I’ve been watching the first James Bond movies with Sean Connery. I remember how excited and taken everyone was when they first came out. Now I watch them and can’t believe how ridiculous they are, and wonder how anyone in their right mind could have been entertained by this tripe.
Author: Henry Barnard
Salt in Canned Soups
Some people will make these compromises with salty canned soup, while others won’t. I decide this kind of thing on a case by case basis. Sometimes I do compromise, while other times I don’t. As for canned soup, I’ll accept some salt but not massive amounts of it — while there are those people who won’t compromise on salt at all and make their own soups. I use Amy’s organic soups because I like the organic ingredients but her soups do have a significant amount of salt. Then again I don’t have the ordeal (for me an ordeal) of having to make my own soups.
Mind you, I am in the camp that says one should totally avoid all additional salt, as we get enough of the stuff embedded in the foods we eat, so extra salt is unnecessary and clearly unhealthy. But if I tolerate the extra salt in Amy’s soups, I don’t want to have to make my own soups, and I also take advantage of how great her soups taste. Mine would be pretty miserable at best taste-wise.
Then again, if you are handy with food and enjoy making your own soup, you are in the cat bird’s seat, and can scoff at all these commercial canned soups with their sky-high salt content.
Do Without
It’s a good practice to learn how to do without. Particularly things that become a habit. TV, Facebook, Youtubes, cell phones, coffee, etc. Periodically just do without them for a while. Cut that dependence so that you know that you can, so that you know you are not a slave to these non-essentials — you control them, they don’t control you.
How to Beat Old Age
Don’t give up, give in, relent, but stay disciplined — get regular exercise, both physical and mental, and eat for nutrition. Instead of just capitulating, try to constantly improve. Stay disciplined and keep improving right up to your final day. To hell with old age!
Challenge in Life
Find your dream and pursue it. If you don’t have a destination, no wind is a fair wind.
Diary 1999
Reading Ted Koppel’s Off Camera, a daily journal he kept during the year 1999, with a backdrop of Monica Lewinsky, Clinton impeachment, crisis in Yugoslavia, etc. Koppel was one of the last national journalists who wasn’t an ideologue — what we have instead today among prominent media types.
Running throughout the book is an amused and somewhat sardonic view of American life and politics. Koppel — a gifted writer as well as a penetrating and objective journalist. Too bad we don’t have more like him today. Things don’t always get better.
A Lost Glove
A lost glove on the ground,
Its pair equally at a loss somewhere,
Just as a long-lived partner,
Separated by death, soldiers on.
When your soul’s companion departs,
How do you answer when no one replies;
How do you spend time without the other;
How do you accept?
Alone on a solitary journey
Not by choice, but here I am…
Just a lost glove on the ground,
A lost glove, nothing more.
Reelected
The only thing that would stop Trump from being reelected in 2020 would be a stock market crash, which is possible. And even then, the Democrats are throwing up nobodies. “Throw up” being the right verb.
Stoic Eating
The acid test for Stoic eating is the willingness to eat foods that are nutritious but taste bad. Can you do that? For me, that would be asparagus, beets, brussel sprouts, etc. I can.