Happiness Is A Small And Unworthy Goal

The Worst Thing About The Miracle Of Modern Communications Is The Pavlovian Pressure It Places Upon Everyone To Communicate Whenever A Bell Rings.

It Was Dramatic To Watch My Grandmother Decapitate A Turkey With An Ax The Day Before Thanksgiving. Nowadays The Expense Of Hiring Grandmothers For The Ax Work Would Probably Qualify All Turkeys So Honored With Gourmet Status.

Sending Grown-ups Up The Wall Is One Of The Things Adolescence Is All About. A Few Years Ago It Was Done With Rock 'n' Roll Music. Now At Least They Can Do It Quietly With A Home Computer.

While It Is Very Sturdy Of Comfortable Men To Point Out That Life Is Unfair, The People It Is Unfair To Are Not Apt To Be Morally Or Philosophically Elevated By The Announcement. If You Are Going To Preach That Unfairness Is Inescapable For Some, Good Sense Suggests That You Also Accept The Inevitability Of Beastly Behavior By People Who Have To Carry The Burden.

Most English Speakers Do Not Have The Writer's Short Fuse About Seeing Or Hearing Their Language Brutalized. This Is The Main Reason, I Suspect, That English Is Becoming The World's Universal Tongue: English-speaking Natives Don't Care How Badly Others Speak English As Long As They Speak It. French, Once Considered Likely To Become The World's Lingua Franca, Has Lost Popularity Because Those Who Are Born Speaking It Reject This Liberal Attitude And Become Depressed, Insulted Or Insufferable When Their Language Is Ill Used.