Thursday, February 28, 2013

Travel Faux Pas: White Tennis Shoes Oh My!

My blog has moved to www.satisfyingmycuriosity.com.  If you've enjoyed this blog, please check my new site out for other interesting comments on culture, book reviews, and music.


I found this article on travel faux pas on the USA Today site and it comes from smartertravel.com.  It got me to thinking about all of my travels and which denizens of which countries are the worst travel dressers.  I know the good people of the good old US of A have to rank in the top 5 if not the top two.  Who competes with us on that level, for diplomatic detente, I shall remain speechless.  But if you've traveled all over the world, it's not difficult to make the deduction.  I remember going on a mother daughter trip to Amsterdam in 2002.  I suggested to my daughter that we wear clothing with no logos, sandals not sneakers, no baseball nor golf nor gimme caps and capris not shorts.  The world was still topsy turvey  at that point and I didn't want our clothing to scream AMERICANS!  I'm blond (well, you know what I mean) and blue eyed and my daughter has dark brown hair and blue eyes.  We fit right in with the wonderful people of Holland.  We would sit at a side walk cafe reading and having a coffee and tourists would come up to us to ask directions.  Cool.  I agree with this article's author. She gives not only clothing advice but also how the clothing you wear can cause you to be the victim of a crime.   Read more...

Monday, February 18, 2013

Time Time Time is on My Side, Yes it is....

My blog has moved to www.satisfyingmycuriosity.com.  If you've enjoyed this blog, please check my new site out for other interesting comments on culture, book reviews, and music.


No it's not!  Well, I guess it depends on when you make the statement.  If you're 25, yes, time can be on your side unless you get drunk and slam into a tree.  If you ask someone of the respectable age of 65 if time is on their side, they'd probably say, not as much as before.  Why does time seem to go by so quickly when you're older?  I've read a few articles about this and people like Stephen Hawkings and other big thinkers say it's a mathematical equation.  Lost me there.  Or this...let's say the average life expectancy is 100.  You're now 20, so, you then have 80% of your life left to live.  Or take the opposite, you're now 80 therefore you have only 20% of your life to live. Well, that's depressing.  That doesn't make that much sense to me because it doesn't answer the feeling that time is going by rapidly.  Here's an answer I like.  It's from Psychology Today written by Ronald Riggio, Ph.D.  He says, "that the best answer for this phenomenon is that the early years are full of first time events, your first date, the birth of your first child, that first big vacation, etc.  First occasions are novel events and we tend to make more detailed and lasting memories of those first times.  When we repeat the event, year after year, it is less likely to make a unique or lasting impression... So here is the key to slowing down the pace of life (at least psychologically): As much as possible, take advantage of new and unique experiences.  When we go to the same places and do the same things, we don't make distinct memories and time seems to fly by...focus on positive (rather than negative) past memories, trying to live more in the present, and holding a positive perception of the future-envisioning a future full of hope and optimism.  IN OTHER WORDS...use your time wisely!  Read more...

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Small Sacrifices for Big Loooooovvvvvvve

My blog has moved to www.satisfyingmycuriosity.com.  If you've enjoyed this blog, please check my new site out for other interesting comments on culture, book reviews, and music.


For my American audience (but the post will also intrigue my international readers), this blog reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of the Ray Romano hit show, Everybody Loves Raymond. Ray and Deborah go on a vacation.  When they return, Ray leaves the suitcase at the base of the stairs.  He clearly anticipates that Deborah, his wife, when cleaning, will take it upstairs.  She, on the other hand, looks at it as Ray being lazy.  After a few days of them both looking at it (passive aggressively) and daring the other to take it up, Ray finds the biggest, stinkiest piece of blue cheese he can find and stuffs it in the suitcase thinking Deborah will smell it and take the case upstairs.  Instead she takes out the cheese and leaves the case as is.  They end up having Marie (the worst mother in law in TV history) tell them a story about the big spoon and fork (long story) and Ray and Deborah then fight over who will take the suitcase upstairs.  Whew!  But there is a moral to this story oh gentle readers. Let's see if this segue works:  It's this.  If you put your mate's needs first, it will not only make you happier but it will also make your mate happier. Unhappy young couple having an argument. Isolated on white. Stock Photo - 14025650Read more...

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The Best Mother's Day Gifts Ever; Courtesy of Saturday Night Live

If you do a search on my blog, you'll see that I posted a blog entitled Fifty Shades of Grey and Trickle Down Economics.  Well, here's another example of that.  It seems the phenom has not quieted down over those books.  They're now out in special editions and hardback sets.  No news yet on who might play the characters but there's speculation all over the web.   So you know Saturday Night Live had to flick a whip at the craziness and for Mother's Day at that...  Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK8Lr_HL3eY&feature=youtube_gdata_player