Over 30

Over 30? Feeling Old?

Good morning my fellow Rotarians. How many 30-somethings in the room this morning?

Any of you get the feeling yet that you are feeling old? For some of us this feeling has been with us for quite a while. No names mentioned of course. For others, it maybe is one of those thoughts that has started to creep into your thinking. So, thought I would share with you a few signs that would give you a heads up…

• You get super excited when you go to a concert and there are SEATS.You start a story with “when I was in college” and realize that was 10 years ago. 
• When you watch teen movies/TV shows, you find yourself siding more with the parents than the kids. 
• You’ve gone to a bar and left because it was too loud. 
• You’d rather pay a little more for a “nice, clean” hotel room than cram into a hostel with 12 of your friends. 
• You start buying shoes based on “comfort” instead of looks. 
• You voluntarily buy the “fiber” cereal. 
• You’re seriously thinking about getting a dog. No, having a baby. No, definitely getting a dog.
• You get carded, and your first instinct is, “AWESOME.” 
• An 11-year-old has to show you how to do something on your smartphone.

There you go, some sure signs that you are over 30 and getting old. That’s the bottom of our news on this March 21, 2014.

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St Pat's Myths

St. Patrick’s Day Myths!

One of the most publicly celebrated holidays is this Monday, but did you know there are a lot of myths surrounding St. Patrick’s Day?  Yes, it is true and today I am going to be your fact checker!

Is St. Patrick the patron saint of the beer industry?  Maybe.  Big Insight Reporting says Americans spend $4.5 billion St. Patrick's Day AND 1% or $45 million spent on beer alone – all on one day, March 17^th.  I would think the beer people most likely think Patrick truly was a saint!

St. Patrick was Irish, right?  No, he was born in southwest Britain and was kidnapped by priests and forced to work in Ireland for several years.

How about that thing about St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland?  A metaphor at best.  Ireland is an island and snakes never migrated there.

Of course the festivities came from Ireland because the Irish are party animals, right?  Actually not.  Parties, parades and celebrations first sprang up in the US around the time of the Revolutionary War – by Irish-American immigrants wanting to remember their homeland and to honor their patron saint. 

The tradition of wearing the color green came from Ireland, correct?  No, another American invention.  Some Irish folklore attached unlucky connotations to the color green, and St. Patrick was originally associated with the color blue.

OK, hopefully this one goes without saying: Kissing an Irish person won't bring you good luck?  Regardless of what that guy at the pub told you last year!  Blame the Blarney Stone legend for the line, "Kiss me! I'm Irish."

And finally, what about that irritating pinching tradition?  Well, this one did come from Ireland.  Many Irish people believed that wearing green would make you invisible to leprechauns.  A good thing because leprechauns would pinch you if they got the chance.  So, the bigger question may be, do you believe in leprechauns?

Can you believe it, much of what we believed about the Irish actually was originated in America.  Go figure!  Enjoy the holiday this Monday and that is the bottom of our news for Friday, March 14, 2014!  ###

Murphy's Laws

Is it ONE of Those Days? 

Good morning my fellow Rotarians.  Last week I had one of those “Murphy’s Laws” days.  You know, where “If anything can go wrong it will?”  Anyone else every been there?  So, I began to wonder who is this Murphy guy and why the label?

It was made famous by Capt. Edward Murphy, an Air Force engineer in charge of a 1968 testing project on how sudden stops from crashes effect pilots.  Do they need to runs tests to know the results???

Apparently the testing went wrong quite often and Murphy would say the same thing after each failed test.  His team started a list of other “Laws" that seemed to always be true and here are a few of them… 

• Law of Probability… The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act. 
• Law of Dialing… If you dial a wrong number, you never get voice mail and someone always answers. 
• Law of Variation … If you change traffic lanes on the way to the base, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you change to (works every time). 
• Law of the Result… When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will. 
• Law of Close Encounters… The probability of meeting someone you know off the base increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with. 
• Law of Mechanical Repair… After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to go to the restroom. 
• Law of Physical Surfaces … The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor is directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpeting. 
• Law of Logical Argument … Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about. 
• Law of the Alibi… If you tell the colonel you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire. 

There they are, Murphy’s laws as the Bottom of the News this Friday, March 07, 2014!  

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