Widgets
Anyone who has gone to law school, or studied accounting, can tell you the most prolific product manufactured in the United States is widgets. Continually produced and never outsourced, widgets are the basis of our economy.
In Contract Law, Rodney would sell to Rowena all the widgets he could produce, and she would buy the same, until something like a shipwreck occurred and widgets ended up in the drink, and the case ended up in every law school Contracts class. The same goes for accounting, every accounting student knows that for determining the cost basis of an item, the IRS wants the cost of the first widget in deducted from the cost of the first widget out in order to determine what the profit is. That is FIFO for you bean counters.
But here's the problem, what's a widget? Being from Youngstown, I always visualized a widget as something akin to a ball bearing, manufactured locally at Commercial Shearing, now Parker Hannifin (which has been a fairly good stock to own as of late. Must be making lots of widgets). Answers.com defines a widget as “A small mechanical device or control; a gadget; an unnamed or hypothetical manufactured article”. Advertised on its site was some weird looking whatchamacallit better knows as Dremel drill, whatever that is, other than my wife has wanted one for years. Is that a widget?
Then it happened. Last night, while fiddling around with my updated “blog” lay out, I came across instructions as to how to place “widgets” in the “blog” margin. Happy Day!!! The truth is now known. A “widget” isn’t a mechanical gizmo, it is a computer, digital, hyper space, web thingamajig…kind of…gizmo. Gleefully, I pulled up my “template”, and started to mess with my “html” and figured out how to use “tags” and “plug-ins”. Isn’t that exciting? Look at all the new words we are learning today. If I would have written this 20 years ago, I would have had to have sold it in a brown paper bag. I didn’t even know I had “html’s”. I thought I had shots for it when I was a kid.
At any rate, the fruits of my labor are now clearly displayed in the margin. Look at the ticking clock. That is a widget. As my son said, “Gee, Dad, I can just imagine everyone wondering what time it is, and signing on to your blog to find out, almost as much as they are going to sign on to see the government terror alert status (also a widget)!!” That is there to scare you. But they are there nevertheless. Aren’t they cool? Move your cursor over the clock and it magically tells you the date, albeit in the European order, which is ½ ass backwards.
So now we can all rest easy. Parker Hannifin can continue to make ball bearings. Rodney can continue to sell Rowena his widgets without worrying about them sinking to the bottom of the ocean. And you all can sign on to my blog to see what time it is, and if the terrorists are coming. What a marvelous age we live in. Now here is a widget that I hope you enjoy. Click on the cartoon and it will magically take you to a cartoon web site. Happy widgeting.
In Contract Law, Rodney would sell to Rowena all the widgets he could produce, and she would buy the same, until something like a shipwreck occurred and widgets ended up in the drink, and the case ended up in every law school Contracts class. The same goes for accounting, every accounting student knows that for determining the cost basis of an item, the IRS wants the cost of the first widget in deducted from the cost of the first widget out in order to determine what the profit is. That is FIFO for you bean counters.
But here's the problem, what's a widget? Being from Youngstown, I always visualized a widget as something akin to a ball bearing, manufactured locally at Commercial Shearing, now Parker Hannifin (which has been a fairly good stock to own as of late. Must be making lots of widgets). Answers.com defines a widget as “A small mechanical device or control; a gadget; an unnamed or hypothetical manufactured article”. Advertised on its site was some weird looking whatchamacallit better knows as Dremel drill, whatever that is, other than my wife has wanted one for years. Is that a widget?
Then it happened. Last night, while fiddling around with my updated “blog” lay out, I came across instructions as to how to place “widgets” in the “blog” margin. Happy Day!!! The truth is now known. A “widget” isn’t a mechanical gizmo, it is a computer, digital, hyper space, web thingamajig…kind of…gizmo. Gleefully, I pulled up my “template”, and started to mess with my “html” and figured out how to use “tags” and “plug-ins”. Isn’t that exciting? Look at all the new words we are learning today. If I would have written this 20 years ago, I would have had to have sold it in a brown paper bag. I didn’t even know I had “html’s”. I thought I had shots for it when I was a kid.
At any rate, the fruits of my labor are now clearly displayed in the margin. Look at the ticking clock. That is a widget. As my son said, “Gee, Dad, I can just imagine everyone wondering what time it is, and signing on to your blog to find out, almost as much as they are going to sign on to see the government terror alert status (also a widget)!!” That is there to scare you. But they are there nevertheless. Aren’t they cool? Move your cursor over the clock and it magically tells you the date, albeit in the European order, which is ½ ass backwards.
So now we can all rest easy. Parker Hannifin can continue to make ball bearings. Rodney can continue to sell Rowena his widgets without worrying about them sinking to the bottom of the ocean. And you all can sign on to my blog to see what time it is, and if the terrorists are coming. What a marvelous age we live in. Now here is a widget that I hope you enjoy. Click on the cartoon and it will magically take you to a cartoon web site. Happy widgeting.
Comments
Enjoyed your very entertaining, and informative blog about "widgets." I never knew what a widget was, but it seems that the term can apply to almost anything! Thanks for the Sunday afternoon chuckle, and the time of day!!
SK
Alex