Monday, October 27, 2008

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When our daughter and son-in-law became parents the first time, they also became an aunt and uncle thanks to little Maddy. Now, Maddy's a little younger than their first son, but you can imagine that both sets of parents enjoy swapping stories about their first child. For example, he would set out a toy or a puzzle on the floor and then he'd select one of us adults as his designated playmate. It sounds like this, "Dada (that's me), pay." That's "play" for those requiring translation. And he pats the floor exactly where he wants you to sit and "pay." Apparently, Maddy was issuing similar invitations to the adults in her world, like her Daddy, for example. He may be moving around the living room doing whatever, and she'd look up at him with big eyes and asks a simple question, "Papa down?" She really wants her father to come to her level. And he does.

Friday, October 24, 2008

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There's something you may not realize about my past. I spent some time in Alcatraz - about a half a day, to be exact. By the time I got inside that infamous prison in San Francisco Bay, there was nobody home. It was a museum! And it's a fascinating place to tour. I took a group of teenagers to Alcatraz one day to tape a radio program there. We spent some time in the area that was used for solitary confinement - they even locked up the teenagers in the main cell block. Frankly, it is a dismal, depressing environment, even when you're just visiting it as a museum. As our tour ended, we were led through a gate and into a scenic area just outside the wall. It was a gorgeous day, and we had a fantastic view of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the San Francisco skyline. One of the teenagers looked back and mumbled three words, "Only a wall." When I asked what he meant, he said, "Just think, only a wall separated them from all this!"

Thursday, October 23, 2008

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Closing. That's what they call the day that you sign all the final papers to buy your home. I remember it well. It was a long time ago, but, I know that you're finally allowed to start moving in after your closing. You see, we sat with the previous owner in the attorney's office and I got to write enough checks to wallpaper at least one wall! Now, they wouldn't let us move anything in until closing day. That's the law. It was still the home of the previous owner until that day. But as soon as we left that office the truck could roll, and it did. And all our stuff could get moved in. This all has to be carefully timed. One family has to be out before another family can move in, right? Sure! What if we had rolled up with our truck and the previous owners were still there? We can't both live there! One has to move out before the other one can move in.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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We might all be singing Dixie at our sporting events instead of the Star Spangled Banner if it hadn't have been for the death of one Confederate general. He was Robert E. Lee's most valuable general, Thomas Jackson. Maybe you know him better as Stonewall Jackson. He was such a brilliant leader and strategist. He repeatedly defeated and outsmarted the Union army. Unfortunately, for the Confederate cause he died in the middle of the Civil War. If he had lived, who knows how he might have affected the outcome. Dixie, here we come! Stonewall Jackson - obviously his mamma didn't name him that. Actually, he got that name during the second Battle of Bull Run. The Northern army was beating on the Southern army pretty bad that day, so much that the Confederates started to retreat, and as the boys in grey were running for their lives, another general saw General Jackson refusing to retreat! And he said, "There stands Jackson, like a stone wall!" That was the new battle cry. Jackson's courage rallied the Confederate troops and instead of retreating, they charged and they won.

Monday, October 20, 2008

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"They were our pilots. It was our aircraft. The aircraft should not have been on that runway." That's what an executive of Singapore Airlines told reporters after their Los Angeles-bound jumbo jet crashed on takeoff from Taipei, Taiwan. It snapped into three pieces and it burst into flames. Eighty-one of the 179 passengers aboard died in that crash. It was a crash that never should have happened. The pilot somehow ended up on a runway full of construction equipment. The resulting collision was deadly. The pilot had warnings; preflight briefing papers and two big signs indicating the number of the runway he mistakenly went down, but it didn't matter. He was on the wrong runway.

Friday, October 17, 2008

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He was just a teenager and his village had just collapsed all around him. He was one of countless thousands who were affected by this massive earthquake that hit Turkey. In an interview with National Geographic Magazine, this young man offered an amazingly insightful perspective on what he had just witnessed. He said, "I accept this as a geologic event, but it can be taken as a warning. In seconds, billionaires can become penniless. So you must have values you cannot lose."

Monday, October 13, 2008

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For many years, my wife's father managed to squeeze out a living for his family on their little farm in the Ozarks. It was always a battle financially, but the battle got really intense the summer of the long drought. First, he emptied all three of their ponds to get water; then all of the ponds on his parents' adjacent property. A friend, then, let him use his well that had never gone dry. Well, it went dry the summer of the long drought. Finally, Dad had no choice but to find water and dig a well on his property. But that meant mortgaging a lot of his cattle. And as the well diggers had to go deeper, it eventually meant mortgaging all his cattle. And they never found water. His farming days were over.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

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I always enjoyed walking the beautiful three-mile walk around the local lake we used to live near. And my wife enjoyed it too. Walking together is good. It not only improves your physical condition, but it gives you a chance to talk. Well, theoretically. The problem is I'm into covering that ground as fast as possible. That's maximum aerobic effect, calorie burn. You know. But when my wife and I would chug up and down our local hills at my hyper pace, she had a question: "Weren't we going to talk?" "Sure." Then comes her all too legitimate complaint: "You're walking too fast to talk." It's not just about when we're on a hike. And I don't think I'm alone.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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Over many years of flying commercially, I really learned to like those frequent flyer miles, you know, that they give to high mileage passengers. You know, it's getting a little tougher with those, but I'll tell you what, I think it was a great idea. When it was time to book another flight, I didn't have to think twice about which airline I'd try first. I would just stick to the one particular airline. And you know what? I'm not even going to do free advertising for them. Unless the schedule or the fare was out of line, I'd go with that airline. Why? I'm just a loyal kind of guy? No. Because they credited me with mileage awards that convert into discounts, upgrades, and free trips. That bonus incentive really succeeded in getting me to stay with one carrier. It worked on millions of other flyers like me, as well. It's a pretty good system - the biggest rewards are for those who stick with the same carrier.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

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I was at my friend Dave's house, meeting with a group of teenagers and it happened. We had been eating together out on his porch when the sky suddenly turned really nasty. We hustled inside, just before the skies started dumping rain and the thunder and lightning started - big time thunder and lightning. I wanted to continue our conversation under the dining room table, but no one wanted to join me there. So we went to the living room. Now you may have heard that theory about the origin of the universe - the Big Bang. Well, we heard it right then and there. Not the one that some people say started the universe, but the one that knocked all the lights out. That lightning bolt had knocked out all the electrical power in the area. But were we in total darkness? Oh no. My friend Dave is a bright boy. After the last hurricane in their area, he installed some emergency lights on a battery-powered auxiliary power system. So we had lights; lights that reverted to internal power when everything else failed!

Monday, September 22, 2008

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A few years ago, an old TV format got resurrected and came back big time! It was the old quiz millions of dollars - "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Some Joe or Joan Ordinaryperson was show! The program that first captured the attention of millions of viewers was about winning asked a series of multiple-choice questions that got increasingly harder and were worth increasingly more. Now, if you needed help on a couple, you could call some person you've designated as your "lifeline." You could even listen to the opinions of the studio audience. But eventually, the spotlight was just on you, the contestant, and the host who was pressing the question. And when you finally gave your answer, the host asked that tension-building, unnerving question, "Is that your final answer?"

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

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Sometimes I'll throw out a word to an audience of teenagers, and I'll ask them to draw a picture that represents that word for them. Later they'll describe their picture. Now what if I did that with you and the word was peace. How do you draw peace?

That was the challenge, actually, for artists in one community where there was an art contest. The painters were asked to enter a painting that represented peace. There was one that spectators were sure would win. It was this beautiful pastoral scene, a rolling green meadow, punctuated with these colorful flowers, there was a deep blue sky with little puffy white clouds, and a boy walking through the field with a fishing pole. Well, that came in second. First place went to a painting that portrayed a storm! The sky was dark, it was angry, the ocean was slamming into the cliffs, and lightning was flashing in the sky. At first look the spectators said, "What does this have to do with peace?" Then they looked again...

Thursday, September 11, 2008

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Any time I'm planning to be in New York City, I make sure I have some loose change and some small bills; I know I'll need it for tips. Maybe for a parking lot attendant, a cab driver, maybe a waitress. Actually, tipping is a way of life in America. Here's what the dictionary says it is: "A small percent of money given directly to someone for performing a service." A tip is a small thank you, nothing major, loose change stuff. And that's appropriate as a response to a small service but not to a total sacrifice.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

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We've got at least four generations of men in our family who have had a hard time holding onto their hair. Some have suggested that our hair is being pushed out by our rapidly expanding intelligence and that sounds very scientifically credible to me. I think that's it probably. I feel better when I hear about that man who lost all his hair in a very short time, well, almost all of it. He had that one hair that didn't fall out. And did he take care of that one hair! He made sure it was shampooed, and rinsed, moussed, and razor cut, and styled, until that awful morning he woke up and found that hair on his pillow. A shriek went through the house and he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Oh no! I'm bald!"

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

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The plane bound for Newark Airport was full. Now all those passengers are waiting for their suitcase to arrive on the baggage carousel along with passengers from a couple of other flights. And to think people pay to go to the zoo! There are times when that crowd of people gets pretty big and we're all crammed together in an area that can get pretty wall-to-wall. Recently the claustrophobia got worse than ever, they have put up a wall that reduces the already limited space. You could get pretty steamed about it if you didn't realize that wall was there to cover up some construction that's in progress. See, they are improving and enlarging that whole area! Now how do they make us feel good about this crunch in the meantime? They put up a sign on that construction wall and it seemed to do the job. I didn't forget it and it said this, "Thanks for your patience. We are getting rid of yesterday so we can get ready for tomorrow."

Monday, September 8, 2008

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When our older son was little, he would sometimes wander into the living room, crawl into my lap, and snuggle up so close I wasn't sure how he could breathe. One night he looked up at me with those big blue eyes of his and he told me something I've never forgotten. He said, "Daddy, when I'm in your arms, I feel so safe."

Friday, September 5, 2008

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Some of our great moments as a family have been spent watching those old videos of us (we thankfully converted them to DVDs now). But they are at a time when we were all a lot younger. For a while, our firstborn had the camera all to herself. Then we added a co-star - her brother. And then along came another subject for the lens - a baby brother! And, of course, some of the most camera-worthy moments are when your baby or toddler is winning some of their first victories, doing some of those things that are irresistibly cute. You know? So often the camera was focused on our daughter's little brothers. So you'll be watching one of them doing some adorable thing when suddenly this five-year-old jumps into the picture, waving and smiling right into the camera. It's almost as if our daughter was saying, "Hey, remember me? I'm over here! Don't forget me!"

Thursday, September 4, 2008

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I had been on a radio interview, and I was about to sign off. Suddenly I heard this familiar voice chiming in, "Hi, Ron. This is Rosetta." It wasn't the lady who was interviewing me, it was the traffic lady, and she was up next as soon as they got rid of me. But she just jumped right in and said "Hi." Now I knew her voice because morning after morning she had been there giving us the latest scoop on how long the commute was on this road, or where the accident was on that road, or which roads had turned into parking lots. In the New York area, there's a lot of ways to go, and which one you choose any given morning can make the difference between on time or very late. So just before I signed off that interview, I thanked Rosetta for what she did for us every morning. I told her, "Rosetta, you help us pick the right road to be on!"

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

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Our friend, Mike, had just started up the pickup truck when the trouble started. Mike was taking the truck out for a test drive for some people who had just bought it. And as he backed it out of the new owner's garage, it suddenly started sputtering and stalling. He couldn't keep it running no matter what he tried. He got to a phone and called the old owner and said, "What's the deal with this truck you just sold?" Well, the man who sold it is an honorable man, and he was really distressed about this suddenly dysfunctional truck. Then suddenly he asked Mike, "Did you happen to mess with the radio at all?" Yes, he had. The previous owner told Mike to go check these two switches that are right next to the radio. This truck has a wonderful feature, especially for the country roads that it travels so much. It has a reserve gas tank. Mike had unknowingly turned off Tank 2, which was full of gas, and turned on Tank 1, which was totally empty. But the good news is that as soon as he switched from the empty tank to the reserve tank, Mr. Pickup Truck ran and ran and ran.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

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OK, I was a Flash Gordon freak when I was a kid. In case you've led a deprived life or you're too young to have this exciting heritage, Flash was that intergalactic hero made famous in a serialized movie made in the 1930's, long before anyone ever heard of Luke Skywalker or Captain Kirk. No, I wasn't around when it first came out, but those episodes have been showing ever since. Every episode was a cliffhanger. They always left you hanging with Flash in a terrible jam, about to be destroyed by some space monster or death ray. You were sure there was no way out of this one. But there always was. Somehow, no matter how bleak it looked, Flash always came through somehow.