"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young." "The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style." Fred Astaire, movie star whose birthday is today.

Today I'm going to the CD1 assembly/ convention here in Denver. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. Did you go to your caucus February 5? Do you think some of the new people who've been drawn in to the caucus this year will become new leaders for us?

On this day in 1955 - Sam and Friends debuts on a local U.S. television channel, marking the first television appearance of both Jim Henson and what would become Kermit the Frog and the Muppets.

When I was director of marketing for the Denver Symphony I was amazed when I took Henson to dinner at a cafe on the 16th street mall. Young people kept coming over to our table, awstruck by seeing in person they had grown up watching on TV.

“Marxism is the opiate of the intellectuals.” Edmund Wilson whose birthday is today (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972), The New Yorker Magazine has said his “mission (was) to deprovincialize American culture… Wilson hated American chauvinism and gentility, and everything he associated with them—prudery, pedantry, commercialism, and militarism. That hatred is the starch in his prose.”
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"Our conscious, deliberate systems will never have total control, and our memories will never be perfect, but as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, recognition is the first step. If we come to recognize our limitations, and how they evolved, we just might be able to outwit our inner kluge." Gary Marcus, a professor of psychology at New York University, who is the author of "Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind." In my opinion, this book is an example of a kluge. It's a clumsy solution to the problem of assuming there is no intellegent designer or creator; our best thinking got us here.
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Thanks Mom! And thanks Pop, where ever you are. Today's also my birthday. (May 8, 1947) I'm celebrating by attending the Denver Socrates Cafe, 7 p.m., Trinity Church, 19th & Broadway. Can you join us? (No presents, please, except perhaps that you volunteer to share your experience with us one Friday afternoon at the Denver IDEA Cafe in the next few months. If you can't be with us tonight, send me a email at JohnSWren@aol.com with "Happy Birthday, IDEA Cafe" and I'll get back to you to set a date.)
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How do you like the video I've just posted (top left on this page) of last Sunday's first ever Denver Speakers Corner. Another birthday present request, RSVP now for our next meeting, and then send out a few invitations to your friends who might be interested, OK? Meetup.com makes it easy to send out invitations, if you have any problems let me know and I'll help you. Tomorrow.

"The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind." Sigmund Freud who was born today (1856 – September 23, 1939). Freud was a Czech Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression.

It's interesting what an important role dreams and day-dreams play in the bible, from Adam & Eve to Mary & Joseph. Why do most of us pay so little attention to our dreams each day?

What the age needs is not a genius - it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening. And therefore someday, not only my writings but my whole life, all the intriguing mystery of the machine will be studied and studied. I never forget how God helps me and it is therefore my last wish that everything may be to his honour.

Søren Kierkegaard, who was born today (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) He was a prolific 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian. Kierkegaard strongly criticized both the dominant philosophy of his time, and what he saw as the empty formalities of the church. Much of his work deals with religious problems such as faith in God, the institution of the Christian Church, Christian ethics and theology, and the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices.

Be ashamed to die until you’ve won some victory for humanity. Horace Mann, (1796-1859). His victories? Founder of K12 public education in the US and Antiock College. His birthday is today.

Cinco de Mayo celebration today at Denver Civic Center Park. At 4 p.m., I’ll be at the North Pavillion, just across Speer Blvd. from the Denver Newspaper Agency building, for the 1st Denver Speakers Corner. Hope you’ll join us!

The Denver Post calls for elimination of term limits in today’s paper. This is a bad idea right now, maybe later. Here’s my comment that I posted just now:

I was against term limits, seems to me voters should decide who represents them. Problem is, voters don't really get to choose right now. But we could, if we organized.

Colorado law gives us a mechanism for banding together to get rid of bad representatives and party leadership with the potentially wonderful Colorado Caucus, the precinct-assembly system for nominating to the primary ballot. Let's eliminate term limits if and when legislators fund a project to strengthen the Colorado Caucus as they have in Iowa. Did you attend last February 5? Will you in 2010? Why or why not?

I'll tell you more, and you can tell us what you think about the Colorado Caucus or anything else, this afternoon (Sun, May 4) at the 1st meeting of Denver Speakers Corner, North Pavillion (right across Speer Blvd from the Denver Newspaper Agency, just South of the Blackberry Exhibit), Denver Civic Center Park. Tell us what you think, or just listen, at 4 p.m. More info and optional RSVP at special Abe Lincoln exhibit at the Colorado Historical Museum, today's the last day! Park once, see it all!

Hope you'll join us this afternoon!