How long is too long?

Today is leap day, an extra day on the calendar that is added to the end of February every four years to adjust for the extra quarter day each year that the earth takes to orbit the sun.

Cartoonist Al Capp, creator of Lil Abner, honored the day by creating Sadie Hawkins Day. It was the one day every four years when a chase was arranged for the otherwise hopeless and uncourted spinsters of Dogpatch to chase all the town's available bachelors. While the guys were given a head start, feminine desperation and stamina seemed to trump masculine speed and agility. Any captured bachelor dragged across the finish line before sunset had to marry the woman who dragged him there.

If leap day didn't exist this year, we could have skipped over today and gone directly to tomorrow. We would have missed another winter storm, I would not have had the opportunity to have an early morning root canal, and the bachelors of Dogpatch would still be free. It's not that the day was too long, we just didn't need it this year.

Pause and reflect.

Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist, Bill Watterson, once said, “Do you ever wonder if the guy in the puddle is real and you are just a reflection?”

Reflections are powerful. They are often a reference point for thinking about our future. You see, when we wonder about our future we often reflect on our past. Families, jobs, vacations, significant events, tragedies and triumphs, we seem to remember them all when we reflect.

Sometimes we like to be alone when we reflect and other times we like to share our reflections with someone. For some people, reflections are therapeutic and for some, not so much.

Reflections make us leave where we are and go to some other place, in some other time. We wonder whatever happened to the people and places in our reflections. We wonder about past decisions we have made regarding our lives, and perhaps, make better choices about our future.

So what do you see when you pause and reflect? Do you see yourself in a different place and a different time, or do you wonder if the person in the window is real and you’re just a reflection?

My Starbucks culture

It's no secret that I am a Starbucks groupie, but I'm really glad I narrowed my choice of favorite brew and blended specialty, or "foo," drinks early. Now, it seems their store menu boards offer more options than a Chinese restaurant, and if that's not enough, you can make up your own.

As for me, I can say, "grande mocha, extra hot, whole milk, whipped cream, double cup, please," faster than a disclaimer voice in a fifteen second pharmaceutical TV spot. In fact, I can even walk into to our local Starbucks in the afternoon and hold up one or two fingers and they know I want either one regular, or a regular and a decaf. I guess you can tell by the picture who doesn't drink decaf.

Yes, Starbucks has become my international "Cheers." You know, the place where everyone knows your name. I even have a gold card that is like a frequent buyer's card, and an iPhone app. The card entitles me to a free specialty drink after earning a certain number of gold stars. For what it's worth, I have probably earned more gold stars than frequent flier miles in the past year. The app figures out where I am, and then tells me where the nearest stores are. There are literally hundreds in New York City catering primarily to the A-type gulp and run crowd. I even found five of the seven Starbucks located in the Hong Kong airport while passing the time during a flight layover once.

Perhaps it's time for some therapy. No, wait, I think I'll get another venti, bold, black coffee - then therapy. It's my culture.

Super Bowl, are you ready?

Okay, so what records will be broken during tonight's Super Bowl. Typically, 111 million or more American viewers will consume 1.25 billion chicken wings, 325 million gallons of beer, 71.4 million pounds of avocados in their Guacamole dip, 13.2 million pounds of pretzels, 45.8 million pounds of potato chips and the top three pizza retailers in the country are expecting to sell 4.5 million pizzas during the game. Who knows how many more will be sold by smaller chains and local family pizza shops. The amount of food consumed on Super Bowl Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving.

Is it any wonder that more than seven million people call into work sick on the morning after?

Enjoy the game and Go Pats!

Trash or treasure?

Has anyone ever said to you, "Honey, please take out the trash?" And so you did, but then what?

On average, American consumers "take out" about 250 million tons of trash each year. Some goes to landfills, some to incinerators and waste-burning manufacturing plants, and some to recycling centers, only to delay the inevitable when it will one day become trash again. Sure, I pick up a few choice treasures at our local recycling center occasionally, but I have to admit, I take a lot of it back a few weeks later after I have learned why someone "trashed" it the first time.

As I continue to focus on some of the environmental tragedies of inner-city culture, I was stunned to see a man with a leaf blower actually blowing the trash off the sidewalk in front of his store and out from underneath his overused BMW. Just like fall leaves, he was blowing discarded papers, cups, newspapers, and plastic bottles back into the street, or onto his neighbor's property. I guess it was his perspective on recycling.

We recycle and process trash as the environmentally prudent thing to do, while people in many third world nations recycle and process trash for survival. For some, municipal dumps are a source of food, building materials, cooking fuel, and even clothing. I just wonder how many treasures someone from the third world could find in these carefully packed bags of "All American Waste."