GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

A home for our "Off-Topic" Chats. Like to play games? Tell jokes? Shoot the breeze about nothing at all ? Here is the place where you can hang out with the IBDoF Peanut Gallery and have some fun.

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Ghost
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Post by Ghost »

Word of the Day for Tuesday October 25, 2005

bruit
\BROOT\, transitive verb: To report; to noise abroad.

The first originated with a professor of government who, it was bruited, had always succeeded in predicting the outcome of presidential-year elections.
--William F. Buckley, Jr., "We didn't tell you so," National Review, November 29, 2004

An attack on Iraq has been bruited about ever since President Bush invoked an axis of evil in his State of the Union address to Congress in January.
--Joyce Appleby and Ellen Carol Dubois, "Congress must reassert authority to declare war," The Record (Bergen County, NJ), September 20, 2002

Since his family was so very wealthy, having an accumulated fortune of many years, he did not have to work for a living, and thus he could -- and did -- devote himself to various and sundry dissipations and pleasures, especially drink (in fact it was widely bruited about, that in his younger years, he was alcoholic).
--Dorothy Belle Pollack, "A fairy tale for the modern day," The Record (Bergen County, NJ), September 13, 2004

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Bruit comes from Old French, from the past participle of bruire, "to roar."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day for Wednesday October 26, 2005

virago
\vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go\, noun: 1. A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage. 2. A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, or overbearing.

The intrepid heroines range from Unn the Deep Minded, the Viking virago who colonized Iceland, to Sue Hendrikson, a school dropout who became one of the great experts on amber, fossils and shipwrecks.
--Ann Prichard, "Coffee-table: Africa, cathedrals, animals, 'Sue,'" USA Today, November 28, 2001

This virago, this madwoman, finally got to me, and I was subjected to the most rude, the most shocking violence I can remember.
--José Limón, An Unfinished Memoir

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Virago comes from Latin virago, "a man-like woman, a female warrior, a heroine" from vir, "a man."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
Darb
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Post by Darb »

As had been widely bruited about in local bachelor circles, Vivian was a vivacious, viraginous virgo on the make ... definitely not your run-of-the-mill 1950's obsequious vestal virgin type. Oh no. Vivian, in bobby socks, nails, poodle skirt, and a whale-bone fortified corset-bustier, was a veritable viking huntress, armed & armored for battle.

The crows, outside the drive-in, would eat well this night ...
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Ghost
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Word of the Day for Thursday October 27, 2005

mawkish
\MOCK-ish\, adjective: 1. Sickly or excessively sentimental. 2. Insipid in taste; nauseous; disgusting.

The movie's attempts to connect these out-of-body experiences with the '60s ethos of consciousness expansion are so forced that the transcendent, feel-good leaps of faith with which the story culminates seem mawkish and unearned.
--Stephen Holden, " 'Eden': Out of Step at a Prep School as a New Age Dawns." New York Times, April 3, 1998

Philadelphia Inquirer dismissed it as "a terrible play, a hopeless jumble of juvenile humor and mawkish sentimentality."
--Peter Applebome, "Blasphemy? Again? Somebody's Praying for a Hit." New York Times, October 18, 1998

Joe DiMaggio, who died this year to often mawkish eulogies and overwrought sociology, was an ancestor of the current four: driven, selfish, unidimensional in his playing days.
--Robert Lipsyte, "Time for Sports Heroes to Start Acting in a Heroic Way." New York Times, August 22, 1999

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Mawkish originally meant "maggoty" (from Middle English mawke, maggot), hence squeamish, nauseating, hence tending to render squeamish or make nauseated, especially because of excessive sentimentality.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day for Monday October 31, 2005

immolate
\IM-uh-layt\, transitive verb: 1. To sacrifice; to offer in sacrifice; to kill as a sacrificial victim. 2. To kill or destroy, often by fire.

What have I gained, that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove, or to Neptune, or a mouse to Hecate . . . if I quake at opinion, the public opinion, as we call it; or at the threat of assault, or contumely, or bad neighbors, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the rumor of revolution, or of murder?
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays and English traits

In the city of Bhopal, police used water canon to thwart a group of Congress workers who were on the point of immolating themselves.
--Peter Popham, "Gandhi critics are expelled by party," Independent, May 21, 1999

Bowls of honey at the room's center drew random insects to immolate themselves against a nearby bug zapper.
--Carol Kino, "Damien Hirst at Gagosian," Art in America, May 2001

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Immolate comes from the past participle of Latin immolare, "to sacrifice; originally, to sprinkle a victim with sacrificial meal," from in- + mola, "grits or grains of spelt coarsely ground and mixed with salt."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day for Tuesday November 1, 2005

alpenglow
\AL-puhn-gloh\, noun: A reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains.

In the soft alpenglow, we watch copper turn pink on the peaks above.
--Brian Payton, "A river of dreams," Boston Globe, July 25, 1999

At the Ahwahnee Hotel, guests book reservations a year in advance to watch the alpenglow off the majestic Half Dome from cozy rooms equipped with TVs and minibars.
--Jeanne McDowell, "Fighting For Yosemite's Future," Time, January 14, 1991

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Alpenglow is a partial translation of German Alpenglühen, from Alpen, "Alps" + glühen, "to glow."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Post by Ghost »

Word of the Day for Wednesday November 2, 2005

subfusc
\sub-FUHSK\, adjective: Dark or dull in color; drab, dusky.

The tea-cosy, property of one Edmund Gravel -- "known as the Recluse of Lower Spigot to everybody there and elsewhere," as the book's first page informs us -- is haunted by a six-legged emcee for various "subfusc but transparent" ghosts.
--Emily Gordon, "The Doubtful Host," Newsday, November 8, 1998

Her inscrutable figure -- imposing in designer subfusc, slightly donnish, reminiscent of Vita Sackville-West, to whom she was distantly related -- baffled and intrigued some.
--Yvonne Whiteman, "Obituary: Frances Lincoln," Independent, March 6, 2001

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Subfusc comes from Latin subfuscus, "brownish, dark," from sub-, "under" + fuscus, "dark-colored."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day for Thursday November 3, 2005

mores
\MOR-ayz; -eez\, plural noun: 1. The fixed customs of a particular group that are morally binding upon all members of the group. 2. Moral attitudes. 3. Customs; habits; ways.

But even before that, the increasing secularization and urbanization of society, the employment of women in large numbers and diverse occupations, the suffragette movement (culminating in the acquisition of the vote after the war), the widespread practice and, no less important, the candid discussion of contraception, the advent of automobiles providing an unprecedented degree of mobility and freedom -- all of these led to a relaxation of traditional social and sexual mores.
--Gertrude Himmelfarb, One Nation, Two Cultures

Colonel William Mann, after all, proved a thorn in society's side because he claimed to understand its mores, to have found out just how his presumed betters were violating the code that should have governed them, and then rebuked them by wielding it not only more expertly than they did but more lethally.
--Mark Caldwell, A Short History of Rudeness

Usually the laws mirror the mores of the populace in this regard, though at times they run ahead, and at times they lag behind.
--Daniel C. Maguire, "Death, Legal and Illegal," The Atlantic, February 1974

In much the same bold spirit, I rapidly absorbed the other gestures, turns of phrase and exclamations popular among my peers, as well as grasping the deeper mores and etiquettes prevailing in my new surroundings.
--Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans

Artists rebelled against the stodgy mores of the bourgeoisie.
--David Brooks, "The Organization Kid," The Atlantic, April 2001

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Mores comes from Latin, plural of mos, "custom." It is related to moral.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day for Friday November 4, 2005

dapple
\DAP-uhl\, noun: 1. A small contrasting spot or blotch. 2. A mottled appearance, especially of the coat of an animal (as a horse).

transitive verb: To mark with patches of a color or shade; to spot.

intransitive verb: To become dappled.

adjective: Marked with contrasting patches or spots; dappled.


Look at . . . his cows with their comic camouflage dapples . . . .
--Arthur C. Danto, "Sometimes Red," ArtForum, January 2002

70 diamond- and hexagonal-shaped holes, 35 between the North End ramp and the northbound lanes, and 35 between the northbound and southbound lanes, allow light to filter through and dapple the river below.
--Raphael Lewis, "A walk into the future," Boston Globe, May 9, 2002

Gentle shafts of sunlight . . . dapple the grass.
--Gail Sheehy, Hillary's Choice

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Dapple derives from Old Norse depill, "a spot."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
Darb
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Post by Darb »

C'mon people ... the unanswered WOTD count is up to 6 now.

Let's see someone bat it outta the park ! :P

Make us wordsmiths proud, and have at it.

I'd do it myself, and easily, but courtesy dictates I give others first crack.
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laurie
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Post by laurie »

In an admittedly mawkish attempt to lessen the effect of Brad’s offended mores, and to immolate - or at least dapple - myself with the (perhaps subfusc) alpenglow of his approval, I submit this example of complete inanity.

Or is that insanity? :wink:


Brad: GRAND SLAM !!!
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

"So where the hell is he?" -- Laurie
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Ghost
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Word of the Day for Monday November 7, 2005

propitious
\pruh-PISH-uhs\, adjective: 1. Presenting favorable circumstances or conditions. 2. Favorably inclined; gracious; benevolent.

By the early 1500s rice was being planted on the Cape Verde island most propitious for agriculture, Santiago.
--Judith A. Carney, Black Rice

It is hard to imagine a less propitious start to a marriage: in a single blow Vincent forfeited the trust of his wife, the respect of her family, and the means of his own support.
--Matthew Sturgis, Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography

If the fates are propitious we may succeed.
--A. K. Green

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Propitious derives from Latin propitius, "favorable."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
felonius
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Post by felonius »

GENRE: Anne Rice (Abroad With The Vampire)

"Ladies and gentlemen - we are now approaching Bermuda island. We would ask that you return your seat backs to their upright position and check that your seat belts are fastened securely. Thank you."

A tall, powerfully built man with an eastern European look nudged his dozing companion in the aisle seat.

"Come Ernst - look. Gaze upon the night lights of glorious Bermuda - bruited for decades as a haven by some of the wisest of our kind."

The second man grunted and leaned over, idly fingering one pointed cuspid. He straightened again after a moment, seemingly unimpressed. "Yes Miklos - no doubt filled to bursting mit cheap wine, boorish music und New Vorld viragoes. Such veneer. Such mawkish affectations."

"So. You would prefer a return to the old country in order to immolate yourself in the eager fires of the peasant rabble?

"I miss ze alpenglow seen over ze castle battlements. I miss ze cold, austere peaks of rock. I miss ze volves howling over ze fields of powder snow."

"Ernst - you must work to mask your accent. Lighten up. You are my brother, but you will never get laid if you continue to employ this tone and mode of speech. And your garments! Such a subfusc tunic. You must 'find the groove', yes? You must 'get busy and get down.' It is time to 'rock out.'"

"Spare me the insipid mores of our contemporaries, Miklos. I will not dapple myself in the garish fashions of this age. I am far too old for such things."

"Nonsense. No time and setting could be more propitious to remake yourself. As soon as we have secured our accomendations we will visit a clothing shop and 'load you up with some fine threads.' You will be 'bling bling', yes?"

"Miklos - you must stop reading that colloquial dictionary - it is driving me insane..."

"Ladies and gentlemen - we are now on final approach..."
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Darb
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Post by Darb »

Laurie: :clap:

Felon: :lol: :thumb:
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Word of the Day for Tuesday November 8, 2005

nosegay
\NOHZ-gay\, noun: A bunch of odorous and showy flowers; a bouquet; a posy.

There was the glamour of George Pollexfen's horses, racing under his colours of primrose and violet: the children went to Lissadell races with four horses and postilions, nosegays of primroses and violets pinned to their coats.
--R. F. Foster, W.B. Yeats: A Life (Vol. 1)

"Fussing about in black smalls, silks, buckles, cocked hat, and always with a prodigious nosegay," Lowther could not conceivably have been a less romantic character.
--Kenneth R. Johnston, The Hidden Wordsworth

The country is one big nosegay, the scents wonderful.
--W. Morris

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Nosegay is nose and gay joined together to mean "something bright and showy that one holds to the nose."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day for Wednesday November 9, 2005

oneiric
\oh-NY-rik\, adjective: Of, pertaining to, or suggestive of dreams; dreamy.

On this score, the novel might easily drift off into an oneiric never-never land, but Mr. Welch doesn't let this happen.
--Peter Wild, "Visions of Blackfoot," New York Times, November 2, 1986

Her large images, which are cloaked in an elegant oneiric mist, transport the viewer to an ideal world where bodies seem to have become weightless ghosts of themselves.
--Simona Vendrame, "Nature and the solitary self," translated by Jacqueline Smith, Temaceleste

Some -- not all -- of Caravaggio's painting uniquely compels you to grope for words in order to describe the optical novelty and disturbing immediacy of the images. They're at once coldly precise, voluptuously real and strangely oneiric.
--Peter Robb, "Candid camera," The Guardian, October 20, 2001

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Oneiric comes from Greek oneiros, "dream."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Darb
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Post by Darb »

The oneiromancer scowled grimly through the mist wreathing his mystical pool of scrying. The image of a large gay Italian male, sporting both a large nose, and a large nosegay (pinned to his lapel), swam under his gaze. In an uncharacteristic display of largess, the largely non-gay sorcerer opted suddenly to not slay the large gay sporting the large nosegay previously mentioned ... even though he'd been handsomely paid to do precisely that by the large gay italian's own equally large gay (and handsome) lover.
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Ghost
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Post by Ghost »

Word of the Day for Thursday November 10, 2005

laudable
\LAW-duh-bul\, adjective: Worthy of praise; commendable.

Her first answer was laudable -- she wrote that yes, she would remain engaged to a man who fell seriously ill subsequent to the engagement.
--Enid Nemy, "Metropolitan Diary," New York Times, January 11, 1999

The second sense in which we are feminist researchers comes from our belief that equity between boys and girls, men and women, is a laudable goal.
--Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins (editors), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games

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Laudable comes from Latin laudabilis, from laudare, "to praise," from laus, laud-, "praise."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
felonius
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Post by felonius »

Methinks the WOTD thread is quite the laudable romp - its lurid laurels and lavish lacerations always good for lilting laughs and lissom linguistics...

*SNIFFLE* I promised myself I wouldn't cry...
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Darb
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Post by Darb »

/me quietly hands the handsome felon a hankie, so that he can have a good cry over his past, and future, literary sins.

/me quietly adjusts felon's nosegay, which had fallen askew. :P
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Post by tollbaby »

Brad wrote:In an uncharacteristic display of largess, the largely non-gay sorcerer opted suddenly to not slay the large gay sporting the large nosegay previously mentioned ...
argh. English bastardization. If you're going to steal French words, you can at least continue to spell them correctly (yes, I know it's an acceptable spelling in English... not the point). Although I suppose I should be magnanimous... after all, attempting to expose yourselves to broader cultures by using French words is a laudable experiment. :lol:
And what manner of jackassery must we put up with today? ~ Danae, Non Sequitur
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Post by Darb »

{Brad glared balefully at the sudden and unwelcome presence of linguistic French droppings dappling the pristine literary tableaux of TQ&F ... the distant yammering of arboreal surrender monkeys, and francophiliac flamingo pinkos flittering nearby, further added to the unsavory linguistic miasma.}

:P
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Post by Ghost »

As the smoke clears from the linguistic English/French debate, a propitious Ghost glides through the oneiric scene. Subfusc fumes drifting through the air similar to the current view from the Eiffel Tower, flaming Renaults, immolated by Muslim youths, fill the alpenglow night sky on a mawkish Paris evening.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day for Friday November 11, 2005

puissant
\PWISS-uhnt; PYOO-uh-suhnt; pyoo-ISS-uhnt\, adjective: Powerful; strong; mighty; as, a puissant prince or empire.

As an upcoming young corporate lawyer in San Francisco in the 1930's, Crum tended the interests of some of California's most puissant businesses, starting with William Randolph Hearst's newspaper empire.
--Richard Lingeman, "The Last Party," New York Times, April 27, 1997

If we are to believe that country's literary pundits, "irreparable damage to a great British institution" may soon be done by an invading army more puissant than Hannibal's or Alexander's, an army marching out of the creative writing schools of American universities, leaving Will Shakespeare's sceptred isle "smothered amid a landslide of books from the US".
--Jonathan Yardley, "Bring on the Yanks," The Guardian, June 5, 2002

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Puissant is from Old French puissant, "powerful," ultimately from (assumed) Vulgar Latin potere, alteration of Latin posse, "to be able." The noun form is puissance.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
Darb
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Post by Darb »

The puissant odor of pus, puns and putrefaction permeated the otherwise pristine examining room of Doctor Derriere, Chief of human and veterinary Forensic Proctology.

With a sigh of dejection, followed by the sharp stattaco snap of two soiled rubber gloves, the Doctor left, udderly defeated ... having been unable to locate either the straw that had broken the recently escaped female camel's back, or the reason why it's udders were inflamed and its hindfeet were missing. His best guess was that the camel had been milked and mutilated by Ms Valerie Kix Chief, a well known cereal punster.

Cause of Death: Criminal, Miss Chief.
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