I am not a stranger to nightmares and nightmares are no strangers to me. However, one of the more unusual nightmares had me drowning in "STUFF-LIKE-THAT. I woke up grateful, realizing that my bed was still in my bedroom and my bedroom was still in my house. I even peeked out the front door to reassure myself that my house was still on the same street. Of course much of that information is correctly assumed by saying: STUFF-LIKE-THAT.

Students inform me that they know all about STUFF-LIKE-THAT. Twenty-seven years of teaching cause me to place little credence in that statement. The idea of any kind of earthly being knowing ALL is not rooted in fact.

Much to my surprise I am made aware that even News Commentators (Icon Member Gerry Balzer refers to them as Talking Heads) frequently refer to STUFF-LIKE-THAT. Teachers of the art of writing promulgate a formula known as the proper use of the five Ws and the H; who, what where when why and how. Stuff-like-that is an exclusionary clause of that formula.

"What did we say before we resorted to: STUFF-LIKE-THAT?" I asked Faye Patrick. She thought about it for a while and responded: "I think we said this and that. But we usually said that after we said what we had to say." Right Faye; and it is not the same as Stuff-like-that.

My daughter suggested I go to GOOGLE and request: STUFF-LIKE-THAT. I thought that to be an excellent idea. I assumed that GOOGLE would present me with a dialogue box telling me that nothing could be found under that heading. I was wrong. There was technical stuff like that, legal stuff like that, NBA Stuff like that, Contesi.com stuff like that, and there was Spiffle Stuff. That last one intrigued me. I visited that website, checked its various links and suddenly found myself on the Coffee Drinker's Delight.

Mindful of my deadline I returned to my task at hand, but not before I checked how many possibilities there are of finding STUFF-LIKE-THAT. Considering the size of the Internet. That wasn't too bad. GOOGLE listed a mere 72,200,000 websites of STUFF-LIKE-THAT.

So far, the phrase has not yet reverberated from the pulpit of my church. Given the law of probability, that could happen any moment.

Mr. Webster defined stuff as'----the material of which something is made.' Stuff can also be '---Worthless material,' does that apply to "---Politicians and stuff like that!!!". But then, of course, "Heroes are made of stuff like that."

If I call my guru to tell him that I have problems with the computer, he'll want to know what kind. Pity the thought that I should ever tell him it's STUFF-LIKE-THAT.
"The modem doesn't modem properly and stuff like that, Guru!" Rest assured it would not be long before I would become aware of the fact that, in order to fix a problem, it is necessary to have specific details. Yes. Guru, the dialogue box tells me that the modem is presently unwilling to comply with my work order. In my words, the modem doesn't modem when I tell it to----. In Clarence's language the modem malfunctions and it's probably time to get a new one and the only question is internal or external. To be really specific, 56k or not? There is no room for "STUFF-LIKE-THAT. Excessive use of that phrase is an indication that we no longer wish to be specific about matters. And perhaps that brings me to the final thought here; Have we arrived in our industrial culture at a point where it no longer matters whether we are specific or not? Perhaps the purchased television, or microwave, or telephone would function properly and last longer if we were taught to be specific in the production and use of those marvelous, 21st century toys et cetera,