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OPINIONOPINION
Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 22, 2023
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
Harvey Hyde
Audrey Swanson
Meghan Malooley
Mary Lou Caldwell
Kevin McGuire
Chris Leclerc
Dinah Chong Watkins
Howard Hays
Paul Carpenter
Kim Clymer-Kelley
Christopher Nyerges
Peter Dills
Rich Johnson
Lori Ann Harris
Rev. James Snyder
Katie Hopkins
Deanne Davis
Despina Arouzman
Jeff Brown
Marc Garlett
Keely Toten
Dan Golden
Rebecca Wright
Hail Hamilton
Joan Schmidt
LaQuetta Shamblee
STUART TOLCHIN
RICH JOHNSON
NOW THAT’S RICH
PUT THE LIGHTS
ON
HABITS AND QUIRKS
IT MIGHT BE A MISTAKE
How are your habits coming along? Got any quirks?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary the word habit has several meanings.
I like the top two:
1. Something you do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing
that you are doing it.
2. Something annoying that someone else does.
The Cambridge crew also defines quirks as following:
1. An unusual habit or part of someone’s personality, or something that
is strange and unexpected (Strange and unexpected? Good name for a column).
Let’s take a peek at quirks and habits of famous people. Hey, we may find motivation to
adopt a new quirk for ourselves. Ready?
Albert Einstein didn’t wear socks. Who knew? Apparently, he had oversized big toes
(right and left) and those toes kept punching through the socks.
Charles Dickens always slept facing north, convinced it would improve his creativity. He
slept with a compass to make sure he was sleeping north.
Pablo Picasso disliked discussing his art with fans so much that he would fire a small
revolver loaded with blanks whenever a fan asked too many questions.
Speaking of Picasso, I did find out his full name. If anyone asks it’s “Pablo Diego Jose
Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisma
Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso”.
Serena Williams wears the same pair of lucky socks in all her tennis matches. (Hope she
washes them).
Benjamin Franklin talked to himself. He also would spend an hour every morning standing
naked in front of an open window. Why? He called it “air bathing”. Go figure!
Beethoven, while composing, would pour water over himself periodically throughout the
day convinced it would help him compose.
Amadeus Mozart was fixated on fart jokes. He even wrote a six-voice musical on farting.
Leonardo DaVinci, followed the Uberman sleep schedule, 20-minute naps every four
hours. By the way, DaVinci was a left-handed dyslexic polymath. He wrote backwards in
all of his notebooks. (I might give it a try).
Poet William Wadsworth, read his poems to his dog. If his dog barked or got agitated
Wadsworth would rewrite the poem.
Cameron Diaz opens doors with her elbows to keep her hands from getting contaminated.
Andrew Jackson constantly challenged people to duels participating in hundreds of them.
Stephen King eats a slice of cheesecake every day before he starts writing. Hmmm, wonder
if that works.
Writer William Faulkner typed with his toes and kept shoes on his hands while he worked
(Hey, I don’t make this stuff up!)
Alexander Graham Bell kept his windows covered. He was protecting himself from the
harmful rays…of the moon.
Noted Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote the following about habits: Вторая
половина жизни человека состоит только из привычек, приобретенных им в
первой половине.
French thinker Blaise Pascal penned this about habits: L'habitude est une seconde nature
qui détruit la première.
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi told us: “Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so
is losing.”
Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain told us nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
And finally, (wait until you hear this), my editor and publisher, Susan Henderson…never
mind!
Yes, it might be a mistake but I am
going to include my email address at the
bottom of this article. Although I have
been writing these articles since before Obama’s election I
have never included my email address. This was at the advice
of my wife who advised me that I already had enough
conflicts in my life and it was absolutely unnecessary for me
to get into arguments with unknown readers. It was
bad enough that I got into arguments with my friends.
Well the arguments with friends haven’t changed
and furthermore, following my wife’s direction I have never
become a part of Social Media. This failure, or perhaps it has
been a benefit, results from my reluctance to familiarize myself
with the necessary procedures to join these, I will call
them “information providers” or in my terms “false information”
providers. I regularly personally send my articles,
pre-publication to about twenty-five friends and relatives
that I have acquired over the years. In fact, quoting from
a recent friend’s description “your column comes from, as
Lippman argued a hundred years ago, the newspaper reader’s
hankering to look into the newspaper and see himself
or herself. You manage to accomplish that trick just about
every time.” Pretty great compliment don’t you think? Yes,
and it does seem like most of my new friends are smarter
than my old friends. Well, it isn’t really that. It’s just that my
old friends and I know each other so well that nothing we
say to one another is very new or very interesting.
Recently I discovered that Upton Sinclair lived in a
house in Monrovia from 1942 until 1966. You may not have
heard of Upton Sinclair but he was an immensely famous
person. In my mind he was famous as being the writer of
The Jungle which documented the abuses within the meatpacking
industry and lead to the passage of the Pure Food
and Drug Act and helped to expose corruption and injustices.
He and fellow journalists known as the muckrakers
risked their lives to write stories about the terrible hidden
conditions of the poor and powerless, and to highlight the
corruption of politicians and wealthy businessmen. The
Jungle was written in 1905 and, notwithstanding any progress
that has arguably been made, these problems remain.
Did you happen to see the news today implying that Universal
Studios tried to discourage the picketers outside their
gates by eliminating sidewalks and shade trees outside their
gates thus endangering the lives of demonstrators in this
hundred plus degree heat?
Of course, I have wandered off from my subject. After
learning about Sinclair’s long-time presence near here
in Monrovia I went over to the Arboretum Library where
I am presentlyvolunteering, and talked to the librarian. She
helped me to find Sinclair’s books located at other libraries.
We had a brief conversation and I later provider her with
a copy of my article of last week called Inner Voices along
with my e-mail address if she wanted to comment on the
article. I went over to other libraries and obtained two books
about Sinclair Lewis which describe his house and give its
location atop Myrtle Avenue. The overleaf of the front cover
describes Lewis as “a man who connected better with his
readers than with his own family”.
Soon after reading this description I received an e-
mail response from the librarian which absolutely delighted
me. In response to the article she explained how it inspired
her to review her own life-long patterns and choices and
gain some new perspective. Hooray for her and hooray for
new readers.
This morning an old-friend across the canyon emphasized
to me that he regularly read my columns which I
send to him but believed that I was confined by my limited
contacts with the real world. He said my columns would be
of greater interest and relevance if I opened myself to replies
from people outside my limited comfort-zone. Perhaps he’s
right and, contrary to my wife’s best intended advice, here
goes.
I welcome any and all responses which can be sent
to the following e-mail address: stuarttolchin@gmail.com. I
await your reply.
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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
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