Now They Tell Me December 1, 2009March 16, 2017 In case you missed the Nick Kristof column linked to yesterday, I commend it again. We need health insurance reform – and are likely to get a decent, albeit imperfect, start on it signed into law early next year. REAL HAMSTERS Kathi Derevan: “The difference between hamsters and gerbils? Roy Blount Jr. says, ‘hamsters have more dark meat.’” DICE AND DIES The die has been cast. As in a die thrown out onto the gaming table OR a die cast in molten steel – what a language is this English. MICROSOFT TUESDAY Now they tell me! I really have to spend more time around people. People seem to know these things, because they work together (I work alone, in a cave) and the tech guy tells somebody and within minutes everybody in the company knows. But not me, because I work in a cave. You know those random and maddening overnight crashes that occur when – for my safety – Microsoft has gone in and updated and restarted my computer, so I lose all the files I had open and was working on? (Yes, some of them automatically restore; and I have backups. But how do I remember which 18 emails were open, waiting to be answered in the morning?) This week I learned that they’re not random at all, they generally happen every second Tuesday. So tonight (or is it next Tuesday night?), it could be a good idea to “mark unread” any emails you have open, and close other files, before you hit the hay. (And yes, I know: the Macintosh never crashes, even when the power goes out or it’s drowned or stolen. It just keeps running problem-free. No one has ever had a problem with a Mac.)