The new title came to me while on my morning walk at the rec center. I think about a lot of things while putting in my 60-70 minute circular trudge 6 days a week. Quite a variation of topics pass through my thoughts -- most are quickly forgotten while some are replayed back on occasions.
My blog's new title, Wisdom or Foolishness, pays homage to my dad. It was the title of his weekly email post that he shared with all of his cyber buddies. He picked up quite a few email contacts over the years ranging from close family to distant family, former co-workers, neighbors and friends, and he even reconnected with high school classmates whom he hadn't seen in many, many years.
Over the years, Dad collected "sayings" from a variety of sources. Just about any little ditty he might come across would be saved in some form in a folder in his file cabinet. He would sometimes include these bits and pieces in his weekly memos to his faculty/staff at the Grade School. But once he had a captive audience of email friends, he started compiling these proverbs and apothegms into lists which he shared on Thursdays.
The WOF lists are numbered. I still have two in my work email: #305 from 2004 and #326 from six months later (see below). Based on these numbers, he was well into his 6th year of disseminating his WOF newsletter. It is a bulleted list using Dad's unique symbol [}. He signs off 73, which is ham radio code for "best regards." You might think the B in the signature is for Bob. But it's actually for his last name. Most of his faculty/staff called him Mr. B and, sometimes, just B.
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| RJB's "Wisdom or Foolishness" newsletter |
I enjoyed reading these through the years. I was especially fond of challenging my dad when some of the "facts" were not accurate. And I took glee when I could prove that information incorrect.
You might notice that the "to" recipient in the image is The News-Gazette. Dad was a faithful contributor to the "joke" section of the entertainment supplement of the local newspaper. I suspect he routinely emailed jokes and his WOF newsletter to them, and they occasionally selected some of his foolishness when they needed filler. I think he would have been amused to see his submissions included in two editions of the newspaper's supplements after he died in 2007.
"Smile when picking up the phone." I know this piece of wisdom is something that Dad followed.
