Author Michael

Not your usual Thursday fare

Michael 12 Comments

My gosh, it’s Thursday again. Where does the time go? At least Thursdays are fairly easy days for me. I would imagine it’s everyone’s favorite weekday, or at least in the top five. Apparently, Thursday are quite good days for bars and taverns, particularly happy hours. People who just can’t quite make it one more day without a little assistance must tend to stop on the way home. It is also a big night for take-out. I would imagine for the same reason.

This year, this week, this Thursday may be an even bigger day out for folks who are trying to do their best to stick it to the big corporation who have been sticking it to the little guy. The economic blackout is to hit April 18-20. No purchases at any big corporate anything, buy local, buy small.

I am a huge proponent of buy local. Which is why I don’t understand these ‘blackouts’ like nobody shopping at Target since January. It makes for nice social media posts. “Store traffic is down again this week!” I don’t suppose anybody is checking to see if there is a corresponding decrease in associate hours. See, as far as the big corporations go, they really don’t care about foot traffic or gross sales, as long as net profit, stock price, and most importantly dividends go up. If they don’t make enough cash to make their dividend payments (and to pay their salaried employees), they simply take that money from the most convenient available bucket, usually the bucket that showers payroll dollars on the hourly employees. Less foot traffic = less sales and stock people. The little guys. So those big boycotts sticking it to the big corporations eventually just get little guys laid off.

 Do I have a solution. I do indeed. Shop local. And boycott local. Do yu really want to make a difference and get someone to reconsider their support for Donny McScrooge and his merry band of Dingy Donny followers. Find a local business, florist, bakery, gift shop, restaurant, bar and tavern, dry cleaner, or what have you (maybe even the stray car dealership), who vociferously supports or supported the current regime and boycott them. They are the people who need to be convinced that if there is ever another election, the nice lady with the economic degree probably knows more about running a country’s economy that a part time golfer and business bankrupter.

Normally this is where I make some clever tie in with this week’s ROAMcare Uplift post. And it is a good one. So good that it doesn’t deserve to share space with such Debbie Downer content. And I can honestly say, I’m not feeling very Abrahamic right now. Read it anyway.

What’s wrong with this picture

Michael 9 Comments

I am having a hard time this week with a post. Not true. I’m having a hard time this week coming up with an intelligent post. I’ve taken a swipe at this over 3 or 4 days. Most of the world has gone crazy and I’m worried about putting something intelligent out into the ether.

The craziness for me culminated Sunday morning when I read the news report that the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg Pennsylvania was the target of an arsonist. Someone had scaled a 7 foot iron fence carrying homemade incendiary bombs, broke into the banquet room, and set off his explosives. He later “surrendered” and confessed he did it because he “hates the governor.” He also had a small sledgehammer he planned to beat the governor with if he had a chance.

Is it coincidence the arson targeted the room where Governor Shapiro with his family and guests had used just hours earlier to hold their Seder dinner on the first day of Passover? Is that why the lunatic “hates the governor”? Or is it because Charcoal Charlie has a nifty little criminal record and maybe resents Gov. Shapiro from his time as state attorney general. Or could it be that the ding dong was having a boring Saturday night and was hoping to come up with something to impress the bar crowd and random acts of violence are always in style among that class of primate.

But let’s not stop at one ding-a-ling with a match and a pocketful of explosives. That was almost sane compared to what else is going on in the world. The federal “government” “refuses to say” what their plans are (translation = “refuses”) to bring back a mistakenly deported man, who is most likely only one of thousands mistakenly deported people.

Measles continues to spread primarily in Texas but also in significant numbers in 4 other states, even though it was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. Of the 700+ confirmed cases reported to the CDC through last Friday, 97% were in unvaccinated patients. For those interested, it’s not just children. 198 of the 712 reported cases, that’s 28% are in adult patients.

Random shootings continue. Helicopters and planes are falling from the sky. The House of So-called Representatives passed a budget plan that includes cuts to even more social services. The stock market is in shambles. Through it all, Daffy Donald has spent millions pursuing his personal favorite pastime, combining golf while screwing whoever is handy, this time the American taxpayer, who is footing the bill for these excursions this year through March 31 to the tune of $26,127,531.

And I’m worried about putting something intelligent out into the ether.

Poor me. Alas, I knew me well

Michael 8 Comments

The great comedian, song and dance man, and Gracie’s husband, George Burns said, “I wake up every morning and I read the obituaries. If my name isn’t in there, I eat breakfast.” Somewhere around 517 other lesser stage dwellers have also uttered those lines. I too read the obituaries every morning but I like breakfast, it’s my favorite morning meal, so I am sure to read them after breakfast so if I am there, I won’t miss my eggs that day. Imagine my surprise when last week I found me there. Hold that thought, we’ll be back in a moment.

Checking the obituaries is not a morbid pastime. In addition to seeing if there might be a name I recognize, it is also a way of centering oneself to the day, and to remind oneself of the true importance of the day. One thing all those people in all those little notices have in common is that they won’t have today. It is a great honor to be able to be the recipient of another day. It is why every morning the first t thought I verbalize is, “Thank you God for another day. Help me become the person you want me to be today.”

With all that said, you can imagine my surprise when I say my name in last Thursday’s list of those who will not be aging another day this year. It’s a fairly common name but it’s still a shock to see it in writing, unless it’s in the sections devoted to lottery winners or unexpected awardees of a major endowments. What really sent. my heart aflutter, the age was right. I seriously began to regret that morning’s breast was a simple sausage and egg sandwich on a muffin with fresh berries in yogurt and not something more fitting for a last meal. Eventually I calmed down long enough to notice the middle initial was different from mine. Whew! That was close.

It solidified in my the long held contention to approach each day expecting the unexpected. We broached that subject yesterday at the ROAMcare Uplift post Up Down Round and Round, only we didn’t compare life to the obituary column.  Use used an amusement park instead. I think it turned out pretty well. Check it out and see if you agree.

Sunshine Superman

Michael 12 Comments

Okay 1960s music fans, tell me all you can about Donovan’s musical valentine that made it to #1 on the Billboard’s pop chart in 1966. Other than the phrase “Sunshine Superman” is never uttered among the rambling lyrics. Time’s up. I don’t know that much about it either. He wrote it for his then girlfriend/future wife although they may have already had one of their kids by then. It was a confusing time.  I only bring it up because I personally am a Sunshine Superman. Or. Sunshine Blogger Superman, now having been twice singled out (once doubled out?) for the honor. This time you can blame it on Vicki at Victoria Ponders. If you were around in April 2018, you could blame Sue. I’d include a link to her blog also because why not, but she is no longer blogging.

It doesn’t seem like that long ago does it. Um, 2018, not 1966. Seven years. Your basic Statute of Limitations interval. In 2018 I was tagged with tagging 8 others for the Sunshine Blogger Award. A few weeks before that, in January 2018, I was tapped for the Blogger Recognition Award which included a requirement to nominate 10 others. My nominator for that award is also no longer blogging. In fact, of the 18 blogs that I singled out between the two awards, four bloggers are still plying these pixels, one of them quite sporadically.

 Enough Memory Laning, let’s get down to business with this year’s festivities. Fair warning, this a lot to this post. Pull up a chair and get comfy.

According to dear Vicki, the rules are:

  • Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
    • Thank the person who nominated you.
    • Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
    • Answer your nominators’ questions.

Easy enough. Except it isn’t. More on that later. Let’s get started with the easy stuff, with a hearty Thank you [Yay!] to Vicki, and her remarkable writings on this platform at Victoria Ponders. The logo is here somewhere, look around. Now on to the semi-easy stuff. Miss Victoria’s Eleven Queries.

What is your morning routine?
Mornings and I have a complicated relationship. Even though most days I don’t have to be up at any time in particular I still crawl out of bed early, often just as the sun is rising (except in winter when it’s pert near noon(!) before the sun crests the horizon). Take whenever the exact time I get out of bed and go back about 10 minutes. That’s when I thank God for another day and take a few minutes of silent meditation.  We are then out of bed, heading for formal prayers, morning ablutions, a couple good morning messages, then juice and coffee while I make breakfast.

What is your favorite season? Why?
I just walked a similar path in comments to a blog by Ally at The Spectacled Bean regarding most and least favorite months. My favorite month is October so by extension my favorite season is Fall. I’m not a good cold-weather person. I want warmth and sun and one of my favorite spots in the world is Puerto Rico. Still, I could not go through a year without the crisp Autum air, the first hint of wood burning in fireplaces while taking a walk, picking apples and making fresh apple soup (delicious), and marveling over the colors, oh the colors. Yep. Fall.

What is your favorite childhood memory?
Childhood was so long ago. I’m not sure if the memories are memories of what happened or memories of what I thought happened. A lot of the memories aren’t necessarily the happiest things a kid can go through, like being lowered through the basement window to unlock the doors after a vacation because the keys were undiscoverable and I was the only one small enough to get through the little vent like window. I think the fondest of the memories all centered around vacations, which for us were road trips to visit relatives. I don’t recall many parks, or rides, or games, but I remember the trips to wherever from the back seat of the family car. I wrote about that back seat here.

Who or what has been your most unlikely teacher?
Now the questions are getting harder. I will give you a who. The artist, Andy Warhol. And it isn’t because I’m still looking for those 15 minutes. He once said “Don’t think about making art. Just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” What I took from that is don’t spend so much time thinking about doing something that you never get around to doing it, or waiting for THE perfect moment that never comes around. I wrote about that too. That one is over at ROAMcare, Think less, do more, then do more again.

Who or what are you most proud of?
Without a question, that’s a who and that’s the daughter, who let me think I was teaching her how to be a good person when all the while, she was teaching me.

What is something that surprises people about you?
Without a doubt, that I have a creative side. My entire professional life has been analytic, whether in practice, or when teaching, or even in volunteer positions where I’d usually head some committee or be stuck doing the finances. There are few who realize I can paint, play piano, and write. Am I an artist, a pianist, an author? No, but I could play one of each on TV.

What motivated you to start blogging?
I dunno. I’ll get back to you on that.

What forms of entertainment do you enjoy the most?
This varies depending on mood but I’m always in the mood for an old movie, a 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s movie, preferably something with at least one murder and one that’s been adapted from a book so I can read it and argue with myself about which is better.

If you are a book reader, do you prefer a paper copy or a digital copy?
I’ll read anything, book, digital, magazine article or serial (do they do that anymore?), but I prefer a book. I really do geek over the feel and the smell and the heft of a book and the physical turning of the pages and seeing the story progress as much as feeling it.

What’s your favorite music genre, and who is your favorite singer?
That’s a little of a toss-up. For straight up listening or playing, it would be jazz, modern, smooth, traditional, any sort of jazz and by far my favorite artist/composer is pianist David Benoit. But… you can’t sing jazz in the shower. For that, it’s 1960’s ballads.

What societal causes do you care about the most?
Healthcare. Fair, equitable, reasonable, affordable healthcare. Between battling a rare disease, bladder cancer, and a failed kidney transplant all in short order, I nearly bankrupted myself. I’d love to see some equitable distribution of services so we at least can provide basic primary care to everyone. We never will because “they” have discovered most people will pay anything to stay alive so more providers will charge anything. I honestly do believe if I were to hit a lottery for $8 billion or so, I’d open as many free clinics as I could and treat as many people as possible until the well ran dry. Maybe it would encourage others to do the same.

So that’s the easy and the not so easy part of this assignment. Now according to the rules, which haven’t changed in 7 years. I must craft a set of questions to be answers by a group of unsuspecting bloggers. I hesitate to name “up to 11” fellow bloggers because you see what happened the last time. Most of them are gone, poof, disappeared. I’d hate that to happen to any of you.

But first, the questions. These will be easy, at least as far as I can tell.

  1. What is your worst bad habit or secret vice?
  2. Would you rather read or write?
  3. How do you describe yourself physically and does your go to ID picture look like that?
  4. How do you describe yourself emotionally?
  5. Are you an Oscar or a Felix? And do you understand the reference or did you have to research it?
  6. What celebrity, living or dead, would you like to have dinner with.
  7. What is the longest drive or ride (including bus or train rides) you have ever taken?
  8. Cat, dog, both, other, neither?
  9. What’s the most embarrassing thing in your refrigerator?
  10. Do you have a superstition or what do you do to avoid bad luck or encourage good luck?
  11. If you couldn’t live where you live now, what different country would you pick based on beauty, culture, what you know, what you hear or read about, and price is no object?
  12. If you couldn’t live when you live now, what different time or historical era would you pick based on however you pick such a thing?

Now for the hardest part of this nonsense, errr honor. Picking others to follow in my footsteps. First, a review of the rules:

  • Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
    • Thank the person who nominated you.
    • Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
    • Answer your nominators’ questions
    • Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
    • Ask your nominees 11 questions.

I honestly hesitate to do this, but here we go.

First, Vicki at Victoria Ponders, I really would like to hear your answers so to you I extend my questions but you can skip all the other rigmarole, errr details.

I should stop right there. Some people I would forward this to have received the same from either Vicki or one or two levels up. There are a few people I’d love to hear from although I’d understand if these don’t fit your blog’s concept.

Kris at Around the Corner

Belle at Between the Lyme

For Rachel (Rachel Mankowitz) and Dayle (Tip of the Iceberg), I know this isn’t the sort of thing you would write about but you do bring me sunshine and I certainly won’t exclude you.

Wynne (Surprised by Joy) and Ally (The Spectacled Bean), I’d love to include you but it’s terribly unfair of me to asks you to do all this again. But then I am sort of telling Vicki I want her to do it again so what do I know.

And of course, anybody else who wants to have at it, have at it. Years ago, I was much more active writing, reading, and commenting. Today, I read a select but cherished few and comment even less, but I do read and I do enjoy. I think I’ll stop now.

This or That

Michael 8 Comments

I hadn’t planned on doing this today. I was going to do that. When I discovered eventually I’d have to do that, I thought today would be a good day for that. In fact, I even said to myself, “Self,” I said, “Thursday would be a good day for that.” And indeed, it would, but so would Monday be, so instead I’m doing this.  And equally indeed, on Monday I’ll do that.

This is promoted by yesterday’s Uplift post. No surprise there as usually Thursday RRSB posts do recall Wednesday Uplift posts. Not always, and it wouldn’t have been had I done that instead but I’m doing this so that’s that.

This, about as far as I can tell, is an absolute original thought Diem and I had and posted yesterday. Quiet Change. I’m capitalizing them here although we didn’t there because the more I think about it, the more I think this concept of Quiet Change is something special.

A few sentences from the post:

So which is it – change is all around and within us as a natural part of our existence, or change happens when we take the steps to initiate it? It’s probably more neither than both. Yes, we are closing our ears to the noise about change, both the change being inevitable and change being instigated. Change is self-fulfilling. So we say.

Too often we use change as an excuse for our actions, or inactions, rather than an impetus to them. We call for the need for a change then wait for others to do the hard work of change. Or we explain away lapses in performance or even in judgement by citing something that had changed without our knowledge. We’ve turned change into the noise that detracts, distracts, and deflects us from responsible action.

The quiet side of change too often is overlooked.

We contend that people make change artificially difficult and use it as an excuse for bad or incomplete decisions and procrastinated or poorly executed action. The magic to Quiet Change is it allows us to work with it, appreciating the positives of the process and progression.

If I say so myself, “Self”, I’d say, “that’s something on the Internet well worth the time to read.” So why don’t you Listen for the Quiet.

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My 10 cents worth

Michael 12 Comments

In honor of Dr. Peter Marks’ last few days as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research I present to you what is possible when there is a compassionate, empathetic occupant at the White House.

Dr. Marks was given the choice of resigning or being fired for not agreeing with HHS Secretary, AKA the black sheep of the Kennedy clan. Dr. Marks wrote in his resignation letter, ““It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” Dr. Marks’ last day will be April 5.

It’s significant all this is happening in April. Just a week after Dr. Marks closes his office door for good, we will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  It will also be the 70thanniversary of the announcement that the Salk polio vaccine was safe and effective. It is clearly not the most remembered thing about the Roosevelt administration, but had it not been for his instigation, Jonas Salk may have never had the funding behind his monumental research and discovery.

It is no secret that President Roosevelt suffered from polio. He was stricken with the disease in 1921, at age 39 and 11 years before being first elected President of the United States. Polio left him paralyzed from the waist down for the remainder of his life.

During his presidency he founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), a philanthropic organization dedicated to treatment and care for polio victims, raising millions of dollars through “Birthday Balls,” fund-raising dances held across the country on his birthday.

In the late 1930s, the NFIP began soliciting contributions directly from everyday citizens through a counter display program known as the March of Dimes. Through the 1930s and 1940s, through the March of Dimes, the NFIP raised enough money to support the care of every polio patient in the United States and began setting aside funds for preventative care.

With funds raised through the March of Dimes, Dr. Jonas Salk began research in 1947 into a vaccine against the poliovirus, an extremely contagious viral organism in the enterococcus family of viruses. Five years later, safety trials began on human volunteers. After three years of testing, on April 12, 1955, the polio vaccine was determined to be safe and effective for human use.

Within two years of its release, polio in the United States had declined over 90% from 58,000 cases to 5,600 cases. By 1961 only 161 cases of polio were reported in the U. S., a decrease of 97.7% from the 1945 baseline.

Dr. Salk was the single largest beneficiary of the NFIP March of Dimes fundraising efforts, began because of the philanthropic efforts of the man in the White House.

A couple parting thoughts. Roosevelt’s image appears on the American ten cent piece, the dime, because of his efforts behind the March of Dimes campaign. In 1945, Congress voted to feature his likeness on the dime, specifically in honor of his role in the March of Dimes.

If you have an interest in virology, public health, or just curious about what research looked like 80 years ago, an exhibit of Salk’s lab equipment and memorabilia is on display at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, in the common areas of the lobby and second floors of Salk Hall, Fifth Avenue, in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, PA.

Some may argue Roosevelt would never have been so active in pursuing research for the fight against polio is he himself has not contracted the disease. A valid point but also a petty argument. Nearly all research and funding for research is accomplished through endowments made by patients or patient families. Fortunately sometimes those afflicted with diseases are prominent and/or wealthy citizens who do not mind giving of their time and fortunes to see good is done. Good that can be experienced by all.

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Dr. Jonas Salk

Is there any possible way to work in my weekly plug for the latest Uplift post. Hmm. It would be stretch. Last week we published, Coming Attractions, a discussion on balancing progress with the present. Fortunately for us, there are people like Dr. Salk who will always be looking for that next big thing.

Waiting for Summer

Michael 10 Comments

I can really not wait for summer. I had to run out yesterday. Afternoon. The warmest part of the day it was snowing!  I want a day at 72° sunny warmth. It’s not that I don’t appreciate Spring and the necessary rains that lead to burgeoning blossoms, or the cool nights and warm days that get the maple sap flowing that eventually finds its way atop my breakfast pancakes.

We are clearly in the early throes of global destruction. Before you know it, we’ll all be standing around in prehistoric looking rock lined canyons while pelting rain, roaring thunder, and brilliant flashes of lightning become the new white noise that is, or will be, the backdrop to our soon to be extinguished existence(s).

As an aside (you who watch science fiction will understand this), have you ever noticed how when our future space explorers land on a far out there planet, with more intelligent life than we have here, the planets all look like unused sets from Jurassic Park and the intelligent life has tails. But I digress…

How much longer will we have to wait for real warm weather? Up here. Not down along the Gulf of Mexico. Oddly enough, for as ancient as I am, and as many trips as I’ve made south of the Mason Dixon Line, there are only 3 cities in the Gulf I’ve been too, Houston, New Orleans, and Clearwater.  Clearwater was my favorite. Maybe again someday. Now, where was I? Oh right…

When will we get back to reasonable weather? I suppose I should be grateful I’m alive still to see any weather. It sort of reminds me of how always looking to the future we lose our appreciation for the present. And that reminds me of this week’s Uplift post Coming Attractions. Take a look.

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Where were you when…

Michael 16 Comments

The last couple of weeks have had some interesting stories in the news, and I don’t mean articles detailing the machinations of a chainsaw wielding immigrant or an orange skinned man-child. I’m talking about interesting stories, real life stuff.

Although I suppose there was a specific date when the world decided to shut down, the media, social and mainstream, must have gotten together and declared it was early March 2020 and have been busily writing up every 5 year COVID anniversary story they can imagine. How healthcare has changed, how cooking has changed, how exercise has changed, how travel has changed, notable moments in the history of, or the lingering effects on life after COVID. It’s a good thing we had that pandemic or else people would be filling up their column inches (and the pixelated equivalent) with really far-fetched stuff like Presidential executive orders banning skinny jeans or renaming established geographic entities. But I digress.

As much as I enjoyed reading the timeline of recent history almost as much as I enjoyed living through the timeline of recent history, the most interesting articles addressed food. If you were to say that makes sense to you because you know I like food a lot more than I like history, you are right! Even though I did get an A in history throughout my junior high school career or whenever we learn about history because those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it.

Apparently, something we aren’t doomed to repeat, or aren’t privileged to repeat, is more home cooking. A U.S. Department of Agriculture survey conducting in 2024 indicated people are spending 55.7% of their food budget on dining out. But…there’s always a but when you start talking statistics…but, according to a national association of restaurants and restaurateurs, more people are ordering take-out and enjoying their dining out dollars at home, including double digit increases in people purchasing complete major holiday meals (think Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter). All this while inflation supposedly had been escalating more rapidly than Dingy Donald’s golf scores. (To be fair (yes,I can be), according to the National Restaurant Association, restaurant prices increased 27.2% from February 2020 to June 2024.)

As I read some of the articles, I discovered new to me 5 year old information. For example, did you know there was a yeast shortage during the pandemic? Now, I am a bread maker. Bread, pizza, rolls. All things yeasty. (Not beer. I’m not crazy about beer and every “home-brew” I have ever tasted seemed to want to challenge rhubarb as the most bitter stuff you can put in your mouth.) Like the rest of the world, I was baking bread nearly every Saturday during the pandemic. But I also was baking bread nearly every Saturday before and since the pandemic, and because I was/am a constant baker (not to be confused with a constant gardener), I buy yeast in 2 pound blocks.  Guess I sailed right through the “shortage” with the couple packs I always have in the freezer. Who knew?

What changes from 2020 are you still living with, or without, or would like to again? Maybe next week we should talk about how exercise has changed. Gotta work off all those bread calories. See you then!

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This or That

Michael 11 Comments

Disingenuous. That’s a great word. It sounds almost polite but there is no mistaking it means you’re about as trustworthy as a fox in a henhouse, as loyal as a Benedict Arnold fan club member, and/or as honest as a politician. Let’s take an average Joe, or your average Donny who rants and raves about immigrants and wants to see them all deported, yet two of his three wives and one of his one mother are immigrants, his loyal assistant’s wife is an immigrant, and his best buddy is not only an immigrant but an illegal one, entering the country on a student visa but never matriculating to any institution of higher learning. That is a good example of disingenuous.

It also doesn’t sound like one, but disingenuous is one of those black or white, this or that, yes or no type words. There aren’t many shades of gray to dishonesty, disloyalty, or distrustwrothiness. (By the way, do you know the difference between gray and grey. One is a color and the other is a colour. Hahahaha!!!!)

Anyway…back to shades of gray. It seems unless one is discussing their own sketchy behavior (behaviour), people don’t like ambiguity. We want a definite yes or no, good or bad, yea or nay, do you or don’t you. I could go on and on. Or on and off.

Of course the worst of the either/or scenarios are when we assign good or bad, plus or minus, love ‘em or hate ‘em qualities to people. Seeking absolutes divides us into “us” and “them,” limiting understanding and the ability to find a common ground. And believe it or not, we’re all pretty common even if we aren’t necessarily all grounded.

This week’s Uplift post explored the idea that in a world where everyone believes themselves to be right, everyone might be wrong, and that admitting the possibility of being wrong can encourage discussion and collaboration to uncover the real truth. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look. It isn’t too long yet not too short, and neither is it our best work, nor is it our worst. Take our word for it, there’s more right than wrong in it and we genuinely can say that. (By the way, tomorrow’s Friday Flashback further explores this idea. If you join our mailing list today you’ll get an email notice of that tomorrow.)

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Appropriate Attire Optional

Michael 13 Comments

I think I’m turning old fogie. Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to an Alton Brown live show. Alton Brown is the cinematographer turned chef turned celebrity who created the long running Food Network show, “Good Eats.”

I grant you, this was not a symphony concert nor a Broadway marquee performance, but it wasn’t the Grateful Dead either. As such, I was not dressed in my Sunday go to Meeting Clothes (even though it was Sunday), but I looked respectable in a collared shirt, slacks, and blazer.  My daughter was with me in a flowy spring dress. Sprinkled among the crowd were others like us but most looked like they would have been more at home at that Grateful Dead concert.  One particular couple who caught my eye, she with what appeared to be a beach coverup (although I don’t know what it was covering, not even close to beachwear weather) and he with a sweat stained t-shirt, cargo shorts, and grass stained work boots. She was wearing a rock on her left hand the size of the Hope Diamond and they were in the VIP session with us so I guess the lawn business is a profitable one for him and perhaps she just flew in from the yacht to catch the show.

This is all on the heels of another event on Saturday. I can’t recall if I ever mentioned here that I am a member of the Toastmasters. We are in the midst of contest season. Every year, Toastmasters around the world compete for a spot at the World Series of Speaking, moving through Club, Area, Division, District, and Regional contests in search of that spot on the International stage. Saturday was the Division contest and drew about 100 people from 18 local clubs. Of the 12 speakers, four looked like professional speakers, suits and ties, or at least blazers for the men, and a dress on the one woman.  The others looked like lawn boy’s cousin. I’m sorry, but that is not how you present yourself if you want to be taken seriously. (Unless the style of dress is a reflection of the topic like a tropical shirt if you’re discussing surfing. Nobody talked about surfing.) (Or even lawn care.)

But…through it all, whoever it was and whatever anybody looked like, I noticed a lot of people nodding and saying hello. I was flabbergasted! It was just last week in the ROAMcare Uplift post that we talked about how the world needed more Hi Guys. If you haven’t already, take a look at it.

Did you notice I was late this week? If you did, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. If you didn’t, why not!?

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