Column streak hits 750 weeks

PostCard from SydneyAustralia

Not that anyone cares that much, or is even interested, but this week?s column represents the 750th consecutve time Partly Nonsense has appeared in the Free Press.

How do I even come up with something to write each week? I really have no idea. Here goes anyway.

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When we were a tabloid-size newspaper, which was for the first eight years or so, the number of words it took to fill my space were much fewer. When we went to the broadsheet size, it took more nonsense to fill it each time.

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Some people will do anything for money, which leads me to the next thought. At some point I had thought that maybe after I hit the 1,000-column mark I might try to put some of the material into book form and try to sell it to raise money for a scholarship for enterprising journalism students. The idea is still in rough form so I am not committing to it yet. Besides, that would take quite a bit of time just to find all of it, not to mention organize it.

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Bowl games have been on TV for many weeks now it seems, with the final one Jan. 7.

I do not understand why it is exciting to play a bowl game at a location where the temperature is near freezing. Even less exciting, at least in my opinion, is to sit out in the cold and watch it.

That was me thinking out loud. It?s all about the money and prestige, I believe.

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I really thought K-State would somehow handle the Oregon Ducks in the Fiesta Bowl. But it?s hard to overcome falling behind 8-0 within the first 15 seconds of the game.

Based on KSU?s recent past record in bowl games, it shouldn?t have been a surprise. But based on what Coach Snyder has been able to do with his team all year long, it was a surprise anyway.

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It?s gratifying to know so many people are reading our website, but not so gratifying when I began hearing they had difficulty getting on it this past week.

I suppose this falls under the category that no news is good news. When the site is working properly, which it has done more than 99 percent of the time since it was first launched in 1999, we never hear much about it.

The bad news is that some dark character somewhere halfway around the world has nothing better to do than try to come up with ways to hack websites. We think the latest attack came from Russia.

We fixed it once, and then after we thought all was well we were hacked again. The worst part of it is there is absolutely nothing that can be done legally to these hackers, let alone find out who the culprit is.

All we can do is try to keep ahead of these people with the latest software that prevents them from doing their mischief. It costs lots of time and money and for no good reason.

I heard some other websites in our area also were down from this problem. But not being the only one affected is no consolation.

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Is anybody concerned that our government is $16 trillion in debt with annual interest payments of somewhere around $400 billion? This is because interest paid is averaging just above 2 percent. What if the rates go up? They surely will.

 

If you wish to share your comments or ideas, my e-mail address is joel@hillsborofreepress.com.

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Another PostCard:

PostCard from SydneyAustralia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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