Describe something you learned in high school.
My high school education allowed me to dabble.
I studied a variety of humanities.
I took Latin which I liked but oddly have not kept up with. Ave, Caesar!
I had a course in Russian. French was a favorite.
History gave me perspective.
Languages gave me voice.
What animals make the best/worst pets?
Creepy crawlies seem to appeal to some. Perhaps you’ve walked in the park and seen the pet-owner embraced by a rather large snake.
I cringed just writing this description. I guess that answers the “worst pets” part of the query. At least in part.
Rats, I read just this past week, are very affectionate. Not buying it. They fit my definition of creepies.
Now, what -or who- is the ideal pet? With whom do I want to share my home?
Wet noses and button eyes are very seductive, as is that head tilted quizzically sidewise.
Little dogs can be adorable but they are also frequently yappy. My favorite would be a pup who grew to 30 or 40 lbs.
I like a longish waggable tail, as well. It’s how your pet will tell his tale of happiness.
Let’s face it, we offer them so much of our affection, we want them to welcome us. A wag says “hi, so nice to see you.”
What’s something most people don’t understand?
Yang Bing-yi opened a modest shop in Taiwan in 1958. He built it into a dumpling and noodle empire, earning a Michelin star and introducing the soup dumpling to a global audience. Yang died at 96.
NYT Good Morning read
Understanding is different from knowledge. There are many things – way too many- I and you and you don’t know. If we did, or when they came to our attention, we would know them and understand them.
So now I know about Yang’s culinary contribution and appreciate his accomplishments.
I still don’t understand how you get the soup to stay in the dumpling.
Do you?
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
“No” is one of the biggest words in the English lexicon.
For many of us, it is also very hard to freely express. In my case, it’s taken decades to make the case to just say no.
The impediment to saying no is the desire to be agreeable. “Go along to get along” is the meme that makes it so much easier to just say yes.
Happily there are rewards for those who stick to their guns and act in their own best interests.
It often pays to say no and let the chips fall as they will.
What is your favorite type of weather?
Why is the weather always everyone’s go-to small talk? Is it the only neutral topic for your office elevator ride?
My theory about our fascination with weather is that there is a climatologist manque in each of us.
Not for nothing that Groundhog Day – the film and actually Feb 2- is such a vibrant theme in our lives.
We admire the ability at prediction even if we deride the result. “Wouldn’t you know it? Didn’t need the umbrella today.”
Speaking of umbrellas, I always refuse to or forget to carry one.
It’s not only because I love the rain. It’s also because umbrellas are annoying. And I find the rain purifying.
What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?
Don’t want any tattoo. I would put it nowhere on my body.
I understand that this is not a popular view. In the past 20 to 30 years, the tattoo has become a mainstream decoration.
Once upon a time, wearing one signaled you had been on leave from your ship in a foreign port.
Nowadays, tattoos are as common as if we had all been in the signal corps.
What is one word that describes you?
this blog… The Best.
I am, as are you, the best [make that a capital B] me that I can be.
What activities do you lose yourself in?
I lose myself in writing. Thoughts and ideas spill unbidden from my mind to my blog.
Once upon a time, I know I would have said from my mind to my pen. These days, there is no pen involved.
I tap out my opinions, my conclusions or my beliefs on a screen no bigger than my handprint.
One sentence leads to another and pretty soon I have formed a post.
What is the last thing you learned?
The last or the most recent?
I take an unexpected comfort in learning that cussing is good for us humans and our relatives the chimps.
Although when put the way I just did it sounds ridiculous. NatGeo put it more elegantly in this headline:
Swearing Is Good For You—And Chimps Do It, Too
National Geographic
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
As Ronnie Cammerari (Nicolas Cage) says to Loretta Castarini Clark (Cher) “playing it safe is the most dangerous thing a woman like you could do.”
John Patrick Shanley Moonstruck
There is a myth among the entrepreneurial classes that you have to fail to be a success.
It’s an interesting theory based on a risk-takers mentality. I was once such a risk-taker. Let’s try it and see how it flies. That must have been what Wilbur and Orville Wright had to say.
All The Best