Varan means "lizard" or something

I just discovered by accident today that varan is actually a word in some foreign languages, and means various things, but is especially associated with monitor lizards. Also, in science-speak, monitor lizards are sometimes known as varanoid lizards. That's pretty cool, considering the source of my interest. http://worddomination.com/varan.html#

It's also apparently a boy's name used in Asia:
https://www.facebook.com/suresh.varan.5

Happy Tiw's Day

I learned today that Tuesday comes from the Old English version of Tiw's Day, where Tiw is a Saxon war god. (Maybe THE Saxon war god? I dunno). Apparently, he is better known as the Norse god Tyr. Speaking of Tyr, have you seen this?: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/953922/yggdrasil Sorry, I've been reading a bit about the historical background of the Druids. Oh, that reminds me, don't forget, the festival of Samhain is November 1st I have thought for a while of adding obscure holidays and celebrations to my calender. Well, obscure for my neck of the woods, anyway. Bastille Day on July 14, 1789 (also commemorating F. Scott Fitzgerald) The Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773 (grab a Sam Adams) First Contact Day on April 5, 2063 (the Vulcans land and meet humans) Talk Like a Pirate Day on Sept 19 Do you nominate a poorly appreciated date?

Rush Limbaugh insults by calling 'slut' and 'prostitute'

I find it intersting to hear multiple sides of this issue.

Rush Limbaugh actually first broadcast on this, saying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODI-NALkI4c

He apparently followed up with about 3 days of name-calling.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=148288590

Glenn Back says: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnnMcLHjueI&feature=related
(with some clips from Ms. Fluke's original testimony)

The Young Turks say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEl9p1tN8BI
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgPQgZH89Kg

An independant critical comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEiOY2SUSs4

Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum"

This is my 2nd post about Edgar Allen Poe's works. I haven't read all his work by any means, but I have had a good sampling now. Yesterday, I finished three Poe short stories, "The Masque of the Red Death" "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Purloined Letter"

I was very much in anticipation concerning "The Masque of the Red Death." From other readings, specifically the forward to the collection, I got the impression it was something remarkable and unforgettable. I was very, very disappointed. It was not even worthy a shudder to my modern desensitized sensibilities. I have been similarly disappointed in most of Poe's stories. We, as modern people, see so much violence and carnage on regularly braodcast television, not to mention the truly graphic horror flicks, that much of Poe doesn't reach me as I was expecting.

Then I was had my awe re-newed with "The Pit and the Pendulum." More than frightening (in the startled screaming sense) Poe's horror tends to illict a shudder and even groan in the back of my mind when his effects over-reach my punch-drunk senses. With his protagonists, I often wonder, "How much horror can one man take?"

From this story, I have now learned the word "viand." Looking it up was my etymology lesson for the day. And, like many others of Poe's words, his usage is somehwat different from what the dictionary says. By the way, I tried to use the word "poe" in scrabble once, based on my Zelda memories, and was very displeased to find out it isn't considered a word.

And then on to "The Purloined Letter." This is a very different type of Poe story, without even the horrific details of the tale's precursor, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (which I found isn't about a mortuary, by the way). It is a straight detective story, with much the feel of a Sherlock Holmes story. Arm-chair deductions, and unusual hiding places.

The shuddering reptitions of horrific experiences seen in "Pit/Pendulum" are seen again in Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, his book, as well as other stories.

Another favorite story I read was Loss of Breath, although generally all were good reads.

I have another collection of Poe stories I sought out to read. Apparently, Poe has some "Mark Twain" like humorist short stories, too, and these I am curious about.

do you know the word "pulchritudinous"?

I didn't until I ran across it recently. Well, I guess that's sorta the way all words are learned. "I didn't know about it until I knew about it!" Ha ha.

Anyway, it means "physically beautiful" (usually associated with female outward beauty) although I would think it could apply to waterfalls as well.

After I looked it up, I suspected there might be a derivative noun. At first I thought "pulchritudite" but it is really "pulchritude". There is also "pulchritudity" interestingly enough.

A quick (Safeseach off) google image search suggests that "pulchritudes" has become a sophisticated euphamism for soft-core artistic porn.

"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus!"

In The Venute Bros, an American animated television program (part of Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim")I learned about yesterday. Generally, I don't much like it for some esoteric reason I can't rightly explain, but I did however enjoy The Tick and Darkwing Duck back in the day. Then again, it's easy to give in to nostalgia and related fallacies. But then again, it is more, because I delight in Pixar's innocence but cringe at Shrek's base storytelling. Can I explain it? No. But for me it is very real.

It appears to have intentionally sub par animation, reminding me of Beevis and Butthead of yesteryear.

Henchman #21 screams "Semper fidelis tyrannosaurus!" ("Always faithful terrible lizard!") as he is dragged out of Dr. Killinger's room. As Killinger notes, #21 meant to say "Sic semper tyrannis" ("thus always to tyrants"), a phrase used by the murderers of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar in the 1599 William Shakespeare play of the same name as well as by John Wilkes Booth during the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.[24]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_Why_the_Caged_Bird_Kills





and, wow, I gotta finish watching this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdXtLigz2pU

Rabbits are fickle and have sex a lot

I am re-blogging this from Nariane, just because I feel like it.
http://signsoftheseason.blogspot.com/2010/10/rabbit-made-me-do-this.html

* 1. What is your favourite word?
I prefer not to prognosticate, although I will stay abreast of the issue, that is when I get off my fundament.


* 2. What is your least favourite word?
"Maybe later" comes to mind but that's two words.

* 3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

I'm inclined to be as honest as Nariane, but my answer would be most simply fun in its various forms, but especially from an unexpected direction.

* 4. What turns you off?
Mean people suck.

* 5. What is your favourite curse word?
Crud.

* 6. What sound or noise do you love?
Laughter, and especially innocent giggling. I might have some other answer, but Nariane's former one stuck in my head.

* 7. What sound or noise do you hate?

Hate is a very strong word. I would have to reserve that for extremely offensive language used in public with supreme disregard for other human beings. For instance, I'm not black, but when I hear someone casually use the "N-word" in public, I'm not a happy camper.

* 8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Hmm, Coast Guard. I am curious what I would have been doing during the Gulf Oil fiasco if I have used the Coast Guard to become a staff biologist, but now I'm too old. I have other answers, but those seem more like "fantasies" than real ideas.

* 9. What profession would you not like to do?
I don't want to ever wipe asses for a paycheck again!

* 10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Close enough.