Dr. Wingnut

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.

A Greek and Italian were sitting in a Starbuck’s one day discussing who had the superior culture.

Over triple lattes the Greek guy says, “Well, we have the Parthenon.”

Arching his eyebrows, the Italian replies, “We have the Coliseum.”

The Greek retorts, “We Greeks gave birth to advanced mathematics.”

The Italian, nodding agreement, says, “But we built the Roman Empire.”

And so on and so on until the Greek comes up with what he thinks will end the discussion.  With a flourish of finality he says, “We invented sex!”

The Italian replies, “That is true, but it was the Italians who introduced it to women!”

• Politeness and consideration for others is like investing pennies and getting dollars back.Thomas Sowell
• One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness.Josh Billings
• Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.Eric Hoffer

Del.icio.us is an online bookmarking service that’s getting popular in the geek community.  It lets you post your bookmarks to a Web site, so they’ll be accessible from any computer, and share those bookmarks with other del.icio.us users.  Del.icio.us is not only a bookmarking service, it’s a research tool.  Yahoo recently introduced My Web 2, a service that incorporates many of the features of del.icio.us.  Backpack is an online service with a devoted cult, allowing users to gather to-do lists, calendars, photographs, and research materials for projects all in one place.  43Things allows users to write down their goals, share them with other users, find other users with common goals, and provide mutual assistance.  Amazon.com is an investor in 43Things.

Did you ever wonder where all that stuff you had confiscated at the TSA security checkpoint at the airport goes?  Well; wonder no longer.  Apparently it goes up for auction on eBay.  Now you can buy your stuff again.  Is this a case of a “dumb-ass” tax?  I forget I have it in my carry-on, it gets confiscated, then I get to buy it back on eBay.  What a way to increase tax revenue.  It sure would be nice if there way some way you could purchase a prepaid envelope that you could drop your contriband into at security and have it waiting for you when you return home.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.

This happened about a month ago just outside of Willmar, a little town in the back country of Minnesota, and while it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it’s real.

This out of state traveler was on the side of the road, hitchhiking on a real dark night in the middle of a thunderstorm.  Time passed slowly and no cars went by.

It was raining so hard he could hardly see his hand in front of his face.  Suddenly he saw a car moving slowly, approaching and appearing ghostlike in the rain.

It slowly and silently crept toward him and stopped.

Wanting a ride real bad the guy jumped in the car and closed the door; only then did he realize that there was nobody behind the wheel, and no sound of an engine to be heard over the rain.

Again the car crept slowly forward and the guy was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running.

The guy saw that the car was approaching a sharp curve and, still too scared to jump out, he started to pray and began begging for his life; he was sure the ghost car would go off the road and into a nearby lake and he would surely drown!

But just before the curve a shadowy figure appeared at the driver’s window and a hand reached in and turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely around the bend.  Then, just as silently, the hand disappeared through the window and the hitchhiker was alone again!

Paralyzed with fear, the guy watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve.  Finally the guy, scared to near death, had all he could take and jumped out of the car and ran and ran, into town, into Willmar.

Wet and in shock, he went into a bar and voice quavering, ordered two shots of whiskey, then told everybody about his supernatural experience.  A silence enveloped and everybody got goose bumps when they realized the guy was telling the truth (and was not just some drunk).

About half an hour later two guys walked into the bar and one says to the other, “Look Ole, ders dat idiot that rode in our car when we wuz pushin it in the rain.”