A NOTE TO my mom, and to my wife, and to moms everywhere: Thanks!
Without you, what would this world amount to? Nothing at all: old rocks, smoking craters, prehistoric lizards nesting in heaps of unwashed laundry. We owe you more than just our lives — we owe you the fact that we can enjoy them. …
SO HOW WILL you treat your mom? Maybe some ice cream: the El Camino Youth Symphony, which features plenty of Mountain View talent, is presenting its Ice Cream Social Concert this Saturday, including the trademark-able All-You-Can-Eat Ice Cream Sundae Bar. That’s Saturday, May 13, 6:15 p.m. at Cubberley Auditorium, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. Tickets are $10 and benefit the symphony’s music education program. For information call (650) 327-2611 or visit www.ecys.org. The least you could do is get your mom some ice cream. …
LAST CHANCE to remind you of the upcoming Market Place 2006, at the Computer History Museum, this Wednesday, May 17, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Huge, this event, for anybody in this town doing business in any way. To sweeten the deal, Google’s Minnie Ingersoll will deliver the keynote address at 4 p.m. (Ask her how the free WiFi is coming along.) The museum is located at 1401 Shoreline Dr. …
Speaking of business, how about that city-wide garage sale this Saturday. That is some serious, old-fashioned business, right in your front yard (with a community yard sale at Rengstorff Park). Visit the city’s Web site, or see pages 16-17 of this paper, or call (650) 903-6331 for more details. Perhaps your mom is the sort who likes weird/unique gifts? …
FINALLY, A NOTE of finality. While home last weekend to attend the funeral of my great-uncle Mike, I learned that John Kenneth Galbraith had also died only a few days previous.
Like Mike Kokonas (who died at age 90), Galbraith (who died at age 97) lived a long and storied life. His thinking and writings continue to resonate; I happened to be reading “The Good Society” when he died, and I highly recommend this little tract to anybody interested in how this country ought to be run. Now seems like a good time to quote from it:
All democracies live in fear of the influence of the ignorant. In the United States … it is known that a certain percentage of the population is available to support virtually any form of political and social disaster. It is education and education almost alone that keeps this minority to a manageable number.
Don Frances is editor of the Mountain View Voice. He can be reached at dfrances@mv-voice.com
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