Archive for September, 2014
Several people have been asking about the basic mathematics of poker. Here is a great video from James “SplitSuit” Sweeney at PokerBank that explains pot odds and how to use them. This is one of the most fundamental concerns when playing poker and, if you don’t use them already, should be added to your arsenal to improve your play immediately.
So your baby wants to get a motorcycle. As a Dad with 30+ years of riding experience, I feel compelled to tell him a few things:
1) He absolutely has to take a riding course before getting a bike. This course may be mandatory in your state to get the motorcycle endorsement on your driver’s license, if not it should be.
2) Always wear helmet and proper riding gear. An old saying goes, “There are two types of riders: those who have crashed, and those who will.” Thankfully, in my years of riding, I’ve only crashed twice. One was minor, the other not so much.
3) Protect yourself at all times. Double check for oncoming traffic. Double check your left. Spend as little time in driver blind spots as possible.
4) Always respect the machine. You control it, don’t be afraid of it, but remain constantly alert.
5) Have fun. Riding is one of life’s great joys. 🙂
You’re just being a mom and no mom that I know is thrilled at the prospect of her baby getting a motorcycle. The best you can do is hope he learns well and rides safely… think of it as the letting go point when he first learned to ride a bicycle without training wheels. You’re scared, he’s excited. There may have been some bumps along the way, but he can now ride a bicycle without thinking about it.
Helen Mildred Kittle was born in Middletown, Ohio, on January 19, 1914, the youngest of three children. Her father was a mid-level manager at American Rolling Mill Co. in Ohio.
Helen and her two brothers were raised in Ohio until 1925, when her father moved the family to Berkeley, CA where he went to work for California Culvert Co. which had been acquired by American Rolling Mill.
She attended Garfield Junior High School and Berkeley High before joining her brothers at U.C. Berkeley. She graduated in 1935 with a Bachelor’s degree in French. Helen and more than a dozen of her classmates (all women) formed the “Thirty-Five Club,” meeting (with husbands) at a different home on the first Sunday of each month for dinner. This was to continue for more than fifty years. Helen was always drawn to interior decorating, trying unsuccessfully to land a job in San Francisco with one of the well-known stores upon graduation from college. Many of her friends would consult with her before remodeling.
Helen married a young attorney, James Clayton Orr, on April 9, 1937. They raised three children, Richard, David and Kathleen, in the East Bay…primarily Oakland and later, Piedmont.
When her oldest child went to college in 1958, Helen returned to U.C. Berkeley where she earned a Bachelor’s degree, then a Master’s degree in psychology.
Helen and Clayton divorced in 1966 and she moved to the Washington DC area, where she would live for the next 32 years. She initially worked as a school psychologist in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Later, she entered the doctoral program at The Catholic University of America, earning a Ph.D. in psychology in 1976. She set up practices in both “The District” and Bowie, Maryland, continuing to practice until age 84 when she moved to Marblehead, Massachusetts to live closer to family.
During her many years in Washington, she was an active member of the Women’s National Democratic Club. On a weekly basis, many of the prominent Democrats from Congress and the Administration (when it was Democratic) would give talks at the club. On two occasions Helen went to The White House for lunch with first ladies – first with Rosalynn Carter and later with Hillary Clinton. She loved being immersed in the activities of Washington, from embassy dinners to museums to informal get-togethers at Watergate South, where she lived. Her neighbors included Robert and Elizabeth Dole, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Casper Weinberger, Howard Baker, and Monica Lewinsky. Helen was an avid bridge player into her eighties, playing several times a week.
She was also a world traveler, visiting Russia, Turkey, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and China on a number of occasions. On one notable trip she visited the People’s Republic of China in 1972 with the International Congress of Psychology – at a time before China had opened to visits from the West. She traveled to Europe often, sometimes with her grandchildren, and at age 79 took a cruise around the world.
Helen has three grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She returned to her beloved California in 2004 with her son, Richard.
