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Showing posts from September, 2017

Here's some advice: Don't take advice

I was talking with a young friend and co-worker today, let's call her Monica, because, well, you know, about us middle-aged guys giving advice to younger people. I was telling her that I've often thought about starting a website called www.aphorisms.com (Hey - still available for just $3495!), which would consist entirely of, well, aphorisms, gathered from anyone who wanted to submit a lesson learned or advice on various subjects that always seems to fit certain situations. Or maybe I should call it www. WhatYaWannaDoIs.com . That one seems available for nuthin! And in reply to my idea, Monica said, "But do you ever really learn from taking advice? Isn't it better to learn something on your own than to just take someone's advice?" I loved her observation so much, I told her I would make sure to add it to the website. (Dang - now I can't get the Magilla Gorilla theme song out of my head.)

Maybe not every boys' dream, but mine dammit

Hugh Hefner died yesterday. I see where he was quoted in 1967 in Time magazine as saying:  ‘I’m living a grown-up version of a boy’s dream, turning life into a celebration.’ Me too, Hugh, me too.  In his case, he had everything to do with that. In my life, Cheryl and all our amazing kids and my friends and extended family are totally responsible.  A nd even though one can argue that he had way more than I ever did or will, I had the more important thing - a life filled with love and easy trust of the people around me.

Of course there are times Cheryl and I are alone together when I'd prefer they maybe weren't with us just then

A few weeks back, a 90+ year-old friend, let's call him Gerry, since that's his name, rose to speak in (Quaker) Meeting to say that he had read an obituary recently where it said that the deceased had gone to be with the Lord, leading Gerry to wonder why the Lord hadn't been with the fellow before he died too. I told Gerry that of all his messages I'd heard him share in Meeting over the past 60 years, that was my favorite. I have a similar question. Why, when someone dies, do we say that the person "...is no longer with us?" In some ways, my Mom and Dad are with me more now than they were when they were alive. And I suppose by some measure they are still alive too, if only in my heart.

Figuratively speaking, that is

I wonder sometimes if anyone literally knows the definition of the word literally.

Alternative alternatives

I guess I first realized I was out of touch with the country's mainstream views back in the late 1960's when I was 12 years old and I realized that people who watched Hee Haw actually laughed at the show while I laughed at anyone who did. First ever segment here of Hee Haw (please don't tell me you laughed at any of it) As time goes by, I think I am getting even further out of the mainstream. For instance, on these topics, I don't think my view is the same as either the left or the right: Confederate statues - If I were a Southerner, I wouldn't be leading the fights to keep them up, I'd want to have them taken down from the embarrassment of what they mean. As a Northerner, I can see an argument for wanting them to stay up to show people exactly the kind of racist, subhuman mindset that thought owning other human beings for your own economic benefit was just or moral by any definition or rationalization. And maybe selfishly, I might want them to stay up

Maybe older, but still mahvelous

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At a certain, age, losing weight makes one feel younger and look older. It's worth it, no matter what Fernando Lamas thinks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0RTD7250II

Of Emma Watson's boobs (semi-clickbait alert...as if there weren't enough Emma Watson and boob references in the post already)

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A facebook friend of mine, and a former high school big-time crush, let's called her Selden...since that's her name...recently posted this column on her page from Huffington Post... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/emma-watsons-boobs-prove-why-we-still-need-feminism_us_58b8bd55e4b02b8b584df9f4?ncid=hpinst00002 (Inserting gratuitous Emma Watson Vanity Fair pic here. Hey it's in the HuffPo story too!) ...and asked the question on FB: "Would love to hear thoughts from my women friends, young and old, on this article. Is baring your boobs consistent with feminism?" ...and the first response to her q was this: This is a really interesting question - I think I have sort of noticed two completely different strains of feminism: for simplicity's sake I'll call them American and European. European feminism is about women owning themselves completely, including their sexuality and the power that their sexuality, and other peoples' response to it
Why do we care if there is a God?  The more I think about a possible answer, the less I care if there is one.

Or maybe they are the ones who listen and tell us what a dumb story it was

I wonder how often we tell stories that are more fun to tell than they are to listen to? Our best friends are the ones who listen and laugh anyway. 

On the other hand, they might see a marketing opportunity for increased business from Trump voters

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Somehow, an incredible 64,600 read my last post of 2016. (Yet in this blog's entire history, only  157,800 people have ever viewed any page of the entire blog.) I'm not sure why it was read 64,600 times, and I'm even less sure how it was that that many came across it, but seizing on such momentum in order to maximize my distinct and oh-so-valuable literary contributions to the world, I have made exactly one post in the 10 months since then, a post read by exactly 35 people. So back at it this week then, with what I hope will be a series of posts coming from notes I've taken, often after a beer or three that I've memo-ed to myself into my phone, usually while down on our pool patio late into the evening while amongst friends, that will hopefully still make sense when I read them again fully sober. If not, I'll post them anyway, in case anyone chooses to read them after they've had enough beverages that maybe makes them more understandable. More understand