[How many "trillions" in new taxes am I (and my grand= children) going to pay for a socialist America?  It will get worse.&nb= sp; So might as well try to laugh about it instead of cry]   America is the land of= opportunity.  Everyone can become a taxpayer.   If…

[“Senryu” is three-line, often unrhymed Japane= se poetic form structurally like “haiku” with 5-7-5 syllables. = Haiku focuses on PHYSICAL nature and the world around us; Senryu is concern= ed with HUMAN nature and its weakness and wondering. I enjoyed reading some= on aging, retirement, and death, so thought my blog…

41. SIX OF ONE, HALF-DOZEN OF THE OTHER (about the same, so it really doesn’t matter)   42= =2E HEARD IT ON THE GRAPEVINE (unofficial go= ssip or rumor, not from telegraph or telephone line but over the backyard f= ence)   43. CAN’T MAKE A SILK PURSE OUT OF…

31. UP THE CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE (in a difficult situation, with no means to remedy it; from early British= navy in Napoleonic wars)   32. SHE HAS TOO MANY IRONS IN THE FIRE (she has spread her efforts too thin, not focused on main co= ncern; from cooking on…

[ten more examples of common language of a century back, many s= till used today!] 21. OLDER THAN DIRT or OLDER THAN IOWA AND TWICE A= S CORNY (something truly old; variation from= OLDER THAN THE HILLS found in the oldest book in the Bible – Job 15:7)   22.…

[more common phrases of a hundred or more years ago] 11.= IT COST YOU NOTHING TO TAKE A LOOK (nothing= wrong with window shopping as long as you don’t go in debt)   12. CAN’= T GET BLOOD OUT OF A TURNIP (or out of a STONE) (impossible task; often…

(We’ve chuckled at Southern words, Midwestern phrases, Bo= omer slang, and Computer jargon in recent months, so today we’ll focu= s on words/phrases from our Grandparents’ day.  Amazingly, I fin= d myself still using some of these phrases from long ago in my present slig= htly age-addled vocabulary)   1.…

[The first weekend of each month is a time to encourage and ins= pire our blog readers to greater achievement and aspiration.] &#8220= ;The difference between greed and ambition is a greedy person desires thing= s he isn’t prepared to work for.”~ Habeeb Akande =   “Success i= s a poor…

About 115 years ago, almost everyone owned a horse and only the= rich had cars.   = Today, almost everyone has a car and only the rich have horses.   Oh, how= the stables have turned.   ~~ Dr Bob Griffin = [email protected] www.grif.net "Jesus Knows= Me, This I Love!"…

Just in case you’ve had a rough day, here’s an eight-step stres= s management technique recommended in the latest psychological texts. The f= unny thing is that it really works.   1. Picture yourself near a stream.=   2. Birds are sof= tly chirping in the cool mountain air. =…

We retired in April 2021, so by now I’ve gained some pers= pective on what this stage of life looks like.  For instance, these ca= n be overheard at my house, often all in the same day:   >”Who cares if I = look good in this outfit? I’m comfortable.”…

Larry B. boasted, “At the end of the sermon pastor said e= very head bowed and every eye closed.  I beat him by 35 minutes.&#8221= ;   Mary= Anne H. shared, “If raising children were easy, it would never have s= tarted with ‘labor’.”   Mike B. quipped, “I once…

For years, the grif net has offered lousy jokes, lame puns, and= low-quality humor on the first weekday of every month. But today is also A= pril Fools Day, so we deviate slightly from our already undefined (and unde= cipherable) course.  April Fool PRANKS and then a short history course=…