{"id":10701,"date":"2022-07-21T10:22:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T15:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/?p=10701"},"modified":"2024-06-29T15:40:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T20:40:23","slug":"random-thursday-the-non-wildlife-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2022\/07\/21\/random-thursday-the-non-wildlife-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thursday: The Non-Wildlife Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why, hello there, good looking! Today is Be Someone Day<\/a>, and I was totally prepared to make some lame jokes about it until I broke with tradition and researched it and found that it’s a day to think about how to make a positive difference in a child’s life…and, more specifically, to commit to reporting child abuse if you observe it. Important stuff, that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, fortunately, it’s also National Junk Food Day<\/a>, as well as Get To Know Your Customers Day<\/a>. Now, I have a pretty good handle on the Gazette’s “customers” (think about it…you’re paying me with the time you spend to peruse this garb…uh…pixel-based scribbling), but in observance of both of those days, if any of you choose to leave in the comments one fact about yourself that I don’t already know, I commit to eating one potato chip. You can’t tell me that those yahoos in the Starbucks corporate offices are prepared to make that kind of deal with their<\/em> customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We’ve got a lot to cover today…but first, some breaking news!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[To the tune of American Pie<\/i>]
Bad news on the test strip;
I can\u2019t take anymore trips.
I can\u2019t remember if I cried
The morning I saw that second line,
But the coughing comes from deep inside
The day of the test broadside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debbie and I both tested positive this morning. I blame Joe Biden. Fortunately, like pretty much everyone else, our symptoms are mild, but just in case, I’ll wear a mask* while writing the rest of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*As far as you know.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article entitled How to Spot Fake Reviews and Shady Ratings on Amazon<\/em>. I’d link to it, but it’s behind a paywall. Besides, it’s of little value…mostly commonsense stuff that alert Gazette readers already know. But I was intrigued by some of the comments left by subscribers. Please allow me to mock a couple of them, but also give credit where credit is due for one helpful suggestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, this one…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I don’t think that word means what you think it means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this guy was grasping for a gender-neutral terms for someone who sews stuff. That word, by the way, is tailor<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there’s this one…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well, at least we know he’s<\/i> not a fake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a writer, albeit a hack, I resent the implication — nay, the accusation<\/em> — that my striving for perfection in my written communications is evidence of my intent to engage in trickericity. (Pretty sure that’s a word. Really.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This last one, however, makes a very good point that I’d never considered…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is what the previous guy should have said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, by publishing this on the Gazette I’ve ensured that Amazon will now be flooded by four star reviews. The cat’s out of the bag. Sorry about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[By the way, I, for one, would gladly pay for some four star reviews for this blog.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Switching gears now; stay with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday I received an email from the Pedernales Electric Cooperative<\/a> (PEC), our electricity provider. It had a link to a video purporting to explain why our bill went up this month, compared to last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found the video…unhelpful. Well, see for yourself (I don’t know why there’s no audio, but it’s captioned so it doesn’t matter).<\/p>\n\n\n\n