Serve by Design

Just the other day, I watched a humorous interview with a preteen. This occurred on an afternoon entertainment news program. What caught my attention in this brief and show-ending feature was that this youth was explaining her bad attitude while riding in the passenger seat of the family car. She was speaking to one of her parents as she made this adult-like excuse, “I’ve been crotchety since I was nine!”  Image: freepik.com I have enjoyed watching the Grumpy Old Men movies (1993, 1995) several times. The original film featured three of my favorite actors: Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, and Ann-Margret, It’s a story of two men, Max Goldman and John Gustafson who are neighbors and lifelong friends that find themselves competing for the affections of a beautiful woman,   Ariel Truax, who lived across the street from both men, Matthau and Lemmon with deadpan humor do a masterful job of bringing their characters to life in an uproariously funny and absurd way! I’ve had my own grum...

For several days this week, gridlock has prevented the United States House of Representatives from electing a Speaker for this august body of legislators. Fourteen ballots had been cast in the effort to move forward, but to no avail. It would be on the fifteenth round that a breakthrough would occur. All week long, strong differences of opinion dominated the discussions. Every effort had failed to get a majority consensus. Finally, in the very early morning hours of Saturday morning,   a Speaker of the House was elected . This level of disagreement is unusual, but not without historic precedence. The longest vote for a Speaker occurred in 1856 when it took two months and 133 rounds of balloting to elect Rep. Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts as Speaker of the House. The Gavel: Symbol of Authority During this present and epic Speaker election of the modern era, many have tuned in to their televisions to watch the actions on C-SPAN live stream. Each round of voting has been proce...