#FFF

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — June 2nd

Fandango12 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (2nd) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on June 2, 2018.

SoCS — Unfavorite

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Linda G. Hill asked us to write a post about our favorite word for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I’m going to be like that proverbial salmon swimming upstream against the current. I’m going to post about a word that nauseates me whenever I hear it, which, these days, is way too often.

That word is “unprecedented.”

The word “unprecedented” has historically been a somewhat benign word. According to Dictionary.com, unprecedented means “without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled.”

Unprecedented can be used describe things, good or bad, that are unique. Good things like unprecedented success, accomplishments, enthusiasm, or show of support. Or bad things like unprecedented disasters or failures.

So why does seeing or hearing the word “unprecedented” make me sick? Because of Donald Trump.

Ever since he rode down that escalator in Trump Tower almost three years ago, Trump has been breaking norms and shattering traditions. And from the very beginning, reporters, journalists, pundits, and politicians on both sides of the aisle have described his behavior, actions, and words as “unprecedented.”

But while the word itself is neutral, in the context of Donald Trump as President of the United States, it’s a gross understatement.

Trump is not merely unprecedented, he is disastrous. He is a lying, cheating, treasonous conman who is destroying our country. And he’s getting away with it because there is no real precedent for a selfish, shameless, immoral, racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, unfit, unhinged moron like Trump as the type of person who occupies the Oval Office.

So please stop saying that what he says, what he does, and how he acts is unprecedented. It’s so much worse than that, which is why I can’t stand that word anymore.

Note from Fandango: It saddens me that five years after I originally posted this, these same words could be posted today and be just as relevant. For example, it’s unprecedented that someone who was impeached twice before as President of the United States and who has been criminally indicted in at least one case and may be criminally indicted in additional cases, is likely to receive a major political party’s nomination to be its presidential candidate and may very possibly win re-election.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 26th

Fandango14 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (26th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 26, 2017. I published my first post on this blog on May 14, 2017 and this was the fifth of seven posts I published that month. It seems remarkably relavent six years later.

Facts Versus Truth

When I first read Faulkner’s quote (above), I was perplexed. I had always considered “facts” and “truth” to be synonyms. Even the definitions of the two words cross-reference one another:

  • Fact: something that actually exists; reality; truth.
  • Truth: conformity with fact or reality; a verified or indisputable fact.

Facts are used as proof of what is undeniably “the truth,” but are these words truly interchangeable or do they actually have different meanings and usage?

I was curious enough about the similarities and differences between these two words to do some Google research. And I learned that not everyone believes that they are synonymous. Some folks actually differentiate between the them using diametrically opposed logic.

One site argued that facts can be fleeting, enduring for but a moment. For example, the “fact” of someone’s location on a fast-moving train changes every instant. Truth, on the other hand is a more enduring type of fact, this source claimed.

Another site argued that if it’s a fact now, it will be a fact in the future, whereas truth is more temporal. Facts indicate a universal truth, while truth depends upon temporal circumstances. For example, that the sun appears to always rise in the east and set in the west is a fact. It will never change.

I found an interesting site, differencebetween.net, which provided four facts (or truths?) about facts and truths:

  • Facts are more objective when compared to the more subjective truths.
  • Facts are more permanent when compared to the more temporary truths.
  • Facts exist in reality, whereas truths are usually the things that one believes to be true, or the things that are true in the current situation.
  • Facts can also answer the ‘where,’ ‘when,’ and ‘how’ questions, whereas truths answer the ‘why’ question.

Truthiness

And then there is “truthiness,” a word first coined by Stephen Colbert a dozen years ago. Like when Bill Maher says, “I don’t know it for a fact…I just know it’s true,” truthiness is the quality of seeming to be true based upon one’s intuition, opinion, or perception without regard to logic or factual evidence. It’s when someone feels, believes, or wishes that something is true even when it is not supported by the facts.

So with both facts and truth under siege by Donald Trump and his surrogates, and with “alternative facts” and “false truths” being promulgated, I  have to wonder if Faulkner’s statement was extremely prescient and sadly reflective of where we are in the second decade of the 21st century.

So what do you think? Are the words “fact” and “truth” synonyms? Do you use them interchangeably in your oral and written communications? Or do these two words, as Faulkner believes, have little to do with each another?

And in today’s world, where truthiness means more to a lot of people than either facts or truth, does it even matter anymore?

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 19th

Fandango8 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (19th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 19, 2018.

Simple Instructions

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“There’s been a complication,” Larry said. “I’ve got a few leftover peg thingies, and I’m short a few of these screw thingies. And I can’t get this last piece to fit properly.”

“There’s nothing complicated about this,” Anita said. “You just have to follow the instructions, step by step. Can’t you follow simple instructions?”

“I have been following the ‘simple’ instructions and I’ve been at this for three hours and now I’m going to have to go back and start from scratch,” Larry groused.

“Seriously?” Anita said. “It looks like you’ve got most of it put together.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” said Larry, “but I messed up somewhere.”

“Should I call my father?” Anita asked. “He’s a mechanical engineer.”

“No way,” insisted Larry. “I’ll figure out how to put this damn crib together without help from your father. But I tell you what. We’re never buying another piece of furniture from IKEA ever again.”

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Written for today’s one-word prompt, “complication.”

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 12th

Fandango5 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (12th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 12, 2018.

SoSC — On the Farm

So Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt this week asks us to find a word (or words) that has a farm animal sound in it and use it (or them) in our posts. Okay, that’s a little weird, but here goes.

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“I came over as soon as I got your tweet,” Monica said. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, Monica,” Tom said. “I had the strangest encounter with my new neighbor today.”

“I take it things didn’t go smoothly.”

“Not really,” Tom answered. “The guy was kind of gruff, actually. When he first introduced himself, he seemed normal. But then he started growling and snorting and squeaking in a most peculiar way. I couldn’t figure out what he was saying. It sounded like a bunch of gobbledegook to me.”

“That person sounds like he’s a real quackpot,” Monica said. “So what did you do?”

“Well,” said Tom, “I was getting kinda pissed, so I boinked him right on his nose. Honestly, I didn’t hit him that hard, but he fell to the ground and was out cold. I swear to God, Monica, I thought the guy had croaked.”

“Oh, Tom, that’s awful,” Monica clucked, a look of concern on her face.

“But then he stood up and shook my hand,” Tom said. “And he said it was nice to have met me and invited me over for dinner with him and his wife tomorrow night.”

“Seriously? What did you say?”

“I said ‘baa humbug’ to that, turned around, and walked away from that crazy old hoot.”

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 5th

Fandango15 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (5th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 5, 2018.

It’s About Time

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What time does the clock in the above image say? Can you read it? Of course you can.

I was watching “Jimmy Kimmel Live” the other day. Well, I wasn’t actually watching it live. I was watching it from my DVR recording. But either way, I was struck by a segment where one of his staff went out on the street and asked a number of kids, some as old as teenagers, to look at an image of an analog clock and say what time was on the clock. Remarkably, only one of the those asked could do it.

Along those lines, I read about a recent study that showed that only one in ten Oklahoma City kids ages 6 to 12 owned an analog watch. And only one in five knew how to read one.

I also just read that British schools are replacing analog clocks with digital clocks because of students’ inability to read the analog ones. The deputy general secretary at Britain’s Association of School and College Leaders said, “The current generation isn’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations are.”

What is going on? I remember a few years back when a number of school systems were dropping the teaching of cursive from their curricula. The rationale was that people today don’t bother to write and mail handwritten letters. Instead, they sit behind their computers, at their laptops, or on their smartphones and type emails, send text messages, or post all kinds of, um, fascinating tidbits on Facebook or Twitter.

And yes, I admitted in my post earlier today, that my cursive is so illegible that I don’t handwrite letters anymore either. But does that mean we should abandon teaching cursive handwriting to our kids?

And now they’re talking about removing analog clocks from schools and ceasing to teach kids how to read them? Hey, I have an Apple Watch, but the watch face I use is an analog face. Because when I’m looking at my watch, it’s more often to tell what time it’s not than what time it is.

If teaching cursive and how to read analog clocks in school are wastes of time because people no longer write in longhand and because they use digital clocks, perhaps schools should stop teaching math, as well. Doesn’t just about everyone use calculators to add, subtract, divide, and multiply? Even smartphones have built-in calculators. And since everyone is so adept at using keyboards and computers, can’t we just teach students how to use Excel to perform a wide variety of sophisticated mathematical functions?  Who needs to learn math?

In fact, perhaps schools and teachers are obsolete. All anyone needs to know is how to Google. From there they can get answers to virtually any question, information about any topic, and even self-help, do-it-yourself instructions for just about any project.

And if they can’t find what they’re looking for on Google, they can always text someone.