We have learned as
we have traveled
the road of life, that
there are many, many things
which we simply cannot
explain.
And last week’s column is
one of those things. Needless
to say, the column that appeared
in the paper was not
exactly the same column that
we wrote.
Somewhere between our
pushing the send button on
our computer and the printing
of the paper, the column
was substantially transformed.
We suspect, although we are
not certain, that the transformation
was directly related to
a misalignment of the earth,
moon, stars and several other
galaxies.
Nonetheless, we do apology
to anyone who may still be
wondering why on earth we
were talking about not liking
to cook. And, should anyone
have a burning desire to read
last week’s column in its entirety,
please let us know and
we will be more than happy
to send a copy out via e-mail.
We must admit that we think
it would have made more
sense had the second half of
the column been preceded
by the first half of the column.
Of course, we could be wrong
about that. We have been
known to discover that there
are times when something
seems perfectly clear to us
and yet makes absolutely no
sense to anyone else.
We also wish to apology to
the members of the Literary
Discussion Group as part of
what was missing from last
week’s column was the announcement
of their upcoming
meeting.
Thus we note that the
next meeting of the Literary
Discussion Group, sponsored
by the Women’s Club of
Cooperstown, will be held on
Thursday, January 28 at 2:30
p.m. at the Village of Cooperstown
Library. The book for
discussion will be ``Postmortem’’
by Patricia Cornwall. This
discussion, which is open to
the public, will be led by Pat
Wilson.
And, of course, last week’s
column is but one thing we
have encountered of late that
we cannot explain.
For example, on our way
home from Ohio we stopped
in Jamestown, New York, for
lunch. Since we had no idea as
to the size of Jamestown, our
friend Linda asked the waitress
how many people lived in
Jamestown.
After a bit of thought, the
waitress replied that she
thought it was three million.
That number seemed a tad
high to us.
Consequently, when we
got home we looked up
the population of Jamestown.
It is just under 30,000.
That information, of
course, left us wondering
whether the waitress had
no concept of how many
people three million might
be or if it just seemed to
her that Jamestown was
a big place and thus must
have three million people
living there. Either way, we
can’t explain it.
Nor can we explain a
notice that we received in the
mail that we had been given a
gift subscription to Smithsonian
Magazine from Harriette
Treloar.
Not only do we already have
a subscription of our own to
Smithsonian Magazine, we
have never heard of Harriette
Treloar and have no idea who
she might be. We called the
magazine in hopes of getting
some clarification. Unfortunately,
they seemed to be as
clueless as we were.
And finally, we cannot
explain how complicated
we think the Netflix system
of DVD rental must be. Once
again this year, as we have
done in previous years, we are
partaking of the Cabin Fever
Film Series by renting this
year’s movies through Netflix
and then watching them from
the relative comfort of our
cabin, as it were.
Unfortunately, ``The Heiress,’’
which was one of the
movies, was not available
from the usual Netflix location
and thus had to be sent
from another location which
would require, we were told,
a delay of three to five days.
We thought such a delay
was odd for Netflix but when
the movie finally arrived, we
realized it had been sent from
Honolulu, Hawaii.
We were stunned, although
we don’t quite know why, that
Netflix was able to track down
the movie in Hawaii and ship
it to us.
Of course, what we really
don’t understand is why
Netflix did not track down
and send with the movie any
of what we assume would
be balmy Hawaiian weather.
Quite frankly, we think we
would have enjoyed that even
more than the movie.
In closing, we recently
encountered from one of our
Facebook friends a quote
from the president’s State of
the Union address in which he
said ``Saying no to everything
is good short term politics but
it is not leadership.’’
And while we would not
disagree with the statement,
we also wonder if the
converse, ``Saying yes to
everything is good short term
politics but it is not leadership,’’
is also true. It quite
reminds us of the old saying:
``There are two sides to every
story,’’ which we have chosen
as this week’s quote.
PLEASE NOTE: Comments regarding
this column may be made by mail at 105
Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326,
by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by email
at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.
