Geo’s Media Blog. (Making Movies) 1/22/18. #5 in 2018.

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A few years ago, I got a call from old friend Ermanno Barone (pictured above with me) who wanted me to become involved in his new filmmaking project. He wanted to build some movie studios back in our hometown of Winnipeg because more and more Hollywood filmmakers were looking at Canada to shoot in. Unfortunately, as Ermanno explained it, they only had Toronto and Vancouver now.
He figured Manitoba would be a perfect place to make movies what with its flat prairie look that was also surrounded by lots of lakes. He planned to build a huge soundstage surrounded by smaller buildings that he would lease to those companies who supplied the filmmakers with everything that they needed to make movies. Ermanno’s plan looked so exciting to the city fathers that they sold him some government land which was right across the river from downtown Winnipeg for a dollar.
What Ermanno wanted from me was a little help with the showbiz part and to sit on his board, but unfortunately, before the project even got underway, he suddenly passed away from pancreatic cancer.
However, before Ermanno’s untimely death, I did get to travel back to Winnipeg to meet with him about the project and to also visit the faux western town he’d already built a few miles out of town to shoot westerns in. Along for the ride were fellow board members Wilson Parasiuk and Ed Schreyer.
Willy (pictured right above with me) like Ermanno, is another longtime Transcona friend who also is the brain of our bunch. In fact, Willy is the only Rhodes scholar ever to come out of TCI and before returning to the private sector to build hospitals in places like Dubai, he’d been the Finance Minister of Manitoba.

Ed Schreyer, (pictured above Willy and me) on the other hand, was Canada’s longtime Governor General after being Manitoba’s Premier for a few years. After walking the streets of Ermanno’s town and feeling like we were in the movie, “High Noon,” we all sat down to lunch. There was no doubt who the lightweight was in this crowd, so I planned to stay quiet and learn. However, when I was introduced to Mrs. Schreyer, and she discovered that I used to play for the Jury, she became very excited because she claimed that she had danced to us at many of the community clubs where we’d played. At some point, she asked me what had happened to all those community clubs and the bands that used to play at them. I explained to her that when the drinking age was lowered to eighteen in Manitoba, it brought an end to the community club era because the kids went to bars instead. She immediately turned to her husband and said, “Ed, you killed the music industry in Winnipeg.”

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS

The reason some people would rather text than talk is so they can think about their answers making them appear more intelligent than they are. I wonder why that hasn’t worked on Facebook yet?

73% of Americans would prefer a benevolent dictator ’cause the voting thing just ain’t working out for them; they’d rather stay home and watch TV.
 
How does a person who qualifies for food stamps, afford a thousand dollar iPhone?
 
The longest distance you’ll ever travel is going from how it is, to how you want it to be.
 
When a woman dumps you, it’s not in your best interest to be her friend.
 
The only way to get a raise is to make management afraid that you’re going to leave. Don’t look now but they don’t appear to be nervous. 
 
Getting free money from the government should be just as difficult as it is getting it from other sources. 
 
If considering a move to Canada, you may want to consider this … The far right is just a little left of center. 
 
I guess you’re really f**ked if you’re out of whack, whatever whack is?
 
As in life, the only way to become a good sailor is by sailing the rough seas. 
 
When you live in the past, your future becomes nothing more than a sequel.
 
Women who are treated as sex objects are usually dressed as such.
 
Mysterious women are only exciting if you don’t love them.
 
The only way you can see your future is by imagining it.
 
Just as women aren’t as innocent as they appear to be, men aren’t as dumb as they appear to be.
 
When a woman picks out the man that she wants to be the father of her babies, I wish him luck on his not becoming a father.
 
Doctors are just like car mechanics; there is no way that they are allowing you to leave their office without finding something wrong with you.
 
After just coming off a train ride from LA to Chicago and having ridden trains all over America, my fellow travelers and I all agree that Chicago is where the attitude of the Amtrak employees begins sucking.
 
I think the first lie I ever heard was that we were all created equal. The truth is that some of us are gonna have to work harder than others instead of just whining about it.
 
Fame unveils who we were all along whereas political correctness hides it.
 
With only one original member still in the band and with some ticket prices going for a couple of grand, has got to make the Eagles the most expensive cover band of all time. Hell, even the Guess Who from Winnipeg are outed, and they have two sometimes three originals still in the band. 
 
You can never make enough money to make up for the fact that you despise your job.
 
When the guy who lives next door to you makes as much from welfare as you do working for a living, how long do you suppose it will be until you finally say, “The hell with it?” 
 
The method used to harvest rating data more determines what radio station is #1 than how many people may be listening to a particular radio station does.
 
The good thing about rednecks is that at least most of them have a good work ethic.
 
I wish that I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then about women.
 
Speaking of women, just like with men, a lot of what they know is simply not true.
 
Why must we be for all things that are left, can’t we be for some things that are right?
 
The problem with ideas is that everybody has them.
 
Just because a bunch of accountants paid too much for radio stations and are unable to keep up the mortgage payments, doesn’t change the fact that according to Neilson, 93% of all Americans listen to the radio. What other product can make that claim?
 

Speaking of listeners, the folks spend almost 60% of their radio time listening to the stations they love, 30% with the ones they like and 10% with those they just kinda overhear. The trick is to turn the likes into loves, the people who love you have no more to give.

You may have to win the last battle to win the war.

What causes a blind person to be racist.

I wonder what the Queen thinks of the Netflix series “The Crown?”

So it’s Philly and Boston in Minneapolis on the 4th huh.

Stuff about #Canada’s GovernorGeneral, #Ermanno Barone and #Willy Parasiuk and some #Geo #LifeLiners above. Much more@ GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting is appreciated.

 
 

 

 

 

 

Whores & Cowards (a new geo Blog for the week of Feb 26 /18)

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Not being very political I must admit that I know very little about politics, but like most everyone, I have an opinion. I consider myself a Centrist but both my daughters claim that most of the time I lean right more than left so maybe the way to go is to claim that I’m a little bit right of center. The best thing though about sitting in the middle of it all is that it makes boring politics a hell of a lot more interesting. Also, I don’t care about the parties; I’m about the politicians, so when I vote, I vote for the candidate whom I think is less of a crook.
Being a radio programmer, I’m always interested in what topics produce the biggest ratings and if that turns out to be political talk, the decision on which way to go is a lot easier when you don’t have a party bias. Over the years I’ve noticed that conservative talk produces more ratings than liberal talk does because it seems that both liberals and conservatives will listen to right-wing talk whereas conservatives never listen to liberal talk because they find it silly.
The reason I bring all this up is that it appears to me that there may be a lot of ratings waiting out there for other kinds of talk other than just politics, in fact, I think programming from the dark side rather than the bright side is the way to go. Case in point, when Howard Stern went on air at CHOM in Montreal in September of ’97, his first show had the city in such an uproar it caught the interest of the Canadian parliament. As big as Howard is, I don’t remember hearing that Howard’s name came up in Congress as it did in Parliment in Canada where I’m told that someone on the floor said, “It’s taken over 100 years to get the English French relations to the point it is in Canada, but this Howard Stern fellow destroyed it all in one morning.”
While on the air live in Montreal Howard claimed that the French people were all pecker-heads and that when you spoke French, it turned you into a pussy-assed jackoff. He went on to say that he always thought the French people who lived in France were the biggest scumbags in the world, but now he thought the French people in Montreal were too. At some point, he also claimed that French women were all whores and the men were cowards. When the management at CHOM wanted him to pronounce the call letters as SHOME, he just laughed and said that there was no way he was going to speak any French. From there I hear it even spiraled done further and he only lasted 48 hours in Canada. However, even though I’m a programmer who loves out of the box programming, I’m so glad that I was not the Program Director of that station while all that was going on. However, knowing what I know now about how people just love to listen to negativity, I can only imagine what the ratings would have been had they only left Howard on.

IM ON A ROLL, CAN’T STOP NOW.

Waking up too many mornings to hear about more school shootings, I have to wonder why nothing has changed? If these attacks were being made on members of Congress they’d be burning the midnight oil trying to figure out to get them stopped them and I bet you could count on a lot of new laws being written.

Speaking of cowards, I understand while Cruz was on a rampage shooting everyone in sight in Parkland, Deputy Sheriff Scot Peterson who was armed, was cowering outside afraid to go in because he was nearing retirement and didn’t want to screw it up. My question is, if schools are gun free zones, what the hell was Peterson doing there with a gun?

Speaking of the Peterson, seeing as Democrats and Republicans except for campaign funding are usually on exact opposite sides of every issue, I wonder who’s going to take the cowardly Peterson’s side?

I believe that the tipping point in the Viet Nam war may have occurred at Kent State when the National Guard shot down some students. When those shootings didn’t stop the students from protesting, the government as dumb as they may have been, were smart enough to know that Viet Nam was over.
Now with the latest school shootings in Florida at the Parkland High School, I feel the same kind of movement coming on. If I were the NRA, I would run for the hills and stop wasting money on the politicians who are about fold like tents. Students don’t care about the 2nd amendment; they care about their fellow students who have died for no reason. I believe that the marches have only just begun and unfortunately for our government, their well educated parents only want what they want and put their kids well being ahead of America. March on young-uns!

Mankind’s goal should be to leave a little something of themselves behind that would be useful when they exit the planet.

Speaking of dying Billy Graham is gone at 99, and I would venture to say that he left behind a lot of himself behind.

Hey US & Canada, how do you feel about NHL owners now?

Are we sure that President Trump didn’t pay Canada’s PM, Justine Trudeau, to act up so he could get out of the glare of the spotlight for a few days?

Isn’t it strange how all the money and all the power always ends up in the hands of the few no matter what the political system is? Sometimes all that that changes is who the few are, but more often than not, they remain the same.

The US wins gold! Hey, real men don’t win hockey games with a shootout. Wait a minute, OK I get it now.

Didn’t politically correct become old school about a year ago?
 
The bad thing about President Gerald Ford was that nobody ever said anything bad about him.
 

Just cause I don’t always agree with the left doesn’t make me right.

Why don’t we send food instead of money to the so-called “shit-hole” countries? What’s that you say, “The friends of our corrupt politicians who live in those countries don’t want to steal food, they wanna steal money.”

It’s fairly easy to understand why some legendary stations like KHJ, CKLW KFRC, KCBQ, CHUM, CKY, WRKO, WFIL, KJR, and KLIF had to be dismantled, they were on the wrong part of the dial and couldn’t compete with FM. I wonder what excuses KVIL’s owners used?

So if everything is Trump’s fault now, even the good stuff is his, right?

Does anybody know if Letterman is going to have any guests besides Democrats on his new show?

I would love to see a top 5 list of what Americans presidents have changed the world the most.

Being black doesn’t give you the right to be racist.

I think the only reason we’re not voting online already is that too many of us would be voting and the politicians have no idea how to predict how that would go. Can you spell F-E-A-R?

I only appear to be on the right if the extreme left is involved.

I believe that until we reach the great beyond our job on earth is to enjoy life.

Speaking of the great beyond I wonder what it is you do there every day?

Every great actor not only has a distinctive look but also a distinctive sound. All of them would have been great on the radio.

Much more @ GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Commenting and sharing appreciated.

 

 

Ebony & Ivory (new geo Blog for the week of Feb19/18)

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I’ve always felt that the most popular music on earth was created when the perfect blend of black and white music was put together by the music industry. This magical sound known around the world as pop music is created when a white person attempts to sound black or a black person tries to sing like a white person. In fact, Aretha Franklin used a bunch of white hillbillies on her biggest hits and Ray Charles used nothing but white singers and musicians on his biggest-selling album, Ray Charles sings Country and Western. However, in the movie about Ray’s life they portrayed them as being black so as not to offend but they offended his genius. Hell, even in the early days of the Beatles, they tried to sound like four black girls from Detroit and that attempt resulted in their changing music forever.
For the longest time, I was under the illusion that the musician folks have always been further ahead of the general population when it came to race relations, but that all changed for me the day George Martin died. On that particular day, I happened to be at Duffy’s and was sitting next to a black guy whom I’ve talked about music with before. At some point during our conversation, I said to him, “Hey, Sad news about George Martin Huh?” He surprisingly turned to me and said, “Who’s that?” Hey, even I know who Quincy Jones is, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
That experience with him at Duffy’s suddenly woke me up, and I finally realized that the conversations we had about music were only about black artists. Hell, even the aforementioned Quincy Jones recently confessed that he thought that the Beatles weren’t that good. Hey Q that’s going to be a tough sell Buddy and your attempt to elevate yourself above them by saying it, is a little lame.

As I look around me now with new eyes, I’m beginning to see the things that have always gone on, but I was too stupid to notice. Like how few if any white musicians are in black bands whereas most white bands have black players in them or how whenever interviewed, black artists only talk about other black performers. I mistakingly thought that musicians and singers were a way ahead of the rest of society because they have been color blind for a long time. However, now I’m sadly beginning to realize that even though the creation of Rock&Roll (rhythm and blues fused together with country music) finally welcomed the black artists to the previously exclusive white world of entertainment, we are still not welcome in theirs.

BUT WAIT THERE’S EVEN MORE

How sad, 17 school kids killed by a young psycho here in South Florida. Trump’s handling of the situation by not mentioning the “gun” word though is about as productive as anyone hiding from the fact that most terrorists are Muslims. The thing of it though is that some of his fellow students had predicted that he would do it because they all know who the bad students are. The cops also all know who the bad cops are, Hispanics know who the gang members are, Muslims know who the Muslim terrorists are, and Blacks know who the ghetto boys are. Unfortunately, they all live in a code of silence, and as long as they wait for the government to fix things, we’re all in danger.

The FBI sure looks a little lame on this one huh?

Is anyone on earth more disrespected than a politician?

The Muses don’t fly coach! I know that because I’ve never come up with a single decent idea whenever I had to sit back there.

With the winter Olympics all over TV, I’m reminded of the day when some of the female figure skaters attempting to get an edge, decided to wear regular panties under their skating skirts. “Wonderful.” This move, unfortunately, was quickly banned by the Olympic judges and I’ve never watched figure skating again.

Speaking of the Olympics, Shaun White killed it. Go America!

You know when someone is hurting you but they may not.
 

Even the biggest stars owe somebody who helped them somewhere along the road. Nobody discovers themselves.

Seeing as Valentine’s day is a couples celebration, has anybody heard what kind of gifts the men got this year?
 
Why has every president since Jimmy Carter bought into the oil shortage scam wants to drill in places we don’t want them to? We’ve already got more oil in North America than we can ever use.
 
I wonder how many of the “kneelers” will end up in the hall of fame?
 
I’ve never believed the often said, “What’s good for big business is good for America.” Hell, the only thing that’s good for big business is war.
 
If you don’t feel like you’re worth anything, just think about the people around you who think you’re worth even less.
 
I wish all the guys in Hollywood would stop being gentlemen and start naming all the starlets who offered up their bodies for career advancement.
 
Great moments produce even better memories.
 
There comes a time when it’s best to stop the sellin’ and get on with the helpin’.
 
I wonder why Democrats think that mainstream media is not left-leaning news service. From where I sit here in the middle, they’re as far left of me as Fox is to the right.
 
I seem to attract broken women unless I can count the Russian, Filipinos, and Africans who try to friend me on Facebook. But then again, they’re broke.
 
I think Mr. Trump might be playing us. All the things that he’s doing that have some folks all riled up, may, in fact, be covering up what he’s really doing.
 
It’s impossible to change the beginning of your life but relatively easy to change the ending.
 
Even though the dark side is ten times more powerful than the bright side, I would think that “Oh Wow” easily trumps Oh No!
 
Have you ever wondered why your rearview mirror is so small compared to your windshield? It’s because where you’ve been is not a big deal.
 
What with vacation days, holidays, maternity leave, paternity leave, sick days, personal days, etc. Who the hell is supposed to do all the work?
 
No matter how bad the thing is you find out about the Republicans, there is an equally bad thing out there about the Democrats.
 
If there is no Mexican music blasting out of a radio in the kitchen of a restaurant, it’s not real Mexican food.
 
Bigger ain’t necessarily better, ask the dinosaurs.
 
Being the best does not come from living a balanced life, it comes from living an obsessed one.
 
I have no idea how this works, but when Obama was in office, he claimed the economy was booming, and now Trump claims the same. All I know is that I’ve got the same amount of money in my jeans that I’ve always had.
 
Much more @ GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter@GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting appreciated.
 
 

Exhilarating! (a new geo Blog for the week of Jan 15/18)

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When Kay Ville was but a young lass growing up in the exclusive Dallas suburb of Highland Park, Ron Chapman could occasionally be heard on the radio saying, “Ok, get yourself a fresh cup of coffee and when we return you’ll be joining me on the roof where we will watch the sunrise together.
Oh, and if you’re already in the car, pop into a 711 where they’ve got a fresh pot brewing right now.”(of course, every cup had a big ol’ picture of Ron on it) As the commercials played, Ron (pictured above with me at one of his three ‘Hall Of Fame’ inductions.) would grab the mic with the extra long cord and quickly make his way up the ladder and through the trap door which led to KVIL’s roof. When the commercial break was over, he would begin to describe every nuance of the slowly rising sun that he could see on the Dallas horizon. It was one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever heard on the radio. In fact, it sounded so good that I wanted to live in Dallas just so I could experience that breathtaking moment with them. Even the Beatles couldn’t compete with any of that let alone another Dallas radio station.

OK, IF YOU’VE GOT A MINUTE I HAVE A FEW OTHER THOUGHTS

It used to be that only strippers shaved above their knees but I rather doubt that’s true today.
 
When it came out that actor Kevin Spacey was gay I thought, ok, but when he started acting gay I thought not. How can he let some kid from 30 years ago, accuse him of something that he has no recollection of doing without fighting back? 
 
But then again, now I hear that on the set of “House Of Cards” Spacey was always an ass, so not so fast I guess.
 
Creativity is the art of letting go.
 
Have you ever noticed that only a lot of overweight, ugly guys seem to get charged with sexual harassment?
 
I know of very few very successful people that didn’t have to give up a spouse or two on their climb to the top. 
 
All is calm now but from what I’m hearing, if all goes as planned, tomorrow will be the busiest day of the year.
 
Even though political leanings don’t change what a musician sounds like, you would never know that by reading their reviews.
 
So who’s safer, a black guy in a white bar or a white guy in a black bar?
 
Now that men are no longer allowed to notice the cleavage and legs on display during a job interview, why would women continue to show it? 
 
If the reason the NFL players are kneeling at a football game because of police brutality, why aren’t they kneeling instead at a police station? What the hell has it got to do with football?
 
No matter who you are and what you may or may not have achieved, if you’re known at home as “daddy,” you’re a very lucky man.
 
The only way to stay young is by continuing to learn.
 
Nothing much has changed in the last hundred years, men are still measured by success and women by their beauty.
 
Silence is golden.
 
If aliens were to land on our planet, do we want some politician speaking to them on our behalf?
 
I wonder if government officials tell their families the same thing they tell us?
 
Why do we seem to remember only the bad stuff mankind has done?
 
Is there a better motivator than revenge?
 
Who do you think has been worse since the Shula Marino era, the players or the coaches?
 
Besides the government and big business, who else thinks we should be sending tons of free money to foreign nations?
 
From where I sit as a Centrist, the love people have for the Democratic or Republican party must be based on, “My corrupt politicians are better than your crooked ones?”
 
How weird was it that all through school we were taught to stay in a box but now that we’re no longer in school, they want us to think outside of it.
 
Maybe what we should do is make the gun seller responsible for the buyer’s actions.
 

Ok, if not that, maybe some armed undercover guys at places of worship and other places that innocent people congregate. Lord knows what with all the different police departments, the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security, the secret service, and the National Guard, we have a few folks that could help out.

Was that a Hollywood ending or what? A Rookie comes off the bench and wins Bama the National title.

Speaking of football, every game has a hero and a goat. I think the goat of the Saints/ Vikings game deserves as much camera time as the hero.

Ok, I’ve got my Superbowl plans all set, I’m gonna watch it in California. I know it’s not being played there but I was born 500 miles north of where it is being played, why would I wanna go there this time of year?

Did anyone else notice that Governor Brown who recently raised the gas tax plus a few other things in California, also gave himself a raise to cover his extra out of pocket?

Speaking of politics, If I was Oprah I wouldn’t move too fast towards the oval office. I don’t think all the women in America have forgiven her for turning her back on Hilary and backing Obama for his first term.

Speaking of Oprah, I love that picture plastered all over Facebook showing how close she and old Harvey were. I bet the ladies love that.

I wonder what Dee-Jays from this decade will end up in the National Hall Of Fame, hopefully not a voice tracker.

I swear, Brady just uses the second half to figure out what he’s going to do in the 2nd half to win it.

So what are we all upset about, the fact that Trump may have used the word shit hole or that the countries he was talking about are shit holes? If they weren’t, millions of people from them wouldn’t be trying to come to the US.   

Wow, speaking of Trump, my recent posting about him is already bigger than my most read post of last year. If you missed it, click on the link below.

Trump Does The Unthinkable.

 
For a sneak peek at some upcoming Blogs or some you may have missed, go to George Johns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio.

 

 

Let it snow let it snow. (new for Jan 8/18)

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A radio buddy of mine, Ted Farr from Canada, was recently telling me how much snow they’d been getting this year in the Okanagan Valley. The Okanagan is a very beautiful part of BC located in the interior of the Province and in fact, it is Canada’s wine country. Ted’s tale of woe brought back many memories of when my brother and I purchased a home there (see above) many tears ago which was located in a small town called Peachland, just down the road from our Mother’s place in Westbank. Mom’s place wasn’t very big so Reg and I who loved the area thought of it as the Hawaii of Canada decided to get a place there big enough to handle our families.
However, getting back to the subject at hand, I’ll never forget the first time I went there in the winter time all by myself. As I arrived, it began snowing, so to be safe, I parked the rental in the street at the bottom of our steep driveway. After getting myself situated inside I fired up the fireplace and before long I had a nice fire going and after having a shot of Canadian Club, I headed to bed. When I awoke the next morning, it had snowed all night and there was a ton of snow everywhere. Reluctantly, I got up, and when I finally found a shovel in the garage, I made my way down the driveway to the car parked on the street, I discovered that the snow plow had been by. Now not only was the snow piled up on the roof and hood of the car, it was also buried in the snow that the snowplow had left behind, up to its door handles.
Deciding to warm the car up before beginning to shovel, I cleared away some snow so I could open the door. Once I got the car started though the strangest thing happened. When I got out and slammed the door shut, all the snow fell off the car. Me not being the industrious type, I immediately said to myself, “Hmmm” and made an executive decision. I decided to try driving out before shoveling my way out. Sure enough, I rolled right out and was soon on my way to visit my Mom in nearby Westbank. It sure never worked like that in Winnipeg.

A FEW OTHER THINGS ROLLING AROUND IN MY HEAD EARLY IN 2018

No political party in America or Canada is for the people; they look out for themselves first.

So the Queen finally knighted old Ringo, talk about feeling left out for so long.

When somebody has their name on their voicemail, you just know that their credit has just got be good.

It’s not about the money with Big Business; it’s about not spending  it.

Wouldn’t it be great if, after an NFL player screws up, they flashed his salary up on the giant scoreboard?
 
I think its fathers who screw up their girls. They do this by treating them like they are precious which of course is a lie and doesn’t prepare them for the real world ahead. In fact, the only girls I’ve ever seen that were precious were my daughters.
 
I wonder if women understand that we only buy into their way of thinking if we love them?
 
Now that I look back the only woman who ever came close to understanding me was the mother of Candis and Curtis. Unfortunately, I thought I needed more which of course I haven’t found, but the search continues.
 
The beautiful thing about the end of the day is no matter what happened; you have a brand new twenty-four hours coming up to make things right.
 
Do you think anybody would pay to listen to commercial radio as it is?
 
Speaking of radio does any PD today play other radio stations as inspiration at their jock meetings anymore?
 
I loved watching Drew Brees kicking the ever whining Cam Newton’s ass last night in New Orleans.

Speaking of ass kicking, do they even have jock meetings anymore?

So ladies answer me this why does a man’s life after he falls in love with you resemble your life instead of his? In his world, there was always laughter, in yours, not so much.

When a woman marries a wealthy man she lives well but when a man marries a wealthy woman, also not so much.

Speaking of the fairer sex, have you noticed that no matter how well they’re doing, they never seem to pick up a tab.

Doing the impossible always pays big.

Every disaster can be turned into an opportunity.