February 21, 2014

An elderly man on his deathbed advised his great-grandchildren: "When you look back on your life, if there were more people who treated you with kindness than there were people who didn't, that was a successful life." However, I think that the measure of that kind of success depends more on how we treat others instead of how they treated us.

It would be tragic to allow the abundance of indecency around us to prevent us from expecting people to behave decently. Indecency spreads faster when people get used to it.

A Tampa, Florida man was practicing his turkey calls while walking through a wildlife management area when he was mistakenly shot twice by a hunter. Is there such a thing as being too good at something?

Trade-based organizations are reporting that the number of clowns in this country is decreasing. I just think they're not looking in the right places; admit it, don't each of us know a few clowns?

A 23-year-old single mom says she was fired from her job at a New York McDonald's because she and two co-workers dipped into their own pockets to buy $153 worth of food for two firefighter crews after being told that the food could not be donated to the first responders, who'd been fighting two fires in the freezing temperatures. Ironically, since going viral with her story, the fired worker has been receiving several job offers. Good deeds are sometimes rewarded after they go punished.

So, which item creeps you out more: the Makeout-Practice pillow designed to make you a better kisser, or hairy stockings intended to deflect unwanted attention to your legs? My advice: save your money, find a real person to kiss, and wear pants.

A talking lizard, a quacking duck, people materializing upon hearing a song (and don't get me started on that woman, Flo)... who decided that insurance commercials were supposed to be funny? But none of them are more disturbing than the one where the two daughters hurry to their parents' home after Dad has an accident and choose that moment to suggest they purchase "final expense insurance." Creepy...

Does it bother anyone that nearly 50% of the doctors in the U.S. are reportedly consulting Wikipedia to diagnose patients? Maybe we're healthier than we've been told! Or maybe we're sicker. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

A South Carolina woman was released on a $2000 bond after one night in jail for never returning a VHS copy of the movie Monster-in-Law to the video store where she rented it in 2005. I hope she remembered that it's kind to rewind.

And now, a message that may or may not be directed to anyone in particular: forgive your friends from laughing, and just remember next time, wine isn't served in a giraffe.

Agape' -- P