Short on wisdom, always lacking good sense, I figure on blundering my way along for a few more years.  My seat belt is fastened and I keep sweet tea close by.  If our paths cross know that  so far at least I am still responsible for my behavior.

 

I am planning our July 4th pool party looking for a theme.  I was thinking of a Paula Deen look-alike contest, but something tells me I should rethink this idea.  Y'all think?  Maybe a gangster theme.  I could play Tony Soprano.  I certainly have the personality for it.  What about a Hawaiian Luau?  That's kind of old hat and besides I don't look good in a grass skirt. Maybe I'll get desperate and make it a patriotism thing.  I'll be Thomas Jefferson and Moyna can be Betsy Ross.  That would be desperate, wouldn't it?

 If you're like me, you probably wonder at times what this world is coming to. If you're lucky, maybe you're not an alarmist like me and don't contemplate such a wasted thought. Best focus just on what's right in front of you. George Orwell said the hardest thing to see is usually what is right in front of your nose. The latter thought is more productive

 

Life is not a jigsaw puzzle or a perfect machine. There will always be parts that won't fit, extra pieces. Just put the extras aside and move on.

 My sophisticated friends spoke today at North Italia at the Summit over lunch of their world travels and all I could do was listen. They played word origin games (do you know the origin of "croissant"?), trying to stump each other, and all I could do was listen. They spoke of Marx and Canada and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and all I could do was listen. Sometimes all you can do is listen, but truth is, I'd rather listen than talk.

 

Marriott gives an impassioned attack on the trivial culture of the screen and a defense of the written word and long-form argument. Drawing on history, media theory, and sociology, The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society argues that reading and writing are essential for innovation, creativity, and complex thought. Above all, the culture of print is critical to the functioning of modern democracies, which require their citizens to grapple with ideas at length and in depth. As print dies we risk returning to the chaos, tribalism, and rage of the world before the widespread of literacy.

-James Marriott in Amazon.com

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 Clausewitz famously said that war is the continuation of politics by other means. It is also true that politics is the continuation of war by other means.