Just came downstairs after a day of going through every minute detail of the kids' school supplies, filling out paperwork, checking and rechecking, ironing uniforms, packing lunches....I went on missions with less prep than this.

Anyway, I turned on the TV with the idea of going to coverage of the hurricane. Just today the potential nationwide significance of this storm began dawning on me (read-WAY higher gas prices) and I was looking for coverage. ROFASix is way ahead of me (as usual) and has the frightening details here.

Well, never got to the news. Caught sight of Ron White (Blue Collar Comedy Tour). The guy is crude, nasty, biting and impossibly funny. So I stayed there. Better than the depressing reality of this hurricane.

As the show wound up I turned my attention back to the computer and was almost completely oblivious to the TV until I heard something that made me turn around. I can only honestly say I caught the last three letters: I-R-E. But I will swear that they show sent an old Morse telegraphers' exercise as part of the closing image (Ron White Productions).

I was part of the last generation of Morse Code operators in the Army, but it wasn't that long ago...honest. At any rate, we all knew a sort of limbering-up exercise (which could easily cross the line into showing off like you were a rock drummer beating out rhythm). It was "Ben's best bent wire".

Remember that to a Morse Code guy, dots are "dit" and dashes are "dah". Here is the exercise:

Dah dit dit dit ... dit... dah dit... dit dit dit
Dah dit dit dit ... dit... dit dit dit... dah
Dah dit dit dit ... dit... dah dit... dah
Dit dah dah ... dit dit... dit dah dit... dit

Pretty catchy, huh?