Cartooonist Rube Goldberg simplified one of life's absolute truths showing what our world is really like... but did we pay any attention? NOOOO!

Rube Goldberg, born July 4. 1883, was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist in the golden age of newspaper cartoons. He was best known for his "Rube Goldberg Machines" like the one below, and at the peak of his career, he was the highest paid of his day. He was smart and capable in other areas but his cartoon depictions showing how to accomplish simple things in a most complex way had his readers paying close attention, as will you as you follow his directions below:

Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin (1931). Soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C), which throws cracker (D) past tucan (E). Tukan jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and ignites lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K) which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M), allowing pendulum with attached napkin to swing bank and forth, thereby wiping chin.

Today's world of problem-solving is not much different from Goldberg's time, or for that matter, time from the beginning of time. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit that upset the apple cart, seems we have been destined to do things the hard way.

After The Garden of Eden, humankind has followed that mode. The saying "Keep it simple, stupid" didn't 'come out of left field.' So it is understandable that today's problems are nuanced to be more complex to resolve. Over time, we have complex conundrums that seem unravelable.

We are fascinated watching dominos fall but the least little flaw dramatically changes the end result. So In reflection, I'm thinking life is one big Rube Goldberg Machine built to a complexity that the strength of the chain is only as strong as its weakest link .

Yep. That sounds like us. We focus on the result instead of the cause and disagree on every step of the complex process. 

Rube Goldberg was so good at touching our mentality that we made a postage stamp honoring him. And  there is probably a postage stamp waiting for the person who shows us a way out of this mess.

Side note: A few years back, my Seattle daughter and I saw a Rube Goldberg exhibit of many of his "complex machines "in that city's Museum of Pop Culture. Rube Goldberg was a fascinating individual 

An awful lot about not much... but interesting

Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Bulgaria

Fake news test: Which is real, which is not.


Bulgaria is the only country whose name ends in "ulgalia."

This is true.

FYI: Bulgaria is one of the few exotic nations of Europe. I boasts sublime beaches, lovely churches, winter sports and great hiking. It has traditionally not been regularly visited by Westerners but is gaining in popularity with its beauties and wide range of activities.

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Even after grants and scholarships, the typical family making less than $30,000/year needs to pay 77% of its income to cover the costs of a four-year public college.

Also true.

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When escalators first appeared, they had escalator men who would ride with passengers similar to elevators who had elevator men working in them.

Gotcha! False.

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Three billion light years away (186,000 miles per second x all the seconds in three billion years) the merger of two black holes--one 19 times more mass than our sun and one 31 times--released more energy in the form of gravitational waves than all the stars in our observable universe.

Absolutely true... and utterly mind-blowing, even if I understood it.

*****

President Trump called Kim Jung Un a "smart cookie" and James Comie a "nut job."

Sadly, true.

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An Ohio woman, impatiently awaiting her son's slow haircut at a local barber college, whipped out a pistol and pointing it at the young barber, warned him to hurry, "I've got two clips! I'll pop you!" So he did.

It's America. True.

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La Plat Sal (The Dirty Plate) Parisian restaurant offers four-star recipes featuring dirt... or as its' chefs call it, "the mud of the earth that caresses our toes, the sand kissed by the sun, and rocks." And no, the prices are not down to earth. It's Paris.

Deliciously true.

 

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A child born into a high-income family is six-times as likely to earn a college degree as one who is poor.

Duh! True. Rich usually wins.

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 There are more than 50 words in Gaelic relating to seaweed.

Whew. False thank goodness. Who needs 50 ways to say seaweed. Real answer: 40 words.

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Prehistoric cave paintings suggest that early man was most interested in primitive art.

Well, true. Post modern didn't come along til later.

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"Adam and Eve on a Raft" is what breakfast joints call bacon and eggs on toast. "Wreck 'em" means scrambled.

True... with a cuppa joe

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Adam and Eve populated our world.

Hmm... true, the bible tells me so... unless you don't think it happened that way, then false... or will you be sorry later?

FYI: Could two people actually repopulate the world today? Here's a good take on that.


SO HERE'S THE DEAL... what separates real from fake news is often what we choose to believe which is often shaped by who tells us that. And in today's incredibly broad social media world, anyone can say anything... absolutely anything... and there will ALWAYS be someone to pass it on as if it came from God him/herself. 

But remember Absolute Rule No. 1: if you believes something that isn't true, believing it still doesn't make it true. And that's a fact. Smart means double checking or find another source for anything that has a smell to it.

Ed. Note: Thanks NY Times and humorist, film maker Demetri Martin for a few good examples.

It takes two to tango, but how many to repopulate the earth?

If... just supposing... if two astronauts-- a handsome, virile male and attractive, fertile female-- were returning to Earth from a six-year mission to Mars, discover that while gone, the whole population of Earth has been decimated by a super-bug and they were the last of their species. Could they, upon return to Earth with all its resources intact but no other living humans, repopulate our planet?

Oh, before we go further, understand this is not (yet) a true story. The super-bug is no longer a factor as it died with the last of us. So... could they?

Believe it or not, while most of us seem to be thinking about The Kardashians, Donald Trump and The Bachelor, this is an oft-discussed topic... at least in the pseudo-scientific and sci-fi worlds.

Most practical thinkers of that crowd have a ready "NO WAY!" answer... but a few deeper thinkers theorize there is a way... not likely, but theoretically possible. Wanna read more? These are a variety of answers for that question on the website Quora, something for every possibility. It's a long read--with pictures--and interesting, if you care.

Meanwhile, here's what I had to say about that, old age, Adam and Eve and how they did it in The Bible version:

Methuselah holds the record at 969, according to The Bible. It issaid thathe didin't look a day over 900. He actually lived from Adam to Noah. But the first people had to live longer or where would we be? With more than 7 billion people on Earth now, we gotta die sooner... or else.

After Methuselah's 969 came Noah who made it to 950 and Seth was 912. Eve was up there in the 900's so it is said, but she gets extra credit because she had 56 children--33 sons and 23 daughters--all of them after her 100th birthday. Talk about late in life babies...

There's lots more of this interesting stuff including today's battle for the oldest on earth. Read the whole thing here

And remember... it you happen to find yourself as one of the last two, you've got a real job ahead of you.

He might look like Anthony Hopkins

"So where do you see yourself in 100 years?" Methuselah was asked in a job interview, or so the story goes.

"Oh, same old, same old."

Trade your cow for these magic beans...

TRADE... Your cow for these magic beans, My kingdom for a horse, Anything for a golden touch.

Bartering has never gone away but today, money has become its most popular medium of change.

Money gives an exact measurement, 3 for a dollar, $2.399 for a gallon of gas, etc. The value is set.

However, a new day is dawning with the realization that perceived value of this for that is often in the eye of the beholder and cash is a finite commodity. Trading (and bartering for value) is perhaps the greatest way to create a win-win and save the bucks for something else.

In days past, commodities could be traded for services--a massage for a chicken, shoe my horse and I'll plow your field, Thanksgiving turkey for three haircuts, scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. I saw how well this can work by watching two of my children who barter whenever possible.

A winning 200-word essay for this charming two-centuries old New Hampshire Inn was a great barter opportunity. The owner decided to sell in the same manner she acquired the property 22 years earlier. At the cost of  $125 to enter the contest, you too could have been a winner at better than lottery odds. This is a legal contest of skill however--not a lottery--and comes with its own complications as you can see.

An Alabama couple offered their farm (sheep and goats included) for a winning essay and $1. A similar contest for a  Maryland home allowed the winner to acquire for $100 and a chocolate recipe. 

But say you don't want this valuable Inn for $125 and have something simpler in mind. There are web sites that specialize in this even beyond Craigslist and eBay.

A few years back 17-year-old Steven Oritz bartered a used cell phone a friend gave him for a 2000 Porsche Boxer S Convertible. It took him two years and 14 carefully planned trades but he did it by following the pattern of Canadian Kyle MacDonald.  Here's his story. 


 
In 2005 MacDonald began with a red paper clip and ended up with a two-story house. Wanna see how he did it? Click here.

 

WORSE BARTER OF ALL TIME? Without a doubt, Adam and Eve gave up Paradise for a bite of an apple.

The one thing we ALL have in common...

The Reaper family, Grim, Marge and baby Bradley   (*permissions below)

We'll never make it out of this world alive... unless you're the first one, of course. Some of us live too short. Some of us live too long. Many, like baby bear, live 'just right.'  Longest lived family, if you accept the bible's account, has to be Adam and Eve. I think their last name had to be Smith since there are so many in the phone book.

Adam celebrated his 930th birthday says the bible ("Your wish will come true if you blow out all the candles in one breath... " ) but didn't beget his first child, Cain, until he was in his hundreds. And look how he turned out. 

A Jewish translatation credits Adam and Eve with 33 sons and 23 daughters--56 in all.  Eve lived about as long as Adam but it must have seemed like thousands to her. Imagine having your first child when you are over 100... then having 55 more. Longest lived is Methuselah at 969 years. "I can't believe it," said a friend, "you don't look a day over 900." 

So the Grim Reaper does his job and "poof," you're dead. Then ya' gotta' get rid of the body. That's an earth-y thing pretty much out of your hands unless you have expressed yourself before you-know-what. (If you want to read something interesting on the subject, check out Stiff, a most unusual non-fiction paperback by Mary Roach that made the NYTimes bestseller list for a while.)  

For those who know what they want, some funeral directors will do it your way. And 'your way' could be kind of unusual.

One woman wanted to be remembered as she lived. So after she died, she was posed in a room sitting at a familiar table decorated with  miniature New Orleans Saints helmets, an ash tray, a deck of cards and a framed photo. She was wearing sunglasses and smartly dressed in a denim jacket with Saints emblems, a yellow scarf around her neck. There was an open can of Busch beer by one hand and a menthol cigarette between the fingers of her other, just as she had spent a good number of her living days. "My, doesn't she look wonderful?" And so she did.

Elsewhere, a paramedic was displayed in uniform behind the wheel of his ambulance. One man was posed sitting cross-legged, dressed like Che Guevara with a cigar in his hand. These are referred to as  'Fun Funerals."

A boxer was propped up in a fake boxing ring, ready for the bell. Then there was the biker who chose to be towed to the cemetery in a plexiglass coffin with him astride his Harley... and that's how he was buried. There have been champagne drinkers and guys standing with their life-long cane, looking as jaunty as ever.

But don't get the impression these are tasteless efforts.  "The family literally suffers less, because they see their loved one in a way that would have made them happy... (and) they still look alive," says one funeral director.

Who wouldn't want to remember mother (or Big Grandma to me) in her favorite rocker? I had my emotional thrill (and I'm not kidding) when, at age 5 or 6, I saw my beloved great-grandmother smiling at me from her favorite chair--three months after she died! "Why Big Grandma," I asked with absolute delight... and I can still hear myself saying it, "What are you doing here?" She didn't answer, but held her arms out to me. I turned to mom, dad and sis, who were just coming up the porch steps, and shouted,  "Hey everyone, Big Grandma is here!"  When I looked back, she was gone--but she WAS THERE for me. I'll remember that, with love, and be grateful for the rest of my life.

*NON SEQUITUR ©2014 Wiley Ink, Inc..  Dist. By UNIVERSAL UCLICK.  Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

It's an improv world... and some of us just don't get it.

I think Tina Fey has come to save us all.

She is the best 'comedian/writer/Jill of all laughter' around... and she has an idea on how to live better, have more fun and reduce that ugly body fat.

In her first (only) book, Bossypants (best cover ever), she has a light-hearted 'take' on something significant. If life is not scripted but an improvisation, how come we keep killing the skit?

In the book, she reveals The Rules of Improvisation That Will Chage Your Life and Reduce Belly Fat. Her experience comes from her time at Chicago's famous improvisational comedy show, Second City, and of course, her job as head writer and performer on Saturday Night Live, and now, 30 Rock.


"The first rule of improvisation" she says, "is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES. When you're improvising, this means you are required to agree with whatever your partner has created. So if we're improvising and I say, 'Freeze, I have a gun,' and you say, 'That's not a gun. It's your finger. You're pointing your finger at me,' our improvised scene has ground to a halt. But if I say 'Freeze, I have a gun!' and you say, 'The gun I gave you for Christmas! You bastard!' then we have started a scene because we have AGREED that my finger is in fact a Christmas gun... ' The rule of agreement reminds you to respect what your partner has created. Start with a YES and see where that takes you."

"As an improviser, I always find it jarring when I meet someone in real life whose first answer is no. 'No, we can't do that.' 'No, that's not in the budget.' 'No, I will not hold your hand for a dollar.' What kind of way is that to live?"

The second rule "is not only to say yes, but YES, AND. You are supposed to agree and then add something. If you start a scene with 'I can't believe it's so hot in here,' and you say, 'Yeah...' we're kind of at a standstill. But if I say, 'I can't believe it's so hot in here,' and you say, 'What did you expect? We're in hell.' Or if I say, "I can't believe it's so hot in here,' and you say, 'Yes, this can't be good for the wax figures...' "

You get the idea?

Next rule: "MAKE STATEMENTS. this is a positive way of saying, 'Don't ask questions all the time.' If we're in a scene and I say, 'Who are we? What are we doing here? What's in that box?' I'm putting pressure on you to come up with all the answers. In other words" Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don't just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles."

And lastly, 'THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities... beautiful happy accidents."

Just think... if Eve held up a pretend apple and said to Adam,  "Try this. The snake gave it to me." And Adam said "Yes, it looks good and I think I would love Granny Smith's, if I knew what they were, but I've heard apples give you goiters." Then Eve, walking on, says, "A goiter must be like an original sin." Then, it's a whole new ball game. You either have a life or a catechism lesson.