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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 18, 2024 

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

SALES

Patricia Colonello

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John Aveny 

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Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Michele Kidd

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


ODD FACTS, RICH JOHN & TRIVIA

 MODERATION

Let’s begin talking just about diet. After seeing my primary 
doctor who advised me to just eat healthily, I asked for a 
referral to a nutritionist. I had already been diagnosed 
with a liver condition that really worries me. Currently, 
I am proud to have reached the age of 80 last week and 
talk about it all the time. We were eating at a restaurant 
which had the televised basketball game on and my four-
year-old granddaughter saw the score on the screen which was tied at 80, my 
granddaughter announced, “grandpa is eighty too!” She then announced 
that when she turns five, she will start to eat vegetables. Right now, she wants 
only pizza, pasta, and ice cream. 

Speaking of diet, my nutritionist has emphasized that, above all, NO 
RESTAURANTS, as restaurant food has been modified for selfish purposes. 
I should also avoid sugar and salt, fats and dairy products except for plain 
Greek yogurt. Fried foods are not acceptable, and neither are all fruit juices, 
and red meats. I should follow a Mediterranean diet, whatever that means. I 
wrote about this advice last week and I have become obsessed with thinking 
about what or where I can or should eat.

Certainly, I want to live a long time, at least long enough to see what 
happens in this Country after the next Presidential election. By this I mean 
that thinking about things is about all I do. I have discerned that there 
are three very separate ways of eating or of living. These are abstinence, 
moderation, and indulgence. I have learned that the complete abstinence 
from unrecommended foods is for me, at least, an impossibility. The next 
possibility is moderation. My wife frequently comments that I have no 
boundaries and do not practice moderation. Certainly, in terms of smoking 
tobacco she is completely correct. For thirty years I happily smoked about 
three packs of cigarettes a day, but when morning coughing combined with 
medical advice made it clear that smoking was evil, I completely stopped. 
Instead I began chewing on celery whenever I had the urge to smoke and have 
completely abstained since. Actually, that’s not completely true. Thirty-
five years ago, when I was travelling in Europe with my son and daughter 
in France, a dawdling son was blocked by a rapidly closing subway door and 
could not be relocated until four in the morning. You don’t have to hear 
the full story but in the in-between seven hours of worrying I borrowed 
unfiltered French cigarettes from strangers, and it took me six months to 
break the habit. 

Perhaps now you understand the problem. For years, my way of eating and in 
a sense, living, could be described by the third category “ indulgence”. I ate 
whatever I wanted whenever I wanted even times when I was not hungry but 
saw something I might like. Thank goodness, for my heritage or something, 
but I never became a fan of alcohol and have never been even a moderate 
drinker. Today, like the rest of the world, I am faced with a conflict. I want to 
stay alive and reclaim my mind, but I seem unwilling or unable to do what is 
best for me. This also seems true for the rest of the world. I have written about 
free will and determinism and about the existence and importance of choices 
like whether to make financial contributions and such. How much am I in 
control of my own life? I guess the choice I am making is to just worry about 
my diet and exercise “moderation” and hope the rest of the world is doing the 
same thing such that the pleasant life a great many of us have been fortunate 
to have will continue as long as it can.

If I see you in the produce section somewhere maybe then we can talk about 
things and figure out ways to solve problems and moderate difficulties. 
Hopefully, in ten years or so we will still be around so that my granddaughter 
can join us in a discussion, but, hopefully not, in a restaurant.

“Trivia” derives from the Latin word “trivium”. A trivium, during 
the Roman Empire, was the location where three roads meet or 
converge. Parsing the word tells us “tri” means “three” and “via” 
means “way”. 

These crossroads (coming from different directions), became 
known as places where you could find out what was going on in 
the Empire. Hence, the term “trivia” became synonymous with 
inconsequential, fun or “trivial” facts. By 1965 trivia became a fun and informal game 
played on college campuses. In 1982, “Trivial Pursuit” the game was released. And in 
1984, Jeopardy, the TV game show of the mid 1960s, was revived. And it is still going on. 

Leaving you with bite sized bits of interesting (hopefully) and shareable bits of triva has 
been the benchmark of my columns. As you might imagine, I have accumulated a rather 
comprehensive trivia library. I cherish and keep the library even though, in this age, 
jumping on the “world wide web” aka “internet” aka “information superhighway” is a 
speedier method of accessing information. Ironic in that even after 2000 years we still 
use the metaphor of the road to describe the flow of trivia. 

So, let’s take a trip down the “information superhighway” shall we? And focus on useless 
knowledge. 

Animal experts tell us a cat is more inclined to watch television than a dog. Cats rely 
more on their vision, while dogs rely on their sense of smell. (In fact, my daughter turns 
the television on when she leaves for work every morning so Mabel, our cat, can watch 
the shows made for cats on YouTube). They really do have programming for cats to 
watch.

While we’re on the topic of television, do you remember the show, “Candid Camera”? 
The show’s creator, Allen Funt, during World War 2. had the military job of concealing 
soldiers and their weapons, and cameras and microphones. The war ended and he kept 
on going first on radio with just a microphone, and then on to television where “Candid 
Camera” lasted from 1948 through 2014.

If you average 50 m.p.h. on a car trip for 10 hours, you can figure you’ll drive 42 miles 
with your eyes closed. Why? Blinking is why.

In case you didn’t know, the average thundercloud contains 100,000 tons of water. 

Your tax dollars at work: The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $113,417 researching 
determining your mothers preferred children’s clothing that needed no ironing…duh!

Psychologists tell us you’ve reached middle age when the little voice in your head that 
says “Why not?”, is joined by another voice saying “Why bother?”

Experts tell us the first of the five senses to develop is our sense of smell.

Speaking of our bodies, experts tell us our blood completes a circuit of our whole body 
every 23 seconds.

And if you are keeping track, you will speak approximately 4,800 words today. And 
tomorrow and the next day. Experts tell us it is the average daily word count.

“In God We Trust” was not the motto on the very first U.S. coin ever issued. Nope, the 
motto on that coin, a penny, minted in 1787, was “Mind Your Own Business”.

Close to my heart, the word “guitar” comes from the Greek word “kithara” the national 
instrument of ancient Greece. I was led to the first true American rock star. In the 18th 
Century, who played a mean guitar, was none other than Benjamin Franklin.

I mined all of the terrific trivial information for this column from “Boyd’s Book of Odd 
Facts”. Used copies can be purchased on Amazon.com. Cost about $8.50.

Finally, you may have heard what is considered a Chinese curse: “May you live in 
interesting times.” No record of those words can be found anywhere. The closest 
Chinese expression is translated as, “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility, than a 
human in times of chaos.” So……until next week, 

“Bow Wow!”

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DINAH CHONG WATKINS


CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 
WRONG KIND

FOREVER FOODS


Breaking News! A magnitude 6.2 Earthquake struck LA 
County, the epicenter erupting at the original McDonalds 
drive-thru in San Bernardino, no injuries reported but 
massive losses of Squishmallow Happy Meals said to have 
slid into the yawning abyss beneath. Power is down across 
the county, officials in the Gas, Water and Electricity 
departments estimate an outage for at least 10 days. 

As most Californians know, there are trade-offs for our dreamy, surfing, sunny 
and temperate climate. Double digit taxes, astronomical housing rates, traffic 
gridlock, too much rainfall, not enough rainfall, inescapable “CallJacob.com” 
commercials and the Big One. 

Along with the ferocious Santa Anna winds and subsequent wildfires, power 
outages are as common as a trash-bin-tossing bear on garbage day. South 
California Edison and other utilities periodically remind customers of 
preparing a “shelter in place” emergency plan with tools and supplies. The most 
important of which (SCE also lists a landline phone with a cord, forsooth - 
Great Auntie Mae!) is the manual can opener. 

Now in the aforementioned earthquake scenario, and the county’s population 
in survival mode, you’d have to rely on what was in your cupboards and 
rapidly warming refrigerators for vittles and grits. After we’d barbecued all the 
proteins in the freezer (yes, chicken's feet do get more tender with each step), 
lurking in the back of the pantry are cans, jars and heat-treated packs of one 
dish entrees and sides. And in an emergency situation, the food's expiry date 
is inconsequential, we are at a literal fork between hunger pains and a random 
day on the calendar.

Covid-19 made hoarders out of many of us. Costco's industrial quantity 
packaging seemed pretty reasonable at the time, even for single person 
households. Who wouldn’t want a year’s supply of Teriyaki flavored Spam and 
a half gallon of yellow mustard to go with it? But 4 years hence, we have the 
onus of the expiry date. In my kitchen everything's fair game for the table, 
regardless of the “expiry date” - unless it belches upon opening, I can turn it 
into flaming hot Buffalo wings. Side note: Don’t order the “Spicy Tuna Special” 
on a Monday.

It wasn’t until the 80’s that expiry dates appeared on food packaging. We all 
knew back then an unwrapped Twinkle would last until graduation, even 
if your mom packed it in grade 3. Government mandated only for infant 
formulas, expiry dates are just a suggestion and marketing ploy for other food 
manufacturers. With triple-hyphenated preservatives, flash heat and freeze 
treatments, a Hostess Ho-Ho can be passed down throughout the generations 
like the family bible. 

Of course, not everyone shares my view of forever foods. Many a hand has 
tossed aged-like-a-fine-wine foods and condiments into the trash, leaving the 
only enthusiasts of such - me and the bears, wailing in despair (actually the 
bears applaud it). 

I hear the dinner bell a-ringing and reach for the last can of Bush's Best Original 
baked beans, manufacturer’s best by date Mar 2018, Yum! A very good year 
indeed!

Dinah Chong Watkins column appears every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month. For 
more Close Encounters Of The Wrong Kind go to www.ceotwk.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