Our latest jigsaw nemesis is complete and we have the photos to prove it. We completed it in 15 days compared to the 2 months it took to do the Eiffel Tower. We started a new Ravensburger yesterday and the degree of difficulty compared to Springbok is huge with the former being refreshingly easy compared to the latter.
The inspiration for this blog ——- “The jigsaw puzzle as a metaphor for life” carries through nicely when you consider (I prefer to “ponder”or “puzzle over” ) the degree of difficulty in the objectives we set — along with the choices we make to get there.
Keep the bar low and choose your goals wisely.
Phew! That’s enough deep thinking for one day.
But wait! Here comes more!
The title of this article is a recent quote from Madeline Albright, a former U.S Secretary of State. She was referring to her explanation of the term “multilateralism” during which she said that the American public will not understand the term —– “too many syllables”, she said.
She’s right!
Just Google “Amadeus – too many notes scene” and watch the airhead Royalty guy struggling to critique Mozart’s performance. With sycophantic (suck up) support from his entourage, he comes up with the criticism: “too many notes”.
My own take on the Americans’ lack of tolerance for “too much information”, you may be surprised, is more sympathetic. In a nutshell —- “Too many syllables” —not enough time.
True story! While on vacation in Cancun, my wife and I met a nice couple from our home state of Wisconsin. In the course of casual conversation, I asked the husband what he did for a living. He replied that he had a small sheetrock business. Later on, we decided to share contact information. His last name? Srock(not a typo). True story!
Let’s imagine Jim Srock has been hangingsheetrock all day in the sweltering heat.
He comes home and is greeted by his 2 hyper children, his loving wife who is about to update him with all of the day’s domestic news and the evening’s “to do” list, and he’s probably got a dog who needs attention too.
As he’s being bombarded by all of this exterior stimulation he turns to his wife and says, “I’ll shower later but, right now, I need to go upstairs and read more about “multinationalism”.
This is where I come in —— I’ll dumb it down for all y’all.
I couldn’t get Ms. Albright’s endorsement on this but here’s an example of multilateralism —-
Rusha has a lot of gas and oil. The EU needs a lot of gas and oil to make stuff. Rusha controls the price. The EU does not like the price. Result? They don’t get along at all.
There! Nothing over 2 syllables.
I get to change the names of countries —— I’m a writer.
bobzodyssey.com 
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