Bits and Pieces 

Remembering… Waiting for the Bus Back Home 

It was very exciting. My godmother, Jean Kerr, had gifted me a course in painting for my 14th birthday. The classes were given on Saturday mornings in Hempstead, about five miles north of my hometown of Rockville Centre.

Getting to and from the lessons by bus would cost 50 cents, 25 cents each way. For cleaning the bathroom once a week, my mother paid me 60 cents – enough to cover the bus fare with a dime to spare.

As far as I was concerned, it was a perfect situation. However, I didn’t anticipate two things.

1. The bus that would bring me home departed from the terminal about a half-hour after class, which meant I had to spend 25 minutes in the terminal, waiting for it.

2. There was a Pizza Parlor next to the waiting area.

I was, as most boys are at 14, always hungry. And the aroma wafting from the open windows of the pizza shop was irresistible. Having spent 25 cents on the morning bus, I had 35 cents left in my pocket. I could have a slice of pizza. Or I could take the bus home. I could not have both.

The first Saturday, I stayed strong – for almost 20 minutes – before yielding to temptation. My resolve weakened as each week passed. So, every Saturday, after wolfing down that slice of pizza, I was left with no choice but to pick up my bag of art supplies and head off on the 5-mile walk home.

My 90-minute walk included about 30 minutes of passing through a “bad part” of South Hempstead. I was eyed suspiciously and occasionally threatened by neighborhood kids, but never physically assaulted. Scaring me was probably enough “fun” for them. Still, I clutched my palette knife, which was about as dangerous as a plastic spoon, under my jacket sleeve until I reached Rockville Centre.

What I Believe About Stress, Self-Improvement, and Procrastination

A friend writes: “I didn’t really want to make that move. I was comfortable doing what I was doing, and it was working. But I had the sense that if I wanted to get to the next level, I had to make the leap. In retrospect, I’m glad I did.”

It’s a law of nature: Any effort to improve anything requires energy. This is especially true of self-improvement.

The energy needed to acquire knowledge and skill, to develop useful habits, and to strengthen the psyche has to be sufficient to overcome three ever-present hurdles: doubt, ignorance, and laziness.

The recognition of the energy required to overcome such hurdles is felt as stress. Stress is the inevitable emotional response between understanding what work is required to meet a goal and doing the work. The moment action is taken, stress diminishes.

I try to remember that every time I’m feeling stressed – and putting off – a challenging obligation. The second I begin to deal with it, I’ll start to feel better.

What I Believe: About Urban Violence in America 

12 major US cities have been seeing a significant rise in violent crime. In the lead is Chicago, with more than 800 homicides so far this year.

If Chicago is the leader in terms of gross numbers, Philadelphia takes the number one spot in terms of murders per capita. By the end of November, the city had racked up 525 murders. And with a population of 1.6 million, that’s a homicide rate of 33 murders per 100,000 people – more than four times higher than the 2020 US homicide rate of 7.8.

Other cities that broke their previous homicide records in 2021 include Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Columbus, Ohio; Tucson, Arizona; and Rochester, New York. And that’s to say nothing of other violent crimes that soared in 2021, including non-lethal shootings, rapes, robberies, and physical assaults.

If you rely on the NYT, The Washington Post, or prestige TV for your news, you have probably heard little to nothing about this. That’s because these are largely Black-on-Black crimes that are taking place in Democratic-run cities with high percentages of African-Americans in their mayors’ offices, their police departments, and their court and judicial systems. Facts that do not support the Woke’s favorite theory: that every social problem in America is due to systemic racism.

Ironically, those same news sources have recently begun to report on a lesser crime – the pandemic of smash-and-grab lootings that have become common in many of these same cities.

Why report on theft but not homicides?

First, because the lootings have gone viral on social media. They are undeniable. But second, and more importantly, because they are taking place in the suburbs, upscale neighborhoods, and luxury retail centers where the Woke live.

The Best TED Talk Ever? 

Last week, I came across a TED Talk that was given in 2008 by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a scientist specializing in the anatomy of the nervous system. It was the first TED Talk to ever go viral on the internet.

You can watch it here.

When I saw it in 2008, I thought it was amazing and revelatory. When I watched it again this time, it was just as good.

In it, Dr. Taylor recounts what she learned about the way the brain works from her own experience with a massive stroke.

What I thought was interesting: 

She explains that the brain has two hemispheres that look identical but have very different roles.

* The Right Brain experiences life in the present moment. It perceives the world around us in a very fundamental way – sensing colors and shapes and odors and sound, but in a sort of blur, without distinctions.

* The Left Brain is the part of the brain that has self-consciousness, that says “I am.” It thinks with language, linearly and methodically. It collects details, compares them to past details, and makes future projections.

The stroke left her with a fully functioning Right Brain and a Left Brain that was only active momentarily – and even then, only partially. It left her in the sort of state one might experience when taking hallucinogenic drugs.

What I loved especially: 

* She could not define the boundaries of her body because the atoms and molecules of her arm felt disconnected from the atoms and molecules of the space around and between them. Because she could not demonstrate the boundaries of her body, she felt expansive, and that felt beautiful.

* She was not frightened by the experience, but felt stress-free and peaceful. The experience was almost euphoric. “I’m having a stroke,” she thought. “This is so cool!”

* And I love this quote from her: “We are the lifeforce power of the universe with two cognitive minds.”

I loved all this because it dovetails with a book I’ve been writing for 20 years. Working title: A Unified Theory of Life.

No Justice for Jussie Smollett 

It was the story of the year. Hollywood was outraged. The ladies on The View went berserk. Even President Biden and VP Harris tweeted their outrage. A “modern-day lynching,” she called it.

Not everyone was taken in.

* Dave Chappelle

* Candice Owen

* Tracy Morgan

3 Words That People Are Always Getting Wrong 

* Bemused sounds like it means amused. It actually means confused or bewildered. Example from At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson: “Nothing, however, bemused the Indians more than the European habit of blowing their noses into a fine handkerchief, folding it carefully, and placing it back in their pockets as if it were a treasured memento.”

* Nonplussed sounds like it should be a synonym for stoic or stolid. It’s actually one step beyond “bemused” – so confused/bewildered that you’re unsure how to react. Example from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: “Ignorance is the parent of fear, and being completely nonplussed and confounded about the stranger, I confess I was now as much afraid of him as if it was the devil himself who had thus broken into my room at the dead of night.”

* Noisome sounds like it means noisy. Actually, it has nothing to do with sound. It refers to odor. Something that is noisome has an offensive smell. (It’s related to the word “annoy.”) Example from Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare: “Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed.”

Worth Quoting 

* “Reality cannot be ignored except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and the more terrible becomes the price that must be paid.” – Aldous Huxley

* “Think about what you want today and you’ll spend your time. Think about what you want in 5 years and you’ll invest your time.” – James Clear

* “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

EF and the Car 

EF says he needs a new car. The one he has now is getting old, and he’s afraid it will soon be breaking down.

EF is one of the four full-time people that maintain Paradise Palms, the botanical garden I’m developing in West Delray Beach. He’s a good, skilled worker and he is a valuable part of our team. He can operate all the equipment: the tractors, backhoes, ditch diggers, etc. He’s also reliable, punctual, etc. He is married with two young children. His after-tax pay is nearly $50,000 a year.

“What sort of car are you thinking of?” I ask.

“A jeep,” he says.

“Wouldn’t an SUV be better for you and your family?”

“No. The jeep I want will be good.”

“What kind of jeep is that?” I ask.

He shows me an image. It looks like a military vehicle.

“Wow!” I say. “How much is it?”

“$150,000.”

“Dollars? US dollars?”

He nods.

I smile.

“Are you joking?” I ask.

He smiles back. “No, I’m not,” he says.

I’m still skeptical. I look at him sideways. “I didn’t even know it was possible to spend that much on a jeep,” I say.

“I found one,” he says,

To be continued…

Bits and Pieces 

Nice! 

Here’s the most recent review of our book, Central American Modernism. It’s from Dr. David Greene, retired head of the art department at North Carolina State University:

The publication of this book has huge implications for the place of Central American art on the world stage. It… makes the case that this art is not just a miscellany of interesting artists, but is a place, a movement, a style – like Paris between the wars, like New York in the 1950s.

I didn’t know this:

We were emailing about writing. He said: “Did you know that there’s a ridge at the bottom of the F key and the J key on the keyboard to help you set up your fingers in the right position to type without looking?”

I was doubtful. I looked down. Sure enough, there they were.

“Cripes,” I replied. “I’ve spent 40-plus years hitting keyboards. How did I not ever notice that?”

I did some research. According to Deskthority, “most keyboards carry tactile indicators to help your fingers find the home position. On most keyboards, there is a raised ‘homing bar’ near the bottom edge on the F and J keys.”

That is true of my MacBook Air. But instead of bars, some keyboards have “homing dots.” (In some vintage Macintoshes, for example, those dots are on the D and K keys.) There are also keyboards with “dished” homing keys, which are deeper in the middle.

This has happened to me at least a dozen times in the last 10 or 15 years. By “this,” I mean I learned something I wish I had learned when I was much younger.

The very next day after this “homing key” discovery, I learned how to fill in those annoying holes you occasionally find when you open up a newly purchased Christmas tree. (The solution is as brilliant as it is easy.)

I’m going to write a post about such lessons learned late in life. If you have some of your own, please send them to me.

From the FTC: How to Protect Yourself From Telephone Scammers 

You get a call from someone claiming to be from a government agency like the Social Security Administration or the IRS. They say that you owe them money, and scare you into thinking something bad will happen to you if you don’t pay up immediately.

It’s a scam! Don’t fall for it!

* Never wire money, send cash, or use gift cards or cryptocurrency to pay someone who says they’re with the government. Scammers want you to pay in those ways because it’s hard to track and almost impossible to get the money back.

* Never give your financial or other personal information to anyone who says they’re with the government. If you think there’s a chance that the problem they say they’re calling about is legitimate, deal with it by contacting the agency directly.

* Don’t trust your caller ID. Your caller ID might show a government agency’s name, but that can be faked. The call could be from anyone, anywhere in the world.

* Never click on links in emails or texts from anyone you don’t know.  Simply delete the message.

“I ought to back hand you right in the teeth!” 

Many parents are justifiably worried about what their children are being taught in school. Intersectionality, gender fluidity, and critical race theory, these parents argue, are not appropriate subjects for minor children.

Ideological indoctrination (especially lunatic ideas like the above) is a serious threat and deserves the pushback its getting from concerned parents. But there are other threats that those parents should be aware of, such as what this mom discovered…

Click here.

The Wormhole – from Shakespeare to Astrophysics 

If you associate “wormhole” with quantum physics and sci-fi, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that the word has been around since Shakespeare’s day.

To astrophysicists, a wormhole is a theoretical tunnel between two black holes or other points in space-time, providing a shortcut between its end points. To Shakespeare, it was simply a hole made by a worm.

Of course, the bard did not restrict his use of the word to the literal. Here’s how he tied it to the passage of time in his poem “The Rape of Lucrece”:

Time’s glory is to calm contending kings,

To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light,

To stamp the seal of time in aged things,

To wake the morn and sentinel the night,

To wrong the wronger till he render right,

To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours

And smear with dust their glitt’ring golden towers,

To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,

To feed oblivion with decay of things,

To blot old books and alter their contents,

To pluck the quills from ancient ravens’ wings,

To dry the old oak’s sap and cherish springs,

To spoil antiquities of hammered steel

And turn the giddy round of Fortune’s wheel…

YouTubing… 

 Janet Yellen is scary!

Maliya Kabs, my favorite YouTube celebrity…Here

Bugs Bunny’s got game…

Worth Quoting 

You know who Judy Garland was. Superstar. Award-winning actress. Singer extraordinaire. Gay icon. But did you know that she was also an amateur poet?

In 1939, she published a collection of her poems. This is a couplet from one of them:

For ‘twas not into my ear you whispered but into my heart.

‘Twas not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

I thought that was pretty good. Not just the construction, but the thought. So I went to Dr. Mardy’s website to find some other good quotes about kissing:

* “Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.” – Joey Adams

* “Lips that taste of tears, they say, are the best for kissing.” – Dorothy Parker

* “The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile,
implying in a subtle, complimentary way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

3 Words I’m Trying to Work Into My Conversations 

* Habiliment (huh-BIL-uh-munt) – from an Old French word for “clothing” (“habillement”) – refers to the dress or equipment characteristic of a profession. A full set of armor, for example, can be considered the habiliment of a knight.

* A tarradiddle is a trivial or childish lie. Its origin is uncertain, but some etymologists think it was derived from “diddle” (an English word for “to cheat or swindle”).  If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you may remember Cornelius Fudge dismissing the possibility that Voldemort was still alive by saying to Dumbledore, “We haven’t got time to listen to more tarradiddles.”

* Nepenthe (nuh-PEN-thee) is a fictional drug mentioned in Greek mythology – a cure for sorrow. It is used to refer to a pleasurable feeling of forgetfulness, especially the relief of pain. Example from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe: “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!” / Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Readers Write… 

Re what I said in the Nov. 11 “Bits and Pieces” issue about enhancing my image on Zoom calls:

“Where you see an uncomplimentary glimpse of yourself on Zoom, your reaction is based on a conviction of your handsomeness and a failure on the technology and thus you find the solution of spending thousands of dollars in technology to solve this unjust version of you, my natural reaction is further conviction of my less than excellent looks and a thought to consider some thousands of dollars in plastic surgery. Hilarious difference and probably why you are 10,000 times more successful than me.” – CF

Re the story of My African Wedding: 

“From reading your books on business and wealth building, I had an image of you that did not jibe with that story you told about your African wedding. You should show more of that self in your blog posts.” – LP

“What a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing!” – HL

“I was intrigued. What an adventure!” – PG

Re my sarcastic essay on shoplifting in California in the Dec. 5 “Bits & Pieces” issue: 

 “You Dog! This is why I can never trust you. I am reading this, and 2or 3 sentences in when you started sounding like a SJW and a 2nd year undergrad student from Berkeley had me wondering if you were being real. But when your performance art piece went off the rails and started using ALL the pushbutton phrases without any modesty and culminated in wondering about Biden’s Justice Dept. ignoring the fascist CEO of Best Buy, I knew you were F-ing with your audience!” – FC