Ah, our wonderful wacky world…
Boy, just when you think you’ve got things all figured out, you pick up a magazine; this time it was This Week telling us Britain’s Essex University researchers have found, “an alternative treatment for mild depression that is cheaper and just as effective: spending time engaged in vigorous activity in the outdoors.”
Ah, the wonder of it, eh? All the money they spent on this “research” could be better spent helping those in need of help. I mean all they had to do in this case is was to phone any Yukoner.
It leads me to suggest on such “social” and other related matters, call a grandmother or a grandfather pretty well anywhere. It’s not just that they’ve been there, done that, they know!
Here’s an ultimate example of our how-to society: “How to calm a crying baby,” Here they are: “Swaddle him; turn him on his side; shush him; swing him; let him suck on your finger or a pacifier.”
Every mother and grandmother, and aunt, lots of dads, even some uncles I’ve known, knew that as naturally as walking. They absorbed it in daily family life, when there was regular family life, eh?
Now, I find, one of newest ways to relax is to munch on a caffeinated doughnut. A molecular biologist, a Dr. Bohannon, has apparently “microencapsulated” caffeine particles inside the doughnut, so, as he described it, he’s created a “buzzed” doughnut you don’t have to dunk.
What’s that old saying? The more things change the more they remain the same! Wacky and wonderful, and more variety in folk than you can shake a stick at. Kids for example.
The reason parents no longer lead their children in the right direction is because the parents aren’t going that way themselves. (attributed to Kin Hubbard 1868-1930)
Mischief makers par excellence …
Two brothers, aged eight and 10, are as mischievous as they come. If any mischief happens in their small town they’re likely involved. Their parents were at their wits end when mother heard about a preacher on the other side of town who’d been successful disciplining and changing the behaviour of boys.
The preacher asked to see them individually. The eight-year-old went first.
The preacher was a huge man and asked the boy in a booming voice, “Where is God?”
The boy sat speechless.
The minister hollered the question again.
The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran home and hid in his closet.
His older brother found him and asked what had happened.
The youngster, still gasping from his run, replied, “We’re in BIG trouble this time. God is missing and they think we did it!”
Never get mad at someone for knowing more than you do. It’s not her fault.
Birthdays, and other such stuff…
A young child asked a woman how old she was.
“Thirty-nine and holding,” she said.
The child thought a bit then asked, “And how old would you be if you let go?”
“I don’t go into the bush to rough it, I go there to smooth it.” (Anonymous)
Butlers are back…
I should qualify that since I have no idea if butlers have come and gone, or not. It’s just that This Week magazine had a two-page spread on the Butler Boom, telling us all that money rolling around the Western world has reinvigorated catering to the rich. Once considered dead-end service work — it’s now a hot career track.
Can you imagine working for any of those celebrities who are convinced that, as their wealth piles up, so does their wisdom. Then I remember what the Irish lady said about a neighbour she wasn’t too fond of: “Her? She only opens her mouth to let the wind blow her tongue around,” and then the world’s back on an even keel for a while.
A tip of the hat to our weird, wonderful, wacky, wobbly world. ‘Twas ever thus, or is it more so, now that we have more so?