Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, October 8, 2022

13 Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 8, 2022OPINIONOPINION 13 Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 8, 2022OPINIONOPINION 
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 

Peter Lamendola 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Stuart Tolchin 
Audrey SwansonMeghan MalooleyMary 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 
LaQuetta Shamblee 

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.
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not bereproduced without the 
express written consent ofthe publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper becomethe property of the Mountain 
Views News and maybe published in part or 
whole. 
Opinions and views expressed 
by the writersprinted in this paper donot necessarily expressthe views and opinionsof the publisher or staff 
of the Mountain Views 
News. 

Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by GraceLorraine Publications,
and reserves the right torefuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 

Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 

Mountain Views News 
80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327 
Sierra Madre, Ca.
91024 

Phone: 626-355-2737 

Fax: 626-609-3285 

email: 

mtnviewsnews@aol.com 


A member 
of the 
California 
NewspaperPublishers 
Association 

Mountain Views News 

Mission Statement 

The traditions of 

community news


papers and the 

concerns of our readers 


are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperous

community of well-
informed citizens. We 


hold in high regard the 

valuesoftheexceptional

quality of life in our 

community, includingthe magnificence of 
our natural resources. 


Integrity will be our guide. 

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

STUART TOLCHIN 



ARCADIA - IT IS OFTEN SO HARD TO 

Every

single morning,

just after mid


night I begin 

the N.Y. Times 

Spelling Bee 

puzzle just after 

it arrives on my

IPhone. Gener


ally, I have been 

impatientlywaiting for several minutes for midnight to 
arrive. I disconnect my phone from its charger 
and settle onto my recliner which is next 
to the window in my bedroom. I settle back 
onto the recliner trying to make sure that myfeet are above my heart as I have been assured 
that this posture is beneficial for mycirculation. I try to make as little noise as 
possible and keep all the lights low so as not 
to wake my dog, DREAM(Y) who is already 
sprawled across the bed. Those few of you 
with a mind something like mine will note 
that the letters of the dog’s name are exactly 
the same (absent the “Y”) as the second 
word of this wonderful city’s name which is 
Sierra MADRE. 

I would like to take credit for this 
masterful linguistic duplication but I cannot. 
Like almost everything else in my life 
it just sort of happened. Some time, about a 
year ago a dog wandered over to our home 
and just hung around, obviously lost. My 
wife and I read the chip (I don’t know if I 
was actually able to read the small print) and 
found a phone number which we called. The 
number belonged to a canyon neighbor who 
immediately came over to the house to claim 
the dog. She explained that she had just obtained 
the dog from a shelter and fortunatelyhad just attached the chip, She told us about 
the shelter and said it was a wonderful place 
where abandoned dogs were kept. I listened 
and became aware that I needed to have a 
dog as it had been months since our beloved 
Milo had been euthanized. My wife said she 
had a dream about Milo last night and asked 
why I was writing about Milo anyway. I told 
her I was not writing about Milo but, rather 
I was writing about Arcadia but just had not 
gotten there yet. Actually my intent is to 
write about writing; but that’s even further 
away. 

Reluctantly, I leave Milo and return 
to my recliner and my daily midnight appointments 
with the spelling Bee. While on 
the recliner I can only use my IPHONE to 
engage the puzzle. After all it is midnight 
and I am tired and it is just too much exertion 
to get up, turn on the lights, risk wakingDreamy, and deal with the computer, which 
still, after all these years, seems to scare me. 

STAY THERE 

I reserve the use of the computer for sacred 
moments such as these when I struggle to 
compose my weekly articles. “Struggle” is an 
incomplete word---writing the articles and 
seeing them appear before me on the computer 
monitor is about as close as I come to 
a mystical experience. Time disappears and 
I lose myself in the process of attempting to 
create something that is meaningful and accurate. 
I still worry if anyone else will care. 

Is it freedom or fatigue that places 
me on the recliner at midnight attempting 
to do the Spelling Bee puzzle using only myIPhone. The very IPhone which makes it 
extremely difficult to see the keyboard and 
to know if I have struck the correct letters. 
Nightly I persist and eventually reach the 
Genius level. I receive a small shot of dopamine 
or some small exhilaration as I complete 
the puzzle. Really it is not the solution;
but rather it is the whole quest hat engages 
me. Perhaps the difficulty related to the 
IPhone use is part of what makes the quest 
so meaningful. Alas, this particular morningI could not solve the puzzle. I tried to actually 
go to sleep, without disturbing Dreamy, 
and thought of the pleasant yesterday Sunday 
afternoon when my wife, son and I had 
taken my granddaughter down the hill to 
the Arboretum in Arcadia. We had eaten 
lunch and then watched my granddaughter 
running around safely on the grass and 
merging with other kids chasing around 
under a drone that was being operated by 
someone’s father. Eventually my three year 
old granddaughter, and my fifty year old developmentally 
disabled but monumentally 
caring and kind son, settled onto a bench 
whereupon they were joined by a live chattering 
peacock with whom my granddaughter 
had exchanged greetings. For me watching 
from across the lawn, seated next to my 
wife, this was bliss that I remembered as I 
tossed around in bed still bothered by the 
uncompleted puzzle.

I recalled the pleasant feelings of the 
Arcadia Arboretum and presto the puzzle 
was solved. Arcadia, meaning a region of 
simple pleasures and quiet, was the necessary 
word to complete the puzzle. Concurrently, 
I understood that it is often the difficulties 
of life, the difficulties I attempt to 
write about, which give our own individual 
lives a personal significance. Maybe I could 
make the puzzle easier for myself and maybe 
I could even abandon writing these articles 
and stop worrying that no one else cares 
about them. I worry that I cannot care for 
myself and that a part of my life, perhaps my 
secret life as a writer. Is to worry about you. 

TOM PURCELL 
HUNG UP ON RUDENESS 


Changing communications technology is one of life’s never-ending 
annoyances, and now we have a new agitation: voice messaging. 

Voice messaging allows smartphone owners to record their voice 
and send the recording to others as they would a text or a chat. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, some people consider the technique 
bothersome and rude — a camp I am clearly in, and I’ll 
happily explain why. 
I’ve experienced a lot of phone-technology changes in my life. 

When I was a kid in the ‘70s and the phone rang, it was always a surprise and you’d hurry 
to find out who was calling our house. 

Hard as it is for some to imagine, we had no caller ID. 

We had no call-waiting, either — if you were on the line talking and someone called you, 
that person would be greeted by a busy signal. 

Worse yet, if you needed a ride home after football practice, good luck getting through 
to my house. 

My five sisters and my mom kept our single phone line occupied throughout the day. I 
spent half of my high school years redialing a pay phone. 

The truth is, we actually wanted to answer the phone back then to learn who was calling. 

Nothing was more disappointing than getting to a ringing phone too late and having the 
mystery caller hang up. 

That began to change in the ‘70s when answering machines became affordable and many 
people began using them to screen their calls — behavior that was considered rude by 
many. 

Here’s what was even ruder: For whatever reason, some people refuse to leave messages 
on answering machines. Getting home to hear a hang-up click on the answering machine 
was awfully agitating. 

Until the invention of “*69.” 

Punching those three keys into the phone would provide the number of the dirty rotten 
person who had the audacity to call your home and not leave a message. 

This gave us the ability to call the rude person back, wait for his answering machine to 
play, then hang up! 

And so it was that technology enabled rudeness began to proliferate. 

Now, when our smartphones ring, we look to see who the rude person calling is, and 
think, before letting it go to voicemail, “Why couldn’t the idiot text me like a normal 
person?” 

Which brings us to voice messaging. 

As a highly impatient person, I’m far too busy to listen to other humans use spoken words 
to convey human thoughts to me. 

The inflexions and changing tones they use to illustrate their points may seem more human 
and nuanced to them, but they only make me grumpier. 

Look, I am a master procrastinator who wastes time all day long — but I resent when 
others waste my time for me by sending me voice chats that I have to spend precious 
seconds listening to. 

For goodness sakes, email me or text me and give me words to read. 

I’ll email you or text back some nice words you can read, and then the both of us can go 
on our merry way promoting the rudeness, grumpiness and incivility that we have allowed 
our technology to make a regrettable reality in modern life. 

I leave you with this warning: 

Keep voice messaging me and I swear to goodness I will buy a cheap cell phone that does 
not trace back to me and I’ll call your home phone — then hang up on your answering 
machine! 

RICH & FAMOUS 

KNOW NO-NO’S 

Planning an exciting excursion to some 
far off land in the near future? 
Before entering the airspace of foreign 
countries, travel professionals recommend 
doing your homework regarding 
social customs. 
We at the Mountain Views News are committed 120% to world peace. So, Ihave been tasked by higher authorities to share a few international no-no’s. 


DO NOT CHEW GUM IN SINGAPORE: Its outlawed. You cannot buy or 
sell gum. If you’re caught you will pay a hefty fine. 

IN LATIN AMERICA AND MEXICO DO NOT ARRIVE ON-TIME! If 
the party is said to start at 8pm, do not arrive before 9pm. 

A number of faus paux are committed using the hands. Possibly the most 
universally abused signal is what we Yanks know as the “okay” sign. Forefinger 
and thumb touching creating a circle. 

In Brazil its like giving them the middle finger. In fact, Richard Nixon infuriated 
the entire country of Brazil by making the okay sign on national 
television. In the middle east it symbolizes the “evil eye”. 

The “thumbs up” in the middle east of Greece is the equivalent of giving 
them the middle finger. Yikes! 

In China, Japan, France and Saudi Arabia: Never blow your nose in public. 
Take your nose into the rest room and for heaven’s sake wash your hands…
they may be watching. 

France: Never, never refill your wine glass without first offering more to the 
rest at your table. 
France: Do not ever engage in a conversation with a local until you have 
greeted them. Bonjour or Excusez-moi are friendly greetings. Then you can 
tell them how we saved their backsides in World War 2. 

Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom: If you give someone the 
two fingers up peace sign, particularly with your palm facing you, you have 
flipped them off. If you want two drinks in a crowded pub you won’t get 
served with the two-finger salute. 

Germany: Believe it or not many Americans are guilty of this. Do not ever 
do the Nazi salute. It’s against the law and you could be put in das gefangnis. 
AKA the slammer. 

Indonesia, India and the Middle East: Do not use your left hand when shaking 
hands or eating. Standard biological activities conducted in bathrooms 
in Indonesia are done with the left hand. It should be limp at your side. 

Malaysia: Never pound your fist into your hand. It’s an obscenity. Pounding 
your fist with your hand is the Malaysian counterpart to gesturing with 
your middle finger. 

Nepal: Don’t shake hands or hug someone you are just meeting. Press your 
palms together in a prayer-like gesture known as namaste. Kissing in public 
is also a no-no, particularly if you don’t know the person lol. 

New Zealand: If a New Zealander suddenly slaps their chests, grunts and 
sticks out their tongues they haven’t lost their mind. They are participatingin a Haka. A war-cry performed before a war, or a rugby match. Best not to 
make fun of it. 
Russia and Europe: This seems odd. When giving flowers to someone, always 
give them an odd number of flowers…unless they’re dead. Then an 
even number of flowers is totally appropriate. 

Thailand: For heavens sake do not put your feet on the table. Or use them 
to pick something up. In Thailand, the head is the most sacred part of the 
body and the feet are the least. Resist the temptation to jump on a table in 
Thailand. 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 
Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com