Au Cochonnet Marin

You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going. Morgan Wootten

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In any discipline winning is gratifying… but not particularly educative.
Winning will boost your ego but might also give you an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
It is always good to remember that no matter how good you think you are, there is always a gunslinger out there ready to take you on… and outgun you.

Losing on the other hand might be initially unpleasant, but helpful in the long run.
Losing is often more important than winning. It will in the long run forge your spirit and temper your resolve.
Learning how to lose will teach you how to win.

Personally, I don’t care to be known as a great player; I would rather be recognized as a friendly, good-humored and fair competitor.

It is true that the world likes winners, but up to a point. It is not unusual for many top performers to be stinkers who alienate their fans by their unsporting attitude.
In some case cases, supporters have been known to boo a top player and cheer an underdog.

Modesty is the most endearing attribute of any sports figure. Skills are important but character is a close second.
As the saying goes, a well-rounded player is “humble in victory and gracious in defeat.”

Points to remember about this little Sunday sermon:

Never overvalue yourself. Never brag.
“Do not talk about yourself; it will be done when you leave.” Wilson Mizner.

Never become complacent. Always treat your opponents respectfully.
“Be Nice to People on Your Way Up. You’ll Meet Them On Your Way Down.”

 Never take a win for granted. If you do, Lady Luck will take a wicked pleasure in deflating your ego and taking you down a notch.

“When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.” Paul Brown 

Pax vobis!

Alain

We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm. Winston Churchill

I started driving a car when I was 18 (that’s a long, long time ago) and I have more miles under my belt than I care to remember, but operating a modern vehicle today is a quantum leap forward for many middle-aged drivers.

Modern hybrid vehicles are totally computerized and handling one of them is almost like flying a UFO. You cannot simply lodge yourself in the driver seat and turn on the ignition key.
First of all, modern cars don’t have ignition keys. It is too “passé”. They have a power button and when you push it the dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree.
And your heart goes pitapat, pitapat.

It is like an electronic version of Jeeves awaiting your commands.

Modern cars are loaded with Star Wars’ features and it could take you more than a month to become thoroughly familiar with all of them.
It is also a dangerous period, because (like a teenager) you might be tempted to experiment with any of those features while driving and lose control of the chariot.

Fortunately most of these cars are equipped with Forward collision warning with auto-braking (a life-saving feature) and with a little luck, it will stop by itself before hitting anything.

Most of the modern cars sport the following features:

• Navigation system
• Forward collision warning with auto-braking
• Lane departure warning
• Blind spot warning
• Adaptive headlights
• Automatic high beams
• Adaptive cruise control
• Voice controls
• Back-up sensors
• Back-up cameras
• Tire pressure monitoring system
• Electronic stability control

You are sadly deluding yourself if you think that you can go to a dealer to just “kick the tires” of a new vehicle.
The minute you put your derrière in the driver seat, and especially when the dealer says nonchalantly “take it out for a spin, I have some paperwork to do” you are hooked! Regardless of what you promised your wife, your priest or your parole officer.
Holy mackerel! This chick magnet is too much! All these buttons…
Where is the missile launcher button?

P.G. Wodehouse wrote (I penned the first sentence):

After driving a new car and going back to your clunker, “You experience the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy’s Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day’s work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city’s reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty.”

Before you know it, forswearing anything you ever said, you are signing a bunch of papers, shaking hands with your new BFF and transferring all your belongings from your old car to your new Star Wars ship.

No matter how hard you tried, you were a goner you the minute you stepped into the showroom.
Don’t feel bad. The seductiveness of a modern car is more powerful than the sex appeal of Alexandra Daddario and Marilyn Monroe combined, and I promise you that you will remain on Cloud 9 for at least 3 months.

Ignition, get set, Shazam!

Alain

S for the Wisdom of Solomon
H for the Strength of Hercules
A for the Stamina of Atlas
Z for the Power of Zeus
A for the Courage of Achilles
M for the Speed of Mercury

Don’t get me wrong, I like kids, but standard issue, ordinary, normal kids.

I don’t like smart aleck kids!
They grow up to be smart aleck adults (like the Bieber and Cyrus freaks) with an inflated ego and a phenomenal annoyance factor.

Smart aleck kids are worse than smart alecks adult because they are supposed to be cute. But cute they are not. Annoying yes, but not cute.

And yet, you see the little buggers all over television land and every kid aspires to be like them. And they are getting younger and younger.
A few years ago a smart aleck kid was a pre-teenager. Today we have smart aleck babies.
This is becoming ridiculous. It’s got to stop!

It’s got to stop because it is not funny and it is perpetuating a myth.
Smart aleck kids don’t exist! They are just a Hollywood fabrication, and deprived of a script, they are nothing more than midgets with half the brain and the thinking power of an adult.
All this non-sense is harmful, because after a while, the kids start to believe their scripts and think that they can outsmart people with a fully developed brain.

Only in totalitarian countries and in the animal world are smart-aleck kids treated with common sense.
In totalitarian countries, when they misbehave they are sent to “re-education” camps to cure them from their delusions. If this does not work, they are shot with anti-aircraft guns.

And don’t believe for a minute that an adult lion would take a lip from a smart aleck cub. A good roar and a smack across the face will quickly show the kid who is boss.

So once and for all, let’s shun all the SAKs wherever they are. Nefarious myths have got to be fought and destroyed. For those who still doubt, juvenile detention centers are full of smart-aleck kids who refused to believe that they not any smarter than adult people.

Smart aleck kids grow up with a sense of entitlement.
But the world is full of failed children actors who could not make it in an adult world.

So, if you are burdened by a smart-aleck kid, there are plenty of detox centers that (for a small rather large fee) will be glad to straighten out your brat.
It is well worth the investment.

I am pretty sure that the present Republican standard bearer was a smart-aleck kid. Now as a smart-aleck adult he is an embarrassment to the United States.

Is that what you want for your own whippersnapper?

Alain

What is worse than a smart-aleck kid? A dumb kid with a smart phone.