The word of the day* for February 12, 2007 is “morbid” — adjective: 1 a : of, relating to, or characteristic of disease <morbid anatomy>. b : affected with or induced by disease <a morbid condition>. c : productive of disease <morbid substances>. 2 : abnormally susceptible to or characterized by gloomy or unwholesome feelings. 3 : GRISLY, GRUESOME <morbid details> <morbid curiosity>.
I am in complete agreement with my sister on one point: if they show that picture of Anna Nicole Smith smooching late husband, J. Howard, I may just have to vomit. Aside from the fact that the old guy was waaay past his expiration date, there’s just something wrong about trying to buy happiness. Of course, if I had money, I’d probably have an entirely different view of what money can buy.
The whole Anna Nicole situation is turning into an old-fashioned melodrama. The principles have died, some mysteriously. The in-laws and out-laws are after the money. More people are claiming paternity of Dannielynn. And the poor, little princess will, likely as not, be left out in the cold.
The quote† for today is from D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence (1885–1930), In The Short Novels, vol. 2 (1979). St. Mawr (1925):
Always this same morbid interest in other people and their doings, their privacies, their dirty linen, always this air of alertness for personal happenings, personalities, personalities, personalities. Always this subtle criticism and appraisal of other people, this analysis of other people’s motives. If anatomy presupposes a corpse, then psychology presupposes a world of corpses. Personalities, which means personal criticism and analysis, presuppose a whole world laboratory of human psyches waiting to be vivisected. If you cut a thing up, of course it will smell. Hence, nothing raises such an infernal stink, at last, as human psychology.
;^) Jan
* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or TheAmerican Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition and is used by permission.
† The quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or The Quotation Pages and is used by permission.
P.S.: Comments and word requests are welcome.
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