Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Happy First Day of AUTUMN! Welcome Fall! YAY! (I got 6 million mosquito bites while taking that photo.)

Endangered Words ALERT! Dictionary compilers are discriminating against obscure words! The TimesOnline has a list of words due to be culled from the next edition of the Collins dictionary and I’m sure there are other dictionary editors feeling the crunch. What I find counterintuitive is that editors are inclined to remove the most obscure words – these are the very words for which we find ourselves going to the dictionary!

Apple has recalled the iPhone 3G UltraCompact adapter. According to the recall notice, the prongs may break off in an outlet.

According to the Consumerist, there are 10 critical skills to have now that the economy has tanked. #10 is Food Preservation, which was on my list next anyway. I like #8 as well (Learn a Second Language). #4 is Cooperation, another key skill we all should have learned in kindergarten but seem to have forgotten sometime during the dot-com boom. It’s a very practical list – check it out.

dPS has an awesome tutorial up explaining how to make digital photos look like Lomo photography. I need to find time to follow the instructions.

My congestion is finally starting to let go. My voice is still a bit off. I feel like I have most of my brain cells back. After a week of congestion, sniffles, sneezing and general unhappiness with my head and sinuses, I’m rather happy to be feeling so well.

apple, economy, english, iphone, language, photography, random, recall, technology, writing

The following is an excerpt from a conversation with slyppi last night… this morning, far past our bedtime.

Me: Perhaps the use of “reliquary” when referring to a wedding keepsake box connotes something they don’t want to connote… [referring to the wedding reliquary box]

Slyppi: “felt-lined to hold jewelry, coins, small objects and, of course, wedding keepsakes.”
Such as, your groom’s ring finger.
Minus his flesh.

So technically reliquaries are for holy relics and wedding keepsakes could be considered holy… but most often, when I hear about reliquaries they’re holding bits of saints. Usually little, dried out bits that still resemble the original bits…

late night conversations, reliquary, unfortunate english, weddings, reliquary

This song and video makes me giggle a lot with great glee so I must share it with the world!

In other news, apparently the use of the word “douche” as a negative descriptor is coming back in vogue.

Apparently I’m on a language kick this week. No real surprise there.

I know we constantly recycle fashion and movies in this culture but you’d think we’d at least be able to come up with some new insults. “Douche” in particular reminds me of grade school and apparently is mapped to that age in my mind. Every time I hear or read someone using it I think they’re 12 years old. Then I start watching out for spit balls and nose-picking, because that’s bound to come next. I realize this is mostly in my head but it’s highlyamusing when the Fop uses the word and I do a double take and exclaim, “What are you? 12?” Seriously, folks, let’s come up with some better insults and descriptors rather than the old standbys and recycling ridiculousness from years past.

If you must recycle, reach into the deep past, please select your insults from the ages, eons past (instead of the 1980s please… we don’t need to recycle anything else from that decade). Here are some suggestions that aren’t too archaic (at least to me, and I know that’s a special perspective) that you can start using in place of more mundane, over-used insults and negative adjectives. As an added bonus, you’ll be able to use these words in polite company and even in meetings because they sound more context-appropriate.

Miscreant: a person who behaves badly or in a way that breaks the law (noun or adjective)
example: We have some miscreant users who keep changing their login scripts and breaking the server.

Mountebank: a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money; a charlatan. See: quack. (noun)
example: He’s a total mountebank – don’t believe a word he says, his estimates are fabrications.

There you go! 2 words to work into your conversations this week! They’re not too far off the beaten trail, linguistically speaking, I think. But perhaps you should practice the follow-up phrase, “Go look it up in a dictionary” if it becomes necessary. Or if you’re feeling nice, define them as required by your audience.

cats, communication, hey little sparta, insults, language, songs, youtube

“Kerfuffle” is my word of the day. I think it’s a fabulous word – fun to say and write – plus it accurately describes many of the firedrills I deal with at work without increasing the alarm, stress or chaos of the situation. Sometimes, using “kerfuffle” is even understatement. Expressive without overt sarcasm!

kerfuffle: (Scottish descent) a disorderly outburst, tumult or fuss. In other words, a small dose of chaos. synonyms: stir, to-do, distruption, disturbance, flutter.

It’s not a very formal word, but it’s a British import and underused as well which somehow makes “kerfuffle” slightly more acceptable to the people I keep using it with. It seems to put the chaos in appropriate perspective. What fascinates me about the questions and issues I’m fielding this week is that so many are just a matter of pointing out the trees to folks who are only seeing the forest. Even I am looking to provide more complicated answers to some of the questions and only to have someone say, “That’s what I needed to know!” while I was still talking through the background information I had. I feel useful at least!

Oh, since it’s actually June now…

May Stats:

• Flickr: 33 new photos, 355 unique visitors.
• Miscellaney of a Cheshire Cat: 14 new posts, 4929 hits.

Am I the only one having a hard time grasping that it’s June and essentially summer and such? On one hand, it’s hard to believe it’s June but on the other it feels like it’s been summer for ages. It’s been cooler the last day or so, but it’s been in the 80s here since early May and April was pretty warm too. The National Weather Service has already issued a heat advisory for tomorrow. Ugh.

heat, kerfuffle, language, statistics, weather, words, work