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What I've Learned
Jul 26, 2012 12:00 amIf you have an email account, you have probably gotten mail from a stranger in Nigeria.
In 2008, I wrote about Advance Fee Fraud, known as 419 (four one nine) fraud after the section of Nigerian penal code that covers such schemes. I have an interesting update.
from the editor's desk ...
Jul 26, 2012 12:00 amWhile I am a certified sap who will cry at cheesy movies and over children's handmade gifts, I have never found myself even close to tears over anything to do with business or economics (well, maybe my bank balance).
And yet, that's exactly where I found myself last Thursday.
This happened while standing in a line that completely circled the circumference of the store I was in. It was the check-out line. I stood in it for at least 20 mintes while it barely moved.
Now this was last Thursday – July 19 – not Black Friday or Christmas Eve.
What I've Learned
Jul 19, 2012 12:00 amAsk anyone, even a child, to make a sound like a frog and there is a good chance they will say ribbit in a froggy sort of voice.
Have you ever in your life heard a frog, an actual frog, go ribbit? Probably not. So how did the idea that frogs make such a sound permeate our culture?
Thank Hollywood.
What I've Learned
Jul 12, 2012 12:00 amA frightened woman hears noises in the middle of the night, lights a candle, and goes walking about a spooky mansion to see what it is.
When I was a kid and saw that in a movie, I thought, "She wouldn't do that. Heck, nobody would do that. If I were there, I'd sit in the corner with a baseball bat until morning."
The nightgown-clad woman was tiptoeing about at night, not from over-active curiosity, but from bad scriptwriting.
03-28-OPCOL-2012-FinancialFitness
Jul 12, 2012 12:00 amSomething that effects everyone’s financial well being is the condition of the economy. The trend in the State of Maine, is that we typically are last to experience economic downturns, but we are also the last to recover.
To help our local economy thrive, it’s important that our community supports local business by shopping in our neighborhoods.
What I've Learned
Jul 05, 2012 12:00 amThere is a trick people use to separate what a piece of writing says from how it looks on the page. It's called lorem ipsum.
Lorem ipsum is nonsensical text that is used so layouts can be checked without the distraction of meaning. In the graphic design business, using a nonsense filler was known as greeking, as in "It's Greek to me."
The text that's used, however, is not Greek, but Latin. Here's an example:
What I've Learned
Jun 28, 2012 12:00 amTell me quick, is this a stage name or a real name: Blossom Dearie.
Even if you know who Blossom Dearie is, you might not be sure about the origin of her name.
She was born Margrete Blossom Dearie on April 28, 1924 in East Durham, New York, a village about 150 miles from New York City. Her middle name has to do with pear blossoms, which, according to one story, her father saw shortly before she was born, and according to another, her brothers carried into the house in abundance at the time.
What I've Learned
Jun 21, 2012 12:00 amThis May, during all the heavy rain, it was often necessary to wait for a downpour to stop before venturing out.
One day when a rainstorm let up, I decided to take advantage of the momentary lull and go get the mail. I was wearing Crocs, those slip-on rubber shoes with holes in them, but figured if I placed my feet carefully, all would be well.
I made it dry-footed to the end of the driveway, got the mail, and started back up, sorting through the letters as I went. Because my attention was on the mail, I walked right into an ankle-deep trough of standing water.
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