1. Now that students have returned to colleges and universities, I thought it would be appropriate to see what courses are presently being offered in this country. The following caught my eye:
· On Being Bored - Brown University
· Wasting Time on the Internet – University of Pennsylvania
· How to Win a Beauty Contest – Oberlin College
· Tree Climbing – Cornell University
· Tattoos, Piecing and Body Adornment – Pitzer College
· The American Vacation – University of Iowa
2. The Pennsylvania 2016-2017 budget is due in about 10 months --- to my elected representatives, please start working on it now because your track record of agreeing, uh, compromising on a state budget isn’t the best. Seriously, I am that naïve to think that grown men and women can’t sit at the same table and hammer out a compromise? The more polarized we have gotten and the more we blame the “other side”, the more we will continue down this path of no communication.
3. I was sorry to see Chase Utley of the Phillies be traded last week. Gone are the days of the professional athlete playing their entire career with one team. It was a class act by Chase taking out a full page in the Philadelphia Daily News on Monday thanking the fans and the city of Philadelphia for their brotherly love. My fondest memory of Chase was watching him play in game 3 of the world series in 2009 with my son Andrew.
4. From blogs to vines, social media has certainly changed communication. Let’s talk a walk back in time through the social media history, shall we? (history taken from the book Breaking Through by Kevin Sullivan):
· 1999 – term blog was coined
· 2001 – Wikipedia was launched
· 2003 – MySpace arrived
· 2004 – Podcasts and Flickr began
· 2005 – The year that You Tube started
· 2006 – Facebook opened up to everyone over age 13 (FB was founded in 2004)
· 2007 – Twitter became mainstream
· 2007 – the iPhone changed how we communicate
· 2010 – Pinterest became popular
· 2010 – Instagram went live (FB purchased it in 2013)
· 2011 – The Flip camera was no longer produced
· 2013 – Snapchat became widely popular in 2013
· 2015 – Vine reports 1.5 billion loops per day (began in 2013)
5. “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.” - Terence Mann Field of Dreams (1989). Good luck Red Land (Lewisberry, York Co., PA) in the Little League Baseball World Series.
6. This coming Saturday, August 29, will be 10 years that Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast, most notably the city of New Orleans. The citizens of that region showed tremendous resolve in the days, months and years following the devastation. What struck me about how they reacted to Katrina’s aftermath was their unity in facing hardship. They didn’t rebuild alone – they sought each other’s help. When facing the storms of life, seek family and friends to get you through the rough times. I am reminded by the verse Ecclesiastes 4:12 (Message Bible) that reads, " By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.” Even people who are not religious can find meaning in this verse.
7. Howard Stern on Donald Trump’s candidacy: “I'll tell you why I think he's going to be the nominee: he's proven that no matter what he says, people dig him…But I think more or less, people are super tired of politicians, meaning that they like the idea of a successful businessman running the country who might actually be able to get (stuff) done. But the problem with it is, and Donald Trump will find this, being the president isn't like being the president like a corporation. You still got to go through Congress for everything you want to do and that's the tough part. You've got to be one who can consolidate on both sides of the aisle, you know, some sort of coalition and it's very difficult.”
8. In 1976, when I was 10, I would spend Saturday mornings in the fall watching television. The morning TV line-up is below. How many of these shows do you remember watching?
· 8:00 AM – Tom & Jerry / Grape Ape / Mumbley Show
· 8:30 AM – Bugs Bunny / Road Runner
· 9:00 AM – Jabberjaw
· 9:30 AM – Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
· 10:00 AM – Shazam and Isis
· 10:30 AM – The Krofft Supershow Hour
· 11:30 AM – Clue Club
· 12:00 PM – Junior Almost Anything Goes
· 12:30 PM – American Bandstand
9. Are you going to get the free "Pooductive" app for your iPhone? This app “…lets you chat with local and global strangers who are on the toilet, somewhere else in the world at the same time as you…think of it as a magical place where from around the globe can anonymously meet to enjoy their time of zen, peace and tranquility together, by conversing philosophizing and sharing ideas with each other.” By the way, this is a legitimate app that was released on the App store on August 15.
10. Last week, a truck carrying 80 pigs – destined for a place that makes bacon, pork chops and hot dogs - overturned on a highway ramp in Lancaster County. Several of the swine had to be euthanized after sustaining life-threatening injuries. Now PETA wants to erect a memorial to these fallen heroes near the site of the tragedy for a month. “This memorial is intended to remind tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals they carry to their deaths every year,” said Tracy Reiman, PETA's executive vice president in a press release. Not sure what to say about this, other than you can’t make this stuff up.
Have a great week everyone. God Bless.
Reedy-Right.Now.
#ExpectMore from your government