What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0006

251.  Other beings can, and do, co-create the exterior circumstances and events of the life you live in common, but the one thing that no one else can do is cause you to have an experience of anything you do not choose to experience;

252.  Everyone shops at Wal-Mart . . . even women with moustaches and overly sensitive Frenchmen;

253.  High definition television is awesome;

254.  Cooking cabbage stinks;

255.  I don’t think you can truly know someone until you see that person with people they’re totally comfortable around;

256.  “Big Jim’s Bar-B-Que” in Charlottesville has shut its doors for good;

257.  David McCullough (or at least someone who looks and sounds like David McCullough) has toured the Lawn at the University of Virginia;

258.  Research shows that social liars are more popular than those who continually tell the truth, even though we know the social liar is lying to us;

259.  Studies have shown that women are better liars than men;

260.  A woman’s outer genital lips are proportionately the same thickness to her facial lips;

261.  Be suspicious of so-called “freshly squeezed” lemonade at music festivals;

262.  People can be so narrow-minded that they think that whatever they do is the most important thing in the world and that everyone should be familiar with and care about it . . . be it music, politics, sports, etc.;

263.  I can say that I’ve drunk at a bar with Chevelle and Finger Eleven;

264.  It’s probably not the best place to make small talk (with James Black, the lead guitarist from Finger Eleven) when you’re standing in line waiting for the restroom;

265.  Fried cheesecake tastes a lot like cheese danish . . . just crispier;

266.  Gheorghe Muresan is really tall;

267.  If you go to the National Memorial Day Concert held on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, pack dinner;

268.  No other country spends as large a share of its economy on health care as the United States. . . . Roughly every sixth dollar in the American economy was spent on health care in 2007.  Our government has projected that by 2015 we will be devoting every fifth dollar to health care.  In most modern countries health care accounts for less than one-tenth of their economies;

269.  The uniquely American system of health-care-as-a-business results in some poor countries having better health outcomes than the United States.  America ranked thirty-sixth among nations in its rate of infant mortality in 2006.  The Central Intelligence Agency estimated American infant mortality at 643 deaths per 100,000 live births, slightly worse than Cuba at 622;

270.  “Opiate for the Masses” looks and acts like they could be from “Rock Band;”

271.  Richard Patrick (the lead singer of “Filter”) is starting to show his age;

272.  Americans spend nearly 6 times the average of what 13 other modern countries do on health care, according to a study conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute in 2007.  The McKinsey study shows that 86 percent of this excess cost is in the part of American health care run as a business instead of a public service;

273.  Americans are less healthy even though we spend far more. . . . McKinsey compared 124 countries.  It found that our system’s inefficiencies and waste costs us an extra half trillion dollars a year.  This excess cost works out to $1.3 billion every day.  The study concluded that $75 billion of this was due solely to the fact that these other countries had public health systems.  Despite what we are spending, we live shorter lives than the Canadians and the Britons;

274.  You wouldn’t think mango and tandoori chicken on pizza would be good, but it is;

275.  Robbie likes country music;

276.  Societies in which the few deepen their pockets while the many see theirs grow lighter are not stable. . . . And when the growing income gap of America is compared to other countries, we look most like three nations whose societies most Americans would not find appealing-Brazil, Mexico, and Russia;

277.  A young life is a terrible thing to waste.  Most modern nations try to limit childhood poverty for reasons both moral and practical.  Better than one in six American children live in poverty, about 12.3 million children in 2005, the Census Bureau calculated.  Compared to other modern nations, many of them far less rich, the United States does poorly by its children.  In terms of material well-being, the United Nations ranked the United States seventeenth on a list of 20 modern countries, right below Portugal;

278.  If you enjoy fine dining, sign up for the Tastings Journal, Washington, D.C. (TastingsJournal.com).  Every month, they offer five-course, prix fixe dinners at upscale, D.C. area restaurants;

279.  B. Smith’s restaurant in Union Station serves tasty, southern-inspired cuisine;

280.  Fountains (at night) make good urinals;

281.  People enter and leave our lives on a daily basis.  Most people come and go in a blink of the eye . . . passing us on the street, never to be seen or heard from again.  Of the ones that stay with us longer, most of them really don’t affect our lives one way or the other.  It’s rare to meet someone who changes our lives in a positive and meaningful way;

282.  I think most people aren’t happy with their lives or with themselves (to a certain degree) and the only thing they do about it is complain or blame others for their situation. . . . Plain and simple, it’s just easier to do nothing, be negative and play the victim.  It’s so much harder to look in the (proverbial) mirror and work on yourself.  I think it’s rare to meet someone who is actually willing to do the hard work and take a proactive approach to try and change his/her life;

283.  Under the Virginia Code, an expired driver's license is not an acceptable form of identification to buy alcohol;

284.  Staring someone down when you’ve been drinking could get you into a fight;

285.  A potato’s skin doesn’t break down easily in digestion;

286.  The Method Daily Granite Spray (with the Method Daily Granite Microfiber Cloth) cleans stone surfaces really well;

287.  A "Madras" is a screwdriver adulterated with cranberry juice (or a vodka and cranberry adulterated with orange juice, whichever you prefer);

288.  As we go through life, I think we should strive to improve each and every day . . . to learn from our mistakes and to grow . . . to better ourselves little by little;

289.  Robbie does look like Soleil Moon Frye (the actress, who played Penelope “Punky” Brewster);

290.  If your sink isn’t big enough to easily cut a watermelon, try the tub, . . . but be careful not to nick it when carving;

291.  The Waterfront Festival (WaterfrontFestival.org) is in June (with all of the proceeds going to support the Alexandria Chapter of the American Red Cross);

292.  If you want to pour beer without a lot of “head,” you need to pull open the tap all the way;

293.  If you want to remove mineral buildup from water, use distilled, white vinegar;

294.  Apparently, . . . “drum machines have no soul;”

295.  There’s something seriously wrong with Eugene Hütz (the lead singer of “Gogol Bordello”);

296.  Alice Glass (the lead singer of “Crystal Castles”) is a train wreck waiting to happen;

297.  There’s truth to the “Philly” stereotype;

298.  At the Vienna Metrorail station, cops don’t like it when you blow through “Stop” signs;

299.  Play stupid . . . you might get out of a ticket;

300.  A decision to cut taxes on any group is also a decision to help them prosper either now or later.  A decision to raise taxes on any group is a decision to leave them with less to get by on now and less to save for the future;