Eye Catching

Boys think girls are like books, if the cover doesn’t catch their eye they won’t bother to read what’s inside.
—    Marilyn Monroe
[This quote was originally found on one of the blogs I follow, maintained by Deodatta Shenai-Khatkhate:  Deo Volente  at:  (http://dshenai.wordpress.com/)
The actual post is:  http://dshenai.wordpress.com/2013/03/24/interesting-quotes-by-marilyn-monroe/
Thanks, Deo!    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2012	The Holstee Manifesto
2011	Three Crooners For The Shower
	The Soldier’s Faith
	Vacation, Books And Lots Of Movies

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Wandering Free

You cannot love if you live in darkness and choose not to search for the light.  All of us wander blindly through the dark, perhaps most of our lives, I do not yet know.  But I can tell you that all of us find ourselves in the darkness, alone.  Those who are redeemable though, who are truly free to love and to be loved, are those who wander through the darkness, not aimlessly, but in search always of light.
[From a blog I follow:  http://thecultivationofbeauty.wordpress.com
The specific post was:  http://thecultivationofbeauty.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/on-the-search-for-light-finding-the-truth-in-humanity/     —     kmab]
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On This Day In:
2012	Contribute = Paying Taxes
2011	How Will You Be Judged?

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I Resemble That Remark!

Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
—    Sydney J. Harris
[For those of you who are unaware – and I suspect most of you are – today marks the 4th anniversary of my blog!  Thanks for stopping by.  Come again soon, our best days are still ahead…    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2012	Happy 3rd Anniversary
2011	Is America Safe Tonight?
2009	Hello world! (See how it all began…)

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On Elections

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
—     Edward R. Murrow
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On This Day In:
2012	Warm Smiles
	Pick Your Poison
2011	Straight Shooters

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Bruises Before Bed (Or Why You Didn’t Answer)

This week I was driving to work, bored with sports and political radio, I switched over to some easy listening and lo and behold heard two great songs!  One I’d heard before and the other I don’t remember hearing before.
Anyway, they were both so terrific I immediately committed to remembering their catch lines (not all that easy for someone who’s getting on in years) and wrote them down when I got to work so I could listen to them when I got home.  (We are not allowed to listen to internet music at work…)
The two songs are:  “Bruises“, performed by Train (featuring Ashley Monroe) and “Should’ve Gone To Bed“, performed by Plain White T’s.  They are both easy listing cross-overs between Pop and Modern Country sounds.  Very enjoyable with ear-candy / stick in your head hooks.  Bruises is another classic song about boy and girl meeting ten years later and asking about what’s been happening.  The interesting thing is although there is an obvious “connection” happening in the song, both are “once burned, twice shy” and nothing may happen except the “promise” to keep in touch.  My favorite verse is:
These bruises Make for better conversation Loses the vibe that separates It’s good to let you in again You’re not alone and how you’ve been Everybody loses We all got bruises We all got bruises
The second song (“Should’ve Gone To Bed“) is the new one for me.  On the radio, it sounds as if it’s a song about regrets and calling some number of “Ex’es” after the relationships are over.  In the “official” video, it appears to be a song about a man who’s afraid to tell his girlfriend how he feels until he’s on the verge of losing her.  …And then they make up (to presumably live happily ever after).  It surprised me to come away with the two completely different reactions to the same song depending on if you were listening to it, listening to it and following the lyrics, or watching the official video.  I guess the line which strikes me is most of us have broken up in our relationships, tried to move on and then when there’s a problem (or were just feeling lonely), we pick up the phone and call the “Ex”.  Sometimes they answer and the cycle starts again.  Sometimes they answer but the cycle doesn’t restart.  Sometimes it ends just as badly as before;  and sometimes everyone is spared the drama because the other party just doesn’t answer the phone or return the call.  Being human, we assume it’s because they don’t want to talk to us anymore.
Someday the geezer’s among us will be telling the kids how (in our day) people didn’t have caller ID or voice mail or home answering machines, and sometimes relationships didn’t work out – not because one or both sides didn’t reach out to the other to make up – but simply because one party wasn’t there to answer the call.  The concept seems “funny” in this age of always-on connectivity…  Sometimes things just happen (or don’t happen) for no particular reason.
As always, check out the lyrics off of my Poems page, then go listen to the recordings – and in this instance, make sure you go find the “official” video for “Should’ve Gone To Bed“.  Let me know if you got the same reaction to the lyrics versus the song versus the video.  And remember to support the Arts in your local community.
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On This Day In:
2012	Extra Gears
2011	Say What?
2010	Hello Frogs…

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Revealed Riches

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.
—    Benjamin Disraeli
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On This Day In:
2012	Extra Gears
2011	Say What?
2010	Hello Frogs…

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Learn To Learn

The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read.  It will be the person who does not know how to learn.
—    Alvin Toffler
From his book:  “Future Shock“
[The question is how do we inculcate an inquisitive mind so it will keep wanting to learn.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2012	I Remind You
2011	Respect And Prestige
2010	Living Legends (Willie Nelson) and the Gettysburg Address

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Not Sent Yet

There is no such thing as a dirty word.  Nor is there a word so powerful, that it’s going to send the listener to the lake of fire upon hearing it.
—    Frank Zappa
From his book:  “The Real Frank Zappa Book“
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On This Day In:
2012	Wall-Crawler Reboot
	Learning To Count
	On Worshiping God
2011	Emancipated Differences
2010	A Little More Technology, Please…

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Driving Passion

Great institutions are not managed;  they are led.  They are not administered;  they are driven to ever-increasing levels of accomplishment by individuals who are passionate about winning.
—    Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
From his book:  “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance“
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On This Day In:
2012	Cannibal, n.
2011	Moments Of Truth

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Not Much Change

Last night I completed, “In Defense Of Women“, written by H. L. Mencken and originally published back in 1918.  The book took me about thirty-five years to finish (well, to start and finish).
I purchased this book as one of a series of titles under the banner of Time-Life Books. Part of the Time Reading Program Special Edition.  This just means I bought two books a month for a couple of years.  Way back when I got out of the Army, I decided I wanted to become more “learned”, more sophisticated, so I thought I would accomplish this by reading great books or great literature.  I couldn’t afford the “Great Books” series itself, so I decided to settle for some lesser works.  Hence, this series.
Each month I would dutifully receive them and then place them on my bookshelf, quite proud of myself that I was starting my own library.  Now the books were sold (advertised) as secondary works of great authors.  You weren’t reading their “acknowledged” best work, but you were reading something which had been deemed close.  This attitude of, “No, I haven’t read that, but everyone has…  Have you read this other work by him (/her)?”  seemed to feed easily into my ego.
To make a longer story shorter, I’ve never read any of the books.  More precisely, I have read one of them, but that was before buying it as part of the collection and that was back in my high school days.  So, about three months ago, I decided to crack into one of them.  There was no particular reason to choose this one over the other 30 or so except that my journal has a few quotes from the author (Mencken).
So, what do I think of the book?  Despite the fact it was written almost 100 years ago, it remains remarkably relevant.  It is, however, incredibly non-PC (politically correct).  The author has a fairly low opinion of humankind in general and men in specific.  Compared to men, Mencken finds women to be more than capable in most things.  In those things which Mencken finds tiresome (business and politics), he believes women can do no worse than men, but should not try as this will only lower them to the status of men, not raise those functions to a status worthy of women.
Mencken is a terrific (if flowery) writer of prose and the book is both funny and easy to read.  By easy to read I mean his ideas seem reasonable and coherently presented.  The topics are wide ranging – from marriage, to sex, to suffrage, to roles in modern society.  The only problem I had was sometimes the writing was so flowery, it was almost like walking through treacle – sweet, sticky and almost sickly.
I believe many who read this book will find it objectionable, but there is much to be said for any series of observations which can still raise ire even after this much time.  They each contain the kernel of truth upon which both good writing and good comedy depend to make their audience uncomfortable.  This is a classic and it is free to download from multiple sites.  Highly recommended!!
In case you’re wondering what’s “special” about the Special Edition, the books are published in fake leather red binding.  They are actually cardboard, but with gold lettering and trim, they appear quite a proper addition to a personal library.
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On This Day In:
2012	Brain, n.
2011	Styles Of Leadership
2010	Face Front!

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Our Biggest Fear

Death is not the biggest fear we have;  our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are.
—    Miguel Ruiz
[This quote was found on a blog I follow:  http://responsiveuniverse.wordpress.com/
The original posting can be found at:  http://responsiveuniverse.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/roger-ebert-i-do-not-fear-death/
Please visit the original site and enjoy!    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2012	Brain, n.
2011	Styles Of Leadership
2010	Face Front!

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Dangerous Systems

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system.  For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.
―    Niccolò Machiavelli
From:   “The Prince“
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On This Day In:
2012	Useful Science
2011	Say It, But Please Don’t Make Me Listen

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Limited Capacity

Man has a limited biological capacity for change.  When this capacity is overwhelmed, the capacity is in future shock.
—    Alvin Toffler
From his book:  “Future Shock“
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On This Day In:
2012	Two Ear Ticklers
	Justification
2011	To Avail The Nation

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Comfortably Bound

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.  They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.  They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.  They can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally;  they can refuse to know.
—    J.K. Rowling
[This quote was found at a blog I follow:  http://dshenai.wordpress.com/
The actual posting was:  http://dshenai.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/imagination-origin-of-creation/
Please visit the original site and enjoy!    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2012	Certainty
	Thinking About Fathers
2011	And In Every Level Of Media

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Zapping Music And Art

Music is the only religion that delivers the goods.
[And…]
Art is making something out of nothing, and selling it.
—    Frank Zappa
[Support your local arts!    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2012	Not Quite Fantastic
	That Kid Is Back
2011	Wolves At The Door
2010	I’m Feeling Patriotic… (Well, more than usual, anyway.)
	Beating the Heat…

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