Michael Gates's Blog, page 42

Word of the Day: Do you know what "munted" means?

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's....

munted [MUHNT-ed] adjective (TWITO, page 92)

Broken, peculiar, abnormal, or drunk

"That night, he dreamed about opening the box again. There was a munted cup inside, a broken ceramic mug with something written on the side in a jagged font: 'I have too much blood in my caffeine system.'"


(photo by me)

Read any good books lately?

As part of my job, I read book description blurbs. Below is one of my recent favorites. (Guaranteed 100-percent genuine -- not embellished or made up.)

"It's a depressing thought, but one day you will die. All living things die. This essay deals with the topic of death. It covers a number of famous poisoners and the poisons they dispatched to their victims. In addition to the mechanisms of drug action, the subject of apoptosis (programmed cell death) is also discussed. This essay is therefore a resource which can aid students and the layperson interested in drug/toxin action. There is also some humor."

Photo of the Week: UFOs Invade Mall (by me)

A fleet of UFOs has invaded the Jersey Gardens Mall. Or so it seems. I want to believe. If you do, click the pic for a closer encounter.

Randam Sequence: Verdure for Sure

"From each of the upper windows a small balcony jutted out, and Effie's imagination covered all with summer verdure."
--S. Annie Frost, "She Hath Done What She Could", in Godey's Lady Book and Magazine, April 1864

(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)

verdure = lush greenery, vegetation

Please don't say I have crabgrass in my yard; I prefer to call it verdure.

Link Mania: Mmm...Nonnetit Bastard Pie

Old Scottish Sayings and Scottish Slang Words
So Scotland may not be an independent country, but it does have its own vocabulary, past and present. The list below includes "gowk" (TWITO, page 63), a fool or simpleton, although apparently it can be used adjectivally as well.

"Conceited gowk! Puff'd up wi' windy pride!"'
--Robert Burns, "The Brigs of Ayr" (1786)

~~~

59 More Slang Phrases From The 1920s We Should Start Using Again
Eel's hips! Includes "ish kabibble" (TWITO, page 74).

~~~

It's that time of year. Let's go Nonnetit Bastard picking! (These all sound like punk bands.)


(photo by me)

Word of the Day: Do you know what "chaussure" means?

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's....

chaussure [sho-SUR] noun (TWITO, page 32)

Foot gear, shoes

"'I delight in Hessian boots,' said Rebecca. Jos Sedley, who admired his own legs prodigiously, and always wore this ornamental chaussure, was extremely pleased at this remark...."
--William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)


(photo by me)

Flickers and Feathers

Did you know there are owls in Jersey City? Even in the daytime? I didn't, but now I do, thanks to an excellent short film I saw today, Winter Bird Watching in Jersey City -- part of the Golden Door International Film Festival. This is a film that should be shown to millions on PBS. There's something about seeing these wild birds in a wintry urban setting -- perching, flapping, and flying around the untamed edges of the city with the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center in the background -- that makes you think about the city, or cities, in a very different way. Director and cinematographer John Dunstan narrates in a soothing New Zealand accent, explaining what kinds of birds these are: hawks, ravens, geese, and of course the eerily sagacious owls. The images, editing, and music all work together beautifully enough to make one wish this film could be experienced in IMAX format. But the historic, large-screen venue where it was screened -- the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre -- definitely did it justice.

Photo of the Week: Facal Feature (by me)

Self portrait? Only when I'm feeling acerbic.

Much Ado about NOTHING

Last weekend I bought a 35mm Canon SLR camera for five bucks at a local flea market. Why was it so cheap? It's a film camera. Nobody, except some high-end professional and art photographers, shoots film today, and I certainly don't. I bought the thing, which was sitting in a cardboard box along with an 8mm movie camera and some other obsolete photographic equipment, as a prop. It will be part of my Halloween costume this year, if I decide to dress up as a tourist again (complete with Hawaiian shirt and other tacky accessories). I was pleased to find it at such a reasonable price, but it does make me sad to see such a fine instrument sitting on a shelf, completely unusable, like some precious antique. I like photography, and I have some slight talent in that direction I think, but I would never have the patience for film. Not in this era of digital instantaneous... eurekas.

Random Sequence: "Quail" Without Feathers

"She had a strong, and to me incomprehensible dread of the sea, a terror as unconquerable as it was irrational. The everlasting thunder of its waves awed and oppressed her with a sense of overwhelming power; its eternal silence, its empty vastness of uninhabitable brine, chilled and repelled her; all that was weak and untrue in her nature quailed before its stern, solemn grandeur."
--Margaret Hunter Grant, "Unto the End", in Godey's Lady Book and Magazine, June 1864

(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)

quailed or "quail" = to cower in fear. It has nothing to do with birds, although I'm sure a quail would quail if you got too close.