Category Archives: Uncategorized

Why Can’t We Be Friends?

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lgs

Since the dawn of time people have disagreed.  They have disagreed about politics.  They have disagreed about theology.  They have disagreed about customs and mores.  They have disagreed about Coke vs. Pepsi.  They have disagreed about the designated hitter. They have disagreed about, you get my point, people disagree about almost everything.  

You may even disagree with my statement that people disagree!  If I have learned anything and, by the way the jury is still out on that, I have learned that pretty much any statement I make would not be agreed to by at least one half of the general population.

However, it seems that in this age of connectivity and social media and instant news that many of us now assume that everyone wholeheartedly agrees with us about everything we say and that if someone does not agree with us then he or she must be some kind of a hater or “phobe.”  Let me share a deep thought with you.  If everyone in your circle of friends and acquaintances agrees with you on everything, you have a pretty small circle of friends and acquaintances.

This brought to mind a song released by the group War in 1975 with the title “Why Can’t We Be Friends.”  This is the chorus of the song:

“Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends?”

To the best of my recollection, I do not remember being taught or seeing discrimination of any kind at home.  I was fortunate to go to schools that were mixed religiously, socio- economically and racially. And guess what?  We got along.  I had a great group of friends in high school and not one of them was just like me.  Do not get me wrong, I have opinions and values that I hold to firmly, but that does not mean I cannot be civil and friendly to those who do not hold the same views as I do.  Nor does it mean that I cannot learn from and appreciate others.

So, let’s just lighten up a bit when someone shares a view that does not fall 100% into your view.  You may disagree and the odds are half of you just did.

“Sometimes I don’t speak right
But yet I know what I’m talking about

Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends
Why can’t we be friends?”

Friday Funny July 1, 2016 Odd and Interesting Facts About the USA

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12439367_942945665825413_6967501470563294666_n

Happy Friday!  Happy Independence Day!  I hope you get to enjoy the weekend and have the opportunity to reflect what this day stands for.  There is something to see and learn from sea to shining sea, so here is just a sampling of some interesting things about the good ‘ole US of A to kick off your Friday.  

Enjoy!

The oldest capital city in the U.S. is Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded in 1610. 

The tallest point in Florida is only 345 feet – wonder if they have a ski lodge at the site?

More breakfast cereal is made in Battle Creek, Michigan than in any other city worldwide – the place really is G-R-R-R-R-E-A-T!

Montana has three times as many cows as it does people – kind of makes me want to mooooove there.

Calvin Coolidge had 2 pet raccoons – Rebecca and Reuben.

The first two navel orange trees in the U.S. were from Brazil and planted in Riverside, California, about 1875. Virtually all navel oranges grown in the U.S. are offspring from these trees. One of the original trees was replanted by Teddy Roosevelt in in 1903 – now, orange you glad you know that?

In 1919, Boston had a molasses disaster. 2 million gallons of crude molasses burst from a tank and pushed its way through the neighborhood and city. It killed at least 21 people and took weeks to clean up – talk about a sticky situation.

The “largest” city in the United States is Juneau, Alaska. It covers about 3,000 square miles. That’s larger than the state of Delaware. In case you are wondering, Jacksonville, Florida is the largest in the lower 48 at just over 800 square miles – I wonder if you can get pizza delivered anywhere within the city limits?

Venus Fly Traps only live in the wild in the Carolina’s and nowhere else in the world. 

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are 140 towns and cities in the U.S. that have the word “Christmas” in their names. 

Iced tea was first served at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.  A British businessman wanted to increase tea sales in America – No, his last name was not Lipton.

The Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, is the world’s only reproduction of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. 

Although Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., it is technically 47th because Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit it to the Union until 1953.

Roger Sherman, was the only shoemaker to sign the Declaration of Independence. 

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. This was 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Thought for the Week

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.  ~Thomas Paine

http://www.quotegarden.com

 

 

 

Touché, Mr. Weidner, Touché

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MHS Fencing

(The Meadowdale High School Fending Team, 1977.  Mr. Weidner is lower left hand corner and I am upper right hand corner.)

I was saddened to hear this week of the passing of one of my high school teachers. Robert Weidner taught speech and journalism for many years at Meadowdale High School in Dayton, Ohio.  I had Mr. Weidner for speech.  He taught us not to memorize our speeches, but to jot down on index cards brief reminders of the points that you wanted to get across.  To this day, I can talk for 30 minutes using three index cards.  

But, Mr. Weidner was more than my speech teacher, he was also my fencing coach.  While my dream was always to play baseball, I did not make the cut for my high school baseball team.  So, wanting to do something sport-wise, my junior and senior year I turned to fencing which, interestingly enough, was a varsity sport in Dayton Public Schools.  This tuned out to be a lot of fun and allowed me the opportunity to earn a gold “M” which is buried somewhere in my basement like a long, lost treasure.  When conversations turn to high school and what activities one participated in, I still enjoy throwing out that I lettered in fencing and have yet to hear anyone respond, “that’s funny, so did I.”

Mr. Weidner attended many class reunions and I had the privilege and opportunity to chat with him for a few minutes at the last two that I attended.  Over the last few years I received emails from him on a regular basis, the most recent coming last week.  He was also kind enough to read this blog and comment on it from time to time.

Fencing has been called “The noble science of defense.” It has never been that popular of a sport and most people’s knowledge of fencing has been derived from old pirate movies. My two years with Mr. Weidner allowed me to learn a little bit about this storied sport.  While it has now been almost forty years since I picked up a foil and put on a mask, I have remembered those lessons that fencing taught me, some of which continue to be useful today:

  • Fencing bouts begin and end with a salute. The first to pledge honor, to try your hardest to win within the rules. The second is to acknowledge your opponent and thank the other person for their efforts.  While we may often find a battle in our daily lives, we can approach them civilly and recognize that just because someone is an adversary does not make them an enemy.
  • An adversary is to be accepted on his own merits, without bias or prejudice. In a bout all that matters is your skill and the skill of your opponent. Even though a fencing bout is a “fight” it still, by rule, “must preserve the character of a courteous and honest encounter.”
  • Honesty is important. “Touché!” means “I have been touched!”  In fencing the person who receives a touch is to acknowledge it openly. 
  • Responsibility is expected. Just because an official is judging a match, the fencer is not relieved of his obligation of honor – nothing and no one can absolve you from personal responsibility for your own actions.
  • Either you make your point or your opponent will make it for you.  You may be so busy trying to impress your opponent with your moves and skill that you provide the opportunity for you opponent to score.
  • Perhaps the most difficult way to make a lap on the outdoor quarter-mile track is to do it with one foot perpendicular to the other.  Training can be slow and painful, but it is necessary.
  • You can expend a lot of energy in a small space in a short amount of time. (A fencing strip is only about forty-six feet long and about six and a half feet wide and a match might take less than ten minutes.)  Sometimes you have to be prepared to give it everything you have for a short time.
  • There is a difference between “ego” and “honor.” Ego says “Whatever I do is right.” Honor says “Whatever is right, I will do.”
  • Fencing, in essence, is an exercise in critical thinking. One must develop an ability to sort out truth from appearances and do it under adverse and rapidly changing conditions. In other words, fencing teaches one to think on your feet.

“Touché” means “I have been touched.”  Thank you, Mr. Wiedner, for touching my life and the lives of all your students.

Friday Funny December 25, 2015 The Day Before Christmas in the Digital Age

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Sanata and Sleigh

Happy Friday and Merry Christmas to you!  One of the great things about this time of year is hearing songs you have sung for many Christmases and watching Christmas specials that you have enjoyed since you were a kid.  

This week I thought I would give you a special encore edition of a Friday Funny from 2009 (before I knew what a blog was).  So, with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, here is my adaptation of his classic for the digital age.

Enjoy!

‘Twas the day before Christmas, when at my house

I was at the computer, moving the mouse;

It was time for another Friday Funny, does anyone care

If in the morning, the email inbox has a funny there?

Two of my boys were still nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of homemade cookies danced in their heads;

While mamma was working, I was off for the day,

It seemed like there was nothing funny for me to say,

When out on the Internet there arose such a clatter,

I sprang to my browser to see what was the matter.

Away to another window I flew like a flash,

Hoping as always that my computer would not crash.

The back-lighting of the monitor produced a glow

Which gave a slight luster to objects below,

As I wondered from web site to web site what should appear,

But a miniature sleigh jpg, complete with reindeer,

With a little driver icon, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than dsl downloads his cursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, Yahoo! now, Google! now, Facebook and Amazon!

On, ebay! on youtube! on, myspace and ask.com!

To the top of the screen! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As deleted lines that before the backspace button fly,

When they meet with a click, mount to the sky,

So up to the screen-top the cursers they flew,

With a file full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the speaker

The prancing and pawing of each little squeaker.

As I drew in my hand, and was scrolling around,

Downloading an mpeg, St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was digitally dressed from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were photo-shopped with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had superimposed on his back,

And he looked like a Trojan file just opening his pack.

His eyes — they pulsated! his dimples they grew!

His cheeks had roses painted on them, his nose was blue!

His droll little mouth transfigured to a bow,

And the beard of his chin turned into white snow;

His pipe was a tree stump he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke wafted up and became a green wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed and turned into jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

Two winking eyes and a fast spinning head,

Soon gave me to know I had no virus to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

He backed up my hard drive; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the window he rose;

He sprang to his jpg, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he deleted his cookie from sight,

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

Thought for the Week
There has been only one Christmas – the rest are anniversaries. ~W.J. Cameron
http://www.quotegarden.com

Passing By The White House

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WHITE HOUSE

The next presidential election is more than a year away and by all appearances it is going to be a very, very long year.  We will hear a whole bevy of candidates telling us how they will solve all our problems and why every other candidate is a low-life scum bag that is not worthy of consideration.  There will be name calling, mud-slinging, false claims and smear campaigns.   It will not be pretty and odds are most people will be disgusted at some point along the way.

Yet, come November of 2016 we will vote and in January of 2017,  a new President will be inaugurated and the “Great American Experiment” will continue.  I am not the most politically minded person.  Over the course of my life I have been disappointed by Presidents and majorities of both parties.  But over the course of the next year I will do what I can to understand the candidates and I will cast my vote.

I am not very pleased with a lot that is going on in Washington these days; however, very recently I was in the nation’s capital to attend a conference.  It was a pretty brief trip with not a lot of extra time for sightseeing.  Yet, after lunch, I went for a walk that took me by the White House.  In front of me was the place that has been the home of every US President since John Adams occupied it in 1800.  This is as much a symbol of American and what we stand for as anything.  It should remind us of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This next year will be messy, but the end result will the continuation of a dream that remains the envy of much of the world. 

Friday Funny September 11, 2015 A Potato Story

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Potato

Happy Friday!  This week I wanted to share a little story about potatoes that has been around for a while.

Enjoy!

I am sure you know that all potatoes have eyes. Well, once upon a time, Mr. and Mrs. Potato had eyes for each other.  They fell in love, got married, then one wonderful day, they had a little sweet potato, whom they called ‘Yam’.

Of course, the parents wanted the very best for Yam and when it was time, they told her about the facts of life. They warned her about going out and getting half-baked, so she wouldn’t get accidentally mashed, and get a bad name  for herself like ‘Hot Potato’, and end up with a bunch of Tater Tots.

Yam said not to worry, no Spud would get her into the sack and make a rotten potato out of her! But on the other hand she did not want to just sit around the house and become a Couch Potato. She also decided that she would get plenty of exercise so as not to be too skinny like her shoestring cousins.

Before she off on a sightseeing trip to Europe, Mr. and Mrs. Potato warned her to watch out  for the Hard Boiled guys from Ireland as well as the greasy guys from France called the French Fries. And when she traveled to the Western US, they told her to watch out for the Indians so she wouldn’t get scalloped. Yam said she would stay on the straight  and narrow and wouldn’t associate with those high-class Yukon Golds, or the ones from the other side of the tracks who advertise their trade on all the trucks that say, ‘Frito Lay.’

Mr. and Mrs. Potato saved up their money and proudly sent Yam off to Idaho P.U. (that’s Potato University) so that when she graduated she’d really be in the Chips.

Yet, in spite of all they did for her, one day Yam came home and announced she was going to marry Tom Brokaw.

Tom Brokaw! Mr. and Mrs. Potato were very upset. They told Yam she couldn’t possibly marry Tom Brokaw because he’s just a……………..Common Tater.

Thought for the Week

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. ~ Plato

How Many Words Is A School Picture Worth?

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Scan0004

Labor Day has come and gone and now summer is unofficially, officially over.  Most kids have been in school for a couple of weeks and are trying to get settled into the new routines.  A new school year brings so many great opportunities:  new classes, new teachers, new friends, new challenges.  However, a new school year also brings new school pictures.

At first that may not seem like a big deal.  Well, yes, it really is kind of a big deal.  If you think about it, a school picture is a permanent record of how cool, or usually in my case, how dorky you were each year.  

In my early elementary school years, “Picture Day” was a time that all the moms found something nice for their children to wear and sent them off to school where we were marched one class at a time into the gymnasium where we got to stand on risers with our teacher on one end and the principal on the other end to have our picture taken as a class.   The great thing about these black and white class pictures was that one was able to kind of blend in with all the other kids so that no one really stood out.  There was always going to be a couple of kids with their eyes closed, a couple of kids with an odd expression, and a couple of kids whose mother forgot it was picture day and forgot to dress accordingly.  The point being there were always enough “bad” pictures in the class picture that no one kid stood out.

However, during my middle school years, there were two ominous developments related to school pictures.  First, the pictures would now be in color and second, and more disastrous, everyone would have their picture taken individually. While both of these may sound like a good idea, remember I was in those middle school years where even the coolest kid, which I was not, looks kind of dorky.  

Now there was no place for me to blend in or hide, just me and the camera and the results were not pretty.  To illustrate my point, the picture above is what I consider to be one of the worst school pictures I ever had.   This picture is a “permanent record” of several things.  First, not once in my life was my hair “cool.”  Second, I  will finally admit that glasses always made me a look a bit nerdy.  Third, I have realized that I never had a “fashion sense” (an accountant can play it pretty safe by just sticking with white shirts). They say a picture is work a thousand words, I would say this picture is worth a lot less than a thousand words.  I think two words: “nerd” and “dork” come to mind.  Along with two questions: 1) Who bought that shirt? and 2) If my Mother loved me, why would she ever let me out of the house wearing that shirt?

Perhaps you never gave school pictures a second thought, just wait a few decades and you will.

Friday Funny September 4, 2015 Chuck Norris “Facts”

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walker

Happy Friday!  Happy Labor Day Weekend! This week I wanted to share some “facts” about TV and motion picture action star Chuck Norris.  In case you have not come across these, Chuck Norris “facts” are satirical factoids about the actor that have taken on a life of their own and spread around the world.  Here are some of my favorites.

Enjoy!

Chuck Norris can cut a knife with butter.

Chuck Norris can speak French… In Russian.

Chuck Norris can hear sign language.

Chuck Norris can speak braille.

Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice.

Chuck Norris knows the last digit of Pi.

Chuck Norris can divide by zero.

Once a rattlesnake bit Chuck Norris’ leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the snake died.

Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is.

Big foot claims he saw Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris makes onions cry.

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris tells Simon what to do.

Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.

Chuck Norris’s Blood Type is AK-47.

Chuck Norris can strangle you with a cordless phone.

Chuck Norris can do a wheelie on a unicycle.

Chuck Norris doesn’t dial the wrong number, you pick up the wrong phone.

Chuck Norris won the tour de France, on a stationary bike.

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

Chuck Norris can start a fire by rubbing two ice cubes together.

Chuck Norris made a Happy Meal cry.

Chuck Norris Runs until the treadmill gets tired.

Death once had a near-Chuck-Norris experience.

Thought for the Week

“Bacon is the Chuck Norris of food. There’s no reviewing it. It’s bacon. It reviews you. Now go.” – Anonymous 

I Was Just A Plain Jerk in My First Job

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shearer

It occurred to me the other day that it was thirty-nine years ago this month that I first joined the ranks of those who are gainfully employed.  It was just about the time that I was beginning my senior year at Meadowdale High School when my Dad came home from Sherer’s with a couple of hot fudge sundaes and a scoop about a job. He told me that there was a sign taped on the cash register at Sherer’s that they were looking for help. Now if there was ever a job that I was destined for, this was it! I got up right then and went to talk to Mr. Sherer.  I came back ready to join the work force at a whopping $1.30 an hour. I still have my first pay slip and a $1 from my first pay.  For some reason, Mr. Sherer did not have ice cream sodas on his menu board, so I guess technically I was not a soda jerk. I guess I was just a plain jerk.

I always enjoyed going to Sherer’s as a kid to get a cone or a malt or a sundae or to bring home a half-gallon of his ice cream that was made on the premises in a ten gallon freezer.  Sherer’s stood on North Main Street in Dayton for sixty years as a constant in an ever-changing world. Many other businesses came and went, Forest Park Shopping Center cropped up and crumbled down, but Sherer’s was always there. It was the place to go in Dayton for real home-made ice cream.

We pretty much always have some Ice Cream around my house these days and the stuff you buy at the grocery is pretty good. But as a kid, the stuff at the grocery store tasted more like fluffed air than ice cream. So, it was a treat to go to Sherer’s for two scopes of chocolate ice cream on a cake cone, back before my first job opened my eyes to the wonderful world of flavors that existed beyond chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

I learned a lot of things working at Sherer’s, skills that have come in handy at just about every job I have ever had: to listen and be polite to the customer, to make change (without a screen telling me how much the change was), answering the hard questions like “What does the root beer ripple taste like?” (Gee, it tastes like vanilla ice cream with root beer mixed in.) I also learned how to put whipped cream on a sundae so that it doesn’t immediately slide down the side, a skill that I can still use to impress friends and family. I learned that the ice cream business is a little slow when it is twenty degrees below zero as happened that winter. I learned that you have to work a little faster when it is eighty degrees outside and you have a room full of people waiting to order ice cream.

I learned that hot fudge is good on just about any ice cream flavor with the possible exception of rum raisin. I leaned that marshmallow topping should be part of any ice cream fan’s topping arsenal. I did not make a lot of money, but I learned what it was like to have a job, to show up on time, to help keep the store clean. Perhaps I did not realize it then, but I also learned that it is a tremendous benefit it is to work for good people.

One thing I am pretty certain of is that I will never again have a boss who every time he comes in after his dinner break his first words will be “Why don’t you make us a chocolate malt and put a little whipped cream on top.”