Richard Pryor, the comedy legend, died Saturday morning from a heart attack. He was 65.

Pryor had his troubles, to be sure, but he also posessed a comic genius few can ever match. So many comedians owe their careers to him. His comic observations of the world around us helped bridge the divides across racial and ethnic lines. Pryor laid it all out there. He showed us things we were otherwise too afraid to see: the prejudice in America being one. (Two others are “The Toy” and “Superman III“, but I digress).

Its safe to say that there will never be another Richard Pryor. Thanks for the laughs, Richard.

Today is the birthday of my lovely wife, Kelly. Happy birthday, sweetie!

Rasslin’ legend Ric Flair has been accused of road rage last week, allegedly grabbing a Charlotte man by the throat for driving too slowly. Check out Nature Boy’s mugshot over at the Gun.

If only Flair had hollered his patented “whooooo! whoooooo!” the driver would have pulled over and none of this would have happened.

This will be me in a few years.

One of the songs in my Christmas music colection is The Royal Guardsmen’s Christmas Bells. This song about Snoopy and The Red Baron toasting each other on Christmas made me think of the real-life Christmas Truce of World War I. For a few days in December 1914, thousands of soldiers on either side put down their weapons, shook hands, sang songs, and shared cigarettes and brandy.

The last known survivor of the 1914 Christmas Truce has passed away. Alfred Anderson died in his sleep this morning. He was 109.

Airports provide a wonderful place to people-watch and I took full advantage during my recent trip. One can learn important lessons when “alone in a crowd.”

As I waited to board my flight, I watched a line of passengers walk out of the jetway and into the terminal. Due to the setup of the waiting area, it was not entirely clear what to do once you entered the terminal – do you go left or right? As long as there was someone ahead choosing a direction, those behind would follow – often without even looking up. As soon as that stream of people was interrupted, however, the disembarking travelers were on their own, figuring out for themselves which way to go.

As I watched, my immediate thought was that the people following without looking were doing things right. After all, they weren’t wasting time, right? As I considered it, though, I realized that the people looking up were the real winners.

What I was seeing was a snapshot of society. How many people shuffle through their lives without ever looking up, just following in the footsteps of those before them? Those people may never know what other paths are available to them. Those not blindly following could explore which path they chose to take, their possiblities far exceeding those of the others. Looking up now and then seems like a wise move.

So, put me in the “explorer” camp. I may not be the first to the finish, but who cares? Life isn’t a destination.

I want to make sure I don’t miss anything.

Rented a car for my recent business trip. The rental car agency didn’t have the compact I requested, so I got saddled with a minivan. It was a Dodge Grand Caravan, and was actually nicer than I expected. Even got impressive gas mileage (24 MPG).

I was on my way to north Jersey when I happened to push a mysterious “mode” button on the radio. It was Sirius satellite radio! I parked the tuner on the First Wave channel and rocked out as I drove.

I’m still trying to convince myself that the $12.99 monthly fee is worth it. I do know that satellite radio may be the best thing to happen to radio in a long, long while.

Kudos to Sirius. It is clever marketing to put your service in rental cars. You may have just picked up another customer!

Travis spent close to two hours screaming his lungs out early this morning. We have no clue why. We hope he’ll get over it and learn to sleep again.

I wound up staying up late to watch Black Hawk Down. Then the Boy kicks in an hour later. After Kelly and I trade turns, I finally settle him at 3 AM. Whoa. Kelly was a real sweetie, though, and let me sleep in until 9 today! It was heavenly! I can’t remember when I did that before.

Something about the day, or the late wakeup, or something, got me into a creative mood today. I felt compelled to play music and sing today. As I was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast, I made up and sang a little song about Travis. Afterward, I strolled around the house playing it for everyone.

It just seemed so natural to do, like I was in a zone. Right then, I seriously considered dropping all of the little side projects I have and making music my only hobby. Yet, there is so much more that I can do.

While I was in this interesting state of mind, I looked out the window and felt that familiar certainty that I can achieve anything in this world that I want to achieve. It was a moment when all the can’ts and won’ts and impossibilities fade away, the excuses for not getting what I want.

Then the window slammed shut again as I once again faced the question, “well, what do I really want to do?”

That one stumps me every time.

A Brigham Young University physics professor has analyzed the mysterious collapse of the World Trade Center buildings and concluded that the most likely explantion is controlled demolition.

In his paper, professor Stephen E. Jones writes:

A New York Times article entitled “Engineers are baffled over the collapse of 7 WTC; Steel members have been partly evaporated,� provides relevant data.

Experts said no building like it [WTC7], a modern, steel-reinforced high-rise, had ever collapsed because of an uncontrolled fire. (Glanz, 2001; emphasis added.)

That’s correct – no such steel-beam building had ever before (or since) completely collapsed due to fires! However, such complete, symmetrical collapses have indeed occurred many times before — all of them due to pre-positioned explosives in a procedure called “implosionâ€? or controlled demolition. What a surprise, then, for such an occurrence in downtown Manhattan— three skyscrapers completely collapsed on the same day, September 11, 2001.

Engineers have been trying to figure out exactly what happened and whether they should be worried about other buildings like it around the country… Most of the other buildings in the [area] stood despite suffering damage of all kinds, including fire… ‘Fire and the structural damage …would not explain steel members in the debris pile that appear to have been partly evaporated’, Dr. [Jonathan] Barnett said. (Glanz, 2001; emphasis added.)

The observed “partly evaporated� steel members is particularly upsetting to the official theory, since fires involving paper, office materials, even diesel fuel, cannot generate temperatures anywhere near the 5,000+ oF needed to “evaporate� steel. However, thermite, RDX and other commonly-used explosives can readily slice through steel (thus cutting the support columns simultaneously in an explosive demolition) and reach the required temperatures. (It is possible that some other chemical reactions were involved which might proceed at lesser temperatures.) This mystery needs to be explored – but is not mentioned in the “official� 9-11 Commission or NIST reports.

Evaporated steel. Hmm.

Fortunately, the U.S. Government never lies. Now go back to your shopping.