At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, was walking through a park one day in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favorite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.
The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter “written” by the doll saying “please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”
Think YOU had a bad day? I got into the office this morning and the first thing to greet me was this e-mail! Yes, I bought that Hoverboard at auction in 1992 for $3k. Yes, I sold that Hoverboard in 2010 to a guy in Finland for $11k, almost quadrupling my investment. Smart move, right? Wrong! 11 years later, that same Hoverboard sells at auction for US$506,000. This is heavy! Great Scott! 
Just know: If I show up at the ER complaining of pneumonia-ish symptoms and you are unable to test me for the coronavirus because you’re all out of tests, I realize it’s not you who failed to plan accordingly – and I genuinely thank you for being there. 
Every so often throughout the course of history, a monster comes along – the kind our parents promised us don’t really exist – to put the human race back in its place. Its sole purpose is to remind us how small and truly insignificant we all are. This monster is among us now, lurking invisible to the naked eye but proving itself to be bigger, more adaptable and more powerful than any one of us. Ironically, it’s this very beast that reminds us it can only be defeated by “the whole” of us. 
Here’s a fascinating piece of internet history from 1995. It’s two members of the cast of Friends, Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry showing us how to use the Microsoft software Windows 95. I suspect the one thing this hour-long program shows us more than anything else, is the importance of solid comedy writers. The sitcom’s writing was brilliant – but this little feature isn’t. Jennifer and Matthew seem to be partly acting/partly ad-libbing in a pseudo-sitcom that was written by Microsoft’s marketing department, not Friends Emmy award-winning writers. It’s bad. Really bad. Which is why it’s so fun to watch. I bet these two stars walked away with a cool chunk of change from Mr. Gates! Enjoy. 
Once upon a time, Shakespeare’s time in fact, performers and entertainers were considered the lowest forms of life. Dregs. Rabble. Back then, the elite in their haughty heels would step over such vermin like Americans now do their homeless population. Actors were the scum of the earth. Today, that scum sit atop the societal food chain. Take Meghan Markle. For all her social climbing, she keeps reaching newer lows. She’s an actor who opened up a couple of suitcases on Deal or No Deal, parlayed that gig into some cable TV show, and then catapulted into the arms of a spare heir who inherited his life – and spent all of it leeching off the British government for room and board. A fairy tale permeated with pixie dust if there ever was one! 
Whatever happened to the “art” of the commentary? I’m not talking about those painful “editorials” at the end of local newscasts recorded by the General Manager of the station, and usually advocating the construction of a new sewage treatment plant. I’m referring to news commentaries by newsmen (and women), back before political correctness took hold and turned every newscast into a generic store brand.