"WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY, LEO?"

I was reading a book that mentioned a Leo Buscaglia story. Backtrack: Leo Buscaglia is an author, maybe a psychologist? His name is familiar to me via my parents and PBS-type shows. He is lumped in with calm entertainment a la Garrison Keillor and Ella Jenkins, back in the Chicago days. In any case, cool name. Moving on.

So when Leo was young, his father would ask him every night (Hello, there are parents who talk to their children on a daily basis?!) "What did you learn today, Leo?". And Leo would have to tell his father something new he'd learned about. If he hadn't learned anything, he'd scurry away (paints more of a picture than 'walking', don't you think?) and read something new in the encyclopaedia and report back. He credits this interaction with his love of learning.

I credit it with leaving me to some hard-hitting questions. Shit, I mean, do *I* learn something every day? I mean, something I'd be proud to tell someone else (moreover, my FATHER?). "Dad, I learned how to say 'shit' in Tagalog today." "Dad, I learned that if you eat asparagus, your pee will smell funny." Or "Dad, I learned that Plan B is basically a double-dose of birth control. Whaddaya know!". The pressure would be on. Reading this heartwarming vignette (retch, retch) makes me reflect upon what it is I *do* learn on a daily basis. I have lots of pop music knowledge (I just typed 'poop'. Coincidence? I think not). I can tell you who is married to who, who produced and album, what a song is written about. But outside of that, I don't know what I learn on a daily basis. I email my friends a lot. Maybe I should email strangers. Instead of hearing what my friends bought themselves on their various lunchbreaks or reading the "Guys' Rules" email forward for the millionth time, maybe, just maybe, I should find a penpal.

My first thought is to call back the customer service guy I dealt with at Netgear last night. The amount of time it took for him to pick up combined with his pristine Britain-o-Indian accent makes me think that, like HP, their calls are taken in India. He obviously knows things I don't, like how to wirelessly route my computer. Maybe we could be friends. I could learn science-y things. Computer science was never my forte. And then, after he had enlightened me with his techno-intellect, I could sweetly coo back to him (or write, if we decide to be penpals) about the reason why the Detroit Pistons love Anita Baker or the finer points of the state of Gwen Stefani's marriage.

Although, given how I hung up on him last night, maybe not.

What did I learn today? Hm.... (looking around). I learned that you can drive like a bat out of hell and not kill yourself because God is feeling particularly generous on that day. I learned that you can fry apples. I learned that Kinko's has become a very lazy establishment where you do your own copying (what is THAT all about?). Lemme think, lemme think. I learned that SDSU has an MBA in Sports Business Management in partnership with the Padres, the first program of its kind. I learned how to use a knife sharpener. I learned more about Steven Jay Gould's theories (not that I could recite them to you right now). I learned that fanatic Christians may be the downfall of scientific education in the United States (come on, people, I grew up in a Jewish town). Oh, and I learned that three Iranian women attempted a suicide pact after the fourth wife of their husband bought expensive shoes. (We Iranians are nothing if not dramatic.)

And I heard someone say "you don't have to like someone to learn from them". So maybe I'll start learning that much more.