I seem to be obsessed with age these days. Can't get it out of my mind.
I find a column on the Web called Suddenly Senior to be quite intriguing. The writer, Frank Kaiser, has an interesting take on most subjects. He's described as the Andy Rooney of the Internet, which I think pretty well fits him. To check it out go to www.suddenlysenior.com.
Max Falkenstein, who is 81 and has been broadcasting for the Kansas Jayhawks for the past 60 years, is retiring after this season. I like to listen to him because he brings all of the history to the broadcast and doesn't claim to know it all like so many broadcasters do these days. Most sports announcers make me really tired very quickly.
Anyway, when I was working for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame more than a decade ago, I stopped by his office at the Douglas State Bank in Lawrence to ask a few questions about some things I was doing at the time.
What struck me most was that he had a great big desk with nothing on it except for a little note pad. While I was there he received a call for a tee time.
The world is changing rapidly. For example, if you had a trucking company and hauled computer monitors, your loads would now be one-third of what they were a few years ago.
Not too long ago, 400 monitors would fill a semi-trailer. Now, with the flat-panel design, about 1,200 monitors will fit in that same trailer.
Look what has happened to the pay-phone business. How would one wriggle out of owning pay phones? Everyone has a cell phone.
Next, one won't even need a monitor at all...just a little projector to shine the information on the wall.
I wonder how long it will be before we'll all move about with jet packs on our backs.
We watched the "March of the Penguins" movie the other night. If we think we have it tough at times, try trading places with those little creatures.
Try standing out in the cold in sub-zero temperatures and with no food for four months, then have to walk 70 miles to find it in the nearest open water.
I remembered watching the Edward R. Murrow show when I was a kid, so I found the movie "Good Night and Good Luck" to be very interesting. Nothing much has changed since those days of the McCarthy hearings. Just the names and the subject matter.
Free Press writers Tom, Laura and I (not a writer) have a little game each week. They come up with a word at random and then we all try to use it in what we write and hope that it isn't edited out.
