Word of the Day: floccinaucinihilipilificate

floccinaucinihilipilificate (v) (say it 10 times fast)

To judge something to be worthless.

"...floccinaucinihilipilificate and/or shut up and die like an aviator and/or do a thelma and louise ending and/or work out your own salvation..."
--Darren Wershler-Henry, Tapeworm Foundry

Is there anything as worthless as a penny? I don't know why I keep jars full of them. I don't know why I pick them up off the sidewalk. They aren't even made of pure copper anymore, because that would make each one worth more than one cent, and people would melt them down, though the juice wouldn't be worth the effort to squeeze, if you ask me. (Now they're mostly made of zinc, which is itself pretty worthless, unless you have a cold. I wonder if sucking on a penny would be as effective as sucking on a zinc lozenge.) Someone suggested they could be used as as a training tool for Jedi to practice lightsaber deflection. And I suppose you could spin them on the table at the diner for amusement while waiting for your tuna melt to arrive.

'How to Speak Hip'

How to Speak Hip

"Relax, cat, me and this other guy are going to help you out."

"Any declarative sentence can begin with 'like' and end with 'man'."

"You dig?"

Quote of the Day: Snowfall

"Change is one of the great things about snow. It has the same effect as Mardi Gras or Carnival. It is time-out from the ordinary. Like dressing up and dancing in the street, the snowed-on world is not simply the regular world with a covering over it, it is somewhere newly made and unknown, all familiarity erased into whiteness. And none of the every day rules apply. There are special dispensations -- you may not be able to go to school or work; if you do, there's nothing regular about it, everything is late, teachers don't arrive, appointments aren't kept, the ineluctable timetable of the day is suddenly eluctable."
--Jenny Diski

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Way I Feel

Looking forward to seeing Notorious and The Third Man at the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre this Saturday.... Riding in a commuter van tonight, the windows were so heavily tinted that I missed my stop. Couldn't see a thing; there might as well not have been any windows. Finally got off when I saw something familiar though the windshield, but I had a long walk back to my block. Felt annoyed, but at least it wasn't raining. I actually prefer to walk to and from from the train station at Journal Square, but I only do that when (1.) the temperature is above freezing and (2.) it isn't raining or snowing. I think I can count the days like that this winter on one hand.... Listening to the audiobook Black Wings Has My Angel, which is a guilty pleasure -- an old noir classic. Still can't figure out why the author chose that title, though. Maybe the answer is at the end.... Speaking of answers at the end, I guess that's what Lost is moving toward. I don't see, yet, how it can be anything but a letdown, or at least an anti-climax. Feel nervous about that, having invested so much time, but maybe I'll be surprised. Hope the last episode is a mind-blower, a la Twin Peaks.... More mean Mommy Nature coming. Feel stoical....

Lost Her Head

My living room is becoming more and more surreal. My wyfe brought home this antique wheelchair from a hospital auction a couple of years ago, and a couple of days ago, she brought home this mannequin -- with some spare parts, but no head (although we also have a disembodied mannequin head or two around here). Click it, above or below, for closer inspection. You know you want to.

Word of the Day: ingurgitate

ingurgitate (v)

To gulp or swallow greedily.

"I was beginning to think that my taste-buds had been ruined by the horrors I've had to ingurgitate during the Siege....Incidentally, did I ever tell you of the book I want to write about taste?"
--Robert Baldick, Dinner at Magny's

We have a bird feeder hanging from the apple tree in our back yard. The free food has attracted flocks of small, ravenous birds (chickadees and sparrows, I think), as well as the occasional red cardinal and blue jay. They literally fight over the seeds, and ingurgitate so fast that they end up dropping a lot of them onto the ground, where fat squirrels scarf them up. It's quite a pig-out session, until the neighbor's cat strolls through the yard; then they all scatter until he/she leaves. I wish I had a video camera and could capture these wildlife vignettes. To me, it's more entertaining and edifying than, say, Jersey Shore.

Machine-Age Mandalas

Rings 'n' Things: Bike Works NYC Chainring Archive

Round and round and round it goes, and where it stops, nobody knows.

I haven't ridden a bike in a couple of years. Looking at this site makes me want to again. Hurry up, spring.

Brain Dump

Instructions:

Force a joking frog into launching fake gold ingots toward your girlfriend during menstruation. Under a robustly painted ceiling, seek a cache of silver filings as you misinterpret luggage tags and magical, body-built populations. In the future, watch for a goody-good contemplating the gutter with an ugly skin burst. Consider synthesizers as you invade the privacy of prosthesis recipients while pouring gin on a horde of TV-listing editors. Remember: coastal astringency suffocates figurative microsurgery sessions, so improvise a movie featuring thunderstruck tenants in their sweaty pajamas. At home, screen tranquilizing images of socializing extraterrestrials engaged in filleting. Consider undergarment prank efforts, but only with bittersweet benevolence. Then burrow into the backyard of the crankiest, most constipated chiropractor you can find. Slurp honey mustard while lounging in your nap chair and contemplating the budding intelligence of house plants and the savage greediness of persistent houseflies.

'YOU are the Plastic Ono Band'

I guess everything comes back in some form if you wait long enough.

I used to play the album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band in college just to freak people out. As you may have heard, the POB has reformed (reunited?) and even performed in concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last night, with original band members Ono, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, Alan White, new member Sean Lennon, and a bunch of guest stars. I would have liked to have seen that, but there are videos of recent performances on YouTube, and maybe some of the BAM show will show up on there eventually as well.

Give them a chance -- Mummy's only looking for her hand in the snow....

I, Copy Editor

According to Google, copy editors are....

no longer getting the recognition they deserve
multitaskers
multi-skilled problem solvers
the watchdogs of credibility
surgeons, removing growths of error and irrelevance
highly trained, intelligent people
unsung heroes
doing more work than ever before
like quality controllers
the grammatical gatekeepers, so to speak, of the media world
waging their style wars before a wider audience
stretched thin
not walking dictionaries, but the real pros question everything
always concerned
roadkill on the information superhighway
in high demand
a dear (sometimes) and exasperating (usually) breed
the last set of eyes before yours
Amazing
ready to help you today!
aware that someone is always watching

Word of the Day: williwaw

williwaw (n)

A sudden gust of wind or a violent commotion.

"The parting of a staysail-sheet in a williwaw, when the sea was turbulent and she was plunging into the storm, brought me forward to see instantly a dark cliff ahead and breakers so close under the bows that I felt surely lost, and in my thoughts cried, 'Is the hand of fate against me, after all, leading me in the end to this dark spot?'"
--Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World

I often feel that the "hand of fate is against me." Don't you? But sooner or later (often much later), some williwaw comes along, and the perspective changes, and I think, "That's the way it had to be, so boo hoo hoo...." Well, I don't usually cry.

Sometimes I feel like I'm "sailing alone around the world" too, but that's a different bottle of whine.

"I Have a Bad Feeling About This"