Looking out my backdoor: Hacking through brambles in the rabbit hole

Like Alice, now and then I take a dive down a rabbit hole, purely for entertainment. Oh, well, and so I can feel superior, yes, smug in my own knowledge.

I’m not on Facebook, but when I check weather on my computer, I get a sidebar of widgets, (love that word), that is every bit as good as FB for misinformation, from what I’m told.

So, there I am, trawling along through non-news, political rants, hundreds of chocolate-chip cookie recipes and other trivia, when I spy a household hint, called a hack, more about that later, for cleaning stains on a mattress.

I never click to open. Never. I simply...