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The Holy Font Wars

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Font, font, font. Said three times really fast it sounds geeky, like a bad cheese. Aged Extra Sharp Font. To font or not to font. I do not know what font WordPress uses when this is published, but I have historically written in Times New Roman (TNR), a carryover from journalism days. In fact, I never really thought of font unless someone required a certain font. If they did, I selected it from the 1,837,312* font types available in Word and other processing apps.

But I always returned to the old “eye-shade and ink-stained sleeves” newspaper roots and wrote in TNR. TNR was invented 93 years ago by a typographer for the British “The Times” newspaper. He complained about the readability of the paper, which was using Times Roman font, now known as Times Old Roman. TNR was a huge success and became the global standard for books and legal documents. It was Microsoft Word’s default font until 2007, when Calibri replaced it. Being stubborn and superstitious, TNR was moved into my personal word processing default position, and no other font was used on purpose. (There was a time when testing word processors in the 70s and 80s when the installed font was never even known, or font selection was limited, which didn’t matter as long as it was readable.)

Fonts were never a big deal, though sometimes size mattered. I remember playing around with myriad and varied fonts sizes, years ago, when a certain page count was required and discovered certain fonts take up more space than others, making filling a page easier. But generally, fonts are so inconsequential I called TNR “New Times Roman” for most of this post until editing, when I noticed the New and Old Times Roman boo-boos.** It didn’t take long to fix, but it made me wonder if this inconsequential post should be continued.

Wait, it’s point is coming back to me.

The Biden administration, in its push to help the disabled and generally disadvantaged among us, mandated Calibri for all administration paperwork in 2023. The administration cited three reasons for the change:

  1. Calibri readability is better because it is “sans-serif”. It has no “feet” or decorative flourishes. Ai it.
  2. TNR was designed for paper newsprint, while Calibri was designed for digital computer screens.
  3. The cleaner lines of “sans serif” Calibri worked better with modern Optical Character Recognition software.

Those are some very good reasons for a simple, unobtrusive change, right?

Before writing this post, I typed two sentences, one on top of the other, one in TNR, and one in Calibri. The difference is astounding,*** especially to 73-year-old eyes using 1.75 magnification “reading glasses” just to see the desk. I am now a fan of fonts, and this post is Great British TNR free, and 100% pure Microsoft Calibri.

Can anyone understand why the Trump people recently decided to go back to TNR? They had these reasons:

  1. Restoring “Decorum and Professionalism.” TNR conveys a more “formal and professional” tone. Oh, and tradition. “Make American Type Flourishy Again.” Irony? Tone-deafness?
  2. Opposition to DEI. Trump people declared the move to Calibri a “wasteful program linked to DEI.” God forbid.
  3. Unified Identity. The change (back to TNR) aligns with President Trumps’ “One Voice For America’s Foreign Relations” Directive. Thank God?

You probably know how I feel about each font but Lucas de Groot, the Dutch inventor of Calibri, opines the return to TNR is “sad and hilarious” at the same time. Well said, and who cares about poor people with bad eyes. And switching back to TNR won’t cost a cent.

All players in this mega-important official United States policy issue should be thanked for opening my eyes to better writing and reading. (Get it?)

And the things you guys make me learn. Amen.

*Do I have to tell you that is an exaggeration? Hyperbole? Untruth? Whatever else you do, do NOT do a deep dive into fonts with Ai. Do do.

**That was a good time for Ai to be of service. Slacker.

***Try it yourself.

Things Learned In Old Age, Accidentally

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The faster drivers in my area are females. Since I committed to a 1.4 Litre engine to prevent NASCARRING (sic)*, most of the cars passing my new, used car as we putter along 10 miles over the speed limit are being driven by females. Is it sexist to think they were always careful, law-abiding drivers? Or did I only know careful, law-abiding females in my youth? Back then, this phrase was a constant mantra when driving with a female passenger: “Why are you in such a hurry?” Hm. Maybe my ascension to the heights of safe driving simply made me more aware. Or maybe there is less tint on windows these days, and the driver can actually be seen and not assumed. Don’t know and it suddenly became unimportant. I’m a safe driver, now, and anyone of any sex, color, religion, altered state of existence, or sexual preference can pass me without comment or digital salute.

At the first stop light on the four-lane out of Turning Stone resort this morning, there was a Dodge Charger with a rumbling motor in the front right lane and a quiet, but deadly looking Tesla in the front left. The light changed and both took off. I caught them at the next red light, the Dodge still rumbling and the Tesla still had nothing to add. The light changed and off they went, again. Since there wasn’t another light—or a random speed trap—for the next 20 miles, they were soon out of sight and forgotten. My small-block 1.4 liter never saw them again. Are you wondering who won? Also, no idea who or what was driving either. Damn tint. Think either might have been driver-less? Ai is a street racer? Or maybe two girls/women? All that is certain is neither was over 70 years old. There is an inverse relationship between the ability to properly handle horsepower and age, as noted in the first paragraph.

It’s the perfect season for Sports Nuts (SNs). If you are an SN you know what the problem is, and if you aren’t an SN you aren’t going to care but it’s tough to get a good night’s sleep. At an advanced age, proper rest and strategic breaks are important just to get through the daily 12-14 hours of watching sports without doing permanent damage to retinas, corneas, sclera, and pupils, as well as gray matter. The accidental calisthenics are okay unless there is a lot to cheer about in a short time. Again, a break is needed. Add to the mix sodium-laden snacks and the perfect reclining chair, and you may never hear from me again. Note: This is my last year rooting for the Yankees. The Mets have no expectations. Please, Yankees, just win one championship in my Medicare Years? **

My fitness center group is, uh, dwindling. One is out with a broken hip, another is out for spousal reasons, others are absent and I was nearly alone during this morning’s workout. It is similar to every time I made a new best friend in the past who then either moved away or died. It’s taken years to “therapy out” it’s not my fault, but if it walks like a duck.

*NASCARRING is when a young or foolish man gets behind the wheel of his car, is in no particular hurry, but still accepts the challenge of getting to the front of traffic. Yes, it gets confusing on major interstates with so much traffic, but that is/was the fun of it. It is also uniquely challenging in urban settings, unless there a lot of school buses.

** Upstate NY and the Buffalo Bills Football Team have a unique, doomed relationship. If you aren’t aware of Upstate NYers fervent support of this professional tease of a team, google it. The saying up here—which is tattooed on several Western New York bodies—is “Win One In My Lifetime.” Sad note, the baseball Yankees won a championship in every decade of their existence until the last one, 2010 to 2020. Approximately my years in the senior insurance program mentioned.

Things Seen and Heard By Older Eyes and Ears

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I heard—and saw in black and white–The Lone Ranger say this during an original Lone Ranger episode, recorded sometime between 1949 and 1957: “Any public official who abuses the public trust for personal gain is worse than any common criminal.” It was Saturday morning and I had tuned to my free over-the-air channels to get away from constant cable news about current public officials reaping Billions of dollars of benefits in the first 8 months of our new Administration. Ironically, it was the episode where The Lone Ranger and Tonto thwart a bank robbery, save the bank’s money, and return it.  Let’s make America great, again.

Interesting side bar: the Lone Ranger was filmed in color in the years 1956 and 1957 but had to be broadcast in black and white because…wait…very few viewers had a color television. The OG days?

All of the early western heroes had a “Moral Code”. Jim Hardy, the handsome, quick-drawing Wells Fargo Special Agent of “Tales of Wells Fargo” was constantly offered a split of the money he recovered from robbers. He never took a cent. He also had to investigate gun smuggling on the Texas-Mexican border. In 1897. Hope he is still getting royalties from his acting.

It’s becoming clear the differences in our modern political parties. You may not know it but Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The Democratic Party at the time was split by pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions.

History needs more attention. Think no one trusts government, now? Look into the history of the 18th Amendment, the one banning sales of alcohol. No level of governmental trust could ever be lower than what happened after the 18th was passed. Nearly everyone looked for ways to obtain booze, usually by breaking the laws related to the Amendment. The subsequent years of illegal adventures are credited with elevating Organized Crime to new national and international pandemics. Payoffs, bribery, corruption…we really needed a DOGE back then.

Stop wasting valuable time on social wars, first amendment issues, and trying to debate each other, these days. We should be watching the billions of dollars(cryptos and greenbacks) of activity surrounding our new administration, his family, Tech CEOs, and wannabe richies. It’s become obvious our political system is now the Democrats, and the Richies. Current Republicans are not just okay with The Richies but want to be just like them. The Democrats might be envious, but they are the only hope for the moment, of stemming the high tide of money flowing to the top of our society, and world. Soon, laws, facts, elections none of them will matter. Just money.

In watching the history of the United States and remembering my own exposure to it the turbulent 60’s ands 70’s, one can become complacent with how resilient American Democracy is, and think everything will work out. It still might but the mess the 18th amendment caused led to The Great Depression, and we may have not ever recovered from that if it hadn’t been for World War II. The German and Japanese Empires united Americans, and we all worked together…for about 10 years. Make America Great Again?

We may need an Alien Invasion to fix things.*

Full disclosure: I have A Wells Fargo Credit Card.

*Thanks to “Independence Day”, The Movie, showing us in 1996 the our 2026 future.

Information/Misinformation Facebook Test

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I was never a Facebook (FB) user until The Calamities, struck, and even then, not until movies and online gambling lost their luster and some of my money. There is a FB account with my name, opened by me 8 or 9 years ago, but it was avoided for a long time after I got tired of (belatedly) apologizing to everyone wishing me Happy Birthday. FYI: I was advised to use the wrong birth date so scammers couldn’t steal my identity. Apologies, yet again, to those birthday wishers.

A year ago I returned to daily use, flush with time to waste and the excitement of tracking down old friends, and maybe making new ones. Those particular excitements met the same fate as my surgically removed, damaged hip bones when it became apparent Facebook is not what it promised to be. Most people I wanted to contact were probably already done with FB and moved on to other sites. Making new friends was impossible as others were too leery of scams and idiots to respond to “unwelcomed” or “uninvited” posts.

Now, I visit four times a week  for about 5 minutes to see if any of the “bait” sent out years ago ever gets a bite. Nancy, an old flame from 60 years ago, has a presence on FB but her bait hasn’t been taken, yet, and it was put out there from the very beginning. As an explanation of why Nancy might not have answered, my mom’s account is still there, 8 years after her death. (Typing this has reminded me to find out how to “decease” her from FB.)

In my visits, now, I am polite enough to scroll through the new comments and check all areas where FB might allow notifications of a possible happy, joyous, reunion.

While perusing, however, there is the occasional posting of bull$$$%, money scams, lunacy and other things that makes the human race so…diverse. While easily ignored, and blocked or hidden, the reposting of bull$$$%, money scams and lunacy irked the crap out of me this particular morning. It was a regurgitated re-post of an oft-debunked political story re-posted as gospel with all the attendant, politically correct adverbs, adjectives, snarkiness, and hubris marking it a biased piece of crap. I won’t identify its origin, but I will not stoop to the “everyone does it” surrender, either…next time. I had a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast, so it must have been the raging blizzard outside that inspired an ire so great I “replied” to the post. It was a logical, nonjudgmental reply remarking how re-posting on FB is a “human problem” we should all avoid until we have done our own research.

I regretted my remarks one second before I hit the send button. Unfortunately, my aged response time from thought to action is two seconds so…there it was, on FB: me, taking a stand.

The menu button called my name, begging me to block the person I’d posted to, but then,…, then I realized: FB should not be a monster terrorizing polite, sane contributors, it should be a place for free, open, and honest discussion. (I’ll pause while you giggle, laugh snort, or smack your forehead.)

Que sera, sera. I’ll check back next morning and exercise better judgement when all the replies start flowing. Hm. Maybe no one will notice? And for my own unease, I will comfort myself with the premise of a “test”, a purposeful attempt to see how bad FB (and social media) really is. (Are?)

And if you never hear from me again, check my FB account. There might be clues…