1,215 Honorable Patriots Reenlist

God bless America -- especially her true patriots, willing to water the tree of liberty with their blood. ... (This ceremony took place IN IRAQ, July 4, 2008.)

The Gifts of Gab

Got a few gems off sports talk radio today ...

* Bo Mattingly has some young guy side-kicking on his show now. They were doing a trivia contest call-in about Auburn University's Jordan-Hare Stadium, where the Razorbacks will be playing on Saturday. Ralph "Shug" Jordan (photo) is Auburn's most-revered former coach. His name is pronounced "jurd-un." Young Guy kept mispronouncing it over and over, thinking it was the normal "jore-dun." Anybody covering SEC football has to know this. Bo or also-present Dudley Dawson, who surely do know better, did not straighten the kid out.

Later, the kid jumped into a discussion about some worsening event and said "it only exasperated the situation." Exacerbated, of course.

Then, during a 103.7 The Buzz "Sports Slam," I am certain the unfailingly annoying Danny-Joe Crofford (full voulme and full volume only) said "groan strain" instead of "groin strain." Oh well, one deserves the other.

For truly inspired and legendary mangling of the English language, of course, The Buzz's Randy Rainwater on Drive Time Sports is unmatched. I have no ready example at hand; tune in any afternoon to collect your own. One of his specialities is the double negative that makes a positive. God bless you, Randy, we love ya.

Vocabularious!

I got a little freelance writing job through Elance, a website Jerusalem told me about.

I had to do 10 rewrites of 5 blog articles so that the author ended up with 11 versions of each article instead of just one. Each title had to be rewritten 10 times. Each sentence had to be rewritten 10 times.

In one article I encountered a section of bullet points. One of the points was just 2 words: Sodium Free.

OK ... write Sodium Free 10 more ways.

Here's what I did:

1. Is sodium free.
2. It's sodium free.
3. Free of sodium.
4. No sodium.
5. Has no sodium.
6. Contains no sodium.
7. Amount of sodium: none.
8. Amount of sodium: zero.
9. Sodium content: none.
10. Sodium content: zero.

One of the best writing jobs I ever did! Verbosity is not always a bad thing.

After all, it is a practical certainty that numerous methodologies appertain to the removal of a feline epidermis.

Jobless ... Sort Of

I've been over 4 months without full-time employment now. I wouldn't recommend it.

I haven't exactly been idle, though I obviously haven't used the time for posting!

I do most of the kitchen work, except when Tanya cooks a meal.

I've given a lot more time to our eBay store, YARD SALE MANSION.

I've spent a lot of time applying for jobs found in the classified ads... haven't gotten any, which has been an unpleasant surprise. I think I'm in that Over-Qualified quicksand...

I did get the part-time job with the radio stations, which I am enjoying -- even though it has meant listening to some awful football games (winless Gurdon HS and the sub-par Razorbacks.)

I still have my pastorate and church duties every Sunday, thank Heaven!

Had some time to get our church website back up and running.

I have checked on a lot of on-line & telecommuting jobs via Craigslist, etc. -- most seem to be scams.

I've signed up to be a substitute teacher for Arkadelphia schools this year. Had orientation last week, so I'll probably get my first call soon. Should be ... interesting.

(Calvin says, "Yeah, kill the messenger.")

For the first time in my life, I'm drawing unemployment -- and grateful for it, let me tell you! Worried, too, since it will run out in a few more weeks.

Like I say, I wouldn't recommend an extended period of unemployment. It's pretty much ruin't me! Can't stand the thought of another j.o.b. ... but it better happen soon!