June 12, 2024 by Archon's Den

’24 A To Z Challenge – F

Fee, Fie, Foe, F**k
I smell the scent of a French-fry truck.

I am famished!
I want some food.
I want it soon
I want it in a hurry
I want some food – fast.
I want some fast-food.
But most of all, I want some food at no cost, because

FREE

is my favorite flavor.
Sadly, as Robert Heinlein said, TANSTAAFL.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

Everything comes at a cost. Like the sign in many a truck says, “Ass, gas or grass – Nobody rides free.”

Now that I’ve doled out all this folksy lore, BUCKSHEE – a term I picked up from a Newfie, deriving from the Indian expression, baksheesh – a tip, present, gratuity, or alms – roughly speaking, fer free – I would appreciate it if you paid me back with some visits, likes and comments. 😀

September 20, 2023 by Archon's Den

Where Angels Fear To Tread

More like Angels With Dirty Faces. What the TSA don’t know about what happens on the highways, can’t hurt me. We haven’t been anywhere since our visit to BrainRants, five years ago, long before COVID. We paid off our mortgage. We paid off our car. We beat our credit card balance down to a reasonable amount. I felt that we deserved a treat, so I ensured that the air pressure in our passports was up, and started to plan and plot

Even earlier than our BrainRants trip, we had managed to visit John Erickson and his wife for a mere two hours. As a penance for using my blog-site to prove that his wit was faster than mine, (Mine is tied to a calendar, while his springs off a stopwatch.) he grudgingly agreed to allow us to visit for a whole two days.

I immediately booked a three-night stay at a nearby Red Roof Inn that doesn’t have a red roof. Like the one that the son and I stayed at, in Batavia, NY, this one was purchased from another chain. The roof has not been redone, and may never be. It has internal corridors and room doors.

After the $500/night financial fiasco at the big Toronto hotel, I didn’t pay the online-listed $79/night charge. I didn’t pay the members’ 15% reduced fee of $68. When I phoned in my reservation, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that I was only being charged $55/night USd = $73.35 Cdn – and they will provide a free continental breakfast, and free long-distance telephone calling. Finally, the Universe is trying to even out my karma.

On our last visit, we were in and out of beautiful, metropolitan, Dogsbody, Ohio, quick and sweet – no fuss, no muss, no bother. Aside from John and his wife, the only people who even knew we were there, were the Mensa Organization meeting folks, over to thuh gen’ral store. This time, it will be longer and more obvious. If you hear that the Ohio National Guard has been called out, don’t worry. It won’t be another ‘Kent State massacre,’ they’ll just be politely but firmly, putting down a local Amish insurrection of disaffected Elders, who are armed only with beards and buggy exhaust.

February 6, 2017 by Archon's Den

It’s All Newton’s Fault

I’m not talking about Sir Isaac Newton. I’m referring to Newton Minow, an American who was Director of the FCC during the Kennedy Era. In 1961, he declared television to be a vast wasteland. This irritated many within the industry, to the point that, the SS Minnow that washed up on Gilligan’s Island was named after him.

The cost of accessing this wasteland by cable continued to increase. About 12 years ago, we dumped cable, and went with satellite TV. Satellite rates soon followed Cable rates. Two years ago, when the wife’s mobility problems meant that she had trouble going down to the basement rec room to watch TV, we cut the satellite cable also.

Almost 50 years of marriage means that we have little new to talk about, so we relied on books to fill the excess time. OH! WOW! Last year’s list of 51 books, has increased this year to 57.

Jim Wheeler’s question about rereading books had me going back to reread some old Sci-Fi. I have quite an interest in time travel and temporal paradoxes. Note toward the bottom of the reread section, the time travel group.

pebble-in-the-sky