Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

Last evening I was privileged to attend a performance by Daniel Rodriguez, the "Singing Cop." Rodriguez became widely known in the aftermath of the horrendous attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I am not much of a fan of vocalists, so I was not particularly enthusiastic about attending last night’s event. I had the idea that Rodriguez was just a cop who happened to have a nice voice, and I was surprised and delighted to learn that he had been seriously studying music since he was ten years old. And it shows. He has been blessed with a voice that one expects to be associated with an Italian name such as Caruso or Lanza, but his heritage is Puerto Rican, and he has trained with some of the finest teachers in New York . He performed in Carnegie Hall at the age of 17. With a repertoire ranging from the sentimental style of Be My Love   to Nelson Eddy’s Stout Hearted Men , the range and power of Rodriguez’s voice is amazing. If ...

Just as individuals need to be nudged into paths of proper behavior, so to do organizations. In individuals, this task is performed by a conscience; Sister Evelyn Houlroyd, who passed away on October 15th, performed that function at Luther Acres. Born 89 years ago in Trenton , New Jersey , sister Evelyn moved to our community 10 years ago. At a young age she became a deaconess in the Lutheran Church in preference to becoming a teacher. It is safe to say she has been dedicating her entire life to Christ. Never bashful in presenting her opinions, when she rose to speak at any meeting, the other attendees could be sure of two things: (1) Her deliberate and forthright Sunday School Teacher’s delivery was going to take a little time and, (2) somewhere along the way we had strayed and needed to be brought back onto what she felt was the correct path. Whether a new conscience will soon appear at Luther Acres remains to be seen; it is a sure bet that it will not come from another Sist...

One of the people we met on our recent trip was Sandy Balla, a history major and Hudson River buff. Sandy, who lives in the area, was hired by the cruise line to give us information about the sights we were seeing, and she is very good at the job. Whether it was West Point, Catskill or any other location along the route from NYC to Troy , Sandy was up to date with her knowledge. She knew not only the history of the locations we visited; she also told us about the current local economy, as well as prior to the settlement by the Dutch and English;  the relations of the current and ancient populations with each other, and the names and works of local painters and artisans who did so much to popularize the region. She also told us stories and legends, e.g. Rip Van Winkle , during times when some of us had idle time aboard ship. Her knowledge and enthusiasm, and the professionalism with which she imparted it, did much to make the trip more meaningful and pleasant. She also told...

Well, I am back from my timeout. We cruised up the Hudson river for six days, saw a lot of beautiful foliage and met some really nice people. I will write more about that later, and perhaps put some of my 212 pictures on line. We sailed from New York City to Troy and back. Naturally we had to get to New York , so we took the train. (Why do we say, “We took the train?” The train actually took us, but if I say, “The train took us,” it doesn’t sound right. I guess it’s one of those idiosyncrasies of the English language.) Anyway, from 1948 to 2006 I rode the train only one time; since then I have had three train rides. Since then we have taken cruises out of Boston , Baltimore and New York , and if you are taking trip of up to say, eight hours, I highly recommend the train, especially if you do not have to change trains along the way. There is no traffic and no frustration. And it’s relatively inexpensive – the round trip tickets for two from Lancaster to New York cost just $...

“Why food?” I recognized the voice immediately. I turned around, and there he sat, in full chef regalia, on my love seat. Although I had not seen Hookie for quite some time, I was not particularly surprised that he was there. I have known him practically all my life; he was my imaginary friend when I was three years old. Eventually he disappeared for a long time, but for the past several years he has occasionally shown up wearing a costume apropos to whatever subject he felt like discussing at the moment. Obviously, this time it was food. “Hookie,” I said. “What about food?” “Why is it that whenever we meet with other people, we have to have food? On a date, attending a movie, playing cards, whenever we get together with someone else, we have to have food? Why can’t we just sit and talk, or walk in the park together, or take a long drive in the country? Even when we meet someone to discuss a business deal, we prefer to do it over lunch.” The only thing I could think of to say...

This blog is rated PG 14. Let me present a brief physical picture of the universe. Astronomers estimate that it contains about 100 billion galaxies. Each galaxy is estimated to contain between 10 million and one trillion stars. Assuming an average of 500 billion stars per galaxy, that means that the total number of stars in the universe is somewhere around 5 x 10 22 stars. That is 5 followed by 22 zeros, and in words it is fifty sextillion stars. Suppose one in a million of those stars has a planet capable of supporting intelligent life. That figures out to one in five followed by 16 zeros. Would you buy a lottery ticket that you had a one in 5 x 10 16 (1 in fifty quadrillion) chance of winning? Now consider that the nearest star to the earth, Proxima Centauri , is over four light-years away; someone coming from that star would have to travel as fast as a beam of light to get here in 4.2 years! And that star is not known to have any planets. Practically all stars are so far...

About ten years ago Barbara bought me a crossword puzzle book. Except for a short time when I was in grade school, I had never been much interested in crosswords. However, by 1999 I had been retired for about five years, and I guess she thought I needed something else to do. And she was right – I was hooked. The local newspaper runs two puzzles each day, and I almost always work both of them. As for the New York Times Sunday Puzzle, I sometimes spend days on it; for example, last week I finished it on Wednesday. And sometimes I have to give up and look at the answer. I really don’t think it’s fair to include foreign words and phrases in American puzzles, but the Times’ editors apparently do. I believe the reason I love crosswords is because I love words. While I was in the Army in 1947, I had lots of time to read, and it was during that time that I came across S. I. Hayakawa’s book, Language In Action, which was a book of the month selection in 1941. A sequel, Language In Thoug...

President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. Throughout the world the announcement was greeted by varying responses; some hailed the selection because of his efforts to present a new picture of America , and his stated determination to pursue dialogue instead of saber rattling; others asked the question, “What has he accomplished?” I confess that I understand the rationale for both lines of thought. But I also understand the Nobel committee’s comment. "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future." As to be expected, the Taliban, with which America is in the midst of an eight year war, condemned the award, saying: We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan . He has not taken a single step for peace in Afghanistan or to make this country stable… We condemn the award of the Noble Peace Prize for O...

Pennsylvania has a new budget, and it’s only 101 days late! It’s the last state budget in the country to be completed! What a distinction. The geniuses that represent us in Harrisburg knew a year ago that the budget was required by law to be complete by June 30; actually they know it’s due by that date every year. At the speed with which they operate, they should immediately start on the one that’s due June 30, 2010. Twice during the deliberations they had an agreement between the factions, and both times the agreement was abrogated. I understand that each representative needs to adhere to his principles – they are what got him elected. By  the same token, he needs to set some priorities. If people are hurting, do you bend your principles a bit? At what point does standing by your principles become stubborn and shortsighted? How do you reconcile principles with priorities? The interesting thing is that Pennsylvania has the largest legislature of any state, but the delib...

Barbara and I just returned from grocery shopping, and as I was pushing the cart down the aisles, I had a thought, “What would Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson say if they could have the opportunity to prowl these aisles?” In order to better understand where these thoughts came from, I am going to adapt a scene from the book which you see illustrated to the right of where you are reading. Speaking about the book, it really is coming soon. It is finished, but the publisher and I can’t seem to get together on the printing of the cover. I swear it is coming soon, and after the problems we have had, I am getting very good at swearing. Anyway, I am going to compare two hypothetical trips to the store – one in 1809 and the other in 2009. A Trip To the Store - 1809 Smith 1 discovered that he needed to go to the store for some salt. Since going to the store was quite a project, he made a list of everything else he needed in order to get it all done in one trip. After selecting the ...

The next time you log on to the internet, or watch DTV, think of Charles Kao. It was his discovery of how to transmit light signals through glass fibers that led to these and other technological marvels in communications. When you use your digital camera the next time, thank Willard Boyle and George Smith for their invention of the camera “eye,” which turns light into electrical signals. As the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences declared upon awarding these three men the Nobel prize in physics, they are “the masters of light” whose work “helped to shape the foundations of today’s networked societies.” We have done some wonderful things with their marvelous achievements: instant messaging and live news reports from anywhere in the world, transoceanic phone calls for pennies, remarkably clear pictures without film and quantum leap advancements in astronomy, to name a few. And of course we have created the dark side: pornography on demand, sexting, résumé-killing MySpace photos...

I am having a difficult time understanding what the problem is with fixing our present health care system. When Benjamin Franklin helped form the first fire insurance company in 1752, all policy holders paid the same premium in to the company. When any individual suffered a fire, the company reimbursed him for his loss. It was a simple idea, and it worked. There was no thought of earning a profit. Why should there be? As I understand it, the function of an insurance company is to process claims. Period. It is supposed to be a mutual thing, designed for the benefit of the policy holders. Make a profit for helping people? Give me a break! Did the good Samaritan send a bill for helping the injured stranger? No, he actually paid the innkeeper to look after the man. I realize that capitalists do not do things that way, but we are not talking about a product here; we are talking about promoting the general welfare as spelled out in the Preamble to the Constitution. There is a lot of h...

In 1930 the object, Pluto, was discovered in orbit around the sun. In the latter part of the 19 th century it had been suggested that the orbit of the planet Neptune was being disturbed by another planet. Percival Lowell, who founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff , Arizona began searching for this theoretical planet in 1906, but it was not discovered until 14 years after Lowell ’s death in 1916. Until 2006 Pluto was considered to be the 9 th planet in the solar system, although its status had been questioned after the discovery of the more massive object, Chiron, in the late 1970s. In 2006 the International Astronomical Union defined the word “planet,” and according to the new definition, Pluto was demoted to “dwarf” planet, a category that includes any objects similar to Pluto. Pluto has been a regular planet for so long, however,  that its demotion has caused a huge controversy, not only among astronomers, but also within the general population. Now McDonalds UK h...

A few days ago the Philadelphia Phillies won their third straight National League East championship; a feat they also managed in 1978. The playoffs start in a few days. Although they were ahead most of this season, the team’s sometimes iffy performance had their fans on pins and needles much of the time. They have always had great fans. Rowdy and raucous, they were always ready to cheer good performance, and also to ver-boo-ly let the team know when performance was not up to expectations. But their loyalty never wavered. And how has the team repaid them? They have won the World Series twice: once in 1980 and again in 2008. It’s not hard to stick with a winner, but the Phillies fans deserve a special tribute because of some of the more trying times. A few examples follow: 1.)                           Phillies fans are forced to listen to sportscaste...