Happy New Year 2012

 

As we enter another new year, I am reminded, surprisingly, of the words of John Wayne. 

I know that it’s easy to send him up, to regard him as some sort of redneck boofhead who said things such as “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,”  who upset feminists (story below) and who made the term “Pilgrim” a form of derision.

But he also said a lot of things that made good, sound commonsense.  Those comments will be the subject of a future Bytes post.

The quote that came to mind tonight as I was watching the Sydney fireworks on TV with my wife, Kate, was what The Duke once said about today and tomorrow.  Substitute this year and next year for today and tomorrow and you’ll see that it is quite apt: 

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.”

The words are on the plaque marking Wayne’s grave.

I wish you all a happy 2012 and offer some further words:

By the way, here is the Women’s Liberation story: 

John Wayne was once given Harvard's Hasty Pudding Award. Instead of a limousine, he was driven to the event in an army tank. Jay Leno (then a limo driver assigned to follow him in a Rolls Royce) later recalled what happened when Wayne invited questions from the audience: 

"Harvard, of course, was a hotbed of radicalism and liberal thinking. So a woman got up and asked him, 'What do you think of women's liberation?' John Wayne swaggered as only he could and said, 'I think women's lib is fine, as long as they're home by six to cook my dinner.' The crowd gave a thunderous cheer. But the woman was furious and she shrieked, 'F..you, John Wayne!' And he just swaggered again and said, 'Well, f... you, too, little lady!' He got a huge laugh. But I think he needed that tank to get out of there."