Feelin' Squirrelly

Squirrelly. Now there's a word to confuzzle one's spelling gland. First I tried it with a double-L and a single-R. Spell Check said "Uh-uh, fool." Okay. So I did a single-L and a double-R. Spell Check chortled and said "No way, nay." In desperation, I Googled and, lo! The word requires doubles on both the L and the R. Adding insult to injury, Spell Check still refused to recognize the corrected version but I fixed that, by golly. Added it to the dictionary. Take that, Spell Check! You've got to watch these software gizmos all the time or they get uppity on you.

Anyway, the word is used tonight to indicate my general state of mind. (I use that last word with reckless abandon.) See, I had carefully tapped out a second response to the rest of you who commented on yesterday's post but I must have clicked the wrong button because it never showed up. Sheesh. Sorry about that, folks.

For the record, John, I mentioned to you that your comment had me Googling for Spam fritter stuff and I found -- a bit different than the batter-dipped version -- a Spam contest winner that included green tomatoes. It's on the Spam web site, along with lots of other contest winning recipes. Fun stuff.

Bill, I snorted coffee, laughing at your punny comment. Thwapp! Ava, I use the same excuse when I indulge in the less healthy stuff. I say, well gee, I eat healthy MOST of the time. (smile) Bonnie, I think you have the right idea. Is the Spam turkey pretty good? I hope so because here's what I discovered: remember the regular Spam, 2-ounce slice, has 174 calories, of which 137 is fat. The turkey Spam, 2-ounce slice, has 80 calories, only 35 in fat! Quite a difference. I'm impressed. Now I'll have to see if I can get Lee to order it in at the market. And, Kate, I think the compulsion to name objects is a family trait. My sister once had a car she named Clyde and it was the same color as my cookware. What can I say?

Okay. Now we're all caught up. So let's discuss the state of being cool. That's "cool" in the slang sense rather than the temperature sense. I bring it up because a new search engine debuted this past Monday, as you probably know. Cuil, pronounced cool. I tried it out. Several times, in fact, trying to be fair and taking into account there are probably glitches to work out in the shakedown cruise. I really hate to downgrade something that I know people have worked long and hard to produce but, at this point at least, Cuil is not so cool I think.

Where Google shines by accurately providing pertinent links, most pertinent first, Cuil seems to wander all over the place. Sometimes it misses the mark entirely. The column layout is okay, although one doesn't get as many hits per page. I like the idea of a picture with each link entry but they're definitely going to have to work on that. So far, the pictures have little or nothing to do with the link and the same picture is repeated several times with drastically different links.

They're going to have to get a whole lot better -- and more accurate -- if they're going to compete with Google. Or even any of the other standard search engines, now that I think on it. Google, in my ever so humble opinion, is still the coolest. Even when I'm feeling squirrelly.