While reading, I jot down what resonates

The headlines on some of Thomas Sowell’s columns are  "Random Thoughts." Aha! There’s my leading: Report what was important enough to write down in my journal. So, beginning with today (23rd)  and going back through the month of May, that’s what I did. Here goes.

"Last year, the FCC defined high-speed Internet as a public utility and made connecting all American homes to the Web a priority." – C. Kang, New York Times/ Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "I’ve come to believe Internet is a human right. It’s clearly a huge disadvantage if you don’t have it." – J. Rice, Detroit, cited by Kang.

The Appalachian Trail is 2,190 miles long and spans from Georgia to Maine.

Places in Arkansas I hadn’t heard of yet: Combs, Crosses, Slow Tom Hollow, Clarkedale, Jericho, Freeman Springs and Parthenon.

The "Pacific Rim of Fire" is an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin." – AD-G’s feature, The World in Brief.

Kathleen Parker, whose columns appear in The Saline Courier, wrote Sunday about the voters of today: "…the vast middle mortals roam in wounded unity." And, "The high ground may be more molehill than mountain, but it still beats the gutter."

Given names noted on Sunday: Halana, Wilda, Konnie, Sybrina, Queen, Jussie, Jillena, Izabelle, Loris, Rion and Nez.

From News in Brief last Friday, this scenario, which I put into a cinquain form:

FROM HIS COUSIN
 Twenty-
nine years old, a
naked man’s rescued from
a neighbor’s chimney. His plea? Hide
and seek.
 Eek! He was definitely NOT "hiding himself into safety," the title of my next book.

The United Methodist Church has 12.7 million members worldwide and is the third largest faith group in the U. S. (AD-G)

Formosa is now Taiwan. (crossword puzzle). I probably knew that at one time.

The Federalist Party in 1816 "abandoned the field (of the presidential election) to the winner, and were never heard from again." (Comparison of 1816 and 2016) – S. Carter, Bloomberg News/ AD-G.

"It’s not up to other people to define success or failure for you, that’s up to you alone." – J. Steinmetz, University of Arkansas’s top administrator since January 1, 2016.

UFO’s new nomenclature, according to Hillary Clinton, is UAP: unexplained aerial phenomenon." – A. Chozck, New York Times.

Emma Morano, 116, from Italy, is the oldest person alive and the last person still alive who was born in the 1800s.

Wow! (Or Woe! Or Whoa!) 2,722 state employees make over $100,000 a year, a rise of 137 people. – M. Wickline, AD-G.

A book of poetic fiction, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, by Max Porter of London, garnered him the Dylan Thomas Prize of $43,000. Poetic fiction? I must check this out.

I didn’t know that "Pomp and Circumstance" came from Othello. "Farewell the . . . pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!" – D. Kelley, AD-G. And, "Think before you speak. Read before you think." – F. Lebowitz, cited by Kelley.

Quite a lot to think about, huh?