Preferences of a Curmudgeon

Sometimes minor. Sometimes major.

As time goes by and curmudgeon status has been achieved, I have developed a preference for:

• Libraries with large numbers of books and very few computers.

• Libraries that are called “libraries” and not “learning centers.”

• Churches that are predominantly churches, not social justice agencies.

• A military designed to win wars.

• Contracts (and instruction manuals) that the average person can understand.

• Discovering new and great writers.

• Books with a plot.

• Food that is not an ordeal.

• Window seats.

• Leather briefcases.

• Elmore Leonard novels.

• Doctors who don't rush to prescribe the latest pill.

• Saying no.

• Architecture that lifts the spirits.

• Marriage.

• University departments that are intellectually diverse and not ideological seminaries.

• Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, and Jackson Lamb.

• Budgets that balance.

• Hiring the best qualified person.

• Laws passed by legislatures, not cooked up by courts and administrative agencies.

• Better pay for excellent teachers and termination for the poor ones.

• A daily sense of gratitude.

• Noble dogs.

• Beautiful horses.

• London.

• Courtesy.

• See’s chocolates.

• Tulips.

• Hitchcock films.

• Great coffee.

• A sizable zone of indifference.

• Brave people.

• People who do what they say they will do.

• People who go the extra mile.

• Shakespeare and Dickens.

• Banks with human tellers.

• Books on real paper.

• Art museums.

• Memorizing poetry.

• Cursive.

• Fountain pens.

• Left-turn arrows.

• Washington and Lincoln.

• Politicians who don’t get rich from public service.

• Compiling family history.

• Silence in movie theaters.

• Being out of touch.

• Crossword puzzles.

• Homemade chocolate chip cookies.

• Over-tipping.

• Journalists who just report the news.

• Black-and-white photographs.

• People working in offices.

• Colored lights at Christmas.

• Thank-you notes.

• Bay Rum cologne.

• Doing the right thing instead of trying to convince others that I’m right.

• Lawyers who tell clients when they don't have a case.

• Communities where you know people via personal contact and not simply online.

• People who've overcome setbacks.

• Being able to call an organization and get assistance from a real person.

• Saturday nights without phone calls.

• The desert after a rain.

• Baseball games on the radio.

• Spencer Tracy films.

• Ecco shoes.

• A statute of limitations on dumb things I said and did 40 years ago.

• Button-down collars.

• The Oxford comma.

• Flip charts.

• C. S. Lewis.

• Swiss Army knives.

• Birdwatching.

• Kids playing games outside.

• Adults dressing like adults.

• Experience over education.

• Slow reading.

• Ancient Rome.