Invisible Trucks, Shakespearean Soccer Talk and Our Best Weapons

Hi Carolyn,

Once again gotta start with something I ran into online on another of my favorite tech/gadget sites. This one I found on technobuffalo. com and it too made me say - " Wow, what a great idea! "

Samsung invents a see-through truck to stop car accidents

By Jacob Kleinman | Jun 28, 2015

Samsung already makes the displays for smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs and more. Now the company could put its screen technology to use in an entirely new way that could actually save lives. The company recently unveiled a new concept called a…

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 As someone whose spent serious time on the asphalt ribbons lately I can see where this could clearly save lives- (pun semi-intended). Carolyn,  as someone who drives through the mountains as a matter of course, you could appreciate it too, I'm sure.  A few summers ago my lsbh and I  drove from Calgary across the mountains to Vancouver and Victoria and then back again.  Contemplating passing that oh-so-slow truck ahead was even more a game of nerve-wracking motorized roulette when  steep grades and mountainous topography were added into the mix.

Your observations and recent experiences with your grandson sure do make one appreciate how hangin' out with little kids can be  enervating. It's also one of those things about teaching that pays off ad infinitum . The sheer optimism of youth really rubs off, doesn't it !  Every September was a "new beginning" for me and my students and it was always so rewarding to approach it that way. All those optimistic twinkling eyes looking back at you from their desks as we talked about where we were going to go this year. It was more prominent in my years teaching grades six and eight, of course. A class of 17 and 18 year olds in the throes of young adulthood just couldn't be expected to have the same fresh-faced and undiluted spunk. Too many other worldly encroachments  vying for their  time.

 On occasion it's a bummer to realize that they will get worn down by the realities of making their way in the world today, and tomorrow.  Still, the upside clearly outweighs the downside.

Upsides and downsides lead me into the next item.  My lsbh has always been the bona fide athlete in our relationship. For that reason our home has been filled with soccer recently because the Fifa Women's World Cup is taking place right now in Canada - from one coast to the other in fact. I've gotten involved in an armchair fashion watching the games with her. Once you get past the hype and hyperbole it's still pretty compelling. Canada's team has done quite well but bowed out only a few days ago. Apparently they did much better than was expected, in some pundits opinions.

 

 

 

Japan and The United States came into this showdown ranked first and second respectively. As of this writing they will be meeting in the final match this weekend for all the marbles.

 

 

 

 

 The play-by-play patter was certainly different from what I hear whenever I check into a hockey or  baseball broadcast. I especially remember one  commentator. It was a match between Australia and Japan. The commentator sounded distinctly Australian, but managed to keep a fair degree of objectivity - at least initially.  I cannot remember his name alas. It was part way through the game when I checked in and the introductions had long been taken care of.

 

 

 

 

However, it wasn't his heart on the sleeve rooting for the home team that stuck with me but rather his vocabulary. This fellow was not relying on the typical bag of clichés and verbal chestnuts that usually pop up in a sportcast. He was, at times, almost Shakespearean. I took about fifteen minutes and made a list of words and phrases he used that one would not expect to find in the typical sports commentators lexicon. They included :

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nonplused, vociferous, obdurate, inexorable , inveterate, penchant, ferret out, punctiliously, extirpation, perdition, and unpropitious.

He also turned some pretty flowery phrases  - “relentlessly steadfast and implacable” , "derogation of the defense", " many thousands of hearts were in many thousands of mouths", " the denouement now rests in the laps of the soccer gods", and the one that stuck with me most of all, " they now have a Matterhorn to scale to get back into this match "


Something tells me that, with his beloved Australian " Matildas" out of the running I won't be hearing his voice again soon.

 

Just in the last few days I stumbled upon a documentary on CNN about Glen Campbell. I'm not really a Glen Campbell fan, per se, but I am certainly far more inclined to treat him with outright admiration after seeing this movie. I'll leave the details to the Rotten Tomatoes website as to what it deals with:                    

          

 

      Movie Info

  In 2011, music legend Glen Campbell set out on an unprecedented tour across America. They thought it would last 5 weeks instead it went for 151 spectacular sold out shows over a triumphant year and a half across America. What made this tour extraordinary was that Glen had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He was told to hang up his guitar and prepare for the inevitable. Instead, Glen and his wife went public with his diagnosis and announced that he and his family would set out on a "Goodbye Tour." The film documents this amazing journey as he and his family attempt to navigate the wildly unpredictable nature of Glen's progressing disease using love, laughter and music as their medicine of choice. Special appearances include Bruce Springsteen, The Edge, Paul McCartney, Blake Shelton, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Steve Martin, Chad Smith and Bill Clinton among many others.

 

 

 

 

I can say in complete honesty that I  can't remember the last time I was as  emotionally affected by a movie/documentary as I was by this one. Perhaps it's in part because I have a close relative dealing with the same kind of mind-robbing illness. If you have seen it, Carolyn, ( since I remember you mentioning awhile back that you like Glen Campbell ) I think you'd agree with me about how powerful  it was. If you have not seen it I would recommend you to seek it out sometime soon.  Be forewarned, however.  It's  one of those stories that truly illustrates the term bittersweet. It's not depressing to an overwhelming extent and it's not a "feel good" experience to that degree either.

 

 

 

 

What struck me most about this whole journey with Campbell and his family/touring family was that two of the things that most kept Glen and those around him buoyed up and moving forward on what had to be an ultimately  saddening journey, were the music and the laughter.

 

Campbell was only to happy to note, and demonstrate onstage, that while his memory and everyday ability to comprehend the world around him continue to be eroded, his music and his joy for life were still there. I stand solidly in that corner with him promoting laughter and music as two of our best weapons against the march of life that wears us all down eventually.

So I'm guessing that you are having some kind of small or larger commemoration of the upcoming 4th of July. We just finished our July 1st Canada Day and I actually found myself feeling it was the weekend even though it was a Wednesday. Happy holiday to us both and all beyond.


See ya later,

Don



All images sourced from Google Images ( except technobuffalo link item )

Fig. 1 - www.technobuffalo.com
Fig. 2 - thechronicleherald.ca
Fig. 3 - www. pinterest.com
Fig. 4 - rottentomatoes.com
Fig. 5 - www.cnn.com
Fig. 6 - mydorchester.org