Trickle Down….

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….

Bean Soup….

Banner - Will Rogers

soupIf 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’ve Got This Pain….

Banner - About LifeOld personI 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….”

Intolerance….

Many times Will Rogers’ words are an inspiration to me. Of course he saw a lot of prejudice in his times. Maybe more so than even I do today. When I found these words from him about intolerance I found them indeed inspiring.  No explanation is needed. These words stand on their own today as much as they did in Will’s day. I have sometimes wondered if the preachers themselves have not something to do with intolerance. You hear and read a sermon nowadays, and the biggest part is taken up by knocking or trying to prove the falseness of … Continue reading Intolerance….

Turning Human???

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???”

The Shrinking Middle Class….

I am adding a new category starting with this post. It is entitled “The Shrinking Middle Class”.

Here is one of the reasons why I am doing that. It is well into the Fall season here in the Midwest and soon all the outside work will be over. That means about five months of pretty much staying in the “cabin”. To ward off cabin fever I usually try to take on a special project for each in-door season. The project this year will be to learn as much as I can about the history of the middle class and the possible causes of its recent decline. ” Continue reading “The Shrinking Middle Class….”

All Rich Guys Think They are Infallible….

via Jack Welch: I was right about jobs report – Oct. 9, 2012. Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, had previously contributed content to Fortune, but following critical coverage of his comments on the jobs report and tenure at GE, Welch said in an e-mail Tuesday that he was terminating his contract with Fortune. In his WSJ op-ed, Welch suggests that the reaction to his criticism of “the ruling authorities” was something he would expect in Soviet Russia or Communist China. “Nope,” he wrote, “that would be the United States right now, when a person (like me, for instance) suggests … Continue reading All Rich Guys Think They are Infallible….

Its All In The Editing….

Now that I have passed the 1,000 post mark on this blog and have managed to get a regular and growing following I thought I would give you some “secrets”on blogging.  Even though I am just an ordinary guy and not a Pulitzer prize winner I think I have some wisdom to offer beginning bloggers. Continue reading “Its All In The Editing….”

Memoirs…..

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 Great American Desert….

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….

When The Boss Is Looking….

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….

Getting Someone To Read It…..

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…..

Dressing For Dinner…

There is a great tendency all over the country now to be high brow. More people should work for their dinner instead of dressing for it  — Will Rogers This quote caught my attention because for the last few months I have been watching the PBS series “Downton Abby”. Here is how Wikipedia describes the series: The series is set in the fictional Downton Abbey, the Yorkshire country house of the Earl and Countess of Grantham, and follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants during the reign of King George V. The first series spans the two years before the Great War beginning with news of the … Continue reading Dressing For Dinner…

To Take a Drink…

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…