Archive for: January, 2009

Free for all Friday 8

Jan 30 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Free for all Friday

It’s Friday. Again! And today, I have some serious discussion questions. They are intensely serious. I’d tell you not to look directly at them, but then how would you answer? So! Commencing our weekly pudding twist:

  • You were into the Bacon Roll? What about this Pork Torpedo?! That’s right: three pounds of the tastiest bits of swine interrobang. The article is mostly about internet marketing of said Masterpiece of Pig Flesh, but in between all that nonsense, it’s fun to read about the food itself. Disscussion questions:

    1. Do you think adding cheese would make it better? If so, what kind would you use? I thought something tangy like Port Wine might be good. Honu Girl thought something sharp like cheddar.
    2. Am I naughty for snickering a little, in my head, because “pork torpedo” is just a great euphemism for “penis”?
    3. This thing definitely needs to be served on cornbread. Squares split in half, wedges from a cast-iron skillet, or muffins? This is just far too much meat for a cupcake or even a sturdy biscuit.
  • From there, an article on why babies eating dirt is a good thing. And if they get worms, so much the better! Money quote:

    Dr. Ruebush deplores the current fetish for the hundreds of antibacterial products that convey a false sense of security and may actually foster the development of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria. Plain soap and water are all that are needed to become clean, she noted.

    “I certainly recommend washing your hands after using the bathroom, before eating, after changing a diaper, before and after handling food,” and whenever they’re visibly soiled, she wrote. When no running water is available and cleaning hands is essential, she suggests an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

    Thank you, Dr. Ruebush! Discussion questions:

    1. What’s the weirdest thing you ever ate as a kid, that you can remember, or that you know a story about?
    2. Do you have a hard time not rolling your eyes at germaphobes who take hand sanitizer with them everywhere? I do.
  • And then! Everybody’s hating on Billy Joel. And the band they inexplicably compare him to is AC/DC. Now! I’m not an AC/DC fan, per se. I like a few of their songs. I like their contributions to music as a whole. But this is like saying that Cole Porter stinks because Elvis is so awesome. Yeah, Back in Black is a great album. The Stranger is pretty amazing, too. Discussion questions:
    1. Does genre matter?
    2. In the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time list, The Stranger ranks 67 while Back in Black ranks 73. Is this injustice?

And I noticed that every day this week, I’ve posted some kind of image. In keeping with that, here’s a nice Snape macro I’ve been enjoying:
Severus has dead things in jars. Let him show you them.
It comes from LOLPotters.

9 responses so far

The Butter on Your Humpmuffin

Jan 29 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Lexpionage

Every time I’ve tried to blog today, my heart starts to pound and my mouth goes all dry and I have trouble swallowing. I’m not sure what it’s about, but it’s uncomfortable. So, instead of actually writing anything, here’s some Natalie Dee that’s helping to ameliorate the ooginess of Thursday:

natalie dee
nataliedee.com

Personally, I think “humpmuffin” sounds very affectionate.

3 responses so far

Everybody Say, “Mmm, Poptart….”

Jan 27 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Memes and Assorted Nonsense

52%

Do I need to add remarks about the small portions? The high protein? I didn’t think so.

6 responses so far

One Minute to Midnight

Jan 27 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Fandom

The authors notes call this a trailer/video/barrage of awesome. BARRAGE OF AWESOME! Hell yeah it is.

Great cuts, great lyric match, great everything. I am starting to physically feel want of this movie.

7 responses so far

We Need a Little Controversy

Jan 26 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Fandom

Honu Girl and I watched this Friday afternoon and I cracked up. Then she said that we really need for the Doctor to get off Earth more. I added maybe more tentacle monsters while we’re at it. And some rhyming skills. Something like this:

We’ve got two episodes of series four left to watch. Christopher despairs. We finished “Turn Left” and he put his head in his hands and said, “Bad Wolf was just about the worst thing she could have said.”

14 responses so far

Free for All Friday 7

Jan 23 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Free for all Friday

Y’all warm my heart with your ongoing discussions. Everyone is so thoughtful and witty and fun. Today I have had a whole lot of coffee and I plan on having more and it’s made me manic with adoration. Also, urge to “speak” in ridiculous French accent rising. That said, “Topeeeks!”

  • Headline at Politico:What we don’t know about Obama. Author’s thesis statement: “Yet much about how the 44th president will govern remains a mystery—perhaps even to Obama himself.” I personally think that it could have been better phrased. What comes to my mind is the sound of klaxons followed by, “Oh my God! What could it be? We’re all doomed! WHO’S FLYING THIS THING!?”
  • The Many Faces of Rorschach, as seen everywhere lately, all over my Twitter feed, and most lately from largehearted boy. The designer also has a great Rorschach Obama-style propaganda tshirt.
  • My first week blogging at Anatreptic was light, but thoughtful. I posted:
    • We All Got on This Boat for Different Reasons: A discussion of Serenity as it was nominated as one of the Top 25 Conservative Films of the last 25 years at Hot Air.
    • These Grapes Are Sour: Dirk Benedict is kind of a jerk. Good thing they’re not using his ideas for the new Battlestar Galactica. Sub-, but no less important question that I didn’t really ask because Mick likes to keep it one topic per post: Do lingerie models ever damage a show? I mean, “This show has a lingerie model in it” is sort of the entertainment equivalent of, “Here! Have twenty bucks and a pie!”
    • 19th Street and 4th Avenue North: I got your post-racial right here. (With long YouTube video that you’ll either adore or despise.)
  • I turned 32 on Monday and it was grand! Got to spend Saturday with Honu Girl and Poptart and was gifted with Doctor Who series 4 (Donna is really growing on me! She’s no Martha, but I don’t hate her.) and the dramatic reading of Anathem, with music. I hope you got the day off for sympathetic celebration. If you didn’t, please file form TPS 1-19 and we’ll do about getting you your day off. And your Dr. Who and Anathem.

13 responses so far

A Bug/Hydrant Day

Jan 22 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Confession

After last week’s oh so chipper damn near Nike commercial post about running, I came crashing back to earth about things last night. Although thankfully not literally, as the wound sustained from that fall got infected and is still open and weepy and gross.

Met up with Laurie and we went to run seven miles. I was meh about it to start with and couldn’t stop yawning. That was probably a sign. I felt like we never really got warmed up and I think we both agree, sometime around mile 3.5, that it was just not in the cards. She hurt and had other problems. I hurt and was cranky getting crankier. The cold was that much worse and the traffic was that much worse and all in all, it was just a crap day. Bug versus windshield? I was the bug. Dog or hydrant? Totally the hydrant.

I know it won’t last forever. I suspect that a short run and an epsom salt soak last night will help this evening’s run be better. But bug/hydrant sort of spilled over into this morning and based on what other people have said and done so far today, I think it might be contagious.

Maybe we’re just having some winter crabbiness. Maybe everybody’s run last night was bad, for any given value of run. Maybe we need a consoling episode or two of Firefly. I’m pretty sure we need to stop beating ourselves up over not making seven and just get on with things. And I’m pretty sure hearing “take me out to the black” would help us all begin chillaxing.

Let’s hang in there. One of these days we’ll be the windshields and dogs again.

2 responses so far

Fanfiction Improves My Vocabulary V

Jan 21 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Brand New Words

Last night I dreamed that everyone started writing me nasty emails for being a bad blogger who never wrote, moreover was slacking on lexpionage, and also for being extremely shallow because I sort of kept going on and on about how much I liked Michelle Obama’s dress yesterday. Like, all night. At one point I really had the urge to sit up and say, “Y’all shut up. It was PRETTY!” But between the hoses and the cats, I just laid there and promised to do better today.

Today is here! Y’all want some words? How about these babies, culled straight from the terrabytes of steamy Harry Potter fanfiction that’s out there, on the internets.

First, bruit:

“No need to bruit, Miss Granger,” he said sharply, hoping a foul temper would be enough to dissuade her from coming near him.

An intransitive verb! It means to spread rumors and is often accompanied by a preposition, as in “bruit about.” It’s archaic for gossip, y’all. It looks like its been through its paces of zero derivation and functional shifting, too. Most recently it was a late Middle English noun. Prior to that, it was most likely in a state of flux between verb and noun in Old French, but more verb than anything, as bruire, meaning to roar. That sprang from what was probably brugere in Vulgate Latin, itself a compound word joining rugire meaning bellow and bragere meaning bray.

Then, numinous:

Sometimes, when she ran her fingers through his hair or down his shoulders, he became very still and looked as though he might fall into a quietly numinous trance.

This is a beautiful word, I think. And although its meaning is contextually evident, I still had fun digging around in it. Numinous is spiritual or supernatural, “numen” adjectivized. From there it takes on some depth. It can also mean surpassing comprehension or understanding in its mystery or arousing of elevated feelings. Now “contextually evident” becomes contextually rich and having dug into the word, we find we might be dealing with a much denser story. The stem “numen” means “divine power or spirt.” It’s from Latin numen meaning nod, command, or divine will or power. Both definitions of numen I’ve looked at add a second level of meaning: a spirit inhabiting a person, place, or object. What I’m wondering is why that third definition, of creating in one elevated feelings of loyalty and similar, isn’t more often used as a verb. Or any other part of speech, really? Where are “numenized” and “numenification?” Numinous has a lot of potential!

And finally, panegyric:

Not entirely unpleasant? Why, from her dear love, such a statement was tantamount to a panegyric.

Contextually evident plus Greek I know I’ll parse wrong equals awww yeah! A panegyric (which reads to me “pan-guy-ric” not “pan-jeer-ik,” as it actually is) is lofty oration, formal praise, eulogy. And as if I don’t cull these words from the same fandom and pairing most of the time, yeah, when Severus Snape tells you you’re “not entirely unpleasant,” it is the highest of praises. Most definitions list “eulogy” as a synonym, which makes me reconsider the context. Smacks of thesaurus nookie, doesn’t it?

Regardless, eulogy is speech or writing praising a person, especially a dead one. So panegyric might be the equivalent for someone who was still alive. The foundation of the word, though, doesn’t really get there. Pan means, of course, “all.” The root comes from agyris meaning “place of assembly,” a form of the word agora, marketplace. I’m wonder if the words didn’t split off because the person about whom the panegyric was being written or said would still be there to read or hear it– part of the assembled, as it were. What do you all think? Kind of makes me think this might be a word worth reviving.

Here’s to bigger vocabularies and better night’s sleep!

5 responses so far

A Little Taste of the Glory

Jan 19 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Speechifying

Woo! News! I’ve started blogging at Anatreptic. There’s even a picture of me in a mask and everything. I’m still easing into things, so if you run over right now, it’s about nine things I didn’t write and one thing I did, but still, a fun site that I really enjoy. It’s mostly politics and commetary from a conservative, sorta center-right perspective. So that might be something you might enjoy. Or not, you know?

Meanwhile, that means somewhat less politics around here, in the interest of not boring everybody all at once. Still with the words, and spaceships and wizards, and running, and finding new and exciting ways to give Poptart shoutouts. I’ll try to post for real today, since I have the whole afternoon to do laundry and think about spaceships and wizards and, lately, unvoiced bilabial plosives.

4 responses so far

Free for All Friday 6

Jan 16 2009 Published by Sarah, etc. under Free for all Friday

If it were up to me, this free for all Friday would involve polling you to find out who has a house with a huge fireplace, then gathering all of us up and invading. We could sit around the fire and tell stories and drink hot drinks. Instead, we just have the comments (which are back to normal). At least list your hot drink of choice for invasion-planning purposes. I’m on a Lady Gray tea kick, lately.

Meanwhile, I’ma try to rile you up:

  • Here in the Deep South, we’re having some bitter cold. Still not as cold as the poor souls who exist in Chicago and points north, but real freaking cold to us. It’s warmer where Doc is in Washington right now than it is here. Cutting to the chase: Anthropogenic Global Warming my ass.

    It could be said that the increase in [Total Solar Irradiation] from a little over1363 to a little under1367 Watts per square metre over the 400 year period shown is pretty insignificant. However a square metre is a miniscule portion of the surface of the planet so that even a tiny increase or decrease in the heat being received on average over each such tiny area translates into a huge change in total heat budget for the entire planet. The smallness of the apparent range of variation is a function of the smallness of the area subdivision used rather than an indication of insignificance. It is fortunate for us that the sun is not more variable.

    The Death Blow to AGW by Stephen Wilde

    Asked for comment, noted chicken hypnotizer Al Gore said, “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!”

  • On the hot side of things, Battlestar Galactica returns tonight! It’s not a show I watch as it happens, but I still enjoy it very much. I wait until a season or half-season is all wrapped up and then just plow through DVDs. I’m tempted though, to just start watching tonight, despite not having seen most of the last half-season, so that I won’t have to go four months screaming, “LA LA LA” at the internets to avoid being spoiled about the final Cylon. BSG: We didn’t start the fire:


    We Didnt Start the Fire – chaila

  • When people ask me about my graduate degree and I say, “American Studies” I usually get a “What’s that?” And I tell them, “Blah blah interdisciplinary methodolgy blah blah St. John de Crevecoeur blah blah unanswerable question.” Then they ask, “No, what did you study?” I would tell them, “Cultural history, 1944 to 1960.” Then they’d look at me blankly and I’d cave and say: “You know that song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”? Yeah, the first three verses.”

    This led to ridicule (“She’s doing history lite!”), such as you might find in the 10 Most Worthless College Majors. I think the list authors are both prejudiced and stupid. Majoring in Phys Ed. is way more worthless than Latin and that appears no where on the list.

17 responses so far

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