Category: Popular Culture

The Best Advice and Experience May Come from Wildly Different Sources

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My Life Has Run That Course. Allow Me to Share Two Different But Shared Paths

What Skills and Mindset are Important in Life?

How about that for a “simple question” to begin this with?  Might as well go big and aim for the core issues, I think. Life demands a lot of all of us – some more than others, but all of us at one time or another. The list of important and desirable traits and approaches is long, but two seem to me to be pretty near the top of the list in a modern,

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Big & Little Things Noted Lately

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Funny How Things Catch Your Attention. Here are a Few That Caught My Eye Today

 TV Interviews at Home

 One thing the pandemic made routine was people on tv being interviewed in their homes. We have been doing this for two years now, and some people are on tv regularly being seen from their homes.

For these repeaters, I am really surprised that we see that we are in their bedrooms, or kitchen, or some other space that looks unprofessional. By now, one would think they would put up a background screen or use one of the electronic backgrounds readily available,

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Relooking and Rethinking the Arts

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New Technologies and Approaches Lead to New Perspectives

The van Gogh Effect

Many of you are probably aware that something of a phenomenon launched last year with some high-tech based shows around Vincent van Gogh and his work. One such exhibit opened, finding much commercial success and attention. As such things go, several more variations opened all around the country. There must be at least a half-dozen of them now, with spin offs coming along built around other artists.

We were curious enough to sign up for one a few months ago in a city not too far away from us,

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You Say You “Love America.” Really? Or Just the Movie Version?

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This is a Good Time to Examine What We Mean by “Love of Country”

So, What Defines a Patriot?

This is a bit of a trick question in any country, of course. Most thoughtful people would say it does not mean “Love it or Leave it.” Nor does it mean “My Country, Right or Wrong.” That would be an infantile response. Reasonable adults should be able to care deeply for their country and still recognize when it has erred.

But in America, it is a bit trickier. This is the case because this is a country founded on ideas and an ideal.

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A Sampler of Some Fine Writing and Thinking

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Enjoy These Varied and Well-Done Writings

 

Such a Buffet

As much as we all curse the internet (often with good reason), one has to admit it makes available to us an astounding volume and variety of information, thought, wonder, and amusement. Sure, a lot of what is out there is an embarrassment to our species. But there also is quite a lot worthy of our time and attention.

Allow me to share with you a few I have enjoyed of late. I hope you will as well.

Plants Communicate – A Lot

We have known for some time now that the plant world is no near as inanimate as once thought.

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Too Much Choice!

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“Too Much Choice” is Not a Phrase I Use Often. But Three Examples Drive Me Nuts. You?

I Like Choice, A Lot 

 Choice is a great thing. It increases the odds that you will get the product or outcome you seek. Choosing empowers you as a consumer. Choice exercises your mental powers of discretion and of choosing wisely.

Most of us who might read this posting live in a world of abundant choices in most areas of our lives. That is a delightful thing, something to appreciate and celebrate. I love having options and making choices.

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Odds and Ends Rattling Around of Late

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A Lot of Us are Snowed in Now – It’s a Good Time for Some Assorted Observations

Supreme Court on Vaccination Mandates

 The current Supreme Court looks increasingly less supreme with every ruling. I keep thinking it cannot get worse, but they continue to raise the ante. At least they kept the health care workers mandate in place (barely – by 1 vote).

Gutting the large employer mandate on the basis that OSHA is the wrong agency for such a mandate enforcement is ridiculous. This is what happens when you have a court anchored in rigid ideology rather than real life.

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People are Confused About COVID Guidance?

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 Really, Folks? The Guidance Has Been Pretty Consistent. Changes Match the Changing Virus

The Snivel We Hear

 OK, snivel is admittedly a snarky word to start off this conversation, but it really does seem to me that a lot of people, the media in particular, is regularly crying out that there is so much guidance from so many sources, always in a state of flux. As a result, people are confused and don’t know what is expected of them.

To which I say, Poppycock. Yes, there is a lot of information out there,

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The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

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This Week the Blackberry Died – A Lesson for Everyone

Remember the Blackberry?

By the time you read this, any Blackberry phones out in the world using the Blackberry operating system will have died a quiet and ignoble death. Effective January 5, Blackberry pulled the plug. They still have a few units out there using Android systems, but essentially, they are out of the smart phone business.

In the very earliest stages of enhanced electronic communications – what eventually became smart phones – the Blackberry was the top of the line by far.

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What Would You Put in a Time Capsule?

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The History of These is Fascinating

 

Why Do These Things?

They seem to have some popularity throughout the ages. One could even say they are… timeless.

Time capsules have been in the news lately. Not one, but two were found under a statue of Robert E. Lee that was recently removed in Virginia. Here in my hometown, one was unearthed a few months ago, also from a site that once hosted a statue of a civil war figure.

It is not hard to find news items and historical write ups around the world and through the ages of such capsules being implanted,

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