• Those who are doomed to repeat the past may as well forget it.

• The Average American has 0.492 penises and 1.16 mammary glands, has a vocal pitch of 150 Hz (the E-flat below Middle C), watches the first half of The Walking Dead and then switches to the second half of Sunday Night Football, drives better than his or her spouse, and earns 89 cents for every dollar the Average American Man earns.

• One of my friends reposted this opinion opposing chivarly (to be read at your leisure).  My response is that everyday chivalry provides a framework by which I am able to do “little things” to show my spouse attention.  I am (and she is) as much a feminist as the next person.  If she didn’t appreciate the attention or felt offended by such gestures, then I wouldn’t do it and that would be the end of it.  The point is, how couples decide the favors they demonstrate to each other doesn’t have to be a dogmatic thing.  Some roles we play are traditional, others are not, but we are flexible and the number one thing is respect and love for each other, not adherence to an ism.

•  Something about me no one else knows: I like to play “Rain” on my car stereo when I’m taking it through the car wash.

• Girls born in France in October 2014 have a 50-50 chance of living long enough to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2100 at the Eiffel Tower.

• If only the behavior of complex social organisms were as predictable as the path traced by a projectile, such as a baseball thrown from an outfielder’s hand toward home plate.  The path of that baseball, once launched, is fully determined by the laws of physics.  Whether the runner racing toward home plate will be called safe or out depends on the ability of the catcher to predict the path of the baseball as it arcs toward him and then position himself so that he will be able to catch the ball and tag the runner with it before the runner reaches home.  The fact that we can do these kind of calculations in our heads says a lot about our mental capabilities, but it says even more about the predictability of physics, the umwelt we all take for granted.

• Speaking of baseball, something else that few people know about me: I have a replica Pittsburgh Pirates jersey that I wear when I attend Pirates games.  (I used to wear it on Halloween when we lived in a neighborhood with little kids, but that’s another story.)   Knowing my reverence for Roberto Clemente, my wife asked me why I did not have Roberto’s name and number (21) sewn onto the jersey.  First, I am not Roberto Clemente, second, I don’t deserve to wear his number, and third, millions of others think they do.

• Clemente is one of the few people (I cannot find the exact number) who has appeared on a U.S. postage stamp more than once.  I have original copies of both stamps.  I come across them from time to time, admire them and then wonder why I save them, my little shrine-in-a-drawer.  I could self-examine this to death or just accept it as part of being human, and for now I choose the latter.