Good Morning All!
Nerys is here! My beloved niece arrived from Eugene last night to spend the weekend with our family. We’ll help celebrate her birthday today (it’s on October 22nd) with a party at my son Jake’s place. It will be fun to have all of the family together to join in the celebration! Nerys is a lovely young woman and an accomplished customer relations manager for a tech company called “Open Market.” It’s great to have her here! Here’s to you, Nerys!
Happy Birthday wishes go to Aunt Gila (my wife’s aunt), who turns 80 years old tomorrow; and to accountant extraordinaire and Spokane civic leader, Gordon; and exemplary friend and non-profit champion, Nancy; and to friend and art gallery & picture framing business owner extraordinaire, Holly; who all celebrate their birthdays tomorrow (October 20th). Here’s to all of you on your special day of celebration!
Happy Birthday also to actor John Lithgow of Netflix’s “The Crown” fame! He’s 74 today! He plays a terrific Winston Churchill. If you haven’t tuned in “The Crown” on Netflix, be sure to check it out. You’ll be glad you did!
I just love the English language! There are so many words in the dictionary that rarely, if ever, get used and they are so descriptive! A couple of my recent favorites are “propinquity” and “grit.”
Propinquity means “feeling a kinship toward” or “a nearness to” and, boy howdy, do we ever need more propinquity in our world these days! And how about that word “grit”? According to an article in the October 3rd, 2019 edition of “The Epoch Times,” Jeff Minick writes: “…grit for my purposes refers to anyone with spunk (another great word!), courage, determination, and the willpower to see a task or obligation through to the end. Grit is a word I love, the way it sound matches its meaning, a flinty-eyed intrepid single syllable.” You’d think with all of the wonderfully crafted words of the English language at our disposal, folks could come up with better ways to express themselves….
I had the pleasure of holding a campaign sign for Katey Treloar yesterday. She’s running for a position on our local school board. She’s a thoughtful person with classroom experience as a teacher and a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility and the mother of school-aged children. She’ll make a great school board member. Here’s to you, Katey!
I also had the pleasure of delivering meals for Meals On Wheels yesterday. I met a lovely older man on my route who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease who lives alone. His hands shake quite a bit. He is so appreciative of receiving a hot meal from Meals On Wheels. A great reason for having Meals On Wheels. It sure makes a difference to so many of our fellow citizens who are shut-in and not able to prepare a complete hot meal for themselves during the day. Here’s to Meals On Wheels!
I came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for one of the first soccer-style place kickers in NFL history, Charlie Gogolak. He was born in Hungary in 1944 and escaped in the middle of the night with his family from Hungary during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against the USSR. He and his family came to America, where he graduated from Ogdensburg Free Academy in upstate New York. He was the younger brother of Pete Gogolak, another trailblazing soccer-style place kicker in NFL history! Charlie went on to Princeton (he broke his brother Pete’s NCAA record by connecting on 50 extra points without a miss!) and was a first round draft pick of the Washington Redskins in the 1966 NFL Draft (the first kicker ever to be picked in the first round) and later played for the New England Patriots. In his first NFL season, Charlie ranked third in scoring. He and his brother Pete combined to score 14 extra points in a single NFL game, tied for the most ever. Charlie once said that “It is amazing that a skill that my brother and I learned in Hungary as kids could take us so far.” He now spends his winter months in Naples, Florida when not living in Maine and plays golf several time each week throughout the year after a career as a lawyer after his NFL playing days (he received his law degree from George Washington University during his Redskins playing days). Charlie retired from A.G. Edwards, a Boston based brokerage firm in 2009. He served on the Princeton admissions committee and the Board of Trustees for the Northeast Harbor (Maine) Library, and he was awarded the Abraham Lincoln Award for Citizenship by the American-Hungarian Foundation. He has enlisted the help of a trainer to deal with Parkinson’s Disease. Charlie attributes much of his success to the risk his parents took to escape from Hungary all those years ago. “Even with all the problems facing the country today, people really don’t appreciate how lucky they are to live in America. You could be born in North Korea, Syria or Iraq, places with no freedom at all. I look at all the opportunities I’ve had here, things I’d really never have done if my parents hadn’t made that decision.” Here’s to Charlie Gogolak and his brother Pete…trailblazing soccer-style kickers who changed football forever!
Here’s the culinary tip for the day:
Check out the “Arroz Con Pollo” and “Bottomless Margaritas” at “Fiesta Mexicana” on Spokane’s South Hill (next to the Cathedral)…you’ll be glad you did! Great food, great service and a great vibe!
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“Just what you want to be, you will be in the end.”
—Justin Hayward, member of “The Moody Blues”
“I try to make things that are fresh and different, even if they are inspired by classic things.”
—Ralph Lauren, fashion designer
“You make the time stand still…You do it now and you always will
You take me as I am…You make me feel like a brand new man
Every time that I fall down, I never get stuck
You got the combination gal to get me right back up
‘Cause you are what I am…I’m loving you forever if I can…”
—Gordon Lightfoot, “You Are What I Am,” from the album “Old Dan’s Records” (1973)
“Life is getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down.”
—John Wayne, Oscar-winning actor in “True Grit”
Here’s to a great Saturday and lots of love always….GO COUGARS, GO HUSKIES, GO EAGLES & GO VANDALS!!!!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)