Gryphon's Word of the Day, Jan 31, 2007

The word of the day* for January 31, 2007 is “flabbergast” transitive verb : to overwhelm with shock, surprise, or wonder : DUMBFOUND.

We’ve been talking about getting another Ford Taurus ever since we bought my car in 2004. Here lately, Lloyd has been more insistent that he really wants a Taurus because the gas mileage is better than his Cadillac—plus the Caddy burns premium. For the past couple of weeks, he’s been looking at the ads. Yet, when I offered to get a loan pre-approved or even just call for information, he would back off. Yesterday, he called and asked me to meet him at the dealer, and yes this seems to be a decent car—a white 2005 Ford Taurus SE that had been a salesman’s car from the mileage.

 

Since I had met him at the dealership to do the paperwork, we had to go home and then back to get the “new” car. I drove the Fords home, stopping to get gas on the way home with the new one. When I got within sight of the house, I saw that Lloyd had parked in the drive behind my Ford. As I didn’t have the garage door opener, I had to go into the house. Lloyd said, “I think we’ll keep the Fords in the garage, and I’ll drive the Cadillac around in town.” I said magnanimously that we should think about it, but he insisted that I should drive the new car to work.

The quote† for today is from Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778), Mrs. Gripon, in La Femme Qui a Raison, act 2, sc. 2:

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.

 

;^)  Jan

* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American 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.

 

NOTICE: Unique Reclamation Project yard art for sale.

Tags: flabbergast, word of the day, quote for the day, humor

Gryphon's Word of the Day, Jan 30, 2007

The word of the day* for January 30, 2007 is “lave” — transitive verb 1 a : WASH, BATHE b : to flow along or against. 2 : POUR. intransitive verb, archaic : to wash oneself : BATHE.

As the temperature got up above forty degrees yesterday, I washed my car. It certainly needed to be desalinated . If it had been up to me, though, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Lloyd, however, enjoys “detailing” his car. It’s one of his few hobbies. One of the stock questions he asks people when we call them is whether their car is clean.

 

The main part of getting his car clean yesterday was scrubbing the tires. They were so dirty, the whitewalls did not show. Today it is cold enough  that nothing will splash on the cars. I told him to enjoy the experience because the prediction is for snow again tomorrow.

The quote† for today is from Leo Tolstoy (1828 -1910):

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.

;^)  Jan

* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American 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.

NOTICE: Unique Reclamation Project yard art for sale.

Tags: lave, word of the day, quote for the day, humor

Gryphon's Word of the Day, Jan 29, 2007

The word of the day* for January 29, 2007 is “gratuitous” —  adjective  1 a : given unearned or without recompense b : not involving a return benefit, compensation, or consideration c : costing nothing : FREE.  2 : not called for by the circumstances : UNWARRANTED <gratuitous insolence> <a gratuitous assumption>.

It’s Brian’s birthday; I did send him a card, but I don’t know if it got into the mail or not. So—Happy Birthday, Brian.

 

It’s amazing how—after we leave school—we keep having birthdays. I mean that somewhere after high school graduation we mentally hit our real age and stick there. Some of us are doomed, because we got stuck in jr. high. Others seem to reach ninety before we are “dry behind the ears.” Personally, I managed to be thirty-eight for three years in a row, starting when my chronological clock read thirty-seven. Maybe that has something to do with life beginning at forty.

The quote† for today is from Philip Larkin (1922–1986) “Spring”:

Spring, of all seasons most gratuitous,
Is fold of untaught flower, is race of water,
Is earth’s most multiple, excited daughter;
And those she has least use for see her best,
Their paths grown craven and circuitous,
Their visions mountain-clear, their needs immodest.

;^)  Jan

* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American 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.

NOTICE: Unique Reclamation Project yard art for sale.

Tags: gratuitous, word of the day, quote for the day, humor

Gryphon's Word of the Day, Jan 28, 2007

The word of the day* for January 28, 2007 is “lycanthrope” —  NOUN: 1. A werewolf. 2. A person affected with lycanthropy.

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Went to see Blood and Chocolate at the theater yesterday. Of course, the movie doesn’t follow the book very well—the venue changed to Bucharest rather than Maryland, and the heroine seemed to be in her early twenties, not sweet sixteen. However, there was a plot, and very little “cat in the face” type action. For action/adventure fans there is breaking glass and gratuitous fire. Maybe not so gratuitous—fire is one of the ways to dispose of werewolves in this movie. The special effects (e.g., people changing to werewolves) were nicely done.

 

It is not, however, a horror movie, in the sense of The Haunting or even Dracula. In fact it is a coming of age movie in which the heroine has to learn to stand up for what she wants to do with her life. I enjoyed the movie. So did my husband, although he was there for the werewolves, not the story.

The quote† for today is from Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf, quoted in Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause (ISBN 0-440-22668-6):

In fear I hurried this way and that. I had the taste of blood and chocolate in my mouth, the one as hateful as the other.

;^)  Jan

* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American 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.

·       Old words can be found on my AOL blog.
·       Those not wishing to receive this daily bit of nonsense will be taken off the mailing list upon request.
·       Please do not use the Reply to All function for requests or comments.

NOTICE: Unique Reclamation Project yard art for sale.

Tags: lycanthrope, word of the day, quote for the day, humor

Gryphon's Word of the Day, Jan 27, 2007

The word of the day* for January 27, 2007 is “independent” —  adjective 1 : not dependent: as a (1) : not subject to control by others : SELF-GOVERNING (2) : not affiliated with a larger controlling unit <an independent bookstore> b (1) : not requiring or relying on something else : not contingent <an independent conclusion> (2) : not looking to others for one's opinions or for guidance in conduct (3) : not bound by or committed to a political party c (1) : not requiring or relying on others (as for care or livelihood) <independent of her parents> (2) : being enough to free one from the necessity of working for a living <a person of independent means> d : showing a desire for freedom <an independent manner> e (1) : not determined by or capable of being deduced or derived from or expressed in terms of members (as axioms or equations) of the set under consideration; especially : having linear independence <an independent set of vectors>. (2) : having the property that the joint probability (as of events or samples) or the joint probability density function (as of random variables) equals the product of the probabilities or probability density functions of separate occurrence. 2 capitalized : of or relating to the Independents. 3 a : MAIN 5 <an independent clause> b : neither deducible from nor incompatible with another statement <independent postulates>.

Early one icy winter morning, when my sister was on her way from Newton, IA to Iowa City for a class, she came over a hill to find several “teen-aged” pigs in the median. Now, I have never asked how she knew these were teen-aged pigs. We’ll just assume that, as they were out there in the pre-dawn hours crossing the highway—obviously up to something they oughtn’t—the description fits. Anyway, she says that although the road in front of her was clear, there were several vehicles behind her. She didn’t wait around to see if the pigs inadvertently became someone’s breakfast.

She also says that every time she mentioned it to her husband, he always said that you wouldn’t want to hit a pig. Seems a pig’s center of gravity is low and one will do a lot of nasty damage to the car. He didn’t, my sister complains, think about what it might do to the driver.

The quote† for today is from Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972)and Evan Mcloud Wylie, Movin’ On Up, ch. 1 (1966):

     It’s easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when
     you haven’t got a thing—that’s the Lord’s test.

;^)  Jan

* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American 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. 

NOTICE: Unique Reclamation Project yard art for sale.

Tags: independent, word of the day, quote for the day, humor

Gryphon's Word of the Day, Jan 26, 2007

The word of the day* for January 26, 2007 is “migrate”— intransitive verb 1 : to move from one country, place, or locality to another. 2 : to pass usually periodically from one region or climate to another for feeding or breeding. 3 : to change position in an organism or substance <filarial worms migrate within the human body>.

The Powers That Be have decided to move us all to a different desktop than Windows 2000. This means we all have to go through the gyrations of saving our desktop shortcuts and Explorer favorites and make certain that we know what server our printer is on and so forth. So far I have found that, although I can receive mail, I can’t send it. That’s why you’re getting this from AOL.

 

A few minutes ago, our Migration Focal brought someone else by who has a similar problem, hoping that mine had been solved. No such luck. Plus which, the other sufferer can’t get anything to print out. Oh! I do love modern technology.

The quote† for today is from J.G. Ballard (b. 1930), Re/Search, no. 8/9 (San Francisco, 1984). Interview in Heavy Metal (April 1971):

Electronic aids, particularly domestic computers, will help the inner migration, the opting out of reality. Reality is no longer going to be the stuff out there, but the stuff inside your head. It’s going to be commercial and nasty at the same time.

;^)  Jan

* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or TheAmerican Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition andis used by permission.
† The quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or TheQuotation Pages and is used by permission.

P.S.:  Comments and word requests are welcome.

 

NOTICE: Unique Reclamation Project yard art for sale.

Tags: migrate, word of the day, quote for the day, humor

Gryphon's Word of the Day, Jan 25, 2007

The word of the day* for January 25, 2007 is “phosphorescent” —  adjective: exhibiting 1 : luminescence that is caused by the absorption of radiations (as light or electrons) and continues for a noticeable time after these radiations have stopped -- compare FLUORESCENCE. 2 : an enduring luminescence without sensible heat.

On the way to work this morning, I noticed that someone had turned on the street lights on the mile of MacArthur between Broadway and Hydraulic. The lights have been off during my morning commute for the past month. I kept telling myself that I should call it in, but someone apparently beat me to it.

In the parking lot at work, which is well-lighted, I remind myself every morning that visibility is not good until after the sun is up. It is a good thing that my sister knitted me this wonderful red scarf. I’m not saying that it glows in the dark, but it is a good contrast to my black coat. Thanks, Jo.
The quote† for today is from Albert Camus (1913–1960), American Journals (1978, trans. 1988):

As usual I finish the day before the sea, sumptuous this evening beneath the moon, which writes Arab symbols with phosphorescent streaks on the slow swells. There is no end to the sky and the waters. How well they accompany sadness!

;^)  Jan

* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or TheAmerican Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition andis used by permission.
† The quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or TheQuotation Pages and is used by permission.

P.S.:

·      Comments and word requests are welcome.
·      Old words can be found on my AOLblog.
·       Those not wishing to receive this dailybit of nonsense will be taken off the mailing list upon request.
·       Please do not use the Reply to Allfunction for requests or comments.

NOTICE: Unique Reclamation Project yard art for sale.

Tags: phosphorescent, word of the day, quote for the day, humor