When
· Naughties
· · 2004
· · · October
· · · · 16 (2 entries)
WWWW and Poo Poo · I’d like, in a high-toned kind of way, to recommend the excellent World Wide Words website and feed (I used four W’s because the “Web” is assumed present), which, for those who care about language in a scholarly way or are just looking for etymological belly-laughs (origin of “skivvies” anyone?) can’t be beat. Descending a couple of levels, I can’t help but note, in my capacity as occasional playground supervisor, that in the decades since I was in kindergarten, the childhood taunt “Na-na-na-na-na” has morphed into “Na-na-na-poo-poo.” This is clearly an improvement, incorporating both vowel variation and scatological implication. My congratulations to whichever younger generation innovated while I wasn’t listening.
Crooks in Plain Sight · This morning, a rather well-crafted phishing attempt squirmed through my spam filter; my EBay account was due to be suspended, and so on. Very polished and professional and concerned, only I don’t have an EBay account. So, by investing about 45 seconds of source-viewing I ascertained they wanted me to go visit 203.146.170.21 which turns out to be “ThaiEdResearch.org”, a plausible-looking website, at least to one who like me doesn’t read Thai. But obviously, they are either criminals, or their webmaster is a criminal, or their ISP is a criminal. If anyone cared, it wouldn’t be too hard to find out. This feels to me kind of like walking into a bank, waving a gun around, and giving them a stamped self-addressed envelope to mail the stolen money in. What am I missing? [Update: lots of feedback on this one.] ...
