But first! I searched my site for, “avoid being stupid.” and found on July 7, 2020 the material below. It is a better statement than I could write tonight. So I will quote it in its full splendor.
By reading and following one of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) suggestions I have almost arrived at my eighty-fifth year in excellent health. “You must become an old man in good time (in your youth) if you wish to be an old man long.” I remember modifying that statement slightly to create my New Year’s Resolution back in about 1968 to “My goal this year is not to be smart but to avoid being stupid.”
That idea was expressed back in Berkeley during the riotous 1960s when the opportunities there for being very stupid were easily achieved. I never did anything illegal personally, but I stood right beside people who did. For example, I alone stood right beside a guy that was pouring kerosene into the Berkeley Bank of America, and then tossing lit paper matches into the unseen puddle on the floor. He had lit and tossed about five matches in and hadn’t succeeded in starting a fire. I asked him why he was doing it, and he said, “The media wouldn’t pay any attention unless clearly violent things were done.” This was the day after the Bank of America in Santa Barbara was burned during a demonstration. I remember thinking that this guy wasn’t a very well-prepared arsonist because had he lit the package of matches and thrown the whole thing in, it would have accomplished his goal. At that exact moment, the police charged down Telegraph Avenue probably having seen what was happening. I departed in haste. That wasn’t the only improper event I witnessed up close during my time of “Not being stupid.”
Without really intending to be there I was exactly at the dead center of many events during my now rather long lifetime. When I found the link above about the burning of the B of A, I realized it was after my making that sensible New Year’s Resolution. So much for resolutions.
Okay, I have been more successful than I expected at personal survival and have tried many times and many ways to promote humanity’s survival. So far so good, even though I can’t be certain about any of it. These last few months I have posted principles on how to survive the Covid personally and for humanity to accommodate the Covid pandemic more easily, but none of it has proceeded beyond my blog posts. This pandemic might kill five percent of humans, but that isn’t an existential risk for humanity, although it would be for vast numbers of individuals. Humanity, even with Covid nibbling away at us individual humans, will soon exceed eight billion people, and that is four times as many people living as when I entered the world in 1935.
In other words … and it’s hard to say it … things are just fine, except for my personal pain. Apparently, I slept in an improper position last night because all day I have had a sharp pain in my neck when I lift my head to its normal position. Writing this post is filled with some pain because I must lift my head a bit to look at the screen. The pain seems to be resolving itself, but I won’t be sleeping face down with my head cocked to the side tonight.
Sometimes, even though I try to avoid being stupid, I fail.
Another proof of my failings in this category of “avoid being stupid.” was when Wendy Northecote, the creator of “The Darwin Awards,” gave me one.
Being honest with oneself seems like it would be the default state of the mind. We must be honest with ourselves if we are to perceive the reality of the world around us accurately and thus to relate properly to what it is telling us.
Once in the 1960’s when I was still doing New Year’s Resolutions, I chose … “My goal this year is not to be smarter but to avoid being stupider!” All the same, in March 2009 I got a Darwin Award from Wendy Northcutt for my many failures to save humanity, which would include myself.

I have worn this award on a black long-sleeve T-shirt a couple of times when it seemed appropriate.
Yesterday, Debbie and I were having a discussion about our electric oven and whether the button signage on the face of it was labeled incorrectly. The top button reads BAKE, and the one immediately below it reads BROIL. We argue, in a comic way, about words a lot, and I said the manufacturer had reverse-labeled those buttons. To prove my point, I pushed the bottom button and lightly touched the top coil, expecting that it would take a few seconds to warm up if it meant what it claimed: BROIL. Unfortunately for me, it was hot but not glowing by the time my finger got there. Ouch! Those things heat up quickly. I ran some cold water on my finger within a few seconds, and it barely got pink. I found this from How stuff works:
- In baking, you are trying to heat food by surrounding the food with hot air.
- In broiling, you are trying to heat food using infrared radiation.
Thus, broiling is done with glowing hot elements at the top; by my standard, I won the argument but burnt my finger. The button on the top should be labeled “broil.”
Sometimes, even when you are right, you still get burned. So, foresee safe ways to test your assumptions before doing something stupid.


