It was sunny yesterday, O wonder of wonders. I spent the day painting the back porch. It’s a tiny porch, but has four different colors and a couple different wall textures and it kept my body occupied for hours.<\/p>\n
But my mind had —–<\/p>\n I found myself thinking about Amy Fischer, the “Long Island Lolita”<\/a> and her main squeeze with the perfect tabloid name, Joey Buttafuoco. Why the heck would I be there in the sunshine thinking about some long-eclipsed “crime of the century”? I have no idea.<\/p>\n That’s so<\/i> 1992.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I thought about whether the “Starbucks for pot”<\/a> would work out.<\/p>\n Great idea. But you gotta do something about that unpronounceable name.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I thought this was the most hysterically funny headline I’ve seen all week<\/a>.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I was thinking about people who have no sense of responsibility. It scares me that about half of all the people I’ve hoped I could count on over the years don’t have one.<\/p>\n I wondered if the neighbor I just hired to trim shrubbery and cut brush would actually show up and do it. He seems bright, eager, and knowledgeable. But I realize I’ve quit expecting anything until I see it happen.<\/p>\n I thought about the first time, many years ago, that I got an inkling that a lot of people make promises they don’t try to keep. I was coordinating a community project and a young woman never showed up to do her bit. Nor could she be reached for days beforehand. It turned out she’d known all along she was going to be out of the country that week.<\/p>\n When I asked incredulously, “Why didn’t you let me know?” she shrugged as if anyone with a brain would understand. “It was only a volunteer project,” she sniffed.<\/p>\n I was too dumbstruck to ask, “So your word only counts when you’re getting paid?” <\/p>\n I sometimes wonder if I’m a self-righteous ass***e about things like this. It’s possible.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I thought, “Nope, I’m not going to poke that hornet’s nest again.” But 35-year career Marine, Dr. Jimmy T. (Gunny) LaBaume, now he<\/i> can poke at it all he wants<\/a><\/p>\n ——<\/p>\n I wondered whether the Hancock clan’s new plan for their Freedom’s Phoenix<\/i><\/a> newsletter will do well. After 24 issues focused on events in the world, they’re taking it more personal with articles like this<\/a> on neighbors and suburban survivalism.<\/p>\n Great pix. Great ideas. Would like to see more words to make the concept clearer.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I thought about Yahoo Mail going the way of Gmail<\/a>. Sigh.<\/p>\n Funny that they ask their subscribers to consent to scanning and targeting of all their mail — but folks who merely write to their subscribers aren’t given a choice in the matter, even though they get just as thoroughly spied upon.<\/p>\n Before Gmail launched, I swore publicly that I’d never correspond with anybody with a Gmail address. It was an empty threat. So many people, including close friends, embraced Gmail that I never carried through (oops, does that mean my word can’t be counted on, either?).<\/p>\n Now I’m seriously thinking about renewing that pledge, for any known spyware email system. Maybe. Problem is, if the hints are true, there are darned few email systems that aren’t somebody’s spyware, these days.<\/p>\n Katherine Albrecht’s and StartPage’s StartMail<\/a> sounds promising, though details are lacking at this point. Beta testers wanted (at the link).<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I thought about Potemkin prosperity<\/a>. (H\/T Wendy McElroy<\/a>)<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\nbetter<\/del> other<\/i> things it wanted to do.<\/p>\n