Gratitude is more than an attitude of mind
Is is not mere emotional mood
It is a supremely powerful spiritual practice
Which becomes the habitual state of a loving heart.

What we love is what we give ourselves to
And what we give ourselves to is what we become

When the mind is disturbed by negative thoughts
Contemplation of the opposite is the remedy

Music attracts the angels in the universe -Bob Dylan

A smile is the shortest distance between two people -Victor Borge

Resolve yourself to keep happy, and your joy
shall form an invincible host against difficulty

Music can be regarded as excited speech, imitations of the sounds of nature, an abstract set of symbols, a baring of emotions, an illustration of interpersonal relationships,
an intellectual games, a device for inducing reverie, a mating call,
a series of dramatic events, an articulation of time and/or space,
an athletic contest...a jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician,
mathematician,athlete,entertainer,poet,singer,dancer,educator,student,
comedian,artist,seducer..and all around good fellow.

--A Journal of Jazz 1975-80 Whitney Balliet

Who's working anyway?
The population of this country is 300 million.
160 million are retired.
That leaves 140 million to do the work.
There are 85 million in school.
Which leaves 55 million to do the work.
Of this there are 35 million employed by the federal government.
Leaving 20 million to do the work.
2.8 million are in the armed forces preoocupied with killing Osama Bin-Laden.
Which leaves 17.2 million to do the work.
Take from that total the 15.8 million people who work for state and city governments.
That leaves 1.4 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 1888,000 people in hospitals.
Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.
Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me.
And there you are,
sitting on your butt,
at your computer reading jokes.
Nice. Real nice.

This mirth report is dedicated to
the memory of my beloved brother Mark ,
departed six years ago on november 21,2003.