Everybody Knows Yet Nobody Really Knows

By Jerry Rose

This book provides a succinct commentary on our daily lives. Each page introduces an observation that, for most readers, will bring back memories from their own life. It provides a fun look at things we are very familiar and think we know a lot about. The book acknowledges this knowledge in the first part of the title "Everybody Knows." It then goes on to add a series of thoughts and points we most likely did not know. Sometimes this comes in the form of a new twist or thought. Other times it comes in the form of obscure, but interesting new facts on the topic, or maybe intriguing points from a survey. Hence, the book carries the conflicting second part of the title "Yet Nobody Really Knows." Now we can laugh and smile at what we knew while we think about a new twist on this and then enjoy collecting new tidbits of knowledge we never knew. This will provide a rich collection of thoughts sprinkled with new intriguing facts and tidbits we can't wait to share with our friends.

So how is this accomplished? The thought of each page is presented in a simple four to six line poem where each line rhymes. This is done as a fun way to introduce the thought and encourage reflection on the topic at the same time. A short afterthought follows enhancing the thought. Even though these thoughts are about common experiences, they frequently carry unusual insight. The second half of each page contains a series of interesting facts, quotes, survey results, or maybe a short story providing commentary on the thought. Here many new and interesting points are shared. Over 500 online references are provided allowing additional reading on many of these new and interesting points. The book looks at a wide range of thoughts from personal and family topics, to school and work, and those we find as we travel out and about in the world. The book closes by spending some time on some specific character traits that will uplift and inspire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jerry Rose
• Release date: Oct 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466184244

Jerry Rose

I am the father of three children who now thoroughly crush me in things I thought I was good at. My latest endeavor of writing has allowed me to capture some of my experiences in my first book "Everybody Knows Yet Nobody Really Knows." I have experienced a full career working as a financial manager at IBM where I worked with some exceptional people. In my early years, I spent a few years teaching people how to play tennis.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Where We are Going

The other day I was watching a show on television that depicted an event that also happened to me in my life. They got it exactly right. I found the show to be quite hilarious, as I saw myself all through it. Then as it ended, it had a bit of a surprising twist. As I thought about it, it really wasn’t that surprising after all. It just caused me to expand my thinking and look at the event from a larger perspective. The show was talking about something I knew, in fact we all know. We love this stuff and that is why common events in our lives are frequently the focus of shows. Thank goodness they do have a surprising twist, or create a thoughtful moment. Without these, we would walk away with nothing gained.

This is what this book tries to do – or at least half. It discusses life events with which we are all familiar. One might say it covers things everybody knows. These also are presented in a way that will cause us to reflect much like the show I watched. Similar to the show I watched, there is an attempt to be thought provoking. Along the way, I would expect that you will also laugh, or at least smile, as you see yourself in some of these pages.

Now what is this bit in the title about including items nobody really knows? This sounds contradictory to covering items everybody knows. What is this all about? Each page of the book makes a concerted effort to provide additional insight into our common everyday affairs. We may look at these events in a different light, or with added insight. This is part of it. But the bigger part includes a discussion of related items that are rarely, if ever, thought about. It is here you will definitely learn new things that you didn’t know before. In fact, it is fairly safe to say this discussion will include a discussion of items nobody really knows.

So how is this all done? Amazingly, it’s all done in a single page. Each page introduces a new thought. The thought is presented in, dare I say, a short double-rhyming poem. This is done for effect to encourage thought and reflection. Having such a format forces each thought to be short and to the point. It also adds to the fun. Following each poem is a short afterthought that is intended to sharpen the key thought of the poem. Each page also includes a series of bullet points that expand the thinking on the topic. Here you’ll find many new items that are generally not known. The bullet points include an assortment of interesting facts, quotes, survey responses, opinions, stories, etc. Have fun with these, I certainly did. You will likely find yourself sharing these with friends, or fellow employees, around the water cooler.

The book begins on a personal note by looking at situations we commonly see as individuals. From here, the view is expanded to look at situations that occur at home or within the family. The focus continues to broaden as we look at events at school, and work, and our pursuit to have fun, and events that occur while we are simply out and about. The final chapter steps away from many specific examples we see in life and shifts attention to many specific character traits or observations about life. These should uplift and inspire.

I suspect we’ll each see ourselves in many of these pages. These thoughts are certainly not unique. In fact, we have probably thought about them many times. The discussion will also likely add a series of new points and facts not known before. Together it provides a fun commentary on life. You might say it discusses things that everybody knows and includes many related things that nobody really knows.

Chapter 2

Personal

When we focus on our personal side,

Our funny habits are hard to hide.

Appearance

Cars

Cell Phones

Clothes

Dentist

Diets

Dreams

Driving Test

Environment

Exercise

Food

Friends

Money

Reading

Shopping

Signature

Smoking

Typing

Go to Table of Contents

Personal / Appearance

Photographs and Memories

Pictures bring memories to our mind.

But sadly they are not always kind.

Sure, I remember being a little fat.

But I never had my hair like that!

How come I never can find the great pictures of me?

The storage capacity of the human brain is virtually limitless. It was estimated that the number of patterns nerve cells could form was 1 followed by 800 zeroes. Other researchers estimate that even this number is too small.

The brain is only three percent of the body’s weight, but consumes 1/6 (17%) of the body's total energy.

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. ~Albert Schweitzer

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. ~Mark Twain

Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. ~Matt Hardy

Personal / Appearance

Hair

You like it nice and thick on your head,

With chest and arms a thinner spread,

And for the nose and ears—no hair please.

But in reality everything is opposite these.

Not only that, it keeps getting worse the older you get.

There is a four in seven chance of men getting the baldness gene with 25% of men showing the beginnings of baldness by the age of thirty.

Nasal hair plays a key role in blocking harmful particles into the respiratory system. Similarly, ear hairs act as a screen to protect the body from unwanted airborne pollutants. We must need more blockers as we age.

Six percent of men have no chest hair and 38% can be describes as having light chest hair.

Hair generally serves two purposes of providing warmth and helping to block harmful rays from the sun. It can also serve as a lubricant, such as under the arm.

The body has about five million hairs.

Personal / Appearance

Aging Gracefully

I am friendly and help others to belong,

But I am fragile and no longer strong.

In a beauty contest, I would be no threat,

But isn’t it prettiest just before sunset?

Grandmas and Grandpas are beautiful in a special way.

Red and orange hues of sunset are mainly caused by the scattering of sunlight by dust particles, soot particles and other solid and liquid aerosols in the atmosphere. It is these air imperfections that make a sunset pretty.

A 98-year-old man has run a marathon in 7 hours and 33 minutes.

A 76-year-old man has climbed Mt. Everest.

Surprisingly there are health benefits to aging. Allergies are reduced because the body produces fewer IgE antibodies. You are less likely to get colds as the body accumulates immunity to cold viruses. The skin’s oil secretions slow down. You may find you can stop using a deodorant. In addition, tooth sensitivity can diminish.

Personal / Cars

The Fastest Car

It’s not a Porsche with six on the floor,

But my own Chevy with rust on the door.

For if we are racing across town nonstop,

Which is the most likely to attract a cop?

The tortoise wins in real life too!

There are 41 million speeding tickets issued annually in the United States. One in six drivers receives a ticket annually.

The average cost per violation is $150 for the ticket and $900 for increased insurance premiums over three years. This creates $6B of additional money for local governments and $37B of added revenue for insurance companies.

The average traffic cop earns more than twice the cost of their salary and benefits through ticket revenue for their local government.

Those cited for speeding contest their ticket just 5% of the time. The police officer will fail to show up in court 30-50% of the time, which is an immediate ground for dismissal.

Personal / Cell Phone

My Cell Phone

Others are sexy and feature rich,

But I will never want to switch.

I know its buttons and like its shape.

I am in love and there is no escape.

We’ve been best friends and constant companions for years.

A survey found 82% of Americans do not leave home without their cell phone. Furthermore, 42% of Americans say they cannot live without them.

One-third of mobile users agreed they did not know how to use most of the features on their cell phone.

By the end of 2010, 36% of Americans were using their cell phones to browse the web.

Twenty-nine percent of Americans have delivered a hard message via texting and 4% have even used it to break up.

In 1983, the big Motorola DynaTAC was the first approved mobile phone by the FCC in the United States.

The first person-to-person SMS text messaging occurred in Finland in 1993.

Personal / Clothes

My Shorts

My shorts have always come to my knees,

But fashion experts I never can please.

For years, they were always way too long.

Now they are too short, and still wrong.

At least they are not plaid.

Back in the 1930’s, women in Bermuda were forbidden to show their thighs in public. Female visitors and local residents wanted to wear shorts so they simply lengthened the length of their shorts to the knee and Bermuda shorts were invented.

Prior to 1850, 70% of the clothes worn were hand-stitched by the people who wore them. Clothes were a commodity, not fashion.

It's only quite recently, about 200 years, that children have had clothes distinct from those of adults. Earlier, they just wore smaller sizes.

One sure thing with fashion