Ogden Nash:  “I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance, were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.”

Steven Wright:  “I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.”

Today is the final day of February, and for me at least, it is a symbolic day of some significance. This is the last day of what I call “the dark months.” I am not what anyone would think of as “a winter person,” and so I view with dread the 120 day period that arrives on November first. Luckily, well spaced holidays distract me enough to get me through the first half of this period, but by the 100th day, cabin fever takes hold. The last three quarters of February always seem to be colder and drearier than normal, and during that period each day seems to have grown to more than thirty hours. Toward the end of that month I make the same vow each winter: next year I’m going to Pennsylvania, and I’m going to shoot that friggin groundhog! Continue reading ‘Hey, Ol P, What REALLY Happened While Kayaking on Lake Champlain? [Part 7]’ »

Alfred E. Newman:  “Experience is what you don’t have until just after you need it.” [Note: this quote was forwarded to me by a cousin I haven’t seen in over 20 years … now isn’t that mysterious?]

Norman Ralph Augustine:  “If today was half as good as tomorrow is supposed to be, it would probably be twice as good as yesterday was.”

There was a time when I would gladly allot much more of my thoughts toward the future, then I would toward the past. Not anymore. Now I think much less about what’s ahead than I do fondly recollecting things that have already happened. Whereas the future was once the realm of spectacular promise, it is now a place of mystery that I would prefer to avoid, if possible. When I do have to focus in that direction, I now choose to do so while armed with a full arsenal of practical knowledge garnered over the years, so that I may be better able to vanquish any lurking hobgoblins that wait in ambush. This was my mindset when I commenced thinking about the Malden Yacht Club’s coming trip to Lake Champlain. I would draw heavily on last years’ experiences, supplement that knowledge with information from various experts, and try to prepare the best that I could for the mysterious forces that I fear await us. Continue reading ‘Wondering Whether We Will Weather Weird Water Whammies’ »

Lyndon B. Johnson:  “I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her own way. And second, let her have it.”

Socrates:  “My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher.”  [Note from the Ol’ Philosophizer: I think what Socrates meant is that if you don’t find a good wife, but find the best wife, then you’ll become a philosopher … yeah, I’m sure that’s what he meant.] Continue reading ‘Hey, Ol P, What REALLY Happened While Kayaking on Lake Champlain? [Part 6]’ »

Norman Ralph Augustine:  “The optimum committee has no members.”

George Bernard Shaw:  “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

This is an historic first: a Malden Yacht Club public service announcement. Who would believe that the irresponsible retro-adolescents who represent a modernized version of “Our Gang Comedies” would stoop to acting like adults? Not I, although I can remember a time when that wasn’t the case.  Way, way back in time, when I had yet to get behind the wheel of a car, or experience the thrill of walking around with more than two bits in my pocket, I couldn’t wait to grow up so that I could do all the neat things grownups get to do. Well folks, I’ve tried being an adult, and it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Still, sometimes there is no other alternative … and this is one of those times. So if you came to the Blog expecting the Ol’ Philosophizer’s weekly irrelevant observations sprinkled with facetious and sophomoric humor, then today you may be disappointed. On the other hand, what are the chances that the Ol’ P can keep a straight pace for an entire blolumn? Continue reading ‘Quixotic Quest or Quagmire of Quicksand? A Quandary Of A Quadricentennial Quid Pro Quo’ »