--I’M RUNNING IN CIRCLES

 …It’s Friday, the weekend upon us.  Even at noon the houses across the lake still have frosted roofs.  If you didn’t know better, you’d think it had snowed.  And yet there’s a swollen sun hanging over my upper right shoulder, making it hard to see. 

…Anyway, here are a few very random things I learned this week:

-58% of Americans drink more during the holidays, citing their visiting relatives as the top reason why

-There have been over 200 school shooting incidents since the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre that left 20 dead only four years ago

-George Washington is the only President to have been elected unanimously

-Mosquitoes kill over a million people a year

-The average English speaking adult knows over 20,000 words

-In 2014, 425 young people 10 to 14 years of age died by suicide, a one hundred percent increase in the decade prior

-A third of all people in Greece live near the poverty line

…And here are some things I like on a chilly Friday:

 “Whether you are a writer or a journalist or an editor or neither one, when you look in the mirror you should think ‘tireless’ or ‘dogged’ or maybe even a stronger word to describe what you need to be to become successful, and what you should be as you go after the truth—which is your job.” --Terry McDonnell

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”― Audre Lorde

“This is about all the bad days in the world. I used to have some little bad days, and I kept them in a little box. And one day, I threw them out into the yard. "Oh, it's just a couple little innocent bad days." Well, we had a big rain. I don't know what it was growing in but I think we used to put eggshells out there and coffee grounds, too. Don't plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me. Choke those little bad days. Choke 'em down to nothin'. They're your days. Choke 'em!” ― Tom Waits

"Being a father is the only thing that lives up to the hype. When I'm with my daughter - when we're doing homework together or hanging out watching a movie or kicking a soccer ball around or doing any of the things we do - that's the only time I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing."- Aaron Sorkin, TV writer

"I like a man who attempts the impossible."- J.P. Morgan

"A man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him."- Benjamin Black

"There is great power in a resolution that has no reservations in it -- a strong, persistent, tenacious purpose -- which burns all bridges behind it and which clears all obstacles from its path and arrives at its goal, no matter how long it may take, no matter what the sacrifice or the cost."-- Orison Sweet Marden

"The real winner is whoever has the most interesting, fulfilling work."--John F. Groom