Wordle 1394 Hint

Hint: You seem to think today's Wordle is some kind of joke.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

Wordle 1393 Hint

Hint: This medical job title might have any of several words before (e.g. "registered") or after (e.g. "practitioner") it.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: N

A Possible Trade War Silver Lining?

Don't get me wrong: I'm not going to be like one of those idiots who tries to convince you that war is good for an economy because so much stuff gets destroyed that there's lots of money to be made rebuilding it. 

War is bad.

Trade war is a perverse form of war  -- one in which regimes purposely harm "their own people" with tariffs and other trade restrictions, making "their own people" poorer in hopes of also harming their opponent regimes. There's nothing morally right, practically beneficial, or non-pea-brained about it.

BUT!

Even the worst ideas usually have at least some silver linings.

The one I'm thinking of in this case is: Smuggling.

If tariffs are high enough and/or restrictions are onerous enough, smuggling can be good business. Higher tariffs mean that you can charge higher prices and still under-sell the "legal" market. Tougher restrictions mean you can sell goods people want but can't get on the "legal" market.

If consumers have to pay $1.00 for "legally imported" widgets of a reasonably popular kind, but can get "smuggled" widgets of that kind for 99 cents, there's going to be a market for "smuggled" widgets. Likewise, if they can't get those "legally imported" widgets at all, there will be a market for "smuggled" widgets.

I'm an odd duck in that I'd rather pay $1.01 for a "smuggled" widget than $1.00 for a "legally imported" widget on principle, because I'd rather give smugglers additional profit than give the government a rake-off.

Most people aren't like me ... but most people are trying to get by, which means that the longer this trade war crap goes on and the worse it gets, the bigger the gray/black market will become. Probably not good enough to make the tariff/trade war crap economically "worth it" by completely collapsing the regime, but at least a nice partial offset to the regime's fuckery.

Wordle 1392 Hint

Hint: A pre-gunpowder projectile.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

A Hypothesis

I'm as guilty as anyone of just automatically putting down Trump's idiotic trade/tariff policy moves to stupidity.

While there's a possibility that he's an asset of a foreign adversary regime whose goal is to crater the US economy for that adversary regime's benefit, it seems like a very low-probability thing.

When I woke up this morning thinking about his latest flip-flop on tariffs, a third possibility suddenly occurred to me -- one that seems much more likely than the "foreign asset" idea and at least close to as likely as him just being a fucking idiot.

Hypothesis:

Trump has proxies buying, selling, shorting, etc. stocks and bonds based on inside knowledge of what he's about to do next, knocking down millions (at least) every time he "changes his mind."

That would track well with his scam artist history.

But also with his apparent idiocy, for which there's more immediately available evidence.

Update: Within hours of my musing, an anti-Trump US Senator is "demanding answers from the White House and Office of Government Ethics about whether anyone in the Trump family or administration profited off of this tariff chaos through insider trading."

Wordle 1391 Hint

Hint: A charger, but not for batteries.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: T

A Garden, Again

It's been a couple of years since I tried to have a garden, but this morning I ordered some seeds and tilled some ground.

Of the various things I've grown in north Florida, most have either failed completely or proven to be a lot more trouble than they're worth. So I'm keeping it minimal and simple and going with two things that definitely come out well (cucumbers because Tamara likes them in salad, green onions because I use them in a number of ways), one thing that I think will do OK (romaine, because Liam and I are partial to caesar salads ... but I don't recall trying it before), and maybe one other thing that I've had at least some success with (small "cherry" tomatoes that are useful in a number of ways).

I've ordered the seeds for the first three and will try to get to a local garden center for tomato seedlings shortly.

I should probably be more ambitious, because I expect food prices to skyrocket and food abilities to become limited over the next year, initially because of Trump's idiot tariffs and then as harvest times hit because of Trump's idiot immigrant abduction program.

Will Donald Trump Still Be President One Year From Now?

If I was betting, I'd bet against.

He's about to turn 79, he visibly touts an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, and his dementia (that malady seems to have secondary health implications) seems to be worsening.

He's also pissing off a lot of powerful people who, depending on which faction they're part of, may not always get to choose who becomes president, but who are pretty good at deciding who doesn't get to remain president, and not necessarily just at election time.

Wordle 1390 Hint

Hint: Borlaug's work with it won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: W

Wordle 1389 Hint

Hint: Extra, as in tire or rib.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1388 Hint

Hint: A popular nut (or the Baxters' maid).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: H

Why I Just Don't Bother With "Protests" Anymore

I'm pretty sure the last one I attended -- and that as a writer/observer, not really a participant -- was when Richard Spencer spoke at the University of Florida in October of 2017.

I used to be a regular at anti-war protests, Libertarian Party inclusion protests outside the rigged presidential/vice-presidential "debates," etc.

But eventually I decided two things:

1. Nobody cares about protests these days. No matter how many warm bodies you put on the ground waving signs, yelling slogans, etc., you're not changing any minds. To the extent that people notice at all, mostly via mass media, the collective response varies from yawns to outrage at any rioting/property damage that might coincide with your event (whether you intended that to happen or not); and
2. Any "message" that does successfully get "sent" will inevitably be a very mixed and muddled one. I can't count the number of times during the run-up to the Iraq invasion when some speaker would try to hijack the thing. "This isn't just about the war, it's about single-payer healthcare." "This isn't just about the war, it's about police violence." "This isn't just about the war, it's about unionizing workplaces." Every time I marched against the war, my presence there was used to support other causes that I might actually oppose or at least just not care about, and even if I did care about them the hijacking reduced whatever power the main message might convey.

And keep in mind that unless the protest is on a college campus and you happen to be a student with free time (or who doesn't care about missing classes), attending a protest can be a considerable investment in terms of time (with possible financial implications) and risk (of, for example, arrest) that has to be planned for.

Back when I believed protests could make a difference, in a direction I supported, sure, OK, I'd make it a point to be present.

Once I stopped believing that, the only incentives became:

1. Hanging out with friends who reliably show up for that kind of thing, and
2. Getting material to write something about.

Those aren't terrible incentives, but there are usually other methods of enjoying them.

My impression of the "Hands Off" protests this weekend is that things I agree with ("hands off immigrants," for example) would be largely overshadowed by things I don't agree with ("hands off the government spending that subsidizes my personal preferences," for example -- one I ran into circa the 2010 "Tea Party" rallies where the "don't touch my Medicare/Social Security benefits!" crowd was at least as loud as any "limited government" message).

So ... nah, didn't bother.

I won't say "never again," but it will take more than that to get me to give up a good part of my day, arrange travel/parking, risk getting or contrive to get arrested, etc.

Wordle 1387 Hint

Hint: A big country house (or a Mexican revolutionary).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: V

Wordle 1386 Hint

Hint: Bubbly (like the top of a just-poured pint of beer).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

I Guess It Had To Happen Sooner Or Later ...

Ben Shapiro is finally right about something!

Italica Bulldog 150 Acceleration

It isn't, and won't likely ever be, an especially fast bike. But I'm not unhappy with the acceleration as measured by the Dragger app (not an affiliate link) since the variator upgrade (I didn't have the app, or attempt to measure acceleration:

• 0-40 miles per hour, 8.59 seconds
• Quarter mile, 22.68 seconds (only a couple of seconds slower than my 1978 Chevy Chevette!)

I don't have a 0-60 measurement because I only hit 56 miles per hour. That took 24.59 seconds.

Wordle 1385 Hint

Hint: They're tiny crustaceans, but collectively they weigh hundreds of millions of tons.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: K

Not Even A Good Try

"I command you to maintain an arbitrary distance, mentioned nowhere in traffic laws, between your vehicle and mine! And by the way, it's not my job to keep my shit in my vehicle so that my shit doesn't damage your vehicle!"

Wordle 1384 Hint

Hint: How one makes money from sheep (without slaughtering them first).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

The Jury May Still Be Out ...

... but, beyond reasonable doubt, Donald Trump is either a fucking idiot of never before seen proportions or a knowing, intentional domestic enemy of the American people. Those are really the only two plausible conclusions consistent with this insanity.

Wordle 1383 Hint

Hint: A "dirty" word or words, whether in the form of general profanity or wishing ill upon another.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

One Of My Favorite Times Of Day To Ride A Motorcycle ...

... is the period between dawn and just after sunrise. That's usually the least windy and least rainy time of day. There's enough light to see, but the sun isn't in your eyes and the glare of headlights isn't as noxious.

In some places, it's also a fairly low-traffic time of day ... but not in my area. Lots of commuters are starting to filter into Gainesville from Archer, Levy County, etc. and there may also be school buses making frequent stops.

So while my ride out to Archer this morning to drop something at the post office was "full speed ahead," the ride back from Archer involved multiple slow-downs, lines at the only traffic light along the way that held people through two cycles instead of one, etc. But both directions made for nice, relaxing, enjoyable rides.

According to Fuelly, the Italica Bulldog 150 got 67.9 miles per gallon on its last tank of gas. Interesting, because the main usage on that tank consisted of a full-speed 40+ mile trip out past Bronson and back. I think the variator modification to get RPMs down at top speed may have changed the mileage equation from "better in town, worse in the country" to the other way around.

Thanks For Asking! -- 04/01/25

It's April Fooling Around Time! Ask me anything in comments, I'll answer in (or linked from) comments.

Yes, you can create multiple Disqus accounts to ask really stupid questions, but please, for everyone's sake try to be at least as interesting as Roy D. Mercer.

Wordle 1382 Hint

Hint: A good watch -- mechanical, not digital! -- contains at least 17 of today's Wordle.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: J