Chamblee54

Mark Sanford is, the last time PG checked, the Governor of South Carolina. He is a Republican and a flaming Jesus Worshiper. He recently got caught with his pants down.
PG is not fond of the word hypocrite. Too often it leads to ad hominem mudslinging, as the Hatfields and McCoys trade insults. Hypocrisy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. PG would rather look at the persons deeds as the true manifestation of the  beliefs.
With this in mind, PG does not worry about the party line blatherings of Mr. Sanford. It is better to look at the emails he exchanged with his mistress. Mark Sanford spent father’s day with this mistress.
He quotes The Bible in an email to his mistress. To be specific, I Corinthians 13. “ Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful, it is not arrogant or rude”.

This is a borrowed post. It was originally posted at amerrierworld. PG does not bake or write in first person. He has never had kids. He does borrow other peoples ideas, and introduces them to the rainbow.
At the end of her birthday party last year, M announced that she would be having a unicorn party for her next birthday. I didn’t realise that she was absolutely serious about this. I thought, “It’s a whole year away – she’s bound to change her mind.” But no, for a whole year M has stuck to her original intention and has been counting down the days until her unicorn party.
You could argue that I’ve had a whole year to prepare, so why the sudden rush to get everything ready last week? Well, M may have had a solidly clear idea of the grand theme for her party, but she left the finer details entirely up to me. Not wanting to disappoint, I threw myself into turning our house into an enchanted forest in the hope that any passing unicorns might be tempted to pop in on the big day. We made glittery trees and rainbow streamers while M’s big sister created a welcoming poster for the front door.
Last year, M set her heart on a cake she saw in a book by Debbie Brown (here’s a warning to parents – only ever let your children see pictures of cakes that you’re happy to make yourself). Four being so much more grownupperer than three, M has now thankfully entered the chocolate frosting and smarties stage.
I’m not so very far removed from the icing sugar cloud of despair that I miss those fondant modelling sessions yet … I’m quite happy to be doing chocolate and smarties.
I couldn’t resist giving the birthday girl a little surprise, though. From the outside, M’s cake looked perfectly normal (in a homemade sort of way) – a magical plastic unicorn standing amid swirls of white chocolate buttercream and scattered smarties. M’s seven little party guests looked on dutifully as M blew out her candles and I took a knife to cut into the cake.
Hesitating before plunging in to make the first slice, I asked them all, “Do you know what happens when a unicorn stands on top of a birthday cake?” “No,” they whispered with wide eyes. “He makes a rainbow,” I told them, cutting into the cake.
The next day, M sidled up to me and asked, “Mummy, how did the unicorn do that to my cake?”
Well, if there’s by any chance anyone left in the blogosphere who hasn’t come across a rainbow cake before now, I’ll explain my own take on the concept … just in case a unicorn happens to pass by and stand on another little girl’s birthday cake ;-) .
I’m not sure who had the original idea – there’s a box-mix version doing the rounds that appears to have started with this thread in the dubiously-named ‘Something Awful’ forums. Rejecting the layered box-mix and diet soda variety however, I based my own rainbow cake recipe on Farida’s beautiful Zebra Cake (stay tuned for more from Farida in an upcoming post).
I followed Farida’s instructions to make a yellow cake batter (whichever basic cake recipe you choose, it’s important that it’s one in which the batter doesn’t mix about too much during baking or you’ll end up with a muddy brown cake instead of a rainbow). Then, instead of dividing it into two parts and colouring one part with cocoa as Farida did, I divided the mixture between seven bowls (roughly 4 tablespoons of batter in each) and used my fondant paste dyes to colour each portion a different colour of the rainbow.
I then poured each rainbow batter in turn (starting with red) into the centre of my prepared cake pan. As Farida says, don’t wait for each colour to spread out before starting with the next – just pour the batter into the centre of the pan, then pour the next colour right on top and then the colour after that without waiting for each to spread fully.
The weight of each batter pushes the previous colour out further and, as long as you keep a steady hand with the pouring, they all sort themselves out. And it’s as simple as that.
I found out in the school playground this morning that one of the guests has kept her special piece of rainbow cake carefully wrapped up since the party so that she can show it to everyone who visits.

When a person dies, the family wants to mourn. This is a cornerstone of civilization. When the family is not allowed this comfort, they feel insulted. Recent events in Iran show what happen when people are insulted too many times.
The world knows Neda Soltan. She has become a symbol of the unrest. What has happened to her grieving family?:
“The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.
Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.”
Here is the rest of the story.
Meanwhile, a few hundred kilometers away, a funeral was allowed to take place. They had a visitor.
“Up to 80 people have been killed after missiles were fired from a US “drone” at the funeral of a suspected Taliban commander of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan, Pakistan officials have said.” The rest of this story is here.
The United States is at war with Pakistan in all but name. This is a nation of over 100 million moslems, with nuclear weapons. If we had listened to “neocons” and extremist Israelis, we would be at war with Iran now. Those people in the streets would be fighting us.
There is an old saying, might makes right. What is happening now is a change in understanding of what might is. The brave people in the streets of Iran have might. Their blood is the WMD. America, by contrast, attacks with high tech unmanned aircraft.

A couple of weeks ago, Chamblee54 recycled an email. It was a list of life lessons, written by a lady named Regina Britt. It was reported that she was 90 years old.
As it turns out, the chain email industry got that wrong. Regina Britt is 53. Mrs. Britt survived a bout with breast cancer, and is happy for the life she enjoys. She has a book coming out.
The chain email got a couple of other things wrong. The original list of 45 RFL was printed. In her nifty at fifty column, Mrs. Britt had fifty thoughts. Since PG cares about his reader(s), he has compared the two lists, and determined which five were not included. Maybe it is the email monger who is 90 years old, or living in North Ohio.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
The email distributor did not think that what Mrs. Britt wrote was sufficient. The following postscript was added: “Its estimated 93% won’t forward this. If you are one of the 7% who will, forward this with the title ‘7%’. I’m in the 7%. Remember that I will always share my spoon with you! Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.”
PG suspects that Regina Britt is not a statistician. She tells the truth.
Thank you Capri, for leaving a comment at the Chamblee54 post. Capri gave the correct age for Regina Britt. Its not everyday you can take 37 years off a persons age.

PG has been on a rules of life bender lately. Recently, the facilitator was Avitable. He left ten rules for life. He had 94 comments, many of whom offered their own RFL. While editing the Avitables, PG began to think. This is usually dangerous, though so far has not been fatal. A running list of profundities was begun.
This list uses male oriented terms. PG realizes that more than half of humanity is female. However, the english language is clumsy. Words like their and people just don’t sound right. For the purposes of this lesson, PG will say he and him. The reader can translate this into more inclusive terminology.

1 A man who says I don’t know is usually telling the truth, unless he is under oath. 2 If you don’t know, ask. 3 Don’t use body parts or hygeine appliances as insults. 4 If you can’t say anything good about someone, say bless his heart.5 Believe half of what you read and nothing that you hear. 6 If you tell the truth, you will always know what you said. 7 A phony aplology is usually worse than the misdeed which proceeded it. 8 An after dinner bike ride in summer is a gift. Whatever you are doing can wait until you get back. 9 A man once complained that he had no shoes, until he met a man with no feet. 10 Wisdom fatigue is real. 11 Bumper stickers are asking for trouble. Why should the person behind you in traffic know your innermost thoughts? 12 Sometimes it takes more courage to listen than it does to talk. 13 The more opinions you have, the easier it is to be a hypocrite. 14 If you say something louder, it does not become more true. 15 When compiling lists of wisdom, include things that make you smile, even if you don’t completely agree. 16 You can wish in one hand and poop in the other, and see which hand gets full faster. Whatever choice you make, wash your hands. 17 Keep your voice down if you don’t want someone to hear you. 18 Efficiency is laziness with an attitude. 19 Know the difference between true wisdom and a clever phrase. 20 Don’t believe your own propaganda. 21 Follow the money.

The financial mess is not over. Perhaps it has bottomed out. (The American people have been bottomed out).The debt will be with us for a long time. The loss of confidence may be permanent. A writer named Matt Taibbi has a couple of posts recently that explain a few things.
The first is about Hank Paulson. He is one of the nameless men who helped to make the dollar worthless. He was the Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush. Before that, he was Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. That combination should raise a few eyebrows, but no one noticed at the time.
It seems that in 2004, Paulson played a key role in the relaxation of certain rules governing banks. “he called up SEC director William Donaldson in 2004 and quietly arranged to get the state to drop capital requirements for the country’s top five investment banks?… Paulson met with Donaldson and got the rules changed so that Goldman and four other banks no longer had to abide by the old restrictions that forced banks to actually have a dollar or two on hand for every ten or so they lent out. After that, it was party time! Bear Stearns in just a few years had a debt-to-equity ration of 33-1! Lehman’s went to 32-1.”
The big banks were lending money to just about anyone who wanted it. So much capital was coming on the market, it was a struggle to lend it all out. The standards, especially for home loans, went down to almost nothing. These loans were packaged and resold, in the form of securities backed by these almost fraudulent loans.
It should be noted that PG is not an economist, and does not understand much of this. If the technicalities are a bit off, then so be it. The bottom line is that the American economy, once the envy of the world, is in tatters.
The second article is about a pseudo apology issued by a money lender. It really needs to be read in full. If you are in a hurry to watch NASCAR, here are a couple of “money quotes“.
“So some Dutch teachers’ union that a year before was buying ultra-safe U.S. Treasury bonds in 2006 runs into a Goldman salesman who offers them a different, “just as safe” AAA-rated investment that, at the moment anyway, just happens to be earning a much higher return than treasuries. Next thing you know, a bunch of teachers in Holland are betting their retirement nest eggs on a bunch of meth addicted “homeowners” in Texas and Arizona.” Next time, those teachers will look somewhere else to invest their savings.
“Alt-A mortgages are characterized, mainly, by crappy documentation and lack of equity: no income verification, no asset verification, little-to-no cash down…These crap/sham mortgages, a lot of them adjustable-rate deals with teaser rates that featured sudden rate hikes two or three years after closing, they would never have been possible had not someone devised a method for selling them off to secondary buyers.”
“This isn’t really commerce, but much more like organized crime: it was a gigantic fraud perpetrated on the economy that wouldn’t have been possible without accomplices in the ratings agencies and regulators willing to turn a blind eye. Imagine a meat company that bred ten billion rats, fattened them on trash and sewage, ground their bodies into chuck, and then sold it all as grade-A ground beef to McDonald’s and Burger King, right under the noses of the USDA: this is exactly the same thing, only with debt instead of food. We’re eating it, they’re counting the money.”
PG was still working while a lot of this was melting down, and in those days listened to Neal Boortz. Neeyull blamed the sub prime mortgage crisis on the government pressuring lenders to give loans to less qualified buyers. This argument is dissected in the comments to this post.
Back to Neeyull, PG was listening one day when an “expert” was discussing the mortgage crisis. PG has neither a name nor an exact quote, as he was driving at the time. Neeyull mentioned that Government pressure led to loaning money to less qualified people. The expert said that was part of it, but the real problem was the flood of capital available to lend. The banks were under pressure to loan the money out as quickly as possible, and not to be too picky about qualifications.
We will be paying for this for years to come.

Something is going on in Iran.
There was an election, and the incumbents had the bad taste to announce the results before the polls had closed. To hear them tell it, the presiding President and fashion icon Mahmoud Ahmedinejad won a landslide. The supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi do not agree, and have been expressing themselves in the streets. It is getting nasty.
It is very, very tough to tell what is going on there. Andrew Sullivan has been giving this story a lot of space, and it is tough to add it all up. How it is going to play out is anyone’s guess. Chamblee54 is going to throw a few things out, and see if that helps.
1- The genuine power in Iran is a cleric named Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Exactly how much power the President has is a tough call.
2- This is not how elections are supposed to work. In a functional system, the Government has fair elections, and the people go along with the results. It is tough to see a future election working, especially if the dissidents get this one thrown out by their protests. Even if they are right this time, in the future it might be disgruntled opposition that huffs and puffs and gets the results thrown out.
3- Even considering that these people may have less than noble motives, it is still remarkable to see them standing up to their government this way. The Iranian people have had a wild ride. They threw out the Shah, aka the Persian Saddam. They held Americans hostage at the embassy. They were invaded by Iraq, who was supported by the United States. A gruesome eight year war followed, with the United States and Israel cynically selling weapons to Iran.
In the past few years, next door enemy Iraq was conquered. An unfortunate man was elected President of Iran. When he ran for reelection, the people decided it was time for another revolution.
4-Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter in 1787: “God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion…And what country can preserve its liberties, if it’s rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms… The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Mr. Jefferson was President in 1807, or twenty years after he wrote that letter. It is assumed he did not want a revolution while he was President.
5- Back to the Revolution du Jour. Mir Hossein Mousavi may be less prone to saying outlandish things than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This does not mean he is a totally cool person.
“Moussavi served as Iran’s prime minister from 1981 to 1989, during the Iranian Revolution’s formative phase. His closest ally in those days was Khamenei. Moussavi defended the seizure and 444-day imprisonment of the American hostages; he edited a party newspaper that opposed their ’81 release. He helped sponsor Hezbollah. He was instrumental in launching Iran’s chemical weapons program. And his “reformist” coalition is closely allied with conservative economic barons (such as former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, scion of a family fortune); these people have domestic financial grievances with Ahmadinejad – as opposed to having any love for America or western democracy.
6- BHO is in a tricky situation. If he ignores the rebels, he is wrong. If he supports the rebels, then the rebels get labeled as puppets. This will be a test to see if BHO has shmartz to go along with stage presence. The Repubs have wasted little time in denouncing him, and undermining support. This is to be expected by the opposition.
7- There probably is a connection between the Iranian revolution and the events next door in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
8-With neighbors like Iraq, Israel, and the Stan countries, is it any wonder that some in Iran want the bomb?
9- The people fighting in the streets against their government would die by the thousands if Israel was to nuke Iran.

PG has been on a rules of life bender lately. Today, the facilitator is Avitable. He left ten rules for life. He had 94 comments, many of whom offered their own RFL. PG has read them, so you don’t have to. The best of the best is below. They are in the order in which they appeared.
01 Everyone will disappoint you at least once in your life. Forgive them. It’s when it becomes a habit that you need to cut them out of your life. (Avitable) 02 Words only have as much power as you give them. If you ignore them, they will lose all effectiveness. (Avitable) 03 No matter how bad things are for you, there’s always someone else out there who is worse. Look for the positive aspects first. (Avitable) 04 TV does not rot your brain. If someone says it does, they aren’t watching enough. (Shamelessly Sassy) 05 If someone/life gives you lemons, cut them in half and squirt them in their eyes. Lemons make awesome weapons. (Shamelessly Sassy) 06 While you should respect your elders, you should not respect elderly assholes. (Shamelessly Sassy) 07 There is no room in my life for toxic friends or people without a sense of humor. (Shamelessly Sassy) 08 Be nice to stupid people. They really just have no idea. (Shamelessly Sassy) 09 Being yourself is easier than keeping up with the masks. (harmzie) 10 Even if you’re not stupid or ignorant, you’re going to fuck up something. It’s best to have someone there who will tolerate it. (harmzie) 11 People are more inclined to like you if you make them laugh a little. (harmzie) 12 Respect and likability are not mutually exclusive. (harmzie) 13 Fear and respect are not the same thing. (harmzie) 14 Don’t take yourself too seriously. (Jay) 15 You’re responsible for raising your own kids. (Jay) 16 If you don’t like something don’t watch/read/listen to it. (Jay) 17 If you screw up, it doesn’t make you weak to admit to it and apologize to anyone you might have hurt. (Jay) 18 Buy low and sell high. (Jay)

A couple of weeks ago PG wrote three posts about murder. Some whiners were making noise about media coverage of two high profile killings. PG decided to use a local killing for comparison. The third homicide did not take long to find.
The national corporate newsmongers have moved on to other sensations. Almost nothing has been changed…women get abortions, the army kills moslems, and religious people make noise. It is almost as if the two men died for nothing. Of course, why would anyone say that a death is “for something”? Unless he was trying to motivate young people to go kill for his cause.
The third murder has some developments. The deceased, a lady named Shani Fecht, was the mother of accused killer Zeke Cordell. The accused has some interesting things to say. The story, from the fishwrapper, is a doozy. Here are a few highlights:
“A Sandy Springs teenager accused of gunning down his mother on June 2 told police he was a “psychotic killer” and said killing his mother was “an adrenaline rush.”…Cordell told police…his mother greeting him “Hey, how’s it going.” He told Fecht to hang on while he went back to his Jeep to grab the apartment gate access card…Cordell came back with a 9 mm carbine rifle in his hands. He told police that he smirked at his mother, told her “that was a lie,” and opened fire on her as she sat in her vehicle… Police also found a receipt showing he had purchased the rifle five days prior to the shooting…Other explanations were that she wasn’t a good role model, that she may have done some nude modeling back when he was young, and that she may have smoked some marijuana recently,”
Yes, a troubled teenager was able to legally buy a weapon. In many civilized countries, this might have been a bit more difficult. True, it is people who kill people. It is much easier when you use a rifle.
PG does not know how much national media attention is being given to this case. PG also wonders whether it would be the liberals or conservatives who should be complaining.

You’re An EXTREME Redneck When….. 1. You let your 14-year-old daughter smoke at the dinner table in front of her kids. 2. The Blue Book value of your truck goes up and down depending on how much gas is in it. 3. You’ve been married three times and still have the same in-laws. 4. You think a woman who is out of your league bowls on a different night. 5. You wonder how service stations keep their rest-rooms so clean. 6. Someone in your family died right after saying, ‘Hey, guys, watch this.’ 7. You think Dom Perignon is a Mafia leader. 8. Your wife’s hairdo was once ruined by a ceiling fan. 9. Your junior prom offered day care. 10. You think the last words of the Star-Spangled Banner are ‘Gentlemen, start your engines. 11. You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off its wheels. 12. The Halloween pumpkin on your porch has more teeth than your spouse. 13. You have to go outside to get something from the fridge. 14. One of your kids was born on a pool table. 15. You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the House of Tattoos. 16. You can’t get married to your sweetheart because there’s a law against it. 17. You think loading the dishwasher means getting your wife drunk. An East Texas couple, both real-life rednecks, had 9 children. They went to the doctor to see about getting the husband “fixed”. The doctor asked them why, after nine children would they choose to do this. The husband replied that they had read in a recent article that one out of every ten children being born in North America was Mexican, and they didn’t want a Mexican baby because neither of them could speak Spanish.

Yesterday, Chamblee 54 printed a guide to life. It was written by a lady in Cleveland, OH. PG got to thinking about the list. If you saw a mushroom cloud over Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, that is what it was. He decided to write his own list, inspired by the original, but different enough to avoid copyright issues. As with all speculation, the following list is best read with an open mind and a negative attitude.
01- Fair is when a baseball is hit between first and third base. Sometimes it is a controversial call. 02- When in Georgia, just take a drink. 03-Life is too hateful to waste time on religion.04- Family and friends might help, your job might help, insurance might pay the bills, and the government might bail out the insurance company. 05- Interest on credit card debt is a bad investment. 06- Only argue when it is worthwhile. Don’t argue just to have fun. Better yet, don’t argue. 07-Cry because you are happy. 08- Getting angry with G-d is like getting angry with standard time. 09- You don’t have to spend all your money at once. Save a bit now and then, and think of a reason later. 10-The sugar and chemicals in commercial chocolate covers up much of the taste. The real thing cannot hurt you. 11- Make pizza with your pasta so it wont screw up your salad. 12- It’s OK to let your children see you watch TV. 13- There once was a band called Journey. They played corporate rock and made lots of money. That is not a life to compare yours to. 14-There was a TV game show, “I’ve Got A Secret”. It did not relate to anything. 15- If you turn your back on G-d, she will still be looking you in the eyes. 16- Take a deep mind, it calms the breath. If that fails, use mouthwash. 17- Politicians, like diapers, should be changed frequently. 18- Some sayings should be outlawed. They have been used too much, and no longer mean anything. 19- The trouble is, some people are on the third and fourth childhood. 20-Show compassion for your neighbor. Sometimes what you want is more pain to him that pleasure to you. 21-Burn the fancy lingerie and wear the candles. One size fits all. 22- A river goes with the flow without preparation. The water is still polluted. 23- If you have to ask permission, you probably don’t need to. 24- Elbows, armpits, and neck scruff disagree with claims made about the brain. 25- If you charge your happiness, pay the bill at the end of the month. 26- Your reaction to the disaster cannot wait five years. Act now, using the best judgment you have. 27- Cheerios taste better than Life cereal, and People magazine has better pictures than Life. 28- Jesus Worshipers are like teenage boys…the more they talk about forgiveness the less they practice it. 29-If you don’t want someone to hear what you say, keep your voice down. 30- Time wounds all heels. This is especially true in North Carolina. 31- There was a man from Mississippi who went to New Orleans. He took a ten dollar bill and a white shirt. He did not change either one. 32-Mr. Roebuck did not take his partner Sears-iously. 33-The middle three letters of the word Believe is LIE. 34- G-d is a neutral. She loves and hates in equal measure. 35- Show up, Stay awake, and don’t kill anybody. 36-If youth is wasted on the young, is maturity wasted on the mature?37-When you make a list like this, don’t worry about contradicting yourself. 38- The hokey pokey really is what it’s all about. 39- Never wrestle with an pig. You will get dirty, and the pig will enjoy it. 40- Be careful when you ask for something, you might get it. 41- A man thought he was green with envy once. It was really gangrene. 42- The pest is yet to come, but she will go away later. 43- Put your pants on one leg at a time, and put on a dress the same way. 44- Smile, and people will wonder what you are up to. 45- Use spell check, and try to use correct grammar. You will sound smarter than you are.

It was the second friday of june. It was the last day of analog TV. Though PG had not watched much TV since he was in high school, he noted the passage of free analog TV with a bit of sadness. While cable had long since taken over, rabbit ears had defined much of American life for much of PG’s life. Things will never be the same.
On this day of transition, PG got a chain email from a former stupidvisor. The title was 7%. Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio , it begins : “To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written.” My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month. 6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone. 8. It’s OK to get angry with G-d. He can take it. 9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck. 10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile. 11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present. 12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry. 13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it. 15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; G-d never blinks. 16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind. 17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful. 18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger. 19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else. 20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer. 21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special. 22. Over prepare, then go with the flow. 23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple. 24. The most important sex organ is the brain. 25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you. 26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’ 27. Always choose life. 28. Forgive everyone everything. 29. What other people think of you is none of your business. 30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time. 31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. 32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 33. Believe in miracles. 34. G-d loves you because of who G-d is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do. 35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. 36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young. 37. Your children get only one childhood. 38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved. 39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere. 40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back. 41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. 42. The best is yet to come. 43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. 44. Yield. 45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.