Bucket

Bucket List

 

I don’t like the idea of a bucket list. I thought about this when I woke up this morning.

Maybe the concept of a bucket is not bad. The idea of a to-do list before kicking the bucket just seems problematic. Other than the stupid answer "start it today", at what age should we start listing these things? Why place the very dead deadline to this? Does checking off an item mean you can’t repeat that item? Does a to-do-list imply a schedule? Death is not scheduled.

I don’t have a bucket list. Considering time and unknown opportunities, I would rather instead think of a life bucket. My life bucket idea includes events, moments, and memories associated with feelings. You might travel to experience these feelings or you might not.

Experiencing new moments of good feelings are things I to add to my life bucket. But I’m not trying to compete with anyone or any timeline.

The best is having someone to share in filling up your life bucket and being able to add to their life bucket.

Pondering important things reminds my Sheryl Crow’s lyrics:  “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”

Here's another Sheryl Crow song, "Still the Good Old Days".

a bucket of shells

Also, I enjoy sharing my thoughts on my blog. Posting my thoughts keeps memories in my life bucket.

Life is strange, dreams are stranger.

You don't need to live long before you realize life is strange. Good people die and bad people live.

 

As you cruise along a smooth highway an idiot flies around you and cuts you off. Too many clowns for just one circus.

 

However, our dreams are even stranger and often scary. I woke up today angry from a nightmare (is 'nightmare' the right word for a frustrating nonsensical dream?).

 

your destination appears far and difficult

Years ago I combined bits of my dreams with my imagination and created a nightmare. Here's the post of it: "free nightmare for the taking".

Imagination runnin’

A few months ago I wrote, “...in dreamland floating up stream or in any direction is no problem. You can float anywhere your inner imagination wants to take you.”

Float, fly, any which way you get from A to B poses no problem while you are traveling inside your imagination.

 

 

 

But it was just my imagination once again runnin' way with me
Tell you it was just my imagination runnin' away with me

Do you agree that children's imaginations seem to run farther and more often than adults?

For me, the best part of playing with grandkids is watching their imaginations coming alive. Adults seem to suppress imagination. Probably because reality often becomes a big messy burden. My experience tells me that thinking of an idea is easier than implementing the idea. Maybe we get too concerned about the implementation and turn off our imagination.

Another idea to toss your way. What's your opinion of a connection between dreaming while sleeping and imagining?

 

Although I would not want you to forget leaving comment below, you might want to sleep on it.

unexpected

Oh before I go off on a tangent, I have a brief announcement:

Lisleman is hereby the Emperor of Ephemera.

on the rocks

Great title don’t you think? I’ve had a few titles during my life. Most of them were printed on business cards. I don’t think there’s a big future in business cards.

Recently I was perplexed pissed-off by the unexpected. Not significant in the big picture. But how big is the big picture?

You know the axiom, expect the unexpected? I thought I should just remember that more often. But then my logical thinking started analyzing. My processing of this advice put my thoughts in a spin.

If you expect the unexpected then there is no unexpected.

I suspect my logic here just gave the wrong result. Expressing the advice of staying prepared for unpredictable events/results/demands in your life would be better.

Surprises can also be fun and enjoyable.

There’s always tomorrow. I recall someone called the orphan Annie a procrastinator because of her always singing about tomorrow. Her song “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” provides advice similar to expecting the unexpected advice.

My wife shared an old song that was new and unexpected for me.

I’m sure my wife wasn’t very surprised to see a dead skunk in the middle of the road. Actually seeing one of these nocturnal vermin alive during daylight would be more surprising.

This sighting reminded her of the following song which to my surprise I didn’t remember at all. Seems odd that this is the first time I heard this humorous roadkill song.





Well my empire was vast but gone in a flash. At least I'm not a dead skunk.

waiting for my oscar

Oh never mind, they don't award Oscars for just going to the movies. 😕

No award for fastest to finish off the extra large popcorn bucket. Like pie eating contests they should hold popcorn contests.

stumped on the stump

We watched the Oscars. I liked the hosting that Ellen did back in 2014 better. The playing of clips from "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" movie has piqued my interest in seeing that one. I really enjoyed "Fargo".

Please share your opinions about the awards show and/or any of the movies in the comment section.

✋Hold on, my train of thought will be jumping over to different set of rails now. I want to avoid causing confusion here. I realize reading my mind is not possible - yet.

I subscribed more than a year ago to an idea type site. I should just drop my email subscription now since my interest in their ideas has dropped. Any readers have a neglected set of email subscriptions like me?

I just opened up their recent email (probably get two a week). It provides a list of articles with links. One of them was:

If a nuclear bomb is dropped in your city, here’s what you need to do

Followed by:

A psychologist explains the best way to rewire the brain to let go of worrying

I found the ordering of these articles funny in a weird way. If the second one really works you don’t need to read the first one.

Over time I’ve found the site Quora a great place to discover new knowledge on many subjects. This is an email subscription I'll keep. Their accuracy in matching my interest is good but the following one left me puzzled as to why they passed it along to me.

Weapons: How far must you be from an exploding hand grenade to avoid injury?

I’m wondering if the author of that question is still around to read the answers.

Oh, I learned from watching the academy awards show that a remake(sequel?) of Mary Poppins will be released this year. Here's a parody of one of it's songs.

Library of indecision

Do you have such a library? Maybe just a collection?

The indecision related to this blog is the decision of my post topic. Could it be that when indecision halts your writing you should just write about the indecision?

Seems like a cop out. However this is a personal blog with loose rules.

One of my minor ideas which remains less than minor was the naming of new products. Do you need a bomb in your bath?

You can now buy 2-pack unicorn bath bomb for about $12. Oh joy of effervescent unicorns. Why call this a bomb? It’s not very destructive.

Oh rub-a-dub

With that out of the way, what’s with my library reference? I have enjoyed libraries from a young age. I doubt it’s the smell of paper. I rather think it’s knowledge on a shelf. Also, they are normally quiet enough places to gather your thoughts. Today we carry connected knowledge in our pocketed smartphones. I do hope libraries will survive this smartphone upheaval.

I still recall the trip my Aunt asked me to join her on to a college library. It was a day trip and I think she just wanted some company. Not sure, but I think I had just started high school at the time. I was impressed by the number of books. I surprised myself when I found my name in the card catalog (are you old enough to have used a card catalog?). There was another well published guy out there with my exact name. I found that interesting but not his publications. Looking up my name in the card catalog - the precursor to googling oneself?

During my recent local library visit I looked up a book by Steven Johnson that I read about online. Steven Johnson hosted a PBS series called “How We Got To Now” back in 2014. (hey do NOT come here for the latest on TV) His book is titled “Wonderland”.

Now for my attempt to tie all this together. I believe these bath bombs relate well to Johnson’s theme in Wonderland. Here’s a quote from the book:

“Because play is often about breaking rules and experimenting with new conventions, it turns out to be the seedbed for many innovations that ultimately develop into much sturdier and more significant forms.”

Johnson describes many examples of play and delight driving innovation. I find this bath bomb an invention for delight. I'm not suggesting these bath bombs are going to develop into anything other than clean freshen people but who knows. Automating the social comparison of college students eventually developed into Facebook. I've heard that's a big thing. Maybe unicornbath will be the next big bomb.

So how bad has it gotten

So how bad has it gotten? 
The news coverage of our politics has gotten so bad that, trumpet players have taken up the cornet.

Don’t leave. I’m NOT going to write anything more on that sad subject.

extra charge for this guy's pedi

Instead let’s discuss fantasy characters and maybe a myth or two. Regular readers of A Few Clowns Short know the myth topic is seldom covered here. Really I don’t have the time to cover all the odd ideas that cross my synapses daily. Most of those odd ideas could be turned into a decent myth. I wrote about myths way back in 2011. (link )

Much like that 2011 post and many others for that matter, this post came about in a convoluted manner. Do you care? If no, then skip ahead.

I have in-laws who subscribed to the New Yorker (they would like the one liner at the top of this post). They started moving around frequently and decided to send the magazine to our house. They typically read it online anyway. You may know/experienced the high quality of writing in the New Yorker. I suspect some people may get it just for the cartoons.

I found this piece titled, “Fantastic Beasts and How to Rank Them” in Nov. 6 issue very thought provoking. (link )

I must say the first thing that caught my attention was at the very top of the page - Dept. of Speculation. 

Wow that’s exactly what I need here. I would certainly appoint myself as the first head of the department. Call myself Chief of Speculation. Enough about my organizational plans.

The author, Kathryn Schulz, writes, 

“One of the strangest things about the human mind is that it can reason about unreasonable things.”

The article centers around the workings of “willing suspension of disbelief”. I learned that idea goes back to the 1790’s. Even if you don’t belief in Spiderman or Wonder Woman you can still get very involved in their stories. How does this suspension of disbelief work? Ms. Schulz offers up various ideas about this ranging from the creature's biological makeup (size of Big Foot) to the physical nature of their powers (transformation of a vampire).

Within her discussion on judging the plausibility of fantastical beings there is a suggested game for your next party. Create a list of supernatural/mythical beings and ask your guests to rank their plausibility. I plan to try this and expect some interesting conversations. Now if it is a Christmas party, I suggest not including Santa or his elves.

Here’s my list:

• Wonder Woman
• Mermaid
• Big Foot
• Extraterrestrials visiting earth
• Angels
• Zombies
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Flying fire breathing dragons
• Ghosts (do you agree an angel is not a ghost?)

Remember you do not need to actually believe in these creatures just rank them. If you are wondering, I rank mermaid as most plausible and flying dragons as least.

I agree with what she writes toward the end:

“Yet, in the end, what’s most remarkable is not that our fantasies contain so much reality; it is that our reality contains so much fantasy.”

And

“Better, perhaps, to know that what we feel in our happiest moments has some truth to it: life is magical.”

Unrelated to this speculation exercise - I found a TED talk that Kathryn Schulz gave on the importance of embracing our own fallibility. It was given in 2011 and still applies now as it did then. Maybe more so. Worth watching.

Have you heard

Whoa, oh, oh
No, no, no

Oh erase that. That’s a leftover from the tune of my last post.

Now what was I going to post? Oh yeah, cleaning and death. Intriguing combination don’t you think? Has me thinking of wearing clean underwear in case of a car accident.

too much stuff to leave behind

Recently I heard about this idea called Swedish Death Cleaning. I guess it’s a “thing”. Apparently not related to meatballs or IKEA.

It’s personal just like death. From the little I understand (my cleaning knowledge is extremely lacking) one could not hire a person to do this type cleaning for you. It does not involve morticians. I have minuscule cleaning motivation so this is a problem.

A simple idea but yet probably not easy to act on.

When you get old ...

Oh wait, excuse me while I interrupt this post.
I just thought of a great Halloween costume for young adults. Dress up as an old person because turning old is really scary! Just ask an old person.

When you get old, you should clean out your stuff (clutter is one of my wife’s favorite words) by thinking about your death and what you will leave for your lucky descendants to clean up. For example, I should toss my old collection of business cards given to me from vendor meetings. Change my mindset to the one who comes upon this collection and wonders why on earth did he save this.

While I make no big claims on anything other than maybe those extra fries you left on your plate, I do claim a small expertise with youtube surfing. I found a clip on this death cleaning thing.







One suggestion from the above clip is creating a box of things that matter only to you which you labeled toss out upon death. Now collecting those things in a box is good organizing but I suspect my kids might be very interested in that box’s contents. I would have been if my parents had left such a box. I’m putting a $100 bill in my box. Then I’ll leave a separate note saying that there was a $100 bill in that box. One more thought. I should write a note saying that if you find my mess of stuff to be a bit overwhelming, then recall your messy room as a teenager.

I got clutter, whoa-oh
I got troubles, whoa-oh
I got worries, whoa-oh
I got wounds to bind

Enjoy a few more whoa-ohs:

I tried taking a shower

I don’t know if it actually helped. It has helped in the past.

Singing in the shower - I’m skeptical of the idea.

I can't sing but I'm not blue

I do find showers relaxing and conducive to thinking. Often during my engineering career, I experienced beneficial critical thinking during a shower. I don’t know if it will help this post but at least I smell better now.

I’m not trying to be retro, but I do enjoy radio programs. My favorite is Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. I have mentioned this in past posts. It’s a NPR game show about recent news. Often I learn about odd/strange news. Don’t you feel like some lighter strange news is needed given all the tragic/frightening news we have had lately?

On the subject of smell, I found this story used in a recent show to be a truth-stranger-than-fiction example. It was about a British student and his first date with a lovely lady he met on tinder. The story has the elements of comedy; poop, failure to fix an embarrassing situation, getting stuck hanging upside down, rescue by the fire department. A window was destroyed so the student started a Go-Fund-Me campaign. With such a strange and funny story he exceeded his goal by 10 times. The extra is going to charity for toilets in developing countries and a firefighter charity. The story found on the Go-Fund-Me page is worth reading - link

Proof it really did happen, here’s the fire department write-up - link

My next bit of odd news comes from a Chicago radio program called Curious City. Again it is worth following the link. Until hearing this I didn’t know Chicago public schools required boys to swim in the nude for gym class. Apparently the nude swimming was common among schools across the nation from the 20’s through the 50’s. Some Chicago schools kept the practice into the 70’s. I thought the very public shower after gym class was embarrassing enough. My high school didn’t have a pool. Curious City story

I made something this summer

Inspired by an instruction video and watching our grandkids enjoy the water tables at a children's museum (don't you think "museum" is the wrong word for these places?) I decided to build our own portable water table.

The main parts:

• plastic storage bin
• fountain water pump
• PVC pipe and elbows

The most expensive item is the submersible water pump. I bought one from Home Depot for $29. The pump sits on the bottom of the bin and just needs to be covered by water. I did notice that typically after 30 minutes of play more water needs to be added. I found the 1/2 inch size pipe was the easiest to use. Leaving the pipe connections not glued allows the "water system" to be configured a variety of ways. Small plastic cups and stoppers add to the fun.


Two of my water table testers:

Both water table testers gave it their sign of approval.

real donut news

Do you recall my idea of the Church of the Donut?

I don't recall where this pic came from

If you do, praise the donut and bring some over next time you are around.

Back in the glory days of blogging, I had a streak of ideas to share. (much better than sharing my streaking the coliseum) Looking back I notice 2013 was a banner year for my idea generator. Now I post less and wear out my slippers quicker. Does the day and my feet need to drag together?

Too often I just get part of the action/game/prize. For example years ago I thought being an absent-minded-professor type would be great. Now I’m finding myself being absent minded but I’m not a professor. I could open the Lisleman Institute for Unknown Studies and appoint myself a professor. However, I’ll never reach tenure since my institute has no funds for such things. So what’s the use.

Nothing is further from the truth, but something is close at hand.

If you were picking away the moments that make up a dull day, what wondrous exciting surprise would brighten your day? (actually if you comment on this my fairly brighten day will be brighter)

Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues by Danny O'Keefe 



Should it now be changed to "Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blogs".

One of the funny tweets selected by Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune:

"If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, that is where you should put the body"

Recently on FB my younger sister wrote that she “listened till my battery died” - now that's modern devotion. Sacrificing smartphone power for another person might be today’s version of the cup of sugar between 1950’s neighbors.

Oh the title - another ephemeral idea of mine - reporting real news about donuts through my blog. I did find one interesting story about Dunkin Donuts settlement of class action (better than a no class suit) suit over fake butter on a real bagel. Had it been a fake bagel the damages would be much worse. Here’s a link to the story for you buttered bagel lovers. I prefer cream cheese.

remember the baby races

I don’t.

I am a pepperoni short of a pizza today. (not as bad as being a belt buckle short of not dropping my pants - so embarrassing) Please don't let that stop you from finishing this post and letting me know what you think.

In general we all have plenty of ideas. Unfortunately, most all of them are unattainable and possibly dangerous.

Baby Races on the beach.

did they have sunscreen back then?

While I haven’t assigned anyone on the Lisleman’s Institute for Better Postings team to research the baby race idea, I’ll just apply my skill of wild speculation to the idea.

The idea probably started before the release of the movie "Jaws". Too many scared from the beach after that movie.
 

there's the winner or whiner

I suspect there was much sand eaten. At least our kids seemed to enjoy a fresh handful of sand. Given the era, there probably were too many sunburns. (an early morning race with cool sand and low sun might be alright)

I've never witnessed a beach baby race. However, I have raced to grab a baby that thought she was turtle going to sea.

Any readers with first (or second) hand knowledge please comment and give yourself a hand if you have any left.

Two thoughts for you to ponder or just toss aside.

First a worthless idea: If I am ever inclined to beg, I would only beg for American Pie. It would be a service to generous people allowing them to say Bye Bye Miss American Pie. Everyone names their pies - right?

Second: A nearby breakfast restaurant that I would recommend for their menu, service, and price, has a very wrong idea for decorating the walls of the men’s restroom. 

here's looking at you kid

show me the money

That’s a bag of shredded money. We picked up a few of them free at the Money museum in Chicago. I did a post about all this dead cash back in 2012.  My wife and I enjoyed a visit to the money museum back then.

While you probably don't think about it often (or ever) the amount and denominations of cash in circulation does need to be managed. Many kids think that mom or dad just need to visit a bank to get cash. I do believe the sooner they learn that the banks are not run by Santa Claus the better.

a million dollars in twenties

Hold on 

- I just accidentally hit the pause button on my stream of thought here -

Often my stream of thought flows nicely without much turbulence. Then boom around the bend I find myself being tossed and splashed through the rapids.  

I had planned to report on a few cash related news stories in this post. Really finding a cash related story is no where near as exciting as finding extra cash (no I didn't just find any extra cash - but if you have some it's always welcomed).

There is still one cash related news story I want to share with you:

Johnny Cash Tarantula 

One of 14 New Spiders

Johnny Cash the tarantula (Aphonopelma johnnycashi) was found near Folsom Prison and it's all black in color. I think Johnny would be honored. If a new animal species were to be named after you what would like it to be?

Myself - a new hairy sloth would be a good fit.

a million dollars in a suitcase better than a tarantula pic?

Sure this song has do wah diddy to do with my original cash/money idea. Blame my iTunes player.

Before I knew it new ideas poppin up in me
Singing do wah diddy diddy down diddy do

Man, I forgot Manfred Mann was the group that had the hit with this.

non sequitur thoughts

(hey I don’t get to use Latin in my posts very often)

Yesterday my mind was in the gutter. I cleaned them. Messy smelly job getting the decaying leaves out of them. My neighbor noticed me strolling on the garage roof and offered his leave blower attachment for the gutter cleaning. The attachment is a good idea but this universal-fits-all one kept falling off the blower. Also, any disgusting water in gutter comes showering down on you.

No accidents, but that is what concerns me the most. I've never gotten very far up the ladders of my life.

a few steps up

If I could only train the squirrels to clean the gutter

Well let’s get out of the gutter.

How about breaking news about Hidden Valley Ranch dressing?

Ranch dressing case could end up in court

A regional grocer, Woodman's Food Market sued Clorox Co. last year for its decision to stop selling Woodman's large packages of Clorox products. One of the popular items was Hidden Valley Ranch dressing sold in twin packs of 40-ounce bottles. Clorox will not offer that packing to Woodman’s. Only the big-box stores have access to these large industrial size packages.

Yes, I was also shocked that Clorox owns the Hidden Valley dressing product line. Makes me wonder what is hidden in that dressing. The case has advanced now to the U.S. Appeals Court.

Do you think they will bring a good vegetable tray to the court as a supporting witness? (here’s a link to the story)

Now skipping along to other thoughts. Here's a possible parody floating in my head. Sing along:

What FACEBOOK needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What FACEBOOK needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don't need another debate,
There are debates and rantings, enough crime
There are conspiracies and attacks enough to read,
Enough to last till the end of time.

my favorite mistake

Will this be yet another mistake? I don’t want this blog to get political. So I’ve been reluctant to share this idea of mine here. But on the other hand (that hand that doesn’t do much anyway) why not. The readership is down (close to being sunk). So I’m going to expand on the idea of making a mistake. However, I will not get drawn into a debate about the current political candidates.

“The perfect ending to the bad day”. That confusing phrase from Sheryl Crow’s “My Favorite Mistake” song can make sense if you let ‘perfect’ and ‘bad’ join together to describe a real terrible day. Phrases like this is why I enjoy listening to the lyrics.

Our never ending election cycles have given us a few perfect mistakes to consider.

 

Here’s my perfect idea for a bad post.

Do a parody of the song “You’re So Vain” using Donald Trump and his campaign. I always thought the Donald was very vain. I believe even his hair is vain. The Donald could become the perfect political mistake.

Now if you please, add your suggested lyric ideas in the comments. Of course, if you don’t find this at all funny then have a great perfect day and come back for the next post which will not be political at all. Actually, given that it’s Donald Trump I don’t consider this post very political since I have a difficult time equating him to a serious political leader.

Here’s my hope for a campaign hit: (if you can sing along and carry a tune please do a recording and post it on youtube, please just mention this post )

You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your HAIR strategically dipped below one eye
Your scowl was taut
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself cavort
And all LAWYERS dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and

You're so vain
You probably think this RACE is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this RACE is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Reality show several years ago
when you fleeced the naive
Well, you said you have such pretty hair
And your shouted words make me heave
Do you care who makes the things you love
And can you handle a hot Mexican tamale
They had some dreams, stopped by walls on the border
walls on the border and

You're so rich
You probably think this RACE is about you
You're so rich
I'll bet you think this RACE is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

They had some dreams, stopped by walls on the border
walls on the border and

You're so vain
You probably think this RACE is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this RACE is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your HAIR naturally won
Then you spew words like you’re a nova
you curse everyone under the sun

Well, you're where you golf all the time
And when you're not, you're planning
Some lawsuits, Oh your third wife is no friend
Wife is no friend, and

You're so vain
You probably think this RACE is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this RACE is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

take your time it’s about time

How’s that for pairing phrases?

This post about time could be timeless. Did that last sentence make sense? The problem is the word “timeless”. It doesn’t refer to things without time but just the opposite, lasting all time. Mindless of course refers to acting without being mindful of your actions. So why don’t we say “timeful”.

Time is strange concept. Before clocks became common people, unlike in today’s world, typically gave little time to worrying/thinking about time. Imagine just living your days based on the sun. No number-o-clock since there was no clock to be oh’d about. In the 13th century, scientists started using seconds. Today many electronic devices are specified in nanoseconds.

timeless equation

I’m sure my life is easier now than it would have been centuries ago. There’s many reasons people on average are living longer. You must admit there are many time critical medical procedures that didn't exist years ago.

Time to get back to main topic.

Time’s up

 
(did that make you pause) Not a good time? What’s a better time?

Does the toddler doing time in a time out save or waste time?

When I was a kid my grandma would watch “Days of Our Lives”. I was convinced it wasn’t my life. I didn’t have an hourglass with sands flowing through it. The only hourglass I remember was the one the wicked witch had in “Wizard of Oz”. I think she used it to time flying monkeys. Her time ended before the movie did.

We keep finding new times. Broadcasting and cellphones have given us air time. The Apple company has given us facetime but doesn’t that use up screen time? The internet services have downtime. I’m so glad I just had dinner time and playtime growing up. It might have been the best of times.

You can tell time but really only time will tell.

Back in an early time I posted about physics and spacetime.

So was this post timely?

This song has me wondering about Tulsa time - sounds good to me.

but wait there’s more

electricity and the future of women

Nikola Tesla

No, not the inventor of the all electric sports car called the Tesla but it was named after him. Yes, he was an inventor. There are statues of Nikola Tesla around Niagara Falls (both Canadian and American sides). Westinghouse built North America’s first large scale AC power plant at Niagara Falls using Tesla’s patents.

Tesla interest and ideas certainly when beyond electrical power. He believe power would be transmitted wireless someday. He worked on a wireless controlled torpedo back in the early 1900’s.  He foresaw the coming of drones.

But wait there's more - 

Recently I stumbled upon an interview of Mr. Tesla that covered much more than electricity and wireless concepts. In it, he made many interesting statements about women and the future of mankind. These quotes are from a 1926 interview done by the magazine, Colliers. (link to article)

"It is clear to any trained observer," he says, "and even to the sociologically untrained, that a new attitude toward sex discrimination has come over the world through the centuries, receiving an abrupt stimulus just before and after the World War.”

"This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior.”

“...the awakening of the intellect of women.”

“Woman will ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress.”

The end of the article describes his vision of a bee like society centered around queen bees. All these female bees buzzing around loaded down with pollen don’t seem to be having fun. Hopefully, Mr. Tesla was off the mark on his bee like society.

the SNL killer bees were fun

what’s in a name

Bill Shakes Apear once said something like, “What's in a name? that which we call a donut by any other name would taste as sweet.”

Her face looked familiar. Then I heard that ringing laugh. Its ring transported back to my late teens. She could be none other than Isabelle Tolling. I had to turn around and find out.

“Isabelle, Isabelle Tolling”, I ask.

She looks, gives a long stare and says, “Ben Fardown?”

“No, no, I’m Dat, Dat Nutin”.

“Dat, Ben, I have forgotten too many nicknames. Yes I remember now. Wow it’s been a long long time.”

“Long Long Time, Linda Ronstadt Silk Purse album, 1970”, I shoot back.

“Oh yeah, Dat the nutin lyrics geek. It’s all coming back now. Wow, remember hanging out with Freddy, Holly, Cina -”. There seems to be more names trying to get out of her head but she pauses.

“What ever happened to Holly Moses? God, remember her blowing up over our waters jokes.”

“I searched for her on Facebook awhile ago. After Cina found me. No luck.”

“Facebook, what love hate relationship that site is for me. How’s Cina Bunn?”

“She moved to west coast. Really into the mediation natural living earth thing. Raises chickens.”

“Chicken and buns. Hmm, that’s making me hungry. I wonder if she makes good gravy.”

Isabelle cuts me off with, “Holly had a secret crush on you, you know.”

“What? No way. Really? Sister Golden Hair - “

“America, 1975!” she quickly completes for me.

“Good one! Clueless me. I was busy spending time and money on Mindy Orrbizess. Turned out to be a big wasted effort. Her friend Moon B. Ova finally showed me the light.”

“Well maybe her crush was short lived. No matter, it’s long past now.” she reminds me.

"Old flames, then smoke gets in your eyes. So tell me, how long did you date Chuck Crunchin Sands?”.

“Hey be nice, he hated being called Crunchin.”

“Ha, he be crunchin loud all through the cafeteria. His crunching drove Mickey D. Holdpickle nuts. When I look back, I didn’t like the Ahem U. Gointufinishthat name I had for awhile. ”

She laughs and looks out the window. “Time sure does fly. Fun to reminisce but I’m running late for a meeting. Let’s friend each other.”

“Funny how friend became an action verb. Sure, dat be fine.”

Memories keep flowing in as Isabelle turns and disappears out on to the street. Using those nicknames again kicks the idea of writing swirling in my head.


Hey if you listened to the hits in the sixties you might remember singing this name game:



 
Ok, what do you think? Will this nickname idea become A Few Clicks Short of a Pageview?

could be a fun conspiracy theory

Most conspiracy theories are upsetting to me.  However, the government concealing UFO's idea was not too bad and did give us a good TV show. 

Now we might have a new one.  Did you notice that on the same day NBC news anchor Brian Williams announced he will be off the air, Jon Stewart announced he will be leaving the Daily Show.

Is there a conspiracy to replace Williams with Stewart or maybe both will switch.  I think Williams could pull off the Daily Show.

Ok so I admit there are a few conspiracy theories that are entertaining to contemplate.

The Big Bird conspiracy.