Looking Back

I was leafing through an old note book and came across an exercise in which I was asked to describe my perfect work space.

Bare windows with blinds to close at night. Bare wooden floors. Pale apricot walls. A desk. A great chair.

Laptop computer.

Great audio system. A rocking chair in front of the windows.

I work there whenever I can. My dream schedule–work 7am to 3pm every day. No other people around.

How do I feel working here? Good. Productive. Fitting inside my skin.

Welcomed. I feel welcomed.

I guess it’s still a work in progress.

National Joy Germ Day

Today is National Joy Germ Day. It’s a day specially designated to spread joy. The day and the phrase Joy Germ is the brainchild of a woman named Joan White.

I have actually met and worked with Joan White. When I first started working in local TV, she had her own advertising agency—Joan of Art. In 1981, she came up with the concept of Joy Germs, renamed herself Joy Germ Joan and started infecting the world with a positive mindset. Today there are Joy Germs in every state, in Europe, and in Africa.

In 1981, I was a cynical, callow youth. I thought it was a ridiculous concept, although a couple of my colleagues at the TV station embraced the idea.

Ever wish you could go back in time for a do-over?

Happy Joy Germ Day! Try to infect everyone with whom you come into contact with happiness.

National Trivia Day

It’s National Trivia Day. Here are ten bits of useless information.

  • One of Adolf Hitler’s nephews came to the US, joined the navy, and fought his uncle’s army in WWII. His descendants live on Long Island.
  • Former President Bill Clinton once correctly answered three questions about My Little Pony on the NPR radio show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me.
  • Taylor Swift won more awards at the 2010 Grammy’s than Elvis Presley did in his entire career.
  • The Germans have a word for emotionally based overeating: kummerspeck, which translates to “grief bacon.”
  • 666 isn’t only the Mark of the Beast–it’s also the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel.
  • Horses can’t vomit.
  • A pheromone in male mouse urine that stimulates sexual attraction in a female to that particular male was named Darcin—after Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy.
  • 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
  • Obsession for Men, by Calvin Klein, is used by photographers in the wild to attract big cats into camera range.
  • Forty is the only number whose letters are in alphabetical order.

Happy New Year?

Ever wonder why we celebrate our New Year in the dead of winter (in the northern hemisphere)? It’s not based on any scientific event (solstice, equinox, etc.) or seasonal marker. It’s based on a civic practice of ancient Romans.

I think there are several other days that would be more suitable.

  • The Winter Solstice: the shortest length of daylight in the year. After this, the hours of daylight gradually increase, bringing us out of darkness.
  • The Vernal Equinox: Spring begins! Life reawakens from winter slumber. Leaves burst from tree branches. Flowers bloom.
  • The Autumnal Equinox: New school years begin in the autumn. The Jewish New Year is in the fall. We get ready for the long winter ahead.

Why not one of these dates instead of a day picked by a politician as the day newly elected politicians took office?