

Befuddled

Egregious

Ignoramus

Misapprehension

(speaking to a woman) A creature so obtuse

Remonstrate

Overweening

Acumen

Perspicacity

Spontaneous

Premeditation

Elucidate

Manifest

Vulgarian

Mettle

Rigmarole

Verisimilitude

Ostensible

Consummation

Cogent

Not to be borne

Animus

Execrable
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Pfui                                                                         We know this word as Phoey

Piquer (French)                                                      To sting, bite; give a shot; stick, jab; prickle

Ill-grounded                                                            Unfounded

Subdolous                                                               Crafty, cunning, artful

Lucidity                                                                     Easily uinderstood, bright

Flummery                                                                 Complete nonsense, foolish

Broach the idea                                                       To mention for the first time

Befuddled                                                                 Confused

Egregious                                                                 Extraordinarily bad, flagrant

Ignoramus                                                               An extremely ignorant person

Misapprehension                                                     Misunderstanding

(speaking of a woman) A creature so obtuse           Not quick in perception

Remonstrate                                                             Plea in protest

Overweening                                                             Overconfident or brash

Acumen                                                                      Keen insight or shrewdness

Perspicacity                                                                Keen understanding

Spontaneous                                                             Resulting from a natural impulse

Premeditation                                                              Plotting in advance

Elucidate                                                                     To make clear or explain

Manifest                                                                       Clear or evident

Vulgarian                                                                     A vulgar person

Mettle                                                                            Courage and fortitude

Rigmarole                                                                   A complicated procedure

Verisimilitude                                                              The appearance of truth

Ostensible                                                                   Outwardly appearing as such

Consummation                                                           The act of completing

Cogent                                                                          Convincing or believable

Not to be borne                                                           Not to be supported

Animus                                                                         Strong dislike or hostile attitude

Execrable                                                                      Utterly detestable or abhorrent

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Two of my favorite songs

john — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:35:00 GMT

Like just about everyone, I have a few favorite songs. They cover just about all genre except rap (sorry, I just can't get into that). Rap aside, my favorites include popular, rock, classical and Country & Western (C&W). Within that last one, I truly enjoy two songs by Garth Brooks.

Like all songs, they tell a story. The interesting thing about the two songs is that the story lines in both are similar, yet different. The difference is that one talks about a relationship that has ended while the other talks about a continuing relationship. The two songs? The Dance and If tomorrow never comes. Those of you who have heard the songs and know the words will know of what I speak. Those who have not heard the songs let me recommend them as worth hearing, especially the words.

In The Dance, Garth sings of a relationship that has ended, possibly not well. Yet, in spite of that he is happy that he had the chance to experience it. As he sings in the chorus:

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance

Not all that happens in our lives is pleasant. Along with happiness and joy there is pain and sorrow. Yet, if we had missed that pain and sorrow, we might have missed something special that helped us mature, helped us grow.

In the song If tomorrow never comes, he sings of a loving, continuing relationship and the fear that he may not have communicated his love adequately to his special other. His concern is that should he die, would she know just how much he truly loved her. I think that may be true for so many of us - man or woman. It is a question we each should ask of ourselves and honestly answer, not from our own perspective but from the person we love.

And so he sings:

If tomorrow never comes
Will she know
How much I loved her
Did I try in every way
To show her every day
That she's my only one
And if my time on
Earth were through
And she must face
The world without me
Is the love
I gave her in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes

I have written about this in the past and now I write about it again because I think it is so important. It is a message for those of all ages. Do we take it for granted that others know of our feelings? Do we fail to convey to those we love just how much they are loved? Do we show that love not only in words but in all we do for them? After our passing will they feel that the dance was worth all the pain? Will they know without a doubt just how much we loved them and will that warm glow of love stay with them throughout their lives?

Deep thoughts, but thoughts that should be pondered.

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Volunteerism

john — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:17:00 GMT

There are many "isms" in this world; some good and some not good. One of the good ones, satisfying ones, is volunteerism. Volunteering can be especially good when you retire. When you are retired you have many options how to spend your time. You can play golf, go fishing, stay home and drive your spouse crazy and/or spend your time meeting old friends and reminiscing about old times. There is, however, one other option. That is to continue to make a contribution to society and humanity by volunteering.

There are many organizations that can use your services including hospitals, Make A Wish, Meals On Wheels, Guardian Ad Litem and SCORE as well as others. The reason I mention these five because I have had experience with each of them and each one was great.

Hospital may be non-profit or for profit, but in either case it is volunteers that reduce cost which in the long haul benefits all of us. While I spent my time doing some computer work for an office in the local hospital, there are many other positions that typically need to be filled. This includes helping at the front desk, in the hospital store, wheeling patients around, driving those golf carts to and from parking lots and general help on the various wards.

Make A Wish is an organization which tries to grant the wish of a child (under eighteen) who has a life-threatening illness (note, they don't necessarily have to be at death's door). Wish granters, as the volunteers are called, first meet with the child and family to determine what the child's wish is and collect information from the family. Once the wish is authorized by the main office, the wish granter plays a large part in implementing (or granting) the wish. If you enjoy working with children, this can be a very satisfying way to do it. The downside is that at times a child doesn't overcome their illness.

Here in Florida, the Guardian Ad Litem program (I'm not sure of all states have one) is a network of professional staff and volunteer advocates, partnering to provide a strong voice in court and positive systemic change on behalf of Florida’s abused and neglected children. I can tell you from personal experience that judges listen closely to what a Guardian Ad Litem has to say in the court, and their report weighs heavily on a judge's ruling. Again, those who have an interest in children might find this a very satisfying way to serve their community and especially the children in it.

Whereas the previous two volunteer organizations deal with children, Meals On Wheels does a fantastic job in helping those seniors who for one reason or another are pretty much confined to their homes. Once a day, a volunteer visits seniors in the program to deliver two meals to them. Knock on any one of those doors and you will be greeted with a smile of thanks. Very often, those meals are their only source of nutrition. As you travel your route it is hard not to think that 'but for the grace of God, there goes I."

Then there is volunteering for the Senior (now Service) Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). This is satisfying for a few reasons. One is that it allows you to use your previous work experience to help people who want to start a business or those who operate a small business but need some advice and guidance with problems they may be facing. It not only fills a few hours of your time each month, but it also presents you with challenges in taking on varied problems and work with the clients to solve them. Seeing a client succeed in starting a business or working through a problem with them is satisfying. Their success benefits the entire community. As an aside, each chapter needs its volunteers to work in the management of each chapter.

As I said, these are but five of the many volunteer positions you might consider if you are a senior. But whether it is these or something else, get involved and help those in your community; you'll feel better for it.

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The overextended extended family

john — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:51:00 GMT

I recently had a book (Late Night Musings) reading and signing at a local adult community (adult as in age, not sexual inclinations). It took place at their weekly coffee and bagel get-together. There were about thirty people, fifty and above, in attendance - more for the bagels than to hear me I think.

Anyway, I briefly explained how the book came to be then read about five of my musings from the book. At the end of each one, I encouraged those attending to offer their own experiences and observations on the musing's subject matter. I heard some very interesting and poignant stories.

When the reading and book signing was over, an 80 year old gentleman approached me to comment on one of my musings that had to do with my extended family, and how I missed what I had as a child. He said he too had a similar experience although he and his wife lived in Brooklyn all their lives. They grew up only a few blocks apart so they certainly experienced the comforting feeling and security of living among their extended family.

He then got to the reason he spoke to me. He lamented that the concept of an extended family living in close proximity to each other seemed to be over. He cited his own family as a good example. He had a son and a daughter, both married but neither living anywhere near the rest of the family. That is equally true for the younger generation of other extended families. We have become a mobile society and our children and grandchildren seem to move to wherever their work takes them. Often that means several moves that could be hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Although I am an only child, my cousins and friends that I grew up with have left our local town for the most part. To the extent I would have been part of that extended family I am not since I now live in Florida. The same could be said for the gentleman who spoke to me. In my wife's family, two of her six siblings live far from the remainder of the family. One lives in Virginia and the other in California. They each have two children who only see their aunts, uncles and cousins once in a great while. Then again talking about being mobile, my wife's family is from Malone, New York but live in Florida. Most children today don't get to experience living near their extended families.

You can find many things to blame for the problems we face in society today. Somehow I think fragmented families are part of it.

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I saw a robin - it's time to clean

john — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:55:00 GMT

For those who are under 30, you may not believe much of what is written here, but, trust me, it is true.

I sometimes kid my mother-in-law (MIL) about her cleaning habits; it is something we both laugh about. Although we aren't that far apart in age, she still does many of the cleaning chores we who are older recall our parents doing. My wife has inherited some of her cleaning habits; maybe it's in the genes - I don't know. I, on the other hand, have adopted the modern day cleaning habits of those in their twenties and thirties. That general philosophy seems to be "if it ain't visibly dirty, then don't bother cleaning it". That goes for floors, furniture, windows and all things associated with where one lives be it a house, apartment or just a room.

What brought all this up is my MIL, God bless her, let me know that she has started her spring cleaning - spring does come earlier here in Florida. The cleaning chore for the week is washing walls. Yes, you read it right, washing walls! While I can remember my parents doing that, other than my MIL I know of no one else these days who washes walls. I think that goes back to the days when most families didn't have the financial wherewithal to paint when it struck their fancy. Of course, you had to make sure you first used a paint that would hold up under the cleaning cloth.

As I said, I do recall those of my parent's generation doing that as well as cleaning wallpapered walls using some kind of putty. There are a few other cleaning tasks I can recall that almost no one does these days. One is ironing sheets before putting them on the bed (using a soda bottle filled with water and capped with a sprinkler head for steaming). When you rationally think about it, it's hard to conceive of any reason to do that since the sheets aren't visible under the blankets. Besides, one night of sleep will take care of the wrinkle free look of the sheets. They also used to iron towels, underwear and several other items. The youth of today can't fathom anyone doing that.

Then there are windows and curtains. Windows often were cleaned not because they were especially dirty but simply because it was springtime which meant windows had to be cleaned. The same was true of shear curtains. To the untrained eye they may look perfectly clean but one never knew when some friend would visit and spot some speck of dirt on them. Such a finding might result in one being the talk of the town, and one never wanted to be thought of as dirty.

So it is with my MIL. Just as the birds return north and trees blossom in the spring, so it is time for her to start her spring cleaning. She may not be the last person in this country who does that type of thorough spring cleaning, but I suspect if we rounded them all up, we could serve them dinner in a diner booth. What is really says is that we are slowly shedding the habits of yesteryear. And someday the only way to learn what life was like in the early 20th century and before will be found in some obscure book buried on the back shelf of some library.

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Wasted lives

john — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:02:00 GMT

The other day I was driving to the mall. In order to get there I had to drive through a less desirable section of town (to use a euphemism). As I was waiting at a red light, two of the local residents crossed the street in front of me. Both were unkempt, unshaven and wore torn clothes that looked like they had not been in a washer for some time. You could tell by their walk that they didn't have coffee for breakfast but rather something much stronger.

Then the light turned green and I was on my way. But I couldn't get those two men out of my mind. It would have been easy to simply dismiss them as two drunken bums and let it go at that. But then again, when my mind gets hold of a thought, it rarely lets go. So I wondered how they got from there to here, from a young child in grade school to the individuals they are today. While many of the street people today are suffering from mental illness and are left to their own devices, it seemed apparent that drugs and/or alcohol also plays a major role in these people's lives. But that begs the question of what got them from an innocent child to a life of drugs and alcohol.

I wondered what their home life was like as they were growing up. Was there a loving and nurturing parent or parents or had the child's parent(s) passed through the same doorway long before they were born? Was it peers that led them down the path that resulted in the life they were now living? If so, why didn't their parent(s) take control of the situation and stop that behavior in its tracks? What were they like in school? Was there a brilliant mind or a mediocre one that was wasted? Were they happy-go-lucky souls or introspective, brooding children? So many questions, so few answers.

Maybe only those who are living that life know the answers to those questions, or maybe not even they know. Minds often rearrange facts to suit self. That or the ravages of drugs and alcohol write over the truth with a story that justifies one's existence. Whatever the case, they are lost souls, forever travelling down a road that someday will run out at a dead end.

That led me to wonder who and how many of those I knew back in my early school days are now living a similar life. How many that I lost track of are dressed similarly and living similarly. Would I be surprised if I knew who they were? Might, in fact, one or more of them be living in that area I drove through.

All that led me to write another of my so called poems. It is:

Do I know you?

Who are you?

It is really you?

Where is the person I use to know?

Where is the sparkle you had in your eyes?

Where is the smile that lit up a room?

Where did that you go?

Why are you here?

Why did you change?

How is life treating you?

I miss the old you.

I miss the way you used to be.

I miss what we had.

Can you change?

Can you be what you used to be?

Or are you gone forever?

I am sad, old frriend.

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An apology

john — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:05:00 GMT

I need to apologize to subscribers and casuals readers of Late Night Musings. I attempted to publish a quiz on 1960s songs and ran into technical problems. As many of you do, I personally subscribe to my musings so I can see what others are getting. When I got my subscription copy all looked well. However, when I attempted to access the musings on my blog, it was clear that not all was well. As far as I know, that one musing is the only one having problems.

At that point, I pulled the musing from the blog. I'm trying to resolve the problem with the webmaster. When I do, I will reissue the quiz as I think many will enjoy taking it. Meanwhile I will continue to issue other musings.

You, readers, are the best quality control system I have. If you have any problems with my blog, PLEASE drop me a line at my blog email: john@latenightmusings.com . And I hope you continue to read and enjoy my other musings.

It's not worth it

john — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:24:00 GMT

In one of my musings many months ago, I mentioned that in reading novels I enjoy seeing a well turned phrase or sentence that seems to contain a great deal of wisdom. Well, I've run across another one. As I recently mentioned, I'm on a run of reading Rex Stout novels with his famous protagonist, Nero Wolfe (well, famous if you read Rex Stout).

In this book, Prisoner's Base, Nero is once again trying to solve a murder and in doing so has gathered the five suspects in his office to interrogate them. In speaking to them, asks each one why he shouldn't consider them a suspect. One of them named Bernard Quest said he wouldn't ever commit a murder though he had contemplated it. The reason he gave is as follows: "One rule is this: that if the risk of a transaction is very great it should not be considered at all, no matter what profit it offers if it is successful."

What brilliant logic, yet logic that is unknown to criminals. They consider the risk and reward, and if in their minds the reward is great enough, they take the risk. No matter that it may cost them years of their life in jail, they take the risk and commit the crime.

In fact we often hear those we consider honest and above a criminal act say that they wouldn't do something that could result in their incarceration for years if the reward was a mere $100 thousand, but if they thought they could gain $1 million or more, they'd probably do it. And when the reward is millions of dollars they don't think twice. Consider Bernie Madoff. He led a luxurious life for many years because of his crime but the end result is that he is now in jail. Had he followed Bernard Quest's logic, he wouldn't have been as rich but neither would he be in jail.

Even when the crime is less and the punishment less, the consequences can be significant. The teenager who commits a crime fails to realize that that fact will be on their record forever and will influence what opportunities, short of more crime, they will have in the future. Of course, those who feel there is no hope in their lives, they commit the crime, feeling that jail time is no worse than the life they would live had they not committed the crime.

It turns out in the book that Mr. Quest didn't commit the crime because he was wise enough to heed his own words of advice. As for who the murderer was, well you'll have to read the book to find out. There still are still four other suspects.

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Whose death is more important

john — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:41:00 GMT

As I have mentioned in the past, my wife and I often listen to XM radio while in the car. My tastes in music typically run from the 1950s to the 1970s; hers from the 1960s to the 1980s. That means we compromise and usually listen to music from the 1960s and 1970s when in the car.

As we were listening the other day, I asked her whatever became of the musical group, ELO or Electric Light Orchestra, then playing on the radio. She didn't know and, of course, neither did I. They were a very popular group in their day but somehow they simply slipped off the musical radar screen. That led me to comment that many of the musical stars of those earlier decades somehow seemed to have just faded away. As General MacArthur once said about generals - "They don't die, they simply fade away." While I am sure someone knows about them and their whereabouts today, I have no idea nor do many others. I didn't even realize at the time that their star was diminishing.

As I thought about it, I realized that I could say the same for many Hollywood stars of years ago. While a few of the great names remain, so many others faded from view. They too in time became the forgotten ones until one day we read of their death in the local newspaper or on TV. Then the typical comment is: 'I thought they had already died' or 'wow, were they that old'? Their deaths are no more than one last sputter of a dying star.

True there are a few stars that go with a bang, capturing headlines. The deaths of Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson and Elvis Priestley created big news stories. So did the deaths of actors such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. Theirs were the supernova deaths in the universe of the rich and famous. But so many others didn't die in a cataclysmic explosion but simply and slowly came to their end, as so many stars in the universe do.

As it is said, fame is a fleeting thing. As for us with no claim to fame, our passing will be known to family and friends alone. And while our passing will be noted in a paid-for obituary in the local paper, ultimately the deaths of those stars will be no more important than ours.

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If only I could go back

john — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:23:00 GMT

Although my wife is younger than I am, she has reached that stage in her life where she wonders where time went. How is it that events that seem to have just occurred actually happened decades ago? In watching the Olympics, she recalled going to the Olympics in Lake Placid. It suddenly dawned on her that that was thirty years ago, three decades ago. That in turn, lead to one of those what I call another senior moment when she realized so many things and people in her life date back oh so many years ago. High school years, early marriage years, birth of her three children, her life raising them, our meeting and the decade of our marriage.

That was when she moved to what I call her "wish for a day" phase. Mitch Albom wrote about it in his bestselling book, For One More Day. For him it was to relive one more day with his mother. I think there lives in each of us a wish that we could relive at least one day in our past. Sometimes it involves a specific day, person or event - sometimes it is just to experience once again a day during a certain phase of our life. This wishing is a phase we all seem to go through once we reach our fifties or sixties. In some respects it is a phase that never ends.

As we grow older we always seem to recall some time or event that we wish we could return to. It is never a time of grief, sorrow or pain but rather a time of pleasantness, of joy or of well being. For my wife it was a wish to be able to go back and enjoy one day when her children were very young. During that phase of her life she was so busy living it and taking care of day to day problems that she never has a chance to just enjoy the moment. If not that, then she wished we both could return to the day we first met; it was for dinner at a Steak 'n Ale restaurant. That would also be a "wish for a day" of mine as well. It was the start of a perfect journey that still goes on.

So it is with all of us. For all the pain and sorrow we experienced in our lives there are an equal or greater number of great days, great events that remain with us, permanently etched into our memories. They are the golden nuggets in the stream of life. However their value is not measured in terms of dollars but in terms of warm memories. They also remind us of how much good in our lives we left behind, not by choice but left nevertheless.

The best I could do for her is remind her that when she was older she just might look back on these days and wish she could relive them just one more time. Those of us who are truly senior have learned that the best of times don't necessary have to be that distant.

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Parking lots are a lot of pain

john — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:50:00 GMT

There are many well documents differences between men and women. There is one, however, that I haven't read much about. It has to do with parking a car in a public parking lot. My experience and observations suggest those differences are significant. Most women just look for the first parking space they can find regardless of how far it is to the store. Finding one, they pull in, with no remorse should one closer open up. To them parking is just one of the necessities of driving a car; there is no sense of challenge in it.

With men, there is a completely different mindset. With men, they turn parking into a game, albeit a serious game, that requires plans and strategies. That is true, however, only when the man is alone or their spouse has grown weary of complaining about the many miles they put on the car driving up and down parking lot lanes. If she still is active in deciding where to park, most men take their wives' advice and just park in the first open parking space. There is a straightforward "park the car" command and the husband softly mutters but obeys, knowing if he doesn't that he will be hassled until he does find a place to park and gets into the store.

Most men, however, I suspect are more like me. When it comes to parking at the local Publix grocery store it's a challenge which rarely results in success but rather with failure and frustration. There are a few situations that can cause this frustration, each the result of not finding a spot very close to the store. In the first instance it is when you are waiting for someone, typically a woman, to get their groceries into their car and leave. You try to wait as long as you can as she loads her groceries, parks the cart, gets in her car, finds the keys, turns the mirror so she can adjust her lipstick, readjusts the mirror, starts the car, tunes the radio and finally looks around to pull out. As you sit there waiting, a check of your rear view mirror reveals a growing line of cars anxiously waiting to pass you. Given enough time, the horns start to sound and you begin to panic. Only the strongest maintain their place; most finally cave in and move on, only to see the car behind them pull into the woman's spot.

It's a similar situation to go down a lane not seeing an open space. As you reach the end of the lane and prepare to turn into the next lane, you look into your rearview mirror and watch a car just a few feet back pull out of a space. It is impossible to backup as the exiting car is in the way and there is a car now waiting to pull in. At this point you are not sure if you want to smash the windshield of the car leaving the space or the car waiting to pull in.

A third situation occurs when you have tried your best to find a place near the store and finally have to admit defeat. You then take that last parking place, furthest from the store, and start that long trek to the store's entrance. As you near the store you now see three open spaces just a few yards from the store. Of course you know if you ran back to your car by the time you got to those empty spaces someone else will have found them.

Unfortunately, leaving the parking lot isn't the end of it. When you arrive home your wife greets you with that question that caps the whole experience. "Did you waste an extra ten minutes driving around the parking lot trying to find a open space close to the store, dear?"

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Please note that your email will not be used for any other purpose other than to send you an email copy of my musings. Even though I am the owner and author of the blog, I don't even know who subscribers are. Also note that there is no advertising anywhere on my blog. I am not doing this for any financial gain. I only do it for the satisfaction it gives me in writing my musings and having readers enjoy them.

Subscriber or not, I hope you enjoy them.

Is what is important to us important?

john — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:57:00 GMT

A week or two ago my wife and I, along with her parents, attended a Vince Gill concert. It was great. While he is labeled a country and western singer, it belies his talents. What he can do with a guitar (he uses several during his concert) rivals what the best rocker or blues guitarist can do. But that is not why I am writing this.

It so happened that the same evening during the concert my wife became a grandmother for the first time. She has been a de facto grandmother since the moment we married (I have two grandchildren) and has been a great one. However in this case it was her son and his fiancée that were having the baby. We chose not to be present for the event since many other family members were there and we would have just added to the confusion. Besides we had tickets and were going to celebrate her parents' anniversary. However, we live in the modern era of instant communications so my wife's daughter was at the hospital giving us text updates throughout the concert which came every five minutes as Denisse gave birth to Lincoln Knox. So by extension we were there for Lincoln's birth.

As special and important as the birth of my wife's grandson was, I realized that the President was giving his State of the Union speech to Congress at the same time - an important event. So what we had was a variety of interests in play. Entertainment, the start of a new life, important political words. Afterwards, as I thought about it I realized that during the same time the people in Haiti were still struggling with the aftermath of the earthquake. Then too the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were still going on and our soldiers there had their priorities to attend to. Yet even those events didn't cover all the people in the world involved in and worried about other matters. While some people were dying with families and friends grieving, others were starving to death and still others were on vacations leaving many worries at home. The number of situations taking center stage in peoples' lives probably exceeded many millions, and still do.

It is only when you think about the whole population of our country and of the world that you suddenly realize that what is on our minds, what is important to us is not shared by all. In fact, what is of premier importance to us may not even be worthy of a mention to most of the people in this country and the world. Thus the idea of egocentricity rises again. Just as we have learned that the earth is not the center of the universe, so we must remember that what looms large in our lives probably doesn't even register with others.

We are a large and diverse country and world. We are but one of more than 6 billion people. The vast majority don't care what is important to us. But yet what is happening in our lives is important to us. Therein lies the dichotomy that each of us live with every day of our lives.

A special winter holiday - a repeat

john — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:35:00 GMT

Note to readers: If this sounds familiar, it is. It is a repost of something I previously wrote, but appropriate for now.

If I were to ask you what holiday involves the greatest number of greeting cards being exchanged, I’m sure you would correctly answer Christmas. But if I asked you to name the second biggest holiday for sending cards, would you know? Well, in case you didn't, the answer is Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day. Over a billion cards are exchanged for that holiday. In years long gone by, I suspect there were over a billion small candy hearts exchanged in school, each with some trivial phrase of love printed on them. Back then, few children could afford the price of a card. Besides, you couldn't eat the cards, but, ah, those candies.

But in today's more affluent world we exchange cards proclaiming our love and affection for another. I would never diminish the act of sending a Valentine’s Day card to someone you care about because if there is one thing this world of ours that doesn't have enough of, it’s love. I wonder what people do for the remainder of the year to let someone know that they care for and about others, that they love them? I wonder how often that love is expressed verbally. While it is well and good to show your love for another, oftentimes it isn't enough. It isn't enough to say to someone, "You know I love you". Knowing something and having that be reaffirmed in words are two different things.

Hopefully we say it often to our spouses, if they are still with us, and to our children and grandchildren. If you have not told members of your family lately that you love them, well, you are way overdue. But it shouldn't stop there. I suspect our love for our friends is expressed much less often. They probably fall into the "they know" category.

I think as one grows older, one realizes that love is probably our most precious commodity, the most precious gift that we can give to another. We learn that words of love left unsaid may never get a chance to be uttered. It may well be that the ones we love will no longer be in our lives to hear those words. It may be that we, ourselves, may not be around to say them. So this Valentine's Day, remember to tell everyone that you love, family and friends, that you do love them. You'll both feel better for it.

Our parents and animals

john — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:30:00 GMT

The other night was another opportunity to enjoy the pleasure and company of a few friends for dinner at our place. There were eight of us - two guest couples, a granddaughter and a friend of one of the men, my wife and me. As in times past, there was talk of family, events, and life in general. We had a healthy dose of laughter as the banter went back and forth. As we sat around the table after dinner talking, I tossed out a question that generated some interesting answers.

The question was for those of us whose parents were no longer living. That limited answers to five of us adults. My question was simple. If Hinduism is right and we return as an animal, what animal did they think their parents might return as and why did they think so. After a moment of laugher, the five of us who answered took pause and really thought about what our answers might be. No one was glib; rather each of us really took time to think reflect on our parents as we remembered them and tried to match them to an animal that might be considered as having similar characteristics.

Of the ten answers (two parents for each answering) only one animal came up more than once. Anyway, for the mothers there were two cats, a doe, an eagle and a dove. For the fathers, we had a bull, an owl, a buck, a king salmon and a horse. The last answer for a father, the horse, was amusing since that was predicated on the father's love of horse racing and betting on them. All answers were interesting as were the rationale for picking the animals we did. The answers clearly reflected how we perceived our parents, more importantly how we view our fathers as opposed to our mothers. I'm not sure our parents would agree if they were living, but that is a moot point.

So someday when you have time, or if at some kind of gathering, you might raise the same question. You just might find the answers interesting. If you'd like to share your answers to the question, feel free to use the comments here.

The unspoken thought

john — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:26:00 GMT

Note to readers: The following is not one of my lighter musings. It is a brooding one on the subject of death and us. It is not a bowl of cereal to be enjoyed as you start your day. I promise the next one will be something lighter.

It brings to mind the phrase "the elephant in the room". It goes by a few aliases such as my shadow, my companion or the unwelcomed stranger. It is something often unspoken of in personal terms because when you are young it seems as far away as some isolated island someplace in the South Pacific. When you are old, especially by the time you reach your seventies, it is too real to want to contemplate. It is a topic almost never revealed, and we who are seventy and beyond try our best to not dwell on.

The subject, of course, is our own demise, or to put it in more stark terms - our own death. I have to believe that anyone who is up in years thinks of it more often than anyone might guess. Yet it is a topic that even close friends rarely ever discuss. Even when we speak to a lawyer while preparing our final will and testament, we focus more on material things than the ending of our life.

The better your life is, the happier you are today, probably the more you avoid talking or thinking about it. We often dismiss it out of hand saying it is something we almost never think about, yet we do. How can one not think about it? How can one not focus on an event that will bring the curtain down on a great play - the play in which we are the star? How can we not care about something that will take away our family and friends, our homes and our lifestyle? How can we not care about something that takes away our future?

We read about strangers who have died, some younger and some older. We hear about classmates who are no longer with us (ah the euphemism to soften the thought). In some perverse manner that news makes us feel a bit better knowing that we are surviving. Yet we know that someday what will be read is our obituary, what will be heard is the news of our passing (another euphemism).

The news of the deaths of others who are in their eighties when we are in our seventies leaves us with conflicting feelings. On the one hand we feel good knowing that with similar luck we probably have ten or fifteen years to live. Yet having lived seven plus decades, we know how fast times goes by. What seemed like an eternity when we were young we now know is but a fleeting moment, especially when viewed from the perspective of all that has happened to us in our lives. And when we hear or read about someone dying who is just a year or two older than we are, that news is disconcerting to say the least. It says maybe we don't have another ten or fifteen years to enjoy life.

And so it is. We don't really talk about the elephant in the room; we go through life whistling in the dark talking of other things and living life like it will never end. That is probably wise. But in the privacy of our own thoughts we know our death is inevitable.

Who started the divorce craze anyway? Final, finally...

john — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:30:00 GMT

Note: My apologies to subscribers and readers alike. I Inadvertently published a draft version of this musing and withdrew it, I think, followed by a not quite corrected version. I have now republished the final, final copy, I think. - John

One of the friends with whom I had the conversation with regarding my previous musings, When is old antique?, is Whit. He subsequently wrote to suggest that divorce and the division of property also played a big part in children not having or wanting the antiques many of us have/had. He wrote about the higher divorce rates today as compared to the rates during our parents' day. At the mention of divorce rates, as is often the case my mind went off on a tangent - from antiques to divorce.

It seems we now have a whole industry dealing with divorce. You read about it in news articles, in magazines and on web sites. Some tell you how to avoid it and the rest tell you the best way to go through one. It is a topic for ministers and lawyers alike. But that had me wondering - when did the change in numbers occur? When did we go from a society where divorce was not only frowned on but actually was a stigma, a blemish on peoples’ reputations, to where we are today?

Where better to find the answers than on the inter net. I finally found what I was looking for after visiting several sites that deal with the various aspects of divorce. That source is the web site www.cdcgov.gov. I found a graph that showed divorce numbers from about 1950 until 1990. It appears that the numbers from about 1950 to 1960, and probably prior, remained nearly constant. The rates after 1990 did as well since they seem to level off after that year. In fact I’ve read that the rate of divorce has actually gone down in the past decade or so.

Anyway, the chart indicates that the lower divorce numbers were fairly steady until about 1960 when it started its climb. The steep climb took place from 1965 until 1980 when it went from 400,000 to 1,200,000. Assuming that the age people who were getting divorced was 30, it means those born in 1935 and later contributed most to the increasing rate. Those who were born in the 1935-1940 years are now 70 to 75. Whoa!

Being 73, I found that startling but sadly revealing. To paraphrase what Pogo said, we have met the divorcees and they is us. I am one of those who contributed to those statistics - I have been divorced. For all of the good things we think about when those my age reminisce, we fail to realize that we were the vanguard to the growing tidal wave of divorces.

I need to take care here and not paint everyone of my generation with this broad paint brush. Most of my classmates are still married to their first and only spouse. They have or are going to soon celebrate their golden anniversaries. My heartfelt congratulations to them. They are the ones who remained true to our parents beliefs. But too many of us took the easy way out of what can be at times a difficult relationship and got divorced. That is also true for those who came after us. Too many kept seeing greener grass on the other side of the fence. Regardless of who is thought to be the blame for the divorce, we know it takes two to get married and two to get a divorce, and that includes those of my generation. The blame can be spread around.

As for our children, why should we think they will be any different? Children often model their own lives after their parents’ lives and conduct. We are their role models. The words to Harry Chapin's song, The Cats in the Cradle, are so appropriate (they apply equally to women/girls) -

He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

So as we wax poetic about the good old days, it doesn't hurt to keep the fact of those divorce numbers in mind.

Answer not needed

john — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:49:00 GMT

Brief conversations can be amusing at times. I'm not talking about an argument between someone and their spouse or significant other though they are often involved in what I am suggesting. Rather it has to do with those often mindless brief pseudo-conversations. Specifically, I am talking about rhetorical questions that often take the place of brief but meaningful conversational questions. Rhetorical questions are asked when an answer is not expected. Most often they are used to make a point. But in a relationship, they serve no purpose but are used to simply let the other know what we are thinking. I have a few of my favorites - some asked of me and some I ask of my wife. No answer required.

One of my favorites is when someone comes home after running errands or whatever they were doing and upon seeing us, the question is asked - "Are you home?" Duh. If you can see me then I must be home. And if it isn't me, then who were you expecting? As I say, I can smile at this since I have asked the question as well as having been asked it.

Another comes when you are doing something obvious, like reading the paper or maybe cooking diner. In walks the person and asks, "What are you doing?" Sometimes you want to answer that you are cooking up a concoction laced with arsenic to poison them, or maybe you have a favorite magazine hidden inside the paper. In any event, what you are doing is obvious, or at least it is to you. Again, no answer required unless you want to start an argument with nothing more said for the rest of day and night.

The third one that comes to mind is when you grab the car keys and are on the way out the door. You know what's coming. "Are you going out?" You want to say, "No. I'm just taking the keys out for some fresh air or for a walk around the block. You don't, however, knowing that if you do walk out the door after saying that, you're liable to hear a string of invectives all the way to the car. That only gives the neighbors more fodder to gossip about.

The last one has to do with dinner. Having told spouse/significant other three times what is for dinner, you know the question is coming. "What are we having for dinner?" You won't dignify the question with an answer that is already known. But you do wonder if you should print a menu and post it on the kitchen wall.

Maybe we ask these rhetorical questions only when we are in a comfortable relationship and feel secure in knowing we can ask them without a nasty retort. Maybe they are a sign of a healthy relationship. I'm not sure. All I know is that you can probably add a few questions of your own to my list. Feel free to do so since I feel my rhetorical questions are getting stale and I need something new to keep things going.

When is old antique?

john — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:37:00 GMT

In talking to a few friends around my age, the subject turned to possessions, specifically our possessions. Having broken through the glass ceiling of seventy, you might correctly guess that a few of the items we own are rather old. More so, some of our possessions were given to us by our parents which adds a couple of decades to the age of those items. You might call them antiques although I prefer not to think that anything that I bought as an antique. If what we own are antiques, one might, by extension, suggest we are antiques as well.

Anyway, we talked about wanting to hand many of those items down to our sons and daughters. The problem is that many of the younger generation have no interest in owning them (yes, there are exceptions - but few). I guess they view them as simply old dust collectors, not antiques. There might be one or two items they can relate to, something they can fondly recall from their early years, like a blanket or sled. But most of the stuff we own isn't wanted by most of our children. Those who want to incorporate antiques into their decor typically head to some antique shop where the items are well over a hundred years old. Of course, those things aren't free; they cost hundreds of dollars.

I think these times are proving to be a watershed in terms of family possessions. The younger generation has become a use and toss generation wherein most all their possessions are expendable, to be replaced by the latest and greatest. What we of the older generation own isn't old enough to be considered antique but are aged enough to be thought of as simply old and not wanted. We who are in our sixties and seventies still have the mindset of our parents that lived though the Great Depression wherein nothing was expendable. Hand-me-downs were welcomed. They weren't thought of as antiques but rather just a way to save money.

But times change and people change. I guess we could sell our possessions to some antique shop. Then our children and grandchildren would rush to buy them. It's a strange age we live in.

Grammys - music for the ages or those young in age?

john — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:25:00 GMT

The Grammys for 2010 are over and I have to admit I didn't really watch the awards show. I did, however, catch snippets of it and have to conclude that the musical world has passed me by. I'm not quite sure what I was doing but clearly it wasn't keeping up with what is happening and has happened when it comes to popular music. Oh, I recognize the names of a few of the performers and know that I have heard a few of the award winning songs, but for the most part, the Grammys are but one more award show that I don't watch.

Along with the Grammys there is the C&W awards show for music. I've lost count for the number of awards shows there are for movies and TV. They seem to be growing like the reality shows. Someone comes up with a winning show and it is copied over and over again. I think there are two creative minds in the arts - one for movies and one for music. Everyone else take their clues from them.

But I digress. The reason I mention the Grammys is because I think I am in the same position that my parents were sixty years ago when rock 'n roll came on the scene. My parent's genre for music was that of the thirties and forties. It was the era of singers like Frank Sinatra, Vera Lynn and the rest. It was the era of the big bands such as Sammy Kaye, Glenn Miller and the rest.

When Bill Haley and the Comets arrived, those of my parent's age didn't understand it and didn't like it. They thought that the new music was the slippery slope to ruin and damnation. They tried their best not to listen to it although it was filling the airways and record stores. But we teenagers of that time thrived on it. I sometimes wonder if it was, in part, a teen rebellion against parental control.

So it is again, only sixty years later. Hip hop, R&B, Rap and all the rest reigns supreme. Artists like Beyoncé, Black Eye Peas, Taylor Swift (I've heard of them) were in the running. So was Lady Gaga (I wonder who came up with that name). And so it is that now I am the not-with-it-generation. I don't really understand what is happening in the music world, but unlike those of my parent's generation I don't hate it. For the most part I just let it pass me by. I am stuck in the 1950s and 1960s and quite content to be there.

As for the younger generation of today, I simply smile. Sixty years from now it will be their turn to not understand and perhaps hate the music of the teenagers of that day. As they say, what goes 'round comes 'round.

They were here but now are gone

john — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:05:00 GMT

I was looking at some old pictures the other day - really old pictures. In one of them my Dad was holding me and in the other my Mom was holding me. My guess is that I was about a year old, which meant my Dad was 28 and my Mom was 26. I had looked at those pictures before but this time I really looked at them. I saw my parents as I remember them in many of my memories. My other vivid memory of them was in the last few years preceding their death.

As I looked at those pictures I kept thinking they were gone; they all were gone. My Dad is dead, my Mom is dead, and that little boy is now a 72 year old man. I was there to watch it, to experience it, but it happened so slowly that I never even knew what was happening. If there is one thing in life that is a perfect example of stealth, it is time.

Looking at those pictures as well as others that were taken throughout the years revealed that my parents gradually grew old and Johnnie disappeared to be replaced by John. Life became death and the innocence of youth became the reality of old age. There was no pause button, no stop button; life just kept unfolding - a show with no breaks for commercials. And even if those buttons did exist, I wouldn't have been wise enough back then to use them.

Now the only evidence of what once was are pictures and memories. In time that evidence will disappear. The pictures will be kept for a generation or two then discarded when they become meaningless to their owners. Memories will fade then the end of our time cease to exist. All that we hold near and dear will become distant and worthless.

That is reality here on earth, that is the nature of life and death. Those who lived hundreds of years ago are a testament to this simple truth.

A significant birth

john — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:30:00 GMT

In the grand order of this world it probably is considered trivial. In the grand scheme of the universe it probably is insignificant. Yet in the smaller world, smaller universe of family and friends it was significant event and of great importance. For in the late evening of January 27th, 2010 Lincoln Knox was born. His arrival was a moment anticipated for nine months by his parents as well as his parents' families and friends.

For a few months no one was even sure if he would be a he or a she. But thanks to the great strides in medical science, long before he arrived his parents knew they had to decide on the name for a boy. And what a first and middle name. His first name is the same as the last name of our 16th president - a strong and determined man. His middle name is the same as the last name of that illustrious general who served under General Washington later was appointed by Washington to be our first Secretary of War. Both men were battle tested but yet wise and caring. So it is hoped for Lincoln Knox that he too grows into a man who can be strong and determined but yet wise and caring.

So much is said about what the future holds for the young children of today. Some paint pictures of doom and gloom while others see a bright day over the horizon. The real truth is that no one really knows, and those who predict the future will not be around to witness it. How Lincoln Knox's journey through life goes is anyone's guess. How successful he will be is unknown. I think we all can assure him there will be days of great joy and days of great sorrow. How he navigates those times will be in his hands. All that can be said with certainly is that he starts life surrounded with love and caring. He will be nurtured, watched over and guided until such time as he takes command of his life.

But whatever the future holds, whatever he might accomplish, he has, without knowing, turned a man and a woman into parents and turned other members in his family into grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Quite a feat. Most importantly, he has, like all just-born babies, brought much joy and happiness to his parents and to all in his family.

We wish you a safe and happy journey, Lincoln Knox.

Do you know your wines? A quiz.

john — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:21:00 GMT

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 suspect a few go to drink as much as they can in two hours as well as fill up on the snacks provided. Since I only drink about a glass twice a month, I was there so my wife could taste various chardonnays, which is her favorite, and to enjoy the company of good friends. Besides, in my case my taste runs to Rossi's Paisanno which is sold in half and full gallon bottles.

In wandering around a rather packed liquor store, I noticed a small cooled room which housed the higher priced wines - anywhere from $50 to $120 a bottle. Obviously there was no tasting of those wines so that room stayed empty. Also, there were so many different wines throughout the store that it would impossible to have a wine tasting of all of them. That is what had me thinking about the names of the many different wines.

I can remember when the typical wines were made by Gallo, Almaden and Rossi. Clearly times have changed the landscape of wines. Now the names include those I never heard and probably will never taste. So in my wanderings, I collected the names of some of the names with the idea of creating another one of my little quizzes.

Below you will find a list of real and fictitious names of wines in alphabetical order. Your challenge is to pick the names of actual wines. Scroll down for the answers. Let's see if you know your wines.

Big Ass Zin

Cakebread Cellars

Chard

Cloudy Bay

Cupcake

Cycles Gladiator

Earthquake

Etorki

Faraway

Fog Bank

Frisco

Frog's Leap

Gnarly Head

Gold Mine

Goldie's Cellars

Grgrich Hills

Hemmingway Hills

Horse Heaven Hills

Josie's Hills

Little Black Dress

Michael's

Paradise Sound

Ravens Wood

Rugged Hills

Sequoia Grove

Stork's

Toasted Head

Torrid

Upstart

Wild Horse

Wither Hills

Wrongo Dongo

Zonin

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Big Ass Zin	Wine
Cakebread Cellars	Wine
Chard
Cloudy Bay	Wine
Cupcake	Wine
Cycles Gladiator	Wine
Earthquake	Wine
Etorki	Wine
Faraway
Fog Bank	Wine
Frisco
Frog's Leap	Wine
Gnarly Head	Wine
Gold Mine
Goldie's Cellars
Grgrich Hills	Wine
Hemmingway Hills
Horse Heaven Hills	Wine
Josie's Hills
Little Black Dress	Wine
Michael's
Paradise Sound	Wine
Ravens Wood	Wine
Rugged Hills	Wine
Sequoia Grove	Wine
Stork's
Toasted Head	Wine
Torrid
Upstart
Wild Horse	Wine
Wither Hills	Wine
Wrongo Dongo	Wine
Zonin	Wine

Time on more than my hands

john — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:23:00 GMT

During my early years, the style was just ending. I speak of a pocket watch safely secured in either a watch pocket just below the belt line of a pair of pants or in a vest pocket. But that was ending and he wristwatch was taking over. The early spring-powered watches gradually were replaced with digital watches that could not only tell time but also included stop watch features as well as other must-have capabilities. Many work underwater. Now for most of the younger generation, watches have been replaced by cell phones which always display the correct time down to the second. They never are more than an ear away.

However, in parallel that many of us, dare I say a vast majority, have taken advantage of another way of telling time. I speak of television. It seems we all have our favorite shows and know what time they start and end. Consequently, when a certain show starts we know it is 8 PM or 9 PM and know when the show ends it is one half or one hour later. Many of us determine what time we go to bed by the ending of certain shows.

For those who follow the news, we tell time by the start of local or national news. A problem arises, however, if one is watching the news on one of the 24/7 news channels. It is then that we feel we are in some kind of time warp. The hands of the clock never seem to move; we are trapped in some kind of recycled world. We seem doomed to move in an endless circle wherein we cycle back every half hour, hearing once again that which we have already heard. Fortunately, the cable or satellite company helps us in these situations. To know exactly where we are in this seemingly endless loop, they change newscasters and commentators.

For some, television has become the Stonehenge of our times. Just as those ancient people could determine the start of each season by viewing the sun using the perfectly placed stones, so it is viewers determine the season by the first and last of their favorite shows during the year. The first viewing of their favorite show usually announces the arrival of fall. The Christmas-themed shows tell us that that festive and religious holiday is near. The introduction of the mid-year replacement shows tells all that winter has arrived. The beginning of the reruns make it clear that summer is upon us.

So even though you are without a pocket watch, wristwatch, cell phone or calendar, fear not, your television set is there to help.

I don't know why I do

john — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Although not of a religious nature, today I had a minor epiphany. I have no idea how or why it came to mind, but then maybe that is what an epiphany is all about. Anyway, for some inescapable reason, I thought about the three magazines I subscribe to which led me to the conclusion that each of them in one way or another are beyond me.

The first magazine is Scientific American or SciAm for those in the know. For scientists or those steeped in scientific knowledge, it is a wonderful magazine. But for me it is a magazine that to a significant degree, I simply don't understand. I have said before that I only comprehend about ten to twenty percent of the content of some articles. Some other articles I am way up there at seventy percent. As for the remaining few articles, I skim them over. Yet in spite of this, I continue to renew my subscription and look forward to its arrival. Go figure.

The second magazine is Popular Science, often referred to as PopSci. Again this is a magazine that I look forward to getting each month. It also is a magazine that contains articles about things I could never in my wildest imagination build or invent. I do understand more of the content, but little good does it do me since I could never make or use what I read and learn.

Even more interesting is the fact that in high school I never did well in any subject dealing with science. In college I majored in business so I could escape any course dealing with science. So that makes my having subscriptions to SciAm and PopSci even more puzzling. I guess I should learn more about psychology to understand why my behavior is such as it is concerning these magazine but that would require more learning of subjects in which I know I wouldn't excel.

The third magazine is AutoWeek, a car magazine that arrives in my mailbox every two weeks. While it has articles about some economical cars, it, like most all other car magazines, it worships at the altar of increased horsepower and torque. They have never met a car that they don't believe would do better with another twenty to thirty horsepower and another thirty to forty ft./lbs. of torque. This is true regardless of the car being reviewed, be it a great sedan or one of the more exotic cars whose prices are in the six and seven digits. Therein lays the rub with this magazine. Most of the cars they review are far beyond what my financial situation could bear. They are so expensive that I don't even dream about them. The only time a Ferrari 458 or a Buggati enters my mind is when I'm reading the magazine. When I close the magazine, they leave my mind as well.

What I don't read is the magazine my wife subscribes to - People magazine. In some ways, the subject matter of that magazine is as unrealistic as the content of any of my magazines. I will never have the wealth or lead the lifestyle of Hollywood stars. Oprah will never have me on her show and I will never walk the red carpet. So maybe three unrealistic magazines are my limit. If I do go to four, it will be a magazine about golf, something else I can't do well, regardless how much I read about it.

Maybe I need to talk to one of those door to door magazine subscription sales people to find something that suits my life style, my capabilities and my financial means. Maybe I need to subscribe to some kind of children's magazine like Chickadee Magazine. Or just maybe I need to devote my spare time to something more worthwhile - now that's a novel idea.

More important than a gift

john — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:53:00 GMT

I guess this is more for the young as oppose to seniors since I think seniors already know it. If not, it's probably is too late for them to do anything about it anyway.

There is one thing you can give that is more important that any gift - more important than a diamond ring, a Rolex watch or a new car. It is also the one thing that you can give that can be taken back with almost no effort. It is the one thing you have to keep when you give it. It is so easy to give and yet so hard to keep. What is this thing more important that any gift? It is your word.

It is the one thing that defines you and your reputation. It isn't made of material but rather by your ethics, morals and honesty. More than anything else, it is the thing by which people judge you. There are so many excuses to not live up to your word but only one reason to keep it - that is because it is the essence of who you are.

Whenever we don't keep our word we try to justify why. There are lots of excuses why people don't keep their word. They claim circumstances changed, too much time has gone by or they forgot they gave their word. They are but excuses. Short of being on your sick or death bed, there is no reason for failing to live up to your word. As for the idea that you gave your word to give someone money but no longer have it, it merely suggests that money is a fleeting thing and should never be associated with your word.

The problem is too many people think keeping their word isn't that important. That is a reflection of their self-worth. It is the most important thing you can give, so one needs to be judicious in giving it. Whether it is a promise to a friend or a promise to love, honor and obey, it is a commitment that you should be prepared to fulfill.

So, before you give your word, think twice. It isn't a promise you are putting on the line - it's you.

Dolly and Jean

john — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:50:00 GMT

It was a few days before Christmas and time for another of my bagel fixes. When I want a bagel I have a choice of a few places to get one. Today it was Dunkin' Donut. Although it was around lunch time, the place wasn't too busy. In fact the only customers were two women in line ahead of me placing their orders. It was obvious they both were in the Christmas spirit. As I watched one put her arm around the other in what could only be described as a close and sincere friendship. They both were laughing and joking with the clerk behind the counter.

When they turned for one reason or another I could see a close resemblance. I figured that they had to at least be sisters if not twins. And from their behavior I could only conclude that one of them must live, was visiting her friend and they hadn't seen one another in quite a while. Being the astute observer of people that I am, I smiled knowing that I had these two women down pat. Wanting to give myself a pat on the back, as I was leaving I stopped at their table to confirm my findings. With a smile to match theirs I explained that I had watched them in line and at their table and just wanted to asked them a few questions and learn a bit about them. Being the friendly souls they were, they readily agreed, however Dolly first had a question for me. She asked if the questions were going to be clean or dirty. When I assured her they would be clean, she disappointed said, "I was afraid of that." I laughed.

They introduced themselves as Dolly and Jean. To my first question asking if they were related possibly might be twins, they answered no. They were not twins and, in fact, not even related. In my mind I did a mental, "Huh!" I then asked if one of them was from out of town visiting. Again the answer was no; they both lived locally. My snug ego was crumbling.

As for being long term friends, they said they had met about a year ago when both were patients in the hospital. As a result of that encounter they became close friends. So contrary to my assumptions, my batting record was zero for three. They were not related, not long time friends and both lived locally.

They asked about me so I told them my name and why I asked. I explained I write a blog with my observations about people and life, and they interested me. After a cordial ending and wishing each other a Merry Christmas, I left. As I drove away, I thought about what had just happened and knew I had a musing, but not about the topic I was going to write.

What this musing really is about is judging, and misjudging people, based on casual observations. Regardless of how good we think we are in assessing people based on what we see and what little we hear, we are not infallible. Our biases, our life experiences lead us to one conclusion and not always the right one. It suggests I (we?) need to reserve judgment of others unless and until I (we?) really get to know them.

I told Dolly and Jean I might write a musing about them but failed to let them know where to find it. Consequently, they probably never will know about this musing. But to Dolly and Jean, thank you for a wonderful few minutes and another lesson in life.

Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream - Repeat

john — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:00:00 GMT

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.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Neither we or science are infallible

john — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:26:00 GMT

(Note to readers: This is about more than just science - read on.)

Science is infallible, that is until the next theory proves it to be even more infallible. In 1903, the Scientific American magazine made note that some cutting edge thinking was suggesting that perhaps the atom was not the smallest form of matter. A few great minds leaned in this direction but generally most scientists labeled it scientific garbage. To most scientists, an atom was the smallest indivisible unit of matter.

Of course, in time it was proven that, in fact, within the atom there were electrons whirling around a nucleus which was made up of protons and neutrons. At that point, they then thought they had it nailed - finally finding the smallest building blocks of matter - until, of course, someone found that those were made up of quarks. And so it goes. Today the latest fashion is something called the superstring theory - a superstring is a one dimensional thing that vibrates kind of like a violin string and thus makes up the true building blocks of all matter.

Even the Catholic Church of centuries ago got locked into the same kind of rigid, dogmatic thinking. Until the times of Galileo, the Church and scientists both believed that the entire known, observable universe revolved around earth. It took quite a battle to convince them that it wasn’t true.

The simple truth is that in many matter of science, not everything is known or completely accurate. The underlying facts are often beyond the capabilities of science to discern. Nature and the universe conceals more that it reveals. Laws that work in most cases don’t work in all cases. Recall that Einstein proved that what Newton expounded inadequately described what is at play in the universe. Now science knows that not even Einstein’s work completely describes how the universe operates. Thus we have quantum mechanics to help us understand the working of particles. And someday, sooner or later, someone will come along and further clarify the rules and laws that dictate how things work.

So it is with people. We seem to be most comfortable with beliefs and ideas about people and things that we formed many years ago. It is hard to let go of those when they are proven wrong. To do so upsets our comfort zone. They require us to admit we were wrong, something that most of us loathe doing. For if we are wrong about one thing or person, it could be that we may be wrong about other things or people - maybe we aren't infallible.

We live in times wherein our knowledge base is exponentially greater than it was in centuries past. But even today we don't know everything - not yet at least. We also live in a time when what we know today in many ways is more accurate than what we knew years ago. What we once knew as true isn't always true today - and what we know as true today may not be true tomorrow. That is also true about people. Those who are wise understand this; for the rest, they blindly go on, believing they are infallible.

The best and the worst

john — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:46:00 GMT

The title of this musing does not refer to some list of best and worst dressed or anything like that. Rather it refers to the opening line from Charles Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities. It reads, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." It was written on 1859 and set in London and Paris during the French Revolution. That opening line is well known and often used in modern day times.

It seems there almost is never a set of circumstances that negatively or positively affects everyone. No matter if it is war or peace, prosperity or recession, day or night - some always seem to do well under the circumstances and some don't. And therein lies the rub, as they say. For those who suffer in a given situation, some do quite well and are happy.

Perhaps if you could average the pain with the good fortune it might even out into something neutral, but that never is the case. We don't live in a neutral world. There are the haves and the have-nots, the wealthy and the poor, the happy and the sad. How you feel about things depends on which side of the equation you are on.

I have sometimes used the old country saying that goes "the sun don't shine on the same dog's ass everyday", but that is a saying that doesn't always hold true. For some they live and always will live in a world of comfort and happiness while others are destined to forever exist in the other world. We live in a bi-polar world.

Politicians, diplomats and those feel good psychiatrists try to make things right for those whose lives seem to be ever destined to be miserable, but invariably they fail. For the poor and the miserable to succeed they typically have to take something from those who have and are happy with the way things are. Perhaps the average is neutral but it seems there never is a situation where everyone is equal; there will always be two diametrically opposed populations of humanity.

Not everyone can sit on the mountain top of wealth and happiness. And when someone makes it to the top of the mountain, invariably someone else is pushed off. That is a hard truth to swallow but it is true.

Hey Bob

john — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:55:00 GMT

You will see that, ultimately, this musing is about the idea called six degrees of separation. You might wonder about that when you first start reading, so bear with me. In case you didn't know, six degrees of separation (also referred to as the "Human Web") refers to the proposal that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth. File that in the back of your mind for now.

Last night my wife and I attended a local show that headlined Bob Newhart of TV fame. He is the same Bob of The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, both very successful shows (note that I don't say Mr. Newhart since I am over 70 and rarely call anyone Mr., even if they are a celebrity or older than me, which he is; I feel earned that right by living this long). I enjoyed his shows very much when they were on TV and even now I watch the reruns to view the shows I missed when the shows were on the air. Those shows were so good, that to this day the final show of the second TV series, Newhart, is ranked as the very best of final shows throughout TV history - and I would concur with that ranking.

Certainly everyone who is over 40 know about Bob. Perhaps if you are older, like me, you might also remember how he got this start as a standup comedian. He was funny as a guest on several other shows including Dan Martin's and Ed Sullivan's. In 1960, he made a album (an LP back then) titled, The Button Down Mind Of Bob Newhart. I bought that LP when it first came out and still have it to this day. Ah, now we start to put the pieces of this musing together which leads to that six degrees of separation idea. Hang on.

Since I was going to see his show, I thought I'd take that well worn, but usable album with me to get his autograph. My first attempt was to talk to some of the ushers who suggested I talk to the house manager or someone in the office about my request. Office personnel told me that Bob's number one rule is that there was to be no contact between the theatre's staff or the audience and him or his staff.

No wanting to give up, I had a second plan. Our seats were in the first row, a matter of a few feet from Bob. I thought when the show was over and he was taking his bows I might catch his eye by showing the album and entice him to autograph it. I was even prepared to give him an autographed copy of my book, Late Night Musings. I thought being 80 years old he might enjoy it.

It turned out this plan failed as well. I didn't get the album signed thought I did enjoy the show. I guess what bothered me is that I've had that album with me for fifty years, longer that I've had any wife with me. It seemed that Newhart would have had the courtesy of signing the album since he has been with me that long, and we are soon to celebrate our Golden Anniversary together.

So now, back to my opening to this musing which turns out to be a request to you. I am asking each reader of this musing (I'm sending to everyone on my email address list) to send it on to everyone they know especially to anyone who might get this closer to Bob. Maybe a newspaper or TV news program will latch on to it and help it move along. According to the theory of six degrees of separation, someone who forwards it on for the sixth time will do so to Bob. If you do forward this, you will not have good luck, inherit a fortune or get a guaranteed a ticket into heaven. All you will do is help me get my album autographed which I think I earned.

And should this endeavor be successful and Bob finally gets it, I have a message for Bob. Bob, do you think we might arrange to have you sign my album in recognition of our 50th anniversary? For my part, I'll be happy to give you a copy of my book, Late Night Musings. If you hang on to it for 50 years, look me up and I'll be happy to sign it for you.

Early 1900s quiz

john — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:03:00 GMT

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 appropriate as we live through the early decades of the 21st century that we have a quiz about the early 20th century.

So what follows is a series of historical facts listed in alphabetical order. You task is not to guess the right year but rather just the right decade - 1900s, 1910s or the 1920s. To see the answers, scroll down below the quiz.

Let's start:

No.	Event	Decade

1	A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000
2	Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity
3	Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
4	Charles P. Strite invents first pop-up bread toaster
5	Cuba gains independence from the United States.
6	Economic boom ended by "Black Tuesday"
7	Einstein publishes his theory of special relativity
8	First commercial radio station in the U.S. (KDKA 1020 AM) goes on air in Pittsburgh
9	First electric typewriter is invented by George Canfield Blickensderfer of Erie, Pennsylvania
10	Ford Motor Company produces it's first car - the Ford Model A.
11	George Gershwin writes Rhapsody in Blue
12	Gideon Sundback patents the first modern zipper
13	Harry Brearley invents stainless steel
14	Hollywood replaces the East Coast as the center of the movie industry
15	Jack London publishes The Call of the Wild
16	John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system
17	Mary Anderson invented windshield wipers.
18	Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham is published
19	Planck's publishes the law of black body radiation
20	Practical air conditioner designed by Willis Carrier
21	Prohibition of alcohol occurs in the United States. Prohibition in the United States begins
22	Publication of the first Crossword Puzzle
23	Robert Goddard makes the first flight of a liquid-fueled rocket
24	Scott Fitzgerald publishes some of the most enduring novels characterizing the Jazz Age. This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, and The Great Gatsby
25	Second Boer War ends.
26	Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street, Babbitt, Dodsworth, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantry
27	Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs is published
28	The "unsinkable" ocean liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks.
29	The film The Great Train Robbery was released
30	The film All Quiet on the Western Front is released
31	The first radio receiver was developed by Guglielmo Marconi.
32	The Panama Canal construction was started by the United States in the territory of Panama,
33	The Panama Canal is completed
34	The San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) destroys much of San Francisco,
35	The Scopes Trial takes place
36	The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established (a.k.a. the Soviet Union)
37	World War I starts and ends.

Scroll down for the answers:

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No. Event Decade

1 A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 1900

2 Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity 1910

3 Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean 1920

4 Charles P. Strite invents first pop-up bread toaster 1910

5 Cuba gains independence from the United States. 1900

6 Economic boom ended by "Black Tuesday" 1920

7 Einstein publishes his theory of special relativity 1900

8 First commercial radio station in the U.S. (KDKA 1020 AM) goes on air in Pittsburgh 1920

9 First electric typewriter is invented by George Canfield Blickensderfer of Erie, Pennsylvania 1900

10 Ford Motor Company produces it's first car - the Ford Model A. 1900

11 George Gershwin writes Rhapsody in Blue 1920

12 Gideon Sundback patents the first modern zipper 1910

13 Harry Brearley invents stainless steel 1910

14 Hollywood replaces the East Coast as the center of the movie industry 1910

15 Jack London publishes The Call of the Wild 1900

16 John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system 1920

17 Mary Anderson invented windshield wipers. 1900

18 Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham is published 1910

19 Planck's publishes the law of black body radiation 1900

20 Practical air conditioner designed by Willis Carrier 1900

21 Prohibition of alcohol occurs in the United States. Prohibition in the United States begins 1920

22 Publication of the first Crossword Puzzle 1910

23 Robert Goddard makes the first flight of a liquid-fueled rocket 1920

24 Scott Fitzgerald publishes some of the most enduring novels characterizing the Jazz Age. This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, and The Great Gatsby 1920

25 Second Boer War ends. 1900

26 Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street, Babbitt, Dodsworth, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantry 1920

27 Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs is published 1910

28 The "unsinkable" ocean liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks. 1910

29 The film The Great Train Robbery was released 1900

30 The film All Quiet on the Western Front is released 1920

31 The first radio receiver was developed by Guglielmo Marconi. 1900

32 The Panama Canal construction was started by the United States in the territory of Panama, 1900

33 The Panama Canal is completed 1910

34 The San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) destroys much of San Francisco, 1900

35 The Scopes Trial takes place 1920

36 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established (a.k.a. the Soviet Union) 1920

37 World War I starts and ends. 1910

26,635

john — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:33:00 GMT

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 to analyze your query and give you the answer you were seeking. It has ten trillion pieces of data it can access along with six million lines of code to analyze your query, search the data and produce the best possible answer. Clearly, refining such a system is people intensive, time consuming and very expensive.

In reading the article, it mentioned the site could be found at wolframalpha.com. Being the curious soul that I sometimes am, I looked up the site. Once there, it suggested to start you try something simple like entering a date, such as a birth date, so I did - February 2, 1937. In some respects the results were as expected. It showed that the date also is the birth date for Tommy Smothers. It also had the time of sunrise and sunset on that date, which fell on a Tuesday.

But there was also sometime more alarming to me. It showed the time difference between that date and the date of my query. It showed how many years, months and days had transpired - exactly 72 years, 11 months and 3 days - or 72.92 years ago. Not willing to let well enough alone, it then rubbed salt in the wound. It displayed how many weeks and days ago my birthday was - 3,805 weeks. That really hurt. Depending on whether I see the glass half full or half empty, I could view with glee or sadness that I've lived nearly 4,000 weeks. I started feeling as old as Methuselah. If we celebrated birthdays every week, I'd be celebrating my 3,805th birthday. Now I was really feeling old.

But the best (or worst depending how you view it) was yet to come. It showed how many days had passed since I was born - 26,635 days! My God - 26,635? Now I really felt old. It was almost like it was talking about light years. The number was mind boggling. The first question that came to mind was where did they go? How did I manage to squander that many days? How many of those days were really productive? How many days did I really enjoy? As for the remainder, what did I do on them?

Unfortunately, this search engine of all search engines has no answers for my questions. Nor could those who were in my life for whatever time answer that. Even I, who was there for every day and every minute, couldn't answer it. Where did they go, what did I do? I lay part of the blame on my mind which seems to be having greater difficulty in recalling things in the past, short term or long term. Then again, I think my mind, like most minds, tends to drop out the everyday minutiae to prevent data overload.

Be that as it may, had someone asked me years ago what I planned to do with over 25,000 days of living, I would have said not to worry. After all, that's quite a chunk of time. So what if I didn't do anything worthwhile or productive for a few days? There would still be many more to do great things, visit interesting places, accumulate great memories. Sadly, the squandering far exceeded the making worthwhile use of those precious days. It is a lesson learned far too late.

Late Night Musings - the book

john — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:18:00 GMT

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, or wordy if you prefer. I think the topics have been rather broad, ranging from music to observations about people and life, to love, to the humorous in life. When I hit the 150 mark, I had an idea of making a book from some of the entries. It took more than a year but I have just self-published my book, Late Night Musings. It is a compilation of about 100 of what I consider the best of my earlier, which no longer are online.

I thought that you, or someone you know, might be interested in purchasing a copy of the book. I have no delusions of having a top seller, becoming rich from it or making an appearance on Oprah's show. Rather this is just my way to share some thoughts with you, the reader. The book can be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble (at a lower price), specifically at:

Hardcopy - http://www.amazon.com/Late-Night-Musings-John-Orlando/dp/1441566120/ref=tmm_hrd_title_sr

Paperback - http://www.amazon.com/Late-Night-Musings-John-Orlando/dp/1441566112/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

B&N - http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=late+night+musings&box=late night musings&pos=-1&SZE=10

To give you a sense of the book's contents, I am including the summary of the book below my name.

Whether you opt to buy the book or not, I would ask you to please let others know about the book For that, I thank you sincerely.

As ever -

John
www.latenightmusings.com

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LATE NIGHT MUSINGS Summary

The wise know that life is not a singular thing; it has many facets. There is family and friends as well as life and death, good and bad, thoughtful and thoughtless, serious and frivolous. However, the rush of daily life doesn’t allow much time to sit back and really think about such matters.

Now past his working years, the author reflects on life and has captured his findings in thoughtful essays. These essays, now not available online, are a collection of some of the best offerings from the author’s blog, latenightmusings.com. In them the author considers the wonders of life and well as its trials and tribulations. The words, ideas, and thoughts may not seem profound or novel at first glance, but once read, they strike home. In some cases the musings suggest conclusions, while in others they simply recognize that living life doesn’t mean there are good answers for all we experience.

With over one hundred beautiful, thought provoking and sometimes humorous pieces or musings in this book, it becomes a refreshing breath of fresh air and a pleasure for those seniors who have experienced life and know what is important in living it. They should also give the younger reader a leg up on living their lives. There is definitely something for those of all ages who are ready to smile, laugh, reminisce, feel, learn and celebrate.

The reader is invited to enjoy the book at their own pace. It can be consumed in one fantastic feast or savored one bite at a time. The menu is varied enough to satisfy everyone’s taste. Come and enjoy – bon appétit.

What's your "sewing room"?

john — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:29:00 GMT

Someone recently wrote me and mentioned her sewing room. It was in the context of maintaining her sanity. She said she had a stressful day at work and when it was over she retreated to her sewing room in order to maintain her sanity. That’s all it took for me to start on another musing journey.

I certainly can’t argue with her about her work being very stressful. It probably is equally true for many. And even if your work isn’t stressful or if you don’t work, we all have stressors in our lives. The cause might be a family member or friend. Failing that we always have the world to contend with. The recession has engulfed us; the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan remain, issues like heath care consume us. It seems we are trapped in a stressful world from which we can’t escape, short of dying.

Given that, I suspect we all have our “sewing rooms“ to retreat to in order to maintain our sanity. I guess mine is writing musings for this blog. In some ways it allows me to lose myself in the subject matter and finding the right words to express my thoughts.. For those who don’t write, they have other ways to escape the stress in their lives. Some may actually have a sewing room. Yet for others it may be exercising – workouts at home or the gym, or even running marathons. Still others may find it on the internet and such destinations as Facebook where apps allow users to escape into fantasy worlds. Maybe the stress reliever is being with family or friends.

Anyone who has stress in their lives, and that has to be just about all of us, doing something, going someplace to get way from whatever stresses us. Without that we explode with behavior that can cause harm both to us and others. I suspect even cavemen and cavewomen did something or went someplace to relieve the tensions that living then created. Stress is a condition of living and “sewing rooms” are our way to maintain our sanity when faced with it. When things get tough, we take a few minutes or a few hours and head to our "sewing room"; the world can wait till we return. So, what is your "sewing room"?

Facebook and Late Night Musings

john — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:54:00 GMT

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.

A short time ago, I created a Facebook account for Late Night Musings. If you aren't aware of Facebook, it is a web site where you can create an account and add friends who also have an account. Once you do, as they add an entry on their Facebook, which can be of anything they wish, that entry is shown on your Facebook home page. In a similar fashion, any entry you add on your home page is shown on your friend's home page. There are also features such as games, canned remarks and other things I haven't explored.

Anyway, my intent in creating the Late Night Musings account was quite simple. I thought in that way I could connect with a few family members and friends, including my high school classmates, and see keep them up to date each time I publish a new musing (www.latenightmusings.com). It would also allow me to stay up with things they were thinking and doing. As you might expect, I found Facebook accounts for a few of my classmates and have added them as friends. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Not quite.

There is one feature that I haven't mentioned yet. It is a way to facilitate finding and adding friends. The site makes an assumption that you may know others who are friends with a friend you just added. With them you only need to click on the name of those "friends of friends" to add them. In adding any friend, the connection doesn't take place until the one you are trying to add as a friend agrees to be added. As you might expect, many don't but some do. Now having added those friends, you again are presented with a list of these "friends of friends of friends". In some ways, it sounds like a pyramid scheme without the exchange of money.

Many people don't mind being added to a stranger's list of friends since that means your name is added to theirs as well. For someone who relishes the idea of having a list of "friends" that numbers in the hundreds, if not thousands, this is a neat feature. That led me to think of the theory of "six degrees of separation" that many people associate with Kevin Bacon. If you don't know what it is you can look it up on your search engine.

If you are persistent enough and are willing to have your Facebook inundated with innocuous updates from these stranger/friends as opposed to your real friends, you will find many who are willing to let you add them so long as they can add you to their list of friends. In this way you can claim at a cocktail party that you have too many friends to even count. Of course these are friends that you never have met and who really don't know you.

Maybe that is the new definition of a friend in this brave new world of the internet. Be that as it may, I will remain on Facebook because every now and then I am sent something meaningful and perhaps my "friends" might like to read my musings such as this one. Anyway, I am thinking if I keep adding friends of friends, sooner or later I'll have Oprah listed as one of my friends - thank you Kevin Bacon. Isn't technology wonderful?