Today was quite “interesting.” The Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees were running a booth at a festival at Bohrer Park down in Gaithersburg this afternoon and I went to help out. Around 1:30 a police dog that happened to be at the event “alerted” on me and turned up a small bag of marijuana in my left pocket.
No, I’m not joking, there really was marijuana in my pocket. I should know, I put it there after all. I would say that it wasn’t mine, but then, that’s what they all say, right?
No doubt you’re wondering what the heck was going on. How did I end up with marijuana in my pocket?
There’s a simple explanation: The cop gave it to me.
The event was Gaithersburg’s annual all-dog “Bark in the Park” festival and the Jaycees had arranged for officers from the Maryland Division of Corrections to put on a demonstration. I was one of the volunteers for the demonstration of how the dogs help to screen people for drugs.
Blue Birds
It’s sort of a botanical Rorschach test. What do you see?
Marsh Quality
Before emptying the spam folder, I’m in the habit of reviewing the subject lines just to make sure nothing important was trapped by mistake. Of course, it is necessary to be a little skeptical since spammers will generally try to peddle their wares by making the product sound like it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
Today I spotted this subject line:
Trusted Marsh Quality at Discount Prices
I’m not sure I understand how “Marsh Quality” could be considered a positive. Sure, it’s Trusted Marsh Quality, but I tend to think of marshes as soggy, mosquito breeding-grounds.
They did get part of it right though. If the best thing about your product is its “Marsh Quality,” you’d better be selling it at a discount price!
Robotic Geriatric Medicine
It seems that after more than four years into a planned three month mission, the Opportunity Martian Rover has developed the robotic equivalent of an arthritic shoulder.
Pink Foliage
White Puffball
Bad Influence
Back in 2005, Squish was trying to decide what her next adventure should be and I suggested she should start a blog. If anyone should have a blog, it’s Squish because despite all her claims to the contrary, I’ve never once caught her when she didn’t have something interesting to say. And so on December 7, Squish announced that her blog my fault. (I can’t help thinking the fact that this announcement came on Pearl Harbor Day was deliberate.)
At about the same time, Z. (another one who’s never at a loss for interesting things to say) was also looking for a new adventure and having started Dividing by Zero only a few months earlier, I made the same suggestion. Z. has never blamed me in public, but her first post was also in December.
A few days ago, after posting more than a week of flower photos, I dared anyone who read Dividing by Zero to post photos of flowers on their blog.
To help assure a bountiful harvest of flower photos, I emailed the link to a few friends who I knew had cameras and/or flower beds with the email subject line saying, “I Dare You!” One such recipient was Sue. I’ve never known Sue to back down from a fun dare, and particularly not from a double-dog dare. (Indeed, she’d be the first to tell you, you can’t ignore a double-dog dare.)
Today Sue wrote her first blog post. Not only does it have a photo of a flower, she also blames me for her decision.
I’m so proud of her.
So there you have it. I’m officially a Bad Influence™! Not merely a bad influence, but a Bad Influence™. With capital letters and everything!
(And if I had it do over, I’d encourage them all again.)
Grape Purple
Peach
Vocabulary Builder
I’ve created a new word recently. The word is “Disenclutter.” You can prove that it’s a word, because it shows up on Google. Granted, the only site it currently shows up on is my own, but that sort of nitpicking detail isn’t worth worrying about. Gene Weingarten used a similar technique when he coined the term “Googlenope” (a phrase which has no hits on Google). If it’s good enough for Gene, then by golly, it’s good enough for me. (Unfortunately, I don’t have the same audience size as Gene, so any and all help in expanding the usage of “Disenclutter” is most welcome.)
In order that the word might propagate with a minimum of confusion, it is necessary to understand the word’s origins
The root word is, of course, “clutter” which the Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines as: “to fill or cover with scattered or disordered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness.” The past tense form is “cluttered” which, quite accurately, describes the current state of my guest room and possibly one or two other areas of my house (e.g. the upstairs and the downstairs).
Likewise, the prefix dis- is defined as meaning “do the opposite of.” and “en-” means “cause to be.”
Therefore, the verb “Disenclutter” can be understood to mean “causing all the disordered things impeding movement in my house to impede movement in someone else’s house instead.”
Feel free to spread the word! 🙂
(Need any CD boxes? Any 3-ring binders?)