People Who Govern Things Never Use Them

I just finished reading an article in the local paper that says the board of directors for the local public transit agency rarely, if ever ride the system they are supposed to govern. This reminded me of one of my favorite thoughts.  " The companies that build cars or computers have no people in them that know how to drive or ever use a computer."
In the case of the failure of the public transit system board, to even be able to relate to the systems users, the reason for their built-in lack of empathy is because the board is not elected, the board is not on a first come first to  serve, or even absolutely required to use the system they "oversee". The only thing a person must do to get on the over site board is to be appointed by the Governor, a Politician who never rides the public transit system, and probably couldn't find it if he tried to ride it !!!

The First Time I went to a Dentist

Lucky me, I was at the dentist again today. And while there the dentist said that if she was doing anything that was causing me pain, just signal her somehow. To which I responded I would grab her, and she said "where was I planning to grab her: The answer went unsaid by me.
But, the question made me think of a story my mother told me about the first time she took me to a dentist in our old neighborhood in Brooklyn. It seems that at around the age of five, she took me to a dentist for my first visit, well she waited outside while I went onto the dental chair with the dentist. My mother says about five minutes later the dentist came running out of the exam room dragging me along by the arm. The dentist than screamed at my mother" Your Son Bit Me" To which my mother  said she asked me "Why did you bite the Dentist?". To which my mother said I answered, " because he was hurting me." At which point my mother said to the dentist. You deserved to be bit and we left that dentist forever.

The USA's New Levels of Justice

When I was growing up we were taught the USA was a nation of laws and all citizens got the benefit of an impartial justice system. Then, we began to believe that there were two systems of justice, one for the rich and one for the poor; or as it was stated, " if you have enough money you can buy whatever justice you want." After hearing about the recent John Edwards and Roger Clements trials, I now realize we have a third classification of justice in this country, we have added Celebrity Justice. It seems that whether or not a celebrity is guilty is not the real issue on the minds of his or her jurors. The real issue is, should  the jurors give the celebrity on trial in front of them a break because they are celebrities. This is an offshoot of modern American celebrity worship that has replaced our historical need for heroes, such as Presidents or Medal of Honor winners. We now worship celebrities as they were heroes, and you can't put a hero in jail.

It Seems that eating Meals with My Almost Two Year Old Granddaughter Will Cause Me To Lose Weight

My youngest granddaughter, whom my wife and I love with all our hearts, has now decided that whenever she and I are eating a meal together she has to sit in my lap. As a proud loving grandparent, you would think that having your granddaughter decide to sit in your lap while eating is the best thing ever. Well, it is but, as part of her sitting in my lap she gets to eat her plateful, and my plateful, and she gets to use my fork, and I get to use her tiny spoon.

Not that this really bothers me, because after my granddaughter finishes her food needs in my lap; she moves on to do the same thing in her Grandmothers lap.

Neither myself or my wife will really lose any weight as our granddaughter goes through this phase, but it would be nice if it really happened. It would just be one more reason to love our youngest granddaughter even more.

Never Overestimate the Sophistication of the People You Meet

Today I went to the dentist, and to begin with the dental assistant, who I had never met before, acted very tentatively with me. So, in my never ending quest to find all the things going on in every situation I find myself in; I said to her " Instead of just doing something to me, how about if you give me some warning like" Now I am going to Xray your teeth." At that point the dental assistant told me she was a temp, not really familiar with the procedures in this office, and she further said she had been sent by a dental temp agency who told her she was temping for a dental assistant whose daughter had died, and she thought she was walking into a dental office where all the dentists, dental assistants and the patients would be in mourning, and very upset. 

So the temp had made up her mind to prevent any further mourning, by talking as little as possible to both the staff and the patients. Well, it turns out the absent dental assistants' niece had died, not that anyone dying is a cause for celebration, but at least it wasn't the dental assistants daughter who had died,  and all the staff and the patients in the office were not in mourning, all of which led to my not getting the bedside manner from the temp I should have gotten. To top that off, the dentist heard all this from the temp,  and began instructing the temp in how to help her  with my dental problem. 

One thing I did not want to hear while in pain in the dental chair, was one "professional" teaching another professional, while they were both knee deep into my mouth.

So that's how my day began.

A Healthy Dose of Skepticism

I just heard a great line, " The greatest writers are liars" it was said by an actor playing Ernest Hemingway, I don't know who actually said it, but it seems to make a lot of sense. Most books, even the non-fictions, are meant for enjoyment and probably indulge in some "lying" if nothing else just to entertain the reader. That may seem to be too skeptical but that what I think.

The True Cost of Freedom

We went to hear a Jewish refusenik named Natan Shcharansky talk this evening. I don't want to sound irreverent to a genuine hero, but he did sound just like  MYRON COHEN. And, since he had exhibited such individual courage in standing up to the entire Old Soviet Union almost by himself, I expected him to be at least 10 feet tall, but he was about the same height as Woody Allen. Although his speech was inspiring listening to it did come at a cost, of $54.00 for a pledge to the sponsoring agency, who brought him to speak to us. For that we got the speech and two sugar cookies.
The funniest part of the evening's speeches came when one of our US Senators spoke to the audience via a prerecorded segment, during which he said he would have rather been with us in person, but the work of the US Senate kept him in Washington. 
Since the work of the US Senate is too be deadlocked, and get nothing done, he could have at least used a different excuse for not attending in person.