Growing Up

 Don't grow up. It's a trap.

Greensboro Historical Museum - Greensboro, North Carolina

 

A link to: Greensboro Historical Museum

Spiral

The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral rather than a straight line.
    ~  Joanne Field

Looks

Looks the whole world in the face,/For he owes not any man.
    ~  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Today

Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
    ~  Dale Carnegie

Word of the Day : Conservation [kon-ver-sey-shuhn] n.

The subversive notion that a tract of unspoiled rain forest, for example, might be more valuable than the fast-food hamburgers that can be produced on its ruins.

Problem?

There is always something you can do about any problem;
even it if is just changing your perspective on how you feel about the problem.
     ~  David DeNotaris

Chariot

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between rails) is 4 feet 8.5 inches. That is an exceptionally odd number. Why was that gauge used?

Because that’s the way they built them in England, and the U.S. Railroads were built by English expatriates.

Why did the English build them that way? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? Well if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse’s ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back end of two warhorses. Thus, we have the answer to the original question.

Dreaming

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

    ~  William Dement

 

Hiding from Himself

One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself  but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.
    ~  Norman Vincent Peale 

End of the Day

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

~  Mary Anne Radmacher

Word of the Day: T-shirt (tee shurt) n.

T-shirt
A portable personal billboard, emblazoned with a suitable commercial logo or message that creates an instant identity for the wearer and proclaims it to the world;
in its unadorned state, considered an article of underwear.

Writing and Rejection

No rejection is fatal until the writer walks away from the battle leaving dreams and goals behind.
    ~   Jeff Herman (Hansen and Canfield’s literary agent)

Old Coast Guard Life Station - Virginia Beach, Virginia

 

A link to: Old Coast Guard Life Station