product names

The infinite monkey theorem seems to apply to the drug (and other) company product names I see advertised on television. There is a problem though. Without adding additional letters to the alphabet, every combination of letters will be exhausted. There are just so many ways to arrange the letters to form new names for inane drugs. It's a finite universe of choices. Possibly, using various numbers sprinkled willy-hilly might be the answer to the looming problem. That would allow the various company names and products to continue forever. Okay! Problem solved!

Disappointing Eclipse

When I was a young lad, say around eight or nine years of age, I participated in the Rock Ridge Lake (in Denville) swim team. At the onset of summer, all the swimmers were advised to swim twenty-five laps a day in the laned areas between two rafts. As such, every day (weather permitting) I swam my laps. I noticed many other members of the team did not...but my job was to swim my own laps. I did.

Near the end of summer there was a gala event held at the clubhouse. My mother even attended! Each swim club member was called to the front of the room and given a team jacket. It was a wonderful green, zippered jacket with the Rock Ridge logo emblazened on it. There were jackets for the Senior swimmers, the Junior swimmers and also the Junior-Juniors (one of which I was at the time).

Ah...the glory of it all!

My name was not called. I was so disappointed...and probably cried at not receiving a jacket. My mother enquired as to my omission and was told the jackets were only given to members of the club who swam their laps. "I did!" I wailed. "I swam every day and some of those kids really didn't!"

So...it seems I was supposed to tell the lifeguard or coach every day when I completed my laps. I was never told to tell anyone anything! I just swam my laps but there was no record of my efforts.

Such was the disappointment of today's solar eclipse. I had made a viewing box and was ready for the darkness. The internet said there would a 92% coverage of the sun...Mars and many stars would be visible in the daytime! How exciting! The darkening crept in to the extent that it felt like evening. I was certain that night was coming in the morning! Then, I received a phone call from my son. "That's it!" he said. And...that WAS it. No stars. No Mars. No blackness of night. Gradually, the day brightened and all was normal again.

I threw the eclipse-viewing box in the trash and stood...dumbfounded and disappointed. Just like when I didn't receive my Junnior-Junior club jacket.

No eclipse (just a phony excuse for one)...and no jacket.