Reader Letter of the Week!
I’ve been savoring “Undaunted Optimist” like a bottle of Whistepig Bourbon (best I’ve personally had). Too good to drink all at once, yet too good to stop drinking.
I hit the exacta tonight with Mick Jagger’s heart valve (mine came from pig) and Charles Bronson’s “mom.” I’m going to savor those two for awhile, no matter how much I’m tempted to have “just one more sip.”
Jim Saunders, Bovard, PA
Today’s theme: Plant/Garden
Colorful Living Tip of the Day …
Spend a warm spring afternoon planting tree saplings scattered along vacant land you pass every day on your way to work. Enjoy monitoring their growth during traffic jams.
Plant/Garden …
• Understand the chances of getting rope aficionados to call themselves "Knotsies" are the same as getting florists to call themselves petalphiles.
• If we can make a Twinkie whose taste will endure through a nuclear winter how come we can’t make a vegetable that tastes like a Twinkie?
• I’m on the verge of proving once and for all my office plants are talking to one another. But every time I get close enough to record the conversation the bully ficus says, "Shut up! Here he comes again!" I'll not rest until I get conclusive evidence. Won't work either.
• “… and on the seventh day, He rested." See, God may have created Heaven and Earth, but in His infinity wisdom He knew better than to create a lawn that would need mowing every Sunday.
(Un)Related(s) …
• It’s rare to find an ice cube that's actually cubic. In fact, most ice is rhombus shaped. It's ironic, but saying ice rhombus wouldn't sound cool even though it's all ice ... Had to get that off my chest.
• The world will be better off if we get away from TVs that have 1,000 channels with 20 that broadcast news 24/7 and get back to TVs that have 20 channels with one that seems to broadcast Gilligan 24/7.
• I do not like eating outside. I do not like heat. I do not like noise. I do not like sharing my meal with things that sting. History lesson: Outside is the reason man invented inside.
Zeitgust Word of the Week (a word I made up with the goal of getting it into an actual dictionary) …
Comatoes: The act of one’s foot falling asleep, uncommonly known as the medical condition, parasthesia
So how did “Undaunted Optimist” get its name? Here’s a 3:41 video explanation of how the title evolved.
Related blog post …
“I lose this year’s annual grass cutting contest,” (from ’17)
Spring is when Mother Nature puts on her makeup, all purple, scarlet, pink and green. But the dominant color at my yard Sunday was yellow. Like a chicken. Or a really big man peep. I cut the grass — and it wasn’t even waist high. Regular readers are aware of my annual competition with my old buddy Paul to see which of us can be the last to cut our respective lawns.We do it for the environment, for the inspiration and because, gee, not cutting the grass gives us more free time to watch things like major league baseball about four months before major league baseball games become even marginally meaningful.
Oddly enough …
“When rabid beavers attack” (Sept. ‘12)
When I read the story of the relentless rabid beaver I thought, man, the Steelers could have used a couple of them against Peyton Manning and the Broncos last night. In fact, I urge the Steelers to consider changing the name of the team from The Pittsburgh Steelers to The Pittsburgh Rabid Beavers. “Here we go, Beavers! Here we go!” I’ve never heard of a creature so fierce. Allow me to summarize. Lillian Peterson, a Falls Church, Va., granny, was finishing a recreational lake swim when she felt a sharp pain gnawing at her ankle.
Concluding words …
• Why did the grass farmer cross the road? To get to the other sod.
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