Bits and Pieces 

The Neuropsychology of “Close Talkers”

A friend writes:

“A customer, who later became the dentist who performed root canal on me, was one of those people who came very close to you when he talked. Seinfeld described those people as, ‘close talkers.’ Whenever he came into my restaurant for dinner, he would chat with me. While he was talking, I found myself taking little baby steps, trying to back away from him. He would then take baby steps forward. I would often seat him before it was his turn, just to get him out of my face. I often wonder what the psychology behind that behavior is.”

I had a friend that did this. And I had the same experience with him. I didn’t like it because I interpreted it as an unconscious form of intimidation.

But then I read a great book on neuropsychology. (I don’t remember the title.)

Neuropsychology is a discipline that investigates the relations between brain processes/mechanisms and cognition/behavioral control.

One chapter of the book explained that the brain is not fully developed at birth. During the first two years of infancy, a lot of important neural development takes place. Most of this depends on the connection between mother and baby. (The father is not important during this period.) If the baby doesn’t get enough of that maternal attention – including breast contact, eye-to-eye contact, sound contact – its brain will not develop as it should.

Another chapter specifically focused on the part of the brain that, among other things, interprets the relationship between distance and intimacy in speech. People whose brains are insufficiently developed in this way cannot identify how far away they need to be to have comfortable, friendly conversations, or how loudly they must project their voices. Typically, they feel that they need to be closer than the social norm. Thus, they are always doing that encroaching thing

After reading that chapter, I spoke to my friend. I told him that I had great news for him. I said, “Did you ever notice how people often back up when you speak to them? Or ask you to quiet your voice?”

He acknowledged that he had.

“Well, the good news,” I announced, “is that you are brain damaged!” (I think I actually said it that way.)

I explained what I had read and advised him that if he wanted others to feel comfortable in talking to him, he had to stand further away and speak more quietly than felt comfortable to him.

And here’s the most amazing thing. He did that, and has continued to do it ever since. Wouldn’t it be great if all brain problems could be solved with a simple conversation?

Interesting: About US Stock Ownership

Most of America’s stocks are owned by the top 10% of the population. And among those people, stock market wealth is concentrated in the upper 1%. They got richer – about $10 trillion richer – over the last two years.

(Source: Bonner Denning Letter)

Interesting: About Sliced Bread

During World War II, the US government was spending money it didn’t have like never before. Not surprisingly, the cost of nearly everything – from food to fuel – was increasing. In response to this, a new agency, the US Office of Price Administration (OPA), embarked on a nationwide push to ration commodities.

One such commodity was bread. But rather than rationing all bread, which would have pissed off virtually every American, the OPA banned only the sale of pre-sliced bread and the machines that made it.

As with most government plans, there were some unexpected and unwanted outcomes. Bakeries were threatened and fined. Homemakers saw the price of breadknives double. And the populace, as a whole, was irate.

From History.com:

“Invented in 1928, the bread-slicing machine was a revolutionary idea that brought the humble loaf into the modern age. The time-saving creation was so beloved that when the wartime ban was introduced, the American public was outraged. In one letter to The New York Times, a Connecticut woman informed the editor of ‘how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household.’”

The ban was lifted within two months.

Who’s Counting? Homicide Rates Surged in 2021

Since George Floyd’s death, homicides and other violent crimes have surged. And the great majority of this is Black-on-Black crime. In 2021, 2,400 more Black males and 405 more Black females were murdered than were murdered the year before. According to the FBI, this was the largest year-to-year increase in homicides in US history.

Chicago provides a good example of how this surge exists mostly in Black communities. Through December of 2021, 767 people were murdered in the city. Of that number, 615 (or 80%) were Black. 8 (1%) were White. And 144 were – bizarrely – identified as “unknown.”

On My List: Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival 

I’ve just put this place on my bucket list in the see-before-you die column. Harbin is a city in the north of China where each year up to 18 million visitors come to see an amazing display of gleaming snow carvings modeled after everything from global landmarks to cartoon characters. The Harbin Ice and Snow World is an exhibition of about 2,000 sculptures, crafted from more than seven million cubic feet of ice and brought to life with computer-controlled LEDs.

Worth Quoting: On Possessions 

* “It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.” – Bertrand Russell

* “Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

* “Most people seek after what they do not possess and are thus enslaved by the very things they want to acquire.” – Anwar El-Sadat

Bits and Pieces 

You Have to Admit… This Is Weirdly Encouraging 

A Maryland man with a terminal heart problem had a heart transplant. The donor was a one-year-old pig. Not an ordinary farmyard pig, but a genetically modified specimen whose heart was compatible with the human cardiac system.

When I first read about this, I thought: “Why are they doing this? What’s wrong with human hearts?” As it turns out, in the US alone, there are more than 100,000 Americans waiting for organ transplants. And 6,000 die each year while waiting.

In any case, this is good news, right? These early-stage medical technology patients are heroes in my book. I can imagine my grandkids, when they get to my age, being offered a menu of organs, each with its own warranties and pricing.

What’s Up With the Effort to End the Filibuster? 

In order to pass its election “reform” bill, Senate Democrats tried to do away with the filibuster, the 105-year-old protocol for slowing down or even blocking legislation that does not have bipartisan support.  What I don’t understand is this: Given the likelihood that Republicans might gain control of the Senate in 2022, why would the Democrats give up the filibuster? During the Trump administration, they used it to slow or block Republican legislation 589 times! Click here.

2022 Midterm Elections: The Fear Wars Continue!

Interesting: About Viking England

I’ve always thought of English history as a story in two parts. Everything before the Norman Invasion of 1066 was the era of the Anglo-Saxons. And everything afterwards (and every monarch afterwards) was the era of the Normans (who came from France.)

What I never knew is that half a century before William the Conqueror set his sights on England, a Dane – King Cnut – conquered and ruled over the country.

King Cnut exiled Anglo-Saxon royalty, but respected England’s past kings, created laws based on English ones, and eventually exported some English ideas to his kingdoms in Denmark and Norway.

After his death in 1035, he was succeeded by his sons, who didn’t possess their father’s talents for suppressing those lowly Anglo-Saxons. In 1042, England’s exiled Anglo-Saxon rulers returned, and the North Sea Empire crumbled.

But for a short time – caught between two great epochs of history – England was Viking territory.

(Source: Travel Trivia)

Politically Incorrect

I’ve mentioned Russell Brand – a comedian I like because he is politically incorrect – here on the blog several times. Tom Segura is one that is new to me. Click here and here to watch him in action Let me know what you think.

Readers Write… 

Re the link at the end of the Jan. 14 issue

DP writes: “Please feel free to tell me to ‘fuck off,’ but in your latest blog at the end under bullshit criticism (which was hilarious) you refer to the man on the left as ‘the Black guy.’ You don’t refer to the woman on the right as ‘the white woman.’  There’s only one man in the frame so it just seemed unnecessary.”

My reply: Good catch! However, I looked it up in the usage section of my Ultimate Woke Dictionary, 2020 edition. According to that, as long as the comparison puts the Black person in a positive light, it’s considered acceptable usage. Of course, that was the 2020 edition. The rule may have changed.

Re the Jan. 17 issue, “What’s Up with That?”

MF writes: “Great post, great advice. I had this discussion today with a colleague. I came up the same conclusion.”

 Words to the Wise  

* A word I misunderstood: wonky. I thought it had something to do with wonks, as in smart in a nerdy way. It actually means defective, wobbly, or twisted to one side. As used by Richard Dawkins in The Ancestor’s Tale: “The prettiest real-life example I can think of is the wonky-eyed jewel squid of Australian waters, whose left eye is much larger than its right.”

* A word I never knew how to pronounce: quixotic. I knew it came from Don Quixote – the story of a man who imagines himself to be a knight and sets out to right wrongs. And I knew it meant idealistic and unrealistic. Since I pronounce Quixote as kee-HOE-tee, I thought quixotic would be pronounced kee-HAH-tik. But according to my English dictionary, the “x” is pronounced as in English, not Spanish. So it’s kwiks-AH-tik.

* A word I’m trying to use: coprolalia. It means the involuntary use of obscene language, a symptom of Tourette Syndrome. I intend to use it to correct my senior friends that continue to use the F-word unnecessarily.

Bits and Pieces

The Virus Is All Around Us 

The coronavirus is spreading faster now than at any time since it was first reported on Dec. 31, 1919. But the mutation that’s raging across the world right now appears to be much less serious in terms of hospitalizations and deaths, according to the CDC.

Over the Christmas/New Year holidays, we had lots of family members and friends at the house. All of them had been vaccinated. Most of them observed the “protocols” of wearing masks and bumping fists. But, as in restaurants throughout the country, when it was time to eat, the masks came off.

Four contracted the virus. Two of them had been previously infected. I noticed that there didn’t seem to be any connection between proximity and contagion. The spouses did not contract it, despite sleeping in the same bed.

This was not what one would have expected, given the information coming out of the CDC. So, what is going on?

New Evidence of Protection Against COVID 

Researchers with Imperial College London found that the presence of T cells from the common cold can provide some protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. The scientists assessed 52 contacts of newly diagnosed cases to pinpoint when they were first exposed, and determined that those who tested negative for COVID-19 had higher cross-reactive T cell levels.

And this just in: Cannabis compounds may prevent the COVID-19 virus from penetrating healthy human cells. Click here.

Meanwhile… You Can Leave the Masks at Home! 

In the latest episode of “Why I Can’t Believe Dr. Fauci,” Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said on Jan. 2 that cloth masks don’t provide much protection against the Omicron variant.

“This is an airborne disease,” Gottlieb said, speaking on Face the Nation. “We now understand that, and a cloth mask is not going to protect you from a virus that spreads through airborne transmission. It could protect better through droplet transmission, something like the flu, but not something like this coronavirus.”

In a recent report, the CDC admitted as much, but made the rather tepid argument that a cloth mask “may be” better than no mask. 

“Cloth masks have been used in healthcare and community settings to protect the wearer from respiratory infections. The use of cloth masks during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is under debate. The filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators; however, cloth masks may provide some protection if well designed and used correctly.”

Scary: This From a Supreme Court Justice? 

During arguments made before the Supreme Court on Jan. 7, Justice Sonia Sotomayor claimed that 100,000 children were hospitalized or seriously ill with COVID-19. When I heard that, I thought: “No way!”

In fact, the number is about 3,500, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

“In some hospitals that we’ve talked to, up to 40% of the patients who are coming in with COVID are coming in not because they’re sick with COVID, but because they’re coming in with something else and have had COVID or the Omicron variant detected,” Walensky said.

More COVID confusion: Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist and immunologist who has contributed significantly to the technology of mRNA vaccines, issued a strong caution. “Think twice before you vaccinate your kids,” he said. “Because if something bad happens, you can’t go back and say, ‘Whoops, I want a do-over.’”

My Hope for Adams Is Falling Fast 

In reviewing the surge in violent crime that plagued New York City under former mayor Bill de Blasio, I said that the new mayor, Eric Adams, has a great opportunity to turn the city around.

Since then, he’s done two things that have made me doubt him. First, he appointed Brendan McGuire to be the city’s Attorney General. And McGuire, it turns out, seems to be one of the new crop of AGs that believe they are entitled to, in effect,  legislate laws they don’t believe in or laws against groups they support.

Now Adams has come out in support of a new bill that would give voting rights for city elections to about 800,000 non-citizens. The law applies to legal permanent residents, people with working papers, and so-called “Dreamers,” as long as they’ve been residents of the city for 30 consecutive days.

“About 1.1 million votes were cast in the recent mayoral election,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “With the addition of some 800,000 foreign nationals to the voter rolls, they will almost certainly have an impact on the outcome of future elections.”

So, Who Is Ray Epps? 

Some conservative pols and commentators want to know.

What is known for sure is that he was repeatedly photographed and videotaped during the Jan. 6 fiasco prompting others to action.

He was on the FBI’s most-wanted page (concerning the fiasco) for six months. And then, mysteriously, his image was pulled off of it. He wasn’t charged. Hundreds of others that were less active were. So that got some thinking: Could Mr. Epps have been working for law enforcement?

In a recent hearing, Senator Ted Cruz asked Jill Sanborn, the FBI assistant director for national security, 10 questions about Epps and other possible undercover agents photographed at the event. Sanborn admitted that she is aware of Epps, but said she didn’t have “specific background for him.”

Cruz specifically asked whether Epps worked with the FBI. Sanborn declined to answer. He also asked whether any federal informants participated in the riots, encouraged the riots, or removed barriers.

“I cannot answer that,” Sanborn responded to each query.

“Five seconds after Mr. Epps whispered to a person, that same person began forcibly tearing down the barricades. Did Mr. Epps urge them to tear down the barricades?” Cruz asked.

“I cannot answer that,” Sanborn replied.

Senator Tom Cotton asked Assistant AG Matthew Olsen, the head of DOJ’s national security branch, a similar line of questions. Olsen said that he wasn’t aware of any plainclothes officers among the Jan. 6 crowd, and didn’t know whether any undercover agents entered the Capitol.

Olsen also said that he didn’t have any information about Epps. “This was a man on the most-wanted page for six months. Do you really expect us to believe that you don’t know anything about him?” Cotton asked.

“I simply don’t have any information at all,” Olsen responded.

The Jan. 6 committee issued the following statement shortly after the hearing: “Committee is aware of unsupported claims that Ray Epps was an FBI informant based on the fact that he was on the FBI Wanted list and then was removed from that list without being charged. The Select Committee has interviewed Mr. Epps. Mr. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency.”

 Innocence Project Update 

Pervis Payne, middle, with his attorneys,

David Fletcher and Kelley Henry, Nov. 24, 2021

(Image: Brandon Dill/Innocence Project)

Pervis Payne spent the past 33 years on death row in Tennessee for a crime he’s always said he did not commit. Last month, he was finally removed from death row after the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office conceded that Pervis has an intellectual disability, which makes it unconstitutional to execute him.

Although there was a possibility that Judge Paula Skahan might rule on how Pervis will serve the rest of his sentence, instead she said she would issue a written ruling on his re-sentencing by Jan. 24, based on “compelling arguments” from both sides.

Nineteen family, friends, and prison officials had testified to Pervis’s “loving” and “gentle” character, and demonstrated that he would not pose a threat to society if released. In one instance, Pervis risked his life to save Captain Mosley, a veteran corrections officer, from an attack by another incarcerated individual that left him with 57 stitches.

Judge Skahan will ultimately decide whether Pervis should be given consecutive life sentences – meaning he would likely die in prison – or concurrent sentences, which would make him eligible for parole within six years.

Bits and Pieces 

Ideas I’ve Been Chewing Over Recently…

Revolution vs. Evolution 

* Revolution is loud and fast. Evolution is quiet and slow.

* Revolution causes change, but mostly superficial change that is easily and often reversed. This is not true for evolution because evolution is not a cause, but a result.

* Revolution is linear. It moves forward and then back. Evolution moves like a river or sometimes like a switchback up a mountain.

* Evolution is deeply set and long lasting. Revolution is superficial and temporary.

Rationality 

* Rationality has two fundamental components: discrimination and integration.

* Discrimination is logical. Integration is analogical.

* Discrimination helps us understand how things are. Integration helps us imagine how they might be.

* One cannot have a fully functional mind without continually engaging in both processes.

Human Expression 

* The human being has three primary modes of expression: language, music, and physical movement.

* The primary function of language is to discriminate.

* The primary function of music is to integrate.

* Only physical movement is capable of both.

For the New Year, If You Dare:

Make a Deal with Your Inner Devil 

I discovered it nearly 40 years ago. I was 32 – five years into what was promising to be a comfortable but unremarkable career. I wanted more. Much more. And I wanted many mores. I was destined to get few or none of them. But when I put this secret to use, my life changed immediately and enormously.

I’m talking about establishing a singular goal in life and adhering to a hyper-focused routine. I’m talking about giving up – at least until that primary goal is achieved – all other goals and ambitions. It is a deal you make with the devil inside you. It almost certainly means neglecting friends and family. And it might turn you into someone you don’t want to be. But it has the virtue of being simple. And extremely powerful. It will definitely give you the best possible chance of achieving that one thing you want more than anything else.

It worked for me, quickly and completely. I crashed through my initial goal and then exceeded it by 20,000%. But like all deals with the devil, it changed me. And it could have ruined me. In my 50th year, I abandoned it and began to work on other goals and achieve more balance in my life.

I never put a name to it. But I can say that it is an emanation of “The Power of One.” Probably the most important one.

It’s putting the immense power of singularity towards radically changing some important aspect of your life – your health, your wealth, your social life, or your personal life. If you think you’d like to harness this power for a change in your life, here is how it goes:

1. Make a list of 50 aspirations.
2. Narrow that list to 10. Consciously and purposefully, let go of the other 40.
3. Narrow the list of 10 to 3. Consciously and purposefully, let go of the other 7.
4. Narrow the list of 3 to 1. Consciously and purposefully, let go of the other 2.
5. Confirm, in some formal way, your one and only goal. Let the people you care about know that, until you achieve this goal, it will be your top priority.
6. Create a multi-year plan to achieve it.
7. Break that plan into one-year goals. Then into monthly goals. Then weekly goals. And, finally, into daily tasks.
8. Spend the first hour of every day – and 80% of your spare time – pursuing that one objective.
9. Do your best, with the 20%, to keep everything else you value from falling apart.

Good Bye, Bill. I Won’t Miss You! 

I’ve not lived there for 40 years, but in some ways, I still consider myself a New Yorker. Like most expatriates, I identify with everything that is great about the city. And there used to be so much. Lately, however, it has devolved in several critical respects. It has become, in the memorable verbiage of our former president, a metropolitan shithole. This is largely due to the woke politics of Bill DeBlasio and a cast of cronies, including the infamous AOC. For example:

* From 2012 to 2018, 200,000 left the city. In 2021, 300,000 fled, most of them high-income earners.

* New York has also lost many big and vibrant businesses due to higher taxes and soaring crime. And it has lost hundreds of restaurants and retail stores due to the COVID lockdown.

* Murders are up 50%. Rapes are up 25%. Even my wokest friends, loyal denizens of the city, feel it’s unsafe to take a walk at night.

* Plus, New York has become the dirtiest city in the country. Its infrastructure is crumbling. Its sanitation is Third World.

Yes, it’s a shithole right now. But it can recover. The Big Apple has been rotten before. It was a dirty, dangerous shithole when I was in my teens. And it came back beautifully from that. Its best hope is its new mayor, Eric Adams. He’s got his work cut out for him. But as a former policeman, he seems to understand that the first priority in fighting crime is a belief in law and order. Whether he will actually do anything about that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, in California…

Easy-on-Crime Policies Continue to Spur Both Violent Crime and Theft 

Since George Gascón took office as LA’s Attorney General 13 months ago, the city has seen a 50+% spike in homicides and a 16+% jump in aggravated assaults. Carjackings and auto thefts are up more than 50%. So is just about every other type of crime. And former LA District Attorney Steve Cooley says that these numbers may be understated because the public has lost faith in the justice system.

In San Francisco, more than 50 prosecutors, support, and victim services staff have quit their jobs since District Attorney Chesa Boudin began implementing his progressive criminal justice policies. (Boudin campaigned on a platform to end mass incarceration, eliminate cash bail, and vowed to create a panel to review sentencing and potential wrongful convictions.)

“The office is imploding,” said a former prosecutor who produced the list of those who’ve left their jobs since Boudin was sworn into office on Jan. 10, 2020.

Another Busybody Bad Idea 

When you hear about some new trend in criminality or social stupidity, you may react as I sometimes do: “There should be a law!”

The problem with such thinking is that it is reactionary and, therefore, superficial. It does not take into account all the possible unintended and undesired consequences. Many of those consequences result in less personal freedom. And that matters. Individual freedom is the bedrock of a strong and prosperous society. It supports political fairness, social health, justice, and economic growth.

A small but typical example: In response to gas prices tripling in 1974, the Nixon administration passed the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act that mandated a national speed limit of 55 mph. Until then, speed limits had varied state to state, and went as high as 80 mph on long stretches of road in the West. It was projected to decrease national gas consumption by roughly 2.2%.

You wouldn’t think that a 2.2% reduction would be worth such a restrictive federal mandate, but it was implemented. It resulted in billions of dollars in additional transportation costs. And, it turned out, the actual reduction was only one-tenth of 2.2%.

In 1987, the national speed limit was officially raised to 65 mph. And by 1995, the law was fully repealed, returning control of speed limits to the individual states.

Prediction: If the Biden administration succeeds in either federal vaccine mandates or federal voting mandates, they will prove equally ineffective, will have all kinds of undesired consequences, and will be repealed in fewer than 10 years.

Meta-Nation Update: Twitter Banishes Non-Compliant Citizens 

In an essay titled “What You Need to Know Right Now About the Metaverse,” I said that the metaverses of the future will act as meta-nations, controlling their ersatz citizens through shunning and banishment. Here is an update on how it’s already happening:

* Grabien News was suspended by Twitter last month for posting a video of a US Congressman (Rep. Andy Biggs) criticizing pharmaceutical corporations. “Obviously, in this case,” said Grabien founder Tom Elliott, “quoting an elected leader on an issue that matters to everyone is important and newsworthy, regardless of whether you agree…. This is “next-level Twitter absurdity.”

* Dr. Robert Malone, who helped develop the mRNA vaccine technology, was suspended Jan. 3 for allegedly violating Twitter’s terms and conditions. On Jan. 2, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal Twitter page had been suspended for similar reasons.

* Former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson filed a lawsuit against Twitter after his account, which had amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, was banned.

* And last month, former CEO Jack Dorsey resigned from his position at Twitter, sparking concern that the San Francisco-based company would take a tougher stance on what content can be posted.

Literary Books Entering the Public Domain in 2022 

Over the last two years, several dozen great works of literature have entered the public domain. That means you can sell these books – or turn them into movies – without paying royalties. As of Jan. 1, 2022, the following books (all published in 1926) were added to the list:

* Willa Cather, My Mortal Enemy

* Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

* William Faulkner, Soldiers’ Pay

* Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

* Ernest Hemingway, The Torrents of Spring

* Zora Neale Hurston, Color Struck

* D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

* D.H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner

* T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

* A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

* Vladimir Nabokov, Mary

* Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope

* Franz Kafka, Das Schloss (The Castle)

* Vita Sackville-West, The Land

Worth Quoting 

Gus D’Amato, the legendary trainer of Mike Tyson and other top boxers, on courage:

“I tell my kids, what is the difference between a hero and a coward? What is the difference between being [cowardly] and being brave? No difference. Only what you do. They both feel the same. They both fear dying and getting hurt. The man who is [cowardly] refuses to face up to what he’s got to face. The hero is more disciplined and he fights those feelings off and he does what he has to do. But they both feel the same, the hero and the coward. People who watch you judge you on what you do, not how you feel.”

(Source: Bad Intentions: The Mike Tyson Story​)

Words to the Wise 

* A word I’ve always misunderstood: jejune.  I’ve always thought, correctly, that it is related to the French word juene, as in young. And, thus, means “childish or immature.” In fact, it derives from the Latin jejunus, which means “fasting.” As in empty. Thus, its primary meaning is “insubstantial or lacking substance.” Childish and immature are secondary synonyms, but the more common denotation is banal or insipid.

* A word I’m going to use next time I’m in Istanbul: dragoman. A dragoman is a professional guide for travelers, especially when Arabic, Turkish, or Persian is spoken.

* A word I’m going to use next time I see someone wolfing down a meal: ingurgitate. To ingurgitate is to swallow something greedily.

Letters to the Editor 

From a reader after a visit to Rancho Santana…

“The people at Rancho Santana are so nice and welcoming. The food was delicious and I loved how everything is so sustainable and fresh. The beautiful beaches and scenery transcend you immediately when you arrive. Great energy, beauty, and fun. And the spa is absolutely incredible!” – SB

I was not much of a reader as a child.

I preferred to spend my time outdoors, playing. In my teens, I kept very busy building things, playing sports, and starting clubs and businesses. But not reading.

I don’t believe I had read more than a half-dozen books by the time I entered college. Since I was determined at that point to be an A-student, I had to read. A lot. So, I began a lifelong journey of reading as much as I could bear.

That meant a weekly consumption of dozens of articles and essays, multiple textbook chapters, and at least one full book.

Had I been a fast reader, it would have been easy. But because I had undiagnosed (at the time) dyslexia and OCD, it was an effort. I had to teach myself how to read efficiently. And I did.

These days, I read at least 1,000 essays each year, 10 times as many briefs on subjects of interest, and a book a month, or 50 books a year.

I’ve never had a system for selecting books to read. Some come from reviews. Some are award winners (The Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Awards – but not Pulitzer or Nobel). Some are follow-ups on favorite authors. Some are classics I failed to read when I was younger. A few come from friends and colleagues. And the rest by randomly picking out books from my libraries.

For 2022, I thought I’d try something different: preselect 38 books (50 minus the 12 book club selections = 38). And read those.

I spent a day last week reviewing about a dozen “Best Books of 2021” lists, including The New York Times, Literary Hub, Good Reads, The New Yorker, and Esquire magazine.

From that group of more than 100, I found 30 that seemed promising, which I’ve listed below. (I left the descriptions pretty much as I found them.)

Bits and Pieces 

The End of the World As We Know It 

On December 17, I gave you my two cents on one of 2021’s hottest topics – the Metaverse. I said it’s real. It’s hugely important. And it’s already in motion.

Battles will be fought. Fortunes will be made. The world as we know it will be transformed. And a surprising amount of this will happen in the next 10 years.

Since it is something that is changing our lives, I am going to bring you bits and pieces of news on the Metaverse when I come across them. Here are a few:

* TikTok, the 2016 Chinese app, became the world’s most visited social media platform in 2021, according to Cloudfire. Shockingly, it surpassed even Alphabet’s Google.  Click here.

* TikTok was already huge in China when it caught fire in the US in 2020, thanks to mindlessly entertaining videos, such as Idaho resident Nathan Apodaca skateboarding and drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice while listening to Fleetwood Mac. Click here.

 Seems Like Tilted Justice 

On a brief rabbit hole dive last week, I happened upon two stories about justice that seemed equally out of step with my expectations.

In one case, a truck driver was given a 110-year jail sentence for a deadly accident.

In another case, a bodybuilder on a steroid rage got only 14 years for brutally beating and stabbing his girlfriend.

No, It’s Not Covid…

Fentanyl-related drug overdoses became the top killer in adults aged 18 to 45, overtaking suicides, vehicle accidents, and gun violence, according to an analysis of CDC data by the nonprofit group Families Against Fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. It is highly addictive, and increasingly deadly. The reason it’s so deadly is that it’s used in all sorts of illegal drugs (most commonly pain killers like Oxycodone), and users are often unaware that their drug of choice has been laced with it.

According to the DEA, most fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico using chemicals supplied from China and trafficked across the southern border by Mexican drug cartels.

You can learn more about fentanyl use by going to Families Against Fentanyl.

Did Fauci Torture Beagles? 

 You may have heard that the agency headed by Dr. Fauci (the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is in the business of torturing dogs. Or you may have heard that this story was fake news. And have you ever heard of meta-myths?

Click here to read a brilliant report on the heights and depths of bias in news reporting today.

Pedophiles Deserve Respect Too! 

The latest from the super-Woke is a campaign to wake up America to the fact that pedophiles are not – as some think – monsters. No. They are very ordinary people with the same hopes, dreams, and desires as the rest of us. They just happen to be attracted to children.

I’m not kidding. Click here.

The NFT Market Blew Up in 2021 

In 2020, NFTs were the new kid on the wealth-seeking block. Skeptical investors bet $100 million on them. In 2021 – spurred by the $69 million purchase of an NFT “created” by some crackpot named Beeple – that number skyrocketed to $22 billion.

That brought in the hedge-fund art crazies that bid heavily at auction houses that started offering more NFT sales. Soon thereafter, even respected museums were selling NFTs based on some of their best-known and most valuable pieces.

Also in on the craze: Hollywood celebrities (e.g.,  Jimmy Fallon, Keanu Reeves), sports figures, and even Melania Trump.

According to DappRadar, $4 billion worth of NFTs were sold in the first half of the year. In the second half, a remarkable $18 billion.

Female Athletes Begin to Speak Out Against Competing With Transgender Athletes 

Most female athletes being pushed out of competition by biologically born males (who are much stronger and faster) say nothing, even as records in women’s sports are being advanced far beyond what any woman will ever be able to reach.

But recently, a young athletes have started to spoken out:

 And a US swimming official has just quit over this issue:

On a Lighter Note in the Male vs. Female Sports Universe… 

Two Olympic-level female gymnasts watching men performing gymnastic routines typically done by women:

Carl Sagan Was Right 

Carl Sagan talking to Johnny Carson in 1995 about what the world would look like in 2021:

Master Ken Appears Again! 

Here’s Renato Tavares, one of my Brazilian Jiu Jitu professors, posing with Master Ken, my favorite martial arts comedian:

 The Holiday Suicide Myth 

It’s a myth that suicides spike around the holidays. So says my friend and colleague Dr. David Eifrig.

The truth, he says, is that November and December see the fewest suicides.

What does increase during the holidays?

Depression, he says. Depression rates rise around the winter holidays for a simple reason – stress. And since stress is a major contributor to mental and physical health problems, there’s an increase in all death rates in January and February.

Urban Violence Update 

On December 20, ,  I reported on the increase in violent crime in just about every large American city. Mayors of those cities, who once advocated defunding the police, are talking tough. Still, the violence continues. Here are a few recent stories that are especially embarrassing for said mayors:

* Congresswoman carjacked in broad daylight in Philadelphia. Click here.

* Illinois state senator carjacked in suburban Chicago. Click here.

* Mayor Lightfoot pleads for federal help after having refused it from Trump. Click here.

Speaking of Violence…

By a wide margin, most violent crimes are committed by males between the ages of 16 and 40. But in researching the above urban-violence stories, I came across these rather bizarre acts of violence by and against women:

 * Woman who shot at car thought she was recorded urinating in parking lot. Click here.

* Female officer brutally attacked by suspect high on PCP. Click here.

* Pregnant librarian killed in alleged road rage shooting. Click here.

Worth Quoting: Writers on the Craft of Writing

* “The difference between good and great is often an extra round of revision. The person who looks things over a second time will appear smarter or more talented, but actually is just polishing things a bit more. Take the time to get it right. Revise it one extra time.” – James Clear

* “I thought of myself as like the jazz musician: someone who practices and practices and practices in order to be able to invent and to make his art look effortless and graceful. I was always conscious of the constructed aspect of the writing process, and that art appears natural and elegant only as a result of constant practice and awareness of its formal structures.” – Toni Morrison

Good and Bad Conversations 

These days, good, productive conversations between people with differing views have become practically extinct.

This is what a bad conversation sounds like – Trevor Noah being interviewed by a Woke journalist:

This is what a good conversation sounds like – Russell Brand and Jordan Peterson:

3 Words to Consider 

* Orotund – a word I’ve long misunderstood: Yes, it does mean “round and full,” but not in the sense of the human body. It comes from the Latin ore rotundo (“with rounded mouth”), and refers to sound. Example: “My own voice, orotund sweeping and final.” (Walt Whitman) 

* Adventitious – a word I keep forgetting: It means occurring by chance or in an unusual place or manner. You use it to talk about things that just kind of happen. Example: “The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

* Absquatulate – a word I absolutely must work into a future conversation: According to vocabulary.com, absquatulate “is a deeply silly word that means to make off with something or someone. Why say a thief ran away with your money when it’s much more fun to say he absquatulated with it? It came out of an odd fad in America in the 1830s for making playful words that sounded vaguely Latin. Bloviate and discombobulate are two other pseudo-Latin coinages from that era.”

Readers Write: Recent Letters to Moi 

 Comments on the holiday party advice article: 

“I almost choked laughing at the tips for holiday Christmas parties.” – MF

“I am guilty of at least three of the bad behaviors you warn against, including taking the after party to a karaoke bar!” – FL

Comments on the Old Man Humor issue: 

“I’m not an old man, but I thought some of those old man cartoons were hysterically funny!” – FC

 “Sounds like your Myrtle Beach group is a lot of fun. Thanks for the laughs.” – GP

“Yes, you and your friends are in need of humor repair intervention.” – AS

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” – Benjamin Franklin

It’s customary for know-it-alls to issue predictions this time of year. I’ve done my part over the past 21 years of blog writing.

I took a gander at some of my predictions last night. What I discovered is something I wish I’d known at the outset. If you want to have the best possible record as a prophet, emulate the greatest and most famous prognosticator of all time: the legendary Nostradamus.

Nostradamus was a 16th century French doctor that practiced medicine during the Bubonic Plague. He was also an astrologer. But he’s best known for the predictions he made in his widely quoted Les Prophéties in 1555. And a cursory glance at Les Prophéties (which I did this morning) suggests that he followed four rules in foretelling the future:

1. Make the prediction with certitude.
2. The bigger and more shocking the better.
3. Keep the language vague.
4. And never, ever predict when it will happen.

Sure enough, when I look at my long-term, undated predictions, my record is perfect. None have come true yet. But none have not come true either.

During the early months of the COVID pandemic, I made several predictions about how the response to it would play out. For example, I said:

* The government, big tech, and the prestige media would continue to promote laws and regulations that restricted personal freedom in favor of social justice and public safety.

* In response to rising crime and higher taxes, there would be an exodus of businesses and wealthy people from New York, New Jersey, California, and Oregon to lower crime/ tax states such as Nevada, Texas, and Florida.

* The value of personal privacy would continue to erode as people became more and more comfortable signing waivers to apps – knowing little to nothing about what they were agreeing to.

* Political differences between Democrats and Republicans would become sharper and more acrimonious as civil courtesies among politicians continued to disappear.

I’d argue that I got those right. But I also got one wrong…

Eleven months prior to the presidential election, I speculated that the result would depend on whether the US voting public would be more frightened by the escalation of COVID or of violent crime. My prediction: By November, violent crime would be America’s number-one concern and, therefore, Trump would win a second term. But the mainstream media did an amazing job of scaring the shit out of otherwise rational people and Biden got the win.

So, what’s ahead of us this year?

Predictions for 2022 

1. The US economy will continue on its post-lockdown recovery, but the pace of growth will slow to nearly a crawl.
2. Higher prices for many of the products affected by the supply chain slowdown will abate, but energy costs will stay high and inflation generally will continue at about 4%.
3. Wage gains will be strong in the first quarter of the year, but will be dragging by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the value of those gains will diminish at 4+%.
4. Middle- and working-class Americans will become increasingly unhappy with the economy and with the Biden administration. Approval ratings for Biden and Harris will drop even lower than they are now, the lowest level for any presidential administration in modern times.
5. Government spending will continue, even after the Republicans regain control of the House and Senate. By the end of 2022, US debt will have topped $30 trillion.
6. The rash of smash-and-grab theft in San Francisco, Chicago, and other easy-on-crime cities will decline as politicians in such cities reverse their views on police funding and bail reform. But homicides and other violent crimes in African-American neighborhoods will continue unabated.
7. Throughout the rest of America, and particularly in suburban and agrarian areas, illegal drugs will continue to be a major problem, with drugs as the #1 killer of White males between the ages of 18 and 40.
8. Because of the relatively low virulence of the Omicron variant, Americans will continue to lose their fear of COVID. This will worry the Democrats, who secretly attributed their success in the last elections to that fear. So, as the 2022 elections draw near, the Biden administration, supported by the mainstream media, will make an effort to spike that fear, but unsuccessfully.
9. At the same, recognizing that the fear card isn’t working, liberals will crank up their newfound anger about urban violence, reversing their support of bail reform and calling for more police funding. Most of them will also disavow Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory.

Bonus: 5 Grim Predictions From Nostradamus 

For a grimmer perspective, we return to Nostradamus.

Like all good prognosticators, Nostradamus’s predictions are intentionally vague and open to myriad interpretations. For 2021, according to some of his fans, he predicted a zombie apocalypse. I think that one came true.

For 2022, he predicted inflation, saying that the price of food will rise so high “That man is stirred/ His fellow man to eat in despair.”

He also said that “a new sage with a lone brain” will emerge, “by his disciples invited to be immortal.” The New York Postsuggests that he must have been referring to Time magazine’s Person of the Year, Elon Musk.

Then there is his prediction of environmental disaster – 40 years of drought followed by 40 years of constant rain. “The dry earth will grow more parched/ And there will be great floods when [the rainbow] is seen.”

And most remarkably, according, again, to some fans, Nostradamus predicted the rise of cryptocurrencies: “The copies of gold and silver inflated/ Which after the theft were thrown into the lake/ At the discovery that all is exhausted and dissipated by the debt/ All scripts and bonds will be wiped out.”

9 Feelings You Will Experience in 2022 

I can see your future. For you, 2022 will be a year when you will come to see life as a disappearing stream of moments, each of which could be an opportunity. Furthermore, you will recognize each of these moments as…

1. Annoying or
2. Disappointing or
3. Hurtful or
4. Embarrassing or
5. Shameful or
6. Depressing or
7. Challenging or
8. New…

But most of them will be ordinary and, thus, invisible to you.

What to Do About Those Feelings 

1. Annoying moments: Ignore them.
2. Disappointing moments: Accept them.
3. Hurtful moments: Forgive them.
4. Embarrassing moments. Enjoy them.
5. Shameful moments: Redress them.
6. Depressing moments: Emerge from them.
7. Challenging moments: Embrace them.
8. Novel moments: Embrace them.

As for the ordinary/ invisible moments: See them.

There is no excuse for this. You will have to forgive me.

Once a year, I spend a week in Myrtle Beach with 6 or 8 of my high school friends (Class of 1968). It’s something we enjoy and look forward to. Myrtle Beach is an annual event, but we keep in touch throughout the year via group emails. These consist almost entirely of what is commonly called “dad jokes.” But I fear it’s worse than that since our children, who accuse us of being sentimental and corny, are themselves dads.

The following is a curated list of the best of at least 1,000 pieces received in 2021. In going through them, I did my best to choose only the most sophisticated. You be the judge.