It's
Thursday, August 11, 2016, and while I am not into conspiracy theories, however, something just strikes me as being a little out of place in the recent story about the power outage that brought Delta Airlines to a screeching halt. I don't know what the exact cause was but a power outage for a major enterprise totally dependent on online access in today's world given the size and effectiveness of any number of backup technologies available, well, it does cause one to wonder. Juxtapose that against the recent reports of potential threats coming into new territories from professional and/or enemy hackers, especially the threats against targets like the electrical grid, well, I think you see where I am coming from. It took them three days to get themselves somewhat recovered from this power glitch but this incident might have been a promise of more to come. (They are still dealing with cancellations as of today's blog.) I am not trying to start anything, I'm just giving my drive by assessment even as it was all unfolding in the news. Another thing, we have an institution worth so many billions, it's actually hard to put a ceiling on the value, and they, the NFL, had to cancel the Hall of Fame football game because of an unprepared and unsafe field. That game is usually a sell-out. They couldn't play because the wrong paint was used on the surface. Believe it or not, that's one of the leading explanations. Many years ago there was a TV show called, 'That's Incredible!', and I believe both the Delta story and the NFL game cancellation would qualify to headline that show. Not being able to have the field ready makes one wonder if they really had their act together in the craziness that came out of the so-called deflated football scandal. Just me, driving by and giving you what I see out of my window. Yes. I did see the signs. They said, "Keep driving, there's nothing to see here." Well, okay then. I suppose that should settle it. Right?
I saw a tweet the other day that caught my eye. It was posted by the online edition of UK's newspaper, The Financial Times. Here's the actual tweet, "Sir Malcolm Rifkind's 'Power and Pragmatism' is a lesson in how not to write a memoir." It had the full review web address but I didn't go to it. I was more struck how that would be the worst possible thing to be said about a book you had written. I know the book is about a life in politics because of the photo attached to the tweet. Think about it. You spend your life working in a particular field and when you get older you take the time to reminisce about your life, your work, your successes and lessons learned. You get the book published and before you know it, a prominent reviewer says your book serves as an instruction in how not to write what you have just finished. Ouch. I suppose it jumped out at me because I have been putting up my own running memoir with my daily visits over the past nine years. Someone, somewhere, is looking at my blogs, or at least they are landing on them by accident. I recently surpassed 175,000 page views. I do hope that most folks who read what I have written don't immediately think, "Hey, this guy's blog is a great example of how not to do it well." At the same time, I also know you don't have the potential to be criticized if you don't have anything out there for them to critique. That tweet did get my attention. You can tell? I'll try to do better. Thanks.
My grammar program wanted me to use 'Can you tell?', and I could see where that would be a good choice, however, it didn't sound like me, so I used the now well-worn ignore button one more time and went with what he called a wrong word ordered question. It's okay. I know he's just doing his job. Maybe that fellow who wrote his memoir hit the ignore button too many times. With my 70th looming ever so near, I've been reading some of the antics of old people who try to find ways to fend off boredom. One unattributed little ditty went like this: "The elderly man and his wife came out of the store to find an officer writing a ticket. They said, 'What are you doing? Come on, can't you give a senior citizen a break?' The officer kept on writing so the older man called him a bad name. The officer flipped the pad and began writing another ticket, this one for bald tires. The elderly lady then got into the act and she used a really bad word to describe the cop. He began the third ticket as he glowed with anger. About that time the bus from the retirement home came and the two older folks got on and waved to the policeman." It's a thought. My guess is that if I tried something like that I would be taken for a ride instead of waiting for a ride. I have to fast after 8 p.m. tonight in order to get ready for my blood work tomorrow. That means I will not be supplementing the production of my blog in the morning with Community Coffee. I thought it was meaningful enough to at least give fair warning. Have a great rest of the day and may God bless us all is my prayer.
Amen. ....More later.
My grammar program wanted me to use 'Can you tell?', and I could see where that would be a good choice, however, it didn't sound like me, so I used the now well-worn ignore button one more time and went with what he called a wrong word ordered question. It's okay. I know he's just doing his job. Maybe that fellow who wrote his memoir hit the ignore button too many times. With my 70th looming ever so near, I've been reading some of the antics of old people who try to find ways to fend off boredom. One unattributed little ditty went like this: "The elderly man and his wife came out of the store to find an officer writing a ticket. They said, 'What are you doing? Come on, can't you give a senior citizen a break?' The officer kept on writing so the older man called him a bad name. The officer flipped the pad and began writing another ticket, this one for bald tires. The elderly lady then got into the act and she used a really bad word to describe the cop. He began the third ticket as he glowed with anger. About that time the bus from the retirement home came and the two older folks got on and waved to the policeman." It's a thought. My guess is that if I tried something like that I would be taken for a ride instead of waiting for a ride. I have to fast after 8 p.m. tonight in order to get ready for my blood work tomorrow. That means I will not be supplementing the production of my blog in the morning with Community Coffee. I thought it was meaningful enough to at least give fair warning. Have a great rest of the day and may God bless us all is my prayer. Amen. ....More later.
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