Social Kapital Joel Postman

The Sidewalk

When you told me you went for a walk today, I was envious of the sidewalk, and its ability to be all around you.

When I was at school in Humboldt County, my girlfriend and I lived in a tiny cabin in Trinidad, California. Next door lived a desperate alcoholic who drank at least a half gallon of cheap whiskey every day.

One day I heard a voice ask “How’s it going?” from somewhere within his cabin. We chatted, and I told him the brakes had failed on my truck nearly causing a crash, and that we suspected a competitor in the firewood business had cut my brake lines. His response was both naive and profound. “What’s the matter with people around here, any ways?”

Since that day, I have asked this question in a variety of settings.

Salvatore Sonny Grosso, a friend of mine, posted this thought for the day on Facebook:

When the spirit dies, so does the soul. Each time we strike, belittle, bully, steal from or disrespect another, a little piece of the Earth’s soul dies. Each time we help, hold, love, respect, encourage and share with another, the spirit is reborn. We hold the World’s Spirit and Soul in our own hands. Together we can save them!

Why do we strike, belittle, bully, steal from and disrespect each other? And what might the world be like if we stopped?

Tighter air travel regulations have been in the news in the wake of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

We owe a debt of gratitude to regulators and legislators for preventing the adoption of some additional, and quite onerous, rules. Some of these unimplemented rules include:

• Passengers will receive either a first-class upgrade or 20,000 frequent flyer miles for bringing to the attention of the flight crew suspicious activity by a seat-mate. Behaviors that warrant intervention include furtive expressions, the wearing of inappropriate clothing, or ordering from the Sky Mall catalog.
• Passengers will be required to speak Swedish and wear their underwear on the outside at all times while on board the aircraft. Since terrorists don’t know Swedish, this will make it easier to spot them, and will make it impossible for them to conceal dangerous items in their underwear.*
• The restrooms in the aircraft will be locked at all times. Passengers are urged instead to use restrooms at home or in the airport. In either case, a video record of these activities must be uploaded to the TSA Web site at least one hour prior to departure time.
• In the event that the flight crew identifies a potentially threatening situation while airborne, screaming babies will be removed from the main cabin and placed in protective custody in the cargo hold.
• Bratz and Barbie branded toys will not be allowed on board the aircraft. (This is less a security precaution than it is a matter of good taste.)

We are fortunate indeed that cooler heads prevailed.

* With apologies to Woody Allen

When I found this vintage Sears adding machine (1970s?) in a local thrift store, I knew that it was a lakes racer trapped in an adding machine’s body. Look at the sweeping Boyd Coddington-esque lines, the two-tone burnt orange finish, the woodie sides. So I took it home and added custom wheels and side pipes from a cherry Mattel Vroom car.

This one of a kind hot rod is for sale for $600. Price does not include dealer prep, documentation fee, title, transfer. Please contact me if you’re interested.

I probably shouldn’t be sharing the secret of these cool t-shirts. A couple of weeks ago I went to see Was Not Was, and the keyboard player had a shirt on that said Dummy bomb falls from jet, lands on truck. I did a little research and found that CNN creates t-shirts with interesting headlines, and the network continues to retire headlines and add new ones. Today’s headline sounded like something out of the Weekly World News: Obama sees likeness in hieroglyphic.

Dummy bomb was no longer available, so I got Luggage cart sucked into jet’s engine.

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