Manchester? I am weary. That is bad. But. Let’s talk about Tog’s Great American Probability Musheen instead! I actually remembered this thing as I was thinking about the randomness of terrorist events of all sorts, ISIS, homegrown, alien UFOs, whatever.

Way back in 1979, the GG bought a computer “for his mother”. I know it was 1979 because I *think* we still have the receipt. For his mother is in quotes because, of course, it was really for the GG. We had it hooked up to our fancy (at that time) Sony Trinitron color TV in our bedroom in the Rock and Roll Apartment down on 7th street. (I say Rock and Roll because the floors had “waves” in them.)

One of the “apps” we had on our Apple II+ was Tog’s Great American Probability Musheeen. I put “apps” in quotes because back then, when you wanted to use an application, you usually had to load one of those old-skool floppy disks into an external drive to be able to use it on the computer. And the floppy disk I am talking about was truly floppy, in that it wasn’t rigid, it kind of bent back and forth.

So when we weren’t watching M*A*S*H reruns or whatever other sit-coms we used to watch in the early 1980s, we would have the Probability Musheen on and watch it or not. I used to be freaked out that if we left the computer on when we weren’t home, it might catch faaaaar or something, so I would always make sure that the button indicating the computer was ON would not be lit up when we left the apartment.

The GG did not agree with me.

One day we left the apartment and I glanced over at the computer/TV setup. I didn’t see a red light so we left. When we got back, I realized that he had put Rabbit (a small stuffed aminal from my high school years) on top of the red light button to hide it. It was okay. Nothing caught faaaaar.

How many of you have read this far? If you have, you will learn that I actually agree with one thing that The Orange Oligarch aka Donald Trump has said recently. He has called terrorist bombers “losers”. I agree with that totally. Alas, I do not expect that President Trump has a realistic plan to deal with terrorists of any ilk. A plan? Fancy “presidential” style rhetoric does not equal a plan. I don’t think any serious country (including countries infested with ISIS) have any kind of plan. I dunno. Donald, we are waiting… What is your plan?

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