Update on our Hero who is announcing his candidacy for either President of the U.S.A. or the Leadership of the House of Representatives (since you do not have to be a member of it to lead it): He has put his campaigns temporarily aside, having been overtaken by the joy of the Holiday Season. Like so many of the already elected officials, there is nothing more he can think of than celebrating the birth of the Baby and then, of course, the happy reflections of the past year and what good things he intends to do during the next year. If he happens to raise lots of money attending fund raisers in the next few weeks, then so be it.
Almost at the ‘End of Year’ notes:
- 81% of Millennials (27-42 years old) believe most people cannot be trusted. I am with them on this, even though I’m not a member of their group. Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the Internet…and they provided the first ‘Tekkies’. I don’t trust Tekkies, or Bitcoin people. or Climate deniers, or the Conspiracy Theorists & their subscribers, or the Majority in the House of Representatives or five of the people on the ‘Supreme’ Court (including some of their wives)…My guess is my distrust goes on to make me distrust more people than the Millennials distrust. I think this puts me ahead of my time.
- I read very few of us learn from our failures. We just fail – and go on to the next thing. Studies show we learn from about .03% of our failures. If that is true, then I’m a pretty smart fellow. Apparently, we learn – at a lesser rate – from our successes….and most of what we learn from those are (is?) incorrect. I fail to understand who gets to make these studies. These ‘Study’ people must be pretty successful.
- Quiz*: Do you know who Philo Farnsworth is/was? (See correct answer at end of this post)
- Import/Export: We (in the U.S.have imported Stink Bugs and Snake Head fish from Asia. We got AIDS from Africa. VD from South America. Creeping Algae from Africa. Pythons from African jungles. Covid from who knows where. In return, I’ve read we have sent Pornography worldwide, and Atom bombs to many lands, and Movies and Rock&Roll far and wide. Fair trade. Not all Globalism is bad. (A study claims we also sent fleas around the world – but I have not verified this.)
- Do you have one of these “Alexa” things in your home? You know these ball shaped items you can speak to and tell “Alexa” to turn on the music, or turn on the lights, or God knows what else? They are inexpensive and can do everything. My question is: When you ask “Alexa” to do something, do you say “Please”, or “Thank you” at the end of your request? My guess is if you do not say these nice things…then soon “Alexa” is not going to trust you and she won’t be nice to you, just like the Millennials are not nice to the Boomers…and then things will really change around here and we will have another chance to learn from our failures.
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*Answer to today’s quiz: Philo, when he was 21, invented (and patented) the first Television – in 1926. (He showed a straight line going across the screen. Not much has improved since then. Do you think he should have become one of the richest people in the world? Or should he be punished in one of those rungs in the Inferno? Whatever. It is strange his name is not up there with the Bell’s and the Musk’s of this world.
Some quotes:
- “Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.” -Clarence Thomas. (I’m not making this up – he said that…you could Google it)
- “Leave the gun, take the cannoli” -Peter Clemenza, “The Godfather” (Notice Peter did not say “Please” … and this was back in the day – so maybe things are not getting worse…they are just not getting better.)
That’s all there is for this week…and a fond “Hello” to Alice, wherever you are.
