Sidetracked Charley

There are phrases to which there are no replies.  Make my day   comes to mind.     I remember the movie scene quite clearly and I cannot remember what the addressee said if anything. The reply to Paul Newman's, "What we have here is a failure to communicate," in Cool Hand Luke was a hail of bullets. Whether it was the bullets or his memorable line the conversation was clearly over. Most conversation stoppers in real life are not so memorable. But "I cannot eat gluten," generally halts any conversation about where to eat lunch. It is usually when I choose to go back home and fix myself something to eat. On almost all menus there is something a reasonable person can order which is not based on gluten but the mere fact someone brought it up while everyone was joyfully wanting to continue the day with lunch is not a good sign. Her chosen topic at lunch will be the evil of gluten. Mother always said to never talk about religion or politics but frankly they ...

On the Edge There was an advertising campaign some years back about which applauded risk. My favorite t-shirt they generated boasted the slogan: If you are not living life on the edge you are taking up too much room.  Playing it safe is not exactly an established life style for me but from time to time I find myself inching away from the risky in life and being careful. It is probably something which I am more exposed to with my current set of older friends (my age) and a health issue or two to deal with. Yes, I probably should not attempt to trim the blue spruce in the front yard by standing on the roof of the pickup. But I didn't see signing up for all night movie shoot in Las Vegas as risky until after listening to the reactions of some friends. The town has hotels I could stay at if I got too tired to drive home. And I threw in my bedroll and an extra blanket in case I wanted to pull over at one of two state parks in root. And yes I was walking down dark alleys in the n...