The Wright Stuff

We met a nice couple from North Carolina on vacation. They were very chatty and knowledgeable about history and geography and stuff, so naturally the subject of the Wright Brothers came up. Both Ohio and North Carolina claim to be “The Birthplace of Aviation”, Ohio, because the Wright Brothers were from Dayton, and North Carolina, because the plane actually flew from Kitty Hawk. Well, personally, I’ve always kind of favored the North Carolina side of the argument since that’s where the flight actually took place. Or maybe, I’ve thought to myself, Ohio could maybe be the birthplace, and North Carolina could be the “First Step of Aviation”, or “First Flight of Aviation”, something like that.

I think I scored some points for the Ohio argument in my discussion with these Carolinians that day, however. The next community to the north of Kitty Hawk is a town named Duck. These Carolinians, when I asked them, did not know the origin of the town’s name, thinking it had something to do with mallards or drakes perhaps. I of course explained that I thought the name “Duck” was used here as a verb and had something to do with low flying aircraft. I mean, it has to be that, right?    

Pondering on Ponce

As most of you know, we lost our dog recently. She was a victim of old age. We humans have been intrigued by the aging process since the dawn of time. Who can forget Ponce De Leon? He came all the way to the New World looking for the Fountain of Youth. He wandered all over Florida looking for that thing. Little did he know that Florida would someday be all old people. There's no fountain there. In hindsight, I probably would have looked in California or Colorado or someplace with a younger crowd. Well, the bad news is he never found the fountain. The good news is that he never got old – the dude died at 47. 

The tough thing with dogs is that they age faster than we do. They get old too fast. You’d think some vet could develop a drug to slow down the aging process in dogs. We always hear how hard it is to get into Vet school. C’mon guys! Figure it out.

So now, people ask us if we’re gonna get a new dog right away. Of course we are not! We don’t want people to think we were looking at other dogs while ours was still alive. What’s wrong with people?  

Disco

I was at an estate sale recently and two friends jokingly told me I needed to purchase this book about Disco they had found. Those 1970's were one crazy time. Well, I can’t tell if they were suggesting it for me because they knew I didn’t really care for that era, or if they maybe thought I was a good dancer. Maybe it was one of each. Regardless, it struck me as a bit odd that someone had held on to this book about Disco for 40 years. Was it on their bookshelf by the fireplace this whole time? Maybe on their bedside stand? Had they read it repeatedly? Had they kept their platform shoes, silk shirts or whatever it was that women wore this whole time as well? Every style comes back – except that one!

They say that people get a little bit shorter when they get older. That statement is simply not true – it was the platform shoes of the 70’s that made us taller in our youth. If you want to regain your lost height go to an estate sale and find yourself some platform shoes. Why do you think I was there?

More Greeting Etiquette

(Back in April (“Seasoned Greetings” 4/19/16) we talked about how to greet someone when you forgot their name. This is tip #2 in my series on Greeting Etiquette.)

When I see someone at work for the first time each day I greet them. In this scenario let’s call this person Marie. If I see Marie 10 minutes later and she’s with Ted I greet Ted. This all sounds appropriate. But, you can’t stop there. No. Why not, you ask? You’ve already greeted each of the people, Marie first, and then Ted. You’ve done your job. Well, there’s more to it than that folks. The third person (Ted) does not know that I’ve already greeted Marie, so a simple, “Marie and I greeted earlier” statement is appropriate in this situation. This lets Ted know that you’re not being rude to Marie and that you’re not leaving her out in any way. Your courtesy in this situation does two things: it makes people feel better about themselves, and secondly, it encourages them to be more courteous to each other. Let’s never forget that we’re living in a society.

Try this approach tomorrow at work with your co-workers and see if it doesn’t start you off on an excellent day. Just don’t forget their names!!

Fireworks

Everybody loves a good fireworks display. But the traffic going there and especially going home can be challenging. In fact, fireworks shows probably have the highest driving time to actual entertainment time ratio of any American entertainment event. You’d better really like fireworks, and, more importantly, you’d better really like those people you’re with, ‘cause you’ve gotta get there early to get a good viewing spot and you’re gonna be stuck in traffic for a long time afterwards.

So, yeah, we had a fantastic fireworks show this year. The grand finale was by far the best part of the show. You've never seen so much light in the sky. Interestingly, some people got up and left when they recognized that the grand finale was starting so they could get a jump on traffic. This likely results in conversations the next day something like this: “How were the fireworks?” “Not sure, but we got home in record time.” 

The solution for these Woodstock-esque traffic snarls after the fireworks displays would be to institute what I’ve named “The Fireworks Encore”. I’m not sure why this has not been tried. The plan would lure at least some of the people into staying for an added performance, much like a concert. You simply hold back 5% or so of the fireworks and shoot them off sporadically about three minutes after the grand finale. And of course there are no house lights to turn on so you never really know when it’s fully over. Thus, people leave at a more staggered, leisurely pace and hopefully nobody misses the grand finale. I think this is a win-win. 

By the way, we walked to the fireworks this year. I never once got flipped off.

Animal Farm

I was driving to a friend’s house Thursday night, and I had to drive through downtown where we have our Thursday Night Farmer’s Market. As I entered downtown, traffic was heavy, and, yeah, I did not clear an intersection on a left turn until the light had turned red. I suppose I could be cited for that, but people do that all the time. Well, as I finished my left turn, a car honked, and I saw this woman on my left, who had to wait all of maybe 1.7 seconds for me to clear the intersection. Initially, she gave me this big smile but then –boom – out came her middle finger. Now, was this necessary? Did she need to do that right in front of the farmer’s market? She obviously didn’t know who I was, and my place in the community, but wow! I have always considered the farmer’s market to be a place where people are civil. A place where we really don’t need the police. So yeah, I was disappointed in the behavior of this woman.  

I guess I should be thankful she didn’t throw her brown eggs at me.