Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, September 30, 2023

13

OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, September 30, 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


PUT THE LIGHTS ON

KOINOPHOBIA

....An Ordinary Articl

 I’m a pretty ordinary person. I can’t say I’m 
thrilled about it but I’ve pretty much accepted it. 
Koinophobia, a term coined by the Dictionary of 
Obscure Sorrow, is defined as the fear of living an ordinary life, a 
life where you can comfortably meet your needs, tackle the occasional 
emergency, and exist without much stress or pressure. Today, 
I am informed by the internet, “Koinophobia” is one of the most 
common fears of the 21st century. Some people have a very real fear 
of being ordinary—to the point where it could be considered a crippling 
phobia.

 I started researching this question of “ordinariness” as a direct 
result of starting to read the book Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. 
I admit that for the past year or so I have had a great difficulty 
in actually picking up a book and reading it all the way through. 
For a long time I blamed the problem on my eyes and bought several 
pairs of reading glasses of various strengths. Finally I realized that 
my eyes weren’t the problem. Maybe the problem is simply a short 
attention span, or a perennial lack of nighttime sleep such that I fall 
asleep in the chair shortly after I begin to read a book. Maybe the 
problem is simply a lack of motivation or simply another symptom 
of my advanced age.

 I complained about this to my sister who informed me that 
she had read the entire Elon Musk Biography and urged me to read 
the book so that we could discuss it. Frankly I’ve never been very 
interested in Elon Musk or any of his contemporaries. (I wish it was 
only temporary techno-successes); but in the hope of getting along 
better with my sister (we have been sort of feuding for over thirty 
years) I promised myself I would read the book. First I went to our 
local Sierra Madre Library which turned out, unknown to me, to be 
closed for renovation. I then made a significant decision. I would 
go to Vroman’s and buy the book. I justified the decision by telling 
myself I could now write in the margins and underline which of 
course is prohibited in a library book. I also decided to go home 
after buying the book and let my wife make me lunch thereby saving 
the twenty five bucks a meal would cost at a restaurant. Already, 
after a few days, I have begun reading the book and have reached 
page 100 of the 610 page book.

 My sister has asked for my reaction and I am now prepared 
to share that with you. First I noted that Musk is no all-round super 
genius. In fact, his SAT scores, which he took twice, are substantially 
lower and less impressive than my own. The interest I take in 
this otherwise irrelevant score is indicative of my own superficiality 
but, nevertheless, freed from the feeling that Musk was some sort of 
super-man whose achievements could have little relevance to me. 
Instead I learned the difference between Musk and me, and probably 
you, is his capacity for hard work and his ability to persevere. 
He dislikes “contentment” and always chooses to live in a “crisis 
mode” (many of which he creates himself.) He loves taking risks 
and is not deterred by the possibility of failure. Most inspiring to 
me is the statement on page 94 “Life cannot be merely about solving 
problems…it also had to be about PURSUING GREAT DREAMS. 
Wow. My major hope and dream is to survive until the next day. (I 
do have some bothersome health problems). All right, I do take the 
writing of these articles seriously and I have the hope that in fifteen 
years or so my now barely four year old granddaughter will take a 
look at the book and think “my grandfather was a pretty cool guy” 
or something like that. Of course I would like to be around then but 
I know that’s ridiculous ---but I can DREAM BIG and persevere and 
work hard at staying healthy. Maybe that would be “ordinary” but 
it is a great dream. Right now I want to thank my sister and Elon 
Musk for pointing me in the correct direction. 

If you want to let me know about your great dreams please email me 
at stuarttolchin@gmail.com. I have to finish reading the book now.


WHAT'S IN A SONG

Music has dominated 
my life since 1964, 
when I saw the Fab 
Four on channel 4. I’d 
never seen the Fab Four before channel 
4 in ’64.

Did the Beatles affect me? 59 years later 
this upcoming 28th of October my 
rock and roll band, JJ Jukebox will be 
playing at Nano Café, hopefully entertaining 
people and performing a 
fair number of Beatle songs. Music has 
been pivotal in the quality of my life 
emotionally, physically, spiritually and 
a couple other “…allys” I can’t think 
of. (Note to myself: stop ending in a 
preposition! Bad Rich)

So, what can music do? Sit in a room 
with 6 people who don’t speak the same 
language, turn on the music and before 
long, you’ll be bopping, in varying degrees 
to the tunes. It is the language of 
love. It creates an ambiance. I consider 
it one of God’s great gifts to mankind. 
God was trying to soothe the savage 
beast.

Four days in August, 1969 saw Woodstock 
play home to one of the biggest 
weekend rock concerts ever. It certainly 
is known as the most popular music 
event in history. Mostly young people 
invaded Max Yasgur’s 600 acre farm 
over a weekend. Yes, I know recreational 
drugs helped mellow the crowd but it 
twas mostly the music that soothed the 
savage beasts, 400,000+ savage beasts 
to speak of. Something kept everybody 
calm. Dr. William Abruzzi, dubbed 
the “Rock Doc”, who oversaw medical 
issues at Woodstock that weekend, 
reported there were 742 overdoses of 
which only 28 required some form of 
medication. The whole weekend there 
only two deaths: One overdose death. 
The other a tractor accident.

According to Dr. Abuzzi there was not 
one single incident of interpersonal violence 
at Woodstock.

Music can unite. Bob Geldof showed 
how it can work at the 1985 Live Aid 
Concert. 172,000 attendees and 1.9 billion 
more across 150 countries joined 
in and raised $245 million for famine 
relief in Ethiopia. Bob Geldof, lead 
singer of the classy Irish band “Boomtown 
Rats” pulled that one off. Not bad 
for a “rat” lol.

You don’t like what you are “emoting” 
at the moment? Change it by listening 
to music. Strangely enough listening to 
sad songs can make you feel happier if 
you are in the middle of a tragedy.

Music reminisces. The right bit of music 
comes on flowing out some speaker 
and we’re transported back to that moment 
when the music mesmerized us. 
All I need to hear is Stevie Wonder sing 
“For Once In My Life” and my mind 
is filled with Linda Underlee, my first 
crush. What about you? Any songs 
make you think of Linda? Maybe you 
shouldn’t tell me.

Music can instantly teleport you back 
to the tragedy of broken love or lost. Or 
a song rocket you back to a time when 
something really wonderful, be it romantic 
love, the birth of a child, a really 
“rad” new car lol, or the anticipation of 
my next column!

Back to Bob Geldof for a moment. He 
is much older than me. 26 days. Don’t 
know why he didn’t invite me to perform 
at Live Aid. Oh well. Just a side 
note, if you are of child bearing age, 
want to send a tribute to Bob by naming 
your daughter after one of his three 
daughters, here are you options:

“Fifi Trixibelle”, “Peaches Honeyblossom”, 
or “Little Pixie”.

You have one more option. After wife 
Paula divorced Bob, she hooked up 
with Michael Hutchence, the lead 
singer of the Australian band INXS. 
They too had a daughter and named 
her “Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily”.

Have a good week my friends. 

-Rich

Mountain Views News 
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TOM PURCELL

LOVE & HONESTY WILL GET US 
THROUGH


It was a family 
event for the ages.

Last weekend, my 
family traveled to 
Gettysburg to attend 
my nephew’s 
wedding.

I drove my mother down Friday so 
she could participate in the rehearsal. 
We had a wonderful drive talking 
about a variety of things, mostly stories 
about my father, who we lost last 
year.

After the rehearsal, we attended a 
welcome party, where we had great 
fun catching up with my cousins and 
other family members.

The room was filled with intense joy. 
Every person there was experiencing 
it, for the simple and wonderful reason 
that two very beautiful souls — 
my nephew Elliott and his beautiful 
fiancé Catherine — would be united 
as one the following day.

We’ve all been to weddings in which 
we think: “I give this couple two 
weeks!”

My nephew’s wedding was the polar 
opposite: He and “Cat” were meant 
to be — and I think I know why.

It’s because of my father.

My father had a difficult childhood, 
losing his own father when he was 
only 3. His mother went to work, 
and he was often alone. He drifted 
until he found a father figure in his 
football coach — and until he met a 
pretty young lady named Betty Jane 
Hartner.

He was only 17 when that happened, 
but it was lights out for him the moment 
his eyes met hers.

He told me many times that he didn’t 
know how he would do it, but he was 
going to marry that girl — and his 
greatest accomplishment in his long 
life was that he made it happen.

Man, did my father adore my mother. 
Marriage is hard, and there were 
lots of ups and downs over many 
years, but one thing was constant: 
My father adored my mother until 
the day he died.

His second greatest accomplishment 
was that he was one of the most honest 
and authentic human beings to 
walk this planet, and he deeply infused 
his honesty, integrity and authenticity 
into all six of his children.

Honesty and authenticity are what 
drew my brothers-in-law to my 
sisters.

My brothers-in-law and I enjoyed 
some beers late into the evening 
last Saturday, and they talked again 
about how the Purcell girls drew 
them in because their hearts were 
so big and their souls were so honest 
and full of love.

My brothers-in-law were drawn to 
my sisters because they were of like 
mind and soul — their wonderful 
parents infused in them a deep honesty 
and authenticity, and gave to me 
the five hilarious brothers I never 
had!

My sisters and their husbands had 
many children, and the authenticity 
that was infused in them was passed 
on to their kids.

My nephew Elliott is as deeply authentic 
as my father, and his wonderful, 
honest spirit attracted an 
amazing young woman whose soul 
is pure joy and beauty — and when 
Elliott met her, it was, as it was for 
my father 72 years ago, lights out.

Look, events in the news are mostly 
negative. Our politics and civil discourse 
appear to be broken. It’s easy 
to succumb to despair.

But when you attend a wedding as 
beautiful as I did, all hope is restored.

Great civilizations are built on 
the backs of giants, like my father, 
whose greatest contribution to the 
world was the deep love he had for 
my mother and the simple virtues 
he and his bride passed on to their 
children.

Our civilization is going to be just 
fine, I know, because my nephew 
Elliott and his stunning bride have 
picked up the mantle.

Purcell, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 
humor columnist. Email him at 
Tom@TomPurcell.com.


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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