IH8 MY JITTERBUG

This has been a frustrating 2 hours for me. All of a sudden, my cell phone screen popped up with something similar to this:

Phone: Type in your Google password

Me: (password)

Phone:  Type in an email address and collect a texted code.

Me: (email address)

Phone:  Type in the code we sent.

Me:  (code)

Phone:  Type in your latest Google password.

Me:  (Password)

Phone:  Type in the email address related to your Google account.

Me: (email address)

Phone:  Create a new password and verify it.

Me:  (new password and verification)

Phone:  Type in an email address related to your Google account.

Me:  (email address again)

Phone: Type in your latest Google password.

Ditto.. all of this 4 or 5 times, and then:

Me:  Yelling "Go to Hell!" as I threw the phone through the kitchen window.

Is this a Russian hack? Is it a psychology test to see how much aggravation an 88-year-old man can stand.

Luckily I have two tech-savvy children and a tech-savvy grandson to put me back on the "straight and narrow."

Sniglets

Comedian Rich Hall developed Sniglets for a 1980;s show called: "Not Necessarily the News. A Sniglet is "an often humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists."

Professor Curnan talked about Sniglets in today's lecture.  She gave the following examples:

snacknosphere = the air taking up 95% of the space in a bag of potato chips.

nurge = as cars get closer to the red turning green, this is the movement some drivers make to get a jump start on the other drivers.

cyclophobia = fear of bicycles.

mustgo = something important on your calendar.

toastaphobia = fear of dropping a fork into the top of your toaster.

musquirt = that squirt of mustard that takes place as you try to urge mustard out of the bottle.

intaxication = the elation you feel when you get a tax refund, until you stop and think about the amount of tax you did pay.

bozone = the substance that surrounds jerks and keeps them from getting ideas.

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THOUGHTS

GASLIT

Well, I finally finished watching Gaslit.  I was disappointed that the reporting that Woodward and Bernstein did was not mentioned.

But the show addressed lots of the questions I have had about Watergate over the years.

Is the divisiveness in the U.S. because of Presidential activity going to occur now every 50 years? A large part of America loved Nixon and cried when he resigned, even though he committed crimes. "I am not a crook!" so he said.

I must confess, I thought he was a crook long before he was President.  And remember his corrupt Vice President, Agnew, who took bribes while in office.  As Governor of Maryland, I think he was also soliciting funds illegally.

That reminds me of "handsome" President Harding who was considered "a hunk" (if that term was in use in 1925) by millions of females, while at the same time asking illegal donors to fill a hole in the ground with big bills.  Also, there was the "Teapot Dome" situation.

Where is Barak Obama when we need him?

Urgent Call

At 2 AM, my landline telephone rang once and woke me up. My "blocker" stopped the call.  It was from "Joseph Vaughan" with my cell phone number. Did I walk in my sleep and dial myself?

Let's Go Back

Like the Lone Ranger, we return to thoughts of our "Yesteryears" with longing.

Car drivers long to return to lower gas prices.

Americans long to return to lower food prices.

Democrats long to return to FDR or Kennedy.

Republicans long to return to Reagan or Bush.

Ukrainians long to return to their peaceful country.

Russians long to return to a sanction less economy.

Alas!  We all have to live with what we have and strive to make peaceful changes so life will be better in the future. And don't forget to love one another.

(From Reverend Joe)

Alan Alda (Comedic Genius) 

I hope you all remember Alan Alda, the creator and main actor of M*A*S*H*.  I just read a New Yorker interview that showed that the 86-year-old comic is still going strong.

He controls two interesting Podcasts:  "Clear and Vivid with Alan Alda" and "Science, Clear and Vivid."

He grew up watching his father perform in burlesque theaters, but he didn't spend all the time watching the pretty girls naked from the waist up, rather he diligently studied the comics' routines until he became an expert comic himself.

Mr. Alda wrote a book that I want to read:  "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed."

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 SAMOHR STUFF

Wordle

Another word that could start with several letters.  Guess - I picked the right one. 

GASLIT

Amazing! Very close to true.  I'm binging.  I'm at the point where Martha Mitchell is about to let Woodward and Bernstein come on board.

Pardon me!

Speaking of Woodward and Bernstein, they wrote something for the preface of one of their books that I had not heard before:

In the 1915 Burdick vs the United States case before the Supreme Court, the justices ruled that requesting a pardon "carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance, a confession to it."

Ambrose Bierce wrote: Pardon (verb) To remit a penalty and restore to a life of crime."

Help for Computer Using Seniors

Bottom Line Personal for June 15, 2022 gave some tips for adult children to help their "kind of tech-savvy" parents keep from getting scammed:

1. Gain access to your parent's computer to be able to help them remotely.

2.  Make sure the operating system and other programs are updating automatically.

3.  Put parental controls on some software.

4.  Install antivirus software.

5.  Run system scans.

6.  Monitor their EMAIL.

7.  If you both have WINDOWS 10, use its remote assistance tool Quick Assist, if necessary.

8.  If you both have a MAC system, use the Remote Desktop, if necessary.

I think this would be also good for your children's computers, (if they let you.)

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 BITZEN PEESEZ

Odd-sounding (at least to me)

GAZINTA

I think it was Jimmy Durante who replied when someone asked him what he liked about school:

"I liked gazinta best,"

"What's gazinta?"

"Five gazinta twenty-five 5 times,  four gazinta sixteen four times."

EECHUTHA

This is "each other" the way that us Americans say it.

EECOODEEYA!

This was something we fourth grade kids yelled out when we found out about something we didn't know about before.

I haven't got the faintest idea what it means.  It's probably a corruption of a Portuguese phrase.

Although many years have past since I was in fourth grade, I still find myself mumbling "eecoodeeya" from time to time. Perhaps one of my New Bedford friends could let me know its origin and what it means.

Quotations Re: Mars and Venus

These were listed in The Funny Times for July/August of this year.

Gloria Steinem

"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle."

Dorothy Parker

"I require only three things of a man;  he must be handsome, ruthless and stupid."

Baltimore's Own H.L. Mencken

"On one issue, at least, men and women agree; they both distrust women."

"If a man and a woman, entering a room together, close the door behind them, the man will come out sadder and the woman wiser."

Come on, Henry, what do you mean?

DUI - Bombed Bambi

The Funny Times Weird News Section reported on a Deer Under The Influence problem in France. An animal rescue group says the following:

"... at this time of year, deer gorge on Spring flowers that are loaded with sugar, which ferments in their stomachs and makes them 'drunk.' For example, they may become disoriented and sometimes panicked, wandering into dangerous situations."

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 THINKING

Jan 6th Committee

If you did not get to see last night's presentation, try to see a copy because it is something you will never forget.

Spelling Bee

A little while ago the 94th episode of the Scripps National Spelling Bee was won by 14-year-old Harini Logan from Texas.

To get to her win, she had to spell some pretty tough words, including:

suffrutescent = having a base that is somewhat woody and does not die each year

emancipatory = giving people social or political freedom and rights

kathakali = lyric dance of Southern India

de rigueur = required by etiquette or current fashion

kente = brightly colored, banded material made in Ghana

kwashiorkor = a form of malnutrition

ikebana = Japanese art of flower arrangement

meuniere = cooked or served in lightly browned butter with lemon juice and parsley

wiliwili = a flowering tree in Hawaii

obvertend = a proposition upon which the operation of obversion (look it up in your logic textbook) is performed.

palapala = soil, in Hawaiian

owe lege = to owe feudal allegiance to the laird (lord)

WOW!  How many of these could you spell when you were 14-years-old?  I couldn't even spell any of them then or now.

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 MY HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN!

Wordle - My Puzzling Downfall

At the moment of my 100th guess, I failed to solve the hidden word.  I had a choice of three similar words and I picked the wrong two.  Shame on me. I'm no longer "perfect."

To make up for it, I downloaded a regular crossword and a cryptic crossword from The New Yorker and finished them quickly. (I have to confess, they were quite easy puzzles.)

GASLIT - Nixon's Downfall

I just watched Episode Two and now I'm hooked.

The characters are so real to me.  I watched the original Watergate scandal unfold 50 years ago.

The Wall - Environmental Downfall

This morning I watched a video of the border wall and what it is doing to the environment.  An estimated 70 creatures and native plants are not surviving where the 458 miles of fencing have been erected through mountains, rivers, valleys and forests.  

Since much of the wall area is "off limits", drones relayed pictures of the devastation to their human owners.

It is very strange to see this wall snaking across the tops of mountains; to see giant wall slabs on giant forklifts, waiting to be pushed into the ground; to see animals looking bewildered when the wall cuts off their source of food; to see the giant cacti broken into pieces by the heavy equipment.

"Mr. President! Tear down that wall!"

Color Problem Solved - Searching Downfall

For a long time I have tried to find an appropriate word to describe the color of the modified Jeep that I owned when I was stationed in Germany.

I always called it a "bilious green."

Today, a "word of the day" popped up on my screen.  I had never heard of it before.  I feel that is the perfect adjective to describe the color of my Jeep:

olivaceous  =  of a dusky yellowish green color;                             olive green

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THINK ABOUT IT

Watergate

This is the 50th anniversary of the Watergate story and there is a series about it called "Gaslit."  I just watched episode one and it reminded me how some dishonest people did dishonest things to make sure that a dishonest President remained in power. (Sound familiar?)

Around that time, I was acquainted with some dishonest Government executives who asked me to do dishonest things.  I lost some promotions by not giving in, but I had this overwhelming disease called "Honesty."  

For example, at one time I was in charge of running a management conference. One of my jobs was to make sure all of the exhibitors had an equitable amount of funds from a rather small budget (as Government budgets go).

One of the exhibitors felt that he needed a lot more money than the others and he visited me to show me how to fudge the budget in his favor.  I refused.

He then sent his wife to sweet-talk me.  I still refused.

Because of my obstinance, he had to steal the money he thought he needed from some other budget.

Although this guy complained loudly about me, I was one of a very few managers to get an award that year.

 Yes, I was the original Mr. Goody Two Shoes.

Who was the most honest President?

In poll after poll, people surveyed said that Abraham Lincoln was the one. 

  
He was called "The Great Emancipator, The Martyr President, and Honest Abe."  The only one that everyone remembers is Honest Abe!"

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