Trackdown (Trump con man episode)

“Trackdown is an American Western television series starring Robert Culp that aired more than 70 episodes on CBS between 1957 and 1959. Trackdown was a spin-off of Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater. Trackdown stars Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. It is set in the 1870s after the American Civil War. In early episodes, stories focused on Gilman going to different Texas towns in pursuit of wanted fugitives.” (Wikipedia)

I was nine years old in 1957 and remember watching Trackdown every week (no binge-watching back then). In those days we watched everything but westerns were must-see TV. In a 1958 episode a con mand named Trump comes to down and warns people the world will be destroyed and only he can save them… by building a wall.

And the actor playing Trump in the episode… looks a little like Fred Trump (right).

Why the Land Rover Defender is so expensive in the US

“Used examples of the North American Spec (NAS) Defender can cost between $70,000 and $150,000 while the same car in Europe can be had for as little as $10,000.”  (CARSCOOPS)

When I started lusting for a Land Rover it was the Defender the turned my crank. I was completely unaware of the Series Rovers but SO glad I got nudged in that direction.

Experience Self vs. Memory Self

  • Being happy “in” you life, vs. being happy “about” your life
  • We don’t choose between experiences, we choose between memories of experiences
  • We don’t think of the future as experience, we think of the future as anticipated memories
  • Why do we give so much weight to memories, relative to the weight we give experiences?
  • We do not attend to the same things when we think about life and when we actually live.

Teaching Chinese


One morning I noticed a gentleman sitting on the other side of the coffee shop flipping through a big stack of 3×5 cards. It was obvious he was using them as flash cards so I took a peek and saw what I assumed were Chinese characters (pictographs?) I introduced myself and asked about the cards.

The man’s name is Landis Duffett and he teaches languages at one of the local high schools. Beginning this fall he will teach a couple of sections of Chinese and he’s using the cards to get ready.

A couple of days ago we chatted for a bit about how he got interested in teaching Chinese; how the language differs from others (Spanish, French, Germans, etc); and the growing influence of China in all areas. The video runs just over six minutes.