Hello McG!

It speaks volumes for your constitution that you should be so determined to go snow-ridding while down will flu. As far as I am concerned, it can just bloody-well stay where it is.

JRT,

It worked! The Malwarebytes download quarantined no fewer than 14 nasty items made up of Malware, Rogues, Trojans, Backdoor thingys, and Adware! I was told by somebody a few weeks ago that even if you install an anti-virus/spyware utility it will treat threats already installed as the norm - things that should be there. Looks like that is indeed the case because while the currently installed anti-virus package has detected threats since installation, it did not detect things that were obviously already there. Many thanks due to you!

I have just changed my page preferences to 20 in the manner recommended by PV1.

Folks,

MG:

LOL. Taking photos of snow would be rubbing salt into your wounds. I refrained from sending photos of our recent snow to all you snowbound chaps. That would have been tantamount to sending coals to Newcastle, eh, Dux?

Perhaps if something else had been as huge as your disappointment Nurse Goodbody might have shown up....;) As it is the sadistic Dux would have you trapped inside with a seriously horny Olga with no means of escape. Shame on you Dux, shame I say. While the terrified and weakened MG begins dictating his last will and testament to his trusty St. Bernard Max who was out of sight in my previous vision, I'll continue my conversation with Dux. Don't worry MG we'll check in later. I'm sure you want some privacy. Just then Olga lunges at MG.....

Dux:

I am happy to hear that Malwarebytes also worked for you. Beware. One must be especially careful when downloading these tools from online. Far too many are said to actually put viruses, root kits and malware on your computer so that they may then claim to have found and removed them. It has happened to me.

Usually these are disreputable commercial programs. Recommendations by experts or posters on forums that you trust or your friends is the way to go. Be sure to update Malwarebytes and run it once a week for protection against the latest threats. And remember nothing is a more powerful anti virus than smart, defensive surfing.

It has been a bit longer than 30 minutes now since we checked in on MG. Returning to his home we see that someone has torn open the front door and plowed their way through the deep snow to the road. There is no sign of who or what might have done it. The loyal Max sits in the sunshine at the gaping door his long tongue is hanging out of his mouth and he seems to be panting.

We pat a smiling Max on his big fuzzy head and peer into the gloom just beyond the splintered door. Inside there is total chaos. Chairs are upturned, other furniture is capsized. The place is a wreck. By the fireplace a drunken Olga seems to be stirring again.

Gentlemen an unsatisfied Olga is coming to. I do not know about you lads but as for me, I will not consider it an act of cowardice if we all follow MG and just get the hell out of here pronto.....

Gents,

JRT,

I downloaded the latest version of Malwarebytes today and ran it again. Nothing there, of course. Everything was cleared out yesterday - and good riddance. Very pleased with it.

Folks,

Dux:

That is good news. Be sure to click 'Update' and then click to download what they call 'fingerprints' once a week so you'll always have the latest nasties recognition file installed. BTW it also does some work when you boot up unlike most other programs that only work their protection once the OS is completely loaded.

Newly discovered documents have revealed a bizarre footnote to the history of the Second World War: a Finnish mutt whose imitation of the Hitler salute enraged the Nazis so deeply that they started an obsessive campaign against the dog's owner.

Absurdly, a totalitarian state that dominated most of Europe was unable to do much about Jackie and his paw-raising parody of Germany's Fuhrer.

In the middle of World War II — months before Hitler ordered some 4.5 million troops to invade the Soviet Union — the Foreign Office in Berlin commanded its diplomats in the Nazi-friendly Nordic country to gather evidence on the dog, and even came up with plans to destroy the pharmaceutical wholesale company of its owner.

It almost stretches all reason and credulity but apparently, poised on the verge of a major assault upon Russia, the German government had nothing better to do than to devote time, treasure and resources to silencing a dog and punishing its owner. I think such rampant paranoia indicates a certain insecurity don't you agree?

Even though there was a short lived pact between Finland and Germany the man and his dog remained out of the reach of the Nazis. In short order Finland realized the error of its ways and it repudiated its agreement with Hitler and signed another pact with Russia. Many non-aggression pacts, agreements and other long pages of fine print signed for the temporary convenience of states in such volatile times do not seem to have been worth much.

Gents,

JRT,

That sounds like a joke but I can well believe it. Hitler had a long list of people who had insulted him who he intended to dispose of as various countries became occupied.

Speaking of jokes, here's one I heard at a funeral recently:

The congregation had taken to their pews when a beautiful blonde walked in with much sticking out from the top and wearing a mini skirt with a hem only a few inches lower than her belt. She took her seat right at the front and crossed her shapely legs.

The priest, who was accompanied by a trainee novice, duly completed the service and took station at the entrance to see off the congregation. Last out was the blonde, and as she minced away into the distance, the priest asked of the novice;

'Wasn't that Fanny Green?'

The novice replied;

'No, it was just the way the light was shining through the stained glass window.'

BTW:
The word 'fanny' has different connotations over here...

Folks,

Dux:

I agree yet, according to the news service it is not a joke. LOL. I cannot wait for you to tell that one to Olga. Laughing always enhances her libido. Except as a proper name the word "fanny" has only the connotation indicated by the joke here.

Here's another 'Blonde' joke:

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the Loan officer. She says she's going to Derbyshire to visit an old friend for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.

The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Mercedes Benz SL 500.

The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, she has the title and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.

The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for using a $110,000 Benz as collateral against a $5,000 loan.

An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Benz into the bank's underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41.

The loan officer says, "Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire.

What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?"

The blonde replies, "Where else in New York City can I park my Car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"

Folks,

Dux:

I wonder if they went after Charlie Chaplin when he acted in, produced and directed "The Little Dictator"? That one put up to ridicule everyone wearing a dead spider on the sleeve of his cost...

I'm sure that wouldn't have escaped the Fuehrer's beady eye!

Folks,

Dux:

If he even knew about it, the fellow with the unruly hair and toothbrush mustache probably didn't give a fig about such affronts to his dignity at the time. He thought he would have a thousand years to get even with everybody. No doubt it was brown nosed underlings hoping to curry favor that went after the insolent pooch. I've read that the loyal sycophant Bormann once had someone's property in Berchtesgarten seized and then he sent them to a concentration camp just so he could cut down a few trees that the Fuhrer offhandedly mentioned spoiled his view.

I do hope it will not be too long before you can get your PC crate repaired or replaced so that it will fly again. I look forward to vicariously enjoying all the new pleasures of our BoB fitted out with all the newest bells and whistles. Maybe you might even get ROF and report on that? The new title from Oleg promises to be exceptional but demanding of CPU processing power so I look forward to enjoying that in time through your eyes as well.

Hereabouts BoB patched to 9xx is doing the job and running well. They say it should not even load but it is running smoothly. After a decade I continue to get a great deal of pleasure from it. As a bonus I never forget that had it not been for BoB I'd never have meet you, SNAFU, C51, Jens and so many other fine fellows. I'd never have known Olga or LeRoy or hundreds of other interesting characters populating so many pages of HWH stories over these past ten years of fun and virtual friendship.

With nearly 2 1/2 million views filling our sails moving us happily onward we are now coasting toward the month of April and the celebration of the first decade of SNAFU's amazing thread. If this celebration is also to mark the final chapter in our story then we should put some serious thought on how we might want to bring this decade to a suitable and honorary close.

Mark Carroll may not be with us other than in spirit and we do not know what happened to old SNAFU yet I feel he should participate in some way at least by proxy. Were it not for Mark none of this might have ever happened. Yes that may be a terrible thing to place at the feet of a departed friend. In spite of that, I think Mark would be both pleased and proud of HWH. At the least I hope that he would look upon the stewardship of his thread by you, MG and me with approval.

Aye, to that. I often wonder why he cut off so suddenly.

There are several sims I intend to play including those you mention.
Without knowing the basic spec for SOW, it is probably false economy to buy a new rig now and hope it fills the bill for what we all hope will be Oleg's masterpiece.

Folks,

Dux:

Don't expect perfection at first with any new sim. In the past games came out with as much beta testing as possible on all permutations of the PVC that was possible and they still needed several patches to make them even usable by some. Today with venture capital even harder to come by for titles other than those with a built-in demand. And with budget constraints you wouldn't believe there seems to be a even stronger tendency to push titles to market with the inferred expectation that many desired features and eye candy will just have to wait until future minor patches and add-ons reach the waiting hands of the needy multitude. Meanwhile back at the coding mill the squinty eyed workers are already hard at work sweating out the beginnings of the next title.

Yes, the game market has many similarities to that of the movie industry of today.

JRT,

That's certainly true about beta testing. Despite many hours put in by the developers, it will be up to the many thousands of simmers to discover those hidden glitches which have not been revealed prior to release. As far as future titles are concerned, I can't think of a single opportunity for the developers. All seems to have been covered, except maybe for a brand new Korean War effort? Also, the RAF night bombing campaign sim collapsed after the lengthy initial development of Target For Tonight.

Gents,

If I had any influence on the disapperance of SNAFU, - arriving with a moderator cap and a baton, - I hope he will come back and give me another chance. My memory may be terrible, but did he scoot shortly after I arrived?

Anyway, on to a very serious subject of tea-rationing. The tea that I have been faithfully drinking for my entire adult life is reportedly no longer imported to Denmark. And the company producing the tea is not yet ready to sell the precious leaves to citizens located on the continent - I have checked, so I am well and truly in a bit of a spot here.

So far expeditions to secure replacement brands have led to me to find something similar in taste to my trysty Typhoo although not quite as full or powerful. It seems that indian black tea is the best avenue of investigation for me, but does anyone know if I should try large leaves or small ones?

Does anyone know anything about tea? I've been trawling the net but have found very little useful factual information on the subject.

In the weather: A heatwave of +5 degrees centigrade has been predicted for the conclusion of this week! Bring out the trunks and the sunoil!

Jens,

Apparently, the first cup of tea was swigged by Emperor Shen Nung in 2737BC when tea leaves blew into his cup of hot water.

I don't know much about tea despite having partaken of many thousands of cups over the years. I didn't know much about Greenland either. If I ever knew it belonged to Denmark until being granted independence, I had forgotten about it. There was a TV programme last night about those chaps we used to call Eskimos which informed/reminded me.

Folks,

MG:

At the moment we are thinking more about hot chocolate and mugs of steaming, delicious cider than tea. The prospects for sleet and freezing rain tonight continue to concern us. Counties south of us have received up to 4" of snow already and the boundary between snow, sleet and freezing rain is shifting north toward us rapidly.. Frankly no one here but me drinks anything but iced tea and though I enjoy a hot cuppa tea now and then I certainly do not consider myself a connoisseur of fine teas. I have done a little research but IMO no one who thinks tea grows in little white bags as I do should claim that.

C51 and Dux are hot tea aficionados since birth. I am sure that they might have an opinion. C51 just last year bought a new electric kettle he says is marvelous. My old kettle is made of stainless steel. That is a misnomer as far as I am concerned. At the moment I am drinking an Indian black tea but it has other additives making it a bit too floral for my liking.

The expensive tea was a gift so I feel obligated to finish it off. Heck even though I have a kettle I brew it in the new coffee maker entirely un-known to a critical SWMNBN. I suspect she might vigorously protest. And when she vigorously protests something on me usually begins to hurt.

I am aware that the secret to both a good cuppa coffee or a tasty cuppa tea is freshness in the grind and in the leaves and of course the perfect temperature for the brewing process is vital. Most coffee makers on the market over here do not seem to provide that.

I wish you luck. You seemed to indicate you cannot order the tea direct form the Mfg. or a distributor? The same thing happened to me a couple of times. It seems that as soon as we find a product we really like and get used to using it the store stops stocking it. On one occasion I contacted the distributor and was able to order a discontinued item direct but in a slightly larger quantity than usual. They even sent me a catalog. On another occasion even though they no longer stocked it I was able to get the store to special order a particular spice blend for me.

The size of a fig leaf can be of vital importance when needed for modesty sake however I am not aware of the difference the size of the tea leaves might make. I'd guess it might be a matter of personal preference.

Our experts are still a little worse for wear after the birthday celebration but I'll ask them. What say ye you consumers of rivers of the delicious concoction...and other, more lethal things? Can you offer any helpful advice?

Hurry, can't you see the man is thirsty.... Dux shrugs his shoulders, hiccups and puts the kettle on. C51 yawns, belches loudly and washes out his big cup. LeRoy raises his head and gestures with one paralytic hand but slips back into painless unconsciousness. As I've said before the holidays and other celebrations such as Dux's recent birthday bash are indeed rough on our poor LeRoy.

Well, there you have it MG. I have polled our experts and it is apparent that you may be on your own. Personally, considering the condition they are in I'd say you might be better off for it.

Folks,

OK, children it seems that whilst I was busy combining words in my mind and typing Dux was posting. All I know about Greenland is connected to the Vikings other than the fact that there is supposed to be a girl behind every tree. My Best Man at my wedding was once stationed there and he assures me that this is only technically true as there are actually no trees in GREENland. If not, what makes it so green?

I've read and re-read Dux's post and danged if I can get much info about tea out of it. Having, by his own admission, drunk thousands of cups of tea he should be an expert on the stuff. Of course by the same token we cannot expect him to come up with formula and detailed instructions for distilling single malt whiskey. At the least he might give us the brand of tea he and his well provisioned castle mates prefer.

Folks,

Someone with far too little tact just called my attention to the fact that I should really be typing "McG" and not "MG" when I address our Danish friend. I mean no discourtesy, it is not due to oversight either. Knowing his love of racing as I do I have always thought that "MG" sounded so much more automotive.

I am like Dux, I don't know much about tea, I just drink it. I once, while drifting haplessly through the world of television in typically semiconscious distraction, was horrified by a depiction of pesticides being copiously applied to tea bushes on the hillsides of some sunny clime, and thereupon resolved to eschew all but certified organic tea, which led me to discover my longtime stalwart brand, initially called "Natureland Organic Tea" from Tanzania. I say stalwart, but it was a rather odd brand, as it actually morphed over the years, undergoing most bizarre transformations, in slow increments, so that now, the only thing remaining which resembles the original product is the size and shape of the container, the quantity of contents (48 bags, which I suppose is anathema to a loose tea traditionalist), and somewhat improbably, its approximate price. It now goes under the name "Ridgeways Organic Tea" and advises that it comes from "India, Africa and Sri Lanka", but seems quite similar to the original product, being rather darkly steeping, mild, not bitter nor sharp, and quite compatible with white of cow. That suited me very well, for a couple of decades. However, I have recently all but completely stopped its consumption, as I am finding it necessary to avoid caffeine if I am to continue hanging on barely to a semblance of correspondence to the 24 hour circadian cycle apparently preferred by the majority and inconveniently assumed by inconsiderate agencies such as employers and retailers. (Even without the drug to confound things, I find that set free of obligations I immediately slide into a very comfortable 25.5 hour cycle.) As a result, I have switched over to decaf tea, and due to its limited availability, I am forced to mostly abandon my organic only policy. There, that's all I know of the subject.

Gents,

PV1

That's quite a substantial statement nevertheless.

Penny-pinching can get you something like two teabags for the price of one but you get what you pay for - as with coffee. Even if you need two bags for a decent cuppa (which cancels out the saving) the quality is lacking however. Yorkshire Tea is strong and gives that bite which sets one up in the morning.

Briefly, while touching on coffee, our cheaper brands taste like ground up badger turds and should be avoided.

Arthur Brooke founded the famous Brooke-Bond label in 1845, quite near here at Ashton and
Tetley's Tea was founded in 1837.

Under the guise of a political protest, the American colonists showed us Brits what they thought of it and dumped loads of the stuff into the Boston harbour all those years ago.
If we hadn't have been so damned awkward about foisting this brew onto them, the whole thing would not have snowballed into the American Revolution. They had already decided that coffee was going to be their national drink and were not about to be influenced otherwise.
Who could have foreseen that just a few miserable boxes of this beverage should cost us such a valuable asset? Every time we take a sip of our habitual brew, we reflect with bitter regret on our loss.

Folks,

PV1:

LOL! History failed to note that seconds after the Boston Tea Party Boston harbor was teeming with Bostonians splashing about filling everything from bottles to bathtubs with free tea.

Fostered upon us was it? In truth most of the colonists at that time were already quite used to sipping tea with or without their meals of venison, possum and on high holy days, coon. They were addicted to the stuff and they found tea and its content of active chemicals, some of which brightened and others smoothed out their difficult day, most agreeable. A day otherwise spent avoiding Georgie's rowdy redcoats and arguing with their disgruntled neighbors the Indians.

To be more precise, the brouhaha was about taxation without proper representation...hmmmm not altogether unlike what we have here today in some ways. You knew that of course though many other readers (if there are any) may not. When tea became hard to come by it must have been tantamount to depriving a modern East-ender of his telly. Caffeine in the form of coffee was indeed substituted for caffeine from tea and many began to drink it as a stand against British tyranny... at least when the beer or wine ran out. Indeed, more Americans now drink coffee rather than tea. We southerners however drink a great deal of iced tea.