When I got up this morning, it was 62 degrees on my side porch! Not too many hours ago, the temperature was 14 degrees. As the day progressed, the temperature dropped again to 40 degrees and may get below freezing during the night.
Comeupance
Last week, I crowed about doing remarkably well on the Sunday New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. This week, I bombed. I didn't even reach the "Excellent" level. The letters were LAVIPON
and the longest word found by NYT was PAVILION, which I missed.
The NYT had an insert this Sunday. Thirty puzzles.... so you can guess what I will be doing all this week, when I should be doing something else. But, what the hell, I love my puzzles, in fact, I just came across work and correspondence from my early involvement with the National Puzzlers League (NPL) and the American Cryptogram Association (ACA). This was back in 1974, when I made monthly trips to Green Belt, Maryland, to meet with fellow members. The group was run by Walter Penney, a crypto expert from NSA. In fact, I think he was dean of a "Code College" there, but nobody will tell me if that is true. Secrecy... just like my promised job there that got shredded somehow. (Search in my blogs: keyword: NSA)
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Baseball Story
Not long ago I stropped at a local playground to watch a Little League baseball game. To get myself up to speed, I asked one of the youngsters what the score was.
"We're behind 16 to nothing," he answered.
"I must say you don't seem discouraged," I said. "Why is that?"
"Discouraged?" said the boy. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven't even been up to bat yet."
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Military Service Story
A young marine sentry had strict orders not to admit any car without special identification.
The first car he stopped contained a general who didn't have the required ID. When the sentry refused to let the car pass, the annoyed general ordered his driver to pass right through.
The sentry asked politely: "I'm new at this. Do I shoot you or the driver first?"
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Bad News Story 1
I think it was Mark Twain who said something like: "The stories about my passing have been greatly exaggerated."
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Bad News Story 2
A man was shocked to see his obituary in the newspaper. He called a friend and asked, "Did you see my obituary in the newspaper today?"
The friend replied, "Yes. Uh - where are you calling from?"
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Bad News Story 3
An 80 year old German motorist drove through a motorway barrier, a construction site, and into a pile of sand because his Mercedes' onboard navigation system told him to. (Jawohl! Just following orders.)
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Good News Story 1 (?)
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has now decreed that masturbation is permissible during Ramadan, as long as the act is not intentional.
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Good News Story 2 (actually, a Life Lesson)
"What are we going to do?" said Baby Tiger to Mama Tiger in the jungle. "Here comes a hunter, and he has five rifles, three special sighting scopes, and devices to allow him to see in the dark!"
"Hush!" answered Mama Tiger and she taught her cub how to sneak up from behind and pounce.
The hunter was never heard of again.
All of which goes to prove that technology may be fine, but it will never be a substitute for a good basic education."
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