Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 36
January 28, 2021
The future becomes present becomes past
Destination Moon (1950)“We’re going to party like it’s 1999” was the answer to Final Jeopardy the other night — Prince’s song was released and hit the pop music charts in 1982, re-released and charted again 17 years later, and a third time 17 years after that.
Of course the song was popular again in 1999, and then after Prince died in 2016.
Each time the song was the same but meant different things — the future in 1982, today in 1999, and memories in 2016.
Today’s future becomes tom...
January 27, 2021
We are all interested in the future
“We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.”
— The Amazing Criswell, in Plan Nine From Outer Space
Ed Wood’s most famous film is one of my guiltiest pleasures, and the opening monologue by The Amazing Criswell is one of my favorite moments, and the first line of the movie is best of all.
It sounds so profound, and maybe it is, but it’s so flaming obvious that it’s hysterically funny. And it’s hysterically funny because it’s...
January 26, 2021
Go For It Day
What could be different about today if you could make it so? Because, of course, you can make it so!
Do you jump out of the rut today? Is it time to commit to the future? Want to dream your biggest dream?
Look up and out at the sky — find a view where you can see it all. There’s your limit.
This is a big life: Find your biggest expression of it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
January 25, 2021
This is what freedom of speech sounds like
Circling back to something I wrote the other day.
I’m not afraid to give voice to idiots with addled brains, because I believe in a marketplace of ideas the idiots will be seen for what they are, no matter how loudly they shout.
To go a step further, sometimes someone who appears to be an addle-brained idiot will make a point worth considering, if I give it a fair thought and don’t dismiss it because of who thought it first.
My main point, however, is that I was taught that freedom of s...
January 24, 2021
January 23, 2021
Brace yourselves in 90 days
When I was a cub reporter out in the woods, the radio station would get calls from two or three local farmers who liked to start out their day gabbing and kibbitzing with the radio kids.
One of them — was it Ed Kastenschmidt or one of the other guys? — had a theory that a major snowstorm always occurs 90 days after a thick fog. He was convinced of this and never forgot to call when we did, indeed, get a big snowstorm three months after pea soup.
I thought of that theory last week, when...
January 22, 2021
Alternatives to tyranny are out there
I’ve been trying out a new browser called Brave, recommended because it allows for a level of privacy no longer available through many of the big names. I like it so far.
I had been using Mozilla Firefox for years, but I downloaded Brave five minutes after I learned that Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker didn’t think it was enough for Twitter to take away Donald Trump’s platform.
Regular readers know I liked Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian candidate in this year’s election frolics, so you under...
January 21, 2021
The sun always sets
On the darkest day of my professional career, the universe conspired to make me laugh.
As the boss droned on about why he had sold the business to our most hated competitor, I looked down and saw the woman next to me was taking notes on a pad.
The pad had an illustration across the top of the page with the words, “One hundred years from now, none of this will matter.”
“Yep,” I laughed, and whispered, “Thank you, Lord.”
It’s sort of gallows humor — after all, you know why none of ...
January 20, 2021
These difficult times ain’t
We laughed at the sixth or seventh TV ad, all of them for different products or services, all of them nearly identical, and we haven’t stopped laughing.
They start with a somber solo piano … and then the announcer says …
“In these difficult times …”
“We’ll get through this …”
“… because we’re all in this … together.”
OK. We get the message. I disagree.
Not with the “we’ll get through this together” part. The first part.
What’s so much more difficult (or “challenging” or ...
January 19, 2021
You have been called to live in freedom
The Rev. Dave Wilkinson shared the first part of this quote from Galatians in his SOUND BITES Ministry email this morning. It’s a call to early Christians, but I think we could all stand to listen.
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouri...
