Let Your Children Go If You Want

A Little While Ago I Visited Omaha Beach For The Second Time In My Life. In The Intervening 26 Years, Nearly 20,000 Tides Had Come And Gone And Little Remains Visible Of The Greatest Military Landing In Man's History Of Endless Warring. What's To Be Seen Is Mostly In A Superb Museum And A Panoramic Cemetery. The Cemetery Memorializes With Dignity And Grandeur The Event And The Dead, And Moves One Deeply. Before They Die Less Precipitously And/or In Lesser Purpose, Americans Who Can Should Visit World War Ii's Normandy Beach. Such Seeing And Remembering Helps A Man's Perspective.

Speaking Of Birthdays, Our Firstborn [recently Turned 2]. As Parents Sometimes Fondly Do, We Reminisced A Bit About His Early Days On Earth-the Excitement, The Wonder, The Fears When We Brought Him Home. His Every Squeak Or Squawk We Were Sure Heralded Some Terrible Crisis; I Tested The Warmth Of Formulas From Dusk To Dawn, It Seemed. We Were So Germ-conscious My Wife Even Sterilized The Skin Of The Oranges Before Squeezing Them. How Firstborns Ever Survive Their Parents' Attentions Is Beyond Me. However, They Do, And He Did, And, In Spite Of Our Efforts, He Turned Out To Be Quite A Good Guy.

I Don't Waste Too Much Time Philosophizing About Wealth, I Just Recommend It To Everyone.

Compliment Others On The Virtues They Have; And They're Not Half As Pleased As Being Complimented For The Ones They Don't Have.

Several Weeks Of Summer Vacation In The Thirties I Spent Working At $15 A Week In The Forbes Office.... I Worked In The Mail Cage, Where Envelopes Were Slit And Subscription Payments Extracted. Dad Used To Come Pounding Down The Office Aisle And Pause Long Enough To Ask, How Much Today? Inevitably The Answer Was Inadequate-except Once. That Day The Controller Said Excitedly, Mr. Forbes, The Ledger Shows A Slight Profit This Month! ... My Father Turned To Him And Said, Young Man, I Don't Give A Damn What Your Books Show. Do We Have Any Money In The Bank?