"By the time they started showing up, I ran the risk of blowing up..."

Hey all-

Name the band (and song if you feel like it) from my subject line!

Name this book! (& authour if you feel like it): "A handsome face, only a little pimply, as though with drinking."

 

 

I offer a reward to any who can tell me what a lowercase 'f' might mean, i found it when I looked up the word "etymology" and read the etymology of it (yah, I'm a nerd) and I saw OF. (Old French) and Mod. F. (Modern French) and L. (Latin) and Gr. (Greek) and f. (???).  I have ruled out French because they would have capitalized it (as in 'F.' and 'Mod. F.') and also the word after the f. says etymologos (only in Greek characters).  The French don't write in Greek characters.  Is it Frisian?  Is it Fijian?  Is it Finnish?  In photography, a lone lowercase f. would mean Focal Length.  The name of the letter f. is Digamma, and is not found in the Greek alphabet.  In the Semitic language 'f' was called 'waw' and made the w sound, and later the u sound.  Which has always been linked to the v sound.  And we know that v and f only differ in voicing, not place or manner of articulation.  What is going on?!?  I need your help.  This is your chance to explore my world, take advantage of it and maybe you'll like it.  I need to know what that little 'f.' means.  It happens a lot in the dictionary.

 

"Man is, as Mr. Palmer says, and etymologizing animal, and abhors an unmeaning word."

          Althenaeum, 23 December, 1882

"The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture."

          Ralph Waldo Emerson

'Ah,' shrugged out monsieur le valet, with a sparkling Voltarish look which every Frenchman has when convicted, as if planning a repartee, 'c'est très vrai.'

         B.R. Haydon (autobiography, 1927.  III, xiii, 252)

 

Those will be the quotes for today.  Hope you found some inkling of enjoyment from them.

 

Today is National Hollerin' Contest Day!  YELL AS LOUDLY AS YOU CAN!!!

 

Happy Birthday:

Gustav V, 1853 (King of WHICH COUNTRY?!?  BE THE FIRST TO TELL ME)

Fritz Schulz, 1879

Barbara McClintock, 1902

John Howard Griffin, 1920 (anyone ever read Black Like Me?)

Tupac Shakur, 1971 (Is he really dead?)

Erin Clark, 1987

 

Happy Deathday:

Hugo, 956 (The Great, duke of France)

Jan Coppenhole, 1492 (Flemish resistance leader)

Stenka Razin, 1671 (Cossack rebel leader)

Hermann Grimm, 1901

Dubose Heyward, 1940

Francis E Meloy Jr., 1976 (US ambassador to Lebanon, kidnapped & killed)

 

And Today in History:

Mary, Queen of Scots, imprisoned in Lochleven Castle prison Scotland, 1567

Holland forbids orange clothes, 1784

Gilbert & Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore" debuts at Bowery Theater NYC, 1879 (Bart Simpson's life was saved when Sideshow Bob was forced to sing the entire score of HMS Pinafore, hehe)

17" hailstones weighing 1.75 lbs fall in Dubuque Iowa, 1882

1st roller coaster used (Coney Island NY), 1884

RW Rueckheim invents Cracker Jack, 1893

Pepsi Cola company forms, 1903

1st US airplane sold commercially, by Glenn Curtiss for $5,000, 1909

US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created, 1933 (The first of FDR's New Deal)

Ngo Dinh Diem elected president of Vietnam, 1954

Pope Pius XII ex-communicates Argentine Pres Juan Peron, 1955

"Psycho," opens in NY, 1960 (I had a good chat about Psycho with a kid in NY online the other day)

Homer Simpson & Marge Bouvier wed, 1974 (I always like it when cartoons have history further back than when the show takes place.  And not just cartoons, I like how we know Hermione's birthday is September 19th.  Oh and don't try to find that in the books, it's not there, but JKR said so)

Moslem Brotherhood kills 62 sheiks in Aleppo Syria, 1979

Subway gunman Bernhard Goetz acquitted on all but gun possession charges after shooting 4 black youths who tried to rob him, 1987

"U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer peaks at #8, 1990

Longest salami is 68'9 & 25 circumference, weighed 1,492lbs/5oz in Flekkefjord, Norway, 1992

Martin Brodeur becomes 1st Devil to win Calder Trophy, 1994

 

Words of the day(!):

oofy: wealthy, rich

erstwhile: in the past, formerly

ancillary: Subordinate; subsidiary; Auxiliary; helping.

papuliferous: pimply (lit. bearing "papules"  Don't bother looking up papule, it means pimple)

 

Irish Gaelic Word of the Day:

fionn (FIN): white, bright, fair haired

Usage: bean fhionn (BAN IN) = a blonde woman

          Fionn Mac Cumhaill (anglicized as Finn Mac Cool) = the Blond, son of Cumhall

History: Old Irish "find" comes from reconstructed Common Celtic *wind-os.  Compare Gaulish "Vindo-bona", the ancient name of Vienna, meaning "whitespring" or "white city", the second element being uncertain. Welsh has"gwyn" and Breton "gwenn", both meaning "white". The original sense ofthe Common Celtic *wind-os seems to be "clearly visible", from theIndo-European root *weid- (to see).

 

Play this game!  Its one of my favorites.  And it's nice because I can type much much much faster than i can write.  The only problem is when you play it for too long your head explodes and then for the rest of the week, all you can think about are three, four, and five (sometimes longer for more points!) letter words.  And you spell words in your dreams.  It's actually a little frightening, but oh, so fun!  Play Boggle Now!

 

And now for your random poem/sonnet/song/ode for the day!  Name the author!  (A clue, the title is "Sonnet XLIII" mwahaHAHAHA!!!  that didn't help at all!)

 

"How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."

 

Yah.  So yesterday I almost played croquet, and I almost went driving around, but I never actually got up out of this chair.  But the good news is that I went to bed at 11 last night and I slept until 10.  I never sleep that late.  I used to at school, but that was when I was heavily under the influence of Austin.  He liked to suck all energy out of the room, and I tended to sleep much later than I ever did (or do) at home.  At the end of the year, I started waking up earlier again because I slept outside a lot more.  The sun is quite good at waking you up early.  Well its noon now (for me, anyway.  I figured it out and I'm sending this to people from 7 different time zones!  And who knows how many people have seen it on the internet now) and I need to eat some breakfast and stuff.  Hope you're all having a wonderful day!

Brian "give me money" Harris

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