Hornswaggler | The culture, the humor, a bit of the sports, not so much the politics, and the workplace distraction
Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of
hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my
pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" --
"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits,
vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers,
buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train
robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!"
My wife and I went out to dinner in Palo Alto last week for my birthday. It was a Tuesday, but the downtown area was buzzing, and Evvia, the upscale Greek restaurant we went to, was packed. The San Francisco Peninsula, and Palo Alto in particular, is one of the most affluent areas in the country, but still, it struck me how little evidence there is sometimes in day-to-day life that we're in the midst of what's now commonly referred to as the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
It probably looks a lot worse if you don't have a job, and I'm fortunate enough to have one. And most of the rest of the country is in much worse shape. We're in Silicon Valley, after all. Still, it's jarring, given what we all read or see on television about the economy, to see downtown Palo Alto bustling as if it were 1997 or witness lines around the block for Apple's latest gadget.
