Wordology, Briffits and Dustups

Briffits are the clouds left behind when comic-strip characters speed off. They are most often found in the comic strips with hites, which are the horizontal lines streaking between a cartoon character and the briffit to represent speed.

Dustups are the clouds that obscure comic-strip fights.

Things that look like clouds, but are not, include various fumetti, such as word balloons and thought balloons (cumulus fumetti).

Incidentally, although storytelling with pictures and words had been around for hundreds of years and, until recently it was generally believed that the first comic was the Yellow Kid in 1896. However, Rodolphe Töpffer is considered the father of the modern comic strips. His illustrated stories of Histoire de M. Vieux Bois (1827), was first published in the USA in 1842 as The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck.

Handy Online Manuals

Do you have appliances, computer equipment, lawnmower, audio equipment, TV, GPS, tools, or any number of other items with no owner's manual? This site has the manual. It also has an option for you to upload your manual so it can help others. Handy info to know. LINK

Call Back App

Here is an application that could save your evening or possibly your life. It is based on text messages, works with any cell phone, not just smartphones and it does not rely on an Internet connection. The service is called Kitestring.

A person sends Kitestring a text with time period like '30m'. In 30 minutes, Kitestring will send back a check-up text and you have five minutes to respond with an 'OK'. If you do not reply on time, Kitestring sends an alert to your designated emergency contact. It might be handy to set before blind dates, traveling alone, or for medical situations.


The basic service is free with eight uses per month with one emergency contact. A paid version offers unlimited uses and contacts as well as with a recurring check-in mode and customized response period.


The recurring check-in might be useful for people with medical conditions and/or who live alone. For instance, you can have it check in on you once or twice a day. A pleasant way to be reminded to let someone know you are OK, without the need for a call. Using this service can mean no call is good news.

Free Friday Thought

Happy Friday

Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.

Spending time laughing is also the best way to celebrate a Happy Friday!

Short Performance Oscars

The record for shortest Oscar winning performance is held by Beatrice Straight, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Network (1976), which she appeared in for just one 5 minute and 40 second scene.

Second shortest record for a Best Actor Oscar is held by David Niven, for his work in Separate Tables (1958), which he appeared in for 15 minutes and 38 seconds.

Third shortest record for Best Actor Academy Award is held by Anthony Hopkins, for his work in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), which he appeared in for just over 16 minutes. All prove that sometimes less is more.

Junk Phone Calls

When you receive an unwanted phone call, you might want to look up the number by using Google or other search engine. For regular numbers, you will see a list of services promising to find a person, but for scams you will usually see a few sites like those below.

You can help others by going to web sites like http://www.mycallbot.com http://misternumber.com or 800notes.com  www.callercomplaints.com The sites will show you what others have to say about calls from a number and you can add your add details of the call. You will also want to add the number to your do not call list.

Hack the Menu

Speaking of junk - like junk food, here is a site that has many of the secret menu items from your favorite fast food joints. Items that you might like, but do not see on the menu. Interesting that Wendy's in not featured.

Did you know that KFC has a triple down that is a larger version of the double down, or that you can get bacon added to any order. How about a side of biscuits with their honey and butter. Burger King offers Frings, which is half fries and half onion rings and you can order a ham and cheese if you are tired of burgers. Many more goodies. Yum. Here is the LINK.

Pipsqueaks, Plonkers, and Whizz-bangs

World War I, soldiers in the trenches gave cute names to the artillery shells that were constantly killing and maiming their friends and comrades. Some of these names, like 'whizz-bang', 'plonker' and 'pipsqueak' describe some of the lethal devices.

Another war term from the time is strafe, as in The German phrase "Gott strafe England!" (God punish England!) was widely used in German propaganda. The word strafe then entered the English language, meaning punish, bombard or reprimand. Strafe definition later narrowed to refer to attacking with machine-gun fire from low-flying aircraft.