Was first told to me by a good regular customer down at Mac’s Cafe in the early 90’s. He said he only celebrated the “record” birthdays: 33 1/3, 45 and 78.
Go ahead and look it up, kids. We’ll wait.
Had a daughter (19) and her mother (guessing early 40’s at the most) get in my car for a short trip to a pleasant little birthday dinner. Told that story. Neither one of them got it. So I’m retiring it. Sadly.
I’ve tried to get away from the aggregating that I was doing on my old site, but in light of some stuff the last few days I’m compelled.
First this, from 2007
Which leads to this, from the New York Daily News of three days ago:
Then there’s this from Obama flack Ben Rhodes in his infamous 2016 interview: “The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”
And finally I’ll close with Joel Kotkin writing at Quillette, we live in an “Age of Amnesia:”
This trend was most marked in the British colonies of North America. Benjamin Franklin noted that high levels of literacy helped American traders and mechanics instigate the rebellion against the Crown and sustain it. But now, with access to information unimaginable in the past, our knowledge of history is fading. Information is increasingly separated from actual knowledge; blogs replace books, and tweets replace essays. Knowledge of even relatively recent events, like the Holocaust or D-Day, is become scanty. Four in 10 American millennials, and at least one in three Europeans, say they know “very little” about the Holocaust, and one in five young French respondents are not even aware it took place.
But don’t worry …. they’ll get (insert current hair-on-fire story here) right.
Why is it that the people who most often use the term dog-whistle are usually the first and occasionally the only people to actually HEAR the dog-whistle when it’s supposed to only be heard by dogs?
Not sure when it started. Five years ago? Ten? But in the last decade anyway. I’ve become quieter. Not less opinionated, heaven forefend. But quieter. More observant. Half a dozen casual observers have leveled this accusation over the last few months. Ask anybody that’s knew me before the Obama administration (and no, I’m not BLAMING the Obama administration, just using it as a time marker.) I was mouthy. Loud. Obnoxious. Never met a conversation I couldn’t jump into with gusto. For astroturf? I’d take the anti side. Against it? I’m all pro. I’d discuss, debate, argue just for the FUN of it. Tell a joke, if it fit. Correct grammar. You name it – I was the outgoing s.o.b. that did it. But lately I’ve been keeping to myself. My regular waitress at a local restaurant mentioned it. Guys at the poker game I’ve been playing for 4-5 years. The leader of a local social group even commented on my “less-than-social” tendancies.
So something’s changed. My AGE for one thing. Could it have been the magic number “50?” Perhaps. There’s also the creeping awareness of Gell-Mann Amnesia, the Dunning-Krueger Effect, the observation often miss-attributed to Mark Twain that “it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” And I no longer have to change/fix the world. It’ll get along JUST fine with the idiots running around on their own.
edit to add: Almost forgot to credit Annie Duke and her 2019 book Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts. I’ve used the premise a lot in conversations. I’ll sit quietly, listening (NOT my previous MO) and wait for them to make an obvious factual error or some erroneous sweeping generalization. Then I’ll ask “wanna bet?” As Ms. Duke posits, most people, when confronted with actually wagering actual money, will quickly retract their statements or, at the very least, begin some serious backpedaling. Quiet. Effective.
Why is it that the people who most frequently use the term dog-whistle are always the first to HEAR the dog-whistle even if the dog-whistle is supposed to be heard by dogs? cf. Emperor’s new clothes.
The best advice, it appears, is timeless, tried and true.
The saying “know thyself” is commonly attributed to Ancient Greece as one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek writer Pausanias. So let’s start there. Pretty important stuff. But then there’s Goethe who allegedly said “Know thyself? If I knew myself, I’d run away.”
Sadly of course we can’t run away from ourselves … for long … successfully. Which bring us to Shakespeare via Polonius in Hamlet (Act 1. scene 3) “This above all: to thine own self be true,/ And it must follow, as the night the day,/ Thou canst not then be false to any man.”. So perhaps we don’t need to know ourselves but merely be true. Difficult, especially without knowing. But a better track.
And that brings us to the recently reviled Dr. Peterson. I’m gonna pull Rules 2, and 3 from his recent best seller.
Rule 2 Treat yourself like you would someone you are responsible for helping. Of course ya gotta know who you’re taking care of AND be true to them.
Rule 3 Make friends with people who want the best for you. This one just keeps getting better. It’s MUCH easier to take advice from peoppe who want the best for YOU as opposed to wanting the best of YOU for themselves.
Yup. Watched movie #8100 over on Flickchart.com. Working my way through several lists including but not limited to Academy Award Best Picture Nominees. Have a couple dozen left, most either recent or from the 1930’s. In the past week I watched Tale of Two Cities AND the 1935 version of Les Mis.
Been kicking some of these around so I’ll blurt them out here and see what happens
Rideshare apps allow riders and drivers to rate each other on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. So far so good. When I first started (as a passenger) I figured 3 was average. Because … it IS. I reasoned if the car gets to me in a timely fashion, delivers me safely to my destination, the car is in decent shape, clean, and the driver is pleasant it warrants a three. If one or two of these things is above and beyond it merits a 4. If everything sparkles I’d give it a 5. Likewise if one or two is BELOW average (surly driver, filthy car, etc.) that drops it to a 2. If medical care or additional cash expense is required it’s a 1.
But that’s not how it works. Starting point is 5. IF ANYTHING is wrong, it’s a 1. On my last 500 Uber trips I have 462 5*, 26 4*, 6 3*, 0 2* and 6 1*. No. Just no. I don’t object to ANY of those ratings … except the 1’s. No tickets. No injuries. No additional expenses. Almost 98% of my rides are 5’s or 4’s. Did I suddenly snap and give a 1 ride just for giggles?
Uber Eats utilizes a thumbs up/thumbs down rating system. I don’t run food very often but my last dozen rides are all thumbs up. Food picked up on time, delivered promptly. All good. Thumbs up.
A few other observations:
We’ll pick you up where you tell us. If you tell us the wrong place, we won’t know. You can move the pin on the screen and it will take us to EXACTLY where you are. If there are multiple possible locations, just send us a quick text telling WHERE in the apartment complex, campus, warehouse facility you are.
Be kinda ready when we get there. Yes you have 3-5 minutes to get into our vehicle. But we do NOT like to sit and wait. And idling with the AC running is no fun either. And if you’re outside waiting for me when I get there (weather permitting) you WILL get a 5*.
Any of these methods will work.
1.) Promise free (as in beer, not speech) stuff.
2.) Promise/threaten to amend the Constitution. You don’t need to be POTUS to do that and you’ve taken NO action to commence the amendment process up to this point in time.
3.) Refer to me, my friends or members of my immediate family as bitter clingers, deplorable, racists, ignorant or dumb (except of course for my friends and immediate family members who ARE bitter clingers, deplorable, racist, ignorant and/or dumb.)
Finally down to 210 for the first time in a decade. And then the mind starts playing tricks. Upper body is STILL a dad bod, but it looks a little better with 15 pounds of surface adipose missing. The definition of my legs is returning. VERY happy about that.
And then I decided to go to the track for a tempo runs. The LSD has been fine. I’ve been making steady, gradual progress but I realize that the progress gets harder to come by after a nice start. Something about the oval that screws with my head. I over-do it. I had a set pace in mind and I pushed it. WAY too much. Because that’s what I do, to my detriment.
Survived the workout and got back on track. Still a month or so away from actual speed work. Hopefully I’ll kick the distance up in July. And after the 4th I’ll probably do a time trial (600/300/100) just for the benchmark.
Checking the Fridge for Leftovers 