On Spelling

The 96th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee has been completed and I didn't win. I should say I couldn't win, never tired and know my limitations in spelling to give it a go. Spelling Bees are those contests elementary school teachers use in their classes to make learning more fun, but I understand there are adult spelling bees also. I think any adult who enters that is probably a masochist. Spelling bees are public announcements of human stupidity, given most of us spell so badly.( I shall make sure to use spell check on this).

The term spelling bee has nothing to do with the insect. It is derived from the Old English word "ben", meaning “a prayer, a favor.” By the late eighteenth century ben was replaced with the word "bee", referring to the joining of neighbors to work on a single activity to help a neighbor in need: sewing bee, quilting bee, etc. So there is the derivation of the term Spelling Bee. I hope I spelled all the words right in that explanation but I won't sear to it.

Why some people are good spellers and some not is perplexing. Often the smartest people are the worst spellers. But then, also stupid people are always bad spellers. I think it must be some combination of a skill involving talent/instinct and language decoding skill and memory. But what do I know? I researched spelling skill and found this definition from someone who knows better than I.  "A good speller is not a person who has successfully memorized the most words, but rather someone who knows ways to figure out the logic of words and can construct them as needed. Spelling is problem solving with letters, sounds, patterns and meanings." (Phenix and Scott Dunne, 1991)

But how come that horned rim glasses wearing nerdish 10 year old spelling bee champ can spell better than the rest of us? It might be that all the components of good spelling work well for the nerd and one or more of them fail in us. So what? Is spelling well so important in this age of computer spell assistance? In practical terms probably not if the person can spelling normally. But those with learning disabilities whose language processing is bad would disagree. Thankfully, for all of us spell check rescues us in time of need.

I guess I am analyzing a talent too much and should just shut up. But before I do I thought I would let you know what the the final word was for the 10 year old Scripps co champ final word in the competition was. It was “Feldenkrais”. Gee, not only can't I spell it. I doubt I can pronounce it.

Post 100 Years

How old is old enough? I refer to your life span. Humans deteriorate so much in the late years it is as much a punishment as a blessing to reach the 100 year old mark. I remember a fellow who was interviewed on his 100th birthday. The interviewer asked him what's the secret to a happy life.  He said, "Die at 80".  Smart or just funny for 100 year old. Why am I mentioning this subject? It's because we had another of the "oldest person alive dies" new stories the other day.

Susannah Jones died in New York City at the age of 116 years. Old Susannah must have inherited the right genes. But Old Susannah's longevity is more common than many think. The United States alone  has the most centenarians with currant estimates as high as 72,000. If the population of centenarians continues to increase at its current rate of expansion there could be close to 1 million people of 100 years of age or more by 2050 residing in the US. 

Could you image the a wait in the grocery store check-out line with two of those in front of you?
Anyway, the people who come up with those statistics say that their current estimates put the figure of total centenarians worldwide at about 450,000. Exact numbers may be difficult to determine, they claim, since many centenarians live in developing or outlying areas, where census data is not often available. What is certain is that there seems to be a maximum life age for all of us. After 110 very few people are still alive and wearing their depends.

The research on super oldies shows that there is no single "age gene" that accounts for their ability to live to such an old age.  But the overall the genes of centenarians allow them to compress the time of greatest sickness and weakness into the very latest part of their lives. Their immune systems are super strong until they weaken  rapidly past age 100. Almost all centenarians have been relatively healthy through their 80’s and into their 90’s. And only later than that started to decline. Researchers say that if you have a strong family history for longevity you probably have some genetic protection, and can afford to indulge a little bit in terms of lifestyle. Go have that greasy burger, fries and ice cream if so. It won't kill you.

Now that the oldie king, old Susannah has left is the new one is from Italy, a lady also 116 years old named Emma Morano.  She is the last known living person born in the 1880s, her birth date being Nov. 29, 1899.  That means that Emma was already 18 years old when World War II ended. She has seen a lot (but let's hope she missed reality TV). I wonder how those experiences changed or shaped her attitudes today? Today Emma lives in a small apartment, which she never leaves, accompanied by a caregiver and two relatives who visit often.  Though she lived a hard life that included physical abuse and long physical work days, Emma says that today she is "fine".

Does this make you want to live beyond 100? I think longevity in itself is not a good barometer to a good life. But then, ask any 99 year old if he or she wants to live to 100 and I suspect that "yes" would be the answer every time

Observing The People

I had an errand day today. You know. It's when you have to shop or complete some other kind of business in public. I don't like venturing out in the public domain because I know I'll meet people who are as weird or worse than I. But life brings obligations, and today I decided to reverse the strategy of ignoring all the crazies and craziness that we call "normal society" and instead observe them all.  When I observe what you and most others probably never notice when  you are out (it helps in maintaining sanity if you ignore the bizarre behaviors) I learn a lot about why the world is doing the mambo while I waltz.

While at a shop I immediately noticed a fellow mumbling to himself and picking areas of his body we aren't supposed to touch in public. He is the kind of guy you never look at directly, and seeing him I wondered if he was crazy or just stupid. So I backed off nd asked myself, How does one tell that a stupid person has dementia?  I bet even their mom's can't tell. It's pretty much the same behavior.

At the local Costco I saw a normal guy and overhead him tell the clerk who asked for a transaction, his date of birth that he was born in 1929. I had to talk to him because the older the person the more interesting is their rhetoric. There is something about longevity that brings wisdom and reminds us that there is an alternative perspective to the madness of the modern age in which we live. This is good for maintaining our sanity in an age of electronic alienation form reality.  I mentioned that he was "doing well for 87 and that I doubted that I would ever be lucky enough to be in a similar situation when 87 years passed since my birth. I told him that if I made it to 87 I would probably be confined to a in a nursing home all day where I would smile and stroke my love muscle. Oh well, maybe I'll be lucky enough to die before I am that old.  The grace and aplomb of that 87 year old was like a shot of enthusiasm that there might be some hope for humanity.

But at a clothing store I glanced forward and saw a "security" person. His t shirt  was emblazoned with the words "Property Loss".  Political correctness has met me face to face! So I asked him if he "found any of that lost property" . The joke was lost on him because PC types really think that changing the language changes reality.  As I walked away he glared at me, surely he suspect I was one who might "lose" the store's property if he didn't keep an eye on me. When I paid for a purchase at that store I made reference to the " property lost" with a sigh that I thought we customers would appreciate more honesty in labeling. Perhaps they should give him a new T shirt, one that says "Watching for Thieves".

Anyway, I had to make a hasty retreat from that clerk because I jokingly said that "I wanted to use a rest room here but haven't decided what sex to declare". She was a PC advocate and only glared at me in derision that I would joke about the crazy bathroom transgender rest room debate in the U.S. these days. Sigh, I should stay home more often....

Dating A Robot

When I was a young man and pursuing dates with "suitable females" used to think the dating pool was thin. But after reading a British survey article today about the same subject I think that I may have been lucky compared to today's young mate seekers. New research has found that one in four young people in the UK would happily date a robot. Wow! Technology is even more addictive than even I suspected. But then, I can remember some dates I had who were colder than a robot and about as bright as the light in those automatic light switches.  Oh...and some dates I had looked worse than Rosie the Robot on those old Jetson TV shows.

The only caveats the respondents in that survey gave, was the robot they dated must look like a real live human being.  According to that survey of 18- to 34-year-olds their android beau must also a "perfect match". Hmmm What is a "perfect match" anyway? Anyway, the role of technology shows in the survey because the proportion of young people who are willing to go on a date with a robot is significantly higher than the overall proportion of British adults. Only 17% of whom were willing. In the millennial world it seems their their identities are more and more defined by their reliance on their technological communication.

The real story of this is not that so many young are disillusioned with real members of the opposite sex, but rather that so many say they are willing to find romance with the virtual. For that segment of the population intimacy as we know it is expanding its boundaries into to the non human, non breathing realm. It's frightening to me how easily humans will abandon the concrete for the imaginary.  But the our technology has already shown us that some humans prefer to live in a virtual world.

But wait! The answer to my observation is what those who want robot romance say. They claim  that robot dating is just another opportunity to experience love and affection beyond the physical and into the virtual.  I don't buy it. What about you?

Losing Luggage

It's time for a positive rant. Yep! It's me, not some sane person who has kidnapped my computer. I know I usually complain about something/everything, so maybe I should see a mental health for a mental health evaluation, because today I come to praise the airlines...sort of. I don't want to go overboard and leave the impression that the U.S. airline conglomerate is doing a good job. They are still torturing us in many ways, with small seats, delays, unfair pricing etc.  But alas!  Reports about airplane baggage handling have come in from a SITA Baggage Report 2016 that say that luggage now has the best chance ever of making it to its destination.

I have never had any of my luggage lost. Therefore, I can't relay any past personal complaints about the subject. You can tell me about your own if you had any lost luggage stories. Too, now that I have come to praise the airlines for their baggage handling it is a near certainty that they will lose my bag when I next fly. There is an unwritten law that those who praise an airline are sure to be punished soon thereafter. I better pack an extra pair of underwear in my carry-on next flight.

Here is what SITA reports. During 2015, the rate of mishandled bags by airlines worldwide was 6.5 bags per thousand passengers. That’s a 10.5% drop in the mishandled bags rate over 2014, when you take into account the increase in the number of passengers (3.5 billion) airlines carried last year. That’s also an all time low in the mishandling rate since 2003, when SITA, an air transport communications and IT company owned by the industry, began tracking and reporting baggage handling trends.

Wow! Maybe the airlines are not trying hard enough to lose our luggage, or is it that they are concentrating with extra efforts to harass us in other ways? Hmmmm My praise of them  has already turned to condemnation. This proves that either I am incapable of seeing the good in huge corporations, or that I am completely delusional. Blame it on those torturous past airline flights I endured if the latter is the case

The New Dark Age

I admit that the world in which we live today is a puzzle to me. What was black is now white. The speculative is turned into accepted truth. Tradition is ridiculed and modernity worshipped, no matter the value of each.  This must be the new Dark Age. Maybe the older humans like me are supposed to feel displaced as we reach our final years.  That way we don't mind leaving life behind. But then, I think of past generations and they did not have so much change, often mindless negative change, occur so suddenly and often. What's different today is that the social order, the folkways and mores don't seem to matter anymore. What matters now is "me".

My observation is that the social media craze has killed culture and replaced it with a mind set of relativism, "if I like it it's right". Thus, we get social trendiness as the driver of behavior. What is trendy today is popular, morality and ethics be dammed. Celebrities and Face book have replaced educational institutions and time tested core values as the source of truth.  Instead of Shakespeare we now have rappers spouting ignorant vulgarity.  Religious worship is gone now, replaced by the faith of "global warming". That's why when most Americans are asked what is the greatest challenge facing mankind the reply is "climate change". Huh? They must be kidding. But even the American president agrees.

Today I read in my newspaper about some of the major "news" stories. The front page included stories about a pastor who is suing a grocery store because it hurt his feelings when allegedly adding a "gay slur' to the cake decoration he placed. Do we really need to read of that? Is there not something that affects our lives better suited for page one? Well, it started on social media and in our degraded society that makes it important. Other front page stories included a report on a football player whose agent fired him, something with the headline "Rainbow colored nooses on campuses disturbing" (I didn't read that one), a story that says our genes tell us when to first have sex, and why someone named Emila Clarke "rules the red carpet." It's garbage for the brain, pabulum.

Social media and technology has degraded the man capacity to understand what is real and what is important. It has discouraged thinking and damaged our ability to reason.  Society has been bought off by its technological addiction. No need for a nuclear bomb to kill us, those cell phones and i pods are already dumbing us down so much that brain deadness is more the norm than the exception. The future looks worse than the past. No wonder I won't be regret my own end when it comes, for the darkness we face at death is merely a mirror of the darkness of our modern Dark Age.

Memories

I had one of those days for remembering the past. Mother's Day and the 20th anniversary of my father's death fell on the same day this year. It jogged my memory of my late parents, something that is good for the soul every so often. It's not good to live in the past, but remembering it on occasion helps us to see the present more clearly. It's a poor memory that only looks backward, for we should always learn from the past and apply those lessons to today, Having old memories and young hopes is the ideal.

What I find odd is the things we remember. I think we have no choice in the matter, but is it not strange that we often than not have a clearer memory of the incidental than of some significant event in our lives? Maybe those visions the trivial have some deeper significance of which we are not consciously aware. Why, for example, do I have a critical clear picture in my head of a big oak tree in the front yard of a childhood house? Yet, I can not remember names and faces of people who were important to me at the same time as I gazed on that oak tree. How and why does our subconscious select that which we remember? Try now to summon five of your oldest memories. I suspect a few will seem trivial.

Our memory is consistent though. We remember public events the same as private ones. Things that happen to people or places for which we are unconnected are remembered in the same way as personal ones. I remember my dad's death clearly because I was present with him when he died. But I remember the death of president Kennedy in 1963 because he was "with me" as president the day he was assassinated. My dad's death represented the loss of one I loved deeply and who loved me the same. Kennedy's death represented the loss of innocence in America for not only me but also for the rest of the nation. I loved my dad but had no feeling for Kennedy. Yet, the memories of those two losses are vivid even today.

It must be that out memories keep us stable, perhaps even sane. The terror of Alzheimer is the loss of memory. It makes us something less than fully human. Just as we must first put one foot in front of the other when taking a step, we must file our memories for recall when needed if we are to move forward in the present. Surely, our memories are what keeps us going mad in our old age. Getting old is not so bad as long as we have a few good memories to age with us. Without memories we wouldn't have roses in December or even a reason to continue to live.

Growing Intolerance Of The Left

The cultural war between the conservative status quo and the liberal politically correct is waging here even more widely now. It's broadened to a PC versus religious belief contest. Many states are being challenged by he more liberal, permissive states for passing what they call "discriminatory laws", ones which say that a person may refuse to do business with another person who's lifestyle is contrary to their religious belief. This involves only private business or persons making private transactions, because the law in the United States makes all public businesses serve everyone equally, regardless of their sexual or other lifestyle belief and practice. In a sense, the old idea being challenged is that private businesses can refuse to serve whomever they wish.

Currently a person who has a business selling a product still has the right, in most but not all states, to refuse to sell to a gay person, an atheist etc., if that customer's behavior violates the sellers religious belief. "I am not making your wedding cake because I do not approve of gay marriages like yours" would be an example.  The courts are still defining this problem. But as of now state governments that are liberal in philosophy have decided to become the moral arbiter.

Here in Oregon, the state government has just forbidden any state employees from traveling to the state of Mississippi on state business, because the state of Mississippi has passed a law making transgender person use the rest room of their biological gender, not of their own choice. Hmmmm I am sure there are many Oregon laws that the state of Mississippi disagrees with as well.( legalized marijuana in Oregon, for example).  If they were to refuse to do business with Oregon in the same intolerant manner Oregon exercises toward Mississippi, commerce would be damaged severely. Extrapolate that philosophy and practice to all 50 states and the United States might not survive as a nation.

In this country each state is required, via the U.S. Constitution, to honor the legal laws of every other state. Thus, a person married in Mississippi who moves to Oregon is legally married in Oregon too. Oregon can not invalidate that marriage simply because it was performed in another state.  But now the liberal states are demanding that other states (conservative ones) who do not share their liberal beliefs change their laws to suit the liberal bent (make them PC too). They say, as Oregon and many other states have done, "If you don't make your law conform to our belief we will not engage in any relationship with you." Kinda intolerant, I think.

In essence, it means that the liberal state is invalidating the religious belief of residents of the other states simply because the liberal state thinks that it knows what is "right" and the other conservative state does not.  The arrogance of it all offends me. ("Your religious belief is secondary to my PC belief"). These laws passed by the non PC states do not limit any constitutionally protected rights or actions of any citizen of any state under federal or state laws. The laws the PC crowd hate so much do not attempt to challenge federal laws. They are legal in the state and in the nation. So why must the PC crowd try to force it's beliefs on other states?

Instead, the laws that the PC states do not like are designed in targeted ways to prevent government interference in the lives and religious practices of the people in the state. In other words, to allow the residents to express their religious belief freely. What's wrong with that?

International Naked Gardening Day

I just read about another example of why I am out of touch with the common culture, but glad to be. It seems that May is the month for naked gardening. It makes sense in that the temperature outside will be suitable, but why garden in the nude? But where will the cell phone addicts put their phones when they are digging into the soil?  If I participated, my plants would wilt and die in disgust. 

It seems that World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD) is an annual international event celebrated on the first Saturday of May by gardeners and non gardeners. I guess the non gardeners just like to look at the plants..or something. A web site I accessed to tell em more why I won't garden in the nude says that WNGD has become a growing annual tradition that celebrates weeding, planting flowers and trimming hedges in the buff. This year’s naked day of planting is the 12th annual celebration.  As the news of this celebration spreads, it has left other, more sane than I types, why  people want to garden naked?

Well, according to the group who founded, first of all, it's fun! Second only to swimming, gardening is at the top of the list of family friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude. Secondly., the naked gardeners say that our culture needs to move toward a "healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment". Hmmmm If that is so shouldn't we also be naked at the local school PTA meetings? That would give us a better opportunity to improve our relation to the natural environment of that sexy teacher everyone leers at.

The Naked Garden Day crows further says that gardening naked is "not only a simple joy, it reminds us even if only for those few sun kissed minutes, that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet. Wow! Naked is honesty! But how come the law says walking nude at the supermarket is a criminal offense? Why isn't that as honest as stripping for an azalea or petunia? It's all another reason my brain is confused by the modern culture.

WNGD says it  has no political agenda and is not owned by any particular group. It is a loose knit group of people all over the world who encourage others to garden in the buff as a way of getting back in touch with our humanity and planetary ties. They claim that if one feels their ancestral ties to the earth and all of the life on it, one seeks out how to live in harmony with that life rather than exploit or destroy it. What better way to reboot those spiritual bonds with mother earth, they insist, than to remove your clothing and nurture and interact with plants that provide us with so much beauty and sustenance?

It sounds like a sales pitch from a used car dealer, but who am I to protest others naked.  But if you want to show your assets to your plants and favorite neighbors WND says you can do with with others or alone inside your house. But after you have taken the Naked Gardening Day plunge they want you to tell others about your experience. And yes! You guessed it, the WNGD people ask that you post your naked gardening photos on one or more of those crazy social media sites. I am sure the neighborhood pervert will greatly appreciate your efforts.

 May the pot in your picture be filled with a plant and not a euphemism for your overgrown stomach.

President Jackson Trashed

Score another victory for mindless political correctness.  In response to cries from females and d female activists, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced that the U.S. government will put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, replacing President Andrew Jackson. That's right, one of the most popular and effective U.S. Presidents is being replaced by Tubman. Replaced....thrown away for ever. Instead of creating another $20 bill with Tubman, they are erasing the Jackson bill altogether.  According to the PC police Jackson is no good because he was a believer in the conquering of the American Indian tribes of the early 19th century. And as we have been told by the PC, all American Indians are sacred and all white males are the devil.

Lew has said his previous plan to put a woman on a bill would be just the first of many design changes to incorporate the theme of democracy in paper currency. Hmmmm I  guess the white male will be hung in effigy at the first printing of the Tubman bill. In this eras the majority is seen as evil and the minority as sacred. But the PC nuts are not satisfied with having only one woman on U.S. currency. Women on 20s, a group that had lobbied for a woman on the $20 bill, said it would claim victory only if the $20 bill was redesigned at the same time as the $10 bill, which is next in line for a facelift.  They want to take another evil white man off that one and put another woman in place. Otherwise, said group founder Barbara Ortiz Howard, "we see today’s announcement as only a vague commitment and a continuation of the now familiar message that women have to settle for less and wait for their fair share.

"Fair Share' is a strange euphemism for  disrespecting a great former president (Andrew Jackson), But then the female PC police aren't really interested in adding women to currency. Instead they want to eliminate all white males. Well, their message is usually a negative, angry one, not a positive, constructive call for change. The campaign to pretend that America's history didn't happen continues in this idiotic PC culture. Since the PC police decided it didn't like Jackson, their campaign to wipe out his memory has won a victory.

 But wait!, The early American heroes who are represented on U.S. currency lived by the customs of their time and now that offends today's politically correct task masters. So, the PC police says, let's just wipe out the fact that they existed.  Hillary Clinton praised the pick once the news broke. "I can't think of a better choice than Harriet Tubman," she said on Twitter. Uh, perhaps Hillary sees herself  a candidate for the next PC currency "correction".

Maybe her portrait should show her receiving bribes from her billion dollar campaign contributors.