Clio Cafe, Salisbury, MO

“The land where Salisbury is now located was first owned by Prior Bibo, a veteran of the War of 1812, in the late 1820s. A tract of 320 acres was granted to Bibo by the U.S. government as a bonus for his military service. Following two intermediate owners, the land was sold for $400 to Judge Lucius Salisbury in 1856. He had surveyors lay out the town plat in 1857, and the town was founded on April 1, 1867. The city has had a post office since 1863, when Judge Salisbury opened it in his home. He also ran the stagecoach stop from his business, known as “Shop-A-While.” (Wikipedia)

If you care about your thoughts, keep them

From an article by Derek Sivers on the benefits of a daily diary:

“Years from now you might be looking back, wondering if you were as happy or as sad as you remember during this time. […] We so often make big decisions in life based on predictions of how we think we’ll feel in the future, or what we’ll want. Your past self is your best indicator of how you actually felt in similar situations. So it helps to have an accurate picture of your past. […] You can’t trust distant memories. But you can trust your daily diary. It’s the best indicator to your future self (and maybe descendants) of what was really going on in your life at this time.”

Freedom Points

“Every time you generate data, in whatever form, you accrue more Freedom Points. Some data is more valuable than other, so points would be ranked accordingly: a trip to Moscow, say, would be worth a million times more points than your trip to the 7-Eleven. Well then, what do Freedom Points allow you to do? They would allow you to exercise your freedom, your rights and your citizenship in fresh modern ways: points could allow you to bring extra assault rifles to dinner at your local Olive Garden restaurant. A certain number of Freedom Points would allow you to erase portions of your criminal record — or you could use Freedom Points to remove hours from your community service. The thing about Freedom Points is that if you think about them for more than 12 seconds, you realise they have the magic ring of inevitability. The idea is basically too dumb to fail. The larger picture is that you have to keep generating more and more and more data in order to embed yourself ever more deeply into the global community. In a bold new equation, more data would convert into more personal freedom.”

Imaginary use of data from a 2015 article by Douglas Coupland

Vocabulary

I can think of a couple of reasons why someone might use emoji (yes, I drop a smiley face when I’m in a hurry). They think they are fun/cute; they want to express a feeling or emotion and don’t have time (or are embarrassed) to just say it. This got me wondering if there is any correlation between vocabulary and use of emoji and that got me thinking about my vocabulary.

According to TestYourVocabulary.com I probably know the meaning of 31,400 words. Most native English adult speakers who have taken the test fall in the range 20,000–35,000 words.

Trivia

“In the 1960s, nostalgic college students and others began to informally trade questions and answers about the popular culture of their youth. The first known documented labeling of this casual parlor game as “Trivia” was in a Columbia Daily Spectator column published on February 5, 1965.” (Wikipedia)

By the early 70’s “Trivia” had really caught on with my crowd. We prided ourselves on knowing the names of all of the actors in the Superman TV series and, initially, the only way to know this was to watch the credits and remember. No easy way to “look it up.” But by the early-to-mid 70’s trivia books were being published.

“The People’s Almanac was a series of three books published in 1975, 1978 and 1981 by David Wallechinsky and his father Irving Wallace, the novelist responsible for co-authoring the series The Book of Lists. The format of the almanac departs from a conventional almanac and included many obscure facts, lists and esoteric knowledge.” (Wikipedia)

In 1977 the first Book of Lists was published, one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace. Each book contains hundreds of lists (many accompanied by textual explanations) on unusual or obscure topics, for example:

  • Famous people who died during sexual intercourse
  • The world’s greatest libel suits
  • People suspected of being Jack the Ripper
  • Worst places to hitchhike
  • People misquoted by Ronald Reagan
  • Breeds of dogs which bite people the most, and the least

Trivial Pursuit (the game) came out in 1979 but it never caught on with our crew. Too… structured. Our trivia sessions were more free-form, sort of nerd rap.

During my radio period I co-hosted a daily talk show and once a month we brought in a couple of other folks and opened up the phone lines for trivia questions from listeners (Trivia Bowl). I can’t imagine how trivia could still be a thing in a world of Google and mobile phones. But it was fun while it lasted.

Keys

This jar of keys is a family heirloom, handed down from grandfather to father to son. Most of the keys, as I understand the story, were to apartment doors and mailboxes. The family owned apartment buildings and when a tenant got locked out the landlord would come with this jar of keys and and try them, one at a time, until he found the right key. At some point family members tried to bring a little order to this chaos by numbering the keys but the system never caught on. Somewhere — in a door or a landfill — there are locks for each of these keys.

New iPhone camera flatters

When I look back at photos of my father, they tend to fall into two categories: solemn and goofy. His smiles often looked more like a grimace. The best photos of him are the the serious poses. Like pop, I’ve tended to mug for the camera for most of my adult life. I’m not one of those people who hate having their photo taken and readily concede that every one of them was “me” at that moment.

At 70, the camera shows me an old man that cannot possibly be me. The imaginary me that looks out of these eyes is a young guy. Who is that geezer in the mirror?! But maybe that will pass and the inner me will get comfortable with the guy walking around in this skin. Barb took this photo (with her iPhone X).

Stickers

I had some folks in China make me some stickers. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with them when I placed the order but I’ve found a couple of spots. I put one on the back of my phone case with the thought that if I misplaced the phone, a finder wouldn’t have anyway of contacting me (assuming they wanted to return the phone). I could have put an email address on the case but I figured I’d just give the website a plug.

I stuck another one on the “Smoker’s Friend” on the sidewalk outside my local coffee shop. Inevitably I’m sitting down wind of the smokers taking those last few desperate tokes before ditching their smoke. Sort of a 21st century Kilroy Was Here.