This post may put 84% of you to sleep.

Last year I was typing away on a Fluid Pudding post, and when I went to save it, I received an error message. I hit the back button, cut and pasted my entire entry into my e-mail, and then entered it again paragraph by paragraph at the website. (I’m boring you! Please stick with me!) After nearly an hour of fiddling, I discovered that the word that bummed WordPress out was Nebraska. When I saved that entire entry WITHOUT the word Nebraska, it saved with no problem. When I re-entered Nebraska, all hell broke loose.

(When I was a freshman in college, Marching Mizzou traveled to Nebraska for a game. I had been sold as a slave for that weekend (which sounds so horribly inappropriate now, but back then it was just a part of Homecoming Spirit Week), which means I had to carry a woman named Gennifer’s luggage up to her hotel room. My ankle blew out when I stepped into a pot hole in the parking lot, and was sprained so badly that I couldn’t march at the Holiday Parade a few weeks later. I was in an air cast for six weeks, which allowed me to stir up quite a bit of pity during my freshman piano jury. I now feel like I’m sitting on my couch reminiscing with a group of people who really couldn’t care less. Back to the story, which should certainly get better sometime soon, don’t you think?)

I wrote a product review late last week, and that whole stinkin’ Nebraska thing happened again! (The error thing. Not the ankle thing.) The review contains two links. And those two links are non-negotiable. They HAVE to appear in the review. HOWEVER, when I added either of the links, WordPress was giving me the error message again. I did the paragraph by paragraph thing. No luck. I tried to back door the links, which is a fancy way of saying “I typed them in instead of cutting and pasting them.” (I’m a technological wizard, you know.) No luck. I was at the end of my rope last night when Jeff said, “Why don’t you put the links in FIRST?” The entry worked with nothing but the links. (Maybe JEFF is the wizard.)

I then pasted the review in and removed each sentence one by one until I found the culprit.

Get this. The following sentence (which appeared in parentheses on the review) was not allowed by WordPress to appear on a page with the links:

I come with a pretty hefty supply of Christmas tunes.

Because I have lots of Christmas music and I don’t mind talking about it, I’ve been blackballed by WordPress. And I would approach WordPress with this issue to ask what’s going on, but I lack the energy and the vocabulary. I’m bored, too!

Because you tend to stick with me, here is a video of my kids singing Rudolph during the return trip from Indianapolis to St. Louis.

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15 thoughts on “This post may put 84% of you to sleep.”

  2. Ok, I’ve been on Blogger forever. And everyone is like “Oooh blogger it is so outdated and omg how can anyone use it it sucks so bad anyone who has a blogger blog might as well just shoot themselves they are so behind the times.”

    But all I hear from WordPress people are “Waaah my blog broke I can’t fix my blog it is so weird and wonky.”

    I don’t know why people talk about their blogs entirely in run-on sentences, but I’m just saying that I don’t think I have enough life energy in me to switch to WordPress.

  5. If you were to send me an email with the word ‘Nebraska’, you’d receive the following automated reply:

    Nebraska is the home of barren plains and broken dreams. It has no place in this inbox. Please take your Nebraska elsewhere (If you’re from Nebraska, I’m sorry…..for you).

    So, I’m going with WordPress on this one.

  7. Reason Number 7,834 why I am occasionally thrilled to have never become a blogger :-)

    Kudos to you for sticking with the process and troubleshooting it so successfully though, FP!

  8. A suggestion for a song for the girls (maybe just Meredith): All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth. I hope they don’t come in for awhile though, I think she looks neat without them. Harper looks neat with them, and I think “Rob Zombie” is an unkind tag for such a sweetheart.

  10. I’m kind of embarrassed to let you know how badly I freaked out at a girls’ night this weekend when I met a woman named Robin (honestly, no idea what her last name is) who told me she’s friends with you. I was like ANGELA PUDDING? OMG, YOU GUYS, OMG! ANGELA PUDDING! And my friend Krissy was like, “OK, crazy, maybe Robin could introduce you,” and I would not allow it because clearly I AM INSANE. I could not trust myself not to pass out cold, wake up, and roll around on the floor some just for good measure. In short: You have me starstruck.

  11. Could it be that WordPress thinks you were trying to say that Christmas tunes are your Very Special Thing in the naughty way (but that it takes a goodly number of them to get you to your Very Special Place)? Are WordPress and I the only 13 year old boys in the room? Is WordPress censoring you for your own good? Have I had way too much shiraz? Can all of these questions be answered with the very same word? I THINK SO.

  13. I thought the same thing, Badger. I read that sentence and immediately thought “they are censoring her for her use of the word…you know….hehehe” Could that really be a possibility?

  15. The only barren part of Nebraska would be the area located just behind my belly button – unfortunately. However, I am indeed from Nebraska and use WordPress exclusively and I heart them both.

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