Friday Hodgepodge

Four Things

1. Awhile back, I hit upon a (probably temporary) solution to variants of "Are we there, yet?"

Most days, I pick up my four-year-old son from daycare before my daughter, who, by that time, is working on her reading with the aid of an iPad app. This means I'm in a small waiting area having to entertain him for an eternity of five to ten minutes' duration while Pumpkin finishes up. Needless to say, he started repeatedly asking me if she was done yet.

Fortunately, in only a couple of repetitions, I realized I could help him answer the question himself and put him to work for me.

I explained to him how he could tell for himself: As long as his sister was sitting down in front of an iPad, she wasn't done. Then, I had him check for me. Now, he takes a look every few minutes and updates me on her status, which is cute, rather than annoying. Sometimes, when we get there, I'll ask him if she's done yet to set the tone.

2. Here's a clever idea I hadn't thought of myself:

[E]very time I make an appliance purchase -- vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, car -- I go to a repair shop [for advice]. They're always excited to talk to someone who will listen. They may even have a used model that will last you for years. [bold added]

And if they don't have a used one, they tell the author which models are durable enough to be worth repairing. Preceding this paragraph in the whole post is the insight that will make sense of the advice, and so make it stick.

3. The following, from an A. V. Club article on Pilsner, makes me think of the explosion in popularity of "big" craft beers in the United States over the past couple of decades:

Pilsner was invented by accident. The beer-obsessed Czech Republic town of Pilsen built a new state-of-the-art brewery during the industrial revolution. In the 1840s, a man named Martin Stelzer oversaw the construction, drawing inspiration from the latest innovations of Bavarian breweries. He also recruited a Bavarian brewer named Josef Groll to the project. Legend has it the town expected Groll to brew a brown Bavarian lager, but the first batch came out golden and effervescent, with a creamy head of snow-white foam. In a time of thick, turbid beers, this refreshing brew from Pilsen was a revelation. [bold added]

Similarly, the advent of craft brewing came against a backdrop of "lawnmower beers." (HT: Snedcat)

4. I'll end with the following inspirational quote:

"If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you're not sure you can do it, say yes -- then learn how to do it later!" -- Richard Branson

This comes by way of a Forbes article titled, "9 Simple Ways to Make More Money in Your Current Job."

-- CAV