Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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My Superpower

To practice my Spanish I watch YouTube videos.  One of my favorite channels on the platform for this is Easy Spanish. My favorite subset of videos on this channel is street interviews. They come up with a fairly simple question then rope in people that are in parks, walking on the street, etc. to answer the question.  I recently watched one set in Lima, Peru where the lady was asking if they could have one superpower, what it would be and what would they do with it. As could be predicted, most folks were giving answers such as invisibility, to able to fly like Superman and ESP.

This started me wondering about a couple things.  First, how does Superman Continue reading “My Superpower”

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Trend Micro had me flagged, but all is better

If you are using Trend Micro as your anti-virus software, they had my site flagged as containing a virus.

I ran my site through a utility that is available to WordPress web sites.  No viruses were found, but there was a fair amount of old code that the utility did not like.  I’ve been doing this blog a long time.  I cleaned all that up.  Scanned again, and got a absolutely clean scan.  I submitted my site to Trend Micro and they agreed it was clean and unflagged it.

All the major search engines except Yandex do not have me flagged,and have not ever had me flagged.

I am still working on Yandex. Yandex is based in Russia, and apparently is one of the big four search engines according to my WordPress SEO plugin.  Their requirements are little different.  I find that a bit ironic as a couple years ago my site was under a brute force attack out of Russia and eastern Europe locations.  Why my site, as it is truly the Home of the Little Known Blogger, I have no idea.  Much of the bad cyber activities originate from this region of the globe, however.

Ah… the joys of maintaining a web site.  Especially, as all I really want to do is write silliness and rant about things.  It is enough to turn someone into a curmudgeon.

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My Most Popular Posts

Below is a list of the most popular posts on Curmudgeon Alley.  For most of them I have some sense of why they receive more action.  Sex and humor are always popular.  My book reviews get a fair number of hits.  The one I do not understand is Take George Washington Off the One Dollar Bill. I really wrote this with a very sharp point on my satirical pen, but it must not have been sharp enough.  People seem to take the article seriously.

Obviously there is a reason why, when my article on Ann Wagner was picked up by Huff Post, one critical referred to me as a little known blogger.  I’ve embraced that and made “Home of the Little  Known Blogger” my tag line.

But hey, the bottom line is that I am enjoying myself doing this, and it is reasonably harmless.   I could be stalking Gospodin Trump on Twitter.

Home page / Archives 7,690
Damn it, you’re welcome 3,985
About 2,985
Take George Washington Off the One Dollar Bill 2,749
Wealth Distribution in USA 2,273
Bad Jokes 1,993
Donald Trump – Russian Bride of the Year 1,806
Southern friendly vs. Midwestern friendly 1,402
Is Rosie the Riveter gay or straight? 1,380
BR-549 1,125
Robin’s Snoopy Dance 1,025
The American Flag – Hijacked by Conservatives? 885
The 3 Abrahamic religions explained 677
Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein 583
Disney Orgy 536
Word of the Day – Gamin 520
Word of the Day – Ennui 501
Quotes 434
Word of the Day – Mazophilia 275
Public Service Announcement – Hand Washing from CDC 269
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas 227
Shrek the Musical 223
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Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose *

In many ways I wish I had not read this book.

Don’t get me wrong, as always with Ambrose, it is a wonderfully written and researched book. I have always had a minor interest in the Lewis and Clark expedition.  I have a vague recollection of reading a book about the expedition aimed at young readers when I was an early teen.  Having moved to St. Louis a few years ago this interest has grown.  It is hard to move around this area without being reminded that the expedition started and ended here.  When I ride my bicycle across the Missouri River into St. Charles I pass a historic marker commemorating Lewis and Clark.  The markers are all along the Katy Trail which in many places runs close to the Missouri River.

A few years I obtained an older book on the Lewis and Clark expedition.   It touched on all the key points of the trip Continue reading “Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose *”

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The Curmudgeon and His Muse*

My bride, the inestimable Ms. Robin, has from time to time referred to me as writer.  Mostly I just ignore it when she makes these wild statements. At other times I take umbrage, and I debate with her about her commentary on my activities.

To me a writer is someone like our friend Jeanne Felfe.  Jeanne has self-published several novels and has had many short stories accepted for publication.  Jeanne retired from AT&T after nearly a century there, and has made writing her new career.  I’m going to plug our friend a little, to see Jeanne’s books on Amazon click this link: Jeanne Felfe -Author Or you can go to her website Jeanne Felfe – Emotional journeys beyond truth and love

I think of what I do as a compulsion bordering on OCD, discursive diarrhea that I spew into the black hole of cyber-space.

If I could make myself stop I would.

Fortunately for me and the world it is a minor aberration that generally harms no one.  Although querida Robin has had more than one discussion with this unworthy neurotic about a story I wrote.  She is not always happy being the protagonist of my ramblings.  She is also not buying the theory that she should be honored to be my muse. Go figure.

Looks like I am spewing some more!

* The Curmudgeon and His Muse… Now there is a short story begging to be written.

Just a reminder since we are speaking of books and Amazon.  You can help support the Paul H. Carr (my uncle) Memorial Foundation when shopping on Amazon.  To find out how, just follow this link: Help Support The Carr Exhibit with Amazon Smile

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How can I comment?

This is a new layout for Curmudgeon Alley.  I am using a packaged theme over which I have but limited ability to change. The comments are a little hard to find.

To read or write comments:

  • If you are already within an article scroll towards the bottom.
  • If you are on the scroll (multiple articles are visible), click on the article title then scroll towards the bottom of the page.

Don’t forget to hit the Submit button  after you are done with your pithy commentary.

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Juanita Rush was channeling Confucius

A while back I put out a quote from my mother, Juanita Rush,  who came up it while in an Alzheimer’s ward.  She said, “When we were younger, the things we thought were hard were really pretty easy.”

Recently I have been doing some work on the web presence of my blog and I came across this quote I had posted attributed to  Confucius which states:  “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.“

It dawned on me  my mother was Continue reading “Juanita Rush was channeling Confucius”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,833

yeah I know you did not ask!

My bride, Robin, has a minor hobby.  She likes to go to estate sales, not often, she may average a little more than once a month.  She frequently buys nothing, or perhaps some little gewgaw.  Once in a great while she will find a real bargain. She invariably goes on Sunday when everything is half priced, but has been picked over. She really seems to enjoy the hunt.

Perhaps once or twice a year she manages to talk me into going with her.  When I go I am mainly looking for books of classical literature or history, maybe fishing gear.  Once I did find an nice erotic painting that is now hanging in our bedroom.  My main problem with going to estate sales is that they absolutely depress the hell out of me.  I will unfailingly find myself muttering as we leave, “You are born, you live, you die, and in the end strangers pick through your shit for pennies on the dollar.“