In Uganda, a man stole a cell phone from a patient in a hospital isolation ward. The patient had the Ebola virus, and later died.
The thief later returned to the hospital…suffering from Ebola.
Is it okay to be amused by that?
Microsoft’s Latest Killer Product
Microsoft unveiled it’s new tablet, the Microsoft Surface, which I’m sure they expect to be an iPad killer. Like the Zune totally destroyed the iPod.
The Surface runs a version of Windows 8. News flash to Microsofties: any product with the name “Windows” attached is suspect to a whole lot of people. Even Apple doesn’t describe its mobile iOS operating system as a version of the Mac OS; it’s a whole new thing. But Microsoft thinks that when people see the name “Windows,” they think quality, dependability, and user-friendly.
Me: I think Yugo.
Chrome Ascending
A couple years ago, after having used Safari as my web browser since the day it was introduced, I switched to Firefox. I was running into problems on too many websites with Safari. Firefox, I discovered, worked great nearly everywhere. I really liked it. I didn’t have trouble making the switch.
Then Chrome came along. I switched to Chrome a year ago. It’s fast, looks great, and has lots of add-ons. But the killer feature is the single field for typing URLs and doing searches. In both Safari and Firefox, the search field is on the right, and the address field on the left. Chrome combines them both. Very user-friendly.
This morning I saw a chart which shows how the various browsers are doing. Both Internet Explorer (not surprising) and Firefox (surprising, to me) are losing market share. But Chrome has grown from 15-27% share during the past year, and has now passed Firefox.
Get My New Posts by Email
You can now receive new posts to SteveDennie.com by email. No need to visit the site at all. When I publish something new, you’ll get a copy in your inbox.
It’s done through Feedburner, a free Google service. I’ve used Feedburner for several years with the denominational news site I administer. It works great, and has been quite popular. (And in case you’re wondering, no, you don’t get spam.) One reader suggested I add Feedburner to this site, so I did.
Just–
- visit this link
- submit your email address
- retype some letters on a confirmation page
- respond to the confirmation email you will receive.
Twitter and Texting are Changing the Dictionary
A lot of words in the English language need to be simplified, which usually means they need to be shortened. Perhaps Twitter and texting will finally make this happen. Twitter and texting ARE changing our language. And no need to get all huffy about it.
Language continually evolves anyway. Popular usage regularly determines what is acceptable. Such has been the pattern for hundreds of years (the King James Bible was written in what was that era’s common language, so contemporary usage has traveled far). This is not something to get snooty about and condemn, unless you’re an English teacher, in which case you may consider it your job. But keep an open mind.
Who wants to text “through” when “thru” gets the message across. As does “tho” for “though.” It’s all about communication. If the person on the other end knows what you’re saying, who cares whether Webster’s endorses the spelling? (Yes, you’re hearing this from a professional editor, who is supposed to be a fuddy-duddy.)
Lots of other words ending in “ght” need to be replaced with shorter words. I use these spellings all the time when texting and Facebooking (and ONLY when texting and Facebooking). Nite, mite, lite, rite, fite. Simplify, simplify! It’s a noble thing.
We’ve already simplified words from our previous British overlords, who steadfastly resist linguistic change. We took the unnecessary “u” out of a bunch of words–labour, colour, favour–and dropped the silent “e” from the end of “borne” and other words. Of course, in the age of Flickr, we could go a step furthr and make it labr, colr, favr. The Brits might actually settle for constructions like “labre” (I hereby reference “centre”), which may be an acceptable compromise for now. We can pick off the “e” later.
The Flickr example could spread to other words, like bittr, aftr, and forevr (not to be confused with 4evr). Thousands of people text like this every day. Don’t be surprised if it becomes the norm.
Then there are words like “neighbour,” which could be shortened all the way to nabor (remember Jim Neighbours, aka Gomer?). We changed the English “doughnut” to “donut” without triggering apocalyptic consequences.
Texters are also clipping silent letters from other words: I’v, hav, wil, com. I’m not there yet.
If the self-referential “I” can be spelled with just one letter, why can’t “you” become “U”? Why is that unreasonable? (But I don’t favor shortening “see” to “c” and “are” to “r.” I maintain my right to be inconsistent.)
Is it still necessary to use contractions? I think cant, dont, and even isnt get along just fine without apostrophes. (Somewhere, we went backwards in turning “an’t” into “ain’t.”) Young people get confused anyway about where to put the apostrophe, yielding such nails-on-chalkboards spellings as “is’nt.” (And I won’t even go to the Mother of All Transgressions May You Burn in Hades, adding apostrophe’s to mere plural’s. Usage cannot, and must not (or musnt) determine correctness in this case. On this hill shall I gladly die. )
I read that over the years, nearly 16,000 compound words have lost their hyphen. They actually started out as separate words, then married with a hyphen, and then eventually discarded the hyphen. I see nothing wrong with that. Leapfrog, makeover, postmodern, bumblebee, crybaby, homework, testtube, keypad, waterbed, pigeonhole, logjam. I’ve been writing “email” for years, knowing that that spelling will ultimately prevail, though style manuals and most magazines still cling to “e-mail.” I just don’t see the point of the hyphen, so I skip it. I don’t believe it confuses my readers.
I do draw the line at combining numbers and characters, like 2day and 4ever and sum1 and b4 and sk8 and gr8 (the numeral makes me strangely think of skeight and greight). However, I can see myself sliding into the habit of substituting numerals in the interests of quicker texting. Satan invented texting as a way to drive linguistic purists insane.
And there are other trends I’ll personally skip for now. Like scrapping the “g” in “ing” words. Like comin and goin, workin and drivin.
Of course, in professional/business communications, I use correct spellings. No sense in looking illiterate. But one of these days, at least some of these shorter words will become acceptable in business communications. And then, after another 20 years, Webster’s will get around to okaying it. Or OKing it. Whichevr.
Steve’s Favorite Fort Wayne-area Foods
Okay, Fort Wayne people. I’ve compiled my favorite foods from Fort Wayne area restaurants. I called them “favorite” rather than “best,” because there are many restaurants I’ve not got around to trying. I can only speak to my personal favorites.
So if you’ve got a favorite in one of these categories, chime in. I’m always interested in where to find great food.
Favorite ribs: Texas Roadhouse. Honorable mention:: brown sugar ribs at Smokey Bones.
Favorite sandwich: Frisco melt at Steak ‘n Shake. Honorable mention: New Orleans sandwich at McAlister’s Deli.
Favorite dessert: Maple Butter Blondie at Applebees. Honorable mention: donuts at Smoke Bones.
Favorite salad: Oriental chicken salad at Applebees. Honorable mention: Casa Ristorante and Olive Garden.
Favorite hamburger: the double at Five Guys.
Favorite fish: Crispy Tilapia at Don Halls Tavern at Coventry.
Favorite appetizer: pretzel bones at Smokey Bones.
Favorite coney dogs: Dog & Suds.
Favorite wings: Buffalo Wings & Ribs. Honorable mention: smoked wings at Smokey Bones.
Favorite pasta: garlic shrimp oreganata at Biaggis.
Favorite dinner bread: Biaggis.
Favorite rolls: Logans.
Favorite sub: club at Penn Station.
Favorite onion rings: Flannigans.
Favorite tea: peach tea at Smokey Bones. Honorable mention: McAlister’s Deli.
Favorite donuts: iced cruller and vanilla cream filled long johns at Scotts.
Favorite french fries: curly fries at Buffalo Wings & Ribs. Also: Steak ‘n Shake and Penn Station.
Favorite steaks: Prime Rib at Don Hall’s Guesthouse. Also: campfire steak at Red River Steakhouse.
Favorite breadsticks: Fazolis.
Favorite soup: potato cheese soup at Red River Steakhouse. Honorable mention: chicken and wild rice at Panera Bread.
Favorite lasagna: Casa Ristorante.
Favorite ice cream: Zesto vanilla.
Favorite pizza: Pizza Junction in Huntington. Honorable mention: Hungry Howie’s with butter-cheese crust.
Favorite pancakes: Spyros.
Also worth mentioning: brisket at Red River Steakhouse, dumplings at Cracker Barrel,
The Amazing Johnny Seven
We lived in Huntington, Ind., until I was 9. We always had our own family Christmas, but the whole family would also go out to my grandparents’ farm outside of Van Wert, Ohio, about 60 miles away. Most, if not all, of our aunts and uncles and cousins on my Mom’s side (she had three siblings) would be there. And grandpa and grandma always gave us grandkids something neat.
One year, they got us male cousins weaponry. Serious toy weaponry. We’re talking Johnny Sevens, the awesomest toy gun in the history of toy guns.
I mean, just look at that picture. Is that cool, or what?
Only three of us–me, Mike, and Brad, the oldest male cousins–received Johnny Sevens. Because it took a man to carry these things (yes, we were still under 10 years old). The Johnny Sevens had seven different weapons. One was just a machine-gun rat-a-tat-a-tat. But the others all involved shooting projectiles. They didn’t fire these projectiles very hard–more like lobbing them. You couldn’t really hurt anyone with them. But the Johnny Seven was still an incredible piece of plastic technology.
The next tier of male cousins were Stu (my brother) and Trent (Brad’s brother). They also received weaponry, something called a Monkey Gun (for reasons unknown to me). The Monkey Gun only did one thing–fire a yellow projectile. But it fired those things HARD. And if they hit you, they HURT.
We, of course, had pitched battles in Grandpa and Grandma’s big utility room in the back of the house. We older cousins would fire our Johnny Sevens at Stu and Trent, sending a missile in a leisurely lob. But coming back at us would be this yellow missile just screaming along, and when it connected, jeesh did it sting! The pipsqueaks definitely had the upper hand.
But still–we wouldn’t have traded our Johnny Sevens for anything. They were the coolest present ever from the coolest grandparents ever (at least until my own parents became grandparents).
In Branson: Noah, the Musical
The Sight & Sound Theater in Branson
The Sight & Sound Theatre is, to me, the most impressive theatre in Branson, and that’s saying a lot (though I haven’t seen them all). It’s a massive building, with stone everywhere. Absolutely gorgeous. Biblical scenes fill the foyer areas. The theater was huge, and it was packed for the Tuesday afternoon performance of “Noah: The Musical,” which had been playing there since 2008.
The theater’s name is based on Matthew 13:16, “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” They state their purpose as to “present the Gospel of Jesus Christ and sow the Word of God into the lives of our customers, guests, and fellow workers by visualizing and dramatizing the scriptures.”
Pam and I had visited Branson five times over the past 11 years, but had never attended a production at Sight & Sound. Nor were we aware of their higher purpose. That, and the quality of “Noah,” were very pleasant surprises. The play was simply amazing! And since “Noah” concludes its run in Branson this year, I’m so very glad we saw it.
The first half of this 2.5 hour production begins with God speaking to Noah, telling him to build the ark. Noah then sets about doing it, over the next 120 years. Noah’s family is united in their mission. I usually think of the 3 brothers as scoundrels, thanks to their shenanigans after the Ark lands, but that’s not how they are portrayed here. It’s a good, God-fearing family living amidst a decadent society. Noah is a man totally sold out to God, without reserve.
The ark gradually rises, ending with a structure towering 40 feet above the stage.
The second half ends with the most delightful part–the animals coming two-by-two into the ark. I think there were around 60 live animals. Two goats would come running from the side of the stage and trot right up the ramp into the ark. Then two sheep, then someone leading two horses down the center aisle, then two dogs–on and on it went. Animals came down the aisles, and from the sides, and they knew exactly where to go–right up that ramp. It was the type of scene where you’re smiling with delight the whole time.
We didn’t get tickets until a few hours before the performance, and ended up sitting a ways back, in the upper section. But I’m glad we did, and would highly recommend that people sit in the upper section, or at least in the back of the lower section. Otherwise, you’ll miss the full affect.
Early in the second half, the full set was revealed, and my jaw dropped in wonder. The audience broke out in spontaneous applause. You just can’t believe what you’re seeing.
Then the special effects really kick in. When the rain pours down and thunder booms, you feel like it’s happening all around you. Swirling lights give the feeling of the ark actually rocking in the rising water.
Much of the music was rather average, and a lot of the dialogue was routine, if not sometimes boring. Yet, the overall production blew me away. I had goosebumps several times (like when God brought the promise of the rainbow). The play was unflinching in its evangelistic message, drawing to a fabulous climax pointing to the coming Savior. As if that’s not enough, a guy came out and gave a low-key altar call.
I was moved, I was astounded. This is the final year for “Noah: The Musical” in Branson. If you’re going this year, don’t miss it. A play based on Joseph (no, not the “Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” Joseph) opens next spring. Whatever is playing at Sight & Sound when Pam and I go back in a few years, we’ll see it.
Okay, I was Definitely Wrong About That One
My life verse should be Proverbs 10:19, “When words are many, sin is not absent….” I write a lot of stuff for people to chew up in the marketplace of ideas. When you write or speak a lot, you’re inevitably gonna say some things that are just wrong. As Proverbs 10:19 points out. I apologize in advance for all of my future stupid statements.
Recently I made this comment on Facebook: “I voted for GW Bush (twice), who created most of the current debt. I voted for Obama, who added significantly to it.”
Both Tom Datema and Paul Michelson pointed out that that was inaccurate. Both presidents increased the debt significantly, but Bush didn’t create “most” of it. Obama is on track to break all previous records.
Paul Michelson directed me to the site TheNationalDebtCrisis.com, which explains various aspects in a well-reasoned, calm tone. That kind of tone doesn’t necessarily make it accurate, just more palatable, like an English accent.
However, I did find the site very helpful. The author is never identified, which is troubling to me. Nevertheless, I commend the site for what appears to be a nonpartisan approach.
One page shows “The National Debt by President,” listing the amount each President increased the debt, going back to Reagan. The writer says, “It is clear that the National Debt has been growing uncontrollably in recent years, regardless of which political party has been in power.”
All About Tilapia
I love fish. Growing up, we never had fish at home. But when we’d go out to eat, I would often order fish. Back then, the choices in white fish were usually haddock, perch, or cod. It was typically breaded and fried.
Today, restaurants often have cod, but not haddock or perch. But now there’s tilapia. Tilapia everywhere. And I really like tilapia. Good flavor, nice texture. I’ve been buying parmesan-crusted tilapia filets at Fresh Market. Sautee for a few minutes on both sides, then throw it in the oven for 12 minutes. Delicious.
Back in October, BusinessWeek ran a feature article on tilapia called “From China, the Future of Fish.” They described it as “a bland food product that grows fast and sells cheap.”
Interestingly, about 80% of the tilapia sold in the United States comes from China. Like everything else, I guess. It was quite a fascinating article. Here are some fun facts about tilapia.
- Most tilapia is grown on large fish farms. US fish farmers can’t come close to meeting the demand. Besides, tilapia do better in tropical climates, like Asia and Latin America.
- Tilapia is a fast-growing species of fish. After just a couple months, tilapia is a harvestable 1-2 pounds.
- 80 percent of the frozen tilapia in the U.S. is now imported from China, with restaurants and supermarkets the biggest buyers.
- In 2009 the U.S. imported 404 million pounds of tilapia, up from 298 million in 2005.
- Tilapia is mild in flavor. It doesn’t really have its own flavor. Instead, it takes on the flavor of whatever you put with it. Which is why chefs like it so much–they created its flavor with whatever herbs and spices they use. They consider it very versatile.
- Tilapia, being bland, is good for Americans who don’t like their fish tasting “fishy.”
- Tilapia fish farms tend to be very clean. Since the fish takes on the flavor of whatever’s around it, tilapia grown in muddy, algae-filled ponds end up tasting bad.
- Shrimp is the most popular seafood for Americans. The average American eats 4.1 pounds of shrimp per year.
- Pollack, caught off the coast of Alaska, is the most popular white fish. However, most of it is ground up into fish sandwiches and nuggests for fast-food chains like McDonald’s. You don’t normally eat a pollack filet.
- Until 2002, tilapia didn’t even make the top-ten list of seafood eaten by Americans. Now it has surged ahead of cod and catfish, and is just behind pollack as the most popular white fish in the US.
- A negative: tilapia doeesn’t contain Omega-3 oils, a major health benefit of other fish.
- There are hundreds of tilapia processing plants in China. The Chinese government is aggressive in inspecting and regulating their fish industry, to ensure quality, cleanliness, and safety. But their track record can still be spotty.
