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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:16 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
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rhapsodize
\ RAP-suh-dahyz \ Hear it pronounced here.
verb;
1.
To talk with extravagant enthusiasm.
2.
To speak or write rhapsodies.
Read the full dictionary entry
Quotes:
Restaurateur-turned-produce-broker Andy Ayers is never hesitant to rhapsodize about his experiences with locally grown food.
-- Joe Bonwich, "Melon mania," Great Falls Tribune, July, 2010.

I cannot rhapsodize here, as the noted fresco of the Last Supper is so vilely defaced as almost to obliterate all original lines.
-- Annie S. Wolf, Pictures and portraits of foreign travel

Origin:
Rhapsodize connects to ancient Greek rhapsodes , professional reciters of poetry.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:23 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
.
Irreverent example:
I wonder. When George Gershwin wrote his "Rhapsody in Blue", did he also rhapsodize in speech?

Is then rap a descendant of the rhapsody?

I now switch to reverent to
Listen to George on the piano.
A more recent and technically better recording is Leonard Bernstein's, showman that he was, more symphonic and slightly more sedate rendition. Unfortunately, it is only 98% complete but still very worthwhile listening to and watching.
Bernstein plays Gerhswin's Rhapsody in Blue

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:23 am
by Algot Runeman
Wow, what a wonderful Saturday morning, with the sun just cresting the treetops, hints of frost on my lawn, catching the sun's rays and enhancing the colors of maple leaves yet to be raked in the hours ahead. Ah, fall, season of dropping leaves, jack-o-lanterns, plastic spider webs and skeletons hanging on porches. Halloween, just a week away, the holiday second only to Christmas for the decorations.

But enough about that, I do tend to wax rhapsodic over the season.

If memory serves (based on the most recent Gershwin movie), Gershwin was considered an amateur. Why would someone look down on music just because the composer wasn't "professional"?

Was there a guild of musicians during Gershwin's era?

What is the status of all those artists who painted prolifically, throughout their lives, never making money themselves, whose work became valuable only after the artists themselves had died hungry?

Gershwin wasn't poor, but I am glad to have his music still with us.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:58 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:Gershwin wasn't poor, but I am glad to have his music still with us.
Hear, hear!

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:19 am
by Algot Runeman
I'd heard "hear, hear" in movies, but never seen it written. The Wikipedia entry is interesting, telling us it came from the UK Parliament "Hear him, hear him".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear

As I sit here, listening to Faith Hill on my earphones to help blank out the sound of the radio to which my wife is listening across the room, I realize I don't have much Gershwin stored on my PC or MP3 player. I'll remedy that this weekend.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 5:30 pm
by voralfred
E Pericoloso Sporgersi wrote:
Algot Runeman wrote:Gershwin wasn't poor, but I am glad to have his music still with us.
Hear, hear!
+1
:D

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:20 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
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piquant
\ PEE-kuhnt \ Hear it pronounced here.
adjective;
1.
Agreeably stimulating, interesting, or attractive.
2.
Agreeably pungent or sharp in taste or flavor.
3.
Of an interestingly provocative or lively character.
Read the full dictionary entry
Quotes:
His cook would catch it if his sauces weren't
Piquant and sharp, and all his equipment
To hand. And all day in his hall there stood
The great fixed table, with the places laid.

-- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury tales

But, if I am a dupe, it is of a magician, whose wand has summed up the most beautiful forms of the ideal world of music to enchant my imagination; and if, by kind of reaction, I am unjust towards to "Gazza Ladra" and "Otello," it is because they awaken sensations less sweet and enchanting, though, perhaps, more strong and piquant in their effects.
-- Stendhal, Memoirs of Rossini

Origin:
Piquant is an alteration of the French piquel , literally "pricking."

Note by EPS:
Huh? Who wrote that origin nonsense? The word piquel doesn't exist, as far as I know. (Voralfred? Do you agree?) And piquant *is* French.
In French piquant is a noun, an adjective and a conjugation of the verb piquer. See Google's translations here and here

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:39 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
.
Irreverent example:
Lately I had to jump through hoops to find a connection between the WotD's and my grandma.

Now this word, piquant, seems very well suited to apply to her in several ways. But, exasperatingly, I'm left speechless. I can't think of any untold anecdote or story to tell and illustrate once more how piquant grandma really was. I fear she'll be very piqued at me.

And irritated too, considering the very ambiguous English pronunciation \ PEE-kuhnt \ .

Sorry, grandma. Rest assured that I will always pronounce it in French. Though I doubt I would say "The woman is piquant". No, I would say "Elle a du chien", (literally "She has dog"), meaning "She's hot". :)

Note:
Piqued is not French. It's the anglicised form of the French past participle "piqué" (masculin) of the verb "piquer".
A piqued Diodon is a very piquant fish and dish. Literally.

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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:49 am
by voralfred
E Pericoloso Sporgersi wrote: Huh? Who wrote that origin nonsense? The word piquel doesn't exist, as far as I know. (Voralfred? Do you agree?) And piquant *is* French.
In French piquant is a noun, an adjective and a conjugation of the verb piquer. See Google's translations here and here
I never heard of the word piquel
piquant is indeed a noun (a spine, for instance that of ahedgehog or a porcupine)
It is the present participle of the verb "piquer" to sting
and as often a present participle can bu used as a simple adjective in a construction that is slightly different from its use as participle.

It is rather piquant (third meaning) that the author of WOTD would invent a weird etimology for piquant. Purists of frnech etymology could indeed be piqued!

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 3:48 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
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Boo
\ BOO \ Hear it pronounced here.
–interjection
1.
(used to express contempt or disapprobation or to startle or frighten).
–noun
2.
an exclamation of contempt or disapproval: a loud boo from the bleachers.
–verb (used without object)
3.
to cry boo in derision.
–verb (used with object)
4.
to show disapproval of by booing.
Read the full dictionary entry
Quotes:
"Richard Nixon was booed while throwing his pitch and he laughed good-naturedly. Within six months, all 46,293 fans had been drafted and shipped to Vietnam."
-- Scott Ostler, Sunday Punch: A filibuster on first pitches

Boo and Baa--both sheep--go to the woods to pick blueberries, hoping all the while that there are no ants around.
-- Amazon.com Review, Boo and Baa in the Woods

Who's BOO! ? BOO! appeared in 1995 in the arms of trendy, self-assured women. Today designer Tony Van Gulck is exactly ten years older, and BOO! is still just as young and fresh as ever. Like those women.
-- Tony Van Gulck, Introduction of BOO! (2005)

The Boo (originally known as Boo Diddley) is a common ghost-enemy in the Mario series
-- Super Mario Wiki!

Origin:
"to startle," early 15c., boh , "A combination of consonant and vowel especially fitted to produce a loud and startling sound" [OED, which compares L. boare , Gk. boaein "to cry aloud, roar, shout."]; as an expression of disapproval, 1801 (n.), 1816 (v.); hence, the verb meaning "shower someone with boos" (1893). To say boo "open one's mouth, speak," originally was to say boo to a goose .

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 3:51 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
.
Irreverent example:
My grandma had little patience with bad actors. Her boos were merciless. One time my grandpa had to restrain her or she would have climbed onto the stage and kicked the bad actor's posterior.

One day, on vacation in Barcelona, they watched a corrida. My grandma yelled boo so often and so forcefully that she sprained her vocal cords and had to talk in whispers for the next two days.
--
Booing has nothing to do with Boeing.
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 6:32 am
by Algot Runeman
The witch and ghost said "Boooo!" as they approached our house. The zombie and vampire and devil grinned menacingly. A fluffy black kitten marched up the front steps holding the hand of Frankenstein's monster.

"Trick or Treat!" came the common call from all of them.

The candy we handed them staved off the danger of their implied threats.

We didn't even have time to close the door before the next cluster of Halloween ghouls, goblins, and demons marched our way.

Happy Halloween, everyone. Hope you have as much fun as we do. Our typical evening has over 100 visits from the neighborhood undead. :twisted:

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 9:13 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:"Trick or Treat!" came the common call from all of them.
The candy we handed them staved off the danger of their implied threats.
In Flanders we don't have a Halloween's "Trick or Treat" tradition. Though commerce and US TV serials have been pushing it for years.

On the other hand, on Epiphany Day (6 January) we have a similar tradition. Groups of children do much the same thing, except they don't threaten "Trick or Treat" but they (try to) sing an appropriate song a capella and thus be rewarded with a prize (fruit, candy and/or homemade cookies if available).
Spoiler: show
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The following Friday and Saturday nights, adults too participate, not at family house's front doors, but in bars, cafés, pubs and brasseries, where, besides the traditional songs, they can be persuaded to sing bawdy lyrics to the same score. Of course the adults don't gather candy, but cash money which is donated to some charity or public purpose.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 10:36 am
by Algot Runeman
The US tradition of Halloween is colored by the "Headless Horseman" story by Washington Irving and by other authors who wrote stories about the witches purported to be found in Salem, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of House of Seven Gables, was apparently a relative of a judge who sat for the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

Don't forget, some glamorous ghosts are "bootiful", too.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 7:53 am
by voralfred
"Deboo! (Get up)" shouted the Sergeant to the sleeping rookies.
"It's already 4:00 am, and if you want to have dinner, you'd better hurry to run sixty miles "dans la boo" (in the mud) before the mess closes at night..." (sardonic laugh)

OK, so you are going to boo me for this extremely weak contribootion..., boot I have the excuse of not having yet completely recovered from time-lag...

Did I mention that I am in an area of Tokyo called Shibooya?

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:34 am
by Algot Runeman
boo me for this extremely weak contribootion...
Nay, voralfred, I say hooray! :clap:

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:46 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Image
ruction
\ RUHK-shuhn \ Hear it pronounced here.

noun;
1.
A disturbance, quarrel, or row.
Read the full dictionary entry
Quotes:
"If ever a ruction starts we haven't a chance. And we've all got our women and children to recollect. We've got to be peaceable at any price, and put up with whatever dirt is heaped on us."
-- Jack London, The Star Rover

He was forever raising a ruction . He lived a life of hard, narrow activity laid among boards, wheelbarrows, cement, stone, a life which concerned construction and had no particular joy in fruition.
-- Theodore Dreiser, The Genius

Origin:
The origin of ruction is uncertain, though it possibly derives from insurrection .

Note (by EPS):
I wonder if ruckus is etymologically related to ruction?

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:56 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
.
Irreverent example:
Ever since grandpa started getting a regular medecine supply from the Amerind shaman, his formerly crumbled and flaccid, erm ... confidence was again erected to an adolescent pole position.

As a corollary, grandma, who had grown to raise a ruction at the slightest imaginary provocation or insurrection, returned to her publicly demure and obéissante, but privately very sensual and piquante disposition toward him.
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:12 am
by Algot Runeman
Climbing Hawai'i's Kilauea, Don wore new boots. His experience climbing the volcano with beloved old boots had been a bit tense. The old boot soles started out worn, and by the time he'd reached the rim of the caldera, the soles were almost gone. He had been forced to walk down the tourist road to his Jeep. It was embarrassing.

Climbing the slopes of granite peaks with the thrill of ropes, crampons, and ice axes isn't matched by the walk up a volcano, except for the potential for an eruption. Don and his twenty friends secretly hoped to see a flow of lava up close, if not too personal. They all imagined the ruction that would follow as eruption of molten rock burst from the fissures over which they clambered.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:23 am
by voralfred
As you probably know, in Japanese there is no difference between R and L.
So of course the events on November 2nd in the US were, a priori, very interesting to the average Japanese female. It caused quite a ruction when they were all disappointed in their expectations.
Naming the Nov. 2nd events explicitly would require moving this post to TVR ;)

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 8:35 am
by KeE
Hm? And what's so TVR about lines of people standing proud and erect in a line to elect? ;)

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:04 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
I will be installing Windows 7 and my experience of past installations tells me that it can take several weeks until everything is installed and configured.

The WotD takes me 1 - 2 hours, what with editing, writing comment and finding a fitting image. I'm afraid I'll have to neglect it for I don't know how long.

Though thanks to a dual boot setup alongside my current Vista, I'll keep in touch of course.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 11:05 am
by Algot Runeman
Linux[1]

Linux
is the popular name for a computer operating system more properly called GNU/Linux which works much like the venerable Unix operating system. Linux is the core component or "kernel" of the system. It is an alternative to both the common Windows and Macintosh operating systems. It has one further feature. It is "free as in freedom" software. Developed by many thousands of contributing programmers, GNU/Linux is a mature and rapidly expanding system which runs on an extremely broad range of hardware. In addition to the standard X86 computers built around the dominant Intel processor in "PC" computers, Linux versions run on the most powerful supercomputers, small home routers, in addition to cell phones, ebook readers and portable tablets (with the Android distribution).

GNU/Linux is distributed to support the four freedoms:
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions
[note the geek numbering from zero as the first item]

Because of the four freedoms and the GNU Public License (GPL), end users can get an inexpensive CD to use for installation, and even have the option, and permission, to get the disc image for free by download and to create their own installation CD.

-------------------------- opinion follows--------------------------------------------

The word of the day is given in honor of E Pericoloso Sporgersi, who will be paying good money for Windows 7 so he can upgrade from Windows Vista. The upgrade may also be followed by the purchase of new versions of many other software programs to make the system fully functional. That will be followed by opening and verifying many archived data files to make sure that they still work. Saving those files will, perhaps, put them into Microsoft's new format and that sometimes makes them difficult to open again in older versions of software. Such are some of the joys of moving ahead.

I've gone through E Pericoloso Sporgersi's experience[2] with earlier Windows versions, and eventually decided to try GNU/Linux. I'm currently very happy with the newest version of the Kubuntu distribution of Linux and I accomplish my computing tasks with the system and its powerful set of productivity software, which is easy to get, easy to install and easy to use.

The choice of operating system is a very personal one. Good luck, E.P.S. and we all look forward to hearing all about your success. In the meantime, we'll soldier on with our own efforts and think good thoughts for you.
------------------------------------------------
[1] Linux is a rework of the name Linux (Torvalds) and Unix. Linux began as a student project and matured quickly as Linus Tovalds chose to invite others to play with his creation (one which he did not expect to become significant). The GPL encourages participation and "community" development. Linux has grown in much the same way that the World Wide Web has grown. Both were created in the open with specific intent to be expanded and enhanced by others, not to be or to become the exclusive property of an individual or corporate entity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
Why would anyone do it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
(Amazing confluence. This link came to me less than one hour after my initial post.)

[2] In fact, I've gone through the upgrade/system change process dozens of times: Timeshare -> TRS-80 -> Apple II -> AppleGS -> Macintosh (several) -> Windows 3.1 -> 95 -> 98 -> Millenium -> Windows XP -> Vista -> Windows 7.
[The upgrade list leaves out some side paths, and mostly suggests I'm old, more than anything else.]

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 6:36 pm
by voralfred
Algot, you meant Linus Torvalds, it wouldn't have been a pun if his name had had an x to start with :lol:


"Chuck", said Peppermint Patty, "why do you use Windows? I have a Mac, that's much better, isn't it, Marcie?"
"Yes, sir"
"Hey, look at Linus, he is using Linux"

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:19 pm
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Are you sure that the person who coined the word Linux, wasn't, at the time, avidly reading Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts.

Torvalds may even have a favorite blanket, just like Linus Van Pelt, Charlie Brown's best friend. And who knows, maybe Torvalds too believes in The Great Pumpkin!