I often think that I get those quotidian 50/50 choices wrong more than half the time. When I try to insert the USB cable, or the polarized plug, or pull on the up/down shade cord, push or pull the door, or similar everyday tasks, I seem to get it wrong far more often than I get it right. I keep meaning to keep track for a week to see if my perception is correct, but I have so far failed to perform this crucial experiment.

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Picasso.

There is much talk that Trump is destroying democracy, but as pointed out in Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past. (2022) by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer,“Majoritarian democracy may not sound like something so unusual for an American president to embrace, but the conservative movement had treated it with suspicion for decades.” In the 1960s, conservatives said again and again that United States is a republic, not a democracy. However, Akhil Reed Amar in his essay “Founding Myths” in Kruse and Zelizer’s book maintains that at this country’s founding many Americans treated “republic” and “democracy” as broadly the same.

Often when Trump starts rambling, I think of the statement by Fran Lebowitz: “Generally speaking, it is inhumane to detain a fleeting insight.”

“Neurosis seems to be a human privilege.” Freud.

I am now so old that I regularly watch “Wheel of Fortune” and some non-sports shows on CBS.

A wise person said: “Alas! It is man’s fate to keep on growing older long after he is old enough.”

“Life should consist in at least fifty per cent pure waste of time, and the rest in doing what you please.” Isabel Patterson.

“It is not true that life is one damn thing after another—it’s one damn thing over and over.” Edna St Vincent Millay.

“The biggest problem people have is leisure. Anybody can handle a jam-packed day.” Peg Bracken.

I have finally learned that a good listener is generally thinking about something else.

I have also learned that bores are people who would rather talk about themselves when I’d much rather talk about me.

I believe in being a gentleman if Oliver Herford is right when he said, “A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.”

I believe in being on time. However: “The trouble with being punctual is that there’s nobody there to appreciate it.” Harold Rome.

I believe in love. “Love is a wonderful thing and highly desirable in marriage.” Rupert Hughes.

However: “I think unconditional love is what a mother feels for her baby, and not what you should feel for yourself.” Helen Gurley Brown.

“Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born.” George Bernard Shaw.