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.
voralfred wrote:(...)horrified, he saw the sky lighten in the east. The last thing he saw was an unsufferably bright spot over the horizon... and he was instantly consumed.
RIP Vlad Drakul.
All that is left of Vlad, for his temerity in inviting a Dryad for a walk in her own forest.
parry \PAR-ee\, verb, noun: 1. to ward off; turn aside (as a thrust or weapon)
noun: 1. the act of warding off
I am not saying the whole group's survival is at stake. But we have to act today if we are to parry the harder onslaught of our competitors tomorrow.
-- Bernd Pischetsrieder
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by 1639, from French parez (which commonly would have been heard in fencing lessons), from parer "ward off," from Italian parare "to ward or defend a blow," from Latin parare "make ready, prepare." Non-fencing use is from 1717.
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
"Looks like a trussed turd with wings. Whoever plated that should be fired*."parried Roving Punster, conveniently ignoring the fact that the photo was his own.
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* Fired: The expression "to fire" is restaurant lingo meaning "to cook" an order of something ... i.e., "fire two steaks, one halibut, and the general manager, stat !"
"Parry sera toujours Parry", parried in turn the Parrysian, despite the parryculously close proximity of the extremely dangerous Roving Punster. Indeed, he had already once wagered* he would eventually out-pun the latter.
And as the father of all French poets** François Villon almost wrote
"Il n'est pun bec que de Parry"="Only Parrysian women can really talk"
(and, by association, only Parrysian men can really pun )
* to wager= "faire un parry", or "parryer" in approximate French.
** There were arguably greater poets than him in France before, but their language was "Old French", not easily understandable now without having serioulsy studied that language almost as a foreign one. Villon was the first great poet who used "Modern French", even if there are some archaic phrases, and some weird spelling, he is quite understandable by the average Frenchman
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
martial \MAHR-shuhl\, adjective: suitable or used for war; warlike
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him.
-- Charles Wolfe, The Burial of Sir John Moore
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by 1420, from Latin martialis "of Mars or war," from Mars, Roman god of war
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
Perry parried the Perrier the martial marshall marshaled.
"Budge up, yeh great lump." -- Hagrid, HP:SS
-=-
The gelding is what the gelding is, unlike people who change in response to their perceptions of events that may benefit or threaten their power. -- Lorn, Chapter LXXXII, Magi'i of Cyador
Boy, you guys pounced on that word parry with such lightning speed and martial zeal, I assumed you were martial arts super stars.
Unfortunately, Mistress Laurie PM'd me with first hand personal knowledge that you couldn't verbally kung-fu your way out of a brown paper bag, much less split a stack of infinitives. So, how'd you pull it off ? There were, like, guide wires and smoke machines to make it look real, right ?
equine \EE-kwahyn, EK-wahyn\, adjective:
of, pertaining to, or resembling a horse: a bold, equine face.
They were very frustrated with the inability of the authorities to react, so they started Equine Rescue to try to deal with horse cruelty cases.
-- Sally Clampett
1778, from L. equinus, from equus "horse," from PIE base ekwos "horse"
Considering all the extreme cuisine Brad ever tasted, I checked whether he ever tried equine meat.
I was about to conclude the closest he ever got was his Grandma's "White Horse Balls", but finally I found that he had eaten some actual horse meat. But it was horse meat jerky
When I was a child, there were quite a few equine butcher's shops in Paris who used to sell fresh horse meat (regular butchers were, and still are not, allowed to sell it). It was quite popular, especially eaten raw (tartare). A recent search found one left in Paris proper, and a dozen more in a circle of about 15 kms (roughly 10 miles) around Paris.
They were signalled by an equine head sticking out of the wall.
Curiously, there are still quite a few of these horse heads, in front of stores of all kind, that moved in where the "boucheries chevalines" used to be.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
incisive \in-SAHY-siv\, adjective: 1. penetrating; cutting; biting; trenchant 2. remarkably clear and direct; sharp; keen; acute 3. adapted for cutting or piercing 4. of or pertaining to the incisors
It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
-- Rod Serling
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by 1528, from Latinincisivus, from incis-/incidere "to cut into"
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
Ghost wrote:
It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
-- Rod Serling
If, however, there were twelve eating rabbits, probing the tenderness of carrots with their incisors, both the probing and the incisive character of the documentary would be preserved.
In addition, if Brad would be around, probing (with incisive temerity) the tenderness of the unwitting rabbits with his incisors, which I'd fully expect him to do....
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
pedestrian \puh-DES-tree-uhn\, noun, adjective: 1. a person who gets about on foot; walker adjective: 1. going on foot; walking 2. without imagination; dull
You know, the fact that every morning you get a script in your mailbox, that's going to stop. All these little pedestrian, mundane things. And the cash.
-- Paul Reiser
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by 1716, from Latin pedester/pedestris "plain, prosaic," from pedes "one who goes on foot," from pes/pedis "foot." Meaning "going on foot" is first attested 1742; the noun meaning "walker" is c 1770.
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
The pedantic pedicurist peddled her pedestrian performance on the park's patrons -- pedestrians, peddlers, and passers-by.
"Budge up, yeh great lump." -- Hagrid, HP:SS
-=-
The gelding is what the gelding is, unlike people who change in response to their perceptions of events that may benefit or threaten their power. -- Lorn, Chapter LXXXII, Magi'i of Cyador
After reading the description of Shadowfax, I don't want to be a pedestrian anymore. I'd love to ride Shadowfax, or even better, to drive him, all the way to the fabulous "Land Down Under" and see the Kangaroo People and the Koala Girls.
Walking is just sooooooooo dull, so boring, so mundane, so, so, so.... pedestrian!
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
diatribe \DAHY-uh-trahyb\, noun: a bitter verbal attack or speech
It wasn't an argument, it was a diatribe. I've never seen anything like it. It's an insult to you (the jury).
-- J. Tony Serra
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by 1581, from Latin diatriba "learned discussion," from Greek diatribe "discourse, study," literally "a wearing away (of time)," from dia- "away" + tribein "to wear,
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
I recently posted a diatribe against the book "The Sixth Sun", after checking that on December 21st, 2012, the planets do not align on a diameter of the solar system. I posted a link to an orrery that can show you a diagram of their positions. All this nonsensical dialectics pushed my diastolyc blood pressure to diabolic levels. A good thing I was never diagnosed as a diabetic, that could have made me dependent on dialysis. But my displeasure was dianoetic, proceeding to a conclusion by reason or argument rather than intuition, since I could justify diagrammatically that the planets were indeed not aligned.
Last edited by voralfred on Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
veracity \vuh-RAS-i-tee\, noun:
1. truthfulness
2. truth
Veracity is the heart of morality.
-- Thomas Henry Huxley
The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
pithy \PITH-ee\, adjective:
concise and to the point; full of meaning and force
c. 1400, from Old English pith, of unknown origin but cognate German words referring to "inner part, essence"
Monday March 23, 2009
spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun:
The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.
Some examples:
We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish ["half-formed wish"] inside us.
A well-boiled icicle ["well-oiled bicycle"].
It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.
Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?
When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out ["flags hung out"]!
Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].
Spoonerism comes from the name of the Rev. William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), a kindly but nervous Anglican clergyman and educationalist. All the above examples were committed by (or attributed to) him.
Tuesday March 24, 2009
thaumaturgy \THAW-muh-tuhr-jee\, noun:
The performance of miracles or magic.
Of course, none of these improbable meetings ever took place in reality. But within the realm of showbiz thaumaturgy, they're perfectly acceptable examples of latter-day digital compositing, wherein it's possible to have anything share a frame of film or video with practically anything else.
-- John Voland, "Prez presses tech buttons", Variety, July 21, 1997
There was ever a cautious hesitancy on the part of the clergy to recognize evidence of thaumaturgy, and the superstitious use of relics.
-- John Mcgurk, "Devoted People: Belief and Religion in Early Modern Ireland", Contemporary Review, September 1998
Thaumaturgy comes from the Greek words for "wonder" (thauma) and "work" (ergon). A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a thaumaturgist or thaumaturge.
Voralfred wrote:I recently posted a diatribe against the book "The Sixth Sun", after checking that on December 21st, 2012, the planets do not align on a diameter of the solar system. I posted a link to an orrery that can show you a diagram of their positions. All this nonsensical dialectics pushed my diastolyc blood pressure to diabolic levels. A good thing I was never diagnosed as a diabetic, that could have made me dependent on dialysis. But my displeasure was dianoetic, proceeding to a conclusion by reason or argument rather than intuition, since I could justify diagrammatically that the planets were indeed not aligned.
Only a few centuries ago, a person observing the extreme veracity of the planetary motion model you linked would, regardless of how pithy your presentation, view it as a form of oneiromantic thaumaturgism - and if they'd reported you to the religious authorities of the day, well ... let's just say (and please forgive me in advance for the off-color spoonerism) the proverbial shan would really hit the philological fit.
Brad wrote:(...) spoonerism) the proverbial shan would really hit the philological fit.
This is not a proper spoonerism, but rather a forkerism.
A correct spoonerism would be the proverbial fit would really hit the philological shan
and a four-way spoonerism be the proverbial phit would really fit the hilological shan
If you doubt the veracity of my assertion, I recommend this pithyarticle in Wikipedia. Douglas Hofstadter is a great word thaumaturgist.
More seriously: I was surprised by the definition of "spoonerism". I thought I remembered it meant something completely different, rewriting a text while watering it completely down; this is a different verb, but also from the name of some Victorian clergyman, I believe. Now finding the definition of a word is easy, finding one from the definition is harder. Can anyone help me find what verb I'm trying to remember?
Edit on the edit: I found him, not a clergyman but a physician, and not Victorian though he did die a few years after the <strike>Queer Dean</strike> Dear Queen's birth: to bowdlerize, after Thomas Bowdler "Family Shakespeare" and other "remarkable" works.
Last edited by voralfred on Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
tumult \TOO-mult; TYOO-mult\, noun: 1. The commotion or agitation of a crowd, usually accompanied with great noise, uproar, and confusion of voices; hurly-burly; noisy confusion. 2. Violent commotion or agitation, with confusion of sounds; as, "the tumult of the elements." 3. Irregular or confused motion; agitation; high excitement; as, "the tumult of the spirits or passions." --tumultuous, adjective
Just imagine, reader, a reduction of the centuries and a parade of all of them, all races, all passions, the tumult of empires, the war of appetites and hates, the reciprocal destruction of creatures and things.
-- Joaquim Maria Machado De Assis, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (translated by Gregory Rabassa)
The Irish Sea has been polluted, the aeroplanes roar above our heads, preparing for the next war; but this is the work of man. Seeing the dew in the morning and the beauty of the sea at sunset; listening to the silence after the aeroplanes have ceased their tumult, I have just as good a right to my faith as he has to his atheism.
-- R.S. Thomas, quoted in "In pursuit of the Deus absconditus", Irish Times, July 5, 1997
Roger W. Ferguson Jr. was not a kid prone to the irrational exuberance of youth. He first aspired to being a Federal Reserve governor when he was in high school. 'I spent most of my time studying', said Ferguson, who grew up in Washington amid the tumult and giddiness of the 1960s.
-- "Spotlight Turns to Fed Nominee", Washington Post, August 14, 1999
A long Tumult of Passions which naturally rise in a Lover's Heart.
-- Joseph Addison, Spectator No. 164, 1711
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Tumult is from Latin tumultus, from tumeo, tumere, to swell; to swell with anger or excitement.
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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