I was enjoying my usual late lunch break at the Starbucks on my route today, and a delightful elderly gentleman sat down beside me, with his daughter (I believe it was his daughter). He struck up a conversation with me. At one point he said, "I once met this Chinese man. He was 104 years old. He told me the secret to a long life."

Of course, as the old man leaned forward to me and spoke in hushed tones, I had to ask, "And you're going to tell me?"

"Yes," he smiled. "It's this: Hershey's Dark Chocolate. Two small pieces in the morning and one piece at 3:00 in the afternoon."

I grinned. Of course, the cocoa in dark chocolate is well-known for its antioxident content.

The man knew this, and said, "Whatever it is, this Chinese man was 104 years old, and as active as a two-year-old." The elderly man said he follows this regimen, and you know, the guy said he was in his 80's, and he was as sharp as a tack (and when he got up to leave, he moved like a man half his age)! Then he leaned forward again and said, "And this Chinese man also told me the meaning of life!"

Well, his first secret was pretty good, so once again I gave him the prompt he was dramatically waiting for: "And you're going to tell me?"

He smiled and said,"This is it: Time is Luck."

I have no idea what that means, but if some 104 year-old Chinese wise man said it, I figure it's probably worth pondering for awhile.

I came across this link tonight and am perplexed. First the link:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3060955&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Now the perplexion: If God wants us to communicate with us, why doesn't he make himself clear? I mean, he's God, isn't he? Surely he could communicate whether or not infants are "safe" or not. Why the confusion? Why does this article say there is "hope" but not "certainty" as the last paragraph on the first page of this article states:

"'We can say we have many reasons to hope that there is salvation for these babies,' the Rev. Luis Ladaria, a Jesuit who is the commission's secretary-general, told The Associated Press. He stressed that there was no certainty, just hope."

I dunno, but it seems funny to me that God is so unclear about so many things. There are so many "doctrines" that are debatable. Why?

I love typos. (Well, maybe not.) But this one was printed on a box that I delivered today. There it is, printed in full color for everyone to see. This package contained a computer. Pretty blatant example of someone not proofreading, I'd say. Sounds to me like someone adapted the wrong word to a well-known phrase, and then transferred that error to this box. Maybe we need another proofreader?

I was under the impression that Caesar "conquered" the world, not "concord" the world... (that, and the fact that "concord" sounds a little past-tense, and in this case, it should be present tense. But that's just me.)

“The Britons are freed from Iran. But does this mean the crisis is over?” The local news anchor teased the viewing audience with this little tidbit right before going to a commercial break.

Sounds like he’s imtimating that there is something about this story you don’t know, and that when you return from the commercial break, he’s going to tell you the whole story.

Well, as a matter of fact, when he returned from the break, the newsman relayed the story to the audience, which was waiting with baited breath to find out exactly if the crisis really was over. What could this anchor know about the story that we don’t?! But guess what. When he broadcast the story, the answer to his misleading question, “does this mean the crisis is over?” was actually, “Yes.” In fact, the crisis was over, and his question was merely a tactic to keep us ignorant, curious viewers tuned in.

I really resent this kind of “journalism.”

I finally hit the big time! After years and years of auditioning, last fall I was accepted to sing the National Anthem for the Portland Trail Blazers, and last night, March 31, I got my 1 minute 15 seconds of fame.

There were over 18,000 people in attendance; my biggest audience ever. It was a real rush! The crowd responded enthusiastically. Let me tell you, if you've never stood in front of 18,000 people screaming their appreciation, I highly recommend it. Quite exhilarating indeed. Click on the title of this post to see my home page which will direct you to a video clip of the movie.