Picoftheweek

Picoftheweek
Waaaaaaaay too many to count...

My Statement

"Let me emphatically say that I am not anti-Facebook (Fleecebook), anti-smart phone, anti-Microsoft, anti-Apple, anti-Google or anti-Internet. I do believe, though, that the consumer is being ripped off of his privacy, identity and purchase history. We are being herded into a Facebook corner where what we "Like" and where we go physically and on the net will be scrutinized and sold numerous times to actually corrode and erode our culture while tempting us only with convenience, high tech and flashing video screens. The unsuspecting consumers need to be aware..." - Gary Lapman

Quote of Note

“If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”-W.C. Fields

"For the strength of the Wolf is in the Pack, and the strength of the Pack is in the Wolf." - Rudyard Kipling

"Common sense is not so common. " -Voltaire

“Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, but only character endures.” - Matthew McConaughey

"In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him"

"Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason" - Jerry Seinfeld

"Fleecebook is free, you (and your identity) is the product!" - Gary Lapman


"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves." - Eric Sevareid

"'Smart' phones are only smart for the cell phone providers!" - Gary Lapman

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.” -Albert Einstein

"Technology creates the illusion of companionship without the intimacy of friendship." - unknown

"No worry, there's an app for that..." - Gary Lapman

Friday, September 27, 2013

To there and back again...

So having returned from my recent trip to Massachusetts, I can, with exact certainty, claim that driving in Boston should be forbidden. My first foray into attempting to drive and park in Boston was four years ago. This time we are better equipped with smart phones and a GPS unit and (honestly) it made no difference. Only a small portion of the streets of Boston have signage, and even some of those are covered by foliage. Having a unit tell you to turn at "ABC Street" doesn't do any good it you can't read a street sign (if there was one). Fortunately, we were smart enough not to even attempt parking this time.

Riding the "T" [subway] is the way to go. If it isn't within walking distance from the T, we just don't go there. That would make the visit to Boston soooo much better.

Great food, great arts, great history and for the most part, great people. It is a very interesting area to visit.

The original plan was to attend a family wedding in East Hampton, but the plan morphed into much more. We also lunched with cousins on my side of the family [in Harvard Square], visited JFK Library and the Commonwealth Archives [to see an original copy of the Declaration of Independence], visited the marathon bombsite, visited Concord [by canoeing to the North Bridge], 




then visiting Sleepy Hollow Cemetery [the graves of Henry Thoreau (1862), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1864), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1882) and Louisa May Alcott (1888)],  then on to Lexington, Walden Pond, and Kendall Square to stay with good friends.

The friends we stayed with lived on the sixteenth floor with fantastic views from each window:
 

  Mindful of recent events and where we were, the location of the marathon finish [and therefore, the unthinkable] was still clearly marked:




All in all, excepting the airplane flights [which is a whole 'nuther story], it was a very full, fruitful and enjoyable trip.  Even reading a good book ["Still Foolin' Em" by Billy Crystal] did not redeem the poor quality of the flights....


Anagrams

Dormitory .................................. Dirty Room

Evangelist................................. Evil's Agent

Desperation.............................. A Rope Ends It

The Morse Code..................... Here Come Dots

Slot Machines......................... Cash Lost in 'em

Animosity................................ Is No Amity

Mother-in-law..........................Woman Hitler

Snooze Alarms........................ Alas! No More Z's

Alec Guinness......................... Genuine Class

Semolina................................... Is No Meal

The Public Art Galleries......... Large Picture Halls, I Bet

A Decimal Point...................... I'm a Dot in Place

The Earthquakes.................... That Queer Shake

Eleven plus two..................... Twelve plus one

Contradiction......................... Accord not in it