Words to live by

Saw a buddy of mine using this quote:

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape

Accent Quiz

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
The South
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Pretty nifty little quiz. It picked me up correctly. So, T, how are you going to do? ;)

City bans tossing candy during parades

Our lawsuit-crazed country has prompted city officials in a Kentucky city to ban the tossing candy during parades:

"The Stanford City Council voted Thursday night to ban candy from being thrown from vehicles moving in a parade route. The ban will be added to language in parade permits.

Councilman Scottie Ernst brought up the issue at the end of the council meeting, the Danville Advocate-Messenger reported. He said he was worried the city would be vulnerable to a lawsuit if someone got hurt by trying to run into the street to retrieve candy, or by getting hit by a flying peppermint or sucker."

How ridiculous.

Music: An Evelutionary Adaptation?

Characteristics of mankind that span space and time always interest me. So, this article, "Why we're so good at recognizing music" immediately piqued my interest.

"By the age of 5 we are all musical experts, so this stuff is clearly wired really deeply into us," said Levitin, an eerily youthful-looking 49, surrounded by the pianos, guitars and enormous 16-track mixers that make his lab look more like a recording studio.
...
Not all of Levitin's idea have been easily accepted. He argues, for example, that music is an evolutionary adaptation: something that men developed as a way to demonstrate reproductive fitness. Music also helped social groups cohere. "Music has got to be useful for survival, or we would have gotten rid of it years ago," he said.

I've always held that humankind's musical ability is circumstantial "evidence" of some form of divine intervention in our evolution. Music is a physical way to connect spiritually with others and to our spiritual selves. There is a reason no other animal has musical ability, they have no souls. Anyone who has seen a baby respond to his mother's lullaby, watched a toddler dance, or heard a child sing is instantly reminded of something greater than himself. Music glues communities together by bonding the deepest part of a person, his spirit.

No Shoes, No Shirt, Cash....No Service

A Washington DC cafe has instituted a "no-cash" policy. In other words to eat there, one must have his debit/credit card ready. The story gets really scary to me when it reports that the National Restaurant Association sees this policy as the "leading edge of probably a long-term trend."

"So what?" you might say. What concerns me most is not people who don't have debit/credit cards but the fact that this is further proof of the decline of customer service in the supposed "service" industries. Did you notice how many times the owner used the word "I"? Did you see how she focused on being a cashless store was good for her? Where is the concern for the customer?

Also, I, for one, find cash more convenient than a debit card. When paying with cash, I've never had to remember my PIN or go through a whole litany of questions and comments. "Debit or credit?", "Cash back?", "Thank you, Mr. Bowman."