Who Has The Sharpest Pencil?

It’s been an extremely busy and productive week; good thing too, next week is when I submit to the surgeons who will be removing my gall bladder along with a small chunk of my liver that had some kind of “suspect tumor”. I’m not the sharpest pencil in the pencil box, never tried to pass myself off as such; but I’m smart enough to have been setting aside a portion of my income for a rainy day, that looks to be next Friday morning.

I read a couple of articles this afternoon, pretty much unrelated. One was by Lemuel Calhoon over at Hillbilly White Trash which he called,
“I’ve always known, but was taught not to brag”. He provides the score he posted to a test along with a link where you may participate.



If I’d scored more I’d have been just as pleased; if I’d scored lower I’d have blamed it on my finger hitting the wrong button and tossed this part of my article in the trash. Here’s the comment I left over on his article:

"My mother used to say to me, 'Elwood' -- she always called me Elwood -- 'Elwood, in this world you must be oh-so clever, or oh-so pleasant.' For years I was clever. I'd recommend pleasant -- and you may quote me." --as Elwood P. Dowd in HARVEY.

The other article I wanted to bring up was over at the Liberty Papers,
“The reality of predatory lending” “The reality of predatory lending”, by Doug Manticonis where he delves into the world of mortgage finance practices. The debate continues on where to draw the line of risk in regard to long term debt, who qualifies and why things are the way they are, worth the effort to read.

I’ll return to the quote from HARVEY and explain the beauty of being pleasant. There will always be someone out there who is just a hair quicker, a tad smarter or willing to sacrifice a piece of character in order to advance a particular agenda; but wouldn’t it be a nicer world if, while being quicker, smarter or strong willed we also put forth our very best efforts to be pleasant? Maybe there is something rock solid in the wisdom gained from a man who spent his afternoons “spiffed” with a six foot tall rabbit.