scared yet?

Wake up, people:
"You know, we don't live in a democracy [but a] Biblical republic." ~~~ MAGA Republican Cong. Mike Johnson (GOP LA-04) after being elected as the new House Speaker
Are you scared yet?

G.E. Nordell
Rio Communities, New Mexico USA
www.GENordell.com

Innocent Intervention

When I lived where fast food places were really busy, I decided not to use my own name because so many other names rhymed. So now, when the cashier order taker asks me to provide a name for the order, I give them a doozie. How special that there is no law against naming the meal anything that you want.

So my list includes Nebuchudnezzer (Biblical king), Bubba, Jawaharlal (Nehru, first president of modern India), Thorstein (Veblen, famous sociologist), Aristotle, Balthazar (one of the Three Wise Men), and Shadnack, Meshak, or Abednego (Book of Daniel).

If I'm in a particular mood, I name my meal Spartacus; then when an employee calls that name, I stand and raise a fist high, and shout "I am Spartacus!".

You are invited to do this also. This very mild form of messing with people is available to all. You might just innocently intervene in another person's day, jolting them awake from the stupor of their humdrum, boring, boring 'normal' life.

Random acts of kindness are interventions.

RECIPE OF THE MONTH: OYSTERS BACHELOR MEAL

1) Choose a deep soup bowl or ramekin dish; recycling cooks might re-use a dish from the Hormel Compleat entrees (to give you an idea on the size).

2) Open a 7-ounce can of mushrooms, sliced or pieces; drain the mushrooms and spread in the bottom of the bowl.

3) Open an 8-ounce can of whole oysters, such as sold by Chicken of The Sea brand; drain and spread atop the mushrooms.

4) Spread lots of butter atop the oysters; sprinkle powdered garlic on top; optionally sprinkle other spice, such as steak seasoning or black pepper.

5) Cook in microwave, with cover if you have one: the tea setting on my oven is 2 minutes, I cook the oyster meal for 90 seconds.

6) Eat with a spoon; the juice at the bottom is quite tasty.

{{ recipes are not copyrightable }}

August 2023 Quotations (51)

"Never tell a young person that something can not be done. God may have been waiting for centuries for somebody ignorant enough of the impossible to do that thing."
~~ Dr. John Andrew Holmes [1874-1937]

"Stupidity is not the lack of knowledge, it is the illusion of having it."
~~ Grigore Lilian

"In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets." ~~ indep filmmaker Jonas Mekas [1922-2019]

"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and be understood."
~~ Seneca the Younger [4? B.C.E. - 65 A.D.]

"Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe."
~~ Marcus Aurelius [121-180 C.E.]

"Aartificial intelligence is as revolutionary as mobile phones and the internet."
~~ Bill Gates

“I think about nuclear war not because I find it fascinating but because I want to prevent it, to make it unthinkable."
~~ Daniel Ellsberg [1931-2023] - in 2023

“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." ~~ philosopher-economist Adam Smith [1723-90]

“The child is educated by what the adult is and not by all his talk."
~~ Carl Jung [1875-1961]

“Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see, the world hath more fools in it than ever."
~~ Charles Lamb [1775-1834]

“In communism, man exploits man. But with capitalism, it’s the other way around."
~~ Mark Russell [1932-2023]

“Really to believe in something is the greatest boon, I think, and to believe wholeheartedly in it and to serve it with all your strength and might is salvation."
~~ architect Frank Lloyd Wright [1867-1959] - in 1958

“I would rather be a rebel than a slave."
~~ British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst [1858-1928]

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."
~~ Agatha Christie [1890-1976]

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost." ~~ Gustave Flaubert [1821-80]

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart."
~~ Rainer Maria Rilke [1875-1926]

“The art of being happy lies in the power to extract happiness from common things."
~~ Henry Ward Beecher [1813-87]

“Robert Kennedy, Jr. is the Marjorie Taylor Greene of the Democratic Party. Both are batsh!t crazy." ~~ G.E. Nordell

“Let us try to recognize the precious nature of each day."
~~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."
~~ René Descartes [1596-1650] Page

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none."
~~ German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer [1788-1860]

“Writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity." ~~ Japanese writer Haruki Murakami

“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."
~~ artist Pablo Picasso [1881-1973]

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world ... would do this, it would change the earth."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962]

“The Supreme Court is looking less like a bench and more like an auction house."
~~ Cong. Alexandria 'A.O.C.' Ocasio-Cortez [Dem NY-14]

“When you get beyond the symbols and beliefs about now, beyond thinking about it, beyond efforting or working at it, when you get even beyond merely feeling it, when you get all the way up to observing it, being with it, and finally up to totally experiencing it, the uncertainty about living goes away, because you know the truth in the only way in which a being ever knows the truth – by direct experience."
~~ philosopher Werner Erhard

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
~~ Walter Winchell [1897-1972]

“It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter."
~~ Marlene Dietrich [1901-92]

“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century BCE]

“Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age."
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]

“Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot."
~~ Greek philosopher Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.] - in his "Nicomachean Ethics"

“Live life as a verb, not as a noun." ~~ abstract painter Agnes Martin [1912-2004]

“And then, one fairy night / May became June." ~~ F. Scott Fitzgerald [1896-1940]

“Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly."
~~ poet Pablo Neruda [1904-73]

“At midnight, in the month of June, I stand beneath the mystic moon."
~~ Edgar Allan Poe [1809-49]

“This is the smell of June, she wanted to write to Christopher . . . honeysuckle, green hay, wet linen hung out to dry . . ."
~~ Lisa Kleypas, in 2010 novel "Love In The Afternoon"

“naming lunatics and shaming poltroons is essential to a healthy democracy."
~~ Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic Magazine

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."
~~ Charles Bukowski [1920-94]

“The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behavior systems to newer higher-order system's as man's existential problems change."
~~ Dr. Clare W. Graves [1914-86]

“We must write where we stand. An imitation of the life we know, however narrow, is our only ground." ~~ author John Updike [1932-2009] - in 1974

“Sometimes I'm consistent and sometimes I'm not." ~~ Pickles daily comic strip [est. 1990]

“You know I believe true balance lies somewhere between rage and serenity."
~~ Professor X, aka Charles Xavier - from X-Men

“There is no greater education than one that is self-driven."
~~ astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson

“You are what you do, not what you say [that] you will do." ~~ Carl Jung [1875-1961]

“Sometimes your job as an artist is to be invited somewhere and ensure that they never invite you back." ~~ source not found

“The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything."
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1749-1832]

“The atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. It made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass, and beyond that there is a different country." ~~ J. Robert Oppenheimer [1904-67]

“Strength comes from choosing your own path and living with the consequences."
~~ fantasy author Jennifer Armintrout

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time." ~~ writer Sylvia Plath [1932-63]

“It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine."
~~ Pooh character Eeyore, as written by A.A. Milne [1882-1956]

“For Business Opportunity Sellers, ‘A.I.’ Stands for ‘Allegedly Inaccurate’"
~~ U.S. Federal Trade Commission blog post headline, 8/2023

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

NEW POLITICAL TACTIC

Really good action idea at this juncture is to totally skip mentioning Turdball by name.
Just that.
Even journalists. It will help a lot if they gradually reduce actual mention down to once per news show broadcast.
The pronouns that they can use are he & him & sh*thead.

As to replacing all self-assigned titles, I nominate The Orange Clusterf*ck.
Pronouns to be used here are he & him & dipsh*t.

Copyright 2023 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Working Minds Essay #120: M.A.G.A. Fascists Are Evil

I have recently been invited by a couple of M.A.G.A. fascist trolls to 'debate' with them on Facebook. Not gonna happen.

The 'Make America Great Again' meme was invented in 1926 by the fascist dictator of Italy Benito Mussolini [1883-1945]; of course, he started with 'Make Italy Great Again (Rendere L'Italia di Nuovo Grande)' but by 1927 he was recorded on a British Fox MovieTone sound newsreel asking Italian immigrants in America to help 'Make America Great Again'. That was in 1927, long before the Orange Imbecile was even born.

American voters who advocate the M.A.G.A. platform are fascists, whether they agree to that or not. Fascism is evil, and today's Republican Party is fascism top to bottom.

There is no such thing as actual 'debate' with extremists, and the Chinese and Russians know this quite well. The plan is always to take some aggressive action, do battle for a while, then 'negotiate' a truce, which always has the other side compromising - i.e. conceding something - which gives the extremists an unearned win.

I will not do any such thing as engage in discussion with a fascist troll. The proper response to any brainwashed M.A.G.A. or fascist troll is to call them out as such, to describe the evil troll bastids *AS* evil, and to not play their simplistic anti-democratic game. These cowards may whimper and complain of being bullied, but Facebook Jail is a welcome respite from dealing with online idiots and in no way constitutes a problem.

Coincidentally, two video clips recently showed up on Facebook Reels showing rock musician Frank Zappa [1940-93] predicting that the United States was headed toward a fascist theocracy - the clips are dated 1986 and 1988 - and America was indeed declared to be a fascist theocracy in January 2010 by Justice John Roberts.

Music genius Zappa was very interested in politics, especially in attempts at censorship, and his fearful predictions about American fascism were entirely correct.

The second part of this meme stirs up the question of when your favored American greatness took place: Was it during The Great Depression of the 1930s? During the post-war economic boom of the 1940s & 1950s - when the top income tax rate (1943-63) was 90% of income? Was it the 1960s, during which Medgar Evers, JFK, Malcolm X, RFK, and MLK were assassinated? Was it during the social revolutions of the 1960s & 1970s? Was it during implementation of Reaganomics in the 1980s? Was it during the Dot-Com Crash of 2000? During the economic & cultural panics after September 11, 2001? Or - get real, now - maybe during the pre-Emancipation slavery economy before 1860?

Anyone who wishes for a return to some vague Better Time as a benefit of fascism believes in a myth, in a story that never took place in Objective Reality, and there is no value in a discussion with these deluded people.

watch British Fox MovieTone 1927 sound newsreel footage of Benito Mussolini [7/2016 upload; 01:20] at YouTube

Frank Zappa on "Crossfire" - March 28, 1986
hosted by Tom Braden & Robert Novak; guests John Lofton (Washington Times) & rock musician Frank Zappa
watch segment [21:17] online at YouTube

Frank Zappa interviewed by Charlie Rose on "CBS News Nightwatch" - February 10th, 1988
watch segment [14:42] online at YouTube

Copyright 2023 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

if I was humble I'd be perfect

on the 2024 primary elections

"Robert Kennedy, Jr. is the Marjorie Taylor Greene of the Democratic Party. Both are batsh!t crazy." ~~ G.E. Nordell

happy 4-20 holiday to those who celebrate

WOW!! today was early direct deposit of Social Security check NUMBER 200 !! - barely enough to live on these days, but absolutely prevents me having to sleep under a freeway bridge

March 2023 Quotations (52)

"Every day is one of those days . . ."
~~ line from Apple+ movie "Luck"

"The fascist Republicans in the U.S. Senate are all a-dither about possible 'weaponizing' of government oversight. This is one result of the Rethuglicons having long ago weaponized stupidity."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]

"I am not a man, I am dynamite."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]

"Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68], in a student newspaper in 1947

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."
~~ Greek philosopher Plato [427-347 BCE]

"He who thinks he knows, doesn't know. He who knows that he doesn't know, knows."
~~ Joseph Campbell [1904-87]

"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of consid-ering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain."
~~ Ursula K. Le Guin [1929-2018] Page, in "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" [1973]

"Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good."
~~ actor Terrence Mann

"At the end of the day it's better to be an unpleasant winner than a nice loser."
~~ soccer/futball star Giorgio Chiellini

"To write down one’s impressions of Hamlet as one reads it year after year, would be virtually to record one’s own autobiography, for as we know more of life, so Shakespeare comments upon what we know."
~~ British author Virginia Woolf [1882-1941]

"Being homosexual isn't a crime . . . It's not a crime. Yes, but it's a sin. Fine, but first let's distinguish between a sin and a crime. It's also a sin to lack charity with one another."
~~ Pope Francis, denouncing laws against homosexuality in an AP interview

"If you feel pain, you're alive. If you feel other people's pain, you're a human being."
~~ Count Leo Tolstoy [1828-1910] of Russia

"The truth of a proposition has little or nothing to do with its psychodynamics. The notion that 'truth will prevail' is merely a pious wish; history doesn't show it."
~~ Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88], in "Methuselah's Children" [1958]

"No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!"
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]

"My so-called inventions already existed in the environment. I’ve created nothing. Nobody does."
~~ inventor Thomas Alva Edison [1847-1931]

"Democrats get angry when officials commit treason, Democrats hate fascism, Republitards love both."
~~ Brian J. Harris

"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted . . . but to weigh and consider."
~~ Sir Francis Bacon [1561-1626]

"No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not adopt a rational attitude."
~~ philosopher Karl Popper [1902-94]

the Scientific Principle of Parsimony says that things will be created or connected or behave in the simplest or most economical way.

"An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences."
~~ Edith Wharton [1862-1937]

"All spiritual practices are illusions created by illusionists to escape illusion."
~~ Ram Dass

"The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose."
~~ James Baldwin [1924-87]

"A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face."
~~ Dr. Maya Angelou [1928-2014]

"We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all."
~~ writer Joan Didion [1934-2021]

"It's how you deal with failure that determines your success."
~~ internet marketer Rick Beneteau

"You never stop learning until there is dirt in your face."
~~ line in the movie "The First Grader"

"My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness. Continue to allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart."
~~ Dr. Maya Angelou [1928-2014]

"I wish I'd a knowed more people. I would've loved 'em all. If I'd a knowed more, I would a loved more."
~~ Toni Morrison [1931-2019], in "The Song of Solomon" [1977]

"Remember that literature was not created to serve life, nor even translate it, but to escape it."
~~ French critic Paul Léautaud [1872-1956]

"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen."
~~ architect Frank Lloyd Wright [1867-1959]

"'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' marked the beginning of American literature. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]

"Giving up is simply not an option."
~~ teenage eco-activist Greta Thunberg of Stockholm, Sweden

"For this Nation to remain true to its principles, we cannot allow any American's vote to be denied, diluted, or defiled. The right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished."
~~ Ronald Reagan [1911-2004]

"Only those who would fail to see the relationship between the fight for civil rights and the struggle for world peace would be surprised to see me. Both fights are the same."
~~ James Baldwin [1924-87]

"We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good."
~~ astronomer Carl Sagan [1934-96]

"We are bound together by the loss and the pain of the days that have gone by. We are also bound together by the hope and the possibilities in the days in front of us."
~~ President Joe Biden, in 2023

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is 'What are you doing for others?'."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]

"The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor."
~~ Thomas Donahue, President, AFL-CIO (and frequent AFL-CIO slogan)

"I dream my painting and I paint my dream."
~~ Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh [1853-90]

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."
~~ American philosopher William James [1842-1910]

"The image of God is your final obstruction to a religious experience.”
~~ Joseph Campbell [1904-87]

"I believe that today’s Trump supporters are people who are making a conscious, knowing, and morally flawed choice to continue supporting a sociopath and a party chock-full of seditionists."
~~ Tom Nichols, in The Atlantic Magazine, March 2023 issue

"[It’s] really sad to see Tucker Carlson go off the rails like that."
~~ Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah

"As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts lasts; what doesn't doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself."
~~ Japanese writer Haruki Murakami

"The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics."
~~ physicist & astronomer Galileo Galilei [1564-1642]

"Color is a power which directly influences the soul."
~~ Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky [1866-1944]

"One simply cannot concern oneself eight or even five hours a day with nonsense-taken-seriously and not be corrupted by it. The corruption lies in the very habits of thought."
~~ author Patricia Highsmith [1921-95]

"I don’t know about you, but I practice a disorganized religion. I belong to an unholy disorder. We call ourselves ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment’."
~~ author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]

"Make men and women only sufficiently jealous or fearful or drunken or angry, and the hot red eyes of the cavemen will glare out at us today."
~~ British author H.G. Wells [1866-1946]

"Everyone pretends. And everything is more than we can ever see of it.”
~~ Ian Bogost, contributor at The Atlantic Magazine

"Maybe it’s better to regulate railroads and banks instead of uteruses and drag shows."
~~ New Mexico poet Mary Oishi

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

WAKING UP - a short poem by G.E. Nordell

Inside
I burn with the light of a thousand suns
In the outside world
A tiny few detect the heat produced
And are curious

But mostly
Folks see what they always see
Because their eyes are closed
So very tightly

Burning with the light of suns
Is available to everyone
You just have to declare it so

Waking up makes all the difference

Copyright 2023 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

ORIGIN OF WUHAN VIRUS SOLVED LONG AGO

Back in September 2021, there was a lot of information about the Wuhan COVID crisis, so I built a timeline page on the subject. Part of that work included sifting thru pieces about the Wuhan Lab and the fish market, leading to the identity of Patient Zero, the first victim of the disease. The evidence is clear.
Wuhan Institute of Virology and Patient Zero

The F.B.I. and other agencies are dilly-dallying for reasons other than science.

Copyright 2023 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

ZERO TOLERANCE FOR POLLUTION in Rio Communities

The City of Rio Communities, New Mexico Planning & Zoning is supposed to decide whether to recommend rezoning 300 acres of residential (PD) land to HEAVY INDUSTRIAL (I-3). That land is owned by Cibola Land Holdings — a Yates Petroleum Empire company.

SIMPLE SOLUTION: Set up an overlay zone on all industrial properties for the city for ZERO TOLERANCE FOR POLLUTION where ANY air or water pollution gets the business shut down for 30 days, second and further violations include $5000 fine; proof is evidence taken by city/county/state/federal officials on that property, regardless of source.

THEN see who files for zone change . . .

(This also works for Belen and Valencia County)

Copyright 2023 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Chinese New Year - Year of The Wabbit !

SENIOR SCOUTS

Somebody should create a Senior Scouts group modeled after the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
You could have Merit Badges for peeing & pooping & farting & napping.
You could have local and national Walker Races.
You could have Sympathy Badges for each time you fall down, with oak leaf cluster or gold star if taken to the hospital for overnight or longterm stay; same for each heart attack or stroke.
You could have Medical Condition Badges for official diagnoses of diabetes, macular or glaucoma, cancer (gold star after 5 years cancer free), or dementia.
You could have Scroll Badges for each college degree received after age 65.

The motto could be 'Having fun with decrepitude'.

Copyright 2023 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

January 2023 Quotations (51)

"[We are] in a country that doesn’t care about reality or government or decency or much of anything else."
~~ Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic Magazine

"Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasure, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime than ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer."
~~ Sir Walter Scott [1771-1832]

"The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our sepa-ration from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]

"Don't let the noise of others's opinions drown out your own inner voice."
~~ Steve Jobs [1955-2011]

"Desire is the cause of all stress."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"How do we make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or disadvantage to anyone?"
~~ R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]

"Do not expect justice where might is right."
~~ Greek philosopher Plato [427-347 BCE]

"A wise bear always keeps a marmalade sandwich in his hat in case of emergency."
~~ Paddington Bear

"If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books."
~~ author Roald Dahl [1916-90]

"Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours."
~~ Hermann Hesse [1877-1962]

Hey !!
Republicans and other fascists:
Every time that you punch the button to visit the fascist propaganda machine - you know: Fox, QAnon, OANN, fascist Twitter personalities - you kill a bunch of your brain cells. So be careful, you obviously have only a small number of brain cells left.
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Ya gotta remember always: Fifty percent of the population is below average. And it is even worse on Facebook. (And now we know that it is worse than that on Twitter.)"
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Joy is not in things - It is in us."
~~ Richard Wagner [1813-83]

"The universe is what it is, not what I choose that it should be."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970], in "The Freethinker’s Universe" [1951]

"A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader."
~~ Vladimir Nabokov [1899-1977]

"When it’s all been said or done, did we live for truth or for treasure?"
~~ David French, contributing writer at The Atlantic Magazine

"I have been accused of a habit of changing my opinions in philosophy. I am not myself in any degree ashamed of having changed my opinions . . . I claim only, at best, that the opinion expressed was a sensible one to hold at the time when it was expressed."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970], in 'My Opinions' — preface to "The Bertrand Russell Dictionary of Mind, Matter, and Morals" [1952]

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]

"When I wake up in the morning I want to feel hungry for life. Desire is what drives me. When I go to sleep, I feel I have experienced a small death, so that I can wake up in the morning renewed and reborn."
~~ French actor Jean-Louis Barrault [1910-94]

"This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national, and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat."
~~ Eric Hoffer [1902-83], in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature of Mass Movements" [1951]

"The more [that] you pursue permanence, the more [that] you feel the impermanence of things."
~~ Alan W. Watts [1915-73]

"Atheism is a non-prophet organization."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]

"To be wealthy in an unjust society is a disgrace."
~~ Chinese philosopher Confucius / Kong Qiu [551-479 BCE]

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook."
~~ American philosopher William James [1842-1910]

"Money does not make people wealthy. In fact, some people are so poor [that] all they have is money."
~~ futbol/soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal

"I got to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized [January 6th], we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed."
~~ Cong. Marjorie Taylor Greene [QAnon GA-14], speaking in December 2022 to the New York Young Republican Club about the events of January 6th

"A first novel is like spring lamb, tender and pink."
~~ Benjamin Lytal

"The question of justice will be front and center next year."
~~ Teresa Hanafin, Boston Globe staff writer

"Really: somebody should make Elon Musk take a drug screen test, same as the one that the V.A. requires me to take. I am not kidding, the gazillionare is off the rails."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"It's so obvious to the point of cliche at this point that Trump is in this for one person and one person alone, himself. He steals fundraising, picks lousy candidates, and is an anchor in competitive races, so one would wonder how much longer the party tolerates this loser nonsense."
~~ Rory Cooper, once a top aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

"Being born a woman is my awful tragedy . . . Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars – to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording – all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night . . ."
~~ writer Sylvia Plath [1932-63]

"Tell me, what is it [that] you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
~~ American poet Mary Oliver [1935-2019]

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."
~~ Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh [1853-90]

"When an executive told me he was so busy he never took a vacation, I replied, 'You mean to tell me that you can handle an $80 million project but can't manage to plan two weeks for some rest and rejuvenation?' "
~~ automobile executive Lee Iacocca [1924-2019]

"The danger of civilization, / of course, is that you will / piss away your life / on nonsense."
~~ Jim Harrison [1936-2016]

"I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."
~~ actor William Shatner

"The only reason that I exist is so my shadow has something to do."
~~ comedian Steven Wright

"The future isn't as far away as it used to be."
~~ Mark Sumner, writer on Daily Kos

"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing."
~~ philosopher John Stuart Mill [1806-73]

"Societies and individuals that continue to foster manipulative one-upmanship roles (power over the computer or a human) are destined to fail; societies of rational interchange of ideas (power from the computer and from other humans) are destined to succeed."
~~ G.E. Nordell, in The Los Angeles Times September 1982

"I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me."
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]

"You have power over your mind, not outside events, realize this and you will find strength."
~~ Roman emperor & philosopher Marcus Aurelius [121-180 CE]

"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."
~~ Abraham Joshua Heschel [1907-72]

"Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny."
~~ movie producer Christopher Markus

"Your power is a function of velocity, that is to say, your power is a function of the rate at which you translate intention into reality. Most of us disempower ourselves by finding a way to slow, impede, or make more complex than necessary the process of translating intention into reality."
~~ Werner Erhard

"The world may seem like a mess today, but lookin' on the bright side . . . it's still not as bad as it's gonna be tomorrow."
~~ "Ziggy" daily cartoon panel 1/2023 - drawn by Tom Wilson & Tom II

"Life is an existential fandango. If you make it so."
~~ G.E. Nordell

ME: wanna hear a really bad joke ??
whoever: okay
ME: ... the Republican Party !!!
~~ G.E. Nordell

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."
~~ businessman Max De Pree [1924-2017]

"The main lesson of thirty-five years of A.I. {artificial intelligence} research is that the hard problems are easy and the easy problems are hard."
~~ cognitive scientist Steven Pinker

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

BAD JOKE

ME: wanna hear a really bad joke ??
whoever: okay
ME: the Republican Party !!!
>>>>>>>> G.E. Nordell

News Factoids for Fourth Quarter 2022

In June 2022, Turkey rebranded itself as the Republic of Türkiye at the United Nations from now on. The new name is intended to better represent the country’s “culture, civilization, and values,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, and at least some reasoning behind the rebrand is the confusion with the North American bird.

The state of Texas official state flower is the bluebonnet (since 1901), the official small mammal is the nine-banded armadillo (since 1995), the official large mammal is the Texas longhorn (since 1995), and the official state freshwater fish is the Guadalupe bass (since 1989). There is now a movement to name the official state snake as Ted Cruz.

Amazon is the nation’s second-largest private employer.

Facts from a recent Sen. Bernie Sanders email:
Before Social Security was created in 1935, about half of our nation’s seniors were living in poverty; today, though still too high, the senior poverty rate is just 8.9 percent.
According to the most recent data, 12 percent of senior citizens in America are trying to live on an income of less than $10,000 a year and 55 percent of seniors in America are trying to get by on less than $25,000 a year.
The average Social Security benefit today is less than $1,540 a month {$18,480 per year}.

Firefox was the top browser to 2009, chrome grew to 60% by 2015, Internet Explorer shrunk; as-of mid-2022: M/S Edge is used by 7.5%, Chrome by 80%, and Firefox by 5.3%

"The Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade and took away freedom from millions of women to control their own bodies. It’s an absolutely terrifying day for so many of us! Our worst nightmare is coming true." — Kathy Jennings, 2022 Democratic candidate for Delaware Attorney General

"While I am heartbroken for women across the country today, here in New Mexico, your right to have a safe abortion remains intact, thanks to forward-thinking legislation passed in 2021."
— Katy Duhigg, New Mexico Senate District 10

According to a new report, 2,500 daily and weekly newspapers in the U.S. have closed since 2005, leaving large parts of the country – many in 'economically struggling, traditionally underserved communities' – with no local news coverage.

Only the United States, Belize, Palau, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands use Fahrenheit as their official temperature scale.

New Mexicans die of alcohol-related causes at nearly three times the national average, higher by far than any other state. Alcohol is involved in more deaths than fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamines combined. In 2020, alcohol killed more New Mexicans under 65 than Covid-19 did in the first year of the pandemic – all told, 1,878 people.

About 80 percent of the candidates that Donald Trump endorsed in competitive 2022 primary elections won their races: seven out of eight Senate candidates that he backed and 17 out of the 21 House candidates that he backed; many of the November elections were between a Democrat and a slate of extreme Republicans with ever stronger sympathies toward fascism and nationalism and suppression of minorities.

Copyright 2022 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

RECIPE FOR ICED COFFEE

I first encountered iced coffee on a menu around 1975, at Warner Brothers Studios, and again later at M.G.M Studios. Studio commissary menus have their own tradition: they all had matzoh crackers on the table, and offered chicken soup, cold beer, and ice coffee. Across the years since, I have usually ordered iced coffee in warm weather, and the server person would say "We don't have that." And I would ask "Do you have coffee? Do you have ice?" - most servers quickly understood, so I proceeded to tell them the recipe.

1)) Take a large glass and fill it with ice cubes.
2)) Slowly pour hot coffee into the glass - until the ice is floating.
3)) Add more ice cubes to top of glass.
{ these last two were added for the blog recipe }
4)) Add sweetener or cream-ness however you want.
5)) Drinking straw not required, but it is fun to make slurping noises, no matter where you are.

November 2022 Quotations (52)

“The book [that] you don’t read won’t help.”
~~ motivational speaker Jim Rohn [1930-2009]

“Mistakes are part of the dues [that] one pays for a full life."
~~ Italian actress Sophia Loren

“Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness.”
~~ Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl Of Derby [1752–1834]

“If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything."
~~ actress Marilyn Monroe [1926-62]

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruit than strict justice."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]

“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.”
~~ Roy T. Bennett

“If you're an asshole, you're not a success."
~~ popular science writer Adam M. Grant

“Inside the person [that] you know, there is a person [that] you do not know."
~~ saying in Syria

“There is more to life than increasing its speed."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]

“The GOP never let the facts get in the way of bad policy."
~~ Teresa Hanafin, Boston Globe staff writer

“Become an alchemist. Transmute base metal into gold, suffering into consciousness, disaster into enlightenment."
~~ Eckhart Tolle

“Life: be the example or be made the example.”
~~ Chris Morgan

“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
~~ Dr. Maya Angelou [1928-2014]

“Worrying is praying for what you don't want."
~~ Bhagavan Das

“The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to life."
~~ Frank Lloyd Wright [1867-1959], in 1957

“[Donald] Trump is an unparalleled danger."
~~ journalist Bob Woodward, in 2022

“I ask not for any crown / But that which all may win; / Nor try to conquer any world / Except the one within."
~~ Louisa May Alcott [1832-88]

“Life has always been a series of battles - what matters is which ones you choose to engage in and which side you are on."
~~ G.E. Nordell

“It’s not a lie if you believe it.”
~~ character George Costanza on the "Seinfeld" TV series [1989-1998]

“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion, free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention, that is when ideas are born."
~~ visionary Nikola Tesla [1856-1943]

“Life is a song - sing it. Life is a game - play it. Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a dream - realize it. Life is a sacrifice - offer it. Life is love - enjoy it."
~~ Shirdi Sai Baba [1838?-1918]

“Remember, happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think. So start each day by thinking of all the things you have to be thankful for. Your future will depend very largely on the thoughts you think today. So think thoughts of hope and confidence and love and success."
~~ motivational speaker & writer Dale Carnegie [1888-1955]

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure . . . than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
~~ Theodore Roosevelt [1858-1919]

“The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

“I consider myself a success only insofar as my life is useful, revealing, and rewarding to my kind."
~~ Frank Lloyd Wright [1867-1959], in 1957

“The reaction among Republican elected officials and their conservative-media life-support system to the beating of Paul Pelosi . . . marks a new level of depravity in the GOP."
~~ Tom Nichols, staff writer at "The Atlantic Magazine"

“As the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest liar has his believers: and it often happens, that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it . . .”
~~ Jonathan Swift [1667–1745]

“You can't love your country only when you win."
~~ President Joe Biden, in speech 11/2/2022

“Sleep is the best meditation."
~~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

“Man is a genius when he is dreaming."
~~ cinema master Akira Kurosawa [1910-98]

“It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
~~ Persian poet & mystic Rumi [1207-73]

“[The] precepts of Siddha Yoga [are]: Kneel to your own Self. Worship your Self. Meditate on your Self. Love your Self. Honor your Self. God dwells within you as you."
~~ Swami Muktananda [1908-82]

“I never signed on to Twitter. I try to avoid jumping into cesspools."
~~ G.E. Nordell

“The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy."
~~ Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen [1932-96]

“I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk."
~~ disgraced Cong. Lauren Boebert [GOP CO 2021-2022], in 2022

“Rambo is me before coffee in the morning; Rocky is me after coffee."
~~ action star Sylvester 'Sly' Stallone, in 2019

“Sex is like a Chinese dinner - it ain’t over until you both get your cookies."
~~ American comedian Gallagher [1946-2022]

“In the good old days, things were much more like they used to be back then."
~~ Ziggy cartoon panel drawn by Tom Wilson & Tom II, 11/2022

“A playful path is the shortest route to happiness."
~~ game designer Bernard Louis De Koven [1941-2018]

“One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are."
~~ Steve Jobs [1955-2011]

“Social media is aging, not dying. I think that these [recent events] are just broad trends."
~~ Charlie Warzel, staff writer at The Atlantic Magazine, in 2022 interview

“Love is wise – Hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact, that some people say things we don't like. We can only live together in that way. But if we are to live together, and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital, to the continuation of human life on this planet."
~~ British philosopher Bertrand Russell [1872-1970], in 1959 B.B.C. Interview segment on "Face To Face"

“Listen to your own voice. Don't listen to someone else's. To me the way to live is to always move forward - to keep searching for whatever it is that interests you."
~~ singer-songwriter Neil Young

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."
~~ columnist Marilyn vos Savant

“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.”
~~ American spiritual teacher Adyashanti

“There's a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities."
~~ fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin [1929-2018]

“If there is anything that gives me hope about the future of our country, it is that our younger generation is the most progressive generation in history."
~~ Sen. Bernie Sanders

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."
~~ Middle Platonist philosopher Plutarch [46?–127 C.E.]

“I would like to paint the way [that] a bird sings."
~~ French impressionist painter Claude Monet [1840-1926]

“You cannot save people. You can only love them."
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]

“Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as possess."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

PREDICTION re Congress

After the votes are counted, either the Senate or the House could slide over just a few seats and become majority Republican. In either case, what will happen is that the Eisenhower Republicans will step forward and assert control and the rabid fascist clowns will be prevented from doing more damage to the country.

October 2022 Quotations (55)

"Never argue with someone whose TV is bigger than their bookshelf."
~~ actress Emilia Clarke

"By not fully understanding money, the vast majority of people allow the awesome power of money to control them. The power of money is used against them."
~~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence."
~~ David Hume [1711-76]

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; Bring a friend, if you have one."
~~ George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950] to Winston Churchill.
response "Cannot possibly attend first night, I will attend the second . . . If there is one."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965] to George Bernard Shaw

"Once I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: "No good in a bed, but fine up against a wall."
~~ Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]

"It is undeniable that the culture wars [that] we are facing today in the United States have a body count."
~~ David Boddiger, managing editor at The Progressive Magazine

"You're either on my side, by my side, or in my f***ing way . . . choose wisely."
~~ Anonymous {probably a woman}

"Business is a team sport."
~~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

"With persistence, success can come at any time."
~~ physicist Albert-László Barabási

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"Some achieve old-age decrepitude thru great effort, and others have decrepitude thrust upon them."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]

"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

"In every human being, there is both garbage and gold. It’s up to us to choose what we pay attention to."
~~ Werner Erhard

"It is better to walk alone, than with a crowd going in the wrong direction."
~~ Dianne Grant

"Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes."
~~ Greek Stoic philosopher Antisthenes [446?-366? B.C.E.]

"Labor is the source of all wealth."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"If it isn’t good for everybody, it isn’t good."
~~ Cherokee saying

"Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here."
~~ Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator."
~~ John Bright

"Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success."
~~ Louisa May Alcott [1832-88]

"You don't have to go looking for love when it's where you come from."
~~ Werner Erhard

"Climb the mountain so [that] you can see the world, not so [that] the world can see you"
~~ Wm. Blake [1757–1827]

"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
~~ Theodore Roosevelt [1858-1919]

"A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims . . . but accomplices."
~~ often falsely attributed to George Orwell [1903-50]

"With or without (i.e. religion) you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion ."
~~ Steven Weinberg [1933-2021], Nobel Prize-winning physicist

"Men called bankers we shall hate, for they enrich themselves while doing nothing."
~~ Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.], in his "Politics"

"Look, it’s a puppet show; it doesn’t have to make sense."
~~ Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic Magazine

"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
~~ author David Foster Wallace [1962-2008]

"The character of a man is known from his conversations."
~~ Greek playwright Menander [342-292 BCE]

"Ambition is at the very core of success and extraordinary achievement. Unlike greed, [ambition] is a powerful, creative, and constructive force."
~~ motivational speaker Jim Rohn [1930-2009]

"Fake news is bad, but a Ministry of Truth is worse."
~~ Estonian lawmaker Andrus Ansip

"It's utterly ridiculous that powerful, resilient women are portrayed as dangerous, whereas in my experience it's the predatory men who are the real threat."
~~ actress Joan Collins, DBE [b. 1933]

"Tell people [that] there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them [that] the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]

"The person who does best is the one with the panic button farthest from his keyboard."
~~ hedge fund billionaire Charles Payson 'Chase' Coleman III

"Common leaders become successful. Remarkable leaders leave a legacy."
~~ Alan Maiccon

"Thinking for yourself and making your own decisions can be frightening. Letting go of other people’s expectations can leave you feeling empty for a time. And yet seeing yourself as an independent adult who can stand up for your own choices frees you to accept yourself as you are."
~~ poet Ellen Bass

"We can't solve all the problems of the world ... but that does not absolve us of solving the ones [that] we can."
~~ Robert Macauley [1923-2010]

"Freedom is what we do with what is done to us."
~~ Jean-Paul Sartre [1905-80]

"When something important is going on, silence is a lie."
~~ Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist A.M. Rosenthal [1922-2006]

"The most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen."
~~ Louis D. Brandeis [1856-1941]

"[This paradigm shift] could be the most significant turning point in our evolution because it means [that] we could move from a you-or-me world—a world where either you or I make it, and where we need to compete and fight to see who wins—to a you-and-me world, where all of us can make it."
~~ R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983], in the 1950s

"Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, / Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man."
~~ William Shakespeare [1564-1616], in "The Life and Death of King John" [1598]

"It has always seemed strange to me,” said Doc. “The things [that] we admire in men - kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling - are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits [that] we detest - sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest - are the traits of success."
~~ John Steinbeck [1902-68], in "Cannery Row" [1945]

"I like the human spirit; not so fond of human nature."
~~ "Frazz" syndicated comic strip [est. 2001], as drawn by Jef Mallett - 9/2022

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of a library."
~~ Jorge Luis Borges [1899-1986]

"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down."
~~ actress-comedian Lily Tomlin

"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."
~~ Pablo Picasso [1881-1973]

"The total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings."
~~ Nobel-laureate physicist Erwin Schrödinger [1887-1961]

"Fellas, I don't want to create a stampede, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is now available."
~~ actor George Takei

"The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence."
~~ Aldous Huxley [1894-1963]

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."
~~ Benjamin Franklin [1706-90]

"I hate almost all rich people, but I think [that] I'd be darling at it."
~~ Dorothy Parker [1893-1967]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

COMING-OF-AGE RITUALS for age twelve-ish

Laying down for a nap does not always produce sleep. Many times I am left to ponder or relive memories, to speak them to myself, like a story or as practice to regale others. Here are two such:

**************************

Both of my parents disliked their middle names, so they made a decision before I showed up as first-born not to give each child a middle name at birth. The plan was that as a sort of coming-of-age ritual, each child would get to choose their middle name at age twelve and then it would be officially added. So I chose my father's name, and next time we went 'Up Home' to visit relatives, the family went to the Alameda County Clerk's office, and it was done. (I don't remember any detail of this, just that it got done.)

My next sibling chose the name of his grandfather and favorite uncle, and my next brother chose grandma's maiden name; whatever my much younger sister Melissa chose, she doesn't use it.

**************************

The other such ritual had to do with each child taking our pastor to dinner, also around age twelve. (For anyone not connected to a specific church, the guest person could be a pastor from some local church, a school teacher, the mayor, the librarian - the key thing is not the identity of the guest but the requirement for the child to experience this new adult behavior.)

So I had to make the invitation by phone or in person, agree on a time and date, and be ready on time (wearing a Sunday suit, of course). I was given sufficient cash, the pastor - old enough to drive - picked me up at the house, and we drove off. Here again, much of the detail is missing from my memory, but it would have been a step or two up from Sizzler, maybe Petrelli's Steakhouse on Sepulveda or Bruno's Italian on Centinela. So we ate and talked, not necessarily around religion, just two guys having dinner and conversation, truly a new experience for my 12-year-old self. I paid the bill and added a tip and the pastor drove me home, and my parents asked a few questions (like "How'd it go?") and I probably gave them the change, and life returned to normal.

**************************

Every family has their traditions and my partly independent parents made up several on their own. We also had some that went back generations, but that's enough for now.

Copyright 2022 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

VOTING

today Sunday 9/18 is only 50 days to election day on Tuesday November 8th and only 22 days to early voting in New Mexico October 11 - November 5