Ten things I have learned about life by doing puzzles: 1) First, make sure you understand the rules. 2) Before you do anything, decide on the best strategy for doing it. 3) Be bolduse ink (but make sure it is erasable ink). 4) Sometimes it pays to do last things first. 5) Choose which puzzle to try to solvethe best puzzles are not so easy that they are boring and give no sense of accomplishment but not so difficult that they are overly frustrating. 6) Even if you are not sure an answer is correct, try it. Sometimes, even if the whole answer is wrong, some of its parts are right, and those parts will help you solve other parts of the puzzle. 7) Its OK to look up words you dont knowyoure not being graded on your success, youre doing it for the fun of it, and improving your ability to do future puzzles is more important than solving this one. 8) Cross words do not help one solve crosswords. 9) Puzzles are more interesting if the answers are not immediately available. 10) Solving a puzzle is more satisfying than having solved it.
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Life is a test you cant study for, the questions are not clear, you are never sure what the right answers are, and you dont learn your final score until its too late. In other words, it just like the SAT!
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Helpful hint on how to get along with a wife (or girlfriend) without expending too much effort: It is not necessary to listen to what she is saying. Just make sounds such as uh-huh, I see, right, or yes, dear, whenever she pauses. Nine times out of ten, this will suffice, and the one time out of ten when it does not, she will let you know.
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When a man and woman get married, the woman expects the man to change, the man expects the woman not to change, and they are both wrong.
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My generation (the Baby Boomers) has been the most self indulgent in history. Our sexual practices have helped spread a disease which may never be eradicated. We have used so many antibiotics that new killer strains of germs have emerged to take the place of the old controllable ones. We use so much energy that the worlds supply of oil, which took hundreds of millions of years to accumulate, may be gone forever in a hundred years or so. Through our government, we have borrowed and spent so much that the national debt will never be paid off. And we have produced so much atomic waste that our descendants will be forced to watch over it for hundreds of generations. Our descendants may deservedly curse us for leaving them with nothing but headaches and bills.
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One of many things I like about Japanese culture is that, compared to Americans, Japanese people tend to place relatively more value on a persons actions than his words. The Japanese understand that no word completely accurately describes the thing it represents, that words mislead as often as they represent reality, and that a persons true character is shown more clearly through his actions than through his words. Japanese believe that the more a person talks, the more chance there is that we will be fooled about who he really is. Americans, on the other hand, think that the more a person speaks, the more we know him. We place more value on words than actions, and a person is judged to a large extent on how well he can talk. In America, a person who is accomplished but taciturn has a much harder time getting respect or recognition than a mediocre human being who is a great talker.
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We need illusions. Illusions are imaginary walls that block us from seeing the dangers all around us. Without illusions, we could not move forward, let alone continue to live. We also need dreams. Dreams are mirages in the distance. We may never reach them, but we discover all sorts of interesting things as we fight our way towards them.
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Live as though your life depended on it.
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STREET SIGNS ON THE ROAD OF LIFE
Birth: Beware of Falling Objects 0-10: Children at Play 10-20: Prepare to Merge 20-30: Yield 30-40: Car Pool Lane 40-50: Rough Road Ahead 50-60: Reduce Speed 60-70: Rest Stop Next Exit 70-80: Disabled Parking 80-90: Prepare to Stop 90-100: Exit Only
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If youre really really careful, you can lead a really boring life.
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People play roles in society in the same way that words play roles in sentences. Some people are nounsthey retain their identity no matter where there are or what they are doing. Some are prepositions they are the trendsetters. Some are verbstheir identity comes from what they do. Some are adverbsthey get their kicks by being around or witnessing the action. Others are adjectivestheir identity depends on who they are around or what organization they belong to. Some are pronounsthey have no identity of their own; they just mirror the styles and beliefs of others. Some are conjunctionsthey are the peacemakers who bring other people together. Some are articlestheir identity is based on what they own. Some are interjections, always interfering in other peoples business. And some are exclamationsthey dont accomplish a whole lot but they make a lot of noise doing it!
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