Carrying water in a sieve & Dear Abby

You won't put out a fire by carrying water from a well in a sieve. I'm not a certified firefighter nor a pyromaniac and I've not tried it out, but I'm pretty sure this is true. There are other truism bantered about that I would just as soon not try out either. Ignorance is bliss is one of them.

I knew a man once who everyone considered a little light in the noodle. In fact, his whole family was considered light in the brain department. I have no idea why this was so. It just was. Their family name was Hereford. Like the cow. I'm sure this was coincidental. I recall my father telling the story of this family driving down a country road when the back seat door of the car flew open and one of the three kids in the back seat tumbled out. As the story goes, they didn't know what to do and after an loud argument between the parents and the two remaining children they stopped the car to discuss what to do next. After more deliberation they concluded that they should back up the car and see if they could find the missing youngster along the road somewhere. Of course they ran over him while backing up.

Please keep in mind that this is supposed to be a true story and that this family was an unfortunate a group of related innocents who would easily qualify for the featherweight division in mental expertise. They were not ignorant. They were all stupid, my father said, and sadly there was nothing that could be done about it.

As I venture valiantly into the world of social bookmarking, tagging and tag clouds, I keep the Hereford family in mind. I do this because it plainly shows the difference between those who can, those who can't and those who won't. I have a lot to learn and if I keep at it some of it will slide off but some of it will stick. As my father would say, I don't have the Hereford excuse for not learning.

"It's true that a little learning is a dangerous thing," Abigail Van Buren said, "but it still beats total ignorance." I think Abbey has a point.