Are you content to be in last place with his career, his investments, everything about his business, all ahead of you?  Great success most often demands that.  If it is not the most important thing in his life he won’t get there.         
 

Few women say they are interested in a man who is moderately successful, is a moderately good lover, is moderately attractive, is moderately understanding, is moderately good at seduction, is moderately good at communication, has a moderately good sense of humor, etc. 
 

Balance is everything.  What tradeoffs are you willing to make? 
 
 

Note: this was written as a man addressing the question to women, but it would not be that hard to rewrite it the other way.  It would be better for a woman to write that though. 
 

Comments from either and / or better yet both females and males would be most welcome. 

The lady I loved most in the world and I were riding from a downtown bar to someone’s home where the party was to continue.  Admonishing the driver to slow down only made things worse.  
 

Different story.  We, a small group (six) of civilian contractors and military men had gone out after work to a nice restaurant.  We all had a few drinks after dinner. Some a few more than a few drinks.  I casually mentioned on the way to the car. “I am glad I am not driving, I am way too drunk to drive.”  In unison the rest said, “That’s it you‘re driving.”  When I protested they explained, “You are the only one sober enough to know you are drunk, so you are driving.”
 
 

RMac 
 

Aggressive Charities and Other Hungry Vultures
 

When I hit the magic age, which happened at about the same time my wife died, aggressive charities and others hit like a bunch of hungry vultures.  Caller ID wasn’t yet working to any reliable degree.  The “do not call list” was not yet offered.  Besides I was still burdened with the silly notion that you answer the phone if it rings.  Ditto listen politely.   Always they started out sweet, polite, and persuasive.  If you politely declined they always had another line.  If you persisted they became progressively more and more aggressive and insulting.  I discussed with a friend why anyone thought being insulting was a successful “sales” technique -- he explained, “Because it works.”  Took awhile, lifetime habits do not go away overnight, but I did learn to say “NO” and hang up before they could say anything more.
 

Some of the stuff was just plain unbelievable.  “You have just won a Ford 150 Pickup; we just need your full name, birthdate, address, and social security number so we can fill out the paperwork and deliver the pickup.” 
 

Then there were the stock offers:  Saturday morning, had to be purchased and paid for that day.  “If you just give us the transaction numbers on your checking account we can take care of everything.”  Yep, I bet they could. 
 

An unlisted, unpublished number is a wonderful thing.  You will need to change it from time to time.  It ultimately will become known to the wrong people. 
 

I was still working and was used to dealing with competent, tough negotiators.  The mother of a friend was not so lucky; she had to be put into an assisted living arrangement.  Fully cognizant, she was just too sweet, nice, and lonesome to cope with the vultures.  The Aunt of another friend is another example.  She also was too sweet, nice, and lonesome, plus she was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.  She pretty much depleted her retirement before her family discovered the problem.  The family naively presumed that if they advised the charities of her condition they would quit the solicitations -- that made it worse, much worse.  Ultimately she needed to be put in an Alzheimer’s nursing home. 
 

RMac
 

Defense of Beards

I posted a defense in PianistMBa777’s blog re beards. 

The summary of the defense is as follows.

1.     Derek Clontz writes parodies of other articles and other concerns.  I found the exact article that was quoted from with a disclaimer that said in effect:   All facts are made up and all institutions are made up.  Everything is fiction meant only for entertainment.  

2.    Derek’s article was the only thing that was quoted from.

3.    The Huffington Post and the Canadian CBC articles were mentioned but not quoted from at all.  They were only used as proof that the concerns were real. 

4.    They, the CBC and Huffington Post, were reporting on a Fort Detrick experiment that happened way back in 1967.

5.    Trouble is, Fort Detrick, was only concerned with spreading nasty pathogens from a facility that studied them to the researcher’s families and the surrounding community.  That experiment involved spraying extreme concentrations of pathogens on the subjects beard; be that subject a manikin or a volunteer and then, for various situations, seeing if it could be adequately washed off.  

6.    The hair on a woman’s head, the hairy lower legs on some men, as well as beards; all would have failed that experiment. 

7.    No general alarm concerning beards back then was sounded as none was necessary.  Most of the general populace in not involved with work, recreational, or leisure activities that involve getting sprayed with extreme concentrations of nasty pathogens, either accidentally or on purpose.  .

Conclusion:  Beards and mustaches are safe.  Reasonable cleanliness is desirable.  Whether one likes beards or mustaches is up to the individual, but there are no grounds for any medical reason to avoid them. 
 

Puzzle #3

Suppose you have an unlimited supply of fuses that burn at non-uniform rates, but each fuse is exactly the length necessary to burn for one hour. 

How would you accomplice using one or more of them to time 45 minutes?

Hint one:  First accomplice figuring out how to time 30 minutes.  Then accomplice figuring out how to time 1 hour and 30 minutes.  At that point you should be able to figure out how to time 45 minutes. 

Hint two:   Either presume you can move instantaneously or ignore the slight errors because you can’t.

Hint three:  Wear fireman’s gloves -- just kidding. 

RMac

If you would like to see the solution to my previous puzzle, please see that blog. I posted a solution.

Puzzle #2

Consider seven identical marbles. They are supposed to all weigh the same amount, but one is very slightly heavier. We have a very sensitive balance that is adequate for this puzzle. Find the heavy marble.

We could test them two at a time and in at most three tests we would know the heavy marble. Either we would find it directly in one of the three tests or it is the one left over.

Devise a test procedure that finds the heavy marble in an at most number of tests that is less than three.

RMac

Puzzle

Considering the calendar system we now use, neglecting the corrections that have to be done every century, or even less often, but including leap years, how many unique calendars are there not considering the year? 

That is, remove the year from a calendar, and in the course of time there will be another year with exactly the same arrangement of days.  You could put the different year on it and it would be exactly right.

You can solve how many unique calendars there are with pure reasoning, by working through it year by year, or some combination of both.    

Related to that, what is the minimum worst case number of years it takes to use them all?  That too you can solve with pure reasoning, etc.

This may be entirely too easy for a bunch as intelligent as you all, but we shall see. 

RMac

What makes a man attractive to a woman?

Forever classy asked the reverse question.  So I, and maybe we, would like to know.

Some observations; not in any order of importance.

1.    Being what women would consider attractive helps, but it is by no means a sufficient condition.

2.    Being able to make a woman laugh definitely helps.  It seems almost a sufficient condition. 

3.    Knowing how to dance and being willing to do it.  Women, far more than men seem to love this.

4.    The gift of blarney.  They know it is blarney.  You know it is blarney.  They love it anyhow.

5.    Being smooth and polished.  Women seem far more vulnerable to this than is good for them.    

6.    So many women ask for it in their profiles I must assume it is critical.  Being able to easily and willingly dress up or down from jeans to a tux. 

7.    As in #6, so many women ask for it in their profiles I must assume it is critical.  Must love to travel.

Any additions, corrections, and comments in general? 

RMac

“Rich Wives, Poor Husbands,” Atlantic Monthly, October 2012
 
This article is about Rich wives and their current or ex house husbands.   It does not paint a nice picture of the wives, but then that may just be my biased view.   I would like a number of you to read the article and comment on it.  Women especially, but everyone’s opinion is welcome.
 

To find the actual article try searching the internet using, “The Weaker Sex,” by Sandra Tsing Loh.  Among the many choices look for October 2012 Atlantic included in the description.    
 

I tried both Bing and Google.  Both work.

Searching on just Sandra Tsing Loh uncovers a wealth of articles only somewhat related to the subject.

 
RMac

According to a few ladies I know -- Nice is nice, courtesy and charm are nice, handsome is nice, but confidence, swagger, and a “who gives a dam attitude” wins.

RMac