Why is right right?

A ponderable with the humor in the vein of Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin, here are responses to last week’s question, " Why is right right? ", my dad's beach buddy Bob wrote, "Only politically speaking, otherwise continuing to go right has you going in circles." My cousin Wes agreed, at least directionally, as he said, "If you go right enough, you will always be going the right direction. For example three rights make a left. So even if left is right, you can go left by making enough rights, and we all want to be right don't we?"

My birthday bud Jon concluded, "Because anything else would be wrong" which my weight losing friend Bruce simplified, "because wrong is wrong."

My cousin Valarie challenged, "What's left?" My friend Royce observed, "If you are a liberal, it's more like "left is right" which then gets into the age old question of whether you are a right or left brain person."

My writing and sailing friend Rich responded , "who says it's right? Sailors, being of a higher moral fiber, chose to use the non judgmental starboard."

My neighbor Al explained, "If the written right is not spoken right, it can lead one right down the primrose path. When one writes right they must ensure that the philosophical rite is considered. Not to be confused with the rite of passage. That would imply that the written right refers to the starboard side or towards the east when facing north. That would just be wrong."

My friend Chris shared, "Because that is the directions I was given on MapQuest...and they're always right...right?"

My friend Sandy, in her first contribution, wrote, "alphabetically, right comes after left, so when you line them up alphabetically, right is right. Right?"

And then my 3D cable friend Cheryl provided a musical solution, "If loving you is wrong I don't want to be right (in other words left out)."

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

       How do you know you've received an endless salad?

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Hal

How many texts do you need to send to make a textbook?

For comedy and humor in the vein of Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin, here are responses to last week’s question, "How many texts do you need to send to make a textbook?", my cousin Valarie shared her daughter Adare's response (Adare is my first cousin once removed), " 'only one, if you bind it--the word isn't textsbook.' She's bound to be right!" My dad's beach buddy Bob concurred, "Only one is needed to cover it all." Then my sailing friend Maria reach the same conclusion from a different angle when she wrote, " Windows Office has a program called OneNote that allows you to make notebooks…. if we use MS as a benchmark for all tech things… then one is enough…"

My CTAM friend Patrick observed "I’m not sure, but judging by my cell phone bill, I’m pretty sure my wife has written a few." My friend Tracey defined it as "More than a grandmother's and fewer than a teenager's." My cycling friend Ted noted, "Considering the average book is about 175 pages, most teenagers could send a textbook in about 1 math class."

While my friend Royce responded, "I'll text you about this tomorrow" and I'm still waiting, my friend Chris observed, "I would speculate that a textbook is for learning while texting is a form of conversation. I can't imagine using forms of conversation as a learning tool unless it is to show psychological analysis of behavior in society." My college roomie John added, "If done, the textbook would have many grammatical and spelling errors. Plus, how many shortcuts and made up words would it contain?"

And my friend Richard had the final word when he wrote, "Absolutely none. A textbook implies literacy. Texting typically is as far removed from literacy as a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle is from the Indianapolis 500."

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

      Why is right right?  

        (From my strategy session with my sailing friends Haim, John, David and Maria)

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Hal

PS: Congrats to Skipper Matt and new Admiral Julia, who, in style, just eloped on a beach in Bermuda.

What is a palooza?

In vein of Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin, here are responses to last week’s question, "What is a palooza?", my friend Swany concluded it was simply, "a pack of palookas." My friend Royce, however, believes "a palooza has to be a Polish sausage." And my birthday bud Jon thought "It’s like a lallapaplooza, only shorter. Or a horse with poor spelling."

My Parrothead friend Sam observed that "palooza is something you do with friends that 'oozes' fun... sweat... germs... screaming - take your choice!" My neighbor Dick was a bit more analytical when he wrote, "We must examine the parts of this word: pal (friend), ooza (from the Greek ouzo- potent drink). Put the words together and it means: 'My friend is a drunk Greek'."

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

       How many texts do you need to send to make a textbook?

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

When something seems questionable, why do we identify it with fish?

In response to last week’s question, "When something seems questionable, why do we identify it with fish?", my writing and sailing friend Rich concluded, "Smell. The question is why go to a seafood restaurant, order fish and then complain that it tastes too fishy?"

To the original question, my linguistics friend Eileen challenged, "How else are we going to know that the Gulf is clean?"

My cycling friend Ted concluded, "It all goes back to the questionable reputation of fisherman. Give a man a boat, and just watch how he behaves!! You'll see what I mean when you go sailing with Hal!"

My very worldly friend David "spends a lot of time around fish these days. Fresh/good fish smells that way, while fish that is even the slightest bit old or off simply stinks. There's no hiding the smell of bad fish. Of course, bad meat is no treat either, but it seems to take longer before real putrid-ness sets in. Speaking of something being fishy, see the attached photo I took last weekend. There's definitely something "fishy" about this scene: Seagulls aren't birds of prey. Even a big one like this wouldn't normally catch a live 16" bass. Most likely that fish, which is under the minimum legal size to keep, was caught and killed by someone, who threw it overboard in a panic when approached by a police boat - they were ding-heavy enforcement this weekend. Fishy indeed."

My friend Royce supported this while "blaming it on Shakespeare and Hamlet, who said 'Me thinks there is something that smells like 3 day-old fish in Denmark', or something to that effect."

My organizational behavior friend Marya reflected, "Questionable? Questionable smell = fish. Questionable moves = man who doesn't know how to date, like saying "I've gotta thirst, baby, and you smell like my Gatorade."

And realizing that a fish reference wasn't complete without A Fish Called Wanda, my friend Swany passed along this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwLirQS2-o.

Please share your thoughts about "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ”:

        What is a palooza?

Live well...laugh often and heartily…. have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Hal

L'shona Tova to my Jewish family and friends. May this be a year of health, happiness and stability.

For my dog loving friends: 

Are you stressed and overworked? Are you looking for an excuse to get away and support a great dog rescue organization? Golden Retriever Rescue of Atlanta, the group that Alison, Zak and I have fostered 62 dogs for, is selling raffle tickets for a chance to win two (2) coach certificates for travel in the continental United States (including San Juan, P.R.) on AirTran Airways, valued at $500 each. The raffle tickets are $10 each or two for $15. To purchase raffle tickets, simply send a check payable to "GRRA" to GRRA, P.O. Box 3907, Peachtree City, GA 30269. Cut off for buying tickets by mail is 9/15. The raffle's rules are at http://grra.com/Raffle/2010/RaffleRules.shtml