October 31, 2006 - Wan

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!


So I've fallen too far behind to keep pushing off more until I can catch up, so I'll start from today and backfill when possible.

Wan \WAHN\, adjective:
1. Having a pale or sickly hue; pale; pallid.
2. Lacking vitality, as from weariness, illness, or unhappiness; feeble.
3. Lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble.

She was concerned about her grandson's wan appearance. "So skinny," she would say in Yiddish, "such a plucked little owl."
-- Herbert G. Goldman, Banjo Eyes

Her pale, pinched lips, sunken eyes and wan, haggard cheeks presented a mournful contrast to her former self.
-- Wilkie Collins, Iolani

. . .some wan heroine in a Gothic romance, keening over a faithless lover, trembling before a murderous stalker, falling into the arms of her rescuers.
-- Marilyn Stasio, review of Final Jeopardy by Linda Fairstein, New York Times, July 28, 1996

Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day.
-- Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Wan is from Old English wann, "gloomy, dark."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for wan

Wan should come up with a lot (although I keep thinking of Wide Area Network).

God I love geeks with a camera!



Use the link, young Padawan

Still working on catch-up, but in the meantime...

Does this mean I have to change the name of the blog to GooTube of the Day? Maybe, they'll call it Toobgle?

And now, your creepy 'Hoff Moment of the Day:



Link in my Car!

Shame

It's been nearly two weeks since my last post. I'm sorry for that. It's not like anyone but Mrs. Bixby (Not Her Real Name) reads this, but others may later. I'm still sorry.

It's been a very difficult last few weeks. I could go over the litany of excuses (work, family, moving to a new place and throwing a three-year-old's birthday party one week later - today - and a non-recoverable computer crash) but who wants to hear that?

Instead, how about a funny youtube movie until I can catch up on TubeoftheDay?

This one is for the boys. Ladies, if you don't get this, you're not supposed to. Gentlemen, now that you know them, follow the rules.



Always wash your hands after you link

September 28, 2006 - Aesthete

Aesthete \ES-theet\, noun:
One having or affecting great sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature.

Beijing, with its stolid, square buildings and wide, straight roads, feels like the plan of a first-year engineering student, while Shanghai's decorative architecture and snaking, narrow roads feel like the plan of an aesthete.
-- "Sky's the Limit in Shanghai", Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1999

But he was also an aesthete with a connoisseur's eye for the wild modernist innovations with letterforms and layout of the 1920s.
-- Rick Poynor, "Herbert Spencer", The Guardian, March 15, 2002

Where the standard Oxford aesthete of the 1920s had been showily dissipated, full of wild talk about decadence and beauty, Auden was preaching a new gospel of icy austerity and self-control.
-- Ian Hamilton, Against Oblivion

Aesthete is from Greek aisthetes, "one who perceives," from aisthanesthai, "to perceive."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for aesthete

Nothing deserves an arty youTube video more than the word Aesthete.



The beauty is in the link.

September 27, 2006 - Fulsome

Fulsome \FUL-sum\, adjective:
1. Offensive to the taste or sensibilities.
2. Insincere or excessively lavish; especially, offensive from excess of praise.

He recorded the event in his journal: "Long evening visit from Mr. Langtree--a fulsome flatterer."
-- Edward L. Widmer, Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City

Concealed disgust under the appearance of fulsome endearment.
-- Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World

Fulsome is from Middle English fulsom, from full + -som, "-some."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for fulsome


He shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die - and because the man took his candy.



Because you're mine, he walks the link!

September 26, 2006 - Ostensible

Ostensible \ah-STEN-suh-bul\, adjective:
Represented or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.

The credibility of the energy-trading sector has been severely damaged by disclosures of sham transactions in energy trading, designed to build up ostensible sales and profits and therefore share prices of the trading companies.
-- James Flanigan, "Dynegy CEO Quits as Probe of Sham Trades Intensifies", Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2002

Aspects of environmentalism have long been criticized as using ostensible concerns about nature to serve private purposes such as property values.
-- Gregg Easterbrook, "The case for sprawl", The New Republic, March 15, 1999

After an epidemic of yellow fever in 1798, in which coffins had been sold by itinerant vendors on street corners, Burr established the Manhattan Company, with the ostensible aim of bringing clean water to the city from the Bronx River but in fact designed as a front for the creation of New York's second bank, rivalling Hamilton's Bank of New York.
-- "Soaking the poor", The Economist, March 16, 2000

We might define play as pleasurable activity in which the means is more important than the ostensible end.
-- Karl Meninger, Love Against Hate

Ostensible comes from Medieval Latin ostensibilis, from the Latin verb ostendere, "to show," and is related to ostentatious, "showy."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for ostensible

Beware Dairy Madness!!!



This Link could happen to you too!

September 25, 2006 - Militate

Militate \MIL-ih-tayt\, intransitive verb:
To have force or influence.

In our current era of politics, many factors militate against changes in policies.
-- Reed Hundt, You Say You Want a Revolution

Even though Simpson's youth, limited professional experience, lack of reputation, unmarried status, and modest social origins all militated against success, the twenty-eight-year-old Simpson applied for the post.
-- Donald Caton, What a Blessing She Had Chloroform

By 2003 many of the uncertainties which militate against a "yes" might be resolved.
-- Anatole Kaletsky, "Why Brown is right to put off the euro test", Times (London), June 21, 2001

Militate comes from Latin militatus, past participle of militare, "to serve as a soldier," from miles, milit-, "a soldier."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for militate

YouTube is reading militate as militant. Thank goodness. I'll find something that way.

His American accent needs some work, but it probably sounds real enough to these English folks. His Jesse Jackson-esque Rhymin is top-notch though!



Power to the Link!