{"id":18082,"date":"2018-09-27T01:51:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T05:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=18082"},"modified":"2022-08-01T07:42:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:42:53","slug":"thoughts-at-large-58","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2018\/09\/thoughts-at-large-58\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts at Large: 58"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Some people “collect” experiences.\u00a0 For example, there are those whose goal is to attend a baseball game in every major league park<\/a> in a single season.\u00a0 There are those who wish to step foot on every continent<\/a>.\u00a0 One person’s mission was to visit a pub<\/a> next to each of the 270 underground stations in London.\u00a0 And one person, it seems, intends to view every one of the 110 films (and counting) in which Liam Neeson has performed.\u00a0 Indeed, I am now sort-of watching what may be either the 27th or 43rd or 71st of those films, along with the aforementioned person.\u00a0 I have nothing against Liam Neeson, mind you — he perfected the role of the sensitive, tough-under-fire problem-solver extraordinaire, the very trait that my co-watcher admires in me.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I never served in the armed forces.\u00a0 Everything I know (and don’t know) about serving in the armed forces comes from films.\u00a0 If I were to believe how military service is depicted in modern films, I would conclude that only the baddest of the bad-asses, or those who want to become bad-asses, need apply.\u00a0 Compare this image with those who served in (and won) World War II: factory workers and salesmen, florists and actors, plumbers and painters.\u00a0 Everyday guys, your dad and mine.\u00a0 At least that is what I learned from those John Wayne and Robert Mitchum films.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Why is train travel not very popular in the United States?\u00a0 For the answer, consider this: when a film calls for its hero to become trapped and hurtle near-powerlessly to his demise, what vehicle is chosen as his conveyance?\u00a0 Elephant?\u00a0 Rickshaw?\u00a0 Segway?\u00a0 No — train.\u00a0 People distrust trains in films and for good reason: they are enormously heavy, have tons of momentum and ride slippery rails.\u00a0 All that romantic clickety-clack is just a distraction from the high-speed havoc underfoot.<\/p>\n

\u2022 When a Cheerio falls onto the floor, I leave it there — it may help save a drowning ant.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I just opened a gallon of milk whose container insists that I should have consumed it several days ago.\u00a0 I think the fact that I bought the milk before it expired and took it home and kept it nice and cold before I opened it should count for something.\u00a0 Ungrateful milk.\u00a0 We’ll see whether it seeks revenge.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It is probably wiser to let words flow like wine than the other way around — but this may depend on how one chooses her words.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I need to read more Nietzsche.\u00a0 I may not agree with even half of his aphorisms but I did appreciate this one: “Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.<\/em>”\u00a0 Given the convictions of Congressional Republicans and the lies that emanate from the White House, it would seem that, together, they’ve got things covered.<\/p>\n

\u2022 So the Scrabble Gods have decreed that a few hundred words<\/a> that were already words will now count as words.\u00a0 They also decided OK<\/span><\/strong> will count as a word, even though it is not.\u00a0 I guess OK<\/span><\/strong> must have won the Scrabble Electoral College.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There are takers and partakers.\u00a0 Some of the latter are as intolerable as the former.<\/p>\n

\u2022 People’s final wishes are not so much wishes for themselves (since they won’t experience them) but the experience they would force upon whomever has to deal with their earthly remains.\u00a0 Making elaborate plans for others to carry out (my nostalgic wish was to have my ashes scattered in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh) is not very considerate.\u00a0 So, I say give your survivors a break — don’t direct them from the grave and don’t ask them to do gratuitous things.\u00a0 And I say to my loved ones, when I’m gone, do what works for you.\u00a0 You’ll know what that is, and we may all rest assured that I will not object.<\/p>\n

\u2022 All this rumination about final arrangements… it must be the milk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Some people “collect” experiences.\u00a0 For example, there are those whose goal is to attend a baseball game in every major league park in a single season.\u00a0 There are those who wish to step foot on every continent.\u00a0 One person’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts-at-large"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18082"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18189,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18082\/revisions\/18189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}