New View Askew

Outdoor Kissing is Here Today!" “In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love” Locksley Hall  Alfred, Lord Tennyson A tisket, a tasket A special Mayday edition - who knew that May was so full of fun and interesting factoids.  May 1, 1952 – Mr. Potato Head is introduced. (Not much later Mrs. Potato Head was created from one of his "eyes".) May 3, 1978 – Digital Equipment Corporation sends the first bulk unsolicited commercial emails… spam is born! (The CEO was tried and convicted posthumously for his crimes against humanity.) May 4, 1964 – Soap operas “Another World” and “As the World Turns” premiere.  (Coincidently, Valium was created the year before so now with “mother’s little helper” and soap operas, millions of housewives could get through the day in the 60’s.) May 4, 1970 (The year I graduated from the Harvard of the North - much t o everyone's dismay. ) At Kent State University, four students were killed by National Guardsmen who op

  Demographics are Destiny Mea culpa:  You know, i n all honesty I have been following this demographic time bomb for years, even while I was still working, but never believed it would happen. I was wrong.  Update 4/14 - As luck would have it, in today's Star Tribune was an another article by the columnist mentioned below about demographics. In this one he points out that contrary to popular belief, Minnesota is actually gaining people over 65. It's losing younger people that is hurting us. Taxes, schmaxes!  Unless you’ve been in a coma (or maybe retired) the last several years, you’ve seen or heard about the growing worker shortages.  “58%  of survey respondents found hiring to be “very” or “extremely” challenging.” RSM Consultants “Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, says the United States has a "structural labor shortage" that’s unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.”   “The US Chamber of Commerce claims there are over 10 million job openings in the US for whi

  Right between the Ides of March and St Patty's day - perfect! Our MENSA Club celebrating a very different spring day - Apr, 6 yrs ago (True masters of the Y chromosome as you'll see later . . .) I was looking for something  different  and  light this month, appropriate for a spring day.  I have several pages of ideas for blog posts and/or commentaries for the newspaper  but everything seems too   heavy or philosophical, just not right for the occasion. So I say to myself, "Come on Dear Leader, it’s spring (and has been for quite a while this marvelous winter) so lighten up." Then it dawned on me: I have a deep catalogue of posts going back almost 20 years. Surely, I wasn’t a pedantic bore in ALL of them.  Yahoo, I wasn’t! (Pedantic, that is.) I found several from some years ago that I think fill the bill with a combo of  science,  humor and brilliant insights into human nature that I hope you find entertaining. (Or at least not too boring.)  Note: I have taken some

  An Old Guy’s View of the School Controversy    One parents' view As the Florence Nightingale of Bryn Mawr  I go about my duties quietly and without complaint, slaving night and day to make Mrs DL comfortable after her surgery. In fact, I actually made a meal the other day with three different ingredients that did NOT include water, wieners and beans! That said, I feel I can take a break from my caregiving to share some deep thoughts (from a shallow mind?) about the current state of education in the US. There was an article in the Star and Sickle back on 1/21 regarding the Anoka-Hennepin school board and their difficulty in selecting a president due to conflicting views of the board members. If you haven't been paying attention, this is just the latest example of a phenomenon not just here in Minnesota but across the country. Ostensibly it is about how much input parents should have to their kid’s curricula. While that is certainly part of it, I believe it is also a proxy for