Serendipity

basic meaning: running into something great while looking for something else. Like the invention of Tang while trying to put humans on the Moon. While that may sound like sarcasm, Tang was quite a hit for a long time. Just the whole idea of drinking the "drink of Astronauts" was enough to make any child wet his pants for a glass of the stuff. It tasted like orange Dixie sticks, didn't it? I'm sure that somewhere in the world, someone is still making it. I am surprised that it's not widely, and wildly, available in the South (U.S.) We like putting our children on a diet of sugary drinks until they explode, so we can give them pills for it.

And there was a recipe for Russian Tea that utilized Tang instead of a dozen oranges. I have dim memories of blue haired ladies cooking substantial vats of the stuff for Christmas. It was cheap, and a powder, so they could even combine it with instant tea and pass it out as gifts.

Of course, the last time I looked at kid's drinks, I was one, so maybe there is Tang still out there. (A kid, I mean! That's the problem with English, no gendered, possessive articles.) I have bought some cute, astronaut-pouch juice drinks for my niece, but she is so hard core at 12, she sneaks Daddy's Mountain Dew (diet.) You can tell she is a Stewart---we grab the nearest bottle of jet fuel and go. Along with a tendency to fart, even from drinking a glass of water, it's a real gift. And a curse.

Those of you out there who know my brother can empathize.


No Blackberry yet. But as far as serendipity is concerned, I have re-met some of my loveliest friends, and met new ones. Dog people, and cat people, are the basis for the origin of the word, mensch.

From Wiki: "According to Leo Rosten, the Yiddish maven and author of The Joys of Yiddish, mensch is "someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being 'a real mensch' is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous."

I have met a few on this journey and glad I am in a position to see it. Mazel tov! to life!