• Anyone who begins a sentence, “He has every right to say what he wants,” not only disagrees with what was said but thinks it was irresponsible to have said it.

• The 100 Billionth Person “I’m Not Sure How to Spell It but That’s Not Going to Stop Me from Saying It” Award goes to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reader James C. Ramunno for  describing a Pirate outfielder’s demeanor as laxadazacle.  This made my morning.

• Non-believers should not be so hard on religion.  More to the point, they should not be so selective in their opposition to religion.  After all, religion is only one of many systems that humans developed over the millennia to help us rationalize our irrational behavior.

• Some people head down Asshole Road without much of a push.

• Nothing makes people cry more reliably than reminding them of their lost youth.

• The older I get, the more I accept that the world will not on its own become what I would like it to be in my lifetime.  (Diagram that.)  For example, I don’t understand why people make paramount what is unimportant in practice — to wit, this Second Amendment fetish that many U.S. citizens so passionately express.  Why guns?  These are devices that launch projectiles with the intent of felling living things (or in the movies, blasting open locked doors).  I have never needed to use a gun.  For weeds I have Roundup; for ants there is Amdro.  With people, I can use words, or silence, or locks, or the police.  Sandy Hook notwithstanding, I don’t live in a world where I need a gun.  I don’t think you do either.

• In the end, as treasures, we have our families, our friends and ourselves.