Time for some random thoughts & musings

Well, I thought it was about time for me to return to blogging.  It has been a while.  I’ll bet some of you even missed them!  I thought the best way to start would be to just put out some random thoughts...so here goes.

It is the first of March as I write this.  I thought that way back when, sometime in the Middle Ages, the New Year started on March 1st.  Therefore, I thought the first of the month (of any month really) would be the best time to start or start anew something.  Well, turns out the New Year used to begin on March 25th*!  Seems that would cause some confusion eventually although it is at the Spring Equinox...almost.  In any case, I think March 1st is just fine to begin anew “write” here and “write” now!

My Grandpa Jack was born 123 years ago today.  Actually, we were never certain of that.  He thought he might have been born on February 29 or even 28.  His birth certificate was lost.  So he went with March 1st to make it easy, I guess.  As far as I know, he never had any problems, but things were different back then.

In this the year 2017, I am greatly concerned about where we are headed as a nation.  It troubles me that there are so many divisions and animosities among us.  The key word there is “us”.  We are us.  I think the real problem is that many of “us” tend to forget that and we talk at each other rather than to each other.  My two cents.  But it is worrisome.

Speaking of “us”, there is a new series on NBC called This is Us.  Tuesday at 9pm.  It is about a family that consists of a mom and dad with an unusual set of triplets.  It begins with the birth of triplets and one dies in childbirth.  Another baby meanwhile is left on the doorstep of a fire station and is taken to the hospital where it is placed next to the surviving (now) twins.  The parents adopt the baby.  And the clever premise of this story is told in modern day time, with flash backs to the growing up years of the kids.  It is truly good.  Worth a binge watch to catch up.  

Binge watching.  There was a time when a binge meant an alcoholic foray or eating too much of a bad thing.  I always find it funny how language evolves.

And it that vein, I know I’m becoming more and more curmudgeonly, but I hate to see cursive writing become passes, email becoming “old technology”, telephones not used for conversation and even rules of grammar becoming less and less practiced such as using capitals where appropriate, leaving no participle dangling and titles of books or TV shows not italicized or underlined.  Rules is rules I say!  Is and are are not interchangeable! (I just noticed I started a sentence with “And” above.  See how it creeps in)  

Well, this was fun.  I could continue on, but I probably need to save some for my next blog of random thoughts and musings.  Especially if I’m gonna get myself into a discipline of writing them again!!

*For a good article about the history of the calendar and when the New Year start date was changed to January 1st, click here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/29611/why-does-new-year-start-january-1

**For more info about This is Us click here: http://www.nbc.com/this-is-us?nbc=1

***Here's a good article about the decline of grammar and punctuation in the age of the new technology of communication: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1112008

---