Blog 3137 – 06.02.2024

Doofus

Yesterday a reader commented on a blog that I had posted entitled Napoleon And Hitler – Little Man Syndrome back in 2018. It has been one of my most viewed blogs over the years. The comment startled me because the reader said that WW2 lasted more than one year and called me “doofus” for not knowing that. Since I have known that even the U.S. active participation in WW2 lasted from 1941 till 1945, since I was a boy, I scrolled back through about six years of daily blogs to see if I needed to correct what I had written. I do try to correct mistakes when I see them or someone points them out to me.

I admit the doofus comment stung, but since I have many times since 1960 – 1965 acted in a foolish or inept way, I could not take too much offense at the remark. And I guess that as a lad during my first ten or fifteen years in this incarnation I probably merited the term goofus on more than a few occasions.

I reread the blog in question a couple of times and could not find where I had stated that WW2 had lasted but one year so I am at a loss as to how the reader came to that conclusion. The picture quote that I attached had three things that happen to both Napoleon and Hitler that all happened 129 years apart, but there was nothing I could see that sounded like I thought WW2 only lasted one year.

That blog has had hundreds of views since I first posted it and it always encourages me when I see it still gets views, that readers actually take the time to scroll back and find something of interest. I like to believe that my blog is worth reading. I try to make it so.

I remember as a young man teasing a child that I dearly loved that she was a little fool and having someone who overheard my remark quote a Bible verse at me that said, “He that calls another person a fool is in danger of hell fire.” I thought at the time, yeah and “he that judges another is guilty of the same offense.” But not wishing to escalate the situation I held my tongue.

Words are important and trying to interpret their precise meaning is too. Often we need context, facial expressions, and body language to really discern the intent behind words. Even goofus and doofus could, I supposed, be used as terms of endearment.

Your friend, fellow traveler, and sometimes beloved doofus or goofus,

David White