Back when a screw was a screw...

I don't know how many of you all are Tim McGraw fans or if you listen to Country music at all, but I enjoy listening to Country and I recently heard a song that had me a little befuddled. I looked up the lyrics so I could share them here - you can find the lyrics here - but here I was lounging around the house when I hear:

Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack's what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said I'm down with that
Well it meant you had the flu
I miss back when
I miss back when
I miss back when

My eyebrows crinkled and I walked over by the stereo to make sure I heard right what I was hearing. "Back when a screw was a screw, the wind was all that blew". When I heard, "I miss back when, I miss back when..." then it dawned on me that he's talking about slang terms that American kids use now-a-days.

But dagnabbit - I can't get that chorus out of my head.

More Advance Fee Frauds - now from Spain

The first story about this is here.
The following letter has been brought to my attention. It follows along the same lines of rhetoric:
1. someone died,
2. money was left behind,
3. you were contacted to receive that money (or a portion thereof),
4. and now you must provide information to them to start the transaction process.

Isaac Ani
Pacific Securities SA
Autovía de Huesca,
Km. 45. Ciudad del Transporte,
C/M 50820, Pamplona
Hello,

I am contacting you to partner with me to move the sum of $18.5m. from our company, Pacific Securities SA, Madrid Spain, to an account abroad. I therefore write to ask that you quietly look for a reliable and honest person or organisation that will be capable of providing a bank account or could set up a new bank account that will
serve the purpose of receiving this fund. Even an empty account can also serve as long as honesty and integrity is adhered to till the end of the transaction and
I hope you will never let me down. As the Auditor-General, in the course of auditing, I discovered a floating fund in an account in the security company which was opened and deposited as valuables in 1990.After going through the company records and files, I discovered that :(1) No one has operated this account since 1993; (2) The owner of the account owner died without a heir, hence the money has been floating. AND IF I DO NOT REMIT THIS MONEYURGENTLY, IT WOULD BE FORFEITED FOR NOTHING.
Late Mr. George Algus, a foreigner and businessman who died since 1993 was the owner of this account. He was until his death the Managing Director of Diamond Safari (Pty) SA. No other person knows about this account and there was no known beneficiary.
My company management/board of directors had tried unsuccessfully to locate any of his foreign next of kin/ beneficiary to come up for claims of his estate and all have proved to no avail. It is because of the perceived possibility of not being able to locate any of his next of kin (he had no wife nor children according to his records here), that the Management of my company under the influence of her Chairman and most Members of the Board, are of the opinion that the fund may be declared unclaimable.
In this regard, my trusted Deputy and I resolved to have you stand in as the next of kin to Late George Algus so that the fund will be released and paid into your account or such account that may be provided by you as the beneficiary/next-of-kin of the Fund. All documents and proofs to enable us get this fund have been carefullyworked out.
In addition,, we have secured from the probate registry, an order of MANDAMUS empowering us to locate any of the deceased's beneficiaries and more so, I am assuring you that this transaction is 100% Risk Free. I will require your urgent reply so that I shall arrange to make the name of the beneficiary in your favour both in our company and also with the Probate Registry in the Department of Justice.
Kindly forward your telephone; fax numbers and bank account details that will be used to transfer this money. I am ready to give you 25% of the total sum for assisting me. I look forward to your prompt reply through my confidential email:isaac2003@earthling.net for security reasons.
Best Regards
Isaac Ani
Reply to:isaac2003@earthling.net

I didn't know there was an earthling.net account in existence. I thought it looked too much like earthlink.net. But hey - feel free to email the guy at his confidential email for security reasons if you like. Tell him you're the International Police or something. But you have to share the dialogue so we can all enjoy the humor.

Mystery Illness

The full story is here:

Adding to the intrigue, the Austrian doctors who treated him have asked foreign experts to help determine if his symptoms may have been caused by toxins found in biological weapons.

Medical experts said they may never know for sure what befell Yushchenko.

But the illness, whatever it was, has dramatically changed his appearance since he first sought treatment at Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic on September 10.

…At Rudolfinerhaus, Yushchenko underwent a week of intensive treatment for several illnesses, including acute pancreatitis, a viral skin disease and nerve paralysis on the left side of his face, Korpan said.

Clinic director Michael Zimpfer said doctors were unable to explain some of Yushchenko's symptoms, particularly his strong backaches.

He said they could not rule out stress or a viral infection.

Yushchenko's doctors in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, said they had determined that "chemicals not of a food origin'' had triggered the illness.

If you are curious to see a before and after picture, then go ahead and click on the link to the story above. They say ("they" is the media) that Yushchenko had doggedly handsome movie star looks. If you see him today, then you would think otherwise.

There are a couple of reasons why I find it important to comment on this newsworthy piece. For one, this man is running for President in Ukraine. Apparently, there are some allegations that the ballot count was fraudulent and he appealed the count. They believe the fraud took place with the absentee ballots and he wants another way of handling ballots to prevent this in the future. At any rate, Vladimir Putin, Russian President, unofficially backs his opponent. I cannot help but notice that there’s some malarkey going on over there. So I’m going to point it out here: Putin pretty much just said to Russian people, “I’m the President, that’s it.” His opponent disappeared, couldn’t be found. Now these are just things I recall from reading the news (and I read online newspapers from all over the world). I thought that was very dictator-like in actions. But apparently, Russia’s leadership wants to go back to Communism and that’s their freedom to choose that. I just thought it was creepy how things were being handled. And now, here’s this election in Ukraine and suddenly the one who is not backed by Putin looks like he has copper poisoning.

Coincidence?

Only God really knows. But these doctors have no clue what Yushchenko ingested or came into contact with that turned him into a gray-skinned, pock-faced, teary-eyed, human freak-of-biohazard-accidents.

I have seen a guy that had skin like that come into the clinic. I was told the guy had copper poisoning. It changes your skin color. But he didn’t have the pock marks on his face or the watering eye problem.

I hope the truth comes out about Yushchenko’s condition. Enquiring minds want to know. And if there is corruption going on, then it needs to be exposed.