Life As We Know It with Tom Walton

Thanks to global warming, green -- the color of money -- is the new white in the Arctic Ocean. History was made several months ago in the Arctic. It was good history if you are in the tourism business in Alaska and northern Canada. It was bad history if you’re into environmental protection.

It's been a while since I got up on my soap box to complain about abuse of the language and improper grammar, so please indulge me while I vent. The target of my distress today? The habit of people who should know better to misuse words such as “amazed,” or “surprised,” or one of my favorites, “appalled.”

Several years ago, when Frank Horton was the president of the University of Toledo, he was chatting with a small group of people, including me, about the desire of many UT students for more parking lots and parking spaces on campus.

For years I have had this little mental exercise where I contemplate what food I would least like to give up for the rest of my life.

What is it about leaving a voice mail message that befuddles us so? Comments that might sound pithy or clever in a face-to-face, two-way conversation tend to lose their zip when we are speaking all by ourselves into someone else’s telephone.

I have decided that when it’s necessary to make a list of my lists, it’s time to reevaluate my life and daily routine.

As America prepares to inaugurate a President who at least half the country doesn’t like, there’s a widely shared presumption that Donald Trump will be erratic on his good days and dangerous on his bad days.

A few months ago I spoke of the dramatic and undeniable changes in the newspaper industry and noted that dwindling home delivery circulation did not necessarily mean fewer readers. Newspapers, including The Blade, adapted, and their websites are visited by millions of Americans every day.

Now that we’ve all turned the page, literally, on 2016, and America has elected a change agent who will take office in just 18 days, the national mood is a mix of hope and apprehension.

In 13 days Americans will pause to take note of the 15th anniversary of 9/11. It will be another milestone anniversary and an appropriate time to ask: has America moved on? Should it?

If you are like me, you had a Viewmaster toy as a kid. Even if you are not like me, you had a Viewmaster toy as a kid. What an amazing experience it was to put the Viewmaster viewer to your face and gaze upon the miracle of 3-D.

There are expressions we all use in modern and polite conversation that I’ve often wondered about. One of them is the ubiquitous phrase “have a nice day.” We hear it from someone and we use it ourselves almost every day. It’s a pleasant way to end a conversation without the awkward silence that could otherwise occur. But it’s a comment I’ve always had an issue with.

Most of us at one time or another have pondered what sits on exactly the opposite side of the earth from our own location. Dig down into the ground and keep on going until you emerge on the other side and what would you find?

Remember as a kid practicing your signature when you were supposed to be listening to the teacher? For reasons I can’t explain, the vertical stroke of my T bends like the left half of a clock dial. I actually had a clerk ask me once, “Your name is Chomas?”

This week, few Americans will even be aware of the 47th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 11 to the moon. Some may take note of it but there will be no fanfare, and very little attention will be paid to it by most of us. It’s not a milestone anniversary, and most of us don’t spend much time pondering anniversaries that don’t end in a zero or a five.

Most Veteran politicians share a common skill that serves them, if not necessarily the rest of us, well. They can say a lot while saying nothing. It’s political doublespeak.

The oldest of our six grandchildren graduated from high school a few weeks ago, and her proud grandparents were delighted to make the trip from Ohio down to Alabama to see it. But we assumed that this child of the South would stay close to home and attend college just an hour away from Birmingham.

Somebody sent me a battered magazine clipping offering a number of helpful tips for living a good life. The magazine isn’t identified and there’s no byline attached. It’s just a list. I think it’s worth sharing excerpts of it because these are excellent suggestions

The news is pretty crummy these days. Wars rage on. So does the presidential campaign. Tension in the Middle East never goes away. tornados, earthquakes, and floods remind us of the fragile nature of life. If my e-mails are any indication, people are suffering from illness and fatigue. They are sick and tired of it. They look for anything that will cheer them up.

Someone once noted that journalists are like blackbirds on a utility wire. When one takes off, they all take off. When one lands, they all land. Point being, of course, that we tend to travel in a pack and swoop and circle around an issue or topic and peck away at it until there’s nothing left. There is some truth to the notion, especially among those who make a living as commentators.

Mass Marketing fascinates and irritates me. I’m amazed how often I'm sucked in by it, even though I know what's coming and even though I realize its sole purpose is to separate me from what limited financial resources I have.