People can be so nice. Apparently my car warranty was about to expire, but I got (at least fifteen) “courtesy calls” about it before they closed my file. Very considerate.

How many people do you know who take almost no time to get to their wit’s end?

I have heard often of the “undeserving poor,” but never of the “undeserving rich.” Aren’t there a lot in that latter category?

I asked the kid what superpowers he would like to have. He said, “Not to have to tie my shoes.”

How would your thinking have changed if you had grown up without hearing about plantations but instead heard the more accurate “forced labor camps”?

I was on a park bench. Off to my left a man was ranting. Police were around the apparently mentally ill person, dealing with him patiently. On the next bench were people who panhandled in the park and seemed to know the ranter. One of them looked at the police, saw a blonde officer, and said, “Look at her. She doesn’t look like a cop. Why did she become a cop? She should have been, uh, uh, uh, a chemist, or something.”

I hoped it was for a law firm, but it did not say so. The billboard read: “Medical malpractice is all we do.”

It was a remarkable sight, the man wearing sweatpants held up by suspenders.

Do you remember when “Close Cover before Striking” was the most printed phrase in the English language?

In a park or outside an old house, I would come across a hand pump as a kid. Of course, I had to try it. The first couple strokes always seemed hard, but with minimal persistence they became easier. As I pumped, I would wonder if the pump still worked. Was there really water down there? Sometimes the effort produced nothing, but with others, a little water would spurt out. That sight produced a quickened, more forceful stroke. Then larger spurts, and finally, a stream without interruption. These efforts always produced a smile and a sense of accomplishment–a satisfaction that most in a younger generation will never have.

The doctor’s assistant taking my health history got to that now-routine question about sexuality.  But she said, “If you had to have sex, would it be with the opposite sex, the same, or both?” If I had to have sex?  My mind went through my sexual history. The last time someone held a gun to my head and said, “Have sex or else,” my performance must have been so inadequate that I can’t remember it.

I recently met a couple. He was six feet ten. She was shy of five feet even. What questions would you have liked to ask?