Four (or Five!) Reasons Why

….Americans Don’t Like Taking Vacations

1. Americans have a deep-rooted work ethic. Maybe this comes from the fact it’s a country of immigrants who have to scratch and claw their way up the social ladder. It’s the land of opportunity/milk and honey but only IF you’re willing to work for it, or work for an online start-up that gets acquired for a king’s ransom by Google. Given this approach, the standard two weeks of vacation is an outright luxury.

2. It would take away from how much Americans enjoy Thanksgiving. The concept of four days in a row of vacation, during which they get to watch football all afternoon and then eat turkey all night, is pure bliss for Americans. This explains why they are willing to travel like crazy all over the country for what is really an extended long weekend.

3. Holidays are for wimps. When you’re an economic super-power, there’s no time for vacations. Meanwhile, many Europeans get six weeks of vacations, which is why they’re struggling with lower productivity and high unemployment these days. If you’re going to win, you’ve got to work, work, work. As the legendary Bruce Springsteen sang in Darlington County: “He don’t work and he don’t get paid”.

4. There’s plenty of time to travel after you retire. America, after all, is the land of RVs and enormous Winnebagos. After you’ve put in your 45 years of work for The Man, and receive your gold watch, you can drive off into the sunset in your gas-guzzling home on wheels, and see as much of the world as you want.

Technorati Tags: vacation

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….Grammar is So Terrible

1. No one really teaches or studies grammar any more. From what I can tell, it’s not really a major part of the curriculum given teachers are scrambling to get their students to read, let alone understand grammar.

2. The importance of grammar is terribly under-appreciated. It’s unfortunate that there’s little attention or interest paid to having a comma, for example, in the right location so that a sentence is properly structured. At a time, when people want to consume information as fast as possible, it’s not something people care about or, for that matter, even recognize.

3. E-mail has killed grammar. With the use of emoticons, acronyms and personal digital shorthand, grammar is getting ignored and/or butchered. This contrasts when the golden age of letter writing when beautiful language, including proper, grammar was important and ubiquitous.

4. Many people write like they talk with same kind of informality and lack of structure. This explains why punctuation is pretty much non-existent, run-on sentences are the norm and spelling is atrocious.

For thoughts on grammar, check out Stanley Bing’s rant on “When smart people use bad grammar”, while the Big Bad Book Blog has some interesting thoughts on how some grammar rules are meant to be broken.

Technorati Tags: Grammar

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…Fishing Isn’t As Boring As You Think

1. Most people think that when you fish, all you really do is sit around, get a tan and drink beer. The truth of the matter is that fishing can be quite meditative. Sitting in the middle of a secluded lake, disconnected from the rest of the world, gives one a chance to reflect and clear your mind. And there is a certain poetry in the act of casting, particularly that for fly-fishing. The elegance of feeding out a line takes years to perfect and can only be achieved when you focus your mind on only the rod in your hand.

2. For city dwellers, it is not often enough that your we get back in touch with nature. To some, this is torture. Why would you put yourself in a place that is void of cell phones and broadband connections? But there is something primeval and elemental about doing so. Not only does it remind us of where we came from, but also what we really need to live and survive.

3. Whether or not the fish are biting, you get a chance to connect with those out there with you in a circumstance that you might not otherwise get. You can talk about about anything. Or you don’t have to talk at all. And there’s always stories to tell over a beer at the end of the day. Bonding can take many forms. That’s the beauty of it.

4. If you’re lucky enough to catch the big one, there is a certain amount of ego and bragging rights involved. Maybe it goes back to the notion of being a “provider” or boost you get from the trophy catch. Regardless, it feeds to ego and is good for the soul. And given that there is always a bit of luck involved, nobody really feels jealous or envious. Maybe they wished is was them, but there’s never any ill feelings.

5. Nobody really knows what goes on during fishing trips or whether any fish were actually caught, and this makes for all sorts of tall tales. “Oh, the one that got away!” A little imagination goes a long way and covers up for the fact that all you did was sit in a boat, tan and drink beer. Oh, wait…

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….Owning a Cottage is Over-Rated

1. Cottages are expensive propositions. It’s not just the cost of buying a cottage but the money required for upkeep. Anyone who has owned a cottage knows that something always needs to be fixed or upgraded. One day, the septic tank is overflowing; the next day your dock has floated away after a rough winter; and the next day, all the windows screens needed to be replaced.

2. Owning a cottage is like being married. The only way you can really justify it is spending a lot of time there - e.g. nearly every weekend and a couple long stretches every year. Otherwise, it’s just an expensive asset just collecting dust. Of course, going to the cottage nearly every weekend means you have little or spontaneity to do other things on the weekends. If someone is throwing a great bash or a dinner party, cottage owners usually pass because..they’re going to the cottage.

3. When you own a cottage, you’re really expected to invite friends and family to spend time with you. Forget about the fact you’re trying to escape the city as well as friends and family. If you own a cottage, there’s something written in the Cottage Constitution that you are compelled to invite the city slickers to your cottage. Of course, people invited to cottages rarely do any of the maintenance work - meaning they’re sitting around drinking beer and reading, while you’re running around trying to fix everything all day.

4. It takes a long time to get to the cottage. When you account for packing, shopping and driving, the hours spent getting to the cottage is pretty high. And once, you get there, you’re usually exhausted from all the effort and frazzled by traffic…and then you realize you’ll be heading back home in less than 48 hours.

5. When cottage owners go away for the weekend, the city gets quieter and more live-able, especially on long weekends. The traffic moves slower, no one in a hurry and getting a table at a restaurant or patio is so much easier. This explains why non-cottage owners like all those enthusiastic cottage owners.

Technorati Tags: Cottage

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…Flying Isn’t As Fun As It Used To Be

1. The proliferation of flying machines that can take you basically anywhere in the world has all but eliminated the mysteries of travel. Yes, adventure stills exists in any place where you find yourself. But the exploration has been accomplished. There are not too many places in the world where a tourist, intrepid or otherwise, has not been before you. This, by no means, should stop anyone from traveling. In fact, it should be encouraged! But the days of putting down “Explorer” as your occupation have long since past.

2. When travel was considered special, people used to dress up and behave as if they were doing something truly civilized. Boarding a plane demanded fine threads, an air of sophistication, and an appreciation for the innovation in getting a giant tin can off the ground. Now that air travel has essentially become a commodity, we travel in sweat pants, fight for the arm rest at the drop of a hat and compete for the attention of overworked flight attendants. The flip side of this is that air travel is relatively cheap and it can take you anywhere you want to go. But the veneer of glamour has faded and we are left with just another way to quickly get from A to B.

3. Without a doubt, airplanes are amazing contraptions. And the people that get them into the air and keep them there do a great job of doing so. However, as the throngs of people filling up the skies continues to grow, travelers are treated more and more like cattle being herded and move across the plains. From the time you enter an airport, you are asked to line up - first for your ticket, then for security, then you are rounded up near your departure gate and coraled down the gangway onto the plane. When you finally get on the plane, unless you happen to be the Kobe Beef of passengers who travel at the front of the plane, you are crammed in and get very little to help pass the time.

4. Before terror in the sky became a common preoccupation for global travelers and governments, pilots were like doctors. You would see them in action behind the dials and blinking lights, and you can’t help but look up to them like they were heroes, especially if you were a kid that was given a personal tour of the cockpit. Unfortunately, cockpits are now built like Fort Knox. Access is restricted to only those with the highest clearance. Kids these days will never know that feeling of amazement when standing in the heart of a great flying machine like the 747.

5. Remember the plastic pilot wing pins they used to give you when you were a kid? I miss those pilot wings.

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