--BE CAREFUL.  DON’T LET YOUR MIND GO TO A DARK PLACE

…Do you get allergies?  I hope to God not.

Mine started out of the blue about five years ago.  Now when they hit I’m a snotty, blurry-eyed mess.  Getting rung up at Safeway yesterday, an attack underway, my eyes started tearing so bad that the clerk asked if I was all right.  She was probably thinking I was sad about Mother’s Day for some reason. 

…Do you ever wonder why it is that country singer’s names sound country, while pop singer’s names sound pop/rap?

Dierks Bently

Brad Paisley

Brantley Gilbert

Cole Swindell

Eric Church

Tim McGraw

Keith Urban

Little Big Town

vs.

Jay-Z

Eminem

Marilyn Manson

Wiz Kalifa

Beyonce

Tov Love

Ellie Goulding

Tupac

Biggie Smalls

It’s probably just marketing, fitting the name with the niche, although most country artists’ names are their real names.

 …I learned some interesting, albeit random, things last week:

-A third of all people say they have less than $1,000 in savings

-In 1950 Detroit’s populations was 2 million.  As of 2013 it’s at 750,000

-10 percent of the Russian government’s income comes from taxes on Vodka

-Only 2% of the world’s population has red hair

-Leonardo Da Vinci designed the first tank and helicopter hundreds of years before anyone even thought of them.

-Seattleites see more movies per capita than other city in the country.

..Some noteable Facebook posts last week were these:

-I left my underwear at the hospital.

-Have you been cleaning your house? Tidying up? Putting things away when you're done with them? Silly you. Don't clean it. Put a cat on it.

-Overheard from the table next to mine at lunch today, "I tell my patients that sadness lasts forever, but happiness is fleeting." What do you suppose he meant by that? (He is a psychologist)

-I thought I had an alarming new mole, but it was actually just a melted piece of chocolate on my collarbone.

 …And here are some things I like to start off the week:

  

“I will make love my greatest weapon and none on who I call can defend against its force....My love will melt all hearts liken to the sun whose rays soften the coldest day.” Og Mandino

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. “ Norman MacFinan

“The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.”   Lee Iococca

“When all is said and done, the writer may realize he has  wasted his youth and wrecked his health for nothing.”  T.S. Elliot

“I write to close my own eyes.” Kafka

“There is nothing more foolish to think you can stop war by war.  The only thing war can stop is peace.” Harry Truman