Life Lessons Learned from the Twillight Zone

Lesson Number 1: Don't Drink and Drive

A married couple wake up in an unfamiliar house, remembering only that they had both drank too much at a party the night before, and that on the way home, a large shadow had appeared over their car.

They soon discover that the house is mostly props—the telephone has no connection, the cabinetry is merely glued-on facing, the refrigerator is filled with plastic food. They hear a girl's laughter and go outside to find the child. However, once outside, they discover that the town is deserted. They find a stuffed squirrel in a fake tree, search for help in a vacant church, and ring the bell in the church's bell tower hoping someone will come to their aide. When no one comes to help them, the increasingly desperate couple discovers even the trees are fake and the grass is papier-mâché. The exasperated Millie begins to think that perhaps she crashed their car on the way home, and they are now in Hell. They hear a train whistle and, thinking they have finally found a way out of the town, rush to the train station and board the train. As the train leaves the station, they begin a light-hearted conversation, relieved to be leaving. However, when the train comes to a stop, they realize it has only gone in a circle, and they are back where they started.

They leave the train and return to the town, only to be pursued by an ominous shadow, once again hearing a young girl's laughter. The shadow pursuing them is revealed to be the young girl's hand. As she picks them up, laughing joyously, it is revealed that the couple was abducted by an alien giant who brought them from Earth to be "pets" for his daughter's dollhouse neighborhood.

Mass Inteligence

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/age-mass-intelligence

Who is to say what is defined as being intelligent?  Could this be a fad?  I have been a longtime believer that Eminem’s vast word artistry is a sign of his intelligence quota, though others would argue differently.  Yet 200 years from today, will our children listen to his verses to find hidden meaning, study the iambic pentametar that exist in his rhymes, in the same way that we pore over texts by Shakespeare?  We have yet to see.

I am from the Bronx

…but I’m not “ghetto”.

I was born and raised in the Bronx, but as my mom likes to say “I grew up in her house, and not on the street”.  I think that it’s hard to make friends where I live, because I don’t hang out by the mailbox on the corner, never went to jail, don’t do drugs, etc.  These activities seem to be more accepted forms of recreation, and there are built in support groups for people that want to spend time this way, or are reforming themselves from the above activities.  I however like to read (books), go to the movies, volounteer, go to art galleries, and try out different cuisines.  I have a good job, pay my taxes, and try to live the life of a productive citizen.  

Sometimes it’s hard to define “ghetto” without sounding like you are being racist, as more “ghetto” people reside in poorer communities, and they may be immigrants or people of color.  There are plenty of rich and well known “ghetto” people out there too.  Take the rapper Ole’ Dirty Bastard for instance, who was arrested a short time ago for stealing a Honda.  I’m not trying to suggest that this is confined to rappers either.  Probably the best way to description of a “ghetto” person would be someone who is low class, crude, rough, and unnecessarily cheap.  It is the same definition that would apply to “white trash” like Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears.

I think that it is really a shame that being “ghetto” is not only socially acceptable, but it is glorified by the entertainment industry and strived for by a lot of people.  And I also think that it is a shame the these people have run away with the Bronx, so it is thought of by a lot of people as being the “ghetto” borough of New York.  

Up until about the 1950’s, the Bronx was where the affluent people went to live to escape the dirty, crime-ridden tenements of Manhattan.  The Grand Concourse was actually designed in the late 1800’s to mimic the Champs Elysées of Paris, France, and its greatest feature was the art-deco styled apartment buildings that flanked each side.  New York City (Manhattan) itself enjoyed the reputation of being the most dangerous large city in America.  Do you remember the reputation of Bed-Stuy up until a few years ago?  In the 1970’s that  neighborhood was immortalized for having the most outbreaks of violence in the streets, and the highest amount of destruction and crime related to the city-wide blackout in 1979.  I also seem to remember that in the larger blackout that affected the whole northeastern part of the country, that the first incident of looting occurred in Brooklyn.

Why then, do when asked by a Brooklynite where I live, do they suddenly get a funny look when I answer, “the Bronx”?  Even worse, if the person asking the question is from an area with a large Italian population, they suddenly assume that I am fit due to all the running home right from the train station to avoid pickpocketers and potential rapists, and that I am very limber from having to hit the floor multiple times a day to duck the bullets from passing drive-by’s.

I’m really interested in hearing some thoughts and ideas.  Is there a way that we can make the Bronx less “ghetto”, or less infamous for being “ghetto?”