Weekly roundup ~ at the end of July

International Friendship Day is celebrated on July 30.

I have this small poster of Snoopy lending an ear,

because he's a good friend, of course!

(It's across the room from me, but it's late, so I found the image online.)

Sunday Salon

The Peter Principle ~ by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, 1969, humor, xviii +170 pages

Why is incompetence so maddeningly rampant and so vexingly triumphant?  This book answers that question.  The authors say that everyone in a hierarchy — from the office intern to the CEO, from the low-level civil servant to the president of a nation — will always rise to his or her level of incompetence.

This book explains why incompetence is at the root of everything we endeavor to do:  why utopian plans never generate utopias, why governments condone anarchy, why schools bestow ignorance, why courts dispense injustice, why prosperity causes unhappiness.

This book is older than my blog, which means I read it so long ago that I have never mentioned it here.  I'm sure it will get a high rating when I re-read it, since I remember it from over half a century ago.

Monday Musing

Maybe I've been overthinking this, but few or no comments on things I post during the week with comments only on Sunday seem to indicate that most people read only my Sunday Salon posts.  I've decided to dump a whole week's worth of books and thinking into a weekly post.  This is it, folks, so enjoy!  (Or not.)

TWOsday

My TWO things for TWOsday are at the top, where I've shown TWO Snoopy posters for International Friendship Day today.  See what a good friend he is to Woodstock?

Wednesday Words                       and/or                       Wednesday Workout

I was reading THIS article when I happened across "gonzo journalism," which I've never run across before.  So I looked it up and learned on Wikipedia that it's "a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story using a first-person narrative."  The article is about a 24-year-old guy in the Netherlands who is "a cognitively fit and healthy young man [who] has chosen to live on the dementia ward at Verpleeghuis Groenelaan (Green Lanes Nursing Home), ultimately just to see what it’s like."  He has written a bestseller in the Netherlands and says, "I don’t have dementia.  But by living with people with dementia for three years, I know a lot about life in an institute, and I listen to people.  In fact, listening to people is the main thing I do."

I wrote about this "exercise block" this past week, promising myself that I would start attending exercise classes regularly here at the Crown Center.  The next class meets tomorrow, and I plan to be there. 

Thursday Thoughts

Why would the app on my iPhone tell me that the nearest Walgreens is over 11 miles away, when there's literally one across the street from my apartment building?  Google maps says it is 15 minutes away via highway, but I walk to my store and back in less time than that.  I saw it and took photographs of it from my former window.  See?

Long, long ago, I read this online and just came across it again.  Hmm, it's too small (and faint) to read.  Here's what it says:

ATTORNEY:  Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?

WITNESS:  No.

ATTORNEY:  Did you check for breathing?

WITNESS:  No.

ATTORNEY:  So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

WITNESS:  No.

ATTORNEY:  How can you be so sure, Doctor?

WITNESS:  Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

ATTORNEY:  But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?

WITNESS:  Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Book Beginnings on Fridays

The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution ~ by Marla Heller, 2018, health, 264 pages

Beginning

The DASH diet (based on the research, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and the Mediterranean diet have both been acclaimed as the best of the best in the world.  Both became famous for their amazing impact on heart health.  Both help reduce inflammation and are associated with lower rates of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, certain types of cancer, and a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Now for the funny part:  I remembered having four DASH Diet books on my shelves before my recent move, but one day I noticed there were only three of them now.  I turned to put down whatever was in my hands and then went to the shelves to gather those three while looking for the fourth book.  But when I got across the room to the bookshelves, there were all FOUR of them together.  I probably blinked, like "what just happened?"  Then I realized there were THREE on a nearby shelf.  Yes, the four together all have my name in them, but the other three do NOT.  My logical conclusion is that those other three must have been my friend Donna's, and her sister gave me those copies to share with someone.  Maybe I was supposed to donate them to the Crown Center library.  I did discover on this blog (HERE) that Donna commented on this book in 2018:  "I will give it a try."

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Caturday

Clawdia's special day is the last day of every week, though she would say that every day should be Caturday.  She is almost settled into our new apartment.

So is this it for the week?

Maybe, but perhaps I'll add special posts.

Something may come up unexpectedly, something I cannot wait until next Sunday to post. If so, I will post it and mention it in my next weekly roundup.  Otherwise, let's just see how this compilation works out.