November 2010
16 posts
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f-words from plantagenet-era england
i celebrated the pagan holiday of thanksgiving at home in ganan manor this year. high on amontillado sherry and potentially hallucinogenic mold spores from grandma ganan’s ancient pumpernickel loaf, i set about the ganan archives to find a suitable dictionary from which to trawl for words that begin with the sixth letter of the alphabet.
on a top shelf and accessible only by ladder, i...
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taking youtube genres to their mad absurd extremes
i no longer have my own youtube channel so it is up to you to develop these million-view video concepts as you see fit:
lip dub: you and your accomplices perform a highly choreographed, long take lip-synch of milli-vanilli songs. remember: when milli chest-bumps vanilli, you and your accomplices must do so with the same slow motion gaiety.
recut trailer: rearrange clips of wes anderson’s...
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words dubiously unrelated
from time to time, several junior ragbag word sleuths send me the hot lead on words and their etymology—and cutso-paste-o i launch these discoveries into cyberspace to the delight of at least seventeen people.
though it’s great to have a legion of lapdogs do my dirty work while i make turf donuts on my neighbour’s lawn with baronessa alessandra (my bitching pontiac), i *occasionally*...
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elements of a victorian sensation novel
bigamous marriages
misdirected letters
romantic triangles
heroines placed in physical danger
drugs, potions, and/or poisons
characters adopt disguises
strained coincidences
aristocratic villains
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from victorianweb.org. seems almost tomgauldian, don’t it?
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someone get me a root of radish
i don’t know how you like to party. perhaps it involves an ironic brand of beer that gets less ironic the more it’s consumed. perhaps your party soundtrack is inclusive of thumping bass and grievous distortion effects and the twin mantras of carpe diem and getting some. perhaps the climax of your social gathering is when everyone interweaves themselves into a human monkey-knot, a...
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ten sentences on minerals
Sentences on Minerals
Iron is found almost everywhere, and in the greatest abundance. It is the most useful metal. Locks, hoops, chains, tires, nails, bolts, stoves, etc., are made of it.
Copper is of a reddish color; its rust is called verdigris, and is a strong poison.
Quicksilver is very white and is a liquid; it gathers in little globules.
Stones do not melt in fire, nor can they be...
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words wholly related
migraine & cranium (the party game) -also- migraine & hemi (the internal combustion engine)
migraine comes to us through middle english via old french by dint of vulgar latin and ultimately per the ancient greeks who called the throbbing headache hemikrania (hēmi + kranion = “half-brain” or pain on one side of the brain).
cranium (the party game) comes to us via hasbro™ and...
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another peculiar dedication
jerome k. jerome dedicated his 1892 book, idle thoughts for an idle fellow to his pipe. the dedication reads:
To the very dear and well-beloved friend of my prosperous and evil days
To the friend who, though, in the early stages of our acquaintanceship, did ofttimes disagree with me, has since become to be my very warmest comrade
To the friend, who however often I may put him out, never (now)...
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