• Today, July 21, 2011, the Atlantis space shuttle landed on Earth, ending its mission and that of the shuttle program. Probably not coincidentally, July 21, 1969 is when Apollo 11 astronauts walked on the Moon. Here is what I have to say about this: why do we call it “The Moon” instead of simply “Moon”?
• Steve McQueen, were he still alive, would be 81 today. Judy Garland, were she still alive, would be 89 today. Albert Einstein, were he still alive, would be 132 today. Hammurabi, were he still alive, would be 3,821 today, and many Republicans would vote for him.
• Willie Mays was a better and more exciting ball-player than his godson, Barry Bonds.
• Strange But True, 2025 Edition: Did you know that various story-tellers and humorists created small, rectangular drawings, usually featuring continuing characters and dialogue, and these were printed daily in something called a “newspaper”. How weird is that!
• One item I never order when dining out is linguine and white clam sauce. This is because no restaurant has ever outdone my wife’s version of this dish. I asked my wife to share her secret, and she said, “No, not going to tell you.” So you will have to visit to enjoy it.
As of today, I no longer have a cell phone. No one was calling me (and vice versa) so why pay $20 a month to have this object sit on the shelf?
Cancelling my service was an experience. When I told the store agent I wanted to shut off my phone, he gave me that “What planet are you from?” look. You know that look when you get it, especially when you’re near 60 and the look-giver is 25. No surprise, then, that the agent wanted to call “the main office” and have me talk to them in person to complete the transaction. The phone rep was as shocked as the agent, asking me not once but twice, why do I want to cancel? Do I have another phone? What was I going to do instead?
I lived 50 years without a cell phone. I can manage.
P.S. We also cancelled Netflix. And I’m looking into TV antennas.