Stress test

Good point on language in today’s NYT. Consider this sentence:

I never said she stole my money.

It can have seven very different meanings — depending on which word is stressed. (If you need that spelled out, read on.)

Two rules for success

1. Never tell everything at once.

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Maybe that’s an old one. But we don’t get out much.

Scam school!

My high school class — or the fraction thereof that subscribes to a Web site called Classmates.com — is the target of a scam. Here’s the Cliff Notes version:

Through the Classmates.com site, people receive an invitation to the W.F. Dykes High School Class of 1970 40th Reunion.

It appears to be from one our classmates, who styles himself  “Reunion Organizer” and requests a check for $150 for the event, which he claims to have scheduled for the Atlanta Ritz-Carlton in June 2010.

Our class detectives jump on the case and quickly learn that the Ritz has no such reservation. Which means, at best, that the night in question will find some very sad greyheads in front of the inn. Those who have flown across the country or the globe may be more than sad. Memo to Ritz-Carlton: metal detectors.

BUT MY INITIAL THEORY OF THE SCAM WAS WRONG.

And I’ll leave it at that, for now — with one piece of advice. Don’t send your money to anyone other than our tried-and-true reunion committee (3 successes under its belt) — see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=102750250443.

I may be wrong — apologies in advance to any innocents harmed by this post — but I doubt it.

Recession is the mother of invention.

Miss Understanding

Cut to the chase,
There’s gold in them thar hills!
Feed a cold, starve a fever.

Think you know what these things mean? Miss Understanding bets you don’t.