Maybe it’s the way I was raised, but I find that I get mad about all the wrong things. For example, when I hear a news report about some serial killer who buried 43 victims in an underground bunker that he constructed beneath his shed, my first reaction is Wow. He built an underground bunker under a shed! I find myself admiring his industriousness and passion in the pursuit of his dreams. That’s clearly wrong.
Then today I read in the November 2005 Reader’s Digest about Marine engineer Richard James who invented the Slinky in 1943 after a tension spring from a meter used to test battleship horsepower fell off his desk and “walked” end-over-end. I hate that guy. I don’t know the full story (that’s why they call it the Reader’s Digest) but it sure seems like he was rewarded for being clumsy. I can’t respect that.
I’ve met several people who made fortunes by founding and then selling dotcom companies that soon went out of business. They aren’t just rich – they’re crazy rich. And all of their heirs will be crazy rich too, until they drive their Ferraris over embankments and restore my faith in Karma.
Well, now that that rant is over, I can get back to reading Laughter, the Best Medicine, and see how many people got paid $300 for submitting a funny story they read in the Dilbert Newsletter and claimed it happened to them.