GOOD NEWS! POST YOUR GOOD NEWS HERE!! (vanity)

10/2/08 | ChocChipCookie

[ChocChipCookie]

Reading FR over the past 48 hours or so has been downright depressing. Yesterday I found myself snapping at my children for no other reason than my negative state of mind. The election is still a month away. I don't believe that all is lost. Polls are being manipulated and so are we!

So, what GOOD news have you heard lately? What is going on in your part of the country that gives you hope that McCain will win? What positive anecdotes can you share with all of us? Post it here. We could all use the encouragement.

[LegalEagle61]

My McCain/Palin lawn sign and t-shirt just came by U.S. mail and my sign is proudly displayed in my yard right now....I am wearing the t-shirt tonight for the debate to help give Sarah some more good luck.

[Allegra]

I’m coming home in less than two months!

[GoSarah]

I am having my first authentic cheesesteak tonight! We’re eating it over the VP debate! Well, as authentic as you can have outside of Philly... found this old fashioned deli that still serves a TON of meat on its sandwiches... it’s coming with Cheese Whiz and onions!

[Allegra]

4: Expectations for Palin are low. [Wicked grin.]

Why, if I'm not mistaken, that grin looked dowright barracuda-like.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Laugh Links:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2093511/posts?page=28#28

[navymom1]

Okay, my good news.

Next week is the annual cattle drive in Bucklin, Kansas. We drive long horn cattle to winter pasture for three days. We take a chuck wagon with us, cook out over an open fire and sleep out under the stars. Three days of being totally out in the middle of the prairie, no civilization in sight including POLITICIANS. Heaven on earth.

In other good news, my Betty Crocker Turtle cookie bars came out yummy.

[LegalEagle61]

BTW my dog (who is part of Dogs for McCain) has been instructed to bark if anyone lays a hand on my McCain/Palin yard sign, in fact I purposely put it in a spot where I know my dog will see any yard intruders. He always sits in the window, it is like his version of TV, and he weighs 90 lbs and barks at just about anything loudly and ferociously—doubt anyone would like to mess with him and if I see anyone even looking at it the wrong way, will unleash him upon the perps.

[MaryFromMichigan]

Welcome to FR!
Great freeper name!
Fun thread, eh?
We have our lighter moments!

[ConservativeLawyer]

Here is some more good news. I just found out that my niece and nephew, who I thought were both big Obama fans, have seen the light and are voting for McCain.

p.s. your screenname makes me hungry.

[LegalEagle61]

4: Expectations for Palin are low. [Wicked grin.]

I was thinking that maybe the interviews Sarah did with the MSM were sort of planned that way. She has sounded and looked very professional in so many other things I have seen and heard her do and the 2 interviews that she is being scrutinized on don't make sense to me. Maybe that was a McCain scheme so that expectations would be their lowest and then tonight she comes back in front of a national audience and puts Biden away once and for all. Just a guess.

[LibertyRocks]

LOL... I’ll meet you there! Be sure to buy some good walking shoes! ;)

[momteacherandvp]

We were just saying, “Rachel is just glowing!” and now we know why!

May God bless you and continue to protect your precious bundle of joy.

[LegalEagle61]

I just got this from Office Watch (a newsletter for MS Office) and thought it was funny:

Palin isn't in the Word dictionary

You can tell election fever is getting too hot when poor old Microsoft Office gets dragged into arguments between Republicans vs. Democrats.

Earlier in the year we started getting messages accusing Microsoft of a right-wing bias. The reason? When you typed 'Obama' into Microsoft Word (and Hotmail) was marked as an incorrect spelling - worse the suggested 'correct' spelling was 'Osama'. This has been fixed though it took Microsoft a surprisingly long time to sort it out.

Now it's coming from the other end of the political spectrum. A few Office Watchers have been writing along these lines:

"Microsoft Word doesn't know how to spell 'Palin' as in the name of the next Vice-President of the USA. To add insult the corrections are either 'Pain' or 'Plain'. Why hasn't Microsoft fixed this? Do they want to add to the slurs against this fine woman?" - Jeremy J from Michigan

Jeremy is right that 'Palin' isn't recognized in Word 2007 but at the risk of getting into a political battle - there is no way that Microsoft is engaging in any bias or attempted slur. Let's all take a deep breath folks. There's neither conspiracy nor political bias here, it's just Microsoft Word working as it should.

If MS Word detects a word not in its dictionaries, it will flag it with the now-familiar red squiggly line. If you ask for suggested spellings the program will look for dictionary words that have similar spellings - in the case of 'Palin' the suggestions are: Plain, Paling, Pain, Palling and "Pal in" in Word 2007.

The supplied dictionaries in Microsoft Office now contain many proper names like common place names and names of well-known leaders (past and present). This latter category includes (for US English Word 2007) such names as Thatcher, Blair, Churchill, Roosevelt and Nixon. Some other names like Bush, Carter and Major didn't need special entries because they are also regular dictionary words. Clinton is a widely used place name and may have been in spell-checkers before 1992.

The exact rules Microsoft uses to include people in the Word dictionary are unknown and are probably not fixed in stone anyway. The guidelines would and should have some 'wriggle room' for exceptional circumstances.

Governor Palin was, until a few weeks ago, a US state governor. It's understandable that her surname isn't covered by the Word 2007 dictionary - events have been unanticipated and too little time has passed for any update to become available. With one exception there's no famous 'Palin' person or place names that would have put the word into the spell-checker before now. Since the suggested spellings aren't as odious as the one for Senator Obama, there's probably less pressure on Microsoft to supply a patch.

Other US state governor names like Rell (R-Connecticut), Crist (R-Florida), Minner (D-Delaware) and Beshear (D-Kentucky) don't make the Word 2007 dictionary. Governor Palin wasn't omitted deliberately - clearly being a US Governor isn't sufficient, of itself, to join the exalted ranks of MS Word dictionary listing .

How to fix it

There's a simple way to stop the red squiggly line for a particular word - you can do that for a single document or add it to your personal Office dictionary (which applies to all documents on that computer).

To mark a word as correct for a single document - right-click on the word and choose the 'Ignore All' from below the suggested spelling list.

To mark a word as OK for all documents - right-click on the word and choose 'Add to Dictionary'.

See an expanded version of this article online - including a modest suggestion for the next version of the Word dictionary.

Also on the Office Watch web site is a spin-off article: The Cheese Shop and Microsoft Word

[arizonarachel]

LOL!!

[GoSarah]

Thanks, loving this thread for sure! *grin*

[Twinkie]

One of the pandas is nice and dancing nicely. The other one is very naughty and is shaking its little bottom in a very risque manner. The squirrel is obviously drunk. Sigh. It’s sad when even animals are immoral.

Oh, on a happy note, I had some of those candy corns today that are popular in the fall. Yum. Blueberry Hill brand (from Dollar General) is the best tasting kind. Some brands are not as good as others.

[retrokitten]

Awww...come on..the squirrel isn’t drunk yet!

[Twinkie]

Now, that was when a DIME was really a DIME!

[reagan_fanatic]

Bad news: we could very well have an anti-American quasi-muslim racist as our next President.

Good news: Our Republic is strong and it will survive, just as it had during Carter's term and Clinton's two terms. There are enough of us to put Obama on notice, and to keep the ideals of American liberty and freedom alive.

[RJL]

Bush will only be in office for another four months.

Sorry... I tried, but that’s about as happy as I can get right now.