Email: Yahoo Support

Many times I leave a YM message for someone, then later sign off, and it seems quite certain they never got the message. Many times (several a day) others leave a YM message for me, then sign off, and all I see is an empty message window; I distinctly heard them zing a message onto my screen earlier, yet Yahoo retracted or rescinded it by the time I get to my computer. Why are you doing this and when will it stop?

Websites: Story of Movies

This is an educational website for kids about movies.

Email: Movies for preteens [MC]

Of course the movie [An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge] was not so old when I was in grade school! Compiling a school-age viewing list is something I'd love to do but have not had time. I'd suggest reviewing the award and honorable mention winners (esp. shorts and short-shorts) at the various film festivals. (They must be online.) I've seen some gems at science fiction conventions and and literary conferences. The Boy Who Could Fly was very interesting because of how closely it walked the line between reality and fantasy. Tom Cruise was in a little number called Legend. I'd stay away from Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal.

Email: Men are simple, women are complex [R]

I know that men are complex creatures (for all our simplicity) and women are simple creatures (for all their complexity): We all just want a loving partner -- but finding someone who can appreciate what we have to offer is the hard part. (Some women say they want poetry but pooh-pooh romance when they get it; most men's wishes are much simpler than mine.)

My experience is, yes, it does depend on the couple -- and how truly each partner can feel and act based on intuition.

Email: Passing on birthdayalarm.com [LG]

Good luck with that but I never find more than a couple people follow through [when I try to use any system that requires others to be as organized as I am trying to be], plus this system now makes people [who respond to your request] join and sends them email too, so I just abstain now. I've got you in my address book!

Email: Superbowl Sunday [CC]

I don't follow football but I figure if there is one game to watch all year and still be considered an American [by rabid football fans], it is the Superbowl. Besides, usually the ads are pretty good (except during dot-dom booms that is).

Proverbs: Accents are a spice of life

I love accents of all kinds and do my best to express my affection and appreciation for the culture and variety that lies behind every dialect, since each person's own voice is an intimate expression of his or her humanity. Variety is always the spice of life! The only problem is when some people don't like variety.

Musings: Starbucks and Einstein Brothers

OK, let's all just give in and get with the program: Everyone go out and buy stock in Starbucks and Einstein Brothers -- or anywhere you frequent every day or at least once a week. You're not the only one, you know! It could be the path to even greater riches.

Email: Hotmail Support

I'm not saying get rid of the ads, I'm saying accept ones that are worthy of Hotmail's market leadership and [its] corporate as well as home users.

As a computer professional of 20+ years, I sincerely recommend MSN Messenger and Hotmail over Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail for security, stability and other reasons. But if you can't get much worse than accepting genital itch ads. Understand?

Musings: Salt 'n' pepper

Those individual serving packets of salt always hold enough grains to choke a large mammal (about four times as much as I can stomach); yet the twin packets of pepper hold barely enough to cover one egg (and many packets are empty).

Words: wench [MW]

Main Entry: wench
Pronunciation: 'wench
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English wenche, short for wenchel child, from Old English wencel; akin to Old High German wankOn to totter, waver and probably to Old High German winchan to stagger -- more at WINK
1 a : a young woman : GIRL b : a female servant
2 : a lewd woman : PROSTITUTE

Words: wince

Main Entry: wince
Pronunciation: 'win(t)s
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): winced; winc·ing
Etymology: Middle English wynsen to kick impatiently, from (assumed) Old North French wincier to turn aside, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wankOn to totter -- more at WENCH
: to shrink back involuntarily (as from pain) : FLINCH
synonym see RECOIL

Words: albatross

Main Entry: al·ba·tross
Pronunciation: 'al-b&-"tros, -"träs
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -tross or -tross·es
Etymology: probably alteration of obsolete alcatrace frigate bird, from Spanish or Portuguese alcatraz pelican, from Arabic al-ghattAs, a kind of sea eagle
1 : any of a family (Diomedeidae) of large web-footed seabirds that have long slender wings, are excellent gliders, and include the largest seabirds
2 a : something that causes persistent deep concern or anxiety b : something that greatly hinders accomplishment : ENCUMBRANCE

Proverbs: Help rid the world of evil -- eat a doughnut

(And no, it's not spelled donut, which should be pronounced like do not, but with the second word as nut.)

Language: a mean cup of cocoa

There is almost no way a phrase like this could be true; it's a contradiction in terms.

True, one might imagine, by unnatural means, a cup of cocoa laced with strychnine or somesuch. But even cocoa laced with liquor or chili pepper couldn't be mean. Cocoa is definitely, per JS, "a warm-and-fuzzy kind of thing."

Words: frisson [MW]

Main Entry: fris·son
Pronunciation: frE-'sOn
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural frissons /-'sOn(z)/
Etymology: French, shiver, from Old French friçon, from Late Latin friction-, frictio, from Latin, literally, friction (taken in Late Latin as derivative of frigEre to be cold)
: a brief moment of emotional excitement : SHUDDER, THRILL

Email: Hotmail Support

Hey folks, thanks so much for the tumult of soft porn ads from True.com and the genital wart ads from whatever. It's ever so appetizing in the workplace and at home.

That's sarcasm, FYI; I hate this trash and wish you would stop it.

Email: funbuddyicons.com Support

Lie all you want with your boilerplate claptrap, it is an unsolicited commercial appeal, that is, chat spam. Stop it.

Proverbs: Kids -- the anti-caffeine

Kids deprive you of sleep, the effects of which no amount of caffeine may ameliorate...

Email: Why nervous is normal [CH]

I hope you enjoy the journey and that it brings only good things for you. I believe that if something good is happening to me that's out of my control, then it [the situation] must be real because I'm not making it [the situation or my nervousness] happen.

Typo: Lost in Translation indeed

Todd Silverman's Netflix review of Lost in Translation seems to be a typo in its entirety: "I really enjoyed the movie. It was interesting and exciting. I especially enjoyed the background information that told me how Darth Vader came to be. It was a good movie."

Email: One-sided amidst many dimensions [AS]

It was emotional when I was commissioned a lay minister too. Ha! Tequila shots are part of life; the sacred is not the opposite of the mundane (except in the minds of those who believe in dualities). A coin has two sides but it is still the same coin; the sides are not opposites, just different dimensions. I am both analytical and creative; these are not opposites, except to those who are one-sided, and can only reflect or perceive one side or facet in a lifetime.

Email: Finding your voice [SD]

The training comes from my heart too. The only thing my [journalism] profession has provided is the history and more practice, but I would write the same if I had never been to college or been a professional writer. It's called finding your voice, and that doesn't need a degree or a career. You are finding your voice more very day; I have just pursued it intently every day of my life (since I was six and perhaps earlier).

Email: True.com Support

Your ads clearly appeal to sex, especially photos that zero in on certain body parts. I am sick of your ads on Hotmail, where I no longer feel I can retrieve my email at work or at home, where others will be offended by your soft porn ad campaign. Grow up and stop it, you opportunistic buggers!

Email: When classics become movies [JS]

It's too bad Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia have to emphasize action and battle more than the inner character (nobility and sacrifice) that is the hallmark of the books.