Baboon Achievers, Family, Stories

A One-derful Year

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Today’s post comes to us from Occasional Caroline.

I believe I’ve created a thing. At least I think it deserves to be “a thing” and to the best of my knowledge I thought it up.

Once per decade, beginning at age 21, we each have a full year of being “one-derful.” Twenty-onderful, thirty-onderful, etc.

Whenever anyone I know achieves a one-derful age, I urge them to invoke, acknowledge, and bask in it throughout the year. Many look at me oddly, but I think it should be a thing, celebrated by all. The “Golden Birthday” is a thing but I like my invention better. For one thing, Golden is really only celebrated on the actual birthday; if you were born early in a month, you’re too young to appreciate it when it happens to you. Never an issue with one-derful birthdays. Anticipation of a one-derful birthday can help take the sting out of entering a new decade; when you have a “significant” birthday, you’re only a year away from a one-derful one.

I rest my case.

What have you invented?

57 thoughts on “A One-derful Year”

  4. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    I invented a method of Behavior Chain Analysis that I need to copywrite, then sell. Never enough time to get this done. Maybe soon.

    This is a form of determine problematic thoughts or emotions and how to intervene. The overall technique has been around forever. I just added a technique that lets it move and expand.

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  6. I’m not sure I have “invented” anything in the strictest sense of that word. When I edited a magazine I did my best to create a voice speaking about outdoor recreation in a distinctive way. Distinction was defined by the way this voice would be regional, politically progressive, ecologically sound, original, honest and entertaining. Is that an “invention?”

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  7. i invented an electronic dog leash recently and an automatic guitar tuner at rock brnd lkast year
    i feel like i should start an invention journal simar to lkeonardo di vinci
    stugff comes to you
    erite it down

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  8. What a great idea, OC – we spend a year each decade dreading the Big __- 0 (5-0 or 6-0, whatever) – there ought to be one year a decade that is celebrated this way.

    Off to Communnity Rights workshop – will have to think about this tonight.

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  9. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the role of “inventor” was venerated in a way that seems quaint now. I grew up reading books about great inventors like Edison. Inventors were cultural heroes. That has mostly been lost except in the specific area of computers, programming and software development.

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  10. Love your invention of One-derful…I need to remember to implement that.

    I’ve not invented anything but I’ve created art, illustration, written educational material and ‘story’ books. In a way that could be considered inventing i suppose.__but in all cases I’ve had inspiration from other artists and or done research into ideas that became written and illustrated.

    Two books for an early reading series I was able to create on my own as the author and it was a challenge to put my thoughts/beliefs into rhyme for a youngster and for the adult reading with the child/children.

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  11. My father invented, or perhaps jerry rigged is a better term, an odd looking tank on wheels with a motor and large hose attached to it that he used to suck out the waste pits of his car wash. He assembled it from spare parts and equipment he had laying around. I imagine there were similar, official contraptions he could have purchased, but he liked to save his money.

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    1. In an echo of yesterday, it’s actually jury rigged and jerry built. I know this because I looked it up once when I was unclear about the distinction. Jury rigged actually comes from a nautical term for a makeshift sail. Jerry built is of uncertain origin.

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      1. There may be individuals who were a one-derful age, and had no access to news sources, so are blissfully unaware that 2016 was less than one-derful.

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        1. I was a little put out with how 2016 turned out – it was a birthday-with-a-zero year for me and I felt a little ripped off. A different election result would have been a swell birthday present. Perhaps my “one-derful” year will turn out better.

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      2. I also should have had a one-derful year but didn’t. In fact, it stunk. (Although there were some wonderful moments here and there.)

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        2. Yeah, that nearly dying thing had to have put a damper on the year, but the not dying part balanced it out some. Hope this year is sensational, even if it’s not one-derful!

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        3. Yes, OC, you are correct. All-in-all, the year seemed to be mainly made up of disappointments and setbacks. Like the day, I set out with two daughters and the twins to go to duluth for a day to celebrate my mom’s 90th year with family – and we had to turn back because the engine light came on and the car was acting strangely. Then we got to stare out the window at the rain…that was a typical day last year. Get your hopes up for a fun day, good food, and time at the lake – and, boom, you get to stay home instead.

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  13. Back when I had a side business building photo props for commercial photographers, pretty much everything I made, even though it was one of a kind, was an invention of sorts, Either that or it dwelt in a realm somewhere between scupture and invention. Once I had to engineer and fashion a large chocolate volcano that would smoke and erupt chocolate chips.
    My most successful invention in that regard was a bed of glowing coals that fit into a Weber grill. This was before Photoshop had been introduced and food photographers wanting to shoot barbecue, etc. had the problem of how to balance the lighting of the food on top with the glow of the coals. And of course actual hot charcoal presented its own problems. It cooked the carefully styled food and gave off carbon monoxide.
    My insert was a round of half inch thick plexiglass upon which I had embedded a field of individually cast briquets. Each briquet had been tinted on the bottom with orange or yellow or both in a variety of hues. Around the bed of briquets, I poured black tinted polyester resin to mask the areas around the charcoals and lock them in place. Then I dusted the whole thing with real charcoal ash. When placed in the grill and lit from underneath, the effect was indistinguishable from a real fire and the lighting could be adjusted to balance the top light. I probably made about a dozen of these and sold them to photo studios all around the country.

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    1. Your volcano that erupted with chocolate chips reminds me of the invention now being used by game wardens all around the country. They put out robotic fake animals (deer, elk, moose, etc) along the sides of roads patrolled by many poachers at night. Wardens hide, waiting for poachers to shoot the decoys, after which they can arrest them. Poachers have heard about this, so they often won’t risk shooting at a stationary animal. Now wardens have radio controls that can make fake animals switch their tails or cock their ears. My favorite is the whitetail deer robot that moves and defecates. At night, shooting a fake deer they see in a spotlight, poachers can’t tell the deer poo is actually chocolate M&Ms.

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  14. 2017 is sixty-onederful for me. Nice invention, Caroline.

    I invented an entire novel and its resident characters from nothing but my brain droppings (thanks, George Carlin). Other than that, I don’t think I’ve invented anything.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  16. I’m sure I’ve invented something, even if it’s just a chart to keep track of book sales, or some other administrative tool… I know I’ve repurposed things, which is sort of like inventing – created a play house in my kindergarten room out of orange crates painted bright colors, and a rug for story time out of 49 carpet samples duct taped into a patchwork. Boy, that was a lot of work.

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  18. I am more of an innovator than inventor – taking an existing thing and tweaking it a bit. Recipes that get adjusted and added to, processes that get streamlined and influenced by other ideas, turning boring dimensional lumber into Dracula’s castle…

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  19. Anna’s comment made me think of something I could call an invention. It’s a recipe, but maybe not quite a recipe since I don’t have measurements for all of it.

    It’s sort of a riff on tiramisu. First I cook up rhubarb and black currants with sugar to taste until fruit is broken down. Add cassis and vanilla and scoop out a couple cups of juice. Let the fruit cool. Then I mix together mascarpone, plain greek yogurt, sugar, cassis, and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Layer in 9×13 pan: ladyfingers that have been dipped in the juice, the cooled fruit sauce, and the creamy filling. Repeat layers and chill thoroughly. It’s pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. That is, it’s good if you like black currants and rhubarb. I call it blackbarb tartimisu.

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      1. Ha, ha! Bilil, you are too funny.

        I’ll have to see if I have any black currants in the freezer. If the rhubarb is up by next book club, I could maybe make it for that, although I’m not sure how it will hold sitting out on the counter. Or, once, rhubarb season starts, perhaps I can be persuaded to make a delivery to a certain south minneapolis address…

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  20. I can’t say I’ve ever invented anything. I wish I had. I will say, though, that the last one birthday I had was not a very good year. I’ll have another one in a couple of years… hoping
    for better things.

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