Whatever

Advice From Nextdoor

Fandango28 Comments

EEAB8B7D-DED0-4689-B117-5513D26B24CEI have this app on my iPhone called “Nextdoor.” According to its website, “Nextdoor is the best way to stay informed about what’s going on in your neighborhood — whether it’s finding a last-minute babysitter, planning a local event, or sharing safety tips. There are so many ways our neighbors can help us, we just need an easier way to connect with them.”

I’ve actually found out some interesting and useful things on the Nextdoor app. Like temporary road closures, new local restaurants opening up or old ones closing, crime reports, and some suggestions for who to call for what services.

But I have to admit that what I saw on Nextdoor the other day had to be the weirdest, possibly the sickest piece of advice I’ve ever seen. I swear this was actually posted on on the Nextdoor app. But to be honest, I don’t know if this posting was a legitimate one or a prank. I’m hoping it was a prank, but these days, you can never be sure.

Are you ready?CE018E16-9390-4744-BC71-6A767FE09664Okay, speaking about pets, and to lighten things up, since the above post, if you’re a pet owner, might freak you out, I also saw this picture posted on Nextdoor.AB904335-3644-4A81-B843-44A362E02CE2

Padiddle!

Fandango8 Comments

100FC382-878C-4FBD-876C-64840342A500You know what a padiddle is, don’t you? It’s a game, actually. We all used to play it from our late teens probably into and maybe even through our twenties.

Padiddle is a term that refers to a car with only one working headlight, as is the case in the photo above of an old VW Beetle. The way the padiddle game worked was that if you were out for a drive with your girlfriend and you saw a car with only one working headlight, the first one of you to shout out “Padiddle!” was the winner. If the guy was the first to shout the word, he got to kiss the girl. If the girl said it first, she could either slap or kiss the guy.

The game was a played a little differently if your driving companion happened to be another guy. In that case, the first one to shout “Padiddle!” got to punch the other guy in the upper arm. Fun, huh?

Anyway, I thought about padiddle the other night when I was walking my dog. I noticed that I hardly ever see cars at night with only one working headlight and I wondered why. And then the answer came to me: sealed beam headlights.4F4BC02F-DEDA-44A6-8E77-2506D29A9CE4These days, nearly all cars have composite headlight assemblies, uniquely designed for each specific make and model car. If a light within the assembly burns out, which is relatively rare, you simply replace just the bulb.

But back in the day, all U.S. cars were required by law to use “sealed beam headlights,” and they were pretty much standardized in size (i.e., not vehicle specific). The headlight consisted of an enclosure with a bulb in front of a lens, completely made of glass. The entire unit is sealed (hence the name) and none of the parts can be replaced separately. If the headlight stopped functioning or broke, you’d have to replace the entire sealed beam light.

These sealed beam headlight bulbs used to burn out every few years. Hence, there were more cars on the road with only one working headlight. Which meant a lot more opportunities for the padiddle game and a legitimate excuse to kiss your sweetie (or to arm-punch your buddy.)

But then in the mid 80s, U.S. laws changed to allow composite headlight assemblies with replaceable bulbs for the first time. And these bulbs were brighter and lasted a lot longer than those sealed beam headlights.

When was the last time you saw a padiddle? In fact, when was the last time you saw a car (other than at old time car shows or fairs) with sealed beam headlights?

For what it’s worth, I came across this picture of a ‘56 Chevy Bel Air on Pinterest. Notice its sealed beam headlights. Sexy, right?872B120F-6CD9-410D-8D55-32B5BEB8D4DB

AZQCueU2 — Society

Fandango14 Comments

4CD32C7C-2AD4-41CF-8DB9-801F1BE25E90I have been tagged by Punam, at Paeansunpluggedblog, for this game on quotes started by Rory, A Guy Called Bloke. The topic is SOCIETY. It is being played alphabetically. Each person has to post a quote on society by a person whose surname (last name) begins with the letter assigned to them. You can check out more details here.

Rory took the letter A

Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man’s life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self too.” — Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

Paula took B

“The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.” — James Baldwin

King Ben’s Grandma took C

“To me, the progress of society consists in nothing more than in bringing out the individual, in giving him a consciousness of his own being, and in quickening him to strengthen and elevate his own mind.” — William E. Channing

Beckie took D

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” — Frederick Douglass

Sadje took E

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” — Albert Einstein

Li took F

“It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.”— Gillian Flynn

Jim took G

“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” — Galileo

Punam took H

“Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.” — Alex Haley

And Fandango (that’s me) took the letter I

“In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.”  — Lee Iacocca

I tag Jerry Brotherton (aka, The Backyard Poet) for the letter J.

Not Just My Verse — Insomnia

Fandango15 Comments

72EC02B7-B1F8-49A3-98B6-FAC597ED994FSo Rory (A Guy Called Bloke) started another one of his poetry blog hop thingies. He chooses a topic — in this case, insomnia — and writes four lines of rhyming verse. Then he tags one of his readers who will, in turn, add his or her own four lines of rhyming verse to Rory’s and then tag one of his or her own readers to do the same. And so on and so on. It’s a case of wash, rinse, repeat. Once the poem [verse] leaves Rory’s blog, the next series of bloggers can take it wherever they want with regards their own four line verses, but they must always stay on topic.

Here’s how Rory got it started:

Why do you evade me so? It makes for no sense,
In truth, to do so unkindly and unwarranted, is nonsense!
I have tried counting all sorts, from stars to wide eyed sheep!
Yet still you, yes you decline me shut eye and valuable sleep!

 Jay-lin of The Wonderful and Wacky World of one Single Mum

Tossing and turning pulling blankets near,
What is that noise that I hear?
It is not the sandman come for me,
Why won’t you let me sleep dear?    

Gary of Bereaved Single Dad

Countless late night biscuits and black coffee,
Walking around like a spaced out zombie,
Listening to Cohen and Floyd on endless loop,
Convincing myself that no sleep is common in my age group.

Lorraine of Blind Wilderness

I toss and I turn
Oh when will I learn
That sleep is at bay
On an Away Day

Di at Pensitivity101

The stars are so bright at this time of night,
I look forward to slumbering deep,
As I close my tired eyes, what a surprise,
The brain wakes and I can’t get to sleep!

Teresa at The Haunted Wordsmith

The shadows creep along the wall
like predators waiting for me to fall.
My pillow–my shield; flashlight–my sword,
The most dangerous thing is a mind that’s bored.

And now it’s my turn:

Wide awake, I turn and look at my clock to see
That it’s three a.m. and I have to get up to pee
Back in bed I close my eyes, then check my clock once more.
Oh my God, it’s not even four!

Okay. I’m going to throw this over to my buddy Jim Adams to add his four lines of rhyming verse.

SoCS — Homophonia

Fandango17 Comments

For today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has given us an exercise in homophonia. No, that’s not a typo. She didn’t ask us to write a stream of consciousness post about homophobia. She asked us to write a post using “for,” “fore,” and/or “four.” She said we could use one of them, all of them, or any of them. So I guess I’m done since I just used all three of them.

Just kidding!

“For,” “fore,” and “four” are homophones. That is, they are words that sound alike, but have different meanings, and have different spellings.

“For” is the 12th most commonly used word in the English language. It’s everywhere and has multiple uses. According to Dictionary.com, “for” has 32 different ways it can be used as a preposition and two additional ways it can be used as a conjunction. “For” is quite a handy dandy little word.

At the opposite end of word variations is “four,” which is simply and pretty much only used as a number, as in one, two, three, four.

And somewhere in between, in terms of meanings, is “fore.” It can mean the front of a boat, as in “fore and aft.” Or it can mean in, toward, or near the front. Or it can be what someone shouts right before you get knocked unconscious by getting hit in the head by a golf ball.3CFE79EF-E66C-4913-B56D-75BE6DA7C683A few other common examples of homophones are:

  • to/too/two
  • there/their/they’re
  • by/buy/bye
  • know/no
  • here/hear
  • ate/eight

Well, Okay, you get the idea.

Now I’m done.