Friends

          How many friends do you have? I have never had very many friends. And I consider myself a friendly person. I can usually count the number of friends I have on one hand. What is a friend, anyway?  We have different words for friends--buddies, buds, pals, mates, homies. Friend is a word that people define in many different ways. For me, a friend is someone who shares similar likes and dislikes as me. It is someone who I  like to hang out with, can go to if I need help, talk with or ask for advice, or even borrow a little money from if I am in a bind. I like spending time with a friend and can talk about pretty much anything. There was a popular program on TV a few years ago called Friends,  about a group a friends who share an apartment in New York City. I saw it a few times.

I saw something on the Internet recently that the average American has between five and ten friends. I have a best friend from high school that I still keep in touch with more than 40 years later. I still consider him a good friend. I have a couple of very good friends in Mexico. Even if I don't see them for years at a time, when I do see them again, I have the same feelings of friendship towards them.

 How many "friends" do you have on Facebook?  Most Americans have about 500 Facebook "friends."  Really?  How many of those "friends" do they even know?  Sometimes the word friend is confused with acquaintance and colleague, someone who we know or work with, but are they really friends?  Sometimes we might worry that we don't have enough friends. If you are living in the US and want to learn American English, it would be a good idea to have some American friends. Speaking with Americans is probably the best way to learn American English. Maybe we should focus on the the quality of our friendships and not the quantity. So, how would you define friend?  How many friends do you have? If you are an international student, do you have American Friends?

Fish Fridays

Why do Catholics eat fish on Fridays before Easter?  I'm a Catholic. No one really knows the answer to this question.  There is a long tradition that goes back hundreds of years that Catholics are not supposed to eat "red meat" on Fridays during Lent, the 40 days before Easter. Easter is this Sunday. Today is called Good Friday, the day that we believe that Jesus was killed on the cross, crucified.  I usually eat meat on Fridays during Lent because I forget it's Friday. But today is Good Friday, so I remembered. I'm going to Wendy's with my wife to have a fish sandwich for lunch. They have good, fresh fish sandwiches, and cheap, two for five dollars. If you notice, all of the fast food places have specials on fish sandwiches on Fridays before Easter. It's all about business. But it's also part of the Catholic tradition.

Rock 'n Roll Music

My favorite music is Rock 'n Roll from the 60s, when I was a teenager. I have listed my Top Ten Rock groups below.  It's interesting that my Top Five are all from England. These groups were called the British Invasion. The rest of my Top Ten favorite bands (6-10) are from the US. Here they are, in order.

1. The Beatles
2. The Who
3. Led Zeppelin
4. The Kinks
5. Pink Floyd

6. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
7. The Police
8. Neil Young (with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)
9. Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers
10. The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson

You may have never heard of some of these bands because you're too young. If you haven't,  I'd encourage you to go to Google and sample some of their music on YouTube. They may be old, but they still sound good. It's interesting that so many of these Rock bands, especially the British ones, have "The" in their name, beginning with The Beatles. The Beatles were (and still are, in my opinion) definitely the best. Notice that The Rolling Stones are not on my list. I never liked them that much--they are still touring and their music still sounds the same as it did in the 60s. It hasn't evolved. The Beatles music evolved a lot in the less than ten years that they were together.

Don't get me wrong; I like a lot of the recent Rock and pop music, like Linkin Park, Justin Timberlake, Eminen, Bruno Mars and The Travelling Wilburys.

What kind of music and bands do you like?