When I was a kid, and Mom wanted me to behave well with my cousins, she always told me that she counted on my being nice because “you’re their idol”. I’ve never been a troublemaker to begin with, but the flattery worked, too. Whenever dealing with my younger cousins – or young kids in general – I always tried to be on my best behavior.
I wanted to be a good role model.
And I wanted my Mom to be proud. Still do.
Dear 11-year-old Risto,
You’re probably reading this at breakfast, while eating Star Wars cereal. No, wait. There is no Star Wars cereal yet. My bad, a bit of a spoiler but at least it’s something to look forward to. (Chocolate cereal … I know!)
It’s funny what sticks to your mind from reading books. What we remember from a book may be just a throwaway line – if there ever are such things – the author may have thought was slightly amusing, or a description of a character who’s not key to the plot. (Then again, if you remember that, maybe she was).
Anyway, this is once again a way to make a short story long to say that I once read a book and the only thing that’s stuck with me through the decades is not its name (so I can’t tell you which one it was or anything else that seems important) but instead, I remember a character description. In the book there was someone who “liked to give nicknames to people”.
Nothing is a fast as a human brain, except a human brain a moment before an accident is about to happen. The number of different ideas that go through one’s mind in fractions of a second when, for example, one’s earphones seem to be on their way down the toilet.
Ideas for a poem
First day of school
Last day of summer break
That popular band from Liverpool
Cheeseburgers at Harlem Shake
The soft skin of a maiden
Why love conquers hate
Our vacation in Aspen
Why buses are always late
The greatest book ever written
A pirate captain with a wooden leg
How Great Britain became just Britain
Eleven ways to cook the perfect egg
iPhone battery issues
My brand new haircut
What to do with used tissues
Jabba the Hutt
(Inspired by “Grownups read things they wrote as kids”)
Every journey to 1,000 games begins with, well, the first game.
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Börje Salming became the first European to play 1,000 NHL games on Jan. 4, 1988, against the Vancouver Canucks. But when he made his NHL debut on Oct. 10, 1973, he wasn’t the first European-trained player, nor was he even the first Swedish defenseman in the League. Forward Ulf Sterner played four games for the New York Rangers in 1965 and defenseman Thommie Bergman made his NHL debut with the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 7, 1972.
NEW YORK – It was worth all the hype. Just hours after its launch, “2017”, the latest version of Year, a life experience interface, has collected over seven billion users, making it the most popular Year in history.
Year has managed to add new users in most of its existing markets, a feat not many analysts thought was going to be possible. Also, while Year has dominated the global marketplace, it hasn’t always been embraced by the Chinese, leaving one of the biggest markets untapped, but “2017” seems to have broken that barrier.
And it’s time to hand out the Best of 2016 awards to myself again. This year, one post, three categories.
It was just another Friday night. Or late afternoon, to be exact, but all I had on my mind was Friday night. It had been a rough week, and I had managed to put together a real nice string of them lately. It was the eighth rough week in a row – not that I was counting.
My landlord was, though, which is why I was trying to get out of the office in the afternoon, and hit the downstairs bar before he’d show up to collect the rent. He says it’s six weeks late. Some people have no patience.
Lately, Son’s gotten into politics. He’s dashing off to all kinds of meetings, and he’s arranging events and moderating debates, so much so that it’s hard for me to keep up. I do know, though, that he’s a smart and caring boy and that his politics are very warm and that he’s out to change the world for the better. He wants to help people, which is nice.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to me that he wants to get out there and make things happen. A few years ago, maybe around five or so, he ran a one-man one-cause campaign at school as he paraded the schoolyard with a sign that said, “BELIEVE IN SANTA – He is real.”
Now there’s a message I can get behind.
