Good evening, Netizens…

Who is this man? Obviously he is Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who went on a shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding countless others. However that nor any of the other facts surrounding Hasan’s life can explain why he acted as he did.

Yet this afternoon, reading in various places on the Internet I have heard him called a recent recruit to Muslim faith, a “sleeper” terrorist, perhaps part of a covert terrorist group intent upon more crimes, and the list of possibilities goes on and on. At least based upon what few facts we have about Hasan, perhaps none of the allegations are true. The FBI, Army military authorities and local and state police are still attempting to put together a cogent picture of what motivated Hasan, a psychiatrist, to “come unglued” and start killing people.

At present, on Friday evening, he is in a coma at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in critical condition.

What little we know is Hasan is an American born in Virginia of Palestinian parents. Hasan graduated from medical school at the Uniformed Services University in 2003, said Sharon K. Willis, speaking for the school.

He then entered a psychiatry residency program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which he completed in 2007. He returned to the university for the disaster and military psychiatry fellowship in 2007. The first phase of that fellowship is earning a master of public health degree, which he completed in 2008. He completed the fellowship program in June. A month later, Hasan reported for duty at Fort Hood.

There is a considerable amount of evidence, mostly from his neighbors in the apartment complex in which he lived, that he was a gentle, caring and kindly person who most viewed as a decent man.

If Hasan lives we may actually get some answers about what motivated the man. If he dies of his wounds we may never know what motivated him to kill some of the people he was sworn to help.

 

Dave

with Anu Garg
Photo Credit: Lee Valley Tools

spurtle

(SPUR-tl)

noun: A wooden stick for stirring porridge.

Of uncertain origin, perhaps from Latin spatula, or from sprit (a pole to extend a sail on a ship).

There’s a word for everything. And there’s a contest for everything. There is one for making porridge, grandly named, The Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship, held annually in Scotland.

“I know hardly anyone who eats anything much in the morning. … No one yet has owned up to stirring porridge with a spurtle, pouring milk over blocks of desiccated wheat, or even blasting a banana to a pulp in the blender.
Nigel Slater; Oat Cuisine; The Observer (London, UK); May 19, 2002.

Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it. -Agatha Christie, author (1890-1976)

Good afternoon, Netizens…

How can I say this succinctly enough? Electrical power, which went out in the downtown core this afternoon, has been restored.

Thus far no one seems to have a clue what caused the major outage, the second or perhaps third similar outage in the last 60 days.

Enough already!

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

As David Horsey points out, President Barack Obama may have an earful after the ballots are counted. Or maybe not, depending upon how much political joss can be derived by either the Democrats or the Republicans who successfully ran for election back East.

I have two schools of thought when it comes to post-election day news, which is probably why I didn’t have much to say about the election until it more or less was settled.

The first school observes that, at least in the Pacific Northwest, we nearly always have a tradition of holding election night parties in one of our favorite community bars, some of which last well into the night in tightly-contested elections. Based upon previous year elections, these occasions depend heavily upon a candidate winning in the ballots, for it they are not ahead in the ballot count, people tend to simply drift away to go somewhere else for their drinking. Since I staunchly abstain from drinking, I am about as embarrassing as a fat man at a foot race, since I am sober.

The other school, which the vast majority of citizens seem to favor, is simply sit transfixed in front of their televisions awaiting to hear which candidates and referendums won, and by how much, or even better, simply go to bed and await the morning news the next day after the ballots are counted. This is particularly true in the midst of this Recession, when some folks do not even have jobs and can no longer afford a trip across town to celebrate or cheer their candidates onward.

Initiative 1033, one of the most-hotly contested issues on the ballot, yet another test of Tim Eyman’s will versus that of the voters, seems certain to be headed to defeat. The voters will have to live with the free-wheeling spending habits of State Government, which may or may not be a good thing in the year of huge budget deficits and national recession.

Of course, if you take the tentative defeat of 1033 in stock, you might also contemplate the race between Mike Fagan and Amber Waldref for City Council District #1. I wondered from the beginning how many voters noticed the relationship between Fagan and Tim Eyman, and would vote accordingly. Now that Amber has cleaned Fagan’s clock, it will be interesting to watch the City Council as she assumes Al French’s former City Council seat. All I ever have asked of voters is that intelligent informed voters need fill out their ballots; everyone else need not apply. With slightly more than 50% of the registered voters casting their ballots, perhaps that happened this time.

Having spoken, I will only comment that I fully support Referendum #71. It is time we got the government out of our relationships, married or otherwise, and it appears to be winning. Now watch. Someone on the religious right will unquestionably sue to overturn or alter its intent.

As for the ballyhoo about President Obama and the purported effects of Republican wins in New Jersey and Virginia, I question the importance of their wins. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Dave

with Anu Garg

lentiginous

(len-TIJ-uh-nuhs)

adjective: Covered with freckles.

From Latin lentiginosus (freckled), from lentigo (freckle), from lens (lentil).

“I realised that my freckly Celtic complexion wasn’t a curse I had to endure for life, and my offensively lentiginous skin could be smoothed into picture-perfect ivory.”
Simon Price; Cover-up, Powder and Eyeliner; The Guardian (London, UK); Dec 14, 2002.

Explore “lentiginous” in the Visual Thesaurus.

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals. -Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)

Good morning, Netizens…

In the dead calm of pre-dawn darkness I sit contemplating the advent of the holiday shopping season which, this year, appears to be arriving much sooner than the day after Thanksgiving. That bastion of consumer enlightenment, Santa Claus, normally arrives the Day after Thanksgiving, what is termed “Black Friday”, complete with his visits to the malls, lots of tiny reindeer both real and not-so-real, and of course, the pronouncements of Christmas sales. This insanity continues unabated from Black Friday until finally, exhausted and broke, the intrepid Christmas shoppers finally reel home and fall down. Somewhere in there we pause unctuously to observe Thanksgiving Day and sometimes Christmas.

Not only do I have a serious problem with huge, sweaty crowds jamming against one another looking for that perfect Christmas bargain, but I also deeply loathe the commercialization of two such very important holidays. I’ve muttered deeply to myself about this manifestation of so-called holiday spirit in the past, even predicted a time or two that eventually we would hear Christmas Carols rumbling forth from the airwaves by (gasp!) the Fourth of July which is already happening, yet another holiday that has been marginalized by commercial advertising.

For a nation so deeply-steeped in patriotism, which is what we purport to be, it strikes me as nauseating that we get all warm and fuzzy about our Veterans of War whenever it is convenient, a diuretic to our broken moral values or simply because it is a federal holiday. The rest of the year we forget the wounded and dead scattered over several foreign countries, which is about how I would term the nearest Veterans Administration Hospital where some of the less-fortunate veterans end up. For the most part, the VA is nothing more than an extension of wars and rumors of wars, bereft of the clinical doctors and nurses who perhaps lovingly tend the ill and wounded. Yeah, sure, as my friends might say.

Has it ever dawned on anyone that holidays aren’t what they used to be? We can rearrange them on the calendar whenever we want them, and we haven’t even begun to tap dance on the implications and realities of materialism yet.

Why bother?

Why don’t we just have half a dozen or so shopping holidays each year for the hell of it. Close all public business and declare federal shopping holidays; stop fooling ourselves with all this piety and garbage about doing our part for the national economy? We could spread the economic wealth around that way, don’t you know? The merchants would love it, and those of us who still observe and revere the holidays for what they really are could sit quietly in the corners of society, nodding our heads to no one in particular, and muttering about how it once was.

I remember standing in frigid wind watching veterans solemnly marching down the street, I remember the big harvests that always preceded Thanksgiving Day but most of all, I remember the Star in the East that used to rise above the mountains on Christmas Eve. A long, long time ago, I remember two giant work horses with sleigh bells on their harnesses plodding their way across the snow-covered fields.

But I don’t remember what I bought my wife last Christmas.

Dave

with Anu Garg

daymare

(DAY-mayr)

noun: A terrifying experience, similar to a nightmare, felt while awake.

Coined after nightmare, from a combination of day + mare (an evil spirit believed to produce nightmares). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mer- (to rub away or to harm) that is also the source of mordant, amaranth, morbid, mortal, mortgage, ambrosia, and nightmare.

“Reports like these give me a deep and sickening feeling, somewhere between a daymare and deja vu.”
Margaret McCartney; A Swiss Cheese Method to Eliminate Fatal Errors; Financial Times (London, UK); Feb 18, 2006.

The truth is that every morning war is declared afresh. And the men who wish to continue it are as guilty as the men who began it, more guilty perhaps, for the latter perhaps did not foresee all its horrors. -Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)

Good morning, Netizens…

Let us approach the issue of Boeing opening its newest plant in South Carolina with delicacy, shall we? That isn’t to say that cartoonist David Horsey has done so with today’s cartoon, not hardly at all.

A poet once observed that a little competition is good for everyone, and perhaps this could be made to apply to Boeing in Seattle. I believe the Unions in Seattle have become complacent and so set in their ways over the years, which the unions have profited handsomely, that they strike back against anyone wishing to take a little piece of their pie.

On the other hand, in these somewhat desperate times, it doesn’t make sense to be exporting jobs from Washington State to South Carolina, does it? Of course, if you live in South Carolina, there probably people out dancing in the streets upon hearing that so many new jobs are arriving soon.

Of course, this all could be David Horsey playing to the choir, couldn’t it?

I guess it all depends upon your position.

Dave

with Anu Garg

Little strokes make a letter and those letters come together to form words. We assign meanings to the words. Often they express simple ideas: a tree, a rock, water, and so on. Sometimes a word describes a more complex idea.

Have you ever found yourself wondering, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a word for it?” Well, there is a word for almost everything under the sun. This week we have dug up five words you may not have known existed.

acnestis

(AK-nist-uhs)

noun: The part of the body where one cannot reach to scratch.

From Greek aknestis (spine), from Ancient Greek knestis (spine, cheese-grater).

“In what has to be the longest post-election season in living memory, the last five months have felt like an acnestis upon our collective soul; like that little patch of skin on our backs that we just can’t reach to scratch ourselves. It’s irritating. It’s annoying. It’s left us reaching and spinning around in circles.”
A Wish List to Soothe Our Collective Itch; New Straits Times (Malaysia); Aug 5, 2008.

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Good morning, Netizens…

David Horsey takes a close look at what would happen if Barak Obama and some friends were to go trick-or-treating at Glenn Beck’s house with what some might observe to be predictable results. Of course this is only a cartoon. Can you imagine what would happen if the same intrepid trio were to visit Rush Limbaugh’s real-life house in costume?

One has only to wonder at whether or not Bush or Limbaugh has the nerve to return the favor, ie., show up at the East Portal of the White House in costume. Can you imagine a weary set of Secret Service officers looking at a pair of unknown trick-or-treaters in costumes at the White House? Gee, I cannot help but wonder what treats they might find in their bags, should such an improbable event ever take place.

Of course there has to be an unspoken set of Secret Service rules to prohibit such a fanciful Halloween from ever taking place, much the same as Beck and Limbaugh probably do not allow trick-or-treaters, regardless of who they say they are in real life.

However, I’ll bet all of us commoners see a lot of faux Barak Obamas tonight.

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

Here are a few important (and unimportant) holidays this month of October 2009 which you might or might not have heard of much less missed:

• Adopt a Shelter Dog Month

Yes, by all means help America’s animal shelters by adopting a shelter dog. Then you will possibly have a use for all those old newspapers piled in the hall closet.

• American Pharmacist Month

Do you have a personal one-on-one relationship with your pharmacist?

• Apple Jack Month

I am fond of telling about my history, including Apple Jack, so it makes sense to me we should have a month about it. Of course, since my granddad’s Apple Jack was notoriously delightful, people often dropped by unannounced to surreptitiously steal free samples, which is when he began making pear jack, which is a speedy and very strong replacement for Ex lax.

• Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Why not instead simply have a Breast Cancer awareness Day every day?

• Clergy Appreciation Month

In October we are supposed to appreciate our clergy, then at the end of the month we spend an estimated $6.9 billion celebrating Halloween, werewolves and other dead devices?

• Computer Learning Month

I still have a hard time accepting the number of people who own, operate and seemingly understand computers who know little to nothing about them or the software they use.

• Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Here’s another month-long observation that needs to be made into a daily observation.

• Eat Country Ham Month

Of course, without truly understanding the difference between a country ham and an urban ham (except the urban ham gets more laughs during stand-up comedy shows) I submit that most people wouldn’t know the difference between a country ham and any other brand of ham.

• International Drum Month

I personally believe there isn’t a lot of difference between buying your child a drum for Christmas or a pregnant cat.

• Lupus Awareness Month

Over 1.4 million people have and suffer with lupus. The rest of us probably have little knowledge of what it is, save that it HURTS like hell.

• National Diabetes, Cookie, Pizza and Popcorn Popping Month

Is there a common factor between these? Perhaps, but at least we only have one celebration of chocolate, and it’s only one day of the year. If you are going to beat diabetes, get used to not eating the things you love or else change what you crave. Yes m’dear, they do have sugar-free chocolate.

And of course, there is National Vegetarian Month, Sarcastic Month and Seafood Month in the Month of October. However, you can be grateful that tomorrow, November 1, we have a whole new month of unseen holidays (some of us never heard of) to celebrate.

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

[Portions from the AP news wire and AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen, Ap Entertainment Writer – Thu Oct 29, 10:55 pm ET]

with Anu Garg

draconian

(dray-KO-nee-uhn, druh-)

adjective: Unusually harsh.

After Draco (late 7th century BCE), Athenian legislator, noted for the harshness of his code of laws.

Under Draco’s laws even trivial offenses, such as idleness, brought capital punishment. When asked why he had instituted the death penalty for most offenses, he supposedly replied that the lesser crimes deserved it and he knew of no greater punishment for more important ones. Could it be an example of an aptronym (in Greek his name means dragon)? His laws were said to be written in blood instead of ink.

When it comes to lawmaking, the name of one of Draco’s successors has entered the language in an opposite sense. The Athenian lawmaker Solon’s reform to make Draco’s laws humane earned him a place in the dictionary as an eponym meaning “a wise lawgiver”. It was Solon who said: Laws are the spider’s webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape.

“The ‘criminalization of any criticism’ of General Musharraf, his regime, and other state functionaries was an unprecedented draconian measure against the freedom of speech.”
17 Retired Judges Want Revival of Constitution; Daily Times (Lahore, Pakistan); Nov 28, 2007.

Explore “draconian” in the Visual Thesaurus.

The tragedy of modern war is not so much that young men die but that they die fighting each other, instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

Good morning Netizens…

Here is an anonymous note I received this morning (although various suspects do come to mind)

I will seek and find you.

I shall take you to bed and have my way with you.

I will make you ache, shake & sweat until you moan & groan.

I will make you beg for

  mercy, beg for me to stop.

I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I’m finished
with you.

And, when I am finished, you will be weak for days..

All my love,

The Flu

Now get your mind out of the gutter and go get your flu shot!

Good morning, Netizens…

If you thought to yourselves that the picture might possibly be a bit over the edge, you know for a fact your cat(s) are sneaking up on you when any of the following takes place:

1. You receive an e-mail message from UR.CAT informing you, among other things, that the cat food sucks, the kitty litter needs changing and the couch or sofa is no longer off-limits to cats.

2. You inadvertently intercept a bill (which was paid online using your credit cards) for a new deluxe cat tree and a set of designer cat toys. Suddenly your cat is looking rather smug.

3. If you cats are not fixed or neutered (shame on you) be alert for signs your cat is spending an inordinate amount of time on online dating services for cats, even the X-rated kind.

4. Ever heard of http://www.stepsforpets.com/?gclid=CMPSmu614p0CFSZdagodqShVNQ before? The cats know about it and are shopping early for Christmas. 

You have been warned.

Dave

with Anu Garg

Machiavellian

(mak-ee-uh-VEL-ee-uhn)

adjective: Characterized by cunning, deception, and expediency.

After Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Florentine statesman and author of The Prince, a political treatise describing use of craft and deceit to achieve political power.

“Rumours of Machiavellian plots and conspiracy theories have permeated the period of mourning.”
Darryl Broadfoot; Mitchell: End the Revisionism; The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland); Nov 23, 2007.

Explore “machiavellian” in the Visual Thesaurus.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

Good morning, Netizens…

There have been times in my life which always stand out above other memories, and perhaps the glowing memories of my incredible friends are among the best memories that feed me, console me and keep me warm in cold times. This morning, I received one friend back safely from her trip to Disney World, and word of an old friend, Art Cline, who for a time has been simply listed as missing in action, who once played an important role in my life. Wouldn’t you know it that Jeanie of Spokane brought Art back into my fold of friends after he retired to Florida?

I admit freely I was fearful for Jeanie when she left for Disney World. She was recently inducted into the macabre otherworldly experience of kidney dialysis, and the thought of entrusting her beauty and consciousness to strangers in a far-off state with her health care scared the Bejesus out of me. So many things could go wrong, so many different ways she could encounter problems with her dialysis, and for a time she was so frail that I simply worried. I have a license to sleep with my wife each night and a learner’s permit to worry.

What I didn’t know was that an old friend and one of my personal counselors, Art Cline, was staying with Jeanie, sleeping on the couch in a condo full of women (boy, doesn’t that sound salacious?), and each morning rising at 5:00 AM to escort Jeanie to her dialysis program, where he waited until she was done, then escorting her safely to the Disney World. While there is perhaps more to this story than I am being told, nonetheless despite Art’s having already won the Congressional Medal of Honor as a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam, they should now give him another award for service and honor to Jeanie.

I am so glad to have Jeanie back in our midst, that when I heard about Art I sat here and bawled because I am a sentimental old poop, and because, if I had it in my means to do so, I would have done what he did. There are facts and then there are myths and legends. Legend has it that Art single-handedly fought off the evil of the world and sent Jeanie safely back home to us and then left her in tears as he walked back out the door of life.

Jeanie, my God, but you have been missed! Welcome home!

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

Ah, the federal debt. David Horsey shows a lifelike rendition of what it must feel like to be our ostensible founder and guardian, Uncle Sam, sitting beneath the incredible weight of our national debt. He makes a point of bringing former President Bill Clinton into the argument, while totally ignoring both former President Bushes, who perhaps bear a considerable responsibility for our having such a debt on our backs.

The unspoken question, left untouched by David Horsey, is how much does such a huge debt have on our personal lives?

In an aside, is there any truth to the Internet rumor that some morning we will awake and most of our country will be owned by the Chinese or Japanese? For that matter, might the South Koreans even have dibs on most of our infrastructure?

I remember the history of television sets older than my granddaughters. Hallicrafters, RCA Victor and Sylvania to name just a few of the names of old TV’s and radios back when. They worked like workhorses, had tubes you could replace and still are in use in some backwoods areas of the country even today. Modern kids want Eurasian equipment, such as Aiwa, Sony, Panasonic and the list is long. If they die, you throw them into the nearest landfill and start over.

Before someone rises up to remind me how little our national purchasing habits have to do with our National Debt, our government is spending money we do not have, just as some Americans are spending more than they possess.

That debt is overwhelming. Of course, your opinions may differ.

Dave

with Anu Garg

Manichean or Manichaean

(man-i-KEE-uhn)

adjective: Of or relating to a dualistic view of the world, dividing things into either good or evil, light or dark, black or white, involving no shades of gray.

After Manes/Mani (216-276 CE), Persian founder of Manichaeism, an ancient religion espousing a doctrine of a struggle between good and evil.

“The most crucial feature of neoconservatism is its Manichean worldview, wherein the Earth is pitted in an urgent struggle between purely good and purely evil nations. As George W. Bush famously told then Sen. Joe Biden: ‘I don’t do nuance.’”
Jacob Bronsther; What Do Neocons Have to Do With Obama?; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Sep 29, 2009.

“Here the schema is too obvious, and its Manichaean contrasts of dark/light, good/evil don’t resonate beyond the special effects that deliver them.”
Judith Mackrell; Wind Shadow; Guardian (London, UK); Oct 7, 2009.

Explore “manichean” in the Visual Thesaurus.

If I could be sure of doing with my books as much as my [doctor] father did for the sick! -Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)

Good morning, Netizens…

Now that President Obama has declared Swine Flu an emergency priority, here are some things our government might do to prepare us for the coming Apocalypse.

Ban all pig feed lots, mud bogs and other places where pigs do those gross and nasty things that pigs do while smacking their porcine lips and leering speculatively at you through their white eyelashes.

Warn nation’s children to stay away from all swine, either two-legged or four-legged, but especially the latter.

If your ham hocks become infected during dinner, build a tall wall of mashed potatoes to prevent contamination of your peas.

Distribute both real flu shots to all government employees and Fortune 500 employees. Everyone else can stand in lines and wait until more shots are available or die waiting.

Check all pig visas to see if they have been traveling to other countries. They don’t have a visa? Tell them to get a Master Card or else deport them.

Remind citizens that the swine flu emergency gives you the perfect excuse to ignore relative’s requests for a Thanksgiving or Christmas get-togethers.

Create a high-level government cooperative involving all aspects of the federal government in case the crap really hits the fan.

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

Some considerable rattle, hue and noise is being raised about Hot Mormon Muffins Calendar (http://hotmormonmuffins.com/) both from within the vast Mormon Church and in the news media as well. This tasteful but tongue-in-cheek calendar features Mormon Women in what Mormons Exposed, the calendar designers, describe as a controversial but informational look at Mormon women.

These are not sultry, nor even cheesecake photographs of women, Mormon or otherwise. They are tastefully done, and all for a good cause, as all money raised by the organization goes to combat breast cancer. It you are curious enough to do so, take a close and perhaps introspective look at the women who appear on the calendar at http://hotmormonmuffins.com/meet.php and perhaps you will see they are, for the most part, attractive, well-educated mothers and Mormons to the core.

Promoted by the organization Mormons Exposed, this all began as another calendar, Men on a Mission Calendar (http://mormonsexposed.com/) which featured male Mormon missionaries posing bare-chested, which is controversial enough by itself. If you have ever wondered how it feels to actually serve as missionaries on foreign soils some of their brief comments about life in foreign countries are illuminating and very educational.

Last year, a dustup over the calendar ultimately cost its creator, Las Vegas entrepreneur Chad Hardy, his membership in the church and his diploma from the church-owned Brigham Young University. I didn’t know you could take away a college degree for moral turpitude, but then welcome to Brigham Young.

Both calendars strive, I believe, attempt to depict another view of Mormon men and women, one largely free of some of the rigid adherence to Mormon stereotypes, all done with good taste and a sense of humor.

Dave

with Anu Garg
Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Orwellian

(or-WEL-ee-uhn)

adjective: Of or relating to a totalitarian state in which citizens’ activities are tightly controlled.

After George Orwell, pen name of Eric Blair (1903-1950), whose novel Nineteen Eighty-Four depicted a futuristic totalitarian state. Also see Big Brother.

“Military satellites designed to guide nuclear missiles are being used to monitor prison parolees and probationers in a technological advance designed to reduce the nation’s skyrocketing prison population. But critics say it also raises the specter of an Orwellian future.”
Gary Fields; Satellite ‘Big Brother’ Eyes Parolees; USA Today; Apr 8, 1999.

“The [remote deletion by Amazon of Orwell’s books from customers’ ebook devices] prompted widespread criticism from Amazon customers, rights advocates, and bloggers, on whom the Orwellian nature of Amazon’s actions were not lost.”
Thomas Claburn; Amazon Settles Kindle Deletion Lawsuit For $150,000; InformationWeek (New York); Oct 2, 2009.

Explore “orwellian” in the Visual Thesaurus.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. -Richard Dawkins, biologist and author (b. 1941)

Good morning, Netizens…

Here’s an idea from the Associated Press Wire we in Spokane might put to good use.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Registered sex offenders in a northern Alabama city won’t have a hard time making Halloween plans.

They’re expected to attend a mandatory meeting hosted by state and federal probation officers next Saturday from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

That conveniently falls in the time most children in Huntsville will be out trick-or-treating.

The Huntsville Times reports that the educational program will review both state and federal sex offenders laws. It’s meant to encourage accountability and behavior changes in the offenders.

Accountability? Behavior change? What a novel concept for convicted sex offenders and predators in Spokane! Of course, my built-in distrust of the system makes me wonder if the ACLU might not step in and cry such an arrangement was a violation of the predator’s civil liberties. After all, they have completed their prison sentences and are no longer a threat to society’s children, right?

On the other hand, if we organized a mandatory meeting for all sexual predators in Spokane on Halloween, all under the aegis of an educational program, perhaps the sheer number of convicted predators that might show up might scare the bejesus out of parents throughout the Spokane region into sending predators a strong warning note.

WARNING! Spokane is a do-not-molest zone. The rights of our kids are more important to us than your civil liberties.

Dave

with Anu Garg
Photo Credit: Wikipedia

“Proper names that have become improper and uncommonly common” is how the author Willard R. Espy described eponyms, and that is the theme for this week’s words in AWAD: words coined after people’s names.

We are going to meet a poet, a novelist, a prophet, a statesman, and a legislator. They wrote poems, novels, holy books, political treatises, and laws.

In our quest for eponyms, we are going to visit England, Persia, Italy, and Greece. All aboard!

Byronic

(by-RON-ik)

adjective: One who is melancholic, passionate, and melodramatic, and disregards societal norms.

After poet Lord Byron (1788-1824), who displayed such characteristics, as did his poetry, i.e. a flawed character marked by great passion who exhibits disrespect for social institutions and is self-destructive.

A little-known fact: He was the father of Ada Lovelace, today known as the first computer programmer, who wrote programs for Charles Babbage’s analytical engine.

“Zenovich casts [movie director Roman] Polanski, whose face repeatedly fills the screen with a Byronic luminosity, as a tragic figure, a child survivor of the Holocaust haunted by the murder of his wife, the actress Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson family.”
Bill Wyman; Whitewashing Roman Polanski; Salon (New York); Feb 19, 2009.

“Laurie may have his pet theories as to why [Gregory] House-the-character has become a cult — the damaged, Byronic genius/healer who can say the unsayable and (almost always) get away with it.”
Stuart Husband; Hugh Laurie Interview; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jun 3, 2009.

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts. -Khalil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

Good morning, Netizens…

If you truly are an aficionado of music, not just a person who limits themselves to just one genre or another, the news late yesterday that Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer might hit you like a brick aside your head.

Well known around the world for such hits as “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Cats”, Phantom of the Opera”, and “Evita,” has won seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. In 2006, he was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor. Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and named to Britain’s House of Lords in 1997.

According to his publicist, Webber is in the early stages of cancer and, as such, is likely to recover and return to work by years’ end.

His latest creation, called “Love Never Dies”, a sequel to his musical “Phantom of the Opera”, is slated to begin on Broadway in the New Year.

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

Photo Credit:

This colorful fall canopy above a Portland-area pedestrian is a familiar sight this time of year, given that we have so many parks, each filled with a full spectrum of colors of the autumn palette. There is something that promotes introspection when one is shuffling through piles of leaves in the various parks, as we once again make the turn from late summer to fall, and heading toward winter.

Although we have many projects pending like invisible swords of Damocles that are hanging over our heads, natty little business projects that have been hanging around undone for months, still the thought of wandering around the countryside gamboling among the fallen leaves, voyaging through our introspections, is a tempting morsel.

[Fading toward the early afternoon] Now that we have our power restored (another of Avista’s unexplained outages) and the incessant screaming of the UPS’s singing like a mad chorus of raunchy jaybirds, it is time to be about business for awhile.

What are you doing today, this absolutely beautiful fall day? Are you introspective?

Dave

Good morning, Netizens…

THANK GAWD IT’S FRIDAY!

Those of you who faithfully study the Word A Day listings that appears each day may have noticed there was no word yesterday, but today we have two words. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps a bolt slipped off one of the gimcracks that hold the Internet together late yesterday, but nobody thought to sound the alarm around the Virtual Ballroom.

Have you had the flu yet? No, not just the N1H1 variety, because if you had that your odds of ending up hopelessly hopeless in your choice of hospitals would have dramatically increased. Everyone is talking about the N1H1 virus, calling it a pandemic and various other hysterical-sounding descriptive adjectives, but for the majority of people who have caught it, it feels little more than any other flu virus. However, for some, particularly the young children, you end up dead. Despite what the news media are telling us, they do not have enough flu shots to go around, despite what everyone was told several months ago. I am already sick— of hearing the endless list of self-appointed medical professionals who have been giving interviews to members of the news media, and the nearly-equally brainless news representatives who have been rhapsodizing like a band of starlings about it.

This morning at about 8:00 AM Marty, Steve Thompson and myself are meeting for breakfast at our favorite place. I was thinking of wearing one of those surgical masks that have become the latest rage in parts of the world, but then I wouldn’t be able to feed my face, now would I?

In other news, the comedian Soupy Sales passed away. I vaguely wondered in the back of my mind how many readers even remember his name or his once-familiar version of slapstick comedy. If you did not remember him you can see a younger version of him at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP1_F9zEF7o which just goes to show you if you can’t find anyone, they’re probably on You Tube somewhere.

Dave

with Anu Garg

gimcrack

(JIM-krak)

noun: Something cheap and showy, of little use.
adjective: Showy, but worthless.

Of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Middle English gibecrake (small ornament), possibly from Old French giber (to shake).

“Uncle Rabid Prophet TechEye has worshiped more gimcrack bits of junk and practiced more half-baked religions than all of Hollywood combined.”
Bow Down And Open Your Wallet; Warsaw Business Journal (Poland); Aug 21, 2006.

Explore “gimcrack” in the Visual Thesaurus.

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. -William G. McAdoo, lawyer and politician (1863-1941)

with Anu Garg

encomium

(en-KO-mee-uhm)

noun: Glowing praise.

From Latin encomium, from Greek enkomion, from komos (revel).

“The speech cheered the faithful no end, as did Sarah Brown’s smooth and skilful introduction of her husband. Yet though her encomium went down well with the party, it nauseated many television viewers.”
Ruth Dudley Edwards; Why Mrs Brown Should Have Skipped the Heroics; Irish Independent (Dublin); Oct 4, 2009.

Explore “encomium” in the Visual Thesaurus.

One law for the lion and ox is oppression. -William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827)

Good evening, Netizens…

David Horsey has taken on Tim Eyman, and frankly, I am uncertain if Eyman is quite the glinty-eyed ogre that David Horsey would make him out to be.

On the other hand, I am no fuzzy and warm fan of Tim Eyman, although I have a certain degree of sympathy for many of the Initiatives he has either successfully put or attempted to put on the ballot. I admit freely and openly a great deal of misgivings about one of his most-current efforts, I-1033.

However, in case you haven’t read the entire document, I recommend you read http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/text/i1033.pdf the complete initiative. On second thought, at least speaking for myself, read it through twice. There is a lot of bureaucratic double-talk present, which is nearly always true of our beloved State Government, and by association, Tim Eyman.

If I were to summarize I-1033 in a simple sentence, I would probably say that, at the expense of various state government programs that are dependent upon property tax levies for their source(s) of funding, what this initiative does is put a spending cap or limitation on the amount of additional property taxes that can be added each year. It is true that, if I-1033 passes, there are a lot of state programs that will need to find additional source(s) of funding, and pretty quickly at that.

This does not prohibit any additional new property taxes. What it states plainly is that if additional property taxes are needed or wanted above the reasonable limits it sets forth, the voters can approve the additional funding as it becomes necessary. I may not have the precise terminology down pat, but at least from what I understand of I-1033, at least now I can see why schools and other tax-dependent organizations have been flooding the airwaves in opposition to I-1033.

Dave