Jack’s Winning Words 4/28/15
“A bad attitude is like a flat tire; you can’t go anywhere until you change it.”  (Guideposts)  Have you noticed that when you smile at someone, they will smile back at you?  Leaning on the horn doesn’t usually get a smile in return.  I like the song: “Keep on the sunny side of life...It will help you every day, it will brighten all the way, if you keep on the sunny side of life.”  Try the “smile test” today and see if it works.   Most people don’t pick a sourpuss for a friend.  ;-)  Jack

FROM TRIHARDER:  ... or, you can keep on driving on that flat tire and suffer the rough ride. ====JACK:  Those who are with that "driver" must suffer along with him/her.====TRIHARDER:
Yes, Jack. I've watched it happen.

FROM TARMART REV:  A sad response to such a well thought of post this morning....but lock one's wife and dog in a car trunk for 30 minutes and see whose the most excited to see you when you open it?!?!====JACK:  If it were the wife and the cat, you'd have two sour pusses.

FROM RI IN BOSTON:  We often get some sound advice in a simple analogy like the flat tire example.  Good WW to keep in mind.  I liked finding "sourpuss" in your comments...it's a word that doesn't come up much anymore, regardless that it's so descriptive.  As a kid, when I heard that, it annoyed me enough to change my attitude.====JACK:   I like some of the synonyms, too:  "bellyacher, complainer, crab, crank, croaker, crosspatch, curmudgeon, fusser, griper, grouser, growler, grumbler, grump, murmurer, mutterer, grouch, whiner."====RI:  After all these years have you changed your attitude about eggplant?  If you haven't, and you tasted Hiroko's version, you might reconsider.====JACK:  I see that you've read my comment to St. Paul about eggplant.  The Biblical St. Paul has something to say about eating food when you have questions about it (1 Corinthians 8).  If I were a guest in your home, I would gladly eat the eggplant and be ready to compliment the one who cooked it. 

FROM ST. PAUL IN ST. PAUL:  some folks look like they were weaned on a dill pickle that had been dipped in lemon juice!====JACK:  I used to look like that when my mother served fried eggplant for supper.====ST. PAUL:  we used to grow eggplant in our garden in St. Louis (Ferguson was my home town).  I never liked it either!====JACK:  Aren't words interesting....how the speaking of them can bring images to mind?  Like...eggplant...Ferguson.

FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE:  One of the chapters in my book is, "Life is Reciprocity."  Have you read U Line, by George Barna? Very revealing facts by this world-class pollster.====JACK:  Your book is before me now.  I see that I have underlined your reference to the Des Moines Reciprocal Club.  Did you belong to that group?  In reference to Barna...A friend regularly sends me their reports.  They are a respected polling group, and their information is used by our nation church body.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  My twin sis and I used to start off one of our programs with the song "WITH A HEY, AND A HI, AND A HO-HO-HO! (With a Hey, and a Hi, and a Ho-ho-ho-, you start of the day with a glo-ho-ho; Sing all the way as away you go, with a Hey, and a Hi and a Ho-ho-ho! Up go the blinds, and you know-ho-ho, it ain't gonna rain any mo-ho-ho, Sun's gonna shine cuz you made it so, with a Hey and a Hi and a ho-ho-ho.  While you buy the paper hum a little happy little hum; Cut a little caper, singing, "happiness here I come!"  With a Hey, and a Hi and a ho-h-ho- you smile from your head to your toe-ho-ho; wrap up your cares and away you go, with a Hey, and a Hi, a Hey and a Hi, a Hey and a Hiiii, and a Ho-Ho-Ho!   Fun to sing, and always got an upbeat response! ====JACK:  Did that song ever get recorded.  It sounds like a winner...like something that would be used on Don McNeill's Breakfast Club.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Always be an optimist.====JACK:  While I was throwing out "stuff" this week, I came across my 1972 Appointment Book.  That was the year I helped form the Optimist Club in our community, and I've been a member ever since.

FROM CHESTER THE GOOD:  We're all in our places with bright, shiny faces.====JACK:  My 6th Grade teacher made going to school a fun experience.