Both Apple aficionados and the media are salivating over the release of the iPhone 5 – or is it the iPad 3 or something. People line up and wait overnight outside Apple stores to be among the first to pay too much for a product that will be obsoleted by the nexr iProduct in only a few months. Naturally, I have a few thoughts:
1. I never see people like soccer moms or teachers in the line. Kids tend to drain both time and money from parents, teachers, and others who deal with children.
2. Steve Wozniak – Steve Jobs partner in the early days of Apple does show up in line. Of course, if my ID badges said “Apple Employee #1” and I had the Apple iStock, etc. that he probably does, and if I knew my presence would get the new product featured prominently on the morning, noon, evening and eleven o’clock news – you can bet I’d be in line – and available for an interview!
3. When I read or hear the reports of how wealthy and powerful Apple is, the following things come to my mind:
o Bethlehem Steel
o New York Central Railroad
o Atari
o DeLorean Motor Cars
o Easter Airlines
o CompUSA
o Schwinn Bicycles
o Lionel
o Commodore Computers
o F. W. Woolworth Company
o Equitable Life Assurance Company
o Enron
o Montgomery Ward
o Polaroid
o Blockbuster Video
o Borders Books
o Circuit City
o Sharper Image
o Silicon Graphics
o Readers’ Digest
o Kresge’s/K-Mart
And (with apologies to Monty Python) Now for something completely different –
Did you realize that a metaphor can be like a simile?
Also, you can use a metaphor as a simile.
No one on their death bed regrets splitting infinitives.
As a writer, even at my age, I actually still do – on occasion – diagram sentences.
The reason that we were given so many story problems (also known as thought problems) in math when we were young was for a very good reason. So we could help our kids with their homework.
sfnowak 
Bravo, Steve!…… All my sentiments precisely. Thanks for articulating our view so powerfully. L
Ok.. really laughing now as i listen to my husband with a Doctorate in quantum physics (like that is useful and has not been) helping his son with his trig.. c
tho please do not tell him i said that!! c and ps, he does not have one of those iphone thingies! they are too complicated he says!!