Today’s old A&J is from 1989. It’s going to be a short work week around here, but I’m OK with that. It’s the week of Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. I like Thanksgiving, because it’s a difficult occasion to mess up. I know, I know. The big retail chains are trying, and they make inroads every year, but I’m not launching into that rant now. Besides, it is possible to ignore all that. Just stay home—or go to the home of family or friends—and whip up some comfort food; make it as lavish or simple as you like. Enjoy, pausing occasionally to remind yourself how good you have it. That’s it! What could be better?
There’s the rub, and there’s the rub.
By Jimmy Johnson
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86 responses to “There’s the rub, and there’s the rub.”
Jean, I am terrible in math and sciences that require math, like chemistry. All courses requiring more word skills I aced. It is like my brain just does not compute math, like I am a computer programmed wrong. Yet when I was younger I read so fast they could not actually count it with their tests then, so whoever wired me gave me high skills in one area and goofed on another.
Anyone else ever think about our brains? Or talents? Why can one person throw a baseball faster than machines? Why can one compose and play music from birth? Or paint? Or compute complex equations of math? I think about this a lot actually, not that I understand why.
Remember that New Yorker magazine joke where the two professors are standing in front of a black board with an endless math equation and just laughing their heads off? I actually saw that played out in college, just like the joke only the joke appeared much later. I opened magazine and go….”Twilight Zone theme music.” For the life of me, what is funny about math?
Love, Jackie
Forgot to say for further complication, I changed schools seven times before I graduated.
Jackie – I don’t remember that cartoon but I do remember another one with a blackboard covered with a complicated equation. There was a big gap near the end, before the = answer, which had been filled in with “and then a miracle occurs”.
Symply Oooops In March not March 20th, that was the Fargone Melanie date….
Symply all shall be revealed when the comment to which the above comment refers gets out of Fargone moderation purgatory…….
Jean dear, sounds like I need to bring my Mom over for The Meal tomorrow. 🙂
I had a similar problem in school; I didn’t do all that well in biology, but in real life… 😉
Yeah, sand, really makes you nostalgic, don’t it?
Funny story, Jackie…I was the only National Merit Scholarship finalist in my senior class of 400+. But unlike in your case, the school didn’t make a big deal out of it, which was fine with me. I think it was probably because they were a bit embarrassed that had I transferred into their system when I was a sophomore and therefore wasn’t really “one of theirs”.
High school didn’t even get credit for me, Ghost. Just went there senior year. Scored so high when I was at another school where I only went one year also. But they were the big city school and wanted the publicity for themselves and their students. Other “brain” in photo went there also.
Funny thing was what I was known for at the school was more my practical jokes and crazy behavior, as I tended to do things like that to counter any suspicious behavior for intelligence! So everyone there is going “Huh?”
Then local college went nuts having us both go to school in local school instead of where we should have gone, like taking scholarships to prestigious uni’s we were offered.
I already know you are smart, Ghost! Did your dad fill out your financial papers for school and scholarships? Mine wouldn’t. So I took one that was automatic and didn’t require any paperwork.
Just kept making decisions like that all my life I think?
Love you, Jackie
Ghost’s Top 10 List of Things I’m Thankful for This Thanksgiving
10. That I have no need for a product I’ve seen advertised called “Recticare”.
9. That, with the exception of my tonsils and my wisdom teeth, I still have all the bodily parts I was born with.
8. That I have a roof over my head that doesn’t have a huge hole in it. (I couldn’t say that on this date in 2005.)
7. That I am not a politician, so I don’t have to tell my Mom I make my living playing the piano in a whorehouse.
6. That the only nutritional problem I have is the opposite of starvation.
5. That tomorrow my only dressing will be on my plate and not on my head, my torso or a limb.
4. That tomorrow the only “turkey” I’ll have to deal with is the one on my table and not the one I report to at work.
3. That fewer Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen will have to eat their Thanksgiving dinner in the field this year than last. (Although I suspect I may not be able to say that next year.)
2. That, despite its problems, the country I live in is the best one in the world.
1. That I have family and friends who care about me.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and may you all have a wonderful one.
Ghost, that is wonderful thanks report!
I was just thinking that my life may not have always been perfect, that many bad things have actually happened to me, yet I am still alive and there have been many joyful moments and exciting events, a lot of fun sometimes and a lot of love, too. I don’t think wealth was ever high on my list, so that is OK too.
If we all sat down and did what Ghost did, we would find we have a lot to be thankful for and some of it was gifts to us, we didn’t earn it. I know I did just now and it makes one think seriously about what we are appreciative of.
Love, Jackie
I got the first post on JJ’s updated post… See ya’ll there!
Make that “first comment”. Sheesh!