Today's thoughts are incited by a blog post by Cracker (http://twittledee.blogstream.com/) which included a video of Willie Nelson's “Whiskey For My Men, Beer For My Horses.” One of my favorite songs including one of my favorite country and western characters. Actually, two of my favorite characters – Willie and Toby Keith who wrote this gem.

In the song is the toast “Let's all lift our glasses against evil forces.” Always like that one. And there are usually several who know the next line (whiskey for my men, beer for my horses). The rules of toasting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_(honor)) that I remember from somewhere started with the Royal Navy's where they toasted The Queen, the ladies, absent comrades, and a whole chain of command including the Admiral (of the white, that was Nelson) and the Captain, and all thos brave and gallant gentlemen there present. And they charged and discharged their glasses with each toast, often draining more than a bottle per each toaster. It was a social blunder to not touch glasses, drain them, and to look each toaster full in the eye. No one had to drive home then and the wine was safer than the water.

Toasts can be pretty much an art form.(http://cocktails.about.com/od/toastsjokes/tp/uni_toasts.htm) Like Toastmasters International ( http://www.toastmasters.org/) which promotes public speaking. And in 21st Century U.S. Of A., do we start the first toast with The President? The office can be respected if the temporary resident is not. Should we start at the very top with God? These days, you can get in trouble even for that. The ladies, bless their hearts, is always good. As is absent comrades, God rest their souls. Our Armed Forces and heroes of any sort, against evil forces and thanks for watching our six. Our parents, definitely, for all they have given us and done for us.

Toasting is fun. We all ought to work on it and do it more often. Without draining an alcoholic beverage with each separate one, of course.

In my retirement, I try to do some things to help around the house. I get to retire but my wife does not. One of the things I do is to do the vacuuming. A mindless sort of activity that is not unpleasant or difficult.

We had some complaint about an old vacuum – might very well have been twenty years old – that we had up until a few months ago. No matter what we did, it smelled up the house more than it picked up anything.

The yellow pages had an ad about a local Electrolux shop that repairs vacuums. I should have known better. A call to them brought a guy to our door within five minutes. Long dissertation about those cheap vacuums with all of the plastic parts and no warranty. I knew what was coming. And it did. The short ending to a long, long story is that a new Electrolux costs $1500. Go ahead and ask me if I am about to spend $1500 on a vacuum. Might on a car – about my price range – but on a vacuum! Of course, he left empty handed. We got all of our carpets, five rooms of them, steam cleaned for a total of $100 out of it. And he did a good job of it. The guy said he has been selling Electroluxes very successfully for a couple of years and that I was the first person to refuse his sales pitch. Who are all these folks who spend $1500 on a vacuum cleaner? There are lots of things to think about in this world and that is one of them. No further comment.

How about $500 for a vacuum? One of our daughters got a new Dyson vacuum which she really liked. She has a dog (see my 5 January, 2007 entry) and needs the big one. Well, bless my soul, she bought us one. The slim line one. (We do not make a lot of dirt. Does that mean we are not having much fun?) It does a great job and it is fun to watch the tornado inside it. $500 is too much for a vacuum but we really do like it and appreciate it. The next test for it is to see if it will still do a good job in twenty years. Of course, the real question is whether in twenty years I will still be able to or remember how to do it. And the it can have a lot of meanings.

Reading my book on Einstein (Einstein, His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacsen) renewed some thoughts about scientists.

The definition of science must include something about experiments. Experimentalists gather information. The only bad information is stuff that is dishonest. After the political campaign, there is a lot of that. A lot of information is honest but useless but that is different. And some information is flawed but honest and still valuable. But information is good and the more is better. If it does not agree with your bias and predispositions, you can not change the information. Have you read the Koran? Sorry to admit I have not. You do not have to change your religion but it is valuable information.

Scientists also look for the explanation for why and how things happen. That is called theorizing. The Scientific Method involves observation, hypothesis, experimentation, law, theory. Other critters can come up with laws but only us human beans can dream up explanations, theories. Both laws and theories are for us to predict what might happen if...

Think how valuable the Atomic Theory is. Comes from John Dalton in the beginning of the 19th Century. It took over a hundred years for it to finally become universally accepted. But without it, we would have no molecules or plastics or fuels or DNA or medicines or ...... And the Theory of Evolution. Without it we would not have our bread or steaks or medicines or .....

Or the Theory of Relativity. It says that two people can do the same experiment getting completely different results, and neither of them are wrong. The results of an experiment are relative to the experimentor. A light can be dark and lit at the same time! Apply to everyday life? There is a wealth of situations where there is a difference but neither should say “you are wrong”. Just gather the information from the other and make your own judgement about its usefulness.

Uncertainty, that will take some more thought.

Be a scientist. Think before you label someone or something as wrong, gather information without bias, and form your own laws and theories based on the data. In a sense, we can all be Einsteins.

There, Peever. I can be extremely cute and brilliantly pithy at the same time.

This might be a day for two blog entries. I was determined to avoid a fluffy blog after reading the Peever's entry “Blogging Baloney” (http://thepeever.blogstream.com/). And then I went to “Becoming a Butterfly” (http://butterfly52.blogstream.com/) and watched this video. I may have to do my penitence by writing something deep and pithy. At my age, too many things are pithy. But for now, watch, listen, and weep:

I loved “The Notebook”, both as a book and a movie.

Have to admit that these quotes are blatently plagiarized from Knowledge News (http://www.knowledgenews.net/). Love Knowledge News, well worth the subscription price. From Oscar Wilde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde) who was very earnest (frank, too):

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."

"I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."

"I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."

"Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing."

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

"A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally."

"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable."

"I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world."

Wish I had a way with words like that.