cheerfulmonk.com

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Shoe

Have you ever wished you could return a day for something better?

March 26, 2026

Calvin at the doctor’s

Calvin and Hobbes

reminds me of this husky:

 
Shug and Myra got the answer to yesterday’s riddle — it was a map.

The answer to the math problem was 34 — the sum of the top three numbers times 2. I was amused that it was in a book for 8-to-12 year-olds. I wasn’t about to waste any time on it, but I was curious what the answer was. Hurray for AI — a boon to curious but lazy people like me. 🙂

March 25, 2026

One of the pages of our day-by-day calendar had this brain teaser on the back:

What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish?

Neither Andy nor I knew the answer, but ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude had no problem with the answer. Apparently it’s a well known riddle.

But, ah! I have a puzzle book with a problem I couldn’t figure out even when they gave me the answer.

How embarrassing. I bought the book over three years ago and forgot about the problem until today. Find the value for the question mark.

The problem for ChatGPT and Perplexity is there is more than one formula that fits the answer, but if I give them the answer they can tell me the rule for it. That’s a lot better than I did! When I told it the answer they were looking for, ChatGPT said,

Nice puzzle—and a good reminder that the simplest pattern is often the right one.

(If you are curious, the answer is this. What’s the formula?)

Anyway, bless AI for telling me the formula after all these years. I don’t know any 8-12 year olds who could solve the problem for me.

March 24, 2026

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Betty

This comic made my day. 🙂

March 23, 2026

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Pearls Before Swine

I love learning new things and developing life skills, but it’s not to accumulate “wisdom.” I do it because it makes me happy — feeling more fully alive in the present.

As I’ve said, my mantra is,

Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keeps learning and growing. Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.

That works for me.

March 22, 2026

Ziggy — July 13, 2018

Do you think Ziggy was right? Do you think 2018 was a better time than now? What about the future? Do you think we will have fond memories of today?

Whatever, enjoy what we have while we still have it.

I’m still enjoying playing with my plants. I cut off two of the three bean plants because they had stopped growing, but I left this one because it is still has a new little blossom. I don’t have the heart to toss it yet.

This is the last picture of my sweet potato.

I tossed it because it didn’t “spark joy.”

I planted some chick peas 10 days ago — this is what they looked like yesterday.

And I planted new mung beans 5 days ago — this is what they looked like yesterday.

I’m not expecting the new bean plants to do well — even though the days are longer, they won’t be getting the direct sun they would get in winter. I will let you know!

March 21, 2026

Yesterday’s post reminds me of these quotes:

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
–Jane Austen

We do not remember days, we remember moments.
—-Cesare Pavese

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
-—Omar Khayyam

Enjoy the little things in life, because someday you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.
–Kurt Vonnegut

I have to include this one, even though it’s a bit of a downer:

Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed.
—-Homer, The Iliad

Sorry about that, but it made me laugh. It fits too perfectly for Andy and me — nothing imminent, of course.

March 20, 2026

Etsy

To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavor. The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a person alone reading a book that interests them; and all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, are only valuable in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes.
—C. S. Lewis

I’m an unabashed homebody, so it speaks to me. 🙂

(If only everyone in power agreed.)

March 19, 2026

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Wizard of Id

Calvin and Hobbes

March 19, 2026

Do think you have been lucky in life? If so, how much of it was due to personal effort and how much due to chance? Andy and I did a lot of the right things — like study and work and save — but we also know we were lucky to have lived in a time and place where that was rewarded. We thank our lucky stars every day.

Hurray for humility and gratitude, and Happy St Patrick’s Day! May the luck of the Irish be with you and your loved ones.

March 17, 2026