Lidder Bug

by Jimmy Johnson

November 28, 1999


I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was a very small and low-key event here, but that’s the way I like it. More leftovers. Speaking of that, I have a boilerplate post-Thanksgiving cartoon from 1999. Have you ever stopped to think that if Ben, from the movie The Graduate, had followed the advice of that clueless old fogey (“Plastics!”), he and Elaine might be retired to their own private island with a grounds crew to dispose of the water bottles and six-pack rings and fishing line that wash up daily on their beach. No, you probably haven’t ever stopped to think that, have you?


61 responses to “Lidder Bug”

  1. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Happy Cyber Monday, everyone. Also known as “The day my in-box keeps blowing up with advertisements”.

    1. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      Use Adblock Plus; works wonders.

      1. Ghost Avatar
        Ghost

        I do. Great for blocking pop-up ads and the most blatant emails. Lets a lot of emails though though.

  2. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Amazingly I learned how to read books on Kindle due to injury. First use of “books” not printed on paper. I am loving it, confession!

    Returned all my books and borrowed more, actually books I own, “Lord of the Rings” and some biographies and books about Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I need some Kindle Free recommendations that I might enjoy.

    I may be nonweight bearing for weeks to months.

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      If you search the Kindle store on Amazon, just put free kindle books in the search. You’ll have a choice to search by genre of book to narrow things down. I just looked and the general free kindle book search says over 60,000 results. A lot of these might be classics, and a lot are new authors trying to get exposure. It’s a roll of the dice, but they are free.

  3. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Hah! Got a 2nd card today….

    Apropos of nothing, the resident cockatiel decided it was breeding time and just laid an egg. This is the same idiot who, a year or so ago, laid an egg while perched atop a wooden kitchen chair. That egg did not survive the fall. The present egg will remain whole, at least. Maybe, in warmer climes, the end of November is a suitable time for laying eggs….

  4. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Well, we’re up to two sick in my wife’s family. Yesterday her daughter came by for lunch. I met her at the door and kindly handed her a mask. I followed her into the kitchen where I found the mask on the counter. I handed it to her again and she cleverly said “You want me to wear this?” Several replies came to mind, but I politely said “yes”. To make the story shorter I will just say that I said “bye” to her backside as it went out the door.

    1. TruckerRon Avatar

      I’m suddenly rejoicing in the fact that my one married daughter who teaches a special ed class is even more strict about masks than I am.

  5. Jerry in Fl Avatar

    Jackie, I love my Kindle and we all know what a teckie I am. Sometimes I can’t figure out why the phone won’t change the channel on the tv.

  6. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    We have a very good friend who teaches special ed. She has the virus. I like the doctor on tv who asked if we would rather have a problem breathing with a mask on or trouble with a plastic tube down your throat. Easy choice for me.

  7. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    To give you an idea of what my work is like, here is what The Night Before Christmas would be like if done in medical codes. https://www.aapc.com/blog/28636-twas-the-night-before-christmas-icd-10-style/

    1. Ghost Avatar
      Ghost

      W22.02XD: V95.43XS: Spacecraft collision injuring occupant, sequela.
      I’m guessing you’ve never had to use this one, Mark. If not, be patient. It is still 2020, you know.

  8. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    I walked by the refrigerator and noticed the “Thanksgiving Dinner” menu I’d printed still on the front of it. For the Thanksgiving dinner we didn’t have. I took it down, modified it, and reprinted it. Now it reads “Christmas Dinner”. There…fixed it.

  9. Nancy Kirk in AZ Avatar
    Nancy Kirk in AZ

    LOL about the menus, Ghost! Jackie, extra bummer about the leg & knee business! Re e-books. I have switched completely to electronic. I am extremely arthritic–both knees and one hip replaced, plus some other known issues. It’s very uncomfortable for me to hold any book, even a paperback. I have a fabulous reading stand that helps with paper books, but mainly holds my iPad perfectly and I can read for hours in comfort. (Which I do!) Also, we’re out of space for paper books in our house even though we have been through numerous cullings over the years. Both Jim and I like to have things more instantly available than the library allows, so the ebooks are great for me, and Jim is perfectly happy re-reading things we already own.

    Anyhow: check out BookBub. You pick the genres, and you get a list every day in the email with suggestions: cheapest free, most expensive $2.99. I check for number of pages, number of reviews, and read the negative reviews to see why they didn’t like it. I still miss sometimes, so I’m running a list of the authors I have deleted so I don’t get any more by them. (I’m up to way too many both likes and dislikes to just remember them!)

    Hang in there, dear friend. I’m looking forward to somehow meeting you and Ghost one of these days.

  10. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    “Scientist, Hugo Award winner, and prolific science fiction author and editor Ben Bova passed away on Sunday, November 29, 2020 at the age of 88, Tor.com is able to confirm.”
    Any reader of the genre should recognize the name. From COVID-19 related pneumonia and a stroke, they say.

  11. David in Granbury Avatar
    David in Granbury

    Jackie,

    If you want to try some science fiction or fantasy, try the BAEN Free Library. Ghost may be able to recommend some of these. I’ve read most of them. 🙂 The “Free Stories” annuals are a great way to get an introduction to some of the various authors’ short stories.

    https://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/2012?page=1&pageSize=30&filter=release_date&dir=ASC

  12. Oldbear Avatar
    Oldbear

    For free E-Books you might try: The Gutenberg Project.
    .
    http://www.gutenberg.org
    .
    I have not but my brother likes it and recommends it

    1. David in Granbury Avatar
      David in Granbury

      Oldbear, you are right. It is a great place to get books from classic authors as well as more modern stuff that is in the public domain. I have all the Mark Twain and Charles Dickens books downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

  13. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Best piece of care equipment Ghost brought me was my old fashioned wooden back scratcher. The neuropathy on my back is feeling like the return of shingles.