Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, October 16, 2021

OPINION 111 
Mountain Views News Saturday, October 16, 2021 OPINION 111 
Mountain Views News Saturday, October 16, 2021 
MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS 
NEWS 

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson 

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR 

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION 

SALES 

Patricia Colonello 
626-355-2737 
626-818-2698 

WEBMASTER 

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Stuart Tolchin 
Dinah Chong WatkinsAudrey SwansonMary Lou CaldwellKevin McGuire 
Chris Leclerc 
Bob Eklund 
Howard HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Rich Johnson 
Lori Ann Harris 
Rev. James SnyderKatie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanJeff Brown 
Marc Garlett 
Keely TotenDan Golden 
Rebecca WrightHail Hamilton 
Joan Schmidt 

STUART TOLCHIN 

PUT THE LIGHTS ON 


THERE IS SOMETHING TO 


No this 

column is 

not about the 

front page 

ten minute 

exploits of 

90 year old 

Captain Kirk 

in space; nor 
is it about the Major League Baseball 
playoffs; but, really, in the midst of all the 
daily horrors surrounding us there exists 
something so wonderful that it almost 
escapes our notice. Yes the planet crisis 
continues, pandemic fears still exist; 
there are questions about food, water, 
and democracy. Revelations about City 
Hall and college scandals and ten year 
old sexist comments by football coaches 
capture our attention while we worry if 
the schools are safe or if there are jobs 
or people willing to work. Inflation is 
approaching or has already reached us. 
(Did you ever imagine that we would 
be paying five dollars per gallon of gas?) 
The windstorm of a couple of days ago 
reminded all of us that no matter how 
bad things seem they could and probably 
would get worse. Given all that is there 
possibly something that is so great that 
we all should celebrate its existence every 
day even in these troubled waters?

 In my life what made life possible 
was friends and books. In the summer 
right after I grad-uated High School 
my dad’s vision became so bad that it 
was necessary that I spend the summer 
break acting as his driver while he made 
his rounds as a salesman. How could 
I go to college if I was needed to drive 
my dad? Already my mom was in her 
late fifties and had never even thought 
of driving a car. A book saved us. After 
reading the book, Psycho-cybernetics by 
Maxwell Maltz she gained confidence in 
herself and learned to drive with the help 
of my friends. For me to teach her was 
too stressful for both of us but she learned 
and drove my dad for another twenty 
years. 

My point is that the help provided 
by books and friends have been absolutely 
vital in allow-ing me to live the life I 
have lived; and it’s been a pretty good life. 

CELEBRATE 

Today, alas, many of those irre-placeable 
friends, along with my parents, are deceased. 
Others have moved far away and I 
am left to my own resources. These resources 
with advancing age have become 
limited. There are diffi-culties with my 
eyes and I yield to my wife’s concerns 
and avoid driving at night or driving long 
dis-tances.

 Furthermore, connected to my 
vision I just plain have trouble reading 
books. For the last seventy years or so, 
up until the beginning of the pandemic, 
I read for two or three hours a day and 
always with great retention. Now I just 
can’t focus and forget what I read so quickly 
that I am unable understand much of 
what I am attempting to read. Strangely, 
other than sports, I am unable to watch 
much television. The programs all seem 
so far away and don’t have much to do with 
me. I remind myself of my grandmother 
who, at an age much younger than I am 
now, refused my request that she view 
Dinah Shore on television. “She’s a very 
good singer”, I said. “So what do I care” 
was my Bubba’s response. That statement 
is a good description of my present feelings. 
If what is intended to entertain or 
distract me does not personally involve 
me, I just don’t or can’t care. So what does 
keeps me going? The answer is the Wikipedia. 
It is so wonderful. It is free! It is 
short and is al-ways there for me to immediately 
provide information relevant 
to any question I have. It does not provide 
answers or predict the future but provides 
me with the information to fulfill my curiosity 
and, importantly, it makes no demand 
that I do anything. Just look up the 
origin of Wikipedia and Jimmy Wales to 
understand how it all came about. (After 
writing this article it seems appropriate 
that I make some small donation.)

It is as if it was created just for 
me and combines the features of a good 
friend and a good book. The Wikipedia 
combined with my loving family keeps 
me afloat in these troubled waters and 
that, and you, my imagined friends, are 
enough to keep my head above water. 
Still, it would be fine with me if the churning 
waters calmed down a bit. 

Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated asa newspaper of GeneralCirculation for the County 
of Los Angeles in CourtCase number GS004724: 
for the City of SierraMadre; in Court CaseGS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in CourtCase No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra MadreBlvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024.
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Views News and maybe published in part or 
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A member of 
the 
California 
NewspaperPublishers 
Association 

Mountain Views News 

Mission Statement 

The traditions of 
community newspapers 
and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperouscommunity of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard the 

values of the exceptional

quality of life in our 
community, including

the magnificence of 


our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 

RICH JOHNSON NOW THAT’S RICH! 


ANALOGIES, METAPHORS AND 
WHATEVER… 

Know what an analogy is? What’s a metaphor? Doest thou 
knowest the difference between the twoeth? 

An analogy is defined as a similarity between two things. A 
heart and a pump for example. 
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or a phrase 
is not literally applicable but rather suggest a resemblance. An example would be 
“I am frozen with fear when a bear comes near.” (Not literally frozen, but I think you 
get it. At least I hope so. It took me a while.) 

Get it? Got it? Good. 

Speaking of good…here are some bad and not-so-good examples: 

1. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree. 
2. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. 
3. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball 
wouldn’t. 
4. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable 
soup.
5. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze. 
6. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy 
field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 pm 
traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 pm at a speed of 35 mph.
7. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had 
also never met. 
8. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River. 
9. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a 
while. 
10. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real 
duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
11. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind 
her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
12. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she 
were a garbage truck backing up.
13. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs. 
14. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan 
just might work.
15. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a 
while. 
16. Girls are like phones. They love to be held and talked to, but if you press the 
wrong button you’ll be disconnected!
17. On the surface: Cool as a cucumber. On the inside: A squirrel in traffic. 
I’m going to jump out of traffic, squirrel away some snacks for later and go hang out 
at my branch office. 

P.S. For those of you in the know. JJ Jukebox Concert, Nano Café, October 30th, 
(day before my birthday). Reservations (626) 325-3334. (322 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. 
Sierra Madre.) 
Have a great week! (especially to SS) 


THEME: ON AN OLD MAP 

ACROSS 

1. *Core of Persia today
5. *Belgian village where Roman soldiers 
enjoyed warm mineral springs
8. Pitch symbol
12. More luminous star 
13. Abbott and Costello or Rocky and 
Bullwinkle 
14. Eurasian goat-like antelope
15. Team’s ranking
16. Make someone angry
17. Mix in 
18. *Formerly Ceylon (2 words)
20. What tide does half the time 
21. Reggae subgenre
22. Back then 
23. ____ profundo
25. Depleted (2 words)
28. Wet firecracker 
29. Catch in a net 
32. Hip bones
34. Dormer without D 
36. Schiller’s poem
37. “It is silent” in sheet music 
38. Discharge
39. Admirer 
41. Earlier in time than, archaic
42. Not out (2 words)
44. Pinocchio and his kind 
46. Evergreen creeper
47. “A League of Their Own” member, e.g.
49. Command to a fly
51. *Formerly Siam
54. Rain forest ruminant 
55. Irish for Ireland 
56. It’s under a fig leaf?
58. Shockingly graphic
59. Impersonator
60. Manlike man-eater of fairy tales
61. Crunchable information 
62. Popular ‘60s drug
63. A ____ ____ move 
DOWN 

1. Opposite of outs
2. Fish eggs, pl.
3. Affirm solemnly
4. Lowest points
5. Seeking damages
6. Kenosha Kickers’ music 
7. On the sea 
8. *Once named Kampuchea
9. Trunk appendage
10. Shining armor
11. Facsimile machine 
13. Fire-starter in fairy tales
14. Trojan War military action
19. Red-dot pointer, e.g.
22. Cigar residue
23. *Myanmar, formerly
24. “____ One” on a ticket 
25. Consumer 
26. Stomach sore 
27. Boat stops
28. John’s and Jane’s last name? 
30. Pie a la ____ 
31. *Tokyo, formerly
33. Absorbed, as in a cost
35. *Abyssinia, now
37. Jury duty event
39. Comedian Schumer 
40. Has more elm trees 
43. Roundish 
45. Not digital
47. Ox prod, pl.
48. Propelled like Argo
49. Arctic jaeger
50. ‘80 TV series “____ to ____” (1 word)
51. Bluish green
52. Canceled 
53. “American ____,” Jeanine Cummins’ 
bestseller 
54. Like one of the Testaments 
57. Modern, prefix