Will Never Know

Can't help but wonder, with all their success, what would the US women's gymnastics teams have been able to accomplish had they been treated with the respect they deserved.

Outstanding

We have enjoyed 8 years of overwelming economic growth and retirement of government overspending.  There have been no terrorist attacks, we've won every conflict and brought our forces home in victory.  Gitmo detainees have been rehabilitated and released to productive lives.  The Affordable Care Act is wildly successful and irreplaceable.  Race relations and diversity value have never been better.  Everything that is remaining uncorrected is the fault of greedy Republicans and their Russian supporters.

To top this all off, our loving friends in Hollywood, as they gather glamorously to give awards to themselves, call for a new, stringent standard of accountability for elected officials.  It seems there's just nothing left to ask for.

"Green" Lesson Learned

Stopped by the local big box hardware store, among other things, to pick up a quart of mineral spirits, to replenish my gallon can.  Found something in a plastic quart bottle labelled mineral spirits.  The bottle was also labeled "green," explaining that it is lower odor and a lower VOC (volatile organic compounds) emission blend.  OK.

Got it home, pulled the seal, and poured it into my gallon can.  What came out of the bottle was a thick, milky white, something that smelled a little like mineral spirits, but clearly was not.  A little subsequent web research identifies the stuff as an emulsified water/mineral spirits mixture.

This stuff is worthless for its intended purpose, as it will not clean a paint brush of varnish or oil-based paint and, if used to thin varnish or oil-based paint, the water will separate out and fall to the bottom of the can, leaving the varnish or paint ruined.  I also ruined the actual mineral spirits in my gallon can, since it turned the combined stuff into a thinner milky white unusable can of yuck.  I used the concoction to kill some grass growing in an expansion joint in the street in front of the house.

So, here's another green fail.  Stuff labelled mineral spirits is not fit for its intended use.  Using it will ruin paintbrushes and cans of varnish or paint, and the entire impacted group of materials and supplies are rendered waste.  The stuff was no doubt in a plastic bottle, since it would rust through a metal can.  And, the quart of schmuck was $9.  A whole gallon of real mineral spirits is $15.  Never again.  If you see something - anything - labelled "Kleen Strip Green," turn and walk away.  Buy real mineral spirits and know that what appears to be worse for the environment is, once again, systematically better for it.

Microsoft Knows

MS has always assumed they know better what we need/want to do than we do.  If this all they did with the start button, they missed the point again, entirely.

Windows 8.1 will allow people to start in the desktop mode automatically. In that mode, the company is restoring a button that resembles the old Start button. The button will now take people back to the Windows 8 start screen, rather than the old Start menu, but the re-introduction of the familiar button may make it easier for longtime Windows users to get accustomed to the changes.

Tells me we need to hang on to the XP and Win7 install disks a little longer.

Levitime

Time for a little levity:

Paradox = two physicians or two places to park boats
Paradigm = twenty cents
Duodenum = two pairs of jeans
Investment = priest dressed for mass
Lactate = don't have any tate
Flu = past tense of flo
Penmanship = Mr. Bic's boat
Manifest = party for guys
Reality = ality again
Pastry = attempt a pas
Attorney = professional golfer at work
Ledbetter = not as bad as ledworst, but not quite as good as ledbest
Congress = opposite of progress
Coconut = someone fond of chocolate

Confirm = shouldn't it be profirm?
Herbicide = why isn't it Weedicide? Herb's never hurt anyone

Procrastination = if this is delaying doing something, then concrastination would be hurrying to do something too early, and crastination would be doing it at just the right time