Route 66 Tour

"66 is the mother road..."  --John Steinback in The Grapes of Wrath  

Route 66, where it splits off from I-40 in northwest Arizona

Wild Burros in Oatman

Colorado River, Grand Canyon

Different than in National Park

Permit to drive down (!)

Favorites

It always amazed me when our 45th president spoke of how much the press maligns "your favorite president."  I really didn't hear the press speak much on Theodore Roosevelt in our day & age!  😉😅  ---Marie Byars            

Theodore Roosevelt received a Nobel Peace Prize while president for negotiating the end to a war between Japan and Russia.  He greatly expanded the National Park system.  After Roosevelt left office, all four of his sons served in World War 1.  The three who survived served in World War II, with Brigadier General Ted Roosevelt, Jr. serving with the most distinction in WW2. 

Knock Yourself Out

(Knock-Knock Jokes to Make You Groan)

1: Knock-Knock.
2: Who's there?
1: Owl say.
2: Owl say who?
1: You're right, they do!

1: Knock-Knock.

2: Who's there?

1: Pencil.
2: Pencil who?
1: Never mind; it's pointless.

1: Knock-Knock.

2: Who's there?

1: Kanga.
2: Kanga who?
1: No...Kangaroo!

******************

How to end a Knock-Knock joke:

1: Knock-Knock.
2: It's open!

     When we were children and as we spent time with children when we became adults, "Knock-knock" jokes were likely part of our history, at least in the English-speaking world.   This is particularly a phenomenon in the US. 

     The roots of knock-knock jokes seem to be in 1900s humor. They started as "Do You Know?" jokes.  In less threatening, less pressured times, a jokester seeking to be funny would approach a stranger and ask a question like, "Do you know Joe?'.  The respondent was expected to reply, "Joe who?"  And the jokester would stay something like "Joe K'Ster."

     In the 1920s, fashion-forward flappers tossed out what they considered witty jokes they called "nifties."  Some of them were structurally similar to the "Do You Know?" jokes from the turn-of-the-century. 

     Knock-Knock jokes started in the 1930s. Some sources trace the origin to Frank Knox, running mate of Republican Alf Landon in 1936. 

Original Sin (As Applied to Societal Structuring)

The heart is deceitful above all things and is incurable: who knows it? --Jeremiah 17:9

    I take issue with both laissez faire, hands-off capitalism and full socialism for the same reason: the inherent selfishness of humanity.  With unrestricted capitalism, you see the selfishness, the rising oligarchy, which this country went through once before, starting about 140 years ago.  With socialism, you would see those who are lazy wanting to sponge off those who work hard.  The optimal solution is a balance between the two.  These are my opinions, of course, but some of my education and experience puts me at the nexus of religion and societal structure. 

        Being a Lutheran who believes in the concept of original sin, I think guardrails need to be in place.  We humans tend towards the selfish when left unchecked. Things need to be structured to keep various aspects of societies in check. 

"Wisdom" for Life

I think there is value to collecting some of the old e-mail circulars, since this is a fading phenomenon.  A lot of the wit in these circulars is not being brought into social media. 

• Death is the #1 Killer in the world.
• Life is sexually transmitted.
  
• Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one could die.
  
• Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day.  Give a person the internet, and they won't bother you for weeks, months, maybe years.
  
• Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.
  
• All of us could take a lesson from the weather.  It pays no attention to criticism.

  
• In the 60's, people took acid to make the world look weird.  Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it look normal.
  
• Don't worry about old age: it doesn't last that long.

Art TELLS Life

This 16th century Flemish [Belgian] painting takes a dim view of what happens when we humans turn on one another and devour one another.  This is happening right now, when uncaring and unfeeling economics are leaving too many workers in the U.S. with too few resources. 

(from the Chicago Art Institute---that city's museum):

Memorialized

The words of the First Amendment, immortalized on the wall of the First Amendment Building, Northern Arizona University.

     Notice what is says about religion:  the government should neither try to create a state religion nor repress citizens' rights to hold their religions.  Both "sides" in the Cultural Wars have it wrong. GLAAD & the LGBT community aren't going away, the Southern Baptists Convention isn't going away.  Evolutionary scientists aren't going away, and creationists aren't going away, etc., etc, so we might as well learn how to agree to disagree.