Word Sites

I received the following as a comment to a prior post, but figured it deserved more attention.  Take a look at Adam’s sites.  They’re very interesting.

Dear Sir

I wondered if you might like a link to both my Foreign word site and my English word website or press release details of my ensuing book with Penguin Press on amusing and interesting English vocabulary?

http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com

with best wishes

Adam Jacot de Boinod

(author of The Meaning of Tingo)

(www.themeaningoftingo.com)

adamjacot@fastmail.co.uk

or wish to include:

1) THE MEANING OF TINGO
When photographers attempt to bring out our smiling faces by asking us
to “Say Cheese”, many countries appear to follow suit with English
equivalents. In Spanish however they say patata (potato), in Argentinian Spanish whisky, in French steak frites, in Serbia ptica (bird) and in
Danish appelsin (orange). Do you know of any other varieties from around the world’s languages? See more on http://www.themeaningoftingo.com

2) THE WONDER OF WHIFFLING

The Wonder of Whiffling is a tour of English around the globe (with fine
coinages from our English-speaking cousins across the pond, Down Under
and elsewhere).
Discover all sorts of words you’ve always wished existed but never knew,
such as fornale, to spend one’s money before it has been earned; cagg, a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; and
petrichor, the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a
dry spell.
Delving passionately into the English language, I also discover why it
is you wouldn’t want to have dinner with a vice admiral of the narrow
seas, why Jacobites toasted the little gentleman in black velvet, and
why a Nottingham Goodnight is better than one from anywhere else. See
more on http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com

with best wishes

Adam

Another Saturday Night

So I’m driving through western Illinois. Darkness but for the traffic and the glow of the dashboard and the neon from the strip clubs. The kid next to me sits in a unibomber hoodie, wired to his music, awash in the light from his phone screen. Two pubescent girls sulk in the back seat, one because her stomach’s full to popping, the other because, well, she’s a pubescent girl. I’ve put more than a deuce and a half of asphalt and pavement under my wheels today, and have another fifty to go before my pillow and mattress. God bless the puppy biz.

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A Couple of Things That Impressed Me

I haven’t posted in quite a while, and I apologize. I’ve been Twittering and Facebooking, but not blogging.

But a couple of things caught my attention in the past couple of days that I really wanted to share.

The first came as something of a surprise in today’s world of short-memoried athletes who change teams for a bigger paycheck, then badmouth the team that gave them a chance when they were young, and gave them the last big paycheck.  Torry Holt, the NFL wide receiver who didn’t fit in the St. Louis Rams’ future plans and therefore is now a Jacksonville Jaguar, and a few parting words for the St. Louis fans.  And amazingly — or perhaps not so, for those who have followed Holt’s career — they were kind ones.  He thanks the fans, the club, the city.  He has nothing but good things to say.  Read the whole thing here.  Maybe the most notable thing is that Holt’s attitude is so refreshing and, quite frankly, rare.

The second thing is a bit more personal, and requires some background.  As many readers know, my wife is the director of a dog rescue that specializes in pregnant moms, moms with babies, and young puppies.  We often get litters of puppies into the rescue that have no moms, or who have been taken away from their moms.  A while ago, we got a litter of 10 Great Dane pups.  They were full-blooded, but their breeder didn’t get the proper paperwork from the owner of the father, so they couldn’t be papered.  Shortly after we got them, they came down with a large number of maladies, but we only ended up losing four of them.  Of the survivors, all were girls but one.

Just about as soon as we put them up for adoption on Petfinder, they were spoken for, with long waiting lists for each dog.  Unfortunately, the little boy, Hamlet, was diagnosed with something more serious — a liver shunt, where the blood that’s supposed to be flowing through the liver for cleansing instead bypasses it, exposing the dog to all sorts of blood-borne toxins.  There is surgery that can correct it, but it’s expensive.

Hamlet’s foster mom a web site called Fundable (www.fundable.com) which allows users to set up a fundraising site to raise money for — well, anything.  Their homepage lists a large number of things that Fundable has been used for, from organizing snowboarding trips to paying for a newspaper ad to lobby Congress for more Katrina relief.  She set up a Fundable page to raise the $1100 for Hammy’s surgery.  I thought it was a neat idea, but kept to myself the opinion that it probably wouldn’t amount to much, considering the economy and such.

Boy was I wrong.  The fundraiser was set up to last for 26 days, from April 20 to May 16.  It took under 3 days to reach the goal.  Under.  3.  Days.  To raise money for a puppy to have surgery.  It included friends, strangers, and some of the families who adopted Hammy’s siblings.

It’s enough to warm my curmudgeonly little heart.  Hamlet’s story, in his foster’s words, is still available on his Fundable page.  Thanks to those who spread the word, and especially to those who donated.

Things I Noticed, Friday, March 6, 2009

I’ve had this sitting on my compute since last Friday.  I present it unedited, as it would have appeared if I hadn’t had my head up my butt then.

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted.  Life has just been very hectic here at PavCo HQ, with family issues, puppy issues, and work issues.  It seems like things are resolving themselves now, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Mrs. PavCo, so hopefully I’ll be able to decompress and get back into more of a routine.

For today’s word, I’m going to step back to yesterday on the Forgotten English calendar, which featured the phrase “March-mad”, meaning “Rash to an extreme”, and harkening back to the belief (evidently questionable) that hares become “wild, flighty and strange” during the March rutting season.

• Today is the premiere of Watchmen, a much-revered graphic novel (it actually started life as a 12-issue comic book, but more people have been exposed to the collected book) which follows a group of retired super heroes in an alternate universe version of 1970s America.  Reviews have been mixed, but none have been abysmal.  The wife of a co-worker saw it at the midnight show last night and loved it.  The boys and I (and a couple of friends) will be at the Chesterfield Galaxy theater for the 11:05 Mega-Screen show.  I’ll let you know how it is this weekend.

• On this week’s Slate Magazine’s Gabfest podcast, one of the commentators mentioned a New York Times piece about performace artist Tehching Hsieh, who, in the late 70s and 80s, did a number of year-long “pieces”, including spending a year tied by an 8 foot rope to a woman he barely knew; spending a year punching a time clock every hour on the hour, and spending a year outside.  His website is here.

• I’m a few weeks behind on most of my tv viewing, so I may have missed the Taco Town ad on SNL recently.  But thanks to this MySpace page, I was not only able to watch the parody of the “let’s throw five different things together” craze (Although I will confess to really liking the CrunchWrap Supreme), but was able to feel my arteries harden as I did.  Oh, they’ve also got pictures of a couple of guys who actually tried to make the thing.

• Breaking Bad, the AMC original series starring Bryan Cranston (the dad on Malcolm in the Middle) as a high school science teacher who turns to methmaking to provide for his family’s future when he’s diagnosed with cancer, returns on Sunday night.  I have some issues with the show (the handicapped son seemed a little over the top), but by and large it’s very good, pretty much up there with other cable standouts like Burn Notice and In Plain Sight.

Things I Noticed, Thursday, February 26, 2009

Today is Thursday, February 29.  Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday passed almost unnoticed here at PavCo (almost literally…I didn’t realize what either day was until well into each).

• Evidently Beyonce had a wardrobe malfunction during the production number of Sunday’s Oscar telecast, but it almost falls into the “you’ve really got too much time on your hands if you noticed” category of freeze-frame zooming.  Sharon Stone’s sheer dress with no underwear on the other hand…

• The Hollywood Reporter has the first real review of Watchmen, and it ain’t good.

• Deep Fried Pizza.  I don’t think there’s really anything else to say.

• Remember how much trouble you had drawing a circle with an Etch-a-Sketch?

• The New York Times notes that The Simpsons has been renewed for another two years, making it (at the start of next season) the longest running entertainment series in television history, surpassing Gunsmoke’s 20 years.  Only 60 Minutes has survived longer, though Law & Order will tie Gunsmoke if it’s renewed for next year.

• TV Barn’s Aaron Barnhart tweets that three former Defamer editors are looking to start up the long-defunct Movieline web site.  The link will take you to a page where you can sign up for updates.

Following his cameos in last summer’s Marvel movies (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk), Samuel L. Jackson has signed to play Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (actually, Director of SHIELD, but that wasn’t the title of the old comic) in 9 upcoming Marvel movies, including possibly one of his own.

Things I Noticed, Monday, February 23

Today is Monday, February 23, the birthday of Samuel Pepys.  The Forgotten English word of the day is “diurnalist”, a word for a journalist, dervied from diurnal (daily).  Over the weekend, the Hasbro company presented a rather interesting word of the day.  It was taken down quickly, but, this being the internet, screenshots remain.

• The New York Fed has released a study predicting that the recession will end somewhere mid-year.  And they’re evidently pretty accurate about these things.  It involves things like probability and math, so we here at PavCo are out of our depth.

• Free Food alerts:  Quiznos is giving away coupons for free subs.  Sign up for yours at http://www.millionsubs.com/.  And tomorrow (Tuesday, February 24), IHOP is offering a free short stack of pancakes in honor of National Pancake Day.  Thanks to Whitney Matheson’s Pop Candy for both tips.

• I didn’t get a chance to post Oscar predictions this year, the result of an extremely busy weekend, but I got them all right.  Trust me.  Seriously, I didn’t have any problem with any of the winners, though I would have rather Mickey Roarke won Best Actor; I think Sean Penn still has a lot of good performances ahead of him, whereas this may have been the role of a lifetime for Roarke.  I also thought that Viola Davis’ two scenes in Doubt, in which she went toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep, were easily the most powerful of the nominated performances, but, again, I didn’t have a problem with Penelope Cruz’ win.  I also thought it was criminal that Bruce Springsteen’s title track for The Wrestler didn’t even get nominated for Best Song, but am looking forward to them performing Jai Ho as part of those “We’re now going to sing every Best Song winner” medleys in the not-too-distant future.

Things I Noticed, February 20, 2009

Hey, gang.  It’s been a slow week for noticing things, and an even slower week for posting the things I noticed.  Today is Friday, February 20.  The weekend is brought to you by Saturday and Sunday’s Forgotten English word “gwethall”,  meaning household stuff or remnants, which links it to the Welsh word “gweddill”, whence comes the modern word “widow”.  Tomorrow is the Best Picture nominee marathon at AMC Theaters and Sunday is the Oscars, otherwise known as the holiest day of the year at PavCo HQ.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed today:

• The producers of this Sunday’s Oscar telecast have promised that there are some big changes in store for Oscar night. Somehow, I don’t think these are them, as fervently as we might wish for some of them.

• Continuing the Oscar theme, Esquire online has a look back at Oscar Speeches and some alternative Oscars that won’t be given out this Sunday.

• Back when she was a contestant on the UK Big Brother, returned for a controversial stint in which she made some racist remarks, and then went on the Indian version, Jade Goody was accused of dying to be on camera.  Now, she’s actually dying on camera, courting controversy one last time to secure her children’s future, while suffering from cancer in a very public way.  Crazy Days and Nights has a summary, and the New York Times and the Huffington Post a longer piece.

Things I Noticed, Thursday, February 12, 2009

Today is Thursday, February 12, 2009, the 200th anniversary of the births of both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln.  Birthday wishes also go out to PavCo Multimedia Synergistics associate Vicki McElfresh, who was born considerably after either of those gentlemen.

Today’s Forgotten English word is “unscience”, Chaucer’s word for the absence of science or knowledge.  Today’s Addictionary word is awestentatious, an adverb meaning “Almost unbelievable, provoking shock.”

Here are the things I noticed today:

• Everybody is linking to or talking about Joaquin Phoenix’s appearance on the David Letterman show last night, so I might as well.  FWIW, I think it was a total put-on on Phoenix’s part, but I don’t think Dave was complicit in it.

• Survivor: Tocantins starts tonight.

• Still on the reality front, American Idol has named its 36 finalists, who are exactly the same 36 that were listed on the internet a couple months ago.  I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet, but am really distressed that drama queen Nathaniel Marshall made the cut, though it might be fun to see him and Tatiana try to out-diva each other.

• Rod Blagojevich just won’t go away.  And one way to milk the spotlight is to call your opponents incompetent “drunkards and adulterers“.  That should help his case.

• As part of their Truth-o-Meter page, the folks at the St. Petersburg Times’ PolitiFact.com are tracking President Obama’s campaign promises, assigning statuses including “Promise Kept”, “Promise Broken”, and “Compromise” to each of 511 documented campaign promises.  So far the vast majority of the promises are classified as “No Action”, but of the ones that are not either “No Action” or “In the Works”, “Promise Kept” is the clear leader (7 promises there, as opposed to one each for “Compromise”, “Promise Broken”, and “Stalled”).  You can keep track of the tally (as well as other true-false evaluations) on the Obameter.

Things I Noticed, Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Today is Wednesday, February 11, 2009, Binding Day in Portland, Dorsetshire, England.  It is brought to you by the word “breachy”, which means “brackish” and is applied to “smuggled spirits which have been impregnated with salt-water.”  (These words and most of the day descriptions come from the Forgotten English desk calendar by Jeffrey Kacirk.)

• India is marketing a soft drink to compete with Coke and Pepsi.  It’s going to be called “gau jal”, or “cow water” because, well, maybe you should just read the story here.

• Fox Television has ordered a pilot for the old DC Comics character “The Human Target“, starring Mark Valley, who recurs as John Scott on that networks’ Fringe.  They’re also doing a remake of the BBC series “Absolutely Fabulous”, which no one could possibly think is a good idea.  (Incidentally, Valley married Fringe co-star and Kate Blanchett lookalike Anna Torv back in December.  Lucky guy.)

• One of the classier tie-ins to the upcoming Watchmen movie is a book of black and white portraits of the characters.  EW Online has a preview of 17 of the images, though I still don’t understand the “I forgot to take off my panties” look of Silk Spectre II (Malin Ackermann) in picture #5.  (It’s a look that doesn’t appear to carry through any of the trailers I’ve seen)  And while I love Carla Gugino and the whole 1940s look, I’d have loved it even more if her portrait had been of Silk Spectre I instead of alter ego Sally Jupiter.

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?  Really?

• Looks like the next coin to get a makeover will be the penny.

• Both the Catholic Church and the Church of England appear to have no problem reconciling Darwinian evolution with Christian teachings.  I’ve been saying that for ages, since before Intelligent Design became a dirty word.

• My senator is Twittering (@clairecmc).  Is yours?