Motivational Speaker

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

- JFK, September 12, 1962

Americans walked on the moon a bit less than 7 years later.

I believe that feat was directly attributable to JFK's words on that September day.

I know that the concept of doing something because it is hard is one that was slow for me to internalize, but ultimately accounts for some of the things I have done.

Two Years in the Making

Last post was 2 years ago. What happened? Why have I not been writing?

Basically, it is because people weren't reading.

Two Thumps, One Chump

I heard two thumps, very close together. Sitting on the deck, I turned toward the sliding glass door. On the deck near the glass was this small bird ---

-- and his identical twin. The only difference between the two was that the one in the photo was not moving. His twin was in the same pose, but twitching.

I should put the poor bugger out of his misery, I thought. It would be the merciful and kind thing to do. End his suffering. Let's see, a gun. No, that's overkill (yeah, pun intended). Knife? Ice pick? While trying to decide on the right execution method, ...

... an opposing argument formed in my head: Leave him alone. Maybe he's only stunned, and he will recover and fly away.

The opposing argument won. Let nature be nature.

When I turned to look after a few minutes, Frick had abandoned Frack and fled.

Frack has been moved to the flower bed. It will be dark soon, and, nature being nature, Frack will be gone in the morning.

A Seinfeld Episode

I picked up a “loaner” car, a 2015 Acura TLX, from the Acura dealer today. Why, you ask?

Because my 2010 Acura TSX is being repaired. Why, you ask, did it need repairs?

Because it was parked outside in a hailstorm. Why, you ask, did I park it outside in a hailstorm?

Because I was employed as a local election official for the April election, and that meant parking outdoors at an elementary school. Inside, we heard the thunderstorm, then hail on the building roof. No way to protect the cars outside.

Why, you ask, did I seek work as an election official?

Because I make about $150 for a 15-hour workday. That’s big money for a senior citizen living on Social Security. Also, I get some satisfaction from fixing elections.

And where, you ask, is this story going?

Well, two places:

1.    My deductible on comprehensive insurance is $500, so it cost me a net $350 for my 15-hour workday. That’s big money for a senior citizen living on Social Security.

2.    The loaner car, being 5 years newer than my then-state-of-the-art 2010, has some technological advances. I had to study the instrument panel for 3 hours to figure out how to turn the radio on. There is no key, no keyhole. No gearshift lever. The navigation system switches screen displays capriciously every few seconds. Etc. Before long, dealers will have training simulators, and a person will need 75 hours in the simulator to qualify as a driver for a new model.

Seinfeld was a TV show about nothing. This blog entry has been about nothing. Therefore, this is a Seinfeld episode.

Some Things Stay The Same

There is a guy who sits in a chair on the 40th floor of the Metropolitan Building, camera in hand, shooting each person as he/she hits the 854th stair -- 2 from the finish line. He then posts the photos on his website and invites dopes like me to pay him 25 bucks to get the image. I accepted his invitation in 2011 and again this year.

Here are the 2 images side by side.

Some things have changed, but the shirt remains constant. I hope the shirt lasts as long as I do.

Flipping the Switch

Popular wisdom has it that once you are an alcoholic, you are an alcoholic forever. Even if you haven't had a drink in 50 years.

I think that once you are a racist, you are a racist forever. You can't flip the switch.

Ferguson, Missouri is about a mile from where I grew up. The racism that is on display today in the media is the racism that surrounded me in my formative years. Only it was worse then.

So, yeah, I'm a racist. I don't say racist things or do racist things anymore, but the crap that got ground into me in the 1950s is still in there. I lacquer over it the best I can, as most educated people of my generation do. That makes us "recovering racists," I guess.

If I could flip the switch, I would.

It's Time

At some point in time, a singer - any singer - reaches a tipover point where the audience enjoyment at seeing/hearing that famous person is more than counterbalanced by the cringe-generating sour notes. 

To say it a simpler way: Paul McCartney should quit singing in public.

If his recent performance on the SNL40 program would have been on the old Gong Show, the gong would have been quickly and mercilessly beaten to death!

Paul -- Sit back and bask in the rarified fame-air reserved for ex-Beatles. It's time. I would much rather admire what you were than feel sorry for what you are.