Couple of books

I don't get to read as much as I would like and that isn't going to change because I could read 16 hours per day and it wouldn't be as much as I would like. I just finished a couple of books that made a bit of an impression.

One was a biography of Johnny Cash. Two things impressed me:

First, how quickly and easily he went from unknown to a nation wide star. Only took a couple of years and that in spite of the fact that he and his band could barely play their instruments. Seems like that happened a lot back in those times and it seems almost impossible now without some corporate entity spending millions of bucks to do it.

Second, just how sick and disabled he was for the last 5 or 6 years of his life. Nearly blind and in continuous pain, barely able to walk, he still recorded maybe his best material during that time. Amazing and inspriring. Maybe I just need to get old and crippled to do some good music.

The other was not so profound, Kinky Firedmans "Kill Two Birds and get Stoned". Decent book, made me think of "Steppenwolfe", which has always been one of my favorites. (The book, not the band.)

Tried to read a biography of Jack Kerouac, couldn't do it, totally boring, had to throw it in about 1/3 through. He wrote a lot better than he lived.

Stuff that is Silly

Silliness is subjective. Here’s my current opinion.

Sunglasses:

Haven’t owned a pair for at least 30 years. The human eye has evolved (or been created, depending on your outlook) to view the world as illuminated by the sun. I see no evidence that performing that function will cause "strain", or require that the organ be protected. Some folks wear them to look cool. Nothing wrong with that, and I would, except that I refuse to spend more than about $1.75 to look cool and you can’t seem to buy sunglasses for that amount any more.

Jewelry:

I wore a high school class ring for about a year, jumped off a hay wagon one time, snagged the ring on a standard, (review the original Walking Tall movie if you don’t know what that is) and nearly pulled my finger off. Threw the ring away and have worn no rings, chains, etc. since. Couple of people have tried to put stuff around my neck in an aggressive and non-complimentary way, damned if I will do it on purpose.

Piercing:

Have been pierced enough by accident and malicious intent, will not pay to get it done.

Tattoos:

See piercing.

Shaving:

I currently shave the bottom half of my face, but it is silly. I’ve done that for less than half my life. If hair grows, let it. There are those who think they will be more sexually attractive if they scrape off most of their body hair. Not likely.

Wigs, comb-overs, hair transplants, hair re-growth medications:

C’mon, get a life. If hair don’t grow, it’s OK. Haven’t had hair on top of my head since I was about 20 years of age. Can’t think of a single situation that would have turned out significantly better if I had. (Women get half a pass on this silliness due to severe societal pressure to have hair on their heads.)

Other stuff:

Plenty of it, but that’s enough for now.