Even if nobody asked…..
1. My parents called me by my MIDDLE name, Dean. On the first day of every school year I was called by that ill-fitted first name (can you guess it?), so during attendance I became the first kid every year to actually speak to the teacher: “Call me Dean”. Well, I have a friend from those school years, David Correia, who often says those three precious words using my high-pitched prepuberty voice when he introduces or greets me. He even raises his hand, but only halfway. Dave thinks it’s hilarious. If I die before he does you can count on hearing it about 100 times at my wake and funeral.
2. Storm surge TOTALS, formally known as storm surge LEVELS, are now suddenly storm surge VALUES. You’re on TV and you went to college. Got it.
3. “A city without a wall is a city not at all.” Neither is one without Uber Black.
4. So who has the right of way, the customer shopping for grocery’s at Whole Foods or the army of Amazon pickers filling online orders? It’s become the Dodgeball game of retail experiences. Time to wear a helmet and shoulder pads.
5. I recently read The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. He also wrote the Great Santini. Both became acclaimed movies (in spite of Babs Streisand). Both are about the same guy, the same identical family. I. Did. Not. Know. That. Did you?
6. Maybe it’s time we stopped naming hurricanes after people. It clearly gives them an ego. I say we name them with profanity. Hurricane Shithead sounds good, or how about Hurricane…. OK, I should stop typing now.
7. When you and I say COMMUNITY we mean our neighbors and friends. When a politician says community they mean VOTING BLOCK. The disconnect starts right there and only gets worse.
8. “The real leader is the one who can solve the problems, bear the burdens, find the solutions, and win the victories when everyone else is merely flustered, confounded, and perplexed.” You sure you want to lead?
9. Aiming for the “simple life” is hard because we have an ETERNAL number of things we can do but only a FINITE life to do them in. Best to accept there is no “getting there” in life. The road itself is the getting there.
10. At a Gala in Boston last weekend, attendees placed tokens in a jar representing the charity of their choice. The charity landing the most tokens wins the max donation. My wife is on the board of one of those charity’s. Can the reader guess how this went down? Well, I’ll tell you. Trish stands aside a gentlemen heading to the table and reaches out for HIS tokens, offering to put them in HER jar of choice. She does this in a red-carpet outfit and a magazine cover smile. The stunned man pulls his token satchel back like he was facing a possible mugger and tells her he can handle it himself. She chuckles, puts a soft hand on his shoulder and says, “Oh good, I’ll go with you to show you where to put them.” I don’t need to tell you which charity landed the big donation, do I?
Thank you as always for putting up with my rants. Feel free to comment or share.