Governors Say the Darnedest Things

The powers that be in South Carolina recently divulged to the public that the State Department of Revenue computers were hacked and 3.6 million Social Security numbers have been exposed. As an aside, the population of the whole state is 4.2 million. Apparently 387,000 credit card and debit card numbers were also exposed.

Our governor, when asked why the SSN’s were not encrypted, replied that there was no need for encryption. Excuse me! I think that if the security was so lax that the systems were hacked, it speaks loudly and plainly that the need for encryption is there.

News reports say that the vulnerability has been closed, but it doesn’t state that encryption will be SOP from now on.

The state now has to pay a credit monitoring company for a year for 3.6 million people to ameliorate the damage that could be done.

Our governor was proud to say during her election that she supported, and was supported by, the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party. That explains a lot, doesn’t it?

My Secret Obsession

Some time ago I decided to simplify my life by decluttering the house. I gathered things like printers, scanners, odd electronic equipment, baby things, knick-knacks,  old cell phones and books to stock a yard sale. The mess inventory is still in our garage. We haven’t had time or the inclination to take on the yard sale. There are games to attend, it’s either too hot or too cold, or Mr. Fixit says, “Let’s go somewhere.” With my junk valuable items and Mr. Fixit seemingly unable to put away his car repair items, his tools, his plumbing and painting crap supplies, it has become almost impossible to walk from the garage door to the door leading into the house. I decided to do something about it. I decided to offer my books for sale on Craig’s List.

I had pulled all the trashy romance novels  women’s fiction from the shelves and boxed them for the yard sale. I thought there were six or seven boxes. I knew that I had to organize them so I took my handy-dandy laptop to the garage to create a data base. I found not seven boxes, but thirteen. Today I finished the data base and found that there are 1,046 books. The next thing I have to do is to sort them so I know where to look for any particular book. Just finding the space to sort over 1,000 books is daunting. It’s also daunting to think about moving them up to the living room to begin the process.

Interesting observations: It seems as though Catherine (or an alternative spelling) is the favorite name of women’s fiction writers. The titles alone are enough to make me  cringe—Temptation’s Kiss, Long Time Coming, Temperatures Rising, Passion’s Bold Caress, etc. “Surrender,”  “Conqueror,” and “Temptation” are favored words in titles.

It’s a little embarrassing to admit it, but I loved reading almost every one. They are like video games—you can quickly become addicted.

After I get rid of some of these, my mysteries will go up for sale; there are even more of those. That will really hurt.

Pictures

These are some pictures I found on my camera. I’ve neglected some of them since the summer.

I’m going to rush out right now to take advantage of these bargains. These advertisements were outside a convenience store near several lakeside communities.

Every football player needs a little assistance getting ready for the game. Levi played his last game Thursday evening. The field is 80 yards long. On his team’s first offensive play of the game, he began about a yard into the end zone and ran the length of the field for a touchdown.

Touchdown run:  Don’t miss the bump!

Saturday was a wonderful day for baseball; Noah’s rec league team (as opposed to his travel team) played. I found a new friend who stayed with me through the last three innings of the game.

At Levi’s football game Thursday night, a big flock of geese flew over our heads in formation. It was quite impressive. Mr. Fixit was recording the game with the video camera but had turned it off during a lull. He didn’t get the camera rebooted to take a picture so Levi’s other grandmother took this one on her camera. I love it!

(Click on each picture enlarge)

Elementary

I’m no fan of the adaptions of some of my favorite thrillers when they are presented on television. It seems that they (whoever “they” are) believe that intelligent, brave, and honorable women have to the dumbed down to silly, shallow women—like Kathy Reichs’ character, Temperance Brennan, and Tess Gerritsen’s characters, Rizzole and Isles. They have nothing in common with the characters in the novels. I watch them sometimes, but I accept them for what they are. 

I was prepared to hate the CBS  “Elementary.” When I heard that Lucy Liu was portraying Dr. Watson, I was appalled. Dr. Watson is either Nigel Bruce or David Burke. I reserved judgment on Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes.

Over the years, there have been several acceptable Holmes (what is the plural of Holmes?). William Gillette set the standard in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s. I probably would have loved him. He appeared on stage over 1300 times as Sherlock. Of course, Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, and Jeremy Brett ARE Holmes. I even liked Rupert Everett in the role. I didn’t like Nicol Williams, Robert Downey, Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Caine, or Matt Frewer as Holmes.

When the pilot program came on last week, I have to admit that I was playing a word game on the computer and didn’t pay too much attention to it. I wasn’t even following the plot line. Today, I watched it on the computer prepared to be unimpressed.

Okay, it wasn’t great. Holmes was far to manic. I prefer a more laid back version. Maybe they’ll tame him a bit for future episodes.

Lucy Liu was terrific! She carried the show for me—a treat to watch and the writers didn’t resort to dumbing down the character. I’m looking forward to Thursday night for the second episode.