Being a superhero had become so “me too” by the 2020′s, especially here in the metropolis.

Just like the other half billion of earth’s inhabitants I fell ill with the swine ‘flu during the 2010 pandemic. I was one of the 83 percent survivors.

The sustained months of chronic fatigue syndrome we H1N1 sufferers were all left with, kept most of us ‘victims’ out of work for several months, and I was forced to resign from my parliamentary seat just before the delayed general election had to be called.

But it was not until June 21^st 2011 I realised that the Daily Mail tales of some pandemic survivors becoming “supercharged with superpowers” once the symptoms of the CFS subsided had some validity.

Now we were not actually able to fly, or to become invisible (as an ex MP that would have been a definite advantage)! But some of us developed a variety of combinations of mind reading, transmissive telepathy, telekinesis and extra sensory perception.

Reaching into other peoples’ minds was quite painful at first. We not only felt the emotions of those whose minds we were invading but shared the pain of each other within range of our senses.

Once we learned from each other how to control the pain by limiting the range and focus of our thoughts the power became an ability; and a tool we could use to our mutual and individual benefits.

As I have said already I had fallen off the parliamentary gravy wagon and now sought income. I had been too long away from the movers and shakers to gain any directorships and most of my peer sufferers had fallen equally victims to career development tools.

When I say most, that did leave the rest who were still in influential positions, and that is how the syndicate was formed.

You see, we could “insider-deal” without actually being insiders. So technically what we were doing was perfectly legal. As legal indeed as were my expenses claims as an MP!

Members of the syndicate would attend their perfectly legitimate social events at the club, the golf course, the coffee house pubs, and wine clubs, and there they would listen in to the thoughts of fellow movers and shakers. What they would then do is communicate significant snippets of thoughts to other syndicate members who could immediately take an appropriate action.

My specialisation became the money markets and I was soon purchasing and selling vast fortunes at the thoughtful nod of my fellow profit seekers.

But let me get to the point.

I soon realised that there was a limit to my own needs and desires, and I was beginning to have too much luxury in my life. My weight was soaring and frankly I longed to be just obese again.

So I made my big decision. All my profits beyond my basic needs would go to charity.

So that is it. I steal from the rich and give to the poor.

As my wife says, I am the 21^st Century Robin Hood or, as she cheekily refers to me, “Round Robin”.

Copyright © Stuart Danton 2009

In the Mayo Buildings there is a piano that sometimes people stop to play.  This is a cute video of two older folks playing the piano in the Gonda Building, and is worth watching. 

Fran and Marlo Cowan (married 62 years) playing impromptu recital together in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic.  He was 90 in February. 

She said, “But we don’t know anything about each other.”

He said, “That’s all right, we’ll learn about each other as we go along.”

So she consented, they were married, and off they went on honeymoon in Barbados.

The first morning they were lying by the pool, when he got up off of his towel, climbed up to the 10 metre board and did a two and a half tuck, followed by three rotations in the pike position, at which point he straightened out and cut the water like a knife.
After a few more demonstrations, he came back and lay down on his towel.

She said, “That was incredible!”

He said, “I used to be an Olympic diving champion. You see, I told you we’d learn more about each other as we went along.”

So she got up, jumped in the pool, and started doing lengths.

After seventy-five lengths she climbed out of the pool, lay down on her towel and was hardly out of breath.

He said, “That was incredible! Were you an Olympic endurance swimmer?”

“No,” she said, “I was a prostitute in Liverpool but I worked both sides of the Mersey!”

Microsoft has been very open with this version of Windows after the problems they had following the lack of take up with Vista! So I was amongst the millions who grabbed a copy of the beta of Windows 7 and played with it until it broke.

I was also amongst the first to grab the release candidate issued to the public yesterday.

Joy.

It was easy to download the ISO image and then to create the installation DVD. Installation was even easier and I had an up and running version of Windows 7 Ultimate running on my PC within an hour of the download.

Everything, except my wireless connection was working from the first running of Windows, so I connected by cable to my router and within moments a new driver for the wireless adapter had installed and I was now able to connect to my secured wireless network.

Windows 7 is swift.

Everything seems to load faster than Vista (though to be fair my Vista installation had slowed down due to the usual history of adding and removing software). Windows 7 also starts up (and closes down) much quicker than Vista.

So far all my Vista applications have installed flawlessly on Windows 7 and they appear to be operating free of hesitation under Windows 7.

Only time will tell whether my initial enthusiasm will be thwarted!

02.. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.

03. No one expects you to run–anywhere.

04. People call at 9 PM and ask, did I wake you?

05. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

06. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

07. Things you buy now won’t wear out.

08. You can eat supper at 4 PM.

09.. You can live without sex but not your glasses.

10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.

11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

12. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room.

13.. You sing along with elevator music.

14. Your eyes won’t get much worse.

15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

17. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.

18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.

19. You can’t remember who sent you this list.

20. And you notice these are all in Big Print for your convenience.

P.S. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night!

The Texan said; “Nope, but in Texas we have plumbers who can fix it.”

The next day he received a hundred letters.

They all said the same: “You can have mine.”

Mum and dad are a little worried about this and go to his room to see if he is okay. There they find him sitting at his desk doing his homework.

The boy keeps doing that for the rest of the year.

At the end of the year the son brings home his report card and gives it to his mum and dad. Looking at it they see under maths an A+.

Mum and dad are very happy and ask the son, “What changed your mind about learning maths?”

The son looked at mum and dad and said, “Well, on the first day when I walked into the classroom, I saw this guy nailed to the plus sign at the back of the room behind the teacher’s desk and I knew they meant business.”