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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, March 29, 2025

RICH JOHNSON 

WHY RICHARD?

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

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Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

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STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


CONSEQUENCES OF 
INCARCERATION

 POSITIVE and NEGATIVE

I’ve been named “Richard” for most of my life. Actually, most 
likely my whole life but the first few years were and still are pretty 
fuzzy. Truth be told I’ve never really thought much of the 
name “Richard”. Sure, I have a Dad named “Richard”, an Uncle 
named “Richard”, and a cousin or two named “Richard”.

Famous “Richards” include “Richard” Dreyfuss, “Richard” Burton, 
“Richard” Starkey (aka Ringo), a couple of “Dicks” including my Dad, 
“Dick” Johnson, former VP “Dick” Cheney, “Dick” Clark of American Bandstand 
fame, and uber entertainer “Dick” Van Dyke.

And believe it or not, “Cheech” of Cheech and Chong fame was born “Richard” 
Marin. Maybe or maybe not, my favorite “Richard” was born Richard Henry 
Sellers. You knew him better as Peter Sellers.

The internet tells me 2,928,808 Richards were born between 1880 and 2022. To 
be accurate 99.81% of those named “Richard” were boys and 0.19% were girls. 
To give you perspective, in that same period 5,783,750 babies were named Robert, 
4,865,410 were named William. I can’t wait to tell my brother “Roger” there 
were less than 1 million named Roger. 961,983 at last count.

You know how most of us would like to have been born to celebrities. Not so 
fast. Don’t know why but celebrities seem to go a bit cuckoo when naming their 
children. Elon Musk has children named “Techno Mechanicus” (Tau for short), 
“Exa Dark” (“Y” for short), and “X AE A-Xii” who goes by (“X”).

Kim Kardashsian and “Ye” (formerly Kanye West) have four children: “Saint”, 
“Chicago”, “Psalm” and “North”. Not to be outdone, sister Kourtney Kardashian 
named her daughters “Mason Dash”, Penelope Scotland”, “True”, and “Reign 
Aston”.

Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter “Apple”. Why? Gwyneth told Oprah: 
“Apples are so sweet, and they’re wholesome, and it’s biblical…” Mariah Carey’s 
twins were named “Moroccan” and “Monroe”. Nicolas Cage and third wife, Alice, 
named their son “Kal-El” which is Superman’s Kryptonian name. P.S. to 
Nicolas: Superman wasn’t real.

We can probably thank Frank Zappa and his lovely wife Adelaide for starting 
this creative naming. Their offspring include, “Moon Unit”, “Dweezil”, “Ahmet” 
and “Diva Think Muffin”. (Honest…I don’t make this stuff up.)

Now, lest you think this wackadoodle naming is a new phenomenon on our 
land, let me educate you. It is not. Wackadoodle names come and go through 
history. One hundred years ago, the goto names included: “Emogene, Bennette, 
Gearldean, Girtrue, Harryette, Irl, Murl, Ople, Rease.

Furthermore in 1920 there were names that crossed the boy/girl line: 28 boys 
named Alice, 45 girls named Carl, 10 boys name Daisy, 46 girls name Donald, 
22 boys named Elsie, 195 boys named Mary, 205 girls named Robert, 205 girls 
named William and 54 girls named RICHARD!

Wanna go down the appendage road? 75 girls named Dimple (6 named Dimples), 
32 boys named Colon, 222 girls named Fanny, 84 boys named Oral, 23 
girls named Oralee, and 94 girls named Pinkie.

I don’t know which came first, the name or the modern day notoriety. 26 boys 
named Alf, 397 boys named Elmo, 104 boys named Garfield, 382 boys named 
Kermit. 11 girls named Cinderella, 128 girls named Hedwig, 26 girls named 
Lassie, 6 girls named Pocahontas, 71 girls named Santa, 22 boys named Ventura.

If you want to do a deeper dive on names google (no not a name) Sophie Kihm. 
She is the resident name guru to the stars.

My dear friend, Paula, reminded me the local theatre group, Theatre Americana, 
is presenting the “Jesus Christ Superstar” musical as a benefit concert to 
raise funds for victims of the Altadena fires. They’ve added a show, Saturday, 
April 12th at the historic Raymond Theatre in Pasadena.

Whether you can actually go, or can’t make it, please donate to this absolutely 
worthy cause use the link below.

Saturday, 4/12 (3:00 pm) 

Raymond Theater (Old Town Pasadena)

129 N. Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA.

Tickets are $35 for each show - use this link: https://tasuperstarsupportsfirevictims.
brownpapertickets.com/.

I hope you appreciate the fact that I’m pulling myself 
away from the television where I’m watching my 
favorite tennis matches just to write this article for you 
and submit it on time to the editor. I can’t put it off until 
tomorrow because a semi-retired doctor is coming in 
just for my appointment with him. 

 Speaking of going to doctors, that and playing golf, are just about 
the only reason I leave the house these days. Another doctor’s appointment 
on Monday is what led to the writing of this article. My appointment I 
thought was scheduled with my primary doctor, Dr. Cervantes. In the 
past I have not gotten along well with this doctor who is very popular with 
the rest of the medical staff. He and I had a bit of conflict resulting from 
my dismay and disappointment from the fact that he was unfamiliar with 
the great novel Don Quixote written over 400 years ago by his namesake, 
Miguel De Cervantes.

On Monday I decided to remedy this situation and carried the 
huge book which I intended to give to the doctor as a present. Alas, 
my appointment was not scheduled with my primary doctor but instead 
was scheduled with my cardiologist. I carried the large book home and 
happened to open it. The introduction described how the novel was 
written while Cervantes was in prison and had no other way to occupy 
and distract himself. 

As I read this it occurred to me that many of the most important 
and most appreciated literary efforts were written while the author was 
incarcerated. This morning, I went out early to play golf with my one 
golfing partner who is just healing from surgery but as a favor agreed to 
meet me. I mentioned to him that I had become interested in books that 
had been written while the author was in prison. In response he explained 
to me that his son in addition to being a poet and a philosopher had 
frequently taught creative writing at the College Level. His son had told 
him that the most enjoyable creative writing class he ever led was when he 
had volunteered to teach creative writing to incarcerated prisoners. His 
son said that energy and motivation displayed by the inmates was such 
a wonderful change from college students. Additionally, these inmates 
often had led lives filled with adventure and conflicts and never before had 
the opportunity or the time to write and never really believed anyone else 
would be interested.

 Now I have learned, after a little research, that in addition to Don 
Quixote, innumerable writing which impacted upon society were written 
by imprisoned people. Of course, I knew Hitler’s Mein Kampf which 
means My Struggle in German was a political manifesto written while in 
prison was largely instrumental in his rise to power and the establishment 
of a bigoted society which murdered millions. His writing appealed to 
defeated German population after the first World War and the impact of 
his writing cannot be overlooked.

Maybe we should overlook it and focus on writing that resulted in 
social benefit. The writings of Marco Polo, which were authored while in 
prison, opened the eyes of the European world to the appreciation of Asia. 
Letters from a Birmingham Jail written while Martin Luther King was in 
prison opened the eyes of the world to racial and class injustice. The Gulag 
Archipelago by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn explores the lives of people put in 
unimaginable conditions and described the system of prisons and labor 
camps during the rule of Stalin.

The autobiography of Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom 
which is a testament to the power of perseverance and the determinations 
to challenge oppressive systems, (Something we also should keep in mind 
today.) When one has absolutely nothing to do, such as when one is 
imprisoned, it becomes possible to do something important. There is no 
television, no social media, few obligations. Probably there is something 
each of us would like to do which we are imagining to be important, but 
we are too busy, too distracted, too comfortable and too unmotivated. 
This is the price of freedom. I guess I should stop complaining but I am 
disappointed in myself. How about you? 

DROWNING IN DECISIONS

TOM PURCELL

DANNY TYREE

CAN MICROSOFT REALLY BE 
TURNING 50?

Here’s something 
that can make us 
miserable if we 
let it: too many 
decisions!

 Social scientist 
Barry Schwartz 
says Americans 
are becoming 
less happy because 
we’re allowing ourselves to be 
overwhelmed by too many choices. 
His groundbreaking idea, originally 
published in his 2004 book 
The Paradox of Choice, has been 
echoed by recent studies.

 Researchers from the University 
of Pennsylvania recently found that 
while having some choices is beneficial, 
excessive options often lead 
to decision paralysis and reduced 
satisfaction.

No sooner do we wake in the 
morning than we have to choose 
among hundreds of breakfast cereals, 
drinks and coffees. There 
are more than 40 kinds of toothpaste 
to choose from, hundreds of 
shampoos and, for the self-care-
obsessed, hundreds of other ointments, 
salves and moisturizers.

Throughout the day, we’re pestered 
by telemarketers, pop-up ads 
and random texts that promise us 
we’ll be fit, smart and stylish if we 
buy the products they are pushing 
— and fat, dumb and dorky if we 
don’t.

Schwartz gives an example of a 
visit to a Gap clothing store to buy 
a pair of jeans. In the old days, the 
average fellow had only to choose 
between Wrangler or Levi’s, but 
not anymore. The Gap now offers 
slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, baggy, 
stonewashed, acid-washed, distressed, 
button fly, zipper fly, faded 
or regular.

Gone are the days of the cardboard-
thick Sears Toughskins I was forced 
to wear as a boy. 

But decisions over material things 
are just the beginning of our confusion. 
We’ve allowed ourselves to 
become as equally overwhelmed 
by the careers we choose, our jobs, 
our spouses… or even if we should 
marry at all.

From the Greatest Generation to 
now, the percentage of people of 
marrying age who got married 
dropped from 81 percent to just 
44 percent, reflecting a dramatic 
decline in marriage rates over the 
decades. And many young people 
who still hope to find a life partner 
aren’t just looking for a spouse or a 
companion, but a soulmate — that 
perfect person who is going to fill 
their hearts with joy every moment 
of every day.

The peculiar thing about the American 
mind — and I’m more guilty 
than anyone — is that we equate 
freedom with unlimited choice, 
when it is the opposite that is actually 
true. It is by limiting our choices 
that we are set free.

 G.K. Chesterton said that marriage 
brings a man happiness because 
it gives him clarity and focus. 
By focusing his energies and affections 
on one woman, he is able to 
know the inner beauty and closeness 
of one woman. Could you 
imagine being an artist, he said, 
who was trying to paint a canvas as 
large as the moon? Where do you 
start painting? No, it is the frame 
that liberates the artist. By being 
boxed into a small rectangular area, 
he is given a point of reference and 
perspective. It is the frame that sets 
the artist free.

Chesterton argues that true freedom 
comes not from limitless 
choices but from making a committed 
choice and sticking to it. 
Marriage, in his view, is an example 
of how committing to one person 
for life creates genuine freedom 
within boundaries. That makes 
perfect sense to me.

 I’m going to mull this important 
concept over as soon as I’m done 
choosing among 47 streaming services, 
63 flavors of coffee and 27 
types of hamburger patties — some 
of which have no meat!


The world was changed forever on April 4, 1975.

(Don’t get a swelled head if that happens to be your date of birth. 
I’m writing about a business/cultural milestone, not providing PR 
for any individual’s decades of leaving a carbon footprint. On the 
other hand, you really are rockin’ it for near-50. Send me the name 
of your gym.)

*Ahem* Where was I? Oh, yes, April 4 marks the 50th anniversary 
of when childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen launched 
Microsoft, a fledgling company that would grow into a multinational technology conglomerate 
boasting (as of 2024) 228,000 employees.

(Admittedly, that statistic does not impress long-serving Congressman Cookthebooks, 
who sputters, “Big deal. I’ll bet not all 228,000 employees are related to the boss! 
Amateurs!”)

Some of us wonder how we ever got along before Microsoft introduced its productivity 
applications, goosed the sale of home computers and helped the dot-com boom of the 
90s. (I think it had something to do with dipping a quill pen in ink to put dinosaur eggs 
on the grocery list, but don’t quote me on that.)

But a sizable minority still takes a perverse pride in staying low-tech. (“You won’t catch 
me using any of that newfangled computer stuff. New evidence is coming out that Microsoft 
Edge is the Mark of the Beast. I’ll provide you with cutting-edge research about 
that topic just as soon as the new set of encyclopedias arrives.”)

Beginning with Windows 95 (which I ran on my Dell tower computer back in the day), 
I have benefited from quite a few Microsoft products. But I must admit that the high 
subscription costs for certain Microsoft software sometimes drive me to avail myself of 
the knockoffs that have jumped into the market. Who needs Word software when you 
can get Inarticulate Grunt for free? Why pay for Excel when you can install Blend In 
and Ride The Clock Until Quitting Time at no cost?

I have downloaded several useful applications from the Microsoft Store, but I feel bullied 
when I try to install neat software from another source. It’s almost a HAL “I’m sorry, 
Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that” moment. Or more like, “Wellll, you can try installing 
that unknown software but it might make your laptop explode. And it would probably 
mess up your computer, too.”

The impact of Microsoft goes beyond mere technological innovation like the Xbox 
gaming console or cloud computing. Its financial success has enabled the philanthropic 
endeavors of Bill Gates. Love him or hate him, that globetrotting scamp is always dabbling 
in something. (“If we can’t find a way to make the world better, we’ll just buy out 
the competing planets! Easy-peasy. They probably have some really humongous bugs 
to eat.”)

Some folks — disenchanted with America’s two-party system, the European Union and 
the United Nations — think Microsoft really should be in charge of the whole world. I 
can just imagine some of the outbursts we would overhear.

“Hold on! You can’t use your toilet until we’ve completed a forced upgrade at this most 
inopportune time.”

“Too bad about the much-needed rain stopping in mid-air; maybe you should try a 
couple dozen reboots.”

“Sorry about all your hair falling out. Sure hope you established a system restore point!”

Here’s to the next 50 years of innovation.

Maybe your gym will even suction fat into the cloud!

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