I think we kind of need to balance out the post from this morning with a quote from Will Rogers Money was appropriated in the hope that it would trickle down to the needy. Herbert Hoover was an engineer. He knew water trickled down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will find the driest little spot. So money was appropriated for the top in the hope that it would trickle down to the needy. But he didn’t know that money trickled up! Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will … Continue reading Trickle Down….

If I happen to have some bean soup, I want to be able to locate, at pretty prompt intervals, some little objects that look to me like beans. I don’t want a bowl of it where the beans have just been driven through it at low tide.  July 17, 1927    Will Rogers

This quote from Will pretty much aligns with the one from this morning except now we are talking about wimpy food instead of people. But come to think of it maybe that is our problem, too much wimpy food.  In Will’s day they hadn’t discovered all the Cholesterol and vitamin  stuff so everyone was pretty much just ate what they wanted.   And for the most part they choose meat and potatoes, and big portions of it.

Continue reading “Bean Soup….”

I know when I was younger I always got a laugh about how old people seem to always be talking about having this pain or that. It was not of much interest to me to hear about others pain so I couldn’t understand why it seemed a daily conversation with so many old people.  Several of the blogs I browse daily are basically journal of the bloggers daily activity and of course that includes their pains; especially the blogs that have “retirement” in their title.

As I have gotten older I have come to understand this daily ritual. It is not so much that I want to hear about someone else’s pain but instead that I want to tell them about my pain.  Telling someone about your pain seems to make some of it go away. :)  I’m sure the other person is no more interested in my pain than I am about his but it is sort of a reciprocal thing. You listen to mine and I will listen to yours.

Continue reading “I’ve Got This Pain….”

The whole thing seems too good to be true, but the whole world is changing, so maybe they are going to turn human. – May 18, 1933    — Will Rogers

Sometimes I like to “talk” with my heroes. The following in my imagined soliloquy to Will Rogers about his quote for today:

Will, I must admit that I don’t really know where you are going with this quote? Maybe you are talking about how people came together with common support during the Great Depression when you said these words.  I too see the whole world changing and probably more rapidly than you ever did.  Although you did live through most of the Great Depression so maybe I am wrong in that regard.  But I seem to see the exact opposite this time around in the changing world. Continue reading “Turning Human???”

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that’s Memoirs. – Will Rogers I think almost all of us who have ever put pen to paper so to speak have thought about writing our memoirs. But it seems that only those folks who are famous ever actually get theirs published and I have a sneaking suspicion that many of even those are actually ghost written. I guess I have sort of written my memoirs in that I have been keeping a journal for about twenty years … Continue reading Memoirs…..

The West has got lots of open country but none that you can live on. – October 1, 1933  Will Rogers Of course when Will talked about the “West” I’m sure he was not talking about the States along the coast but instead those along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains.  But it turns out that he was mostly right in that not many people live in that area of the U.S.  I always remember the old saying that “50% of the people in the U.S. live within 50 miles of the coast”. But, just how many people live … Continue reading The Great American Desert….

We stick to the old American principle of only working when the boss is looking. – April 8, 1933  Will Rogers I’m sure this is as true today and maybe more so that it was in Will’s day only the techniques of not getting caught has changed. I read a statistic somewhere that said that up to 40% of a desk jockey’s time at the office now days is spent cruising the Internet, posting on Facebook, or ordering personal items on-line. When I retired twelve years ago I was surrounded by three computers all connected to the Internet but I … Continue reading When The Boss Is Looking….

Over here you can write whatever you want to. The only trouble getting somebody that will read it. – April 18, 1933  Will Rogers Sometimes we in the U.S. forget just how good we have it. As Will says over here we can write whatever we want.  That is definitely not the case in many parts of the world today.  Yes, FaceBook and such have made putting your words out there easier but they can still cause some bodily harm. Let’s never forget that we have it so well here. But to us authors, I am including all us bloggers … Continue reading Getting Someone To Read It…..

A few years ago we were so afraid that the poor people was liable to take a drink. Now we’ve fixed it so that they can’t even get something to eat.  — Will Rogers Every time I look at all my source quotes from Will for one to the included here I am amazed at how they apply to our times as well as Will’s eighty years ago.  Most of Will’s quotes come from the Depression years of the 1930s. While he was one of the 1% of his era he had the mind and compassion for the common folk. … Continue reading To Take a Drink…

History ain’t what it is. It’s what some writer wanted it to be.  – Will Rogers Oh Will you sage!! How did so many wise things come from your lips?  Another way of saying this is that “history belongs to the victor. Will Rogers, like me to a lessor degree, was part native American. He grew up in Oklahoma which was where most of the native American tribes ended up by the early 1900s. So, I’m sure Will had his ancestry in mind when the wrote these words. We native Americans have always been portrayed as those filthy savages in most of … Continue reading History Is…..

If you can’t be good, be different. – April 29, 1928  Will Rogers Can any of us really be good for any extended period of time? I don’t think so. So, that leaves just one alternative; being different.  All of us at times want to stand out from the crowd.  None of us want to be vanilla flavored.  Teenagers in particular go to extremes to be “different”. So much so that they end up looking and acting like all their classmates. That is the ‘catch 22’ of trying to be different when you really aren’t.  If everyone wants to be … Continue reading If You Can’t Be Good….

What we need is cleaner minds and dirtier fingernails. – February 28, 1928  Will Rogers This quote came to mind recently while I was reading an article on the USA Today website. As usual the comments at the end of the article were 95% dissing either the author of the article, the content, or other commentors.  I seldom wander below the bottom of most articles for this reason but for this one I was inclined to put a comment there. It would have been a constructive criticism. But after a quick review of what was already there I decided my … Continue reading Cleaner Minds….

I maintain that it should cost as much to get married as it does to get divorced. Make it look like marriage is worth as much as divorce, even if it ain’t. That would also make the preachers financially independent like it has the lawyers. – May 15, 1928  Will Rogers In Will’s day divorce was almost unheard of but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen :)  Today the majority of marriages end that way.  Our current solution to this problem seems to be not to even bother getting married!  That solution isn’t making either preachers or lawyers financially independent. I … Continue reading Make Getting Married as Expensive as Divorce….

There is nothing as easy as denouncing. . . . It don’t take much to see that something is wrong, but it does take some eyesight to see what will put it right again. -July 28, 1935  Will Rogers It seems most of our political leaders need a serious eye exam. Continue reading Will Rogers Quote for the Day

‎[Republicans] take care of big money for big money takes care of them. Will Rogers-September 20, 1931 RJ — Not much has changed in 80 years…. Continue reading Will Rogers Quote…

The Democrats take the whole thing as a joke. Republicans take it serious, but run it like it was a joke   — Will Rogers Some of my posts lately have just been too serious for my own good. I can feel my blood pressure rise as I am writing them. One of the main reasons for this blog is to have fun writing about things about things that deserve being poked. I thoroughly enjoy putting words to paper (or electronic ink in this case). But I just have to step back from some of the topics I choose to … Continue reading I’m Getting Too Serious For My Own Good….

I just got done plowing out our two hundred foot driveway for the umpteen time this winter so cabin fever is setting in. In the other seasons of the year I spend quite a bit of time traveling and taking care of the homestead. But, in the winter months most of my time seems to be spent in front of my computer monitor. I left the information technology world over ten years ago but I still can’t get this stuff out of my system.  It is just too much a part of my now I guess :) So with all this extra … Continue reading Cabin Fever is setting in…..