Rock and Roll Acceptance JOW #884

I was deeply saddened by the recent passing, apparently from a heart attack, of Tom Petty.  We had similar names, the same initials, were almost the same age, and grew up only 60 miles apart.  As I told people who mistook my last name for Petty, ‘I am better looking; he is way more talented.’  Thanks to his Sirius radio channel, I had a chance to really appreciate his music even more over the last few years.  He was a true musician and a decent human being, and although I never met him, I do miss him.

My jokes started out about acceptance, but rock and roll crept in as well as some typical random thoughts.  These are FYA

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My daughter was doing a project on 70's rock groups, and she asked me to name two of them.
"Yes!" I said.
"Who?" she asked.
"There you go, that’s two of them!" I replied.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I called an old college friend who studied physics with me and asked him what he was doing.

He replied that he is working on "Aqua-thermal treatment of ceramics, aluminum and steel under a constrained environment".

I was impressed.

Inquiring further, I learned that he was washing dishes with hot water, under his wife's supervision.

++++++++++++

Facebook – I know everybody.

Google – I know everything.

Internet – Without me you’re nothing.

Electricity – Keep talking fools.

Some random insights:

·         People tell me to stop living in the past.  But the music was so much better then.

·         Remember when you referred to your knees as left and right instead of good and bad?

·         Be decisive.  The roads are paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.

·         I hate it when I see an old person and then realize we went to high school together.

·         Never ask a woman who is eating ice cream right out of the carton how she is doing.

 ……………………….

“Dad, I am considering a career in organized crime.”

“Government or private sector?  I recommend government; they never go to jail.”

 >>>>>>>>>>>>

A man goes to the doctor and says "Doctor, I've become a compulsive thief."

The doctor prescribes him a course of medicine and tells him as he leaves, "If you're not cured in a couple of weeks would you get me a widescreen television?"

<<<<<<<<<<<< 

This is a true story. Some years ago the following exchange was broadcast on an English Open University sociology TV program.

An interviewer was talking to a female production-line worker in a biscuit factory. The dialogue went like this:

Interviewer: How long have you worked here?

Production Lady: Since I left school (probably about 15 years).

Interviewer: What do you do?

Production Lady: I take packets of biscuits off the conveyor belt and put them into cardboard boxes.

Interviewer: Have you always done the same job?

Production Lady: Yes.

Interviewer: Do you enjoy it?

Production Lady: Oooh, Yes, it's great, everyone is so nice and friendly; we have a good laugh.

Interviewer (with a hint of disbelief): Really? Don't you find it a bit boring?

Production Lady: Oh no, sometimes they change the biscuits...

A very old lady looked in the mirror one morning. She had three remaining hairs on her head, and being a positive soul, she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today." So she braided her three hairs, and she had a great day. Some days later, looking in the mirror one morning, preparing for her day, she saw that she had only two hairs remaining. "Hmm, two hairs... I fancy a center part today.”  She parted one hair to each side and proceeded to have a great day.

A week or so later, she saw that she had just one hair left on her head. "One hair huh...," she mused, "I know, a pony-tail will be perfect." And again she had a great day.

The one morning she looked in the mirror. She was completely bald.

"Finally bald huh," she said to herself, "How wonderful! I won't have to waste time doing my hair anymore."

Finally some deep thoughts:

A tale is told about the Buddha, Gautama (563-483BC), the Indian prince and spiritual leader whose teachings founded Buddhism. This short story illustrates that every one of us has the choice whether or not to take personal offence from another person's behavior.

It is said that on an occasion when the Buddha was teaching a group of people, he found himself on the receiving end of a fierce outburst of abuse from a bystander, who was for some reason very angry. The Buddha listened patiently while the stranger vented his rage, and then the Buddha said to the group and to the stranger, "If someone gives a gift to another person, who then chooses to decline it, tell me, who would then own the gift? The giver or the person who refuses to accept the gift?"

"The giver," said the group after a little thought.

"Any fool can see that," added the angry stranger.

"Then it follows, does it not," said the Buddha, "Whenever a person tries to abuse us, or to unload their anger on us, we can each choose to decline or to accept the abuse; whether to make it ours or not. By our personal response to the abuse from another, we can choose who owns and keeps the bad feelings."