What did I find? Why, the missing comments some of you have been wondering about (British, about which some of you have been wondering).
They were in spam, which I rarely check, mainly because I have been doing most of my blogging on my iPhone and I can't reach the spam folder in blogger (or, more accurately, if one should be able to, I don't know how to access blogger's spam folder from my iPhone) so haven't checked it in a long time. Thank you, Rachel, for making that suggestion in an e-mail. I don't know why I have blogged almost exclusively from my phone lately, except that it's always with me and therefore more accessible than having to go to my desktop computer in our bedroom. Doing that would separate me from Mrs. RWP (the lovely Ellie), which I don't like to happen, as she is always—ALWAYS—in the living room watching television. Please do not suggest that we add a television set in our bedroom because if we did that neither of us would ever leave our bedroom at all.
Anyway, I was using the desktop computer this morning while Mrs. RWP (the lovely Ellie) was still sleeping, and remembered the missing comments. I went to blogger's comments and found FIFTEEN (15) (British, (15)) comments from Emma, kylie, Rachel, and Red (note that I still use the Oxford comma no matter what the editors of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) say) in the months of September and October. I promptly approved every last one of them. My next step, which may take a little time, will be to try to find them all and reply to each one.
I will endeavor in the future to do more, even most, of my blogging from my desktop computer and check the spam folder frequently.
Blogging with the desktop computer's keyboard is much better and much faster for the simple reason that I can type at the speed of thought (almost) instead of having to plug along one slow letter at a time on the iPhone using an index finger (I have never mastered the art of two-thumb typing on an iPhone like the young folk do). It's also one letter at a time on the computer keyboard, of course, but you know what I mean.
In the meantime, have a good day, all.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Saturday, October 17, 2026
I apologize for my absence
...so for my faithful few remaining readers I'll start off with several weeks' worth of you-know-whats from you-know-where:
What is Lloyds of Londn?
What is the Lions Club?
What is turpitude?
What is Embassy Row?
What is Project Runway?
Who is Delilah?
Who are the Dionne quintuplets?
What is blithering?
What is Burkina Faso?
What is the Smithsonian?
What is the War of 1812?
What is Charing Cross?
What is jejune?
Who is Marco Polo?
Who is Charlemagne?
What is a Grand Duke?
What are bloodstones?
Who are the BeeGees?
What is the Atomic Energy Commission?
Yes, it's true. Nobody on Jeopardy! that day knew the BeeGees. I felt very old, to say nothing of the day on which they didn't know the Dionne quintuplets.
And just so you know, turpitude is always preceded by moral and blithering is always followed by idiot, just as violets are always shrinking and everything that looms is always large, never medium.
Trite phrases abound, n'est-ce pas?
During my absence from the blogosphere I missed the opportunity to observe publicly on October 4th the 69th anniversary of my mother's death in 1957. In many ways it seems like yesterday. I always remember the date because the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space that day, which I didn't learn of until three days later. Mark Twain went out with Halley's Comet and Mama went out with Sputnik, by which I mean left, not dated. One has to be so careful not to confuse readers. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't.
Time is elastic and unpredictable. It occurs to me that you can spend a lifetime with one person and it seems like an afternoon (Ellie and I have been married for 63 years, for instance), and you can spend an afternoon with another person and it seems like a lifetime (I won't name names, but it has happened to me).
In the next three months, if all goes as hoped, our fifth, sixth, and seventh great-grandchildren will be born.
Hope, as you may or may not know, is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. Emily Dickinson said that. She was called the Belle of Amherst. It's the sort of thing Jeopardy! fans know, like the fact that Burkina Faso used to be called Upper Volta.
Since I don't want to wear out my welcome and lose what few remaining readers I still have, I will bring this post to a close. I hope (see above) to post more frequently in the future.
What is Lloyds of Londn?
What is the Lions Club?
What is turpitude?
What is Embassy Row?
What is Project Runway?
Who is Delilah?
Who are the Dionne quintuplets?
What is blithering?
What is Burkina Faso?
What is the Smithsonian?
What is the War of 1812?
What is Charing Cross?
What is jejune?
Who is Marco Polo?
Who is Charlemagne?
What is a Grand Duke?
What are bloodstones?
Who are the BeeGees?
What is the Atomic Energy Commission?
Yes, it's true. Nobody on Jeopardy! that day knew the BeeGees. I felt very old, to say nothing of the day on which they didn't know the Dionne quintuplets.
And just so you know, turpitude is always preceded by moral and blithering is always followed by idiot, just as violets are always shrinking and everything that looms is always large, never medium.
Trite phrases abound, n'est-ce pas?
During my absence from the blogosphere I missed the opportunity to observe publicly on October 4th the 69th anniversary of my mother's death in 1957. In many ways it seems like yesterday. I always remember the date because the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space that day, which I didn't learn of until three days later. Mark Twain went out with Halley's Comet and Mama went out with Sputnik, by which I mean left, not dated. One has to be so careful not to confuse readers. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't.
Time is elastic and unpredictable. It occurs to me that you can spend a lifetime with one person and it seems like an afternoon (Ellie and I have been married for 63 years, for instance), and you can spend an afternoon with another person and it seems like a lifetime (I won't name names, but it has happened to me).
In the next three months, if all goes as hoped, our fifth, sixth, and seventh great-grandchildren will be born.
Hope, as you may or may not know, is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. Emily Dickinson said that. She was called the Belle of Amherst. It's the sort of thing Jeopardy! fans know, like the fact that Burkina Faso used to be called Upper Volta.
Since I don't want to wear out my welcome and lose what few remaining readers I still have, I will bring this post to a close. I hope (see above) to post more frequently in the future.
Monday, September 28, 2026
I am 19 in blog years
It's true. This blog, rhymeswithplague, sprang to life on September 28, 2007, making it/me 19 in blog years today.
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS TO ME,
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS TO ME,
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS, R-h-y-m-e-s-w-i-t-h-p-l-a-a-a-a-g-u-e,
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS TO ME!!!
Before that fall day in 2007, there was no such thing as Rhymeswithplague, only an aging gentleman surnamed Brague who was looking for something interesting to do in his spare time.
Long may it/I wave.
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS TO ME,
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS TO ME,
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS, R-h-y-m-e-s-w-i-t-h-p-l-a-a-a-a-g-u-e,
HAPPY 19 BLOG YEARS TO ME!!!
Before that fall day in 2007, there was no such thing as Rhymeswithplague, only an aging gentleman surnamed Brague who was looking for something interesting to do in his spare time.
Long may it/I wave.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Today is the Equilux (not the Electrolux, that's a vacuum cleaner)
...but before we get to that, here are a few of the answers to clues on Jeopardy in the last few days that I answered correctly even though all the contestants' buzzers remained silent:
What is Versailles?
Who is Grendel?
What is Remembrance Of Things Past?
What is Oak Ridge, Tennessee?
What is Lexington, Kentucky?
Enough of that. On to the subject at hand.
September 23rd was the Autumnal Equinox (even though it was the first day of Spring in Australia, go figure), one of two days in the year (the other being the Vernal Equinox in March when it is Autumn in Australia) when, I was taught and have always believed, like most of you I would guess, that planet Earth has exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. This may come as a great shock to you—it did to me— but that teaching and belief, friends, is wrong!
I'm not kidding.
I happened to be looking at my Apple phone's weather app that day, which lists temperature forecasts for each hour and also shows each day's time of sunrise and sunset, and saw that where I live sunrise occurred at 7:25 a.m. and sunset occurred at 7:35 p.m. and I was flabbergasted (British, gobsmacked). That is 12 hours and 10 minutes apart, not exactly 12 hours. I did a little investigating and will now share it with you, after a fashion, by which I mean a short summary of what I learned. To share everything I read would take far too long.
Fact one: Because of Earth's atmospher the rays of the Sun are bent a little so what we see at sunrise and sunset is a sort of optical illusion. The proof of it is that you can look directly at the Sun just at sunrise and just at sunset and not be blinded by its rays.
Fact two: The Equinox is the day the Sun's rays at noon are directly over the Equator in their continuous journey north to the Tropic of Cancer and south to the Tropic of Capricorn during the year because of the tilt of Earth's axis, which is about 23-1/2 degrees off vertical. Hold that thought.
But on the two days (one in March and one in September, remember?) that the Sun's direct rays are directly overhead at the Equator, the sunrise and sunset are not exactly 12 hours apart, precisely because of the curvature of the Sun's rays that I mentioned earlier. The definition of the word Equinox includes the word "nearly" as in "An equinox is an astronomical event when the sun appears directly above Earth's equator, making day and night NEARLY [emphasis mine] equal in length everywhere on Earth."
And because of the distortion of the Sun's rays caused by Earth's atmosphere, the day when sunrise and sunset are exactly 12 hours apart occurs a few days before the Vernal Equinox in March and a few days after the Autumnal Equinox in September.
Today, September 26th, three days after the Equinox, is called the Equilux. The Apple phone's weather app is reporting sunrise and sunset to occur at 7:28 a.m. and 7:28 p.m., respectively, at the latitude where I live. The time will vary depending on the latitude where you live. The extremes occur at both the North Pole and the South Pole, where, because of that tilt we all know about, the sun does not dip below the horizon (set) on one solstice (June and December) and does not peek above the horizon (rise) on the other solstice (December or June).
I had never heard of the word Equilux before but discovered it has been in use in astronomical situations since the mid 1980s. My schooling ended several decades before that.
See there, you can too teach an old dog new tricks.
T.T.F.N.
What is Versailles?
Who is Grendel?
What is Remembrance Of Things Past?
What is Oak Ridge, Tennessee?
What is Lexington, Kentucky?
Enough of that. On to the subject at hand.
September 23rd was the Autumnal Equinox (even though it was the first day of Spring in Australia, go figure), one of two days in the year (the other being the Vernal Equinox in March when it is Autumn in Australia) when, I was taught and have always believed, like most of you I would guess, that planet Earth has exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. This may come as a great shock to you—it did to me— but that teaching and belief, friends, is wrong!
I'm not kidding.
I happened to be looking at my Apple phone's weather app that day, which lists temperature forecasts for each hour and also shows each day's time of sunrise and sunset, and saw that where I live sunrise occurred at 7:25 a.m. and sunset occurred at 7:35 p.m. and I was flabbergasted (British, gobsmacked). That is 12 hours and 10 minutes apart, not exactly 12 hours. I did a little investigating and will now share it with you, after a fashion, by which I mean a short summary of what I learned. To share everything I read would take far too long.
Fact one: Because of Earth's atmospher the rays of the Sun are bent a little so what we see at sunrise and sunset is a sort of optical illusion. The proof of it is that you can look directly at the Sun just at sunrise and just at sunset and not be blinded by its rays.
Fact two: The Equinox is the day the Sun's rays at noon are directly over the Equator in their continuous journey north to the Tropic of Cancer and south to the Tropic of Capricorn during the year because of the tilt of Earth's axis, which is about 23-1/2 degrees off vertical. Hold that thought.
But on the two days (one in March and one in September, remember?) that the Sun's direct rays are directly overhead at the Equator, the sunrise and sunset are not exactly 12 hours apart, precisely because of the curvature of the Sun's rays that I mentioned earlier. The definition of the word Equinox includes the word "nearly" as in "An equinox is an astronomical event when the sun appears directly above Earth's equator, making day and night NEARLY [emphasis mine] equal in length everywhere on Earth."
And because of the distortion of the Sun's rays caused by Earth's atmosphere, the day when sunrise and sunset are exactly 12 hours apart occurs a few days before the Vernal Equinox in March and a few days after the Autumnal Equinox in September.
Today, September 26th, three days after the Equinox, is called the Equilux. The Apple phone's weather app is reporting sunrise and sunset to occur at 7:28 a.m. and 7:28 p.m., respectively, at the latitude where I live. The time will vary depending on the latitude where you live. The extremes occur at both the North Pole and the South Pole, where, because of that tilt we all know about, the sun does not dip below the horizon (set) on one solstice (June and December) and does not peek above the horizon (rise) on the other solstice (December or June).
I had never heard of the word Equilux before but discovered it has been in use in astronomical situations since the mid 1980s. My schooling ended several decades before that.
See there, you can too teach an old dog new tricks.
T.T.F.N.
Friday, September 18, 2026
Happy half-birthday to me
I knew three answers on Jeopardy! tonight that none of the contestants knew:
Who is the Queen of Sheba?
What is U-2?
What is outfox?
On the first one, all buzzers remained silent. The clue was a quote a queen made about King Solomon. Easy-peasy. Obviously Old Testament. Who else could it have been?
On the second one, all three contestants buzzed in but all guessed wrong. Guessing is never a good strategy on Jeopardy! because a wrong guess costs money. Either you know the answer or you don't. The clue included the words Francis Gary Powers, Russia, and a photograph of an airplane. The first contestant said B-52. The second contestant said B-2. The third contestant said B-10.
I don't remember the wording of the third clue, but the category was something about Words With Animals. The answer seemed obvious to me.
In their defense (British, defence), all three contestants were young.
I, on the other hand, felt old.
And with good reason, I might add. Today is my 85-1/2 birthday. (Note to the general public: Very young people and very old people keep track of their ages the same way, in half-years. The people in-between never do. It's one way to tell if you are old. The very young and the very old do it for one reason and one reason only: Both groups want to be older.)
I know I do.
Who is the Queen of Sheba?
What is U-2?
What is outfox?
On the first one, all buzzers remained silent. The clue was a quote a queen made about King Solomon. Easy-peasy. Obviously Old Testament. Who else could it have been?
On the second one, all three contestants buzzed in but all guessed wrong. Guessing is never a good strategy on Jeopardy! because a wrong guess costs money. Either you know the answer or you don't. The clue included the words Francis Gary Powers, Russia, and a photograph of an airplane. The first contestant said B-52. The second contestant said B-2. The third contestant said B-10.
I don't remember the wording of the third clue, but the category was something about Words With Animals. The answer seemed obvious to me.
In their defense (British, defence), all three contestants were young.
I, on the other hand, felt old.
And with good reason, I might add. Today is my 85-1/2 birthday. (Note to the general public: Very young people and very old people keep track of their ages the same way, in half-years. The people in-between never do. It's one way to tell if you are old. The very young and the very old do it for one reason and one reason only: Both groups want to be older.)
I know I do.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
It's not where you start, it's where you finish
There are 50 states in these United States of America, and not a single one of them starts with the letter B, E, J, Q, X, Y, or Z. That must mean something, but darned if I know what.
Let us therefore consider where they finish.
Five states end in 'ia' - California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. That last one (the ult) actually was carved out of the next-to-last one (the penult) in 1863, during the Americn Civil War, because people in the western part of Virginia didn't want to secede from the Union to be part of the Confederacy. Count knowing this as your historical trivia factoid of the day.
Sixteen states end in 'a' alone (without a preceding 'i') - in no particular order, certainly not alphabetic, they are North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Alabama, Minnesota, Iowa, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, and Alaska. (Actually, they are in a sort of order geographically, in four groups approximately equivalent to their time zones, excluding Alaska, which is in a class by itself.)
Four states end in 'n' - Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Two states end in 'd' - Maryland and Rhode Island
Four states end in 'o' - Ohio, Idaho, New Mexico, and Colorado
Five states end in 's' - Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, and Massachusetts
Two states end in 'y' - Kentucky and New Jersey
Four states end in 'e' - Tennessee, Maine, Delaware, and New Hampshire
Two stated end in 't' - Connecticut and Vermont
One state ends in 'g' - Wyoming
One state ends in 'h' - Utah
Three states end in 'i' - Hawaii, Missouri, and Mississippi
And, finally, one state ends in 'k' - New York
Put them all together, they spell mother add up to 50 states in all. There is a 51st area, the District of Columbia, which also ends in 'ia' but it is not a state. It is a district. There's a world of difference. As such, it is not included in the list.
What does this post mean, exactly?
Maybe (a) nothing, or (b) that one can waste an awful lot of time on a computer, or (c) that there's no fool quite like an old fool.
Pick one or add one of your own. If you pick (c) do not identify the fool you have in mind out of consideration for th undersigned.
I remain, as ever, yours truly, rhymeswithplague
Let us therefore consider where they finish.
Five states end in 'ia' - California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. That last one (the ult) actually was carved out of the next-to-last one (the penult) in 1863, during the Americn Civil War, because people in the western part of Virginia didn't want to secede from the Union to be part of the Confederacy. Count knowing this as your historical trivia factoid of the day.
Sixteen states end in 'a' alone (without a preceding 'i') - in no particular order, certainly not alphabetic, they are North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Alabama, Minnesota, Iowa, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, and Alaska. (Actually, they are in a sort of order geographically, in four groups approximately equivalent to their time zones, excluding Alaska, which is in a class by itself.)
Four states end in 'n' - Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Two states end in 'd' - Maryland and Rhode Island
Four states end in 'o' - Ohio, Idaho, New Mexico, and Colorado
Five states end in 's' - Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, and Massachusetts
Two states end in 'y' - Kentucky and New Jersey
Four states end in 'e' - Tennessee, Maine, Delaware, and New Hampshire
Two stated end in 't' - Connecticut and Vermont
One state ends in 'g' - Wyoming
One state ends in 'h' - Utah
Three states end in 'i' - Hawaii, Missouri, and Mississippi
And, finally, one state ends in 'k' - New York
Put them all together, they
What does this post mean, exactly?
Maybe (a) nothing, or (b) that one can waste an awful lot of time on a computer, or (c) that there's no fool quite like an old fool.
Pick one or add one of your own. If you pick (c) do not identify the fool you have in mind out of consideration for th undersigned.
I remain, as ever, yours truly, rhymeswithplague
Saturday, September 5, 2026
A clarification
This short post is to clarify to my more than confused readers (you are confused, aren't you?) that when I said in the previous post that I licked hinges, I meant little cellophane hinges that were carefully applied to the backs of single used postage stamps to cause them to adhere to the pages of the stamp album my dad had kindly given to me, not big metal hinges that connect doors to door frames. My dad collected U.S. commemorative plate blocks and didn't use hinges.
Mission accomplished.
Roger, over, and out.
Mission accomplished.
Roger, over, and out.
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