When I was a kid, I spent every weekend at my Grandmother’s house, and every Saturday night, we would watch The Golden Girls.  It was my favorite, and remains one of my favorites today, as I bask in reruns on Lifetime.  For years, my friends would make fun of me for this dedication to what they called, “an old lady show”, to which I would reply, “do you know how many Emmys this won?”  I just knew that one day, they would come to their senses, and just look who’s laughing now!

Who would have thought that the latest Hollywood “It” girl would be the 88 year-old, comedy powerhouse, Betty White?  With a career that spans over 70 years, I would think it’s about time!  After winning the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award, and appearing in a hilarious Superbowl commercial for Snickers, a relentless Facebook campaign was launched to get her to host Saturday Night Live.  And on May 8^th, 2010, they were successful.  Betty hosted the Mother’s Day episode of SNL, garnering higher ratings than any other episode this season.

I have always been a fan of Betty White, and respected her work on The Golden Girls, Mary Tyler Moore, Mama’s Family, Password, as well as her efforts as a tireless animal advocate.  But, what I admire most about Betty is what she represents – that it’s never too late, you’re never too old, and always have a sense of humor.

Not many people really like fish, myself included. It smells and tastes funny and sometimes it’s just downright funky. It’s flaky and mushy. The stuff is just no fun to eat. But something that I have notices recently is that sushi, or raw fish, is phenomenal. It is naturally salty because of the fact that they are salt-water fish.

So if you are having a hard time choking down your tilapia maybe you should try sushi instead. In my opinion cooking fish totally ruins it. Fish has a naturally delicious taste and when you cook the fish it loses all of that flavor and goodness and there is no way to stop that.

While it is a much more flavorful option than cooked fish, sushi can be dangerous. It is very easy to get food poisoning from sushi because it is uncooked. You have to be careful about the sushi you eat. Another problem is that good sushi can be pretty pricey so sushi may have to be a bit of a treat. But these downsides do not put down how terrific sushi is.

Reading books is a journey through life and is a great way to keep on sharpening the gray matter between the ears. The soul of the reader is all about the pages and not about the finish. Reading catches your fancy when you are young and clings to the interesting soul throughout the working years and regains the golden value in the retirement years.

A book every week or two is easy and very enjoyable for the soul reader, whereas the non-reader forces him or herself to the end and figures the journey through the book is a painful ordeal. I have never understood that type of person. I love books and I love the story, be it fiction or non-fiction. The many tales and trials and tribulations of the human condition is never ending and always interesting. Well worth the read.

Books enhance a single experience and add value to the life well read. I endorse reading a book a month or better. Life is short and limiting. Why limit yourself, read a good book and share it with everyone you know.

I have recently noticed that wherever I go, everything is digital. I wonder what happened to the old big hand and little hand clocks. They were everywhere when I was younger. Now all the schools, businesses and airports have these ugly digital things blinking away. I don’t think they are bad. I simply think they are less than art inspired.

Those big clocks had the big and little hands in so many different combinations were always so beautiful. They could be made in many different styles and some didn’t even have numbers. If you knew how to tell time, you could tell what time it was. Now these digital clocks make telling time much easier. But it’s not like that was much of chore in the first place.

In my opinion, the removing of these large pieces of art in favor of the easier clocks is just another sign of the dumbing down of America. Some of the kids these days have no concept of phrases like quarter past or till. They don’t understand these phrases because they don’t understand how a real clock actually works and some have no idea how to tell time with them!

My mother has always been the type that says she can cook anything they serve at a restaurant. The best part about that statement is she can back it up! Her cooking is delicious and much better for you than going out to eat at most restaurants. Another great thing is that she has proven feeding a family of five is it is cheaper.

Ten dollars can feed one person at a restaurant. At mother’s house, ten dollars can still feed the family and with plenty of leftovers. The ingredients just aren’t that expensive. Either that or my mother is very resourceful plus she does grow some of her own herbs and vegetables so I like to think it’s both. And the way the food tastes makes up for any other flaws. Flaws would be how the food looks. I don’t really think this is a flaw because it always looks homemade.

Another thing is that home cooking is much better for you than restaurant food. At home the cook has time prepare the meal with ingredients that improve the flavor. At a restaurant they just throw tons of butter and salt to make it taste wonderful. And I would also like to point out that I never eat as much bread as I do at a restaurant. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Isn’t it funny how once money is injected into an argument things change. Oh the facts don’t change; just the reasons. It seems while the science continues to show the many affects of greenhouse gases and that the world is, in fact, getting warmer, people in America have changed their minds and no longer feel global warming is a threat. And why not? After all, who wants to pay for changing the way we live; not us.

Oh we get up and yell about the deficit and how our children and their children will be paying for our missteps in regard to healthcare, jobs and generally taking care of each other but we don’t give it a second thought to those same children and grand children living in a world where they can no longer live because it’s too hot, the seas are rising and the ice is melting. All because we don’t have the money right now to take care of that so they’ll have to live with the consequences. Wow, as my son says, that makes a lot of since; not!

Okay, call me Scrooge but I don’t even want to start talking about Christmas until at least Halloween is over and really not until Thanksgiving dinner has had a chance to get cool on the table. There are too many holidays back to back in the fall and now Christmas wants to make an end round and completely smother Halloween and Thanksgiving! It’s not right. Let the kids have their day of dressing up and spooking as many people as they can and gathering up candy, staying up late and getting sick first. Let the grown ups visit with family and friends before we have to get crazed with guilt and buy things we know as can’t afford and that will never be used or re-gifted to someone else during the coming year.

And what happen to the “real” meaning of Christmas? You know, the “good will on earth, peace to all men”. I rarely see anything alluding to being good to your neighbors or not laying off anyone this year; now that would be a great Christmas gift! This year we only have one ask for Christmas; a job for my spouse. Once that happens we can go out and shop and pass on the good fortune. (I hope Santa is listening)

I went and saw All About Steve over the weekend even though I read a lot of negative reviews for this film. I did the same thing when The Proposal came out and was surprised that I enjoyed it. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that I like both Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds; but back to the movie at hand. I certainly didn’t feel like I wasted my money but I would not go out of my way to see it again.

It might be because I know a cruciverbalist, otherwise known as a crossword puzzle constructor, and she is extremely smart and well versed in many things as well as socially well versed. She is my cousin’s wife and is one of two people I would love to have on my team for a championship game of Trivial Pursuit. The socially inept character Mary, played by Sandra Bullock, was a caricature of sorts and she pulled it off well. On the other hand, Thomas Haden Church and Bradley Cooper just played dumb guys with no since of grace, friendship or intelligence. The smart guy in the film was also socially inept, which gives the wrong impression of who can be and should be intelligent.

Give me a movie with great banter, a great story and some redeeming qualities in even the most despicable of characters and you will have me back watching time and time again. Unfortunately, All About Steve doesn’t do it.

I don’t know about you but I find that I look for the easy way to do most things these days. Maybe it’s the internet that has brought me to this kind of thinking since almost everything can be found, bought, reserved, read, watched and listened to from my computer. All I have to do is find my way (about 20 feet) to my office and it opens up the world of easy. It far exceeds the “Easy Button” from that TV commercial you’ve seen.

However, there is a price to be paid for using the computer and internet for everything. The price I pay is socialization. There are days that I never leave the house because I can do everything from home via my computer. I don’t meet new people or talk about current events with anyone other than a few friends on-line and my wife says, and she is correct, I don’t need any new clothes because I sit in my shorts all day. You should know that I work out of my house via the computer as well so I find that my life is in the box that sits on my desk. Though I sound pathetic, I don’t feel that way. In fact, I find I like taking the easy way out.

For those mass transit commuters out there, headphones, if you don’t know already, are gonna be your lifesaver! Usually. Earbuds in place and we’re on our way to ignoring everything around us. Sometimes a blissful moment and many times quite treacherous or it just doesn’t seem to be the noise canceling experience we were hoping for.

One such example was an ‘interesting’ ride home down Santa Monica Blvd (yes the same one Sheryl Crow crooned). With headphones on, I made eye contact with a slightly drunk old man at the bus stop (already doomed). Let him get on first so no chance we could sit next to each other. I sat in the back, we made eye contact again. Darn. He gets up and walks the full length of the bus to sit next to me. Proceeds to tug on my sleeve till I tell him my name (fictitious info given). Headphones back in place. Moment later asks for info regarding liquor store on route – yeah totally knowledgeable on that tidbit, Not. Then spot one quickly hoping to avoid creeper getting off in a few stops with me. Thanks me for pulling the cord for him by placing his callused hand on the back of my neck and thanking me profusely, bursting my comfort bubble. Headphones fail.