Monday Mood: Be Kind to be Remembered

There I am, looking every minute of my age, bearded because shaving is too much bother, grey because that is what happens if we live long enough, fat, a bit flabby, far from a model, more of a bad example of an aging man, and I think to myself, "who cares" as the short video from the young and beautiful guy, says, nobody cares.  

Few people will notice, those that do will think what they want to think. They may think, does he know he is fat? Yes I do. Does he know he would look better with a better haircut and beard trim? Yes I do.  But for the most part they will not notice or remember me. I am a person they see in passing. 

If I am kind, if I say please and thank you, if I hold the door, and let the other person go first, helping in ways I can, they may remember that, but probably not me, not what I look like, or who I am or who I was. People remember the kindness, more than the person who was kind. 

A good number of years ago (before I had my spine repaired and rebuilt) I fell in a subway station, a very kind person helped me to my feet, not an easy task, and walked with me to my car that was parked in the garage. I remember the kindness, but not the person. (I send out into the cosmos a very heartfelt THANK YOU to him.) I also remember that the station manager, 50 feet away sitting in a glass cubicle, didn't do anything to help. He hardly looked up, didn't ask if I needed help, didn't offer to call for help. 

Don't worry about what you look like, or sound like. Be kind, people will remember your kindness. 

The Sunday Five: Seeing ourselves

Happy Blogiversary to Doc Spo 

1: Do you see yourself as your age, younger, older? 

2: How do you feel about fashion? 

3: How much time do you spend on your appearance most days? 

4: What would you tell your younger self about appearances? 

5: How do you really feel about tattoos?

My Answers: 

1: Do you see yourself as your age, younger, older? I have a hard to understanding that I am getting older, in my mind I am 30, in my knees I am 95.

2: How do you feel about fashion? The older I get, the less I care. 

3: How much time do you spend on your appearance most days? I don't always bother to run a brush through what is left of my hair. 

4: What would you tell your younger self about appearances? Those that judge you based on your appearance, don't really like you anyway. 

5: How do you really feel about tattoos? I understand the desire to do something taboo, something forbidden, but I have never wanted anything that permanent. Tattoos on the face, or neck, I find unattractive. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

 

The Saturday Morning Post: Be Fearless

A couple of months ago someone asked Ken in France how he became so creative in the kitchen, and he responded that he thought of himself as being more fearless in the kitchen than creative, and he is. He is always willing to try something. He is always looking for new ideas, new inspiration, reading about different ways to make great food. Being fearless, makes him very creative. 

I thought about this, and it applies to creativity in all forms. To create art in any form, we must first be fearless.  Willing to try new ways of doing things. Part of practicing is trying new ways of doing the same thing. In painting, try pure colors, try blending colors, use a brush, use a palette knife, finger paint, use paint that flows. When you see or hear something, be fearless and try it. I watched an interview with James Cameron, who will forever be the mastermind that brought the movie Titanic to the big screen. He said when he is "80 years old, with an oxygen tube in his nose", he wants to be "trying do things that he does not know how to do." That is fearlessness, that is a root of creativity. 

In your art, try creating something this week that you don't know how to do, be fearless. 

Foodie Friday: Roll Ups

While the snow was falling, I had a couple of days at home to play in the kitchen. These were inspired by something I read in a cookbook. 

Buy or make a basic pizza dough. 

Pizza dough is easy enough to make. 

Start with one cup of warm water (105f +/-) a sprinkle of sugar, and a tablespoon of dry active yeast. Mix and set aside for 5 minutes, it will start to smell yeasty and bubble a little. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer stir together two cups of flour (bread flour if you have it on hand) a large pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir in the yeast mixture and stir together to form a ball. Knead, by machine for about five minutes on low or medium low, by hand about the same.  Adjust as needed, I added a couple of tablespoons of water. 

Cover and set aside to rise for an hour or two. 

Divide the dough in half, 

Roll out in a rectangle. 

Top with fillings. One of these was tomato sauce, cured Italian ham and shredded mixed Italian cheese (Pizza cheese mix.) The other was softened butter, sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkled with chocolate chips. 

The filling can be whatever you like, what you have handy, or what you want to use up today. 

Roll up, slice into rounds, and bake in a 350-375 (F) oven for 20-30 minutes.  

Store in the refrigerator, reheat in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. 

The Thursday Ramble: Media - Media Everywhere

Growing up in an era and place before cable television, our options were ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation,) CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System,) and NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation.) All of these were air-wave broadcasts, received on a large antenna. All of them had genuine news programs, with real verify the facts journalists.  PBS (Public Broadcasting) came late to the countryside and reception was spotty. I recall the family switching between the NBC and CBS for the evening news. NBC had the funny weatherman. CBS had Walter Cronkite. 

In an era of air wave broadcast, television required a federal license, permission to use a specific radio frequency. The bandwidth licensed was quite wide, limiting the number of licenses available in a given area. This same system is still in place. With improvements in technology the bandwidth is narrower, allowing more licenses hence Fox and others have joined the fray. When the administration threatens the media, the strongest power is the authority to revoke a broadcast license. YouTube does not have a broadcast license. With online access does the broadcast license really mean that much today? 

There are still areas in the country that do not have cable television, and where high speed internet is difficult or expensive to access (The United States and Canada are immense land masses.) The majority of the population in both countries live in area where high speed data is widely available by cable, fiber or phone networks. 

For the majority of us, if NBC, ABC, and CBS left the broadcast world and went to streaming video only, we would hardly notice the difference. I am not sure why they don't just shrug their shoulders, tell the news the way they want to, and say "see you on CBS-Tube, NBC-Tube, and ABC-Tube."  The advertising model is slowly changing to support this move, if the broadcasters all moved - the money would move with them. 

My World of Wonders February 4, 2026 edition

What surprisingly made me smile this week?  We went grocery shopping last Thursday, and unintentionally ended up on Senior Discount Day, an extra 10% off.  It was the first time I had been in the grocery store on Senior Discount Day. I don't know why it made me smile, once a stingy b@st@rd, always one? 

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  Roast Salmon with noodles, slow cooked pulled pork, chicken and tortellini soup with corn bread. Lamb stew.

Where have I been this week? Close to home. We did a grocery store run last Thursday. Beyond that the gym, the pool, a reception at the Grill. 

Who have I talked with this week? Giuseppe, Ruth, Mary, Marcel, Warren, Paul, my sweet bear, and Zack.  

What was on the easel? I finished a 24 by 24 inch color block, and have primed in a deep red an 18 by 24. I have an idea for this, if I can make it work.  

What have I been reading? The extreme cold weather has made this complicated, I ran out of library books, took a couple of days off, then went to the bookcase in the building library. I locked up a history of Emma Lazarus, the wrote the poem that is featured at the Statute of Liberty.  The book had a hidden history, the bookplate shows it was a gift to a young woman, in 1967. It was a history book, that is a history of itself. 

What brought a sense of relief this week? It took over a week, but my Mac rebuilt my photo archive - messed up by a recent operating system upgrade. There are over 101,000 images in the file. 

Where am I headed? San Antonio Texas for an American Bar Association Senior Lawyers Division meeting. 

 

Travel Tuesday: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to get out of the house for a few hours while some maintenance was being done. I hopped the subway into the city, and spent a couple of hours in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I was there when the museum first opened for the day, and had an hour or so, before the children descended with the accompanying cacophony of noise. I would pay to have a couple of hours of silence in a couple of the museums.