Hi folks, we added some more profile features tonight. Wordnik now sends you an email when someone comments on your profile. You can toggle email notifications on and off by clicking 'Edit profile' on your profile page, then 'Edit preferences'. In the near future it'll also notify you when someone comments on one of your lists.
The 'Edit profile' section also lets you opt in or out of the general Wordnik email list and the upcoming Word of the Day email, and change your email address. As always, please let us know if anything is acting strangely, or if you have comments or suggestions on this or anything else.
Re: spammers, yeah, I used to need all the help I could get. I think it's no big deal to comment on spam accounts, though no longer really necessary. And you have to accept that no matter how brilliant your wit, spam gets nuked and comments along with it—like a sand mandala tossed back into the river, reminding us of the transitory nature of material existence. Or something.
“Or the appeal might be more primal, what the Pietmontese call geddu: Its studly curves and elegant grillwork were sculpted by designers at Pininfarina, stylists of the Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo.”
Fast Company, Pop Artist, by Linda Tischler, September 2009
“Dark matter became a serious issue in the 1970s, when Vera Rubin of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and her colleagues charted the rotation speeds of galaxies and found that they seemed to be enveloped in halos of dark matter, then called missing mass.”
“The recent survey results would probably stun someone who went to sleep during apartheid and awakened in the present. After all, blacks not only control the government, they mingle in the finest restaurants and swankiest malls. The so-called black diamonds include liberation struggle heroes who have been welcomed into the boardrooms of the nation’s largest corporations.”
“As recently as five years ago,” Dr. Lazowska said, “if you were a social scientist interested in how social groups form, evolve and dissipate, you would hire 30 college freshmen for $10 an hour and interview them in a focus group.”
“Today,” he added, “you have real-time access to the social structuring and restructuring of 100 million Facebook users.”
The shift is giving rise to a computer science perspective, referred to as “computational thinking” by Jeannette M. Wing, assistant director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation.
“He explained this paradigm as an evolving era in which an “exaflood” of observational data was threatening to overwhelm scientists. The only way to cope with it, he argued, was a new generation of scientific computing tools to manage, visualize and analyze the data flood.”
“One of those making the trip, Grant Baker, a South African pro known as Twiggy, said after his first round that the surf was “a lot more powerful than it looked.”
“It looks beautiful from here,” Mr. Baker said. “But there’s a lot of reverb coming off the rocks and it makes it quite difficult.”
“Even before the official word came down, however, both event surfers and local “watermen” were kicking and paddling their way into the surf, and zipping down wave faces about 1,000 feet from shore.”
“Soon after Suskind’s book came out, the legal scholar Cass Sunstein, who then was at the University of Chicago, pointed out that Mr. Cheney seemed to be endorsing the same “precautionary principle” that also animated environmentalists. Sunstein wrote in his blog: “According to the Precautionary Principle, it is appropriate to respond aggressively to low-probability, high-impact events — such as climate change.”
“Many sovereign funds invested in the early days of the crisis as banks scrambled to find investors willing to plow in money and exacted lucrative terms. (Swings through Asia and the Middle East were so common that bankers coined the phrase “Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, Goodbye” to describe their fund-raising tours.)”
Pollyanna or anyone experiencing the double entry bug, I'd appreciate if you could email me (john@wordnik.com) some details to help me recreate it, as I haven't been able to. The name and version of your browser would be especially helpful.
Hi all, launched some updates to tagging tonight. In the right-hand sidebar of your profile there's now a link to your tag page. It's pretty basic, and will improve over time, but we can see all our tags in one place again.
The center of the page shows aggregated tags in alphabetical order, with each appearing once. The sidebar shows recent instances of tag applications, so if you tag ten words with the same tag, they'll all show up there.
We're going to do another round of data cleanup soon that should address some remaining character encoding issues with tags, and tag pages will get some refinements, especially sorting. Let me know if you have any suggestions or requests.
I think the spamfection rate has been about about same on Wordnik as on Wordie, and I'm pretty sure we brought the spam with us--there was almost none here prior to our arrival :-)
I had a small but effective little anti-spam toolkit I'd built up over the years, so I often nuked stuff before many people saw it. We're slowly building up a similar kit for Wordnik--in fact some of it is getting deployed tonight.
I just zapped dickhead's penis links, and this account will disappear in a day or so. We very much appreciate spam alerts, either in situ, on feedback, or by email.
“Mr. Osman’s send-off was just the latest manifestation of what sociologists call “Ottomania,” a harking back to an era marked by conquest and cultural splendor during which sultans ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to the Indian Ocean and claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world.”
“An obvious attraction is the fin-free feeling of skimming across the water, which the ancient Hawaiians called “lala” — a controlled slide in and around the pocket of the wave.”
“My surfcraft that day was an alaia (pronounced ah-LIE-ah), a replica of the thin, round-nosed, square-tailed boards ridden in pre-20th-century Hawaii. The originals were 7 to 12 feet long, generally made of koa wood and could weigh up to 100 pounds. They resemble nothing so much as antique ironing boards, but their most distinctive feature compared with modern equipment is that they are finless.”
Yes, all contributed examples/usages/citations should go in comments. Down the road we hope to add a way to categorized comments, something I long wanted to do on YOW but never got around to.
Hi rolig and friends, thanks for the reports. Regarding private notes, we do have all the data on dry ice. I used them a lot too, but in general that was one of Wordie's least used features. We plan on adding them back (I think they might make more sense here), but it won't be for a while, unfortunately. If you need your notes please email me and I can bundle them up and send them to you.
“You’re going to go get boxed on a Friday or Saturday night,” he said. “You don’t want to say you lost your shield when you were out drinking, so you carry a dupe.”
“Years ago, Mr. Anemone said, officers referred to a fake badge as a Pottsy, after the Jay Irving comic strip about a New York City police officer. They later took on the name dupes, for duplicates.”
“But in New York, a city that has become almost synonymous with high security, where office employees wear picture IDs and surveillance cameras are on the rise, some officers don’t wear their badges on patrol.
Instead, they wear fakes.
Called “dupes,” these phony badges are often just a trifle smaller than real ones but otherwise completely authentic. Officers use them because losing a real badge can mean paperwork and a heavy penalty, as much as 10 days’ pay.”
“Dr. Tomasello believes children develop what he calls “shared intentionality,” a notion of what others expect to happen and hence a sense of a group “we.” It is from this shared intentionality that children derive their sense of norms and of expecting others to obey them.
Shared intentionality, in Dr. Tomasello’s view, is close to the essence of what distinguishes people from chimpanzees.”
Zeitgeist's 'Recently listed' now actually shows that, thanks to a fix Tony just put in place.
Fourthed, and added to the list.
Humphrey Lyttleton? A suspicious name on the face of it, but the first sentence of his Wikipedia entry makes me think Grant invented him. And probably authored this:
"Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton, also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. He was a cousin of the 10th Viscount Cobham and a great-nephew of the politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttelton, who was the first man to represent England at both football and cricket."
Autocomplete has been rejiggered along the lines mollusque suggested—unless you choose an item off the list, it should behave like a regular search box.
VO, sorry that I got defensive, and kjola, sorry I missed your point.
Bilby, valid points, and you're right, 'rough transition' doesn't do it justice. I'm doing what I can to fix what's broken, listen, and make things easier to use and more fun--to be productive, so that you don't have to be. There's another batch of fixes for Monday evening, and they'll keep coming.
Hi kjola, could you try the password reset page, using the email with which you signed up for Wordie? If that doesn't work please email me--john@wordnik.com
The Huffington Post’s editorial processes are based on what Peretti has named the “mullet strategy.” (“Business up front, party in the back” is how his trend-spotting site BuzzFeed glosses it.) “User-generated content is all the rage, but most of it totally sucks,” Peretti says. The mullet strategy invites users to “argue and vent on the secondary pages, but professional editors keep the front page looking sharp. The mullet strategy is here to stay, because the best way for Web companies to increase traffic is to let users have control, but the best way to sell advertising is a slick, pretty front page where corporate sponsors can admire their brands.”
Guys, I know it was a rough transition, and that it's not finished. But a little perspective.
VanishedOne, you implied that Wordie had a clearly targeted purpose. It didn't for a long time—it evolved, as will Wordnik. Wordnik has an overarching goal, which I love: the collection of all English words and as much information about them as possible. But the culture and spirit of it are up to us. It won't be dictated by an amorphous "them." There's only five of us in the office anyways. When we get pizza we fit in a both.
The only material that changes on the site is the automatically collected stuff, like example sentences, and then because we're trying to dramatically improve their quality. As many have noted, they need it.
Things we contribute, like comments and pronunciations, don't get touched unless they're unequivocally abuse or spam. So yes, Wordnik is a dictionary, and yes, it's educational. But there's no such thing as "not meeting our purposes." And while some features exist or not because they just happened to get built one way (or not), nothing is cast in stone. We have a pretty long list of things we have to do, which we're slowly working through (the downside of fitting in a pizza both), but just keep bothering me. I feel like I have a pretty long record of building what people ask for. And I appreciate both the bug reports, and also the understanding that glitches will be fixed over time. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.
I don't think the idea of a serious dictionary with a not-serious community is so far fetched. I mean, it even has a name: the mullet strategy. Though for what it's worth, I totally disagree with Peretti that most user-generated content sucks. Or at least, this group is the exception that proves the rule.
hi pro, redirects for the numeric list urls were working until yesterday, when i broke them--they should be working again now.
i had been trying to get the styles working correctly for the small group of frozen-in-amber lists that are still visible on olde wordie. haven't yet, but will eventually. i too kind of like having a few semi-secret time capsules lying around :-)
Rolig, was finally able to get those holdout lists looking and working as they had been, I think.
Not sure if this has been mentioned here, but the words in 'Recently listed' aren't. That's been fixed and will show up on the site on Monday. And pro, I'll figure out why your pronunciations aren't showing up on the main word page—you're right, they should be.
We made some progress on character encoding issues tonight. Tony wrote a script that fixed the urls of 110 lists. Prolagus, this means all your lists starting with a • ("• Little pains in my butt") should work now, and Wordie links to them should redirect correctly.
I also went in and tweaked a few things manually. Rolig, I was able to get your two broken lists working, but unfortunately the URLs differ from what they were on Wordie, so redirects are broken. I'll try again later to fix this, but for now at least you can access them. As for words with the 'č' character, I hate to say this, but at this point your best bet may be to delete the fuglified versions and add back the correct ones. The unicode issues are beyond me, but something about that character defied the fixes that worked in most other cases. I'm sorry about that.
dhuber, might be related to new stuff we just added. Could you try logging out, then restarting your browser, and logging back in? If you're still having issues after that, please email me (john@wordnik.com), and let me know the list and word, and the browser you're using. Thanks.
PU, you are fast! We just added the new Zeitgeist additions minutes ago, and you found a Mothra-sized bug before I could even announce it :-) Just fixed those links though, thanks.
So Zeitgeist now shows the top 7 most-commented on words and lists of the past 7 days, and also recently listed words. List comments are now editable, and you can remove words you added to open lists. Lists themselves are now deletable, as long as they don't yet have comments on them (we're sorting out how to handle other cases). And a handful of smaller bugs were fixed.
Up next are some unicode issues, a bunch of smallish bug fixes, then we update the tagging system, and overhaul the bleeding carbuncle that is the current 'word of the day' page.
bilb, list deletion will soon return--tomorrow night, hopefully. though it will at first be limited to lists with no comments on them. but should be enough to clean up double submits like that.
Hi mollusque, I was was about to add back that link external link icon last night, but I realized some work has to be done first to exclude it some places (like the 'Elsewhere on the web' links in the definitions section of the word summary page). But I'd like to get that back in too.
Rolig, I'm sorry for the delay, I'll look into those inoperable lists.
This is actually the account of our new intern, Felix Edback. Hi Felix!
Purple does rock—spaced that in the makeover. You may have to hold down the 'shift' key and hit 'reload' to get your browser to pick up the change, but visited links should now be the right color.
A bunch of limboed lists have been returned home, including all those reported by Whichbe and Prolagus. The comments section on Zeitgeist now includes those made on lists and profiles, and has a 'past comments' link at the top, which will let you page backwards through every comment ever left on Wordnik or Wordie. If you go back far enough you may find some of the Wordie comments are out of order with respect to the Wordnik ones; that will be fixed soon.
The word pages now also show the comment count in parentheses next to the 'Comments' button. Arby, you can now shove words (though not in Safari, apparently--working on that). And about the Random button—what uselessness said :-)
Some other tweaks and refinements were sprinkled around, and probably a few new bugs too. On deck for the next release: get tags working correctly, add more zeitgeist data, and fix a slew of bugs.
Thanks for your patience with all this remodeling, and please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions, or just feel like ranting.
If someone, say for instance a bear, had accounts on both Wordie and Wordnik, their Wordnik settings took precedence. And since Wordnik accounts defaulted to private until recently, some née Wordie accounts got switched to private, unfortunately.
I'll ping the bear via other channels and let her know. Though I think she's got her hands full at the moment, literally and figuratively :-)
“Many of the big, multistage firms aren’t really venture firms in the classic sense anymore,” said Chris Douvos, co-head of private equity investing at the Investment Fund for Foundations. The deals they do “may be good risk-adjusted bets, but are a far cry from the de novo innovation that people look for in venture,” he said.
The case of the missing lists has been solved. Turns out they're all invite-only. The plan had been to temporarily convert those to creator-only until we got email notifications working, but we inadvertently made them invisible.
We have a fix for it on deck, but we're going to do some testing and consolidation and generally batten down the hatches a little before putting it into production. It should happen tomorrow night, barring anything unforeseen. Thanks very much for your patience on this everyone. Your lists will be back in your arms again soon.
whichbe, thanks, i'll look into that--i've been in fix-two-bugs, cause-one mode with moving and deleting from lists, hopefully that'll stabilize on the next pass.
vo, unfortunately you'll find machine generated crud like that semi-regularly right now. we ingest huge volumes of data, and we're still fine-tuning how it's all processed. that's not a part of the puzzle i'm directly involved in, but we talk all the time about how to improve the process, so you'll see less and less of that over time.
wow, that's a rather unattractive page. which i've neglected for 8 months. and curiously, the mile-high tag list is followed by a bunch of tweets in, i think, japanese.
officially back on the 'do something with this, someday' list.
But none of Wordie belonged to any of us anyways. Errata is on dry ice and I can't verify this until it's thawed, but I'm pretty sure we surrendered all our rights to J.K. Rowling. Or maybe that was on a word thread somewhere?
Whichbe: two-word phrases should now stay intact during moves, and the ones that got scrambled earlier should now be removable if you want to re-add. Please let me know if that's not your case.
Thanks very much for the sleuthing, though sorry it's necessary. Grant also compiled a list of lists to look into. I don't have access to the necessary db to dig into it right now, otherwise I would, but figuring out what happened and what to do about it is a high priority tomorrow.
Prolagus and PossibleUnderscore, you've been upcased. If anyone else is missing a majuscule, let me know—still a few kicking around the lost and found.
Active threads will return soon, but first comes getting list and profile comments into the comment stream, then a chronological past-comments section that we can page through, both early this week.
I like the idea of deputizing editors, there are some issues, the most obvious being that I'd have to build the tools. But maybe eventually. We have internal bug tracking, and I have my own mixed-up-files style tracking. But a user-editable bug wiki, separate from the site itself, might be a good idea.
Later today I'll be adding a shortcut for linking directly to comments pages from within comments.
“Ms. Lee’s small house near the high school was sometimes a hangout, where Mr. Prugo, Ms. Ames and others from Indian Hills could be found “having a kickback,” said the friend.”
Profile comments are editable now. List comments next, and they'll both start appearing on Zeitgeist soon.
A ways back I said it would be nice to be able to toggle Wordie between 'dictionary' and 'social' mode, depending on mood or purpose. And that's what I hope Wordie/nik evolves into. Wordie's chatter has been the best part, but when it started I was thinking dictionaries, and that still appeals. Maybe that's trying to square the circle, but I hope not. Guess we'll find out.
More specific controls will come, but it can be make more Wordie-like as-is. This may change, but I feel a simpler homepage is easier to absorb for new folks. But I have my homepage set to Zeitgeist and hardly look at the real one--and Zeitgeist is going to get much better fairly soon. And when poking through lists if you use the 'comment' links, you can bypass the lexicographic pages entirely.
Sionnach*, I'm glad your back :-). Be a grouch, it should have been handled better.
* fyi, your profile is set to private, so I can't comment on it. A vestige of you having had a previous Wordnik account, I think, back when all profiles were private.
Wordie tags are back. There are a few issues still, the main one being that tags show up on your profile, but not always on the tag page itself. I'm working on that, and also on a dedicated tags page to be linked off our profiles.
Thanks for the understanding everyone, I appreciate it. We stumbled on the Wordie integration, which I regret. That aside, these new surroundings feel weird for me too. But all the Wordie stuff will come back online, and I still have faith that Wordnik+Wordie will be a good thing. I hope that will become more apparent once everything is working and we're moving forward again.
ruzuzu and marky, i removed 'recent lookups' from profiles. i'll add it back when it can be made optional and we're sure it's accurate.
we're working on getting wordie tags back and at fixing commenting on lists with special characters in the url. pro, that will hopefully make it possible to comment on 'knuckle tattoos', which is important to me, since i missed that first time around and want to say how much i love it.
also trying to get editing on list and profile comments working today.
Just added a 'List it' option to the choices in the 'Take this word and...' drop-down on every word page. Initially it had issues with multi-word phrases, but I think it's working now. Let me know if you have any issues.
whichbe, i'm looking into it, but i'm almost certain your tags, despite not being available, were moved over, and that we'll find them and give them back to you.
while wordie was being migrated we were also switching parts of the site to use a different method of accessing data, which involved a different database. so there were three db's involved: old wordie, old wordnik, and new wordnik. stuff that appears missing is there, but in the wrong database. they can and will be merged with no losses.
we really needed to change our underlying db; wordnik is outgrowing the old one. but in retrospect it might not have been such a hot idea to do these two major migrations concurrently.
· You can now edit your comments on words. Comments on profiles and lists can't be edited yet, but that'll come soon.
· Tony (Wordnik's VP of Engineering--he and our colleague Kumanan are real engineers, while I just make train noises and pretend) fixed the issue with most international characters in comments. The remaining broken characters (a small percentage) will most likely remain broken, an unfortunate side effect of my having been sloppy with Wordie's db in the early days.
· Until we have a past comments section that lets us page through all the comments, I increased the number shown on Zeitgeist.
It may take a little while to get back to feature parity with Wordie, but that's the plan, and then we'll keep going. Thanks again for your patience and bug reports, which are always welcome anywhere here, or to john@wordnik.com
Depends who you talk to actually, and it's hotly debated, but Wordknik, unlike Wordie, is case sensitive.
Eventually we hope to find a middle ground, where it's possible to distinguish between, say, polish and Polish, and turkey and Turkey, without the annoyance of having all the comments and definitions disappear because you typed in an initial cap.
Would have made my life easier marky, but then we would have had to figure out what to do with the 1.7 meellion words we have lying around. The whole "dictionary" thing, which can also be fun.
Hi Jubjub, that's what makes random word so addictive. Sometimes you get on a hot streak, then you loose it all with a string of Goolges.
Wordnik is omnivorous, it collects the good, the bad, and the ugly without judgment. Random has some filters to weed out the pure drek, but not many--maybe we should dial that up?
I'll save my sincere apologies and a longer explanation for when the fires are out, but for now a status report:
· Adding words to lists is fixed
· Newlines in comments will be fixed soon
· Editing comments will be available soon--hopefully tonight, maybe tomorrow
· I'll make the display of 'recently looked up' optional as soon as possible, probably 1-3 days. That was an oversight from the profile merger: that originated on Wordnik, where it didn't matter because the site didn't used to have public profiles.
· I'll add 'list it' to the options in the 'Take this word and...' drop-down
· I'll go through everything here and hit as many other items as I can.
Hi pro, thank you. The character issue on existing comments is being fixed as I type, and should be up today. I'll try and fix the forwards from Wordie on lists with unicode characters soon--hopefully by tonight or tomorrow.
Hi rolig, this is a fine place to leave comments. The list of lists in the sidebar is being truncated, I'll fix that today. Thanks much for pointing that out.
A million apologies for the character encoding issues on imported comments. That's being fixed right now, as well as comment editing and some display issues. I think I may be saying this a lot in the next few days, but please be a little patient. We'll have everything back to normal as soon as possible.
Sionnach, your lists are back—there was a bug on the lists page.
I worked hard, and will keep working, to make things fit together sensibly, but some restructuring was necessary to combine the two sites.
I feel horribly that this transition has been bumpier than I'd hoped, but I'm working as quickly as possible to smooth rough edges, fix bugs, and add back all the Wordie functionality. I'm very sorry for the headaches, but please bear with this for just a little longer.
Hi rolig, wanted to apologize for the character encoding issues that have appeared on some of your lists. It's my doing--the Wordie database was kind of a mess after a few years not always careful noodling. We did the best we could moving things over, but some characters got a bit mangled.
“FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover�? which, in civilian, meant without a hat.�?
hi all. mollusque, as of now you'd have to drop the case you don't want and add another, and if you were moving from lower to uppercase, it would mean not seeing the comments on the lowercase version. which is clearly not the desired behavior in most cases. once wordie is in and we work out any kinks, dealing sensibly with case sensitivity is high on our to-do list.
speaking of integration, it's going to happen next week :-) there might be a brief period (an hour?) during which both sites will redirect to a maintenance page, after which requests to wordie will be redirected to the equivalent page on wordnik. all our accounts and lists and words will get moved over en masse. and when there are username conflicts (happily, there are fewer of those than i expected), we'll have a process in place for working them out.
the plan is that within a week or so of the migration all wordie features will be fully available on wordnik. but immediately after the migration, a few minor features will be temporarily unavailable. i'll post details soon, but they'll include collaborative lists (existing ones will work, but you won't be able to create new ones) and email notifications.
pretty much the entire wordie homepage is going to get stuffed into zeitgeist, though there are a few items on it that won't be available immediately. again, in a week or two anything that didn't make the first pass will get moved over.
we're trying hard to make this as seemless as possible. and once the transition is complete, i think you'll see fewer bugs, better performance, and we'll have all this dictionary shit to enjoy or crack wise about. as always, please post here or email me if you have any questions or suggestions.
Soldiers in the Civil War suffered from irritability, disturbed sleep, shortness of breath and depression, a syndrome Jacob Mendes Da Costa, an Army surgeon, described in 1871 as “irritable heart.”
The New York Times, When Soldiers Snap, by Erica Goode, November 7, 2009
“In those days, he called himself a “harmless little fuzzball.�? He’s a lot less harmless now. I went on to columny, as my pal Bill Safire called it, and Rush went on to calumny.�?
“I had a four-hour dinner once with Rush Limbaugh at the “21�? Club in Manhattan, back in the days when I was still writing profiles as a “reporterette,�? to use a Limbaugh coinage.�?
There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte, a thousand terabytes in a petabyte, a thousand petabytes in an exabyte, a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte, and a thousand zettabytes in a yottabyte. In other words, a yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB. Are you paranoid yet?�?
Hi folks, so sorry about the plugged up front page. I'll try to roto-route it tonight or tomorrow. I'm in a mad dash to build nuevo Wordie right now, which will be launched in a few weeks, so it's kind of hard to spend time on ancien Wordie. But a semi-refreshing front page is totally annoying to me too.
Speaking of Wordie++, it's coming along handsomely I think, and will feel very, very much like this one—but faster, and with less bugs :-)
“Like the bill that will probably emerge from Congress, the Massachusetts reform mainly relies on a combination of regulation and subsidies to chivy a mostly private system into providing near-universal coverage.�?
Been gone a while, eh _mark? As you can see over on advertising, Wordie has had ads for almost two years. They originally ran only on Tuesdays, but I got sick of subsidizing all the costs (at no point have the ads ever fully covered even the hosting costs). I mean, it's always been a labor of love, but throw me a bone.
Thanks gangerh, I agree—that page is more or less a stub right now. In the near future we'll add more data to it, and try to make it more easily scannable. Any suggestions? Are vertical lists better?
Thanks a million for those bug reports—I'll fix the line breaks, the word linking, and the use of html in comments.
Super glad people are checking out Wordnik, but of course it's totally kosher, and maybe for the best, to keep on using Wordie for things social until we move over. With a little time to rasp away the rough edges, things should Just Work when that happens.
Hi Pro, saw your comment on Wordnik. Wordie material hasn't yet moved over there, so for now I think it makes sense to just carry on wherever you want--for most of us here that means Wordie, I imagine. I don't think merging of comments and threads will cause much if any disruption at all when it happens.
So the Wordnik redesign is up. I think I love it, but honestly I've been staring at it so long I'm not sure. But I definitely tried hard to make it a suitable landing pad for when we move house—it should take only a little poking around to see I plagiarized Wordie more than a few times. And with this in place it'll be easier to make minor tweaks more or less on the fly, so we'll continue noodling with it up until the point Wordie is integrated, with the goal of making that seamless and pleasant.
Something else you may notice about nuevo Wordnik is that it's ripping fast, despite having hugely more data than it had even a few months ago (and ludicrously more than Wordie). There have been many pretty rad engineering changes under the hood with this update, thanks to my colleagues Tony and Kumanan.
As always, please let me know if anything is broken, or if you have suggestions, questions, or criticism.
“For centuries, allegations and disputes involving children, marriage and business have been decided by rabbinical courts called beth dins, which conduct their own inquiries and do not report their findings to the secular authorities, even when they judge someone guilty of a crime.�?
“Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who refer to themselves as the “haredim,�? meaning those who fear God, reject modern secular culture and for centuries have kept strict control over what they consider internal affairs.�?
“The issue has brought together younger folks who are more pro-environment and very older folks who remember a time before clotheslines became synonymous with being too poor to afford a dryer,�? said a Democratic lawmaker from Virginia, State Senator Linda T. Puller, who introduced a bill last session that would prohibit community associations in the state from restricting the use of “wind energy drying devices�? — i.e., clotheslines.
Hey sionnach, guess that makes you a digital native :-P When I worked at Woods Hole there were 10,000 ancient Hollerith cards lying around the computer department. If I had to program with those things I'd be a poet right now. Ok fine, a poetaster. But definitely not a programmer.
Harking back to my XO laptop comment from two years ago, a friend got one, and turns out they're totally useless. Cute as they are, they're just too underpowered to do anything useful.
“The clothing also pushed boundaries, in particular how soft fabrics like chiffon look molded on the torso. Prints and jacquards, evoking oceans and species like moths, were engineered for each garment.”
hernesheir, I like that! Whichbe has a great list called Underwaterritory, but that's more about diving than fishing. And she has a great one too, Fishful thinking, but again that's more general fishiness than fishing itself. Tally ho, I say!
In the spirit of RFCs, this is the place for Requests For Lists. Some people have an hankering to make lists. Other people really want a list on a certain topic, or contributions to their public lists. Here is where the twain shall meet.
I'll kick it off: I'd really appreciate contributions to Down on the Farm, my just-created list of farm and agriculture-related words.
“I don’t believe that public opinion is spontaneously supporting Mr. Polanski at all,�? she said. “I believe that there is a distinction between the mediagenic class of artists and ordinary citizens that have a vision that is more simple.�?
“It empties its perennially clogged streets of ojeks, the kamikaze-like motorcycle taxis that weave in and out of traffic, and find shortcuts on sidewalks.�?
Ah, mollusque, that is an idea near to the hearts of a few of us. It's a bit down the road and for performance and feasibility reasons will be something closer to facetted search than wide-open database access. But something along those lines is planned.
Seems like comments is in the lead, possibly categorizable. Thanks.
To Pro's question, and something I was going to mention today: it would be a good idea to register for Wordnik using the same email address and username you used when registering for Wordie--that will make things easier all around when the sites are merged. We'll have a system in place for handling conflicts, and will try to make it as equitable and simple as possible.
Telofy: we're working on a redesign for a combined Wordie/Wordnik site. The html/css will be more semantic, with few to no embedded styles. And fonts will be sized with em's or some other scalable unit, so people can more easily size them as they wish.
PU, can you email me (john@wordie.org) the names of the lists, and I'll look for them directly? Very sorry you're they've gone missing, but I feel pretty confident they still exist and haven't been permanently lost. Will look into it as soon as I have their names and verify they're still in the db.
Hey folks, question for you. Comments on Wordie were originally called 'citations,' because I thought that's what the feature would be used for. As we got more social the labeling slowing migrated towards 'comments.'
The Wordnik equivalent is 'Notes.' As it stands it's not clear if a note is public or is a communication between you and Wordnik (they're public), and the word itself has too many related but different meanings: endnotes, footnotes, private notes, etc. The whole feature is being overhauled to be more clear, including the labeling.
So the question is, when Wordie and Wordnik are merged, what do we call them? My inclination is 'comments,' but if anyone thinks otherwise, I'd love to hear it.
A quick status update on the whole shebang: kad, spawn (hat tip c_b :-) and I landed in CA last week. I'm in the midst of helping redesign Wordnik, which should hopefully be completed sometime in October. It'll be a big improvement over the current site, and will incorporate many of the ideas expressed here. That will pave the way for Wordie integration, which will happen some time not too long after the redesign launches (actual date TBD). As always, please email me comments, concerns, and suggestions.
“For more than half a century, those collectors were the zabaleen, a community of Egyptian Christians who live on the cliffs on the eastern edge of the city. They collected the trash, sold the recyclables and fed the organic waste to their pigs — which they then slaughtered and ate.�?
Oh Waffle House, how I love thee! Best thing about the South. Here I am in front of one, in February 2002. That's from four cross-country road trips ago (I move too much).
The little white Honda, aka The Lemming, sure was a trooper.
Right on c_b, I agree on all accounts--I like the sound and feel of this word, and I love its association with direct democracy and Paine in particular.
A certain right-wing demagogue has tarnished the name of one of Paine's best-known pamphlets, Common Sense by appropriating it as the title of one of his own books, which is annoying, but also amusing. He must not have read The Age of Reason, a full-throated attack on organized religion and not the kind of thing most American conservatives want to be associated with.
Thomas Paine died in New York City, in the West Village, around the corner from where I used to live—there's a plaque on the building in which he died.
Still on the road (hellloooo Indianapolis!) and won't be regularly online for a few more days, but wanted to pipe in about the dashboard page ideas before sacking out.
I should have phrased it better, but there aren't any plans right now for anything in the way of 'daily me'-style customization. I was thinking of a 'zeitgeist' page that would be the same for everyone. Similar to the current Wordie homepage, but also including snapshots of what people are doing with the Wordnik data--words being looked up and favorited, pronunciations added, etc. It would be in the spirit of 'Wordie' tab, but it wouldn't be called that, and it would have more and more kinds of info on it. I think it would be a disservice to both sites if Wordie was just sort of glued onto the side of Wordnik. I think there will be sections that are very clearly derived from Wordie (list pages being the most obvious), but others where a careful integration makes more sense. A 'Zeitgeist'* page is one of those--if the idea is to be awash in recent activity, might as well dive into a deeper river that includes material from both current sites.
The reason I think this should be on its own page, and not the homepage, is that to someone new to the site, a wall of stats and comments is impenetrable and intimidating. With Wordie I didn't really care about that, despite the fact that the vast majority of visits weren't from regulars, because I built it strictly for our entertainment :-) But Wordnik is both entertainment and a utility. So rather than try to square that circle on one page, it seemed a better idea to have two pages tailored to different purposes and audiences. The homepage might have a subset of recent additions, but not the full firehose.
As telofy intimated, this could be done by changing the state of the homepage when you're logged in. But right now my inclination is to keep it simple and just separate them.
* totally stole that page title from Librarything**
** as i did these little sotto voce footnote asides. thanks tim!
Hi all, sorry I've been a bit absent, just packed up our house and sent it off in a truck. We're driving cross-country right now and taking a few extra days to visit family, who conveniently live in a straight line between Pittsburgh and Chicago.
I'm cataloging and trying to absorb all this good stuff, and enjoying, as always, the digressions. A little surprised no cupcakes have been flung.
One question: yarb & c_b, would you mind if the comments and perpetually moving snapshot did have its own page, but it wasn't necessarily the homepage? Think Librarything's 'zeitgeist,' or the way Twitter and Facebook don't really have homepages when you're logged in. When was the last time you looked at Wikipedia's homepage? I'm wondering if the 'official' homepage could be a basic intro to new folks and a jumping-off point for searches, and regulars could use a different page as their home base?
Ptero: thank you, and extremely involved! All suggestions will be listened to and seriously considered, and many implemented, I hope. Though since I'm no longer a one man band I have to retire my standard excuse for non-implementation (lack of time and competence) and start using a new one: Erin* won't let me :-)
Totally kidding. Actually when Erin (McKean, CEO of Wordnik and my new boss) saw that people were concerned that Wordnik was too serious for the likes of us, she laughed and laughed. Then paused, possibly horked a little, and laughed some more. Wordnik does some serious shit. The corpus is enormous, growing rapidly, and a feat of engineering. But it's not meant to be a mausoleum for words—more like a theme park.
* Until now I had totally forgotten about that Errata post from two years ago, but I clearly wanted Wordie to join Wordnik before Wordnik even existed. How weird.
Thanks everyone :-) I think things will work out Pro--in part because the Wordnik community is still nascent. Erin and co. are hoping we *become* the Wordnik community, schoolyard antics and all. Milosrdenstvi is right--14,000 people have signed up for Wordie, give or take a few bots, but it is what it is because of the spirit of a few score of us. I really hope and believe we can transplant that.
Moll, Wordnik is case sensitive--we'll finally be able to talk about turkey and Turkey without confusion. Wordnik has some heavy duty engineering talent, which is going to enable a growing number of very cool things. One existing example: Wordnik's autocomplete, which is awesome. As opposed to mine, which was so useless it verged on being another form of 'random word.'
I totally understand trepidation. I have it too--I very much hope that my favorite Wordies stick around, and that Wordie+Wordnik works for the people who've contributed so much. So I am going to plead with you all to hang in there at least until we see how it goes. And to tell me what would make it work for you--I'll reiterate my promise to listen to everything everyone says and take it to heart.
VO: A redesign of Wordnik is imminent and in my purview. One current thought is that there might not be as many, or any, sub-pages, except for a talk page--the Wordie page. Sort of like Wikipedia--one data page (better organized and easier to use than the current series of Wordnik data pages), and one discussion page (hopefully funnier and less contentious than Wikipedia's). Which would help the talk pages stay a little cleaner and more Wordie-esque than the data-intense pages (though I think data density can be a great thing when it's well-organized).
This is for word pages--I'm imagining lists will pretty much remain as-is functionally, though they'll wear Wordnik's upcoming new design. Though we (I have to admit, it's fun being more than just a royal we :-) are totally open to ideas.
Should have mentioned this in the blog post too: Wordnik is officially adding madeupical to the corpus. A sort of bring-the-new-neighbors-brownies kind of gesture :-)
“There aren't many individuals in history whose names are taken in vain more than Capt. C.C. Boycott, the notorious Irish landlord who cut the wages of his tenant farmers and got himself ostracized -- and the English language enriched -- in return.�?
The Los Angeles Times, , by Michael Hiltzik, August 31, 2009
“He’s a regular guy or as close to regular as any 35-year-old can possibly be who sleeps under a poster of his favorite football star while tucked under a coverlet imprinted with the names of N.F.L. teams.�?
Yeah, the script is beautiful. If and when you slow down on the list, would you mind tagging the whole thing 'georgian,' for the record? You can use the 'add tags' link below the title of any of your own lists to tag all the words in a given list in one fell swoop.
“Each team fields five players at a time. Out of those five players, four are blockers and one is the jammer (point scorer). The four blockers from each team line up together and form a pack, while the two jammers line up 30 feet behind.�?
“The skater wearing the star on her helmet is the jammer. The skater wearing the stripe on her helmet is called the PIVOT. The pivot is the pack leader and defensive play caller, similar to football's middle linebacker position.�?
“The objectives of roller derby are relatively simple. Each team fields a single point scoring skater ("Jammer") whose object is to lap as many opposing skaters as they can.�?
“Stress may be most readily associated with the attosecond pace of postindustrial society, but the body’s stress response is one of our oldest possessions.�?
“And though perseverance can be an admirable trait and is essential for all success in life, when taken too far it becomes perseveration — uncontrollable repetition — or simple perversity.�?
“Returning to his home state of Pernambuco in northeast Brazil, Otto quickly became a part of the mangue bit movement, which fused home-grown rhythms like the maracatu, frevo and ciranda with the latest in imported computer and studio technology.�?
Before it became a bad word, “boondoggle�? was an innocent, humble craft. It was the Boy Scouts of America who claimed credit for coining the word, to refer to the plaited leather lanyards that they made and wore around their necks.
That all changed on April 3, 1935, at a hearing in New York City on how New Deal relief money was being spent. A Brooklyn crafts teacher reluctantly testified that he was paid to show the jobless how to make “boon doggles.�? The outcry was swift. “$3,187,000 Relief is Spent to Teach Jobless to Play,�? trumpeted a front-page headline the next day in The New York Times. “ ‘Boon Doggles’ Made.�?
“Carlo Marioni, 65, a New York bartender with more than 40 years’ experience who now works at Pietro’s, agreed: “Those years, for lunch, they used to drink three martinis. Then they’d come back before dinner for rusty nails, white spiders.�?
In response to some of VanishedOne's comments on Ruby on Rails, the new browse links on the homepage now also let you see words and phrases that start with punctuation.
This is a work on progress, as tends to be the case with things I start on the train ride home and deploy the same night.
From now I'll put this New Jersey Transit logo on quick-and-dirty train work: .
This is not a commentary on NJTransit, which generally does a fine job, and which Wordie owes much.
“The "nillies" seems to lack the correct ring, while the "double-o"s is bound to be the intellectual property of Ian Fleming's estate.
Reggie Kray might favour the 'noughties' The "noughties" could be the one to head the - admittedly sorry - list of contenders.
And yet the "noughties" still sounds like a word East End villains might use to describe imprisonable activities - or even worse a polite, middle-class code for the reproductive organs.�?
Yeah, that would be me. I just added a 'browse' section to the right column of the home page, which presents every word and phrase on Wordie listed in alphabetical order. Briefly borked things when I moved it into production.
All better now. Let me know if there's anything I can do to improve that 'browse' business. It's partly for the machines amongst us, but I found it a lot of fun to poke through.
“Dalton is the editor of “Mythtym,�? a new anthology of essays, fiction and artwork -- both serious and campy -- about werewolves, unicorns and what she calls “mirror horror.�? As she explains: “If you watch enough of those movies, they’re all exactly the same. These splattercore movies have their own tropes -- like how the best way to show blood is to cut someone up in the shower so you see it on the tiles. But then you realize that these clichés are based on archetypes. The mirror as a symbol seems most powerful in a time of fear, when people step back and look at themselves.�?
“For instance, a lot of the things that high-minded left-wingers hate about contemporary Washington — the legal corruption, if you will, associated with lobbying and influence peddling and corporate money — are a direct result of having built a big, expensive government that every would-be macher in the world feels they need to influence.�?
I think so. This was in Portland, Maine, in the mid-nineties. The cool racer guys were often as not from other shops; we were more like the scrappy punk rock (the staff) and family (the customers) shop. We were the only proper bike shop in town selling tricycles, I think. I moved, sadly, but they're still there: Back Bay Bicycle. Stop in if you're in Portland, they're super nice.
In my misbegotten youth I was a bicycle mechanic, and the cool racer types who hung around the shop where I worked would dismissively refer to non-cool-racer types as "Freds." Freds are the kind of cyclists who don't ride much, but are over-geared. They have little rear-view mirrors glued onto their helmets, and a spare tire and a pump and two water bottles and a little toolkit and an altimeter strapped or bolted onto different parts of their bike frame. Freds have kickstands and fenders and a rack and a bell. They have a little basket on their handlebars. They both tuck their pant legs into their socks and wear a reflective strap on each ankle to prevent getting chain grease on their trousers. And most of all, Freds are squirrely: they have trouble riding in a straight line, possibly because of all the appurtenances affixed to their bike and their person. So you don't want to ride too close to a Fred, because they're unpredictable and despite their harmless appearance, inadvertently dangerous.
“Was Manson's dress rehearsal for homicide, known as "creepy crawling", some kind of humorous terrorism that might have been fun? Breaking silently into middle-class "pigs'" homes with your friends while you are tripping on LSD and gathering around the sleeping residents in their beds, not to harm them but to watch them sleep (the way Warhol did in that movie) and "experiencing the fear"? It does sound like it could have been a mind-bending adventure. When the Mansonites went further and moved the furniture around before they left, just to fuck with the waking homeowners' perception of reality, was this beautiful or evil? Could the Manson Family's actions also be some kind of freakish "art"?�?
Just rescued this from the orphanage, so someone besides myself originally entered it. Can't find much on it anywhere, except for this blog post, which defines it as "the essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing."
Fine word, somewhat mysterious. Anyone know any more about it?
Thanks much for the reports--I've been fiddling about again, if you hadn't guessed :-) It's for the best in the long run, but sorry for the recent collateral damage.
Profiles should be fixed (sorry for disappearing you skipvia), the duplicate derelict has been evicted, and the comment page profiles are properly possessive.
Treeseed, private notes were broken when you reported that, but they should be fixed now. If that's not the case for you would you mind emailing me, and letting me know what browser you're using?
Sionnach, I still have no idea what's causing your duplicates (I can't duplicate the bug). I may email you, if you don't mind, and ask for specifics to help me debug. I'm really sorry about that--I very much don't want a bug to drive away a favorite Wordie, but I can see how it would be maddening.
“She and the group of mothers she helps organize have become the only bulwark, it seems, against the irrepressible spread of paco, a highly addictive, smokable cocaine residue that has destroyed thousands of lives in Argentina and caused a cycle of drug-induced street violence never seen before in this country.�?
Oh bring it on—I love this line of attack. The longer the idiotocracy running the Republican party persists in this retrograde nonsense, the longer they'll stumble around in the wilderness losing elections. Morality aside, the demographics are just against them. America is a diverse place and getting more so, and tactics that intentionally alienate everyone but the ever-shrinking rump Republican base guarantee failure.
They'll figure this out eventually and try to start appealing to a wider audience. But if they get thrashed for a few more election cycles before that happens, I wouldn't mind. Palin in 2112!
Don't be vague like that, lg_nazi. Have the courage of your convictions. What, exactly, is Obama trying to sell? What groups is he disproportionately favoring?
The group that has most benefitted from his policies has certainly been the bankers he bailed out. So if you're talking about rich white people, I agree with you entirely.
Glenn Beck is a douche-cock. That said, there's a very popular web site dedicated to answering skipvia's very question. To me, it's embodied by the Volvo 240 station wagon.
“The ability to pick odd shapes masked in complex backgrounds — a “Where’s Waldo�? type of skill that some call anomaly detection — also predicted performance on some of the roadside bomb simulations.�?
Can't believe this hadn't been listed yet. It refers to the prime starting position in horse and car racing: at the front of the pack, on the inside. It's also the name of a great (for its time) arcade video game of the early 80s.
Anyone know of any good motor sports or automotive or racing lists?
“Frigor�? is one of the names given by 19th-century scientists to the realm of absolute zero, the bottom limit of cold. This is a place, the chemist and physicist James Dewar imagined, so cold that molecular motion ceases and the “death of matter�? ensues.
The New York Times, Less Than Zero, by Mary Roach, July 23, 2009
“McGinley and Colen met Snow when they were in art school (at Parsons and RISD, respectively) and Snow was 16 and living on 13th Street in Alphabet City and starting a graffiti crew called Irak (in graffiti slang, to “rak�? is to steal, which they did) with a guy named Ace Boon Kunle, “a big, black homosexual,�? as McGinley describes him, whose tag is Earsnot.�?
New York Magazine, Chasing Dash Snow, by Ariel Levy, January 7, 2007
“Being an astronomy buff used to be a lonely pursuit, just you and the telescope, staring up into the night sky. But in an age when anyone can make a planetary discovery through a $400 telescope then instantly share it with the world — hey, check out my cool Jupiter shots on Flickr! — amateur astronomers have capitalized on opportunities like the big thud on the Jovian gas giant to confirm that they are not alone.�?
“Fujifilm says its $280 FinePix F70EXR and $600 FinePix S200EXR use its advanced EXR sensor and multiframe technology to enable users to simulate the wide-aperture background blurs (or bokeh) of D.S.L.R. cameras.�?
“Have the 1990s vanished so quickly from memory? Has Hillary Clinton’s murder of Vince Foster, shooting him in the head with a lesbian bullet, been so completely forgotten?�?
Whiskey Fire, Regions of My Disease, by Marc Ambinder, July 22, 2009, as quoted in The New York Times, ‘Birther’ Boom, by Eric Etheridge, July 22, 2009
“The Baron clanked in on his pointy silver-capped cowboy boots and began poking around, asking questions about the Southern Mexican cuisine on the menu — What was the difference between a cemita and a torta? Do they ever cook with chumiles, a tiny, fragrant insect sometimes used in salsa? — while Ms. Mata got busy at the stove.�?
“The Japanese have a name for their problem: Galápagos syndrome.
Japan’s cellphones are like the endemic species that Darwin encountered on the Galápagos Islands — fantastically evolved and divergent from their mainland cousins — explains Takeshi Natsuno, who teaches at Tokyo’s Keio University.�?
“Lena was farmed out fairly frequently and had to endure occasional racist slurs, beatings for minor infractions and schoolgirl mockery: she was called “little yellow bastard�? because of her supposedly “white daddy.�? At age 16, to the disapproval of some family members, she became a chorine at the celebrated Cotton Club, where Ethel Waters singing “Stormy Weather�? had a lasting effect on her.�?
“Assassination is a word that still haunts the C.I.A. The most lurid of the volumes produced by the Senate committee headed by Frank Church of Idaho in the mid-1970s detailed the C.I.A.’s plots to kill foreign political figures, including Cuba’s Fidel Castro and the Congo’s Patrice Lumumba. Such intrigues were overseen by the agency’s so-called Health Alteration Committee, which once O.K.’d the dispatch of a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief to a left-leaning Iraqi colonel.�?
Hi briwref! Thanks for all the collective nouns--I love "A darth of cheneys" :-)
The ones you added as comments to a shrink of violets, would you mind adding them to the list itself? It's growing to be quite a fantastic open list, your additions would be most welcome there.
“In the lexicon of Santeria, “aché�? is the term applied to the life force, or to vital energy and good vibes. That word turns up in Caridad De La Luz’s new Off Broadway production, “Boogie Rican Blvd., the Musical,�? but in a larger sense Ms. De La Luz herself seems to embody and be guided by those qualities, both onstage and off.�?
“In 1952, the first presidential year in which television outshined radio, Mr. Cronkite was chosen to lead the coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions. By Mr. Cronkite’s account, it was then that the term “anchor�? was first used — by Sig Mickelson, the first director of television news for CBS, who had likened the chief announcer’s job to an anchor that holds a boat in place. Paul Levitan, another CBS executive, and Don Hewitt, then a young producer, have also been credited with the phrase.�?
“Along with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC, Mr. Cronkite was among the first celebrity anchormen. In 1995, 14 years after he retired from the “CBS Evening News,�? a TV Guide poll ranked him No. 1 in seven of eight categories for measuring television journalists. (He professed incomprehension that Maria Shriver beat him out in the eighth category, attractiveness.) He was so widely known that in Sweden anchormen were once called Cronkiters.�?
“A highly contagious fungus that destroys tomato plants has quickly spread to nearly every state in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, and the weather over the next week may determine whether the outbreak abates or whether tomato crops are ruined, according to federal and state agriculture officials.
The spores of the fungus, called late blight, are often present in the soil, and small outbreaks are not uncommon in August and September. But the cool, wet weather in June and the aggressively infectious nature of the pathogen have combined to produce what Martin A. Draper, a senior plant pathologist at the United States Department of Agriculture, described as an “explosive” rate of infection.”
Hi EscapeMN, thanks for the words and the definition. A bit of guidance, if you don't mind: if you add those two words (epiplexis and epiplectic) to the list by putting them in the 'add word' form and hitting 'add', they'll be put into Wordie in a way that lets you see who else has listed those words, and it will let other people add them to their lists. That also creates a unique page for the word, and lets you add comments and definitions to the word page itself.
Ga, Sionnach, I somehow missed your bug report a few weeks ago about all the duplicates. I'll look into that ASAP, which unfortunately probably means this coming weekend. Last thing in the world I want is to diminish Wordie's appeal to you :-)
I was dubious that the anus could be considered a gland, but apparently in hyenas and dogs there is indeed an anal gland. Which sometimes requires grooming. Yuck.
“The club is “a place to see and be seen,” as its Web site says — that is, unless you are a visiting president who after a day and a half of blinis, beluga and bilats (the diplo term for “bilateral meetings”) just wants to hang out with the clan.”
“Outside the hall where the Naz Foundation news conference was held, dozens of young men and women gathered to celebrate, along with a group of hijras, men who dress and act like women who classify themselves as belonging to neither gender.”
Doesn't mentos have some meaning in Greek, in addition to being a breath mint? But this just struck me as a nice bit of freely-associated doggerel. And I love the phrase "copy-off." And I love that the list it's on is called "Jejuju"--I have no idea what that means, either, and Gooble isn't helping.
“Unlike his father, a volatile and uneven performer, Mr. Khan maintained an austere demeanor onstage while coaxing passages of extraordinary intensity from his sarod, an instrument with 25 strings, 10 plucked with a piece of coconut shell while the remainder resonate sympathetically.”
U, can't believe I missed this list first time around. I have a love-hate (ok, mostly hate) relationship with the words on it, but I love the list itself. And I really appreciate you putting into words, in the description, the inchoate discomfort this kind of language makes me feel, and your recognition that these are all of a piece. They're not just words, they epitomize a syndrome. I can live with rancor and bad spelling, but the cutesy superiority complex part is nauseating.
I'm very catholic in my appreciation of condiments. To paraphrase Will Rogers, I never met one I didn't like. There's a greasy burger place in the building where I work. I'm on the 2nd floor, and the kitchen is almost directly below my desk--I'm trying to convince them to install a dumbwaiter. When you order a cheeseburger, they always ask "ketchup, mustard, or mayo," to which I always answer, yes.
ps -- Can any further discussion about this take place over on advertising, please? Barbecue is a very nice word and I'd rather not pollute it with talk of base commerce.
I would give my left pinkie for a really good pulled pork sandwich right now. With pickles.
Arcadia, are you sure whatever pop-up you saw wasn't triggered by some other page? I use Google Adsense for ads, and the only kind of ads I have configured are the 250x250 jobbies you see in the upper right. I don't think Google even offers popups, and if they did I'd probably drop them all together. Which would really hit me where it hurts, since I average around $2.50 a day from them.
From dictionary.com: "A heavy rapier of the 17th century, having a swept guard with two perforated plates. Also called a Walloon sword. Named after Gottfried Heinrich, Graf zu Pappenheim (1594–1632), German leader in the Thirty Years' War"
Howdy, quick-draw mcgraw. I must say, this is one of the more unique off-label uses of Wordie. It's vaguely spammish, but after asking the ouija board, I'm gonna say it's not exactly spam, since you're not linking to anything promotional.
But... are you really going to send this to prospective employers?
“If we need to basically depend on the endowment, let’s increase the take rate,” Mr. Greenberg said, referring to the percentage of the endowment drawn down by the college every year.
“Still, Erin Fitzgerald, director of social and environmental consulting for Dairy Management, says the industry wants to avert the possibility that customers will equate dairies with, say, coal plants. It has started a “cow of the future” program, looking for ways to reduce total industry emissions by 25 percent by the end of the next decade.”
Funemployment. Paycation. The Unemploymentality. Every generation has an argot to describe the confusing terrain of joblessness — the dole, deadbeat dads, UB40, and so on — and the lexicon of younger casualties in the most severe American economic downturn since World War II speaks volumes.
Here's how the blog Recessionwire defines “funemployment”: “A period of joblessness that you actually enjoy — maybe you get to lay out, sleep in, work out, read up. It helps to have savings, severance, or an unemployment check to help pay the bills. We're hearing this word used more and more, especially as people realize they may not be able to find a new job right away, so they might as well try to enjoy the time off.”
“The Alexander merited a place of honor on Esquire’s list of “the pansies,” the worst drinks of the Prohibition era. These included long-forgotten abominations like the Sweetheart, the Fluffy Ruffles, the Pom Pom and the Cream Fizz.”
The New York Times, Bar? What Bar?, by William Grimes, June 2, 2009
Mr. Bigsby, the sympathetic biographer, does give a strong taste of Miller’s critics. More than a few saw his work as programmatic. Mary McCarthy, for one, wrote that “Death of a Salesman” was “enfeebled” by Miller’s “insistence on universality.”
“But some sociologists pointed out that African-American boys and men have been hugging as part of their greeting for decades, using the word “dap” to describe a ritual involving handshakes, slaps on the shoulders and, more recently, a hug, also sometimes called the gangsta hug among urban youth.”
“The prevalence of boys’ nonromantic hugging (especially of other boys) is most striking to adults. Experts say that over the last generation, boys have become more comfortable expressing emotion, as embodied by the MTV show “Bromance,” which is now a widely used term for affection between straight male friends.”
Pro, I feel for you, and at the same time I'm envious. Having moved too many times, the very notion of being able to call anyone my people seems fantastic. It sounds like a gift you'll always have, wherever you live.
I spent 7 years in New York and know what an alienating place it can be, even if you love it. I hope you find some peace while you struggle with the tension between roots and opportunity.
The concept of ultrasmart computers — machines with “greater than human intelligence�? — was dubbed “The Singularity�? in a 1993 paper by the computer scientist and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge. He argued that the acceleration of technological progress had led to “the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth.�?...
The science fiction author Ken MacLeod described the idea of the singularity as “the Rapture of the nerds.�?
Great Chomsky quote (something I don't think I've ever said before), also on the Wikipedia page sarra links to below:
"He asks why postmodernist intellectuals won't respond as "people in physics, math, biology, linguistics, and other fields are happy to do when someone asks them, seriously, what are the principles of their theories, on what evidence are they based, what do they explain that wasn't already obvious, etc? These are fair requests for anyone to make. If they can't be met, then I'd suggest recourse to Hume's advice in similar circumstances: to the flames.".
Alandriadenisewalker, I have no record of ever having received an email from the account you used to register for Wordie. If you have any questions or comments concerning Wordie that you'd rather send to me directly rather than through the site, please do, my contact info is on the about page.
Nice! From the link below: "A collection of award icons, banners, webrings and ads that clutter the bottom or top of a Web page. Like a race car covered in ads, they blur and become meaningless."
From an episode of Arrested Development: “Lucille always has trouble sleeping this time of year because she gets excited before Motherboy, a dinner dance aimed at promoting mother/son bonding.�?
“Grass-roots, antipirate militias are forming. Sheiks and government leaders are embarking on a campaign to excommunicate the pirates, telling them to get out of town and preaching at mosques for women not to marry these un-Islamic, thieving “burcad badeed,�? which in Somali translates as sea bandit.�?
“PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)�? spaces: temporary public parks.�?
“Gardnerella Vaginalis is an infection of the female genital tract by bacteria of the Gardnerella vaginalis strain, often in combination with various anaerobic bacteria. Also called bacterial vaginosis.�?
“One White House insider described Mr. LaHood as “a master of odd jobs,�? whose knowledge of Washington allows him to take on assignments as varied as lobbying lawmakers on the budget and helping political novices in the cabinet navigate Beltway social rituals (“cocktail situations,�? as Energy Secretary Steven Chu calls them).�?
Oh, I'm sorry, I don't mean to get my kickers in a twist--I hate to be a hater.
There's nothing wrong with the word per se. It's just that there was a period in the nineties when it was in heavy rotation with a certain type of person, pseudo intellectual kids from the Northeast U.S. who went to a certain set of schools, read (or pretended to have read) a certain set of books, who dressed disturbingly alike, and who repeated certain words and phrases with a knowing glance, like they were occult signifiers to be shared only between initiates. "Heteronormative" was one of those words, and it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
“The basis of this resistance lay in the village, and its distinct form of community: the jati. These groups, numbering in the thousands, were governed by strict rules of endogamy and by taboos about purity, and arranged a social hierarchy: varna. The precise ideological sources of this system are obscure, but elements may be traced to one of the very late hymns of the Rig Veda, which describes the dismemberment of the cosmic giant Purusha, the primeval male whose sacrifice created the world: 'When they divided the Man, into how many parts did they apportion him? What do they call his mouth, his two arms and thighs and feet?/ His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms were made into the Warrior (kshatriya), his thighs the People (vaishiya), and from his feet the servants (shudra) were born.' The resulting intricate filigree of social interconnections and division -- a hierarchical order of peerless sophistication -- defies any simple account Perplexed Westerners came to describe it by the term 'caste', but a wide distance separates the deceptively well-defined doctrinal claims of the caste order and the actual operations of what is an essentially local, small-scale system.�?
“Many Paulistanos, as São Paulo residents are called, say the interminable stop-and-go traffic and the wide gap between haves and have-nots are recipes for assaults and carjackings, especially now that Brazil’s boom times have come to a halt.�?
I've heard too many pseudo-intellectual poseurs use this word to not dislike it--I buy the Valse hypothesis. All apologies to Rick Moody, but it has been ruined by semiotics majors from Brown, wearing clunky glasses and knit scarves and babbling about Derrida and reeking of smug.
So maybe it's not the word I dislike, but everyone I've ever met who has used it, up until now :-) Rolig, I very much appreciate your measured tone. You are Obama-like (Obamaesque? Obamian?) in your ability to speak dispassionately about topics that are sometimes combative or incendiary.
And knitandpurl, I agree it's useful to differentiate some of the trappings this word has acquired (pretention, smugness), from its original meaning, which certainly describes a real phenomenon.
“Ms. Lario’s latest criticism also comes in the context of speculation about a brewing power struggle between the children of Mr. Berlusconi’s first marriage, or “first bed,�? as the Italian phrase goes, and those of his second, with Ms. Lario, over his media and even political empire.�?
When I was in college in the late 80s and early 90s the term was LUG--Lesbian Until Graduation. I heard it from lesbian friends, talking about fears that they'd fall for someone who was only experimenting. I think it did say a lot about the people using it--it said they were scared of having their hearts broken. Like a lot of bitter words it was used to dispel or mask feelings of fear and vulnerability.
The norms in play, in my experience, were those of lesbians pissed off at breeders--a far nastier term in my book, though kind of funny in a perverse way.
“I’m going to turn over a new leaf, TROS, and make a conscious, conscientious effort to break myself of the bad habit of using the word “retard.�? But I don’t think the “retard jar�? is for me. Instead, I’m going to use a substitution for the word. From now on, instead of saying “retard�? or “that’s so retarded,�? I’m going to say “leotard�? and “that’s so leotarded.�? I won’t be mocking the mentally challenged, just the physically gifted. I will pick on the strong—and the limber—and not the weak.�?
“How many people does it take to change every light bulb in Grand Central Terminal?
Six, it turns out. And it’s a full-time job.
On Tuesday, those wiremen — their official title — unscrewed the last remaining incandescent bulbs in the building, replacing them with compact fluorescent bulbs and completing the greening of the lighting system at the bustling station.�?
“For the last two years, Bustelo has been a fixture at parties and giveaway suites from the Winter Music Conference to Sundance to the Oscars, and the company behind it has been sending truckloads of it to 50 Cent and Perez Hilton.
Whenever there is coolsploitation, however, there is potential trouble, and marketing experts say that Café Bustelo’s reboot will not be easy.�?
“The problem of refueling is so significant that fans of electric cars have a phrase for it: range anxiety, the nagging fear that you’ll run out of juice before you can find a charge spot and be stranded at the side of the road.�?
“In 2004, he coined the term “cosmetic neurology�? to describe the practice of using drugs developed for recognized medical conditions to strengthen ordinary cognition.�?
The New Yorker, Brain Gain, by Margaret Talbot, April 27, 2009
C_b, thanks for pointing that out, I dislike the disproportionate association of feminine and negative terms. Though anything associated with the privates has been pejoritized at some point or another.
I agree, the bread connotation is the best part. Revolting food connotations are great force multipliers. Like dick cheese.
Mike Skinner, aka "The Streets," who is awesome, mentions geezers in every third song. He uses the term in the yarbian sense, generally talking about un- or under-employed British guys in their 20s, whose major activities include smoking dope and playing Grand Theft Auto. From "Geezers Need Excitement:"
Best definition ever: “Twitter seems to be, first and foremost, an online haven where teenagers making drugs can telegraph secret code words to arrange gang fights and orgies. It also functions as a vehicle for teasing peers until they commit suicide.�?
Waddington helped to develop "kettling," where police enclose protesters in a confined space, a tactic that replaced the use of horses or crowd charges by lines of baton-wielding officers to disperse demonstrations.
The other WTO. Their mission is actually quite important: "World Toilet Organization (WTO) is a global non- profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide."
“The term "Quartodeciman" refers to the practice of celebrating Pascha or Easter beginning on Nisan 14 of the Hebrew calendar, "the LORD's passover" (Leviticus 23:5). According to the church historian Eusebius, the Quartodeciman Polycarp (bishop of Smyrna, by tradition a disciple of John the Evangelist) debated the question with Anicetus (bishop of Rome). The Roman province of Asia was Quartodeciman, while the Roman and Alexandrian churches continued the fast until the Sunday following, wishing to associate Easter with Sunday. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus persuaded the other, but they did not consider the matter schismatic either, parting in peace and leaving the question unsettled.�?
“There, a friendly Irish waitress started peppering her with questions, most important of which was: Did Ms. Lavery play camogie, the female version of hurling?�?
“Let’s call the smallest possible number that doubles its value when its last digit is moved to the front, the “Dyson number�? for 2. The Dyson number for 3 would be one that tripled its value; the Dyson number for 4 would be one that quadrupled its value, and so on.�?
Right-O VO, so much so that you just gave it a new title. Nothing edifying here whatsoever. A list that makes you clamp your hands over your eyes, peer through the cracks between your fingers, and then wish you hadn't.
Yeah, I think all I did was blow up the font size in a few places. Trying to be consistent with words and lists, I think, though I can see how it could be distracting.
“The idea that experience leaves some trace in the brain goes back at least to Plato’s Theaetetus metaphor of a stamp on wax, and in 1904 the German scholar Richard Semon gave that ghostly trace a name: the engram.�?
Folks, I really, really appreciate it when bad actors are brought to my attention. It happens infrequently, given the volume of traffic here, and I have a small bag of tools for dealing with them. It hasn't, knock on wood, been much of an issue.
But my opinion is that we should refrain from rising to the bait on the site. Most trolls are just out for attention, so yelling at them leaves them emboldened, not chastened. Though of course everyone is free to say what they will, and do what they want (except for the trolls, who I will nuke). And if anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to chime in here or let me know directly. Thanks.
“Laicization — or removing a priest from the priesthood — was what Father Fitzgerald recommended for many abusive priests to bishops and Pope Paul VI.�?
From the 1940’s through the 1960’s, bishops and superiors of religious orders sent their problem priests to Father Fitzgerald to be healed. He founded the Servants of the Paraclete in 1947 (“paraclete�? means “Holy Spirit�?), and set up a retreat house in Jemez Springs, N.M.
“We are amazed,�? Father Fitzgerald wrote to a bishop in 1957, “to find how often a man who would be behind bars if he were not a priest is entrusted with the cura animarum,�? meaning, the care of souls.
Yeah yeah. But seriously, Wordie would sorta work over Twitter. It's the bastard offspring of Twitter and Wikipedia, sort of. Except that I think it predates Twitter. Their rate of growth has been slightly higher.
I hadn't announced that yet because it doesn't really... work :-) The query to get active lists is screwed up somehow. I'll work on it tonight though, should be fixed soon. The criteria are meant to be simple: open lists that have had words added to them in the past 24 hours, sorted by volume of words added in that timeframe.
“Some publishers insist that consumers will pay for quality, which is perhaps the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. If that were true then, when Sirius satellite radio launched in the US, instead of poaching Howard Stern to lure over paid listeners, they'd have hired Charlie Rose to read out Proust. Meanwhile, the idea that people will pay for quality news or investigative journalism is simply the stuff of journalism professors' wank fantasies.�?
“Admittedly, I’m late to the party: goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world, a staple of, among others, Mexican, Indian, Greek and southern Italian cuisines.”
I love this list. This is a lot to ask, but it would be cool to see the names of each letter on its respective page. Maybe I'll start chipping away at that.
Rolig, +1 on the show of support, your conversation and contributions are valued and enjoyed.
This is all in fun, right? Wordie is the house the pedantry built :-) If you can't argue/discuss/dissect the nuances of a word here, where can you?
Whatever the meaning of "samovar" (and it's allowed to have more than one, I think, and slightly different ones in different places; that's how words work), part of the 30 Rock joke is indeed that Toufer is himself a pedant. (*shoots joke in head by pedantically explaining it*)
But I think I have a solution to this all. Samovars used for anything other than tea should be called Son of Samovars.
Short for International Herald Tribune, an international, English-language newspaper published in Paris, and owned by The New York Times. The paper used to have its own web site, but as of March 29, 2009 iht.com redirects to the global edition of nytimes.com.
Last night I made some internal changes (upgraded to Rails 2.3.2), which I think are causing issues with login. Looking into it, thanks for the heads-up.
“This year the world’s first ever walking bus, which started in Hertfordshire in 1998, celebrates its tenth birthday!
Parent volunteers walk the children to school, with a ‘driver’ at the front and a ‘conductor’ at the back, collecting children from ‘bus stops’ along the route.�?
“One of Dyson’s daughters, the Internet vizier Esther Dyson, says her father raised her without a television so she would read more, and has always been ‘just as interested in talking to’ the latest graduate student to make the pilgrimage to Princeton ‘as he is the famous person at the next table.’�?
The New York Times, The Civil Heretic, by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 25, 2009
“Dyson agrees with the prevailing view that there are rapidly rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere caused by human activity. To the planet, he suggests, the rising carbon may well be a MacGuffin, a striking yet ultimately benign occurrence in what Dyson says is still ‘a relatively cool period in the earth’s history.’�?
The New York Times, The Civil Heretic, by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 25, 2009
“Big Bertha, as circus folk call Ringling, is under siege as never before. Kenneth Feld, the company’s 60-year-old producer, dismissed any idea that Ringling is no longer the Greatest Show on Earth.�?
In the past, I’ve tried pointing out to my parents that all money not spent by the Greatest Generation will only be spent by their heirs — and in not-so-great ways. Sometimes, after I’ve threatened to blow the inheritance on a box at the Metropolitan Opera or nightly meals at Le Bernardin, my parents will consent to a little extravagance for themselves, and my mother will remind my father of an old proverb: “There are no pockets in shrouds.�?
“Consumer psychologists call it hyperopia, the medical term for farsightedness and the opposite of myopia, nearsightedness, because it’s the result of people looking too far ahead. They’re so obsessed with preparing for the future that they can’t enjoy the present, and they end up looking back sadly on all their lost opportunities for fun.�?
“And in my household, in addition to my unrequited predilection for Drinks With Umbrellas, I recently learned that my husband hated the taste of beer in high school and so insisted on White Mountain, a “malternative�? beverage.�?
“I know, I know: You two physically disconnected after the births of your children (all too common), you engaged in some sleazy adulterate behavior, wocka wocka wocka. But that's all out in the open now, and you've decided to stay together because you're good parents, partners, and friends, and you've opened the relationship up to seek friends-with-benefits, as the straight people call 'em, or fuckbuddies, as we gay people like to call 'em.�?
“In President Barack Obama’s videotaped message to the Iranian people on Friday — which can be seen with Farsi subtitles on the Web site of Radio Farda, a broadcaster financed by the American government — he discusses the celebration of the Persian New Year, Norouz, which begins today. (Readers in Iran: Happy 1388!)�?
“Just over an hour after they had arrived, they were done: the yard was clean, the house cleared, the “after�? pictures taken. The men, members of a “trash out�? crew charged with hauling away what’s left in foreclosed houses, had removed any sign of a home life from this one in Murrieta Oaks.�?
“In a historic pairing of pop superstars who inspire the sort of hatred in A.V Club commenters most folks reserve for pedophiles, Nazis and Hilton sisters, 50 Cent of Vitamin Water and video game fame will be joining pop-punk punching bags Fall Out Boy for five magical dates on their current U.S Tour.
In a press release heralding this once-in-a-lifetime teaming of hip hop douchebag and rock douchetards 50 Cent is hilariously/erroneously described as “acclaimed�?.�?
Oh sionnach, thanks--I love this word too, and had forgotten about it. It's right up there with electrodoméstico in my pantheon of great Spanish words.
“McCain had blogged about body issues during the campaign — “I’ve been surprised by critical comments regarding my weight and body shape. It recently reached a ridiculous level when someone handed me a business card for a plastic surgeon and suggested I needed liposuction�? — so Ingraham’s jokes were, as the baseballers say, right in her wheelhouse.�?
The New York Times, Mean G.O.P. Girls, by Eric Etheridge, Marche 17, 2009
Admiral James Stockdale, describing how he survived seven years as a POW in Vietnam, in Jim Colins' book Good to Great, as quoted in The New York Times:
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.�?
“A study of cheating among graduate students, published in 2006 in the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education, found that 56 percent of all M.B.A. students cheated regularly — more than in any other discipline.�?
Thanks for editing that comment, I appreciate it. I meant what I said--Wordie does have decent PageRank and links from it can contribute in some small way to a site's SEO, as you know. That's not what the site is about though, so I try to discourage it.
A twitter status update concerning one's pants, left by someone other than the account holder when a phone or laptop is left unattended and unlocked. First mentioned here, as far as I can tell, and trackable via http://pantsstatus.com.
“In most national jurisdictions, the status of a child as a legitimate or illegitimate heir could be changed – in either direction – under the civil law (as with the Princes in the Tower). Likewise under canon law, in most religious jurisdictions. In some jurisdictions, a child's birth could be retroactively "legitimated" if the parents married – usually within a specified time, such as a year.�? --Wikipedia
Came across this word while speculating about the Palin saga.
“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in greeting Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, presented him with a red plastic button emblazoned with the English word “reset�? and the Russian word “peregruzka.�?
The gift was a play on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s call in Munich last month for the two countries to “press the reset button�? on their relationship.
“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,�? Mrs. Clinton said, handing the button to Mr. Lavrov. “Do you think we got it?�?
“You got it wrong,�? he replied, explaining that the Americans had come up with the Russian word for overcharged.�?
“This recession, which began in December 2007, has already lasted longer than the average postwar recession. If it turns out to be as bad as the most protracted of the postwar downturns, we will touch bottom next month.
But my strong suspicion is that we are now in something more like a Great Recession. It won’t produce as steep a fall in American output as the Depression did, but it may prove to be as prolonged.�?
The New York Times, Our Great Recession, by Niall Ferguson, February 28, 2009
“Emoji (絵文字 ?) is the Japanese term for the picture characters or emoticons used in Japanese wireless messages and webpages. Originally meaning pictograph, the word literally means e "picture" + moji "letter". The characters are used much like emoticons elsewhere, but a wider range is provided, and the icons are standardized and built into the handsets.�?
“This may be the most popular sport of Saudi youth, an obsessive, semilegal competition that dominates weekend nights here. It ranges from garden variety drag racing to “drifting,�? an extremely dangerous practice in which drivers deliberately spin out and skid sideways at high speeds, sometimes killing themselves and spectators.�?
“Some young people, asked why they risked their lives this way, said it was because of “tufush,�? a colloquial Arabic word for boredom whose meaning is said by some to derive from the gestures made by a drowning man.�?
Sorry RT. The Board voted on it last week, when we used the first installment of our bailout money (Wordie: shovel ready!) to fly the Gulfstream to Macau for a gambling junke... uh, I mean, strategic planning retreat. Sacrificial killings are now only available with Wordie PRO.
You automatically agreed to the new tos by clicking on random word. Thanks!
Terms of Service, the gobbledygooklegalese that everyone clicks through at lightening speed when installing software or signing up for a web site. No idea why, or if, these have any legal standing, considering nobody in the history of the universe has ever read one. Or maybe one guy has, once. I wrote a TOS for a previous web site, and in the middle of it added a clause requiring you to agree that the Modern Lovers were the best band ever. Over six thousand people agreed to that, and as far as I know only one person noticed it.
Good idea Pro. Didn't get to add Etsy tonight, ran out of time, but tomorrow I'll try to both do that, and add a preferences option to set who can see your also-ons,everyone or just registered users.
“In 1903, Leonardo Torres Quevedo presented the Telekino at the Paris Academy of Science, accompanied by a brief, and making an experimental demonstration. In the same time he obtained a patent in France, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States. The Telekino consisted of a robot that executed commands transmitted by electromagnetic waves. It constituted the world's first apparatus for radio control and was a pioneer in the field of remote control. In 1906, in the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Torres successfully demonstrated the invention in the port of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore. Later, he would try to apply the Telekino to projectiles and torpedoes, but had to abandon the project for lack of financing.�?
Hello mechnolatry, just answered your query over on features. See what you were talking about now. I think people were trying more to be informative than offensive, but I can see how it's borderline.
I think tagging things 'v' is just fine, since I haven't added anything to let you browse words by letter. Tags are pretty open ended.
Mech, sorry you feel your comments haven't been well received--maybe it was a misunderstanding? Wordie humor, such that it is, can be obscure, and somtimes tart (though also obvious, and sweet). I just looked at your comments and fwiw, they look cool to me. As I've said before, I like almost all comments, but have a particular fondness for quotes and definitions, like the ones you've added.
I love etsy, and will add it to the also-on list tonight. Thanks for the suggestion.
My daughter's first unequivocal word. There have been ambiguous maybe-words for a while. "Mama"... followed by a string of spittle-inflected vowels while she points at the fridge. But a few days ago she began began grabbing buttons, looking at you soulfully, and saying "button."
Verb meaning to acquire a company and destroy it through neglect, as Google did to dodgeball.com. Example: "Do you think Yahoo! is going to dodgeball jumpcut?"
“America's military is about to lock and load with new ammunition that's tough on enemies but easy on mother earth. It's known as the "Green Bullet", which is a new lead-free projectile that defense officials say is just as lethal as the standard 5.56mm without harming the environment.�?
“So far, more than 200 advertisements have run in more than 70 languages: in highbrow periodicals like The New York Review of Books and The Poetry Review in Britain; in general-interest publications like Parade and USA Today; in obscure foreign trade journals like China Copyright and Svensk Bokhandel; and in newspapers in places like Fiji, Greenland, the Falkland Islands, and the Micronesian island of Niue (the name is roughly translated as Behold the Coconut!), which has one newspaper.�?
“Not a few of the dwellers or toilers along Automobile Row have been predicting a popular future for auto polo, the game from the South and West which gave the public a number of thrills as a game and furnished food for thought for the motor enthusiast at Madison Square Garden in the week just ended. There had been rumors of the game from time to time, and people had heard that the four-wheeled "ponies" on which it was played provided as many sensational moments as teh four-legged ones of the horse polo match.�?
“Human beings evolved as cooperative breeders, says Dr. Hrdy, a reproductive strategy in which mothers are assisted by as-if mothers, or “allomothers,�? individuals of either sex who help care for and feed the young.�?
Pro, thanks much for drawing my attention back to Forvo--I finally added a link to them on each word. They contacted me last year, and it got lost in my inbox--their email arrived the same week as my daughter. A lot of things fell through the cracks that week :-)
We do. The copyeditors for the travel section sit right behind me.
This is a term of art in copyright law. It might have been a good idea to avoid jargon, or to at least mention that that's what this is. But it is a legit word, if fugly :-)
“In the United States, the copyright law provides a four-point definition of fair use, which takes into consideration the purpose (commercial vs. educational) and the substantiality of the excerpt.�?
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were gusts of 35 m.p.h.,�? he said, “We have to keep our eye out for blizzard conditions.�? The weather service defines a blizzard, not by the amount of snowfall — though they tend to be accompanied by significant snow — but by three consecutive hours of winds blowing at 35 m.p.h. and visibility of less than a mile.
“The Rocky Mountain News in Denver will cease publication on Friday.
E.W. Scripps, which owns newspaper, known locally as The Rocky, announced Thursday that it had failed to find a buyer for the daily. Scripps’s chief executive, Rich Boehne, said in a statement that The Rocky was “a victim of changing times in our industry and huge economic challenges.�? Scripps said the newspaper lost $16 million last year.�?
Ms. Bastianich agreed that using less water is O.K. “Yes, I think it’s doable to reduce the cooking water by one third,�? from 6 quarts per pound to 4. “But please ‘butta la pasta’ in boiling water.�?
“But now, with a public backlash against excessive pay and taxpayer lifelines extended to crippled companies, the idea of recouping compensation, known as “clawback,�? is gaining traction.�?
Tim O'Reilly just used this phrase at the TimesOpen conference to describe the cloud of data that's emitted by our devices: GPS data from our phones, search rank from links, etc.
“It was the New York Times that broke his heart,�? said Nancy Packer, a retired professor of English at Stanford, who knew Stegner well in the time he nurtured writers from Ken Kesey to Larry McMurtry here on the Farm, as the university is known.
“In postwar Japan, the economy wasn’t doing so great, so you couldn’t get everyday-use items like household cleaners,” says Lisa Katayama, author of “Urawaza,” a book named after the Japanese term for clever lifestyle tips and tricks. “So people looked for ways to do with what they had.”
“Sometimes, during the 30-minute briefings that Mr. Summers delivers in the Oval Office nearly every day, Mr. Obama addresses him as Professor, as in, ‘What do you think, Professor Summers?’ Sometimes, as he did in the Roosevelt Room one recent afternoon, Mr. Obama tweaks him and his fellow policy wonks, dubbing them ‘the propeller-heads.’�?
“The faintly depressing human tendency to seek out and spend time with those most similar to us is known in social science as "homophily", and it shapes our views, and our lives, in ways we're barely aware of.�?
“Video-game aficionados have been creating “machinima�? -- an ungainly term mixing “machine�? and “cinema�? and pronounced ma-SHEEN-i-ma -- since the late 90's. “Red vs. Blue�? is the first to break out of the underground, and now corporations like Volvo are hiring machinima artists to make short promotional films, while MTV, Spike TV and the Independent Film Channel are running comedy shorts and music videos produced inside games.�?
The New York Times, The Xbox Auteurs, by Clive Thompson, August 7, 2005
“For many ideas, Google’s first and most important audience is its employees, and it typically tries products internally before releasing them.
Google and other technology companies refer to this as “eating your own dog food.�? Through such “dog-fooding,�? Google learned that the early version of its calendar program was fine for parents tracking children’s soccer games, but not robust enough to meet a corporate user’s need to book rooms, reserve equipment and delegate scheduling.�?
“First, it’s a lesson in the power of raw repetition — the ‘mere exposure effect’ identified by psychology studies that suggests we like things more simply by seeing them more often.�?
I haven't posted to Errata in an embarrassingly long time, but not sure why the old posts aren't loading, will look into it. And someday I do plan to be a blogger again, I swear.
“If the battered but unbroken stimulus package Washington finally serves up does not turn the trick, perhaps the answer to the country’s economic woes could be something a lot simpler. Bring back burlesque!
In the nostalgia-steeped new musical ‘Minsky’s,’ which had its world premiere here Sunday night at the Ahmanson Theater, dancing in your scanties while the world trembles is presented as noble service that might help keep a wounded country on its feet.�?
“I’ve become increasingly concerned about the rising number of rich people who are being caught unawares by shifts in the sumptuary code. First, there were those auto executives who didn’t realize that it is no longer socially acceptable to use private jets for lobbying trips to Washington. Then there was John Thain, who was humiliated because it is no longer acceptable to spend $35,000 on a commode for a Merrill Lynch washroom.�?
The Panic of 1873 was caused by the "Great Epizootic," a world-wide epidemic of equine influenza that crippled commerce when horses became unable to haul people or goods. The horses recovered within a year; the economy took a decade. More info here and here.
“Among country and bluegrass musicians, Mr. Martin is regarded as a master of a difficult five-fingered playing style known as clawhammer or frailing, in which the instrument’s strings are pushed down by fingernails, rather than pulled up with picks.�?
“I’m talking, instead, about the administration’s plans for a banking system rescue — plans that are shaping up as a classic exercise in ‘lemon socialism’: taxpayers bear the cost if things go wrong, but stockholders and executives get the benefits if things go right.�?
“The president’s disgust at Wall Street looters was good. But we need more. We need disgorgement.
Disgorgement is when courts force wrongdoers to repay ill-gotten gains. And I’m ill at the gains gotten by scummy executives acting all Gordon Gekko while they’re getting bailed out by us.�?
“Mr. Day, a systems administrator who has been barbecuing since college, suggested doing something with a pile of sausage. ‘It’s a variation of what’s called a fattie in the barbecue community,’ Mr. Day said. ‘But we took it to the extreme.’�?
“This recipe is the Bacon Explosion, modestly called by its inventors ‘the BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes.’ The instructions for constructing this massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce first appeared last month on the Web site of a team of Kansas City competition barbecuers.�?
“‘Saddlebacking: the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities.’ After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she's saving herself for marriage.�?
“The ‘Citiboobs’ — as The New York Post, which broke the news, calls them — watched as the car chieftains got in trouble for flying their private jets to Washington to ask for bailouts, and the A.I.G. moguls got dragged before Congress for spending their bailout on California spa treatments. But the boobs still didn’t get the message.�?
“To get his budget and tax bills through the House, Reagan needed support from conservative Democrats, many of them from Texas, known as ‘Boll Weevils.’�?
Upgrading to WordiePRO also makes the site scratch and sniff. You can select your preferred scent: musty bookshop, printer's ink, or artificial strawberry.
Pro, you're totally right. In the near future I'll polish up some of the admin tools I've built for myself, and deputize some of you regulars. Like Andre the Giant, I'll have a posse!
The tools make it pretty easy to zap things. I'll tighten them up a little and try to hand out the shiny badges within a week or so. Maybe divided up by time zone :-)
“Indeed, Silicon Valley may be one of the few places where businesses are still aware of the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian economist who wrote about business cycles during the first half of the last century. He said the lifeblood of capitalism was ‘creative destruction.’ Companies rising and falling would unleash innovation and in the end make the economy stronger.�?
“Email Bankruptcy is a term used to identify or explain a decision to close an e-mail account due to an overwhelming receipt of garbage messages, compared to legitimate messages, usually attributed to author Lawrence Lessig in 2004 but can also be attributed to Dr. Sherry Turkle in 2002.�?
NYT doesn't say anything, but Wikipedia says “Teleiophilia (from Greek teleios, ‘full grown’) is a term coined by sexologist Ray Blanchard to refer to the sexual interest in adults.�?
“A teleidoscope is a kind of kaleidoscope. Unlike other kaleidoscopes, teleidoscopes have a lens and an open view, so they can be used to form kaleidoscopic patterns from objects outside the instrument, rather than from items installed as part of it.�?
“Daniel Bergner, 48, the divorced father of two teenage children, is what sexologists would call a straight, vanilla teleiophile. He is attracted to adults, that is, prefers the opposite sex and doesn’t shop for lovemaking accessories — clothespins, clamps, carabiners, rubber gloves — at Home Depot.�?
“Meana, who serves with Chivers on the board of Archives of Sexual Behavior, entered the field of sexology in the late 1990s and began by working clinically and carrying out research on dyspareunia — women’s genital pain during intercourse.�?
The New York Times, What Do Women Want?, by Daniel Bergner, January 22, 2009
“In 1996, when she worked as an assistant to a sexologist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, then called the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, she found herself the only woman on a floor of researchers investigating male sexual preferences and what are known as paraphilias — erotic desires that fall far outside the norm.�?
The New York Times, What Do Women Want?, by Daniel Bergner, January 22, 2009
“Monday was Russian Orthodox Epiphany, and roughly 30,000 Muscovites lined up to dunk themselves in icy rivers and ponds, city officials said. The annual ritual baptism, which is believed to wash away sins, is enjoying a boisterous revival after being banished to villages during the Soviet era.�?
“Using the technique that rhetoricians call anaphora, repeating a phrase at the opening of successive sentences, Obama said: ‘This is the price and the promise… This is the source of our confidence… This is the meaning of our liberty…’�?
“On the one hand, they said, the new president’s apparent enthusiasm for science, and the concomitant rise of ‘geek chic’ and ‘smart is the new cool’ memes, can only redound to the benefit of all scientists, particularly if the enthusiasm is followed by a bolus of new research funds.�?
That was a mistake on erich13's part, and s/he contacted me about it, but in my new incarnation as not very useful or responsive, I hadn't gotten to it yet. I'll try to today though.
“While there is some debate about the best inaugural address in history, it’s pretty clear that the worst was the one delivered by William Henry Harrison, who went thwacking through a tangled thicket of classical allusions for an hour and 45 minutes. (Harrison’s editor, Daniel Webster, claimed it could have been worse, and that he had killed off ‘seventeen Roman proconsuls, as dead as smelts.’)�?
Yesterday's crashed plane is going to go live at Dick Cheney's house:
“On Saturday, she said, investigators planned to extract the aircraft from the icy water with two large cranes, placing the plane on a barge for transit to a secure location.�?
“In emergencies, researchers have found, most people actually freeze until they're told what to do. Some people also engage in what's called situational altruism -- they help each other.
“‘Sometimes you misunderestimated me,’ Bush told the Washington press corps. This is not the first time our president has worried about misunderestimation, so it’s fair to regard this not as a slip of the tongue, but as something the president of the United States thinks is a word. The rhetoric is the one part of the administration we’re surely going to miss. We are about to enter a world in which our commander in chief speaks in full sentences, and I do not know what we’re going to do to divert ourselves on slow days.�?
“As national duty cut into N.F.L. rosters during World War II — more than 600 players were drafted at a time when teams seldom carried more than 28 — franchises scrambled for solutions. So in 1943, the Steelers and the Eagles became the Steagles, and in 1944, the Steelers and the Cardinals became Card-Pitt, all in the interest of keeping professional football alive during the war.�?
“Neuhaus spent the next days, months and years impressed by the overwhelming fact of death. This made him, he writes, a bit blubbery. ‘After some time, I could shuffle the few blocks to the church and say Mass. At the altar, I cried a lot and hoped the people didn’t notice. To think that I’m really here after all, I thought, at the altar, at the axis mundi, the center of life. And of death.’�?
“Mr. Shuttleworth looked to the stars. Paying an estimated $20 million to Russian officials, he secured a 10-day trip to space and the International Space Station on the Soyuz TM-34 in 2002 and became the first ‘Afronaut,’ as the press described him.�?
“And now a note to the infuriated fatsophere: I'm not saying that REAM's boyfriend is unattractive because he's heavier, or that heavy people aren't or can't be attractive, or that we all must forever maintain our ‘first-date weight’ over the multi-decade course of relationship/marriage/whatever.�?
The A.V. Club, Savage Love, by Dan Savage, January 7, 2009
“‘If the president calls, you have to accept,’ said Kevin Johnson, a former guard for the Phoenix Suns who was elected last year as mayor of Sacramento and has talked about sports and politics with Mr. Obama. What would he say if the president invited him to a game? ‘That would be his first mistake in office. I’d have to skunk him.’�?
“Like many New Calvinists, Driscoll advocates traditional gender roles, called ‘complementarianism’ in theological parlance. Men and women are ‘equal spiritually, and it’s a difference of functionality, not intrinsic worth,’ says Danielle Blazer, a 34-year-old Mars Hill member. Women may work outside the home, but they must submit to their husbands, and they are forbidden from taking on preaching roles in the church.�?
The New York Times, , by Molly Worthen, January 6, 2009
“The dish turned out fine, but I had unknowingly and luckily avoided producing a rotten egg stink. Brussels sprouts — and other vegetables of the Brassica family, including cabbage — release hydrogen sulfide as they cook, particularly when boiled for too long.�?
“Snyder is a 26-year-old from Raymore, Mo., with a black hat, a dignified air and a nose reconstructed a few years ago by a surgeon who used Snyder’s driver’s license as a guide. That procedure followed a head-to-head run-in with a bull — a brutally common collision known among riders as being jerked down or, more graphically, dashboarded.�?
“Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air for their children, but experts now have identified a related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.
That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after second-hand smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.�?
“Standing at the bar, Mr. Bergougnoux poured absinthe into four glasses, then arranged them beneath an auto-verseur, a small glass samovar that dispensed ice water.�?
“We like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean, or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians like Frank Langella. So here, too, George W. Bush has let us down. Even the banality of evil is too grandiose a concept for 43. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He’s the reckless Yalie Tom Buchanan, not Gatsby. He is smaller than life.�?
“I don't think I've been as excited for a film première as I am for Watchmen since Star Wars: Episode I. Here's hoping things work out better this time. I'm definitely surprised at how much of a nerd boner I've been popping over the trailers for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek: The College Years, considering that's a franchise I haven't been enthusiastic about since at least Generations (again, here's hoping things work out better this time), but Chris Pine's smarm and those gratuitous tit shots aside, it seems like it could at least be a fascinating disaster.�?
“Residents who gathered outside the president-elect’s compound or at his appearances called, ‘Obama Ohana,’ meaning Obama family — that is, part of Hawaii’s family.�?
“The sciences of taphonomy — how bodies decompose and eventually become stone — and paleontology have allowed us to piece together many details of ancient ecosystems.�?
“And this is without the help of creatures like hyenas, which pulverize and eat the bones of all but the largest animals. (That’s why hyena scat is white: it’s the remains of powdered bone.)�?
“He is routinely cited as the foremost eater of the Gilded Age, a serial multicourse gorger (the word ‘trencherman’ always seems to come up) whose excesses were endearing rather than vulgar — or, at the very least, endearingly vulgar.�?
“He made it clear that the issue was not Mr. Burris’s qualifications, but Gov. Blagojevich’s standing as a desperate ward heeler who’s lost all credibility.�?
“The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multirole aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air superiority fighter missions.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The black YF-23 was nicknamed "Black Widow II", after the Northrop P-61 Black Widow of World War II and had a red hourglass marking resembling the underbelly marking of the black widow spider. The black widow marking was briefly seen under PAV-1 before being removed at the insistence of Northrop management. The gray colored YF-23 was nicknamed ‘Gray Ghost’�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It is primarily an air superiority fighter, but has multiple capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles.�? More on Wikipedia.
“Twenty-five modified Kfir C.1s were leased to the US Navy and the US Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989, to act as adversary aircraft in dissimilar air combat training (DACT). These aircraft, designated F-21A Kfir, had narrow-span canard foreplanes and a single small rectangular strake on either side of the nose which considerably improved the aircraft's manoeuvrability, and handling at low speeds.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to attack both ground and aerial targets. Designed in the 1970s for service with the United States Navy and Marine Corps, the Hornet is also used by the air forces of several other nations.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Northrop YF-17 (unofficially nicknamed "Cobra") was a prototype lightweight fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) technology evaluation program.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed as a lightweight fighter, it evolved into a successful multirole aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing aircraft. The F-14 was the United States Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical reconnaissance platform from 1974 to 2006.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Grumman F11F/F-11 Tiger was a single-seat carrier-based United States Navy fighter aircraft in operation during the 1950s and 1960s.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Grumman F9F Panther was the manufacturer's first jet fighter and the U.S. Navy's second. The Panther was the most widely used U.S. Navy jet fighter of the Korean War.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Grumman F9F/F-9 Cougar was an aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft for the United States Navy. Based on the earlier Grumman F9F Panther, the Cougar replaced the Panther's straight wing with a more modern swept wing. The Navy considered the Cougar an updated version of the Panther, despite having a different official name, and thus Cougars started off from F9F-6 upwards.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Vought F7U Cutlass was a United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War era. It was a highly unusual, semi-tailless design, allegedly based on aerodynamic data and plans captured from the Arado company at the end of World War II, though Vought designers denied any link to the German research at the time.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) was a single-engine aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft built by Vought. It replaced the Vought F-7 Cutlass. The first F-8 prototype was ready for flight in February 1955, and was the last American fighter with guns as the primary weapon.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Convair F2Y Sea Dart was a unique American seaplane fighter aircraft that rode on twin hydro-skis for takeoff. It only flew as a prototype, and never entered production, but it is still the only seaplane to exceed the speed of sound.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The American Douglas F4D Skyray (later redesignated F-6 Skyray) was a carrier-based fighter built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Although it was in service for a relatively short time and never entered combat, it was notable for being the first carrier-launched aircraft to hold the world's absolute speed record and was the first United States Navy fighter capable of exceeding Mach 1 in level flight.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter and F-5E and F-5F Tiger II are part of a family of widely used light supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop in the United States, beginning in 1960s.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the U.S. Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. Proving highly adaptable, it became a major part of the air wings of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Air Force. It was used extensively by all three of these services during the Vietnam War�? More on Wikipedia.
“The McDonnell F3H Demon was a United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter aircraft. The successor to the F2H Banshee, after initial problems, it served from 1956 until 1964.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The McDonnell F2H Banshee was a military carrier-based jet fighter aircraft, used by the United States Navy from 1948 to 1959 and by the Royal Canadian Navy from 1955 until 1962.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The North American FJ-2/-3/-4 Fury were a series of swept-wing carrier-capable fighters for the United States Navy and Marine Corps.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a stealth ground attack aircraft formerly operated by the United States Air Force. The F-117A's first flight was in 1981, and it achieved Initial Operational Capability status in October 1983.�? More on Wikipedia.
“At a ceremony marking the F-111's USAF retirement, on 27 July 1996, it was officially named Aardvark, its long-standing unofficial nickname. Aardvark literally means "earth pig" in Dutch/Afrikaans, consequently, in Australia, the F-111 is often known by the affectionate nickname ‘Pig’.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed American design for a long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft to defend the United States and Canada from supersonic Soviet bombers.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The North American F-107, nicknamed "Ultra Sabre", was North American Aviation's entry for a United States Air Force tactical fighter-bomber design competition of the 1950s. The F-107 incorporated many innovations and radical design features, and was based on the F-100 Super Sabre.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft for the United States Air Force from the 1960s through the 1980s. Designed as the so-called "Ultimate Interceptor", it has proven to be the last dedicated interceptor in USAF service to date.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Republic F-105 Thunderchief, was a supersonic fighter-bomber used by the United States Air Force. The Mach 2 capable F-105 bore the brunt of strike bombing over North Vietnam during the early years of the Vietnam War.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was an American single-engined, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1958 until 1967.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Republic XF-103 Thunderwarrior was an American project to develop a high speed interceptor aircraft to destroy Soviet bombers. Despite a prolonged development, it never progressed past the mock-up stage.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an US interceptor aircraft built as part of the backbone of the United States Air Force's air defenses in the late 1950s. Entering service in 1956, its main purpose was to intercept invading Soviet bomber fleets.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was a supersonic military fighter flown by the USAF and the RCAF. Initially designed as a long-range bomber escort (known as a penetration fighter) for the Strategic Air Command (SAC), the Voodoo served in a variety of other roles, including that of an all-weather interceptor aircraft with the Air Defense Command / Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) and fighter bomber and photo reconnaissance roles with the Tactical Air Command (TAC).�? More on Wikipedia.
“The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard (ANG) until 1979. As the first of the Century Series collection of USAF jet fighters, it was capable of supersonic speed in level flight, and made extensive use of titanium throughout the aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The North American Aviation F-86D Sabre (sometimes called the "Sabre Dog" or "Dog Sabre") was a transonic jet all-weather interceptor. Based on North American's F-86 Sabre day fighter, the F-86D had only 25 percent commonality with other Sabre variants, with a larger fuselage, larger afterburning engine, and a distinctive nose radome.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was the United States Air Force's first operational jet-powered all-weather interceptor aircraft. It was a development by Lockheed of the two seater T-33 Shooting Star trainer aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor was a mixed-propulsion interceptor using a jet engine for most flight, and a cluster of four small rocket engines for added thrust during climb and interception.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Douglas F3D Skyknight, (later F-10 Skyknight) was a United States twin-engine, midwing jet fighter aircraft manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. The F3D was designed as a carrier-based all-weather aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was an early American jet-powered all-weather interceptor. It has the distinction of being the first combat aircraft armed with nuclear weapons, (the Genie rocket) for air-to-air use.�? More on Wikipedia.
“The McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo was a long-range, twin-engine jet fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force. Although it never entered service, its design was adapted for the subsequent F-101 Voodoo.�? More on Wikipedia.
"The Curtiss-Wright XF-87 Blackhawk (previously designated the XA-43 and XP-87) was a prototype American all-weather jet fighter interceptor and the company's last aircraft project." More on Wikipedia.
"The American Boeing P-26, nicknamed the "Peashooter", was the first all-metal production fighter aircraft and the first pursuit monoplane used by the United States Army Air Corps." More on Wikipedia.
Also a skateboarding move where you jump from a height, skateboard in hand, and simultaneously drop the skateboard under your feet and land on it. Here's an example.
“On ‘Good Morning America,’ de Nies, who grew up in Honolulu, tasted a traditional plate lunch that Obama is said to favor. She and Miller also recruited a local ukulele player to sing ‘Mele Kalikimaka’ (the Hawaiian translation for ‘Merry Christmas’) on camera.�?
Hi BB! I'm often skulking around, but don't pipe up as much as I'd like these days--busy. Plus, just because I built this doesn't mean I know much about words. I'm like the building super--changing light bulbs in the foyer, tipping my hat when you get off the elevator.
“Regarding mortgages, Mr. Paulson is in a tong war with Sheila C. Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who wants to deploy a small fraction of the TARP money to refinance millions of mortgages. Her plan may not be perfect — whose is? — but she’s pushing in the right direction. But he, apparently, disagrees and has devoted no money to this purpose.�?
“Moderate in size, efficiently presented and somewhat stiffly titled “Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens,�? it is not at the Met or any other museum but at the Onassis Cultural Center in Midtown, a kunsthalle-style space, now almost a decade old, devoted to Hellenic culture.�?
“By the way, we’re approaching the one-month-to-go mark on the George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown calendar. The presidential quote of the week is: ‘Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods.’�?
“On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I'm sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia.�?
I deleted chayce the other week, but there was a bug that allowed him to still comment. I just fixed that, I think--trying to do anything from a nuked or frozen account should now send you here.
“For us sober people there is a kind of drunkenfreude to watching others embarrass themselves, mangle their words and do things they will regret in the morning — if they even remember them in the morning.�?
The New York Times, Drunkenfreude, by Susan Cheever, December 15, 2008
hi folks, sorry again about the long delay, but full-list sorting should be working. Go to your long list, click 'view all', then click any of the sort arrows.
“By 1951, the brother-sister photographers Irving and Paula Klaw, who ran a mail-order business in cheesecake, were promoting the Bettie Page image with spike heels and whips, while Bunny Yeager’s pictures featured her in jungle shots, with and without leopards skins.�?
Congress is right now considering the creation of a "car czar" to oversee the Detroit bailout. For those interested I just started a Facebook group supporting Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, for the position:
“And to prepare for the role of Vito Corleone in ‘The Godfather,’ he ‘got himself invited to the home of a well-placed Mafioso in New Jersey,’ where at a dinner for some 40 people, he took mental notes on the ‘exaggerated politesse’ they showed to a stranger, the ‘manner in which powerful dons spoke in quiet voices; the way the men went out of their way to be gracious to their women, but also how they kept them in secondary roles.’�?
“Why is this important? The reason has to do with the ‘endowment effect,’ the innate tendency to value things you own more highly than everyone else does.�?
“I am a neuroeconomist, which means that I use brain-scanning technologies like magnetic resonance imaging to decode the decision-making systems of the human mind.�?
“The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call ‘muxes’ (pronounced MOO-shays) — men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned netherworld between the two genders.�?
“That's not all in the way of teens being punished for ‘sexting,’ as it is now being called. Two teenage girls in Seattle were suspended from their cheerleading team after school officials discovered that they had taken nude cellphone photos of themselves that were circulated among students.�?
“Indeed, the problem used to be widespread in the Alps. The word ‘cretin’ is believed to come from a mountain dialect of French, apparently because iodine deficiency in the Alps produced so many cretins. The problem ended when food was brought in from elsewhere and salt was iodized.�?
“Skeptics like Mr. Doudoroff would probably blanch at a variation called the White Trash Russian. ‘You take a bottle of Yoo-hoo,’ Mr. Russell said, ‘drink half, then fill it with vodka and enjoy.’�?
“Tuesday’s filing said the now-deceased Judge Laurence J. Rittenband, who handled the case, intentionally violated a plea agreement with Mr. Polanski after having engaged in what it called ‘repeated unethical and unlawful ex parte communications’ with a deputy district attorney who was not involved in the prosecution, but was independently advising the judge.�?
I quite liked "White Noise"--I thought it was taking the piss out of postmodernism more than anything else.
But I really loved Underworld. Not right off the bat--took a hundred pages or so before I was in its thrall--but by the end I was floored. It's up there with American Pastoral as one of my favorite books about America.
“Children are taught from a young age that ‘hurricane’ is Taíno in origin, from the word ‘huracán,’ while no Latin pop music concert is complete without a shout out to Boricuas — those from Borinquen, the Taíno name for Puerto Rico, which means ‘land of the brave noble lord.’�?
Dude, kick it off, and we will be your minions. There's lots of good source material out there, like this and this. It'll be like our own little hurricane party.
“From the fossil record, you’d think that turtles burst upon the world with their shells intact. The oldest known species, a 210-million-year-old fossil from Germany, has a complete bottom shell, called a plastron, and a complete top shell, or carapace.�?
“As a young man Mr. Friedlaender had collected stamps in a serious way. In 1970 he began collecting rare books, specializing in incunabula — European books printed before 1501 — and medieval illuminated manuscripts.�?
“Legionnaires with aiguillettes, or braids, dangling from their starched uniforms pack bar stools next to scantily clad women from Brazilian cities like Macapá and Belém.�?
“As temperatures soar to 90 degrees in the shade of transplanted baobab trees, legionnaires patrol Kourou, a quiet town of 20,000, their shaved heads shielded from the sun under white pillbox-style hats known as képis blancs.�?
This position is sometimes cabinet-level, depending on the administration. It was not under George W. Bush, but it was under Clinton and will be again under Obama.
“He pioneered ‘glocal’ news — outsourcing Pasadena coverage to India at Pasadena Now, his daily online ‘newspaperless,’ as he likes to call it. Indians are writing about everything from the Pasadena Christmas tree-lighting ceremony to kitchen remodeling to city debates about eliminating plastic shopping bags.�?
“At the height of her pregnancy, Cathy and I embodied several facets of femininity. She could be seen as the fertile, glowing mother-to-be as well as the hemorrhoidal, flatulent, lumpen pregnant woman. I could be the erotic, perennially sensual nullipara, the childbirth virgin, and yet I was also the dried-up crone with a uterus full of twigs.�?
The New York Times, Her Body, My Baby, by Alex Kuczynski, November 28, 2008
“While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let’s just call them Afropublicrats.�?
“This dress combines an Asian silhouette with a pheasant pattern printed on linen. ‘There were some lovely cigarette advertisements from the time, where you see the traditional cheongsam being Westernized,’ Ms. Martin said. ‘All those influences came together to make that dress.’�?
“If that headache plaguing you this morning led you first to a Web search and then to the conclusion that you must have a brain tumor, you may instead be suffering from cyberchondria.�?
“And yet as much as I want to resent these overeducated Achievatrons (not to mention the incursion of a French-style government dominated by highly trained Enarchs), I find myself tremendously impressed by the Obama transition.�?
“This truly will be an administration that looks like America, or at least that slice of America that got double 800s on their SATs. Even more than past administrations, this will be a valedictocracy — rule by those who graduate first in their high school classes. If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.�?
“‘If the World’ opens with acoustic guitar lines suggesting a Middle Eastern oud but segues into wah-wah rhythm guitar and sustained strings fit for a blaxploitation soundtrack, while Mr. Rose unleashes something like a soul falsetto.�?
“The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is at its 2002 lows. (A friend of mine versed in technical analysis tells me that is an indication we had a double top, which he says means we are in deep trouble. I’ll stick to the fundamentals.)�?
The New York Times, A Bull Vanishes, by Floyd Norris, November 20, 2008
“A costermonger was a street seller of fruit and vegetables. The term, which derived from the words costard (a type of large ribbed apple) and monger, i.e. "seller", came to be particularly associated with the "barrow boys" of London who would sell their produce from a wheelbarrow or wheeled market stall.�?
“Or we can throw caution to the wind, as John Galliano did on Monday night, when he arrived at a party wearing the traditional button-covered costume of a Pearly King (the neighborhood monarch who protected the local street vendors of Victorian London).�?
The New York Times, Merrily They Dress, by Eric Wilson, November 19, 2008
Comments by john
Show previous 200 comments...
john commented on the user feedback
Hi folks, we added some more profile features tonight. Wordnik now sends you an email when someone comments on your profile. You can toggle email notifications on and off by clicking 'Edit profile' on your profile page, then 'Edit preferences'. In the near future it'll also notify you when someone comments on one of your lists.
The 'Edit profile' section also lets you opt in or out of the general Wordnik email list and the upcoming Word of the Day email, and change your email address. As always, please let us know if anything is acting strangely, or if you have comments or suggestions on this or anything else.
Re: spammers, yeah, I used to need all the help I could get. I think it's no big deal to comment on spam accounts, though no longer really necessary. And you have to accept that no matter how brilliant your wit, spam gets nuked and comments along with it—like a sand mandala tossed back into the river, reminding us of the transitory nature of material existence. Or something.
December 19, 2009
john commented on the word geddu
“Or the appeal might be more primal, what the Pietmontese call geddu: Its studly curves and elegant grillwork were sculpted by designers at Pininfarina, stylists of the Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo.”
Fast Company, Pop Artist, by Linda Tischler, September 2009
December 19, 2009
john commented on the word missing mass
“Dark matter became a serious issue in the 1970s, when Vera Rubin of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and her colleagues charted the rotation speeds of galaxies and found that they seemed to be enveloped in halos of dark matter, then called missing mass.”
The New York Times, At a Mine’s Bottom, Hints of Dark Matter, by Dennis Overbye, December 17, 2009
December 18, 2009
john commented on the word black diamonds
“The recent survey results would probably stun someone who went to sleep during apartheid and awakened in the present. After all, blacks not only control the government, they mingle in the finest restaurants and swankiest malls. The so-called black diamonds include liberation struggle heroes who have been welcomed into the boardrooms of the nation’s largest corporations.”
The New York Times, Holiday of White Conquest Persists in South Africa, by Barry Bearak, December 16, 2009
December 17, 2009
john commented on the word wha happen
Indeed.
December 16, 2009
john commented on the word computational thinking
“As recently as five years ago,” Dr. Lazowska said, “if you were a social scientist interested in how social groups form, evolve and dissipate, you would hire 30 college freshmen for $10 an hour and interview them in a focus group.”
“Today,” he added, “you have real-time access to the social structuring and restructuring of 100 million Facebook users.”
The shift is giving rise to a computer science perspective, referred to as “computational thinking” by Jeannette M. Wing, assistant director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation.
The New York Times, A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing, by John Markoff, December 14, 2009
December 15, 2009
john commented on the word exaflood
“He explained this paradigm as an evolving era in which an “exaflood” of observational data was threatening to overwhelm scientists. The only way to cope with it, he argued, was a new generation of scientific computing tools to manage, visualize and analyze the data flood.”
The New York Times, A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing, by John Markoff, December 14, 2009
December 15, 2009
john commented on the list words-banned-in-the-irish-parliament
My new favorite list. Makes me want to go to Ireland and scream "corner boy" at parliamentarians.
December 15, 2009
john commented on the word reverb
“One of those making the trip, Grant Baker, a South African pro known as Twiggy, said after his first round that the surf was “a lot more powerful than it looked.”
“It looks beautiful from here,” Mr. Baker said. “But there’s a lot of reverb coming off the rocks and it makes it quite difficult.”
The New York Times, Bruising Surf at a Rare Big-Wave Event in Hawaii, by Jesse McKinley, December 8, 2009
December 13, 2009
john commented on the word watermen
“Even before the official word came down, however, both event surfers and local “watermen” were kicking and paddling their way into the surf, and zipping down wave faces about 1,000 feet from shore.”
The New York Times, Bruising Surf at a Rare Big-Wave Event in Hawaii, by Jesse McKinley, December 8, 2009
December 13, 2009
john commented on the word dumbassery
Is this related to a caravansary?
December 13, 2009
john commented on the word Mr. Pronunciation
I wonder if Mrs. Pronunciation is the Scottish woman who is the voice of many ATMs.
December 12, 2009
john commented on the word precautionary principle
“Soon after Suskind’s book came out, the legal scholar Cass Sunstein, who then was at the University of Chicago, pointed out that Mr. Cheney seemed to be endorsing the same “precautionary principle” that also animated environmentalists. Sunstein wrote in his blog: “According to the Precautionary Principle, it is appropriate to respond aggressively to low-probability, high-impact events — such as climate change.”
The New York Times, Going Cheney on Climate, by Thomas L. Friedman, December 8, 2009
December 9, 2009
john commented on the user whichbe
Hi Whichbe, just fixed your 'Postscripture ✞' list, and it should now survive future edits. But let me know otherwise.
December 7, 2009
john commented on the word Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, Goodbye
“Many sovereign funds invested in the early days of the crisis as banks scrambled to find investors willing to plow in money and exacted lucrative terms. (Swings through Asia and the Middle East were so common that bankers coined the phrase “Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, Goodbye” to describe their fund-raising tours.)”
The New York Times, Big Paydays for Rescuers in the Crisis, by Eric Dash, December 6, 2009
December 7, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
Pollyanna or anyone experiencing the double entry bug, I'd appreciate if you could email me (john@wordnik.com) some details to help me recreate it, as I haven't been able to. The name and version of your browser would be especially helpful.
December 7, 2009
john commented on the user stenoknight
Hi Mirabai, welcome!
I love what you do--my grandmother was deaf. I have a deep appreciation for people who help make the world more accessible.
December 6, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
Hi all, launched some updates to tagging tonight. In the right-hand sidebar of your profile there's now a link to your tag page. It's pretty basic, and will improve over time, but we can see all our tags in one place again.
The center of the page shows aggregated tags in alphabetical order, with each appearing once. The sidebar shows recent instances of tag applications, so if you tag ten words with the same tag, they'll all show up there.
We're going to do another round of data cleanup soon that should address some remaining character encoding issues with tags, and tag pages will get some refinements, especially sorting. Let me know if you have any suggestions or requests.
December 5, 2009
john commented on the list it-hurts-when-i-do-this
I love this list. œsophagalgia? Hurts so good.
December 5, 2009
john commented on the word spaghetti
And if you become the captain of a ship, your crew can say "aye aye Myth Pasta."
December 5, 2009
john commented on the word spaghetti
frogapplause, seize that crown! So you can begin every sentence "I, Myth Pasta..."
December 5, 2009
john commented on the user siriusdorr
I think the spamfection rate has been about about same on Wordnik as on Wordie, and I'm pretty sure we brought the spam with us--there was almost none here prior to our arrival :-)
I had a small but effective little anti-spam toolkit I'd built up over the years, so I often nuked stuff before many people saw it. We're slowly building up a similar kit for Wordnik--in fact some of it is getting deployed tonight.
I just zapped dickhead's penis links, and this account will disappear in a day or so. We very much appreciate spam alerts, either in situ, on feedback, or by email.
December 5, 2009
john commented on the word Ottomania
“Mr. Osman’s send-off was just the latest manifestation of what sociologists call “Ottomania,” a harking back to an era marked by conquest and cultural splendor during which sultans ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to the Indian Ocean and claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world.”
The New York Times, Frustrated With West, Turks Revel in Empire Lost, by Dan Bilefsky, December 4, 2009
December 5, 2009
john commented on the word lala
“An obvious attraction is the fin-free feeling of skimming across the water, which the ancient Hawaiians called “lala” — a controlled slide in and around the pocket of the wave.”
The New York Times, Ancient Surfboard Style Is Finding New Devotees, by Jamie Brisick, December 4, 2009
December 4, 2009
john commented on the word alaia
“My surfcraft that day was an alaia (pronounced ah-LIE-ah), a replica of the thin, round-nosed, square-tailed boards ridden in pre-20th-century Hawaii. The originals were 7 to 12 feet long, generally made of koa wood and could weigh up to 100 pounds. They resemble nothing so much as antique ironing boards, but their most distinctive feature compared with modern equipment is that they are finless.”
The New York Times, Ancient Surfboard Style Is Finding New Devotees, by Jamie Brisick, December 4, 2009
December 4, 2009
john commented on the word the
The first definition from Webster's 1913 is excellent.
December 3, 2009
john commented on the word features
Hi c_b!
Yes, all contributed examples/usages/citations should go in comments. Down the road we hope to add a way to categorized comments, something I long wanted to do on YOW but never got around to.
December 2, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
Hi rolig and friends, thanks for the reports. Regarding private notes, we do have all the data on dry ice. I used them a lot too, but in general that was one of Wordie's least used features. We plan on adding them back (I think they might make more sense here), but it won't be for a while, unfortunately. If you need your notes please email me and I can bundle them up and send them to you.
December 2, 2009
john commented on the word boxed
“You’re going to go get boxed on a Friday or Saturday night,” he said. “You don’t want to say you lost your shield when you were out drinking, so you carry a dupe.”
The New York Times, The Officer Is Real; The Badge May Be an Impostor, by Ray Rivera, November 30, 2009
December 1, 2009
john commented on the word pottsy
“Years ago, Mr. Anemone said, officers referred to a fake badge as a Pottsy, after the Jay Irving comic strip about a New York City police officer. They later took on the name dupes, for duplicates.”
The New York Times, The Officer Is Real; The Badge May Be an Impostor, by Ray Rivera, November 30, 2009
December 1, 2009
john commented on the word dupe
“But in New York, a city that has become almost synonymous with high security, where office employees wear picture IDs and surveillance cameras are on the rise, some officers don’t wear their badges on patrol.
Instead, they wear fakes.
Called “dupes,” these phony badges are often just a trifle smaller than real ones but otherwise completely authentic. Officers use them because losing a real badge can mean paperwork and a heavy penalty, as much as 10 days’ pay.”
The New York Times, The Officer Is Real; The Badge May Be an Impostor, by Ray Rivera, November 30, 2009
December 1, 2009
john commented on the word shared intentionality
“Dr. Tomasello believes children develop what he calls “shared intentionality,” a notion of what others expect to happen and hence a sense of a group “we.” It is from this shared intentionality that children derive their sense of norms and of expecting others to obey them.
Shared intentionality, in Dr. Tomasello’s view, is close to the essence of what distinguishes people from chimpanzees.”
The New York Times, We May Be Born With an Urge to Help, by Nicholas Wade, November 30, 2009
December 1, 2009
john commented on the word vexamples
The comments on opensourcefood liken vexamples to weirdnet, and like weirdnet, I don't think vexamples are entirely bad. Sometimes they're awesome.
December 1, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
Zeitgeist's 'Recently listed' now actually shows that, thanks to a fix Tony just put in place.
Fourthed, and added to the list.
Humphrey Lyttleton? A suspicious name on the face of it, but the first sentence of his Wikipedia entry makes me think Grant invented him. And probably authored this:
"Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton, also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. He was a cousin of the 10th Viscount Cobham and a great-nephew of the politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttelton, who was the first man to represent England at both football and cricket."
Uh-huh.
December 1, 2009
john commented on the word automatic cutification
That's Wordnik's upcoming redesign. Guess the cat's out of the bag.
December 1, 2009
john commented on the user reesetee
holy robin batman, that's a fantastic idea!
November 30, 2009
john commented on the word autocomplete
Autocomplete has been rejiggered along the lines mollusque suggested—unless you choose an item off the list, it should behave like a regular search box.
November 30, 2009
john commented on the user abraxaszugzwang
Hey, how delightful to see you again!
Ran across Pahdon me; I fahted. the other day and laughed out loud—made me miss New England.
November 29, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
VO, sorry that I got defensive, and kjola, sorry I missed your point.
Bilby, valid points, and you're right, 'rough transition' doesn't do it justice. I'm doing what I can to fix what's broken, listen, and make things easier to use and more fun--to be productive, so that you don't have to be. There's another batch of fixes for Monday evening, and they'll keep coming.
November 29, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
hi whichbe, recently listed is busted. we have an update rolling out hopefully monday that will fix that, among other things.
November 29, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Hi kjola, could you try the password reset page, using the email with which you signed up for Wordie? If that doesn't work please email me--john@wordnik.com
November 29, 2009
john commented on the word mullet strategy
The Huffington Post’s editorial processes are based on what Peretti has named the “mullet strategy.” (“Business up front, party in the back” is how his trend-spotting site BuzzFeed glosses it.) “User-generated content is all the rage, but most of it totally sucks,” Peretti says. The mullet strategy invites users to “argue and vent on the secondary pages, but professional editors keep the front page looking sharp. The mullet strategy is here to stay, because the best way for Web companies to increase traffic is to let users have control, but the best way to sell advertising is a slick, pretty front page where corporate sponsors can admire their brands.”
The New Yorker, Out of Print: The death and life of the American Newspaper, by Eric Alterman, March 31, 2008
November 29, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Guys, I know it was a rough transition, and that it's not finished. But a little perspective.
VanishedOne, you implied that Wordie had a clearly targeted purpose. It didn't for a long time—it evolved, as will Wordnik. Wordnik has an overarching goal, which I love: the collection of all English words and as much information about them as possible. But the culture and spirit of it are up to us. It won't be dictated by an amorphous "them." There's only five of us in the office anyways. When we get pizza we fit in a both.
The only material that changes on the site is the automatically collected stuff, like example sentences, and then because we're trying to dramatically improve their quality. As many have noted, they need it.
Things we contribute, like comments and pronunciations, don't get touched unless they're unequivocally abuse or spam. So yes, Wordnik is a dictionary, and yes, it's educational. But there's no such thing as "not meeting our purposes." And while some features exist or not because they just happened to get built one way (or not), nothing is cast in stone. We have a pretty long list of things we have to do, which we're slowly working through (the downside of fitting in a pizza both), but just keep bothering me. I feel like I have a pretty long record of building what people ask for. And I appreciate both the bug reports, and also the understanding that glitches will be fixed over time. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.
I don't think the idea of a serious dictionary with a not-serious community is so far fetched. I mean, it even has a name: the mullet strategy. Though for what it's worth, I totally disagree with Peretti that most user-generated content sucks. Or at least, this group is the exception that proves the rule.
November 29, 2009
john commented on the user PossibleUnderscore
continued on wordnik, per pro's suggestion...
November 29, 2009
john commented on the word mullett strategy
oops--see mullet strategy.
November 29, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
hi pro, redirects for the numeric list urls were working until yesterday, when i broke them--they should be working again now.
i had been trying to get the styles working correctly for the small group of frozen-in-amber lists that are still visible on olde wordie. haven't yet, but will eventually. i too kind of like having a few semi-secret time capsules lying around :-)
November 28, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
whichbe, just fixed 'Postscripture.' let me know if any more are having trouble. mollusque, i'll look into 'first listed by.'
November 26, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
Rolig, was finally able to get those holdout lists looking and working as they had been, I think.
Not sure if this has been mentioned here, but the words in 'Recently listed' aren't. That's been fixed and will show up on the site on Monday. And pro, I'll figure out why your pronunciations aren't showing up on the main word page—you're right, they should be.
November 26, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
pro, reesetee, i think i finally fixed that bug--please let me know, and thanks for your patience.
November 26, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
thanks pro, will work on it today. think we're getting closer.
November 26, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
We made some progress on character encoding issues tonight. Tony wrote a script that fixed the urls of 110 lists. Prolagus, this means all your lists starting with a • ("• Little pains in my butt") should work now, and Wordie links to them should redirect correctly.
I also went in and tweaked a few things manually. Rolig, I was able to get your two broken lists working, but unfortunately the URLs differ from what they were on Wordie, so redirects are broken. I'll try again later to fix this, but for now at least you can access them. As for words with the 'č' character, I hate to say this, but at this point your best bet may be to delete the fuglified versions and add back the correct ones. The unicode issues are beyond me, but something about that character defied the fixes that worked in most other cases. I'm sorry about that.
November 25, 2009
john commented on the word chuckle
The part of the pig between the tail and anus, according to Kenneth.
November 25, 2009
john commented on the word Sexcriminalboat
Kenneth's ancestral homeland, somewhere in Georgia.
November 25, 2009
john commented on the word People's Gay Republic of Drugifornia
Jack Donaghy's sobriquet for San Francisco.
November 25, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
dhuber, sorry for the delay, I just unlinked your account from facebook. Could you give it a try and let me know how it goes (john@wordnik.com)?
In in the not too distant future we'll make account management stuff like this easier, and more self-serve.
November 25, 2009
john commented on the word apple pie
I first read 'carton' as 'cartoon,' and was wondering what good that would do you, and why you'd want to freeze it :-)
November 25, 2009
john commented on the word aliquid in aere erat ea nocte, stellae illustres erant, fernande
Hysterical! But that aside, Pro, you have a nice voice!
How about a pronunciations-to-ringtones feature?
November 24, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
Thanks vo, fixed /comments and will look into updating list info first thing tomorrow. edit: editing list names and descriptions should be working now
November 23, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
dhuber, might be related to new stuff we just added. Could you try logging out, then restarting your browser, and logging back in? If you're still having issues after that, please email me (john@wordnik.com), and let me know the list and word, and the browser you're using. Thanks.
November 23, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
PU, you are fast! We just added the new Zeitgeist additions minutes ago, and you found a Mothra-sized bug before I could even announce it :-) Just fixed those links though, thanks.
So Zeitgeist now shows the top 7 most-commented on words and lists of the past 7 days, and also recently listed words. List comments are now editable, and you can remove words you added to open lists. Lists themselves are now deletable, as long as they don't yet have comments on them (we're sorting out how to handle other cases). And a handful of smaller bugs were fixed.
Up next are some unicode issues, a bunch of smallish bug fixes, then we update the tagging system, and overhaul the bleeding carbuncle that is the current 'word of the day' page.
November 23, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
bilb, list deletion will soon return--tomorrow night, hopefully. though it will at first be limited to lists with no comments on them. but should be enough to clean up double submits like that.
November 22, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
Hi mollusque, I was was about to add back that link external link icon last night, but I realized some work has to be done first to exclude it some places (like the 'Elsewhere on the web' links in the definitions section of the word summary page). But I'd like to get that back in too.
Rolig, I'm sorry for the delay, I'll look into those inoperable lists.
November 22, 2009
john commented on the word comments
telofy, done: #description
November 21, 2009
john commented on the word sachet d'epices
Bilby, thanks for the debugging. I'll work on the bracketting.
I need to go to remedial regex school.
November 20, 2009
john commented on the user feedback
This is actually the account of our new intern, Felix Edback. Hi Felix!
Purple does rock—spaced that in the makeover. You may have to hold down the 'shift' key and hit 'reload' to get your browser to pick up the change, but visited links should now be the right color.
November 20, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Thanks DC—just tweaked Zeitgeist to try and differentiate the thing commented on from the other links. Let me know if it needs fine-tuning.
November 20, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Darn, I was hoping nobody noticed the eternal favorites. Scheduled to be fixed soonish.
November 19, 2009
john commented on the word update
A bunch of limboed lists have been returned home, including all those reported by Whichbe and Prolagus. The comments section on Zeitgeist now includes those made on lists and profiles, and has a 'past comments' link at the top, which will let you page backwards through every comment ever left on Wordnik or Wordie. If you go back far enough you may find some of the Wordie comments are out of order with respect to the Wordnik ones; that will be fixed soon.
The word pages now also show the comment count in parentheses next to the 'Comments' button. Arby, you can now shove words (though not in Safari, apparently--working on that). And about the Random button—what uselessness said :-)
Some other tweaks and refinements were sprinkled around, and probably a few new bugs too. On deck for the next release: get tags working correctly, add more zeitgeist data, and fix a slew of bugs.
Thanks for your patience with all this remodeling, and please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions, or just feel like ranting.
xo
November 19, 2009
john commented on the word earworm
No promises, but that might be reversible.
November 19, 2009
john commented on the word chained_bear
If someone, say for instance a bear, had accounts on both Wordie and Wordnik, their Wordnik settings took precedence. And since Wordnik accounts defaulted to private until recently, some née Wordie accounts got switched to private, unfortunately.
I'll ping the bear via other channels and let her know. Though I think she's got her hands full at the moment, literally and figuratively :-)
November 19, 2009
john commented on the word de novo
“Many of the big, multistage firms aren’t really venture firms in the classic sense anymore,” said Chris Douvos, co-head of private equity investing at the Investment Fund for Foundations. The deals they do “may be good risk-adjusted bets, but are a far cry from the de novo innovation that people look for in venture,” he said.
The New York Times, Silicon Valley Firm Raises Big Fund for Mix of Deals, by Claire Cain Miller, November 18, 2009
November 19, 2009
john commented on the word ☂
Does this have anything to do with cloud computing?
November 18, 2009
john commented on the word lists
The case of the missing lists has been solved. Turns out they're all invite-only. The plan had been to temporarily convert those to creator-only until we got email notifications working, but we inadvertently made them invisible.
We have a fix for it on deck, but we're going to do some testing and consolidation and generally batten down the hatches a little before putting it into production. It should happen tomorrow night, barring anything unforeseen. Thanks very much for your patience on this everyone. Your lists will be back in your arms again soon.
November 18, 2009
john commented on the word SHAZAM!
Tremendous! The first time I've ever heard a Wordie! (um, other than those I know in "real life").
We've been following pee wee around recording her take on things, I'm now inspired to add a few choice nuggets of hers, too :-)
November 17, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
whichbe, thanks, i'll look into that--i've been in fix-two-bugs, cause-one mode with moving and deleting from lists, hopefully that'll stabilize on the next pass.
vo, unfortunately you'll find machine generated crud like that semi-regularly right now. we ingest huge volumes of data, and we're still fine-tuning how it's all processed. that's not a part of the puzzle i'm directly involved in, but we talk all the time about how to improve the process, so you'll see less and less of that over time.
November 17, 2009
john commented on the word adobeair
wow, that's a rather unattractive page. which i've neglected for 8 months. and curiously, the mile-high tag list is followed by a bunch of tweets in, i think, japanese.
officially back on the 'do something with this, someday' list.
November 17, 2009
john commented on the word tos
I'm actively working on making our tos weirder.
But none of Wordie belonged to any of us anyways. Errata is on dry ice and I can't verify this until it's thawed, but I'm pretty sure we surrendered all our rights to J.K. Rowling. Or maybe that was on a word thread somewhere?
November 17, 2009
john commented on the word unable to complete request
Please do. You guys are grandfathered :-)
November 17, 2009
john commented on the word feeds
Hi folks, just added back list word feeds, the feed for new words added to each list. Working on list comment feeds now, those should be up soon.
November 17, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Whichbe: two-word phrases should now stay intact during moves, and the ones that got scrambled earlier should now be removable if you want to re-add. Please let me know if that's not your case.
November 16, 2009
john commented on the user whichbe
Hi whichbe—I like your hack, but please let me know if you'd like your uppercaseness back.
I see there are character issues with your tags. I'm going to be working on tags again over the next few days and will see if we can fix that.
November 16, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Thanks very much for the sleuthing, though sorry it's necessary. Grant also compiled a list of lists to look into. I don't have access to the necessary db to dig into it right now, otherwise I would, but figuring out what happened and what to do about it is a high priority tomorrow.
November 16, 2009
john commented on the word comments
That's new and for you mollusque. The idea had been kicked around before, but you kicked me into action.
November 16, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Prolagus and PossibleUnderscore, you've been upcased. If anyone else is missing a majuscule, let me know—still a few kicking around the lost and found.
November 16, 2009
john commented on the list organizations-and-associations
Wonder what sense of goat is being associated about.
November 16, 2009
john commented on the word suggestions
pterodactyl, hello!
Active threads will return soon, but first comes getting list and profile comments into the comment stream, then a chronological past-comments section that we can page through, both early this week.
I like the idea of deputizing editors, there are some issues, the most obvious being that I'd have to build the tools. But maybe eventually. We have internal bug tracking, and I have my own mixed-up-files style tracking. But a user-editable bug wiki, separate from the site itself, might be a good idea.
Later today I'll be adding a shortcut for linking directly to comments pages from within comments.
Edit: done. see text above comment box.
November 16, 2009
john commented on the word having a kickback
“Ms. Lee’s small house near the high school was sometimes a hangout, where Mr. Prugo, Ms. Ames and others from Indian Hills could be found “having a kickback,” said the friend.”
The New York Times, Going for the Bling, by Allen Salkin, November 13, 2009
November 15, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Hash tags on Wordnik! That's funny.
That's a bug Pro, you should be able to remove words you added, I think. Will look into it.
November 14, 2009
john commented on the word list of the day
Mentioning it here would work too.
Tech schmeck. Make a list* :-)
edit: ok, this isn't a list. Comments are kind of list-like, though
November 14, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Profile comments are editable now. List comments next, and they'll both start appearing on Zeitgeist soon.
A ways back I said it would be nice to be able to toggle Wordie between 'dictionary' and 'social' mode, depending on mood or purpose. And that's what I hope Wordie/nik evolves into. Wordie's chatter has been the best part, but when it started I was thinking dictionaries, and that still appeals. Maybe that's trying to square the circle, but I hope not. Guess we'll find out.
More specific controls will come, but it can be make more Wordie-like as-is. This may change, but I feel a simpler homepage is easier to absorb for new folks. But I have my homepage set to Zeitgeist and hardly look at the real one--and Zeitgeist is going to get much better fairly soon. And when poking through lists if you use the 'comment' links, you can bypass the lexicographic pages entirely.
Sionnach*, I'm glad your back :-). Be a grouch, it should have been handled better.
* fyi, your profile is set to private, so I can't comment on it. A vestige of you having had a previous Wordnik account, I think, back when all profiles were private.
November 14, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Two quick things: tags are and will remain lowercase only. And frogapplause, I love the comic, thanks. You can see the future!
November 14, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Wordie tags are back. There are a few issues still, the main one being that tags show up on your profile, but not always on the tag page itself. I'm working on that, and also on a dedicated tags page to be linked off our profiles.
Thanks for the understanding everyone, I appreciate it. We stumbled on the Wordie integration, which I regret. That aside, these new surroundings feel weird for me too. But all the Wordie stuff will come back online, and I still have faith that Wordnik+Wordie will be a good thing. I hope that will become more apparent once everything is working and we're moving forward again.
November 14, 2009
john commented on the word comments
ruzuzu and marky, i removed 'recent lookups' from profiles. i'll add it back when it can be made optional and we're sure it's accurate.
we're working on getting wordie tags back and at fixing commenting on lists with special characters in the url. pro, that will hopefully make it possible to comment on 'knuckle tattoos', which is important to me, since i missed that first time around and want to say how much i love it.
also trying to get editing on list and profile comments working today.
November 14, 2009
john commented on the list •-knuckle-tattoos
Don't know how I missed this earlier--love this list.
November 14, 2009
john commented on the word lists
Just added a 'List it' option to the choices in the 'Take this word and...' drop-down on every word page. Initially it had issues with multi-word phrases, but I think it's working now. Let me know if you have any issues.
November 13, 2009
john commented on the word comments
whichbe, i'm looking into it, but i'm almost certain your tags, despite not being available, were moved over, and that we'll find them and give them back to you.
while wordie was being migrated we were also switching parts of the site to use a different method of accessing data, which involved a different database. so there were three db's involved: old wordie, old wordnik, and new wordnik. stuff that appears missing is there, but in the wrong database. they can and will be merged with no losses.
we really needed to change our underlying db; wordnik is outgrowing the old one. but in retrospect it might not have been such a hot idea to do these two major migrations concurrently.
frogapplause, hello!
November 13, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Broken comment pages should display now, though some aren't correctly showing the lists the word is in. Working on that.
November 13, 2009
john commented on the word kicker
Also, the final line in a news story. Often a quote, and ideally something that wraps up the story nicely and has a bit of unexpected punch.
November 13, 2009
john commented on the word exhausted
I love the Webster 1913 definition on this: "same as burned-out." Feels about right.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word incremental
Hi folks, some fixes:
· You can now edit your comments on words. Comments on profiles and lists can't be edited yet, but that'll come soon.
· Tony (Wordnik's VP of Engineering--he and our colleague Kumanan are real engineers, while I just make train noises and pretend) fixed the issue with most international characters in comments. The remaining broken characters (a small percentage) will most likely remain broken, an unfortunate side effect of my having been sloppy with Wordie's db in the early days.
· Until we have a past comments section that lets us page through all the comments, I increased the number shown on Zeitgeist.
It may take a little while to get back to feature parity with Wordie, but that's the plan, and then we'll keep going. Thanks again for your patience and bug reports, which are always welcome anywhere here, or to john@wordnik.com
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
marky, that's a feature, not a bug :-)
Depends who you talk to actually, and it's hotly debated, but Wordknik, unlike Wordie, is case sensitive.
Eventually we hope to find a middle ground, where it's possible to distinguish between, say, polish and Polish, and turkey and Turkey, without the annoyance of having all the comments and definitions disappear because you typed in an initial cap.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Would have made my life easier marky, but then we would have had to figure out what to do with the 1.7 meellion words we have lying around. The whole "dictionary" thing, which can also be fun.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Hi Jubjub, that's what makes random word so addictive. Sometimes you get on a hot streak, then you loose it all with a string of Goolges.
Wordnik is omnivorous, it collects the good, the bad, and the ugly without judgment. Random has some filters to weed out the pure drek, but not many--maybe we should dial that up?
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Yeah Pro (pro?) no worries, it's helpful.
In another hour or so you'll be able edit your comments to change the historical record if you want :-)
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
I'll save my sincere apologies and a longer explanation for when the fires are out, but for now a status report:
· Adding words to lists is fixed
· Newlines in comments will be fixed soon
· Editing comments will be available soon--hopefully tonight, maybe tomorrow
· I'll make the display of 'recently looked up' optional as soon as possible, probably 1-3 days. That was an oversight from the profile merger: that originated on Wordnik, where it didn't matter because the site didn't used to have public profiles.
· I'll add 'list it' to the options in the 'Take this word and...' drop-down
· I'll go through everything here and hit as many other items as I can.
More soon.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
pro, i'm working on that right now. the comments are all in there, struggling to get out. comments will also be editable again soon.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Hi pro, thank you. The character issue on existing comments is being fixed as I type, and should be up today. I'll try and fix the forwards from Wordie on lists with unicode characters soon--hopefully by tonight or tomorrow.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
Hi rolig, this is a fine place to leave comments. The list of lists in the sidebar is being truncated, I'll fix that today. Thanks much for pointing that out.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word comments
A million apologies for the character encoding issues on imported comments. That's being fixed right now, as well as comment editing and some display issues. I think I may be saying this a lot in the next few days, but please be a little patient. We'll have everything back to normal as soon as possible.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the word betrayed
Sionnach, your lists are back—there was a bug on the lists page.
I worked hard, and will keep working, to make things fit together sensibly, but some restructuring was necessary to combine the two sites.
I feel horribly that this transition has been bumpier than I'd hoped, but I'm working as quickly as possible to smooth rough edges, fix bugs, and add back all the Wordie functionality. I'm very sorry for the headaches, but please bear with this for just a little longer.
November 12, 2009
john commented on the user rolig
Hi rolig, wanted to apologize for the character encoding issues that have appeared on some of your lists. It's my doing--the Wordie database was kind of a mess after a few years not always careful noodling. We did the best we could moving things over, but some characters got a bit mangled.
November 11, 2009
john commented on the word johnboat
All aboard! See tupelo.
November 10, 2009
john commented on the word cover
“FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover�? which, in civilian, meant without a hat.�?
The New York Times, A Final Verdict on the Presidential Salute, by Carey Winfrey, October 31, 2009
November 10, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
There is always the possibility that we'll arrive on Wordnik and discover the Statue of Liberty half-buried in sand.
November 10, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
hi all. mollusque, as of now you'd have to drop the case you don't want and add another, and if you were moving from lower to uppercase, it would mean not seeing the comments on the lowercase version. which is clearly not the desired behavior in most cases. once wordie is in and we work out any kinks, dealing sensibly with case sensitivity is high on our to-do list.
speaking of integration, it's going to happen next week :-) there might be a brief period (an hour?) during which both sites will redirect to a maintenance page, after which requests to wordie will be redirected to the equivalent page on wordnik. all our accounts and lists and words will get moved over en masse. and when there are username conflicts (happily, there are fewer of those than i expected), we'll have a process in place for working them out.
the plan is that within a week or so of the migration all wordie features will be fully available on wordnik. but immediately after the migration, a few minor features will be temporarily unavailable. i'll post details soon, but they'll include collaborative lists (existing ones will work, but you won't be able to create new ones) and email notifications.
pretty much the entire wordie homepage is going to get stuffed into zeitgeist, though there are a few items on it that won't be available immediately. again, in a week or two anything that didn't make the first pass will get moved over.
we're trying hard to make this as seemless as possible. and once the transition is complete, i think you'll see fewer bugs, better performance, and we'll have all this dictionary shit to enjoy or crack wise about. as always, please post here or email me if you have any questions or suggestions.
November 9, 2009
john commented on the word irritable heart
Soldiers in the Civil War suffered from irritability, disturbed sleep, shortness of breath and depression, a syndrome Jacob Mendes Da Costa, an Army surgeon, described in 1871 as “irritable heart.”
The New York Times, When Soldiers Snap, by Erica Goode, November 7, 2009
November 8, 2009
john commented on the word columny
“In those days, he called himself a “harmless little fuzzball.�? He’s a lot less harmless now. I went on to columny, as my pal Bill Safire called it, and Rush went on to calumny.�?
The New York Times, Who Are You Calling a Narcissist, Rush?, by Maureen Dowd, November 3, 2009
November 4, 2009
john commented on the word reporterette
“I had a four-hour dinner once with Rush Limbaugh at the “21�? Club in Manhattan, back in the days when I was still writing profiles as a “reporterette,�? to use a Limbaugh coinage.�?
The New York Times, Who Are You Calling a Narcissist, Rush?, by Maureen Dowd, November 3, 2009
November 4, 2009
john commented on the word yottabyte
“And what is a yottabyte? I’m glad you asked.
There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte, a thousand terabytes in a petabyte, a thousand petabytes in an exabyte, a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte, and a thousand zettabytes in a yottabyte. In other words, a yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB. Are you paranoid yet?�?
TechCrunch, NSA Datacenters To Store Yottabytes Of Surveillance Data, by Devin Coldewey, November 1, 2009
November 2, 2009
john commented on the word mentality
Don't you know, little fool, you never can win?
Use your mentality, wake up to reality.
I've Got You Under My Skin
November 2, 2009
john commented on the list craigslist-stuff-for-sale
madmouth, that restriction is about to go away :-)
Couple of weeks tops, I'll give advance notice before it happens.
November 1, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Hi folks, so sorry about the plugged up front page. I'll try to roto-route it tonight or tomorrow. I'm in a mad dash to build nuevo Wordie right now, which will be launched in a few weeks, so it's kind of hard to spend time on ancien Wordie. But a semi-refreshing front page is totally annoying to me too.
Speaking of Wordie++, it's coming along handsomely I think, and will feel very, very much like this one—but faster, and with less bugs :-)
October 30, 2009
john commented on the word it sucks to be me
frogapplause, love that. just did my first wordie spit take in weeks.
October 29, 2009
john commented on the word netizen
I like that idea. Like an Island of Lost Toys, but for words.
October 28, 2009
john commented on the word facebookery
Done by Facebookies, presumably.
October 27, 2009
john commented on the word gin and hair tonic
One of the boozy dwarves who's always drunk-dialing the sweet tooth fairy.
October 26, 2009
john commented on the word chivy
“Like the bill that will probably emerge from Congress, the Massachusetts reform mainly relies on a combination of regulation and subsidies to chivy a mostly private system into providing near-universal coverage.�?
The New York Times, After Reform Passes, by Paul Krugman, October 25, 2009
October 26, 2009
john commented on the word hamthrax
I think he's talking about swine flu:
“I don't know whether this is seasonal flu or hamthrax, but I can't sit at the computer any more. I need to lay down and shiver convulsively.�?
@wyhaines (Kirk Haines)
October 26, 2009
john commented on the word adsense
Billions? I sold you guys for a handful of Burger King gift certificates ;-)
In Wordie: The Movie, I'd like to be played by John Cusack, please. His impact on world events is really amazing.
October 22, 2009
john commented on the word adsense
Been gone a while, eh _mark? As you can see over on advertising, Wordie has had ads for almost two years. They originally ran only on Tuesdays, but I got sick of subsidizing all the costs (at no point have the ads ever fully covered even the hosting costs). I mean, it's always been a labor of love, but throw me a bone.
October 22, 2009
john commented on the word sea change
sweet tooth fairy!
October 20, 2009
john commented on the list crash-blossoms
What an auspicious beginning. Fantastic.
October 19, 2009
john commented on the word lame
Ga, sorry the front page of Wordie was borked all day. Figures that would happen on the first day in months I wasn't online :-(
October 18, 2009
john commented on the word bananas
One of Woody Allen's earlier movies. Sylvester Stallone has a small role in it.
October 17, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Thanks gangerh, I agree—that page is more or less a stub right now. In the near future we'll add more data to it, and try to make it more easily scannable. Any suggestions? Are vertical lists better?
October 17, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Thanks a million for those bug reports—I'll fix the line breaks, the word linking, and the use of html in comments.
Super glad people are checking out Wordnik, but of course it's totally kosher, and maybe for the best, to keep on using Wordie for things social until we move over. With a little time to rasp away the rough edges, things should Just Work when that happens.
October 17, 2009
john commented on the user Prolagus
Hi Pro, saw your comment on Wordnik. Wordie material hasn't yet moved over there, so for now I think it makes sense to just carry on wherever you want--for most of us here that means Wordie, I imagine. I don't think merging of comments and threads will cause much if any disruption at all when it happens.
October 17, 2009
john commented on the word madeupical
Who the hell is the 'johntest' guy? I don't trust him. Might be madeupical.
October 16, 2009
john commented on the word interview without coffee
That's fantastic. Because it really sounds horrible, doesn't it?
Though I thought they drank tea over there.
October 16, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
So the Wordnik redesign is up. I think I love it, but honestly I've been staring at it so long I'm not sure. But I definitely tried hard to make it a suitable landing pad for when we move house—it should take only a little poking around to see I plagiarized Wordie more than a few times. And with this in place it'll be easier to make minor tweaks more or less on the fly, so we'll continue noodling with it up until the point Wordie is integrated, with the goal of making that seamless and pleasant.
Something else you may notice about nuevo Wordnik is that it's ripping fast, despite having hugely more data than it had even a few months ago (and ludicrously more than Wordie). There have been many pretty rad engineering changes under the hood with this update, thanks to my colleagues Tony and Kumanan.
As always, please let me know if anything is broken, or if you have suggestions, questions, or criticism.
October 16, 2009
john commented on the word beth din
“For centuries, allegations and disputes involving children, marriage and business have been decided by rabbinical courts called beth dins, which conduct their own inquiries and do not report their findings to the secular authorities, even when they judge someone guilty of a crime.�?
The New York Times, Orthodox Jews Relying More on Legal Prosecution of Sex Abuse, by Paul Vitello, October 13, 2009
October 14, 2009
john commented on the word haredim
“Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who refer to themselves as the “haredim,�? meaning those who fear God, reject modern secular culture and for centuries have kept strict control over what they consider internal affairs.�?
The New York Times, Orthodox Jews Relying More on Legal Prosecution of Sex Abuse, by Paul Vitello, October 13, 2009
October 14, 2009
john commented on the word lobster cuddlers
Wow. I'm feeling a bit of the Spanish shame.
October 12, 2009
john commented on the word fugo
My new favorite word. Are there also words for bombs carried by other vehicles? Trains, say, or horses?
October 12, 2009
john commented on the word simperer
Wow, WeirdNet wins with alliteration.
October 12, 2009
john commented on the word quiet
Yeah, quiet. It's alway gone through mysterious cycles, but I can't help but wonder if part of it is trepidation about the Wordnik merger.
Much of which I hope will go away when the redesigned Wordnik launched soon. It's hugely Wordie inspired.
October 11, 2009
john commented on the word wind energy drying devices
“The issue has brought together younger folks who are more pro-environment and very older folks who remember a time before clotheslines became synonymous with being too poor to afford a dryer,�? said a Democratic lawmaker from Virginia, State Senator Linda T. Puller, who introduced a bill last session that would prohibit community associations in the state from restricting the use of “wind energy drying devices�? — i.e., clotheslines.
The New York Times, Debate Follows Bills to Remove Clotheslines Bans, by Ian Urbina, October 10, 2009
October 11, 2009
john commented on the word bingo wings
Ha! Just heard this and thought I would certainly be the first to list it. Outwitted once again by bilby.
kad suggests "bingo wing span" :-)
October 11, 2009
john commented on the word digital native
Hey sionnach, guess that makes you a digital native :-P When I worked at Woods Hole there were 10,000 ancient Hollerith cards lying around the computer department. If I had to program with those things I'd be a poet right now. Ok fine, a poetaster. But definitely not a programmer.
Harking back to my XO laptop comment from two years ago, a friend got one, and turns out they're totally useless. Cute as they are, they're just too underpowered to do anything useful.
October 11, 2009
john commented on the word jacquard
“The clothing also pushed boundaries, in particular how soft fabrics like chiffon look molded on the torso. Prints and jacquards, evoking oceans and species like moths, were engineered for each garment.”
The New York Times, A Blast of Youth, A Glimpse of the Future , by Cathy Horyn, October 8, 2009
October 9, 2009
john commented on the word rfl
hernesheir, I like that! Whichbe has a great list called Underwaterritory, but that's more about diving than fishing. And she has a great one too, Fishful thinking, but again that's more general fishiness than fishing itself. Tally ho, I say!
October 9, 2009
john commented on the word rfl
In the spirit of RFCs, this is the place for Requests For Lists. Some people have an hankering to make lists. Other people really want a list on a certain topic, or contributions to their public lists. Here is where the twain shall meet.
I'll kick it off: I'd really appreciate contributions to Down on the Farm, my just-created list of farm and agriculture-related words.
October 6, 2009
john commented on the word reality performer
From a CNN.com story:
"The reality performer posted messages about Jewell's death on Twitter."
Aren't we all reality performers?
October 4, 2009
john commented on the word lambchop
Yes!
October 4, 2009
john commented on the list the-ize-have-it
Hi 'zu, welcome, and nice list! You know you hit—a nerve? a nail's head?—when someone takes the ball and runs with it the way fbharjo has.
October 3, 2009
john commented on the word mediagenic
“I don’t believe that public opinion is spontaneously supporting Mr. Polanski at all,�? she said. “I believe that there is a distinction between the mediagenic class of artists and ordinary citizens that have a vision that is more simple.�?
The New York Times, Polanski Case Exposes Divisions in France, by Doreen Carvajal and Michael Cieply, September 29, 2009
September 30, 2009
john commented on the list txt
btw, "Don't text and drive, yo."
September 28, 2009
john commented on the list txt
Hey gangerh, digging this list. How about smtoe?
Would you mind mass-tagging these all... something? Maybe txtspk?
September 28, 2009
john commented on the word smtoe
Acronym for "sets my teeth on edge."
September 28, 2009
john commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Seanahan, great idea—maybe we stick with square brackets for links to comment pages, and introduce curly braces to link to main word pages?
September 28, 2009
john commented on the word ojek
“It empties its perennially clogged streets of ojeks, the kamikaze-like motorcycle taxis that weave in and out of traffic, and find shortcuts on sidewalks.�?
The New York Times, Jakarta Journal - Nannies Get a Holiday. Rich Families Get a Suite., by Norimitsu Onishi, September 27, 2009
September 28, 2009
john commented on the word bibliomancy
Reminds me of a favorite bar game from my misbegotten youth: psychic DJ. Stick a buck in the jukebox, close eyes, press buttons.
September 26, 2009
john commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Ah, mollusque, that is an idea near to the hearts of a few of us. It's a bit down the road and for performance and feasibility reasons will be something closer to facetted search than wide-open database access. But something along those lines is planned.
Seems like comments is in the lead, possibly categorizable. Thanks.
September 25, 2009
john commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
To Pro's question, and something I was going to mention today: it would be a good idea to register for Wordnik using the same email address and username you used when registering for Wordie--that will make things easier all around when the sites are merged. We'll have a system in place for handling conflicts, and will try to make it as equitable and simple as possible.
Telofy: we're working on a redesign for a combined Wordie/Wordnik site. The html/css will be more semantic, with few to no embedded styles. And fonts will be sized with em's or some other scalable unit, so people can more easily size them as they wish.
September 25, 2009
john commented on the word disappearing lists
PU, can you email me (john@wordie.org) the names of the lists, and I'll look for them directly? Very sorry you're they've gone missing, but I feel pretty confident they still exist and haven't been permanently lost. Will look into it as soon as I have their names and verify they're still in the db.
September 24, 2009
john commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Hey folks, question for you. Comments on Wordie were originally called 'citations,' because I thought that's what the feature would be used for. As we got more social the labeling slowing migrated towards 'comments.'
The Wordnik equivalent is 'Notes.' As it stands it's not clear if a note is public or is a communication between you and Wordnik (they're public), and the word itself has too many related but different meanings: endnotes, footnotes, private notes, etc. The whole feature is being overhauled to be more clear, including the labeling.
So the question is, when Wordie and Wordnik are merged, what do we call them? My inclination is 'comments,' but if anyone thinks otherwise, I'd love to hear it.
A quick status update on the whole shebang: kad, spawn (hat tip c_b :-) and I landed in CA last week. I'm in the midst of helping redesign Wordnik, which should hopefully be completed sometime in October. It'll be a big improvement over the current site, and will incorporate many of the ideas expressed here. That will pave the way for Wordie integration, which will happen some time not too long after the redesign launches (actual date TBD). As always, please email me comments, concerns, and suggestions.
September 24, 2009
john commented on the word schwa
This page is very hurtful to me. My mom's name is Schwa.
September 24, 2009
john commented on the word a pretty girl is like a melody
Wow, I had no idea that Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields) was riffing on this. Cool!
September 22, 2009
john commented on the word limpoma
Wow, gross.
September 22, 2009
john commented on the word 24-7 spokane mistress
Well... Get thee to Spokane!
September 21, 2009
john commented on the word cumshaw
Oh, madmouth, thanks for this.
Tell your waiter you're gonna give them a great big cumshaw, you're likely to get a tureen dumped in your lap. Accidentally, of course.
September 20, 2009
john commented on the word zabaleen
“For more than half a century, those collectors were the zabaleen, a community of Egyptian Christians who live on the cliffs on the eastern edge of the city. They collected the trash, sold the recyclables and fed the organic waste to their pigs — which they then slaughtered and ate.�?
The New York Times, Egypt Discovers the Flaw in Killing All Its Pigs, by Michael Slackman, September 19, 2009
September 20, 2009
john commented on the list skip-the-light-fontastic
Love this list. Though I thought it was about skipvia at first :-)
September 20, 2009
john commented on the word cheese grits
Oh Waffle House, how I love thee! Best thing about the South. Here I am in front of one, in February 2002. That's from four cross-country road trips ago (I move too much).
The little white Honda, aka The Lemming, sure was a trooper.
September 18, 2009
john commented on the list ponderable-plant-names
Totally loving this list as well, thanks hernesheir.
When you're done, or donish, would you mind bulk tagging these whatever you think is appropriate? Maybe 'plants', or 'flora', or both?
September 18, 2009
john commented on the word tempus fugit
“You can barely see the gears in the timepiece actually moving — none of that tempus fugit nonsense often ascribed to working clocks.�?
The New York Times, How the Railroads Took Control of Time, by Alan Feuer, September 16, 2009
September 17, 2009
john commented on the word pamphlet
Right on c_b, I agree on all accounts--I like the sound and feel of this word, and I love its association with direct democracy and Paine in particular.
A certain right-wing demagogue has tarnished the name of one of Paine's best-known pamphlets, Common Sense by appropriating it as the title of one of his own books, which is annoying, but also amusing. He must not have read The Age of Reason, a full-throated attack on organized religion and not the kind of thing most American conservatives want to be associated with.
Thomas Paine died in New York City, in the West Village, around the corner from where I used to live—there's a plaque on the building in which he died.
September 16, 2009
john commented on the word pandrogynous
“In 2003, the leader of the band, Genesis P-Orridge, began undergoing procedures to become “pandrogynous,�? including getting breast implants.�?
The New Yorker, HIGH FIDELITY: Music that lives in the headphones of angry teens, by Sasha Frere-Jones, September 14, 2009
September 16, 2009
john commented on the word chat
“On a hot summer day, children can be seen riding their bikes around enormous mounds of chat — pulverized rock laced with lead and iron.�?
The New York Times, Welcome to Our Town. Wish We Weren’t Here., by Susan Saulny, September 13, 2009
September 16, 2009
john commented on the user seanmacdhai
hi seanmac, can you send me a delete request from the email address you used to create the account? i'll zap you as soon as i get that.
September 16, 2009
john commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Still on the road (hellloooo Indianapolis!) and won't be regularly online for a few more days, but wanted to pipe in about the dashboard page ideas before sacking out.
I should have phrased it better, but there aren't any plans right now for anything in the way of 'daily me'-style customization. I was thinking of a 'zeitgeist' page that would be the same for everyone. Similar to the current Wordie homepage, but also including snapshots of what people are doing with the Wordnik data--words being looked up and favorited, pronunciations added, etc. It would be in the spirit of 'Wordie' tab, but it wouldn't be called that, and it would have more and more kinds of info on it. I think it would be a disservice to both sites if Wordie was just sort of glued onto the side of Wordnik. I think there will be sections that are very clearly derived from Wordie (list pages being the most obvious), but others where a careful integration makes more sense. A 'Zeitgeist'* page is one of those--if the idea is to be awash in recent activity, might as well dive into a deeper river that includes material from both current sites.
The reason I think this should be on its own page, and not the homepage, is that to someone new to the site, a wall of stats and comments is impenetrable and intimidating. With Wordie I didn't really care about that, despite the fact that the vast majority of visits weren't from regulars, because I built it strictly for our entertainment :-) But Wordnik is both entertainment and a utility. So rather than try to square that circle on one page, it seemed a better idea to have two pages tailored to different purposes and audiences. The homepage might have a subset of recent additions, but not the full firehose.
As telofy intimated, this could be done by changing the state of the homepage when you're logged in. But right now my inclination is to keep it simple and just separate them.
* totally stole that page title from Librarything**
** as i did these little sotto voce footnote asides. thanks tim!
September 13, 2009
john commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Hi all, sorry I've been a bit absent, just packed up our house and sent it off in a truck. We're driving cross-country right now and taking a few extra days to visit family, who conveniently live in a straight line between Pittsburgh and Chicago.
I'm cataloging and trying to absorb all this good stuff, and enjoying, as always, the digressions. A little surprised no cupcakes have been flung.
One question: yarb & c_b, would you mind if the comments and perpetually moving snapshot did have its own page, but it wasn't necessarily the homepage? Think Librarything's 'zeitgeist,' or the way Twitter and Facebook don't really have homepages when you're logged in. When was the last time you looked at Wikipedia's homepage? I'm wondering if the 'official' homepage could be a basic intro to new folks and a jumping-off point for searches, and regulars could use a different page as their home base?
September 12, 2009
john commented on the word madeupical
Here it is on Wordnik. I like that Wordnik's giant computer brain suggests "cromulent" as a related word.
September 11, 2009
john commented on the word palestra
Or possibly a new fat substitute.
September 10, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Ptero: thank you, and extremely involved! All suggestions will be listened to and seriously considered, and many implemented, I hope. Though since I'm no longer a one man band I have to retire my standard excuse for non-implementation (lack of time and competence) and start using a new one: Erin* won't let me :-)
Totally kidding. Actually when Erin (McKean, CEO of Wordnik and my new boss) saw that people were concerned that Wordnik was too serious for the likes of us, she laughed and laughed. Then paused, possibly horked a little, and laughed some more. Wordnik does some serious shit. The corpus is enormous, growing rapidly, and a feat of engineering. But it's not meant to be a mausoleum for words—more like a theme park.
* Until now I had totally forgotten about that Errata post from two years ago, but I clearly wanted Wordie to join Wordnik before Wordnik even existed. How weird.
September 10, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Thanks everyone :-) I think things will work out Pro--in part because the Wordnik community is still nascent. Erin and co. are hoping we *become* the Wordnik community, schoolyard antics and all. Milosrdenstvi is right--14,000 people have signed up for Wordie, give or take a few bots, but it is what it is because of the spirit of a few score of us. I really hope and believe we can transplant that.
Moll, Wordnik is case sensitive--we'll finally be able to talk about turkey and Turkey without confusion. Wordnik has some heavy duty engineering talent, which is going to enable a growing number of very cool things. One existing example: Wordnik's autocomplete, which is awesome. As opposed to mine, which was so useless it verged on being another form of 'random word.'
September 9, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
I totally understand trepidation. I have it too--I very much hope that my favorite Wordies stick around, and that Wordie+Wordnik works for the people who've contributed so much. So I am going to plead with you all to hang in there at least until we see how it goes. And to tell me what would make it work for you--I'll reiterate my promise to listen to everything everyone says and take it to heart.
VO: A redesign of Wordnik is imminent and in my purview. One current thought is that there might not be as many, or any, sub-pages, except for a talk page--the Wordie page. Sort of like Wikipedia--one data page (better organized and easier to use than the current series of Wordnik data pages), and one discussion page (hopefully funnier and less contentious than Wikipedia's). Which would help the talk pages stay a little cleaner and more Wordie-esque than the data-intense pages (though I think data density can be a great thing when it's well-organized).
This is for word pages--I'm imagining lists will pretty much remain as-is functionally, though they'll wear Wordnik's upcoming new design. Though we (I have to admit, it's fun being more than just a royal we :-) are totally open to ideas.
September 9, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Should have mentioned this in the blog post too: Wordnik is officially adding madeupical to the corpus. A sort of bring-the-new-neighbors-brownies kind of gesture :-)
September 9, 2009
john commented on the word wordnik
Hey folks, wanted to let you regulars to be the first to know, they is now we. We've been assimilated :-)
September 9, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Hi Asativum, you should be able to see your comments now.
September 6, 2009
john commented on the word boycott
“There aren't many individuals in history whose names are taken in vain more than Capt. C.C. Boycott, the notorious Irish landlord who cut the wages of his tenant farmers and got himself ostracized -- and the English language enriched -- in return.�?
The Los Angeles Times, , by Michael Hiltzik, August 31, 2009
September 3, 2009
john commented on the word cow
“A cell on wheels, or COW, is a miniature version of a cell site that is typically used to provide temporary service for outdoor special event.�?
The New York Times, AT&T Races to Expand the Network, September 3 , 2009
September 3, 2009
john commented on the word ass muffin
A rear-facing muffin top?
September 3, 2009
john commented on the word corpus
I was blathering about dictionaries at some point recently and kad thought I was talking about a porpoise.
August 31, 2009
john commented on the word suchnot
As used by kad five minutes ago, when describing the contents of our attic: "camping gear, teapots, and suchnot."
August 31, 2009
john commented on the word ^5
@mikerugnetta says this is an "internet high-five." Love it.
August 29, 2009
john commented on the word coverlet
“He’s a regular guy or as close to regular as any 35-year-old can possibly be who sleeps under a poster of his favorite football star while tucked under a coverlet imprinted with the names of N.F.L. teams.�?
The New York Times, Giants Die-Hard Takes One for the Team, by Manohla Dargis, August 28, 2009
August 29, 2009
john commented on the word farctate
Century Dictionary, via Wordnik, says this means "stuffed; crammed or full; without vacuities."
Without vacuities. Nice.
August 28, 2009
john commented on the list we-all-scream-for-it-ben-jerry-s-ice-cream-flavors
Huzzah!
August 28, 2009
john commented on the word ice cream
Funny that there isn't a list of Ben & Jerry's flavors. Like, for instance, AmeriCone Dream.
August 27, 2009
john commented on the word timbales
A Cuban percussion instrument.
August 26, 2009
john commented on the word international drum month
Thanks for the heads-up. That only leaves me five weeks to obtain and learn to play the timbales.
August 26, 2009
john commented on the list words-from-georgia
Yeah, the script is beautiful. If and when you slow down on the list, would you mind tagging the whole thing 'georgian,' for the record? You can use the 'add tags' link below the title of any of your own lists to tag all the words in a given list in one fell swoop.
August 25, 2009
john commented on the word join, or die.
The first political cartoon published in an American newspaper. By Ben Franklin, no less.
August 24, 2009
john commented on the word blocker
“Each team fields five players at a time. Out of those five players, four are blockers and one is the jammer (point scorer). The four blockers from each team line up together and form a pack, while the two jammers line up 30 feet behind.�?
—Gotham Girls Roller Derby
August 23, 2009
john commented on the word pivot
“The skater wearing the star on her helmet is the jammer. The skater wearing the stripe on her helmet is called the PIVOT. The pivot is the pack leader and defensive play caller, similar to football's middle linebacker position.�?
—Gotham Girls Roller Derby
August 23, 2009
john commented on the word jammer
“The objectives of roller derby are relatively simple. Each team fields a single point scoring skater ("Jammer") whose object is to lap as many opposing skaters as they can.�?
—Gotham Girls Roller Derby
August 23, 2009
john commented on the word nuked lunch
I also enjoyed the sequel, Baked Lunch.
August 21, 2009
john commented on the word attosecond
“Stress may be most readily associated with the attosecond pace of postindustrial society, but the body’s stress response is one of our oldest possessions.�?
The New York Times, Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop, by Natalie Angier, August 17, 2009
August 21, 2009
john commented on the word perseveration
“And though perseverance can be an admirable trait and is essential for all success in life, when taken too far it becomes perseveration — uncontrollable repetition — or simple perversity.�?
The New York Times, Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop, by Natalie Angier, August 17, 2009
August 21, 2009
john commented on the word mangue bit
“Returning to his home state of Pernambuco in northeast Brazil, Otto quickly became a part of the mangue bit movement, which fused home-grown rhythms like the maracatu, frevo and ciranda with the latest in imported computer and studio technology.�?
The New York Times, Brazilian, but With a Different Beat, by Larry Rohter, August 19, 2009
August 21, 2009
john commented on the word pubic
Mildly amusing, sort of, that right now on the homepage this is listed just above yak-shaving.
August 20, 2009
john commented on the word yak-shaving
Just came across this term on Seth Godin's blog (who apparently discovered it on Joi Ito's Web), and I love it.
August 20, 2009
john commented on the word pauciloquent
From Wordnik: "Uttering few words; saying little."
August 18, 2009
john commented on the word boondoggle
Before it became a bad word, “boondoggle�? was an innocent, humble craft. It was the Boy Scouts of America who claimed credit for coining the word, to refer to the plaited leather lanyards that they made and wore around their necks.
That all changed on April 3, 1935, at a hearing in New York City on how New Deal relief money was being spent. A Brooklyn crafts teacher reluctantly testified that he was paid to show the jobless how to make “boon doggles.�? The outcry was swift. “$3,187,000 Relief is Spent to Teach Jobless to Play,�? trumpeted a front-page headline the next day in The New York Times. “ ‘Boon Doggles’ Made.�?
The New York Times, Boondoggle. One’s Name for Another’s Necessity., by Michael Cooper, August 17, 2009
August 18, 2009
john commented on the word watergate
Yes please!
August 18, 2009
john commented on the word tablescaping
As seen here.
August 17, 2009
john commented on the word poirot
In America, I think solicitors are people trying to sell you stuff.
Isn't Wordie mildly intoxicating? ;-)
August 17, 2009
john commented on the word shinbone
Also, connected to the knee bone.
August 15, 2009
john commented on the word neophile
“A neophile or neophiliac can be defined as a personality type characterized by a strong affinity for novelty.�? Wikipedia
August 14, 2009
john commented on the word white spider
“Carlo Marioni, 65, a New York bartender with more than 40 years’ experience who now works at Pietro’s, agreed: “Those years, for lunch, they used to drink three martinis. Then they’d come back before dinner for rusty nails, white spiders.�?
The New York Times, Sixties Accuracy in Every Sip, by Robert Simonson, August 11, 2009
August 13, 2009
john commented on the word bivvy sack
See also bivy.
August 12, 2009
john commented on the word plu
Also an acronym for People Like Us.
August 10, 2009
john commented on the word bubi
Hi ricovicino, thanks so much for that. I didn't think this could possible be real, but it is, and it made my evening.
Welcome to Wordie :-)
August 9, 2009
john commented on the word browse
In response to some of VanishedOne's comments on Ruby on Rails, the new browse links on the homepage now also let you see words and phrases that start with punctuation.
This is a work on progress, as tends to be the case with things I start on the train ride home and deploy the same night.
From now I'll put this New Jersey Transit logo on quick-and-dirty train work: .
This is not a commentary on NJTransit, which generally does a fine job, and which Wordie owes much.
August 9, 2009
john commented on the word topo gigio
It must be confusing you with a member of the illitterati .
Me it has dialed: I'm being presented an ad for "JCPenny in Manhattan."
JC Penny is in Manhattan? WTF?
August 9, 2009
john commented on the word illitterati
Idiot celebritties? I kinda like itt.
August 9, 2009
john commented on the word noughties
“The "nillies" seems to lack the correct ring, while the "double-o"s is bound to be the intellectual property of Ian Fleming's estate.
Reggie Kray might favour the 'noughties' The "noughties" could be the one to head the - admittedly sorry - list of contenders.
And yet the "noughties" still sounds like a word East End villains might use to describe imprisonable activities - or even worse a polite, middle-class code for the reproductive organs.�?
BBC News, The noughties: So where are we now?, January 1, 2000
August 9, 2009
john commented on the word topo gigio
Had to Gooble this one, but likewise, I loved it at first glance.
August 8, 2009
john commented on the word ruby on rails
Yeah, that would be me. I just added a 'browse' section to the right column of the home page, which presents every word and phrase on Wordie listed in alphabetical order. Briefly borked things when I moved it into production.
All better now. Let me know if there's anything I can do to improve that 'browse' business. It's partly for the machines amongst us, but I found it a lot of fun to poke through.
August 8, 2009
john commented on the word ruby on rails
A web development framework, using the Ruby language and based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern.
August 8, 2009
john commented on the word splattercore
“Dalton is the editor of “Mythtym,�? a new anthology of essays, fiction and artwork -- both serious and campy -- about werewolves, unicorns and what she calls “mirror horror.�? As she explains: “If you watch enough of those movies, they’re all exactly the same. These splattercore movies have their own tropes -- like how the best way to show blood is to cut someone up in the shower so you see it on the tiles. But then you realize that these clichés are based on archetypes. The mirror as a symbol seems most powerful in a time of fear, when people step back and look at themselves.�?
The Los Angeles Times, Trinie Dalton's horrors and unicorns, by August Brown, January 29, 2009
August 7, 2009
john commented on the word phonophore
Oh man, I'm sorry, I saw that and thought it was a bug in my handling of unicode characters. Wasn't automagical, was manually intrusive :-(
From now on I'll refrain from second-guess copyedits in languages and notations I don't know.
August 7, 2009
john commented on the word twitter
Been down all morning, and Facebook is under attack too. I'm feeling kind of left out that Wordie wasn't targeted.
August 7, 2009
john commented on the word undictionaried
See Erin McKean on redefining the dictionary. Or madeupical, for that matter.
August 6, 2009
john commented on the word macher
“For instance, a lot of the things that high-minded left-wingers hate about contemporary Washington — the legal corruption, if you will, associated with lobbying and influence peddling and corporate money — are a direct result of having built a big, expensive government that every would-be macher in the world feels they need to influence.�?
The New York Times, Are Liberals More Corrupt?, by Gail Collins and Ross Douthat, August 5, 2009
August 6, 2009
john commented on the word modcon
I had always thought this was real estate shorthand for "modern conveniences," as in "the kitchen has a trash compactor and all the other modcons."
But apparently it's also a semi-annual heavy body modification convention.
August 4, 2009
john commented on the word fred
I think so. This was in Portland, Maine, in the mid-nineties. The cool racer guys were often as not from other shops; we were more like the scrappy punk rock (the staff) and family (the customers) shop. We were the only proper bike shop in town selling tricycles, I think. I moved, sadly, but they're still there: Back Bay Bicycle. Stop in if you're in Portland, they're super nice.
August 4, 2009
john commented on the word squirrely
See comment on fred.
August 4, 2009
john commented on the word fred
In my misbegotten youth I was a bicycle mechanic, and the cool racer types who hung around the shop where I worked would dismissively refer to non-cool-racer types as "Freds." Freds are the kind of cyclists who don't ride much, but are over-geared. They have little rear-view mirrors glued onto their helmets, and a spare tire and a pump and two water bottles and a little toolkit and an altimeter strapped or bolted onto different parts of their bike frame. Freds have kickstands and fenders and a rack and a bell. They have a little basket on their handlebars. They both tuck their pant legs into their socks and wear a reflective strap on each ankle to prevent getting chain grease on their trousers. And most of all, Freds are squirrely: they have trouble riding in a straight line, possibly because of all the appurtenances affixed to their bike and their person. So you don't want to ride too close to a Fred, because they're unpredictable and despite their harmless appearance, inadvertently dangerous.
August 4, 2009
john commented on the word electret
Heaviside? What a delightful name.
August 4, 2009
john commented on the word creepy crawling
“Was Manson's dress rehearsal for homicide, known as "creepy crawling", some kind of humorous terrorism that might have been fun? Breaking silently into middle-class "pigs'" homes with your friends while you are tripping on LSD and gathering around the sleeping residents in their beds, not to harm them but to watch them sleep (the way Warhol did in that movie) and "experiencing the fear"? It does sound like it could have been a mind-bending adventure. When the Mansonites went further and moved the furniture around before they left, just to fuck with the waking homeowners' perception of reality, was this beautiful or evil? Could the Manson Family's actions also be some kind of freakish "art"?�?
The Huffington Post, Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship, Part 1 of 5, by John Waters, August 3, 2009
August 4, 2009
john commented on the word quidity
Just rescued this from the orphanage, so someone besides myself originally entered it. Can't find much on it anywhere, except for this blog post, which defines it as "the essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing."
Fine word, somewhat mysterious. Anyone know any more about it?
August 2, 2009
john commented on the word quidity
http://megweaves.blogspot.com/2009/05/quidity.html
August 2, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Thanks much for the reports--I've been fiddling about again, if you hadn't guessed :-) It's for the best in the long run, but sorry for the recent collateral damage.
Profiles should be fixed (sorry for disappearing you skipvia), the duplicate derelict has been evicted, and the comment page profiles are properly possessive.
Treeseed, private notes were broken when you reported that, but they should be fixed now. If that's not the case for you would you mind emailing me, and letting me know what browser you're using?
VanishedOne, your comments page is back.
Sionnach, I still have no idea what's causing your duplicates (I can't duplicate the bug). I may email you, if you don't mind, and ask for specifics to help me debug. I'm really sorry about that--I very much don't want a bug to drive away a favorite Wordie, but I can see how it would be maddening.
August 1, 2009
john commented on the word pirhanna
Tagging 25 seemingly random words 'std,' 'slut,' and a bunch of other nonsense is against the official Terms of Service.
If the random nonsense was even mildly amusing, it would be covered under the humor exemption. But this case failed to meet that standard.
August 1, 2009
john commented on the word pirhanna
Some kind of tag abuse going on, looking into it.
Update: all better now. Thanks c_b!
July 31, 2009
john commented on the word features
Hi bilb, that would be a large insect you've found--I'll fix by tonight (my tonight :-) at the latest.
I'll see if I can quickly add a 'toggle tags' option in your profile preference section, too.
July 31, 2009
john commented on the word paco
“She and the group of mothers she helps organize have become the only bulwark, it seems, against the irrepressible spread of paco, a highly addictive, smokable cocaine residue that has destroyed thousands of lives in Argentina and caused a cycle of drug-induced street violence never seen before in this country.�?
The New York Times, Cheap Cocaine Floods Argentina, Devouring Lives, by Alexei Barrionuevo, February 23, 2008
July 30, 2009
john commented on the user smrtrthnu
Hi smrtrthnme, thanks for the Latin list, I'm loving it. Any way you could add translations to some or all of those?
July 30, 2009
john commented on the word mancation
aka prison
July 30, 2009
john commented on the word white culture
Oh bring it on—I love this line of attack. The longer the idiotocracy running the Republican party persists in this retrograde nonsense, the longer they'll stumble around in the wilderness losing elections. Morality aside, the demographics are just against them. America is a diverse place and getting more so, and tactics that intentionally alienate everyone but the ever-shrinking rump Republican base guarantee failure.
They'll figure this out eventually and try to start appealing to a wider audience. But if they get thrashed for a few more election cycles before that happens, I wouldn't mind. Palin in 2112!
July 30, 2009
john commented on the word white culture
Don't be vague like that, lg_nazi. Have the courage of your convictions. What, exactly, is Obama trying to sell? What groups is he disproportionately favoring?
The group that has most benefitted from his policies has certainly been the bankers he bailed out. So if you're talking about rich white people, I agree with you entirely.
July 30, 2009
john commented on the word white culture
It's absolutely tremendous that the ad currently on this page says "Confucius Institute Teach you pure Chinese."
These clowns are maybe the best retort to racism I've ever seen.
July 30, 2009
john commented on the word douche-cock
UD spells this dochecock.
July 30, 2009
john commented on the word white culture
Glenn Beck is a douche-cock. That said, there's a very popular web site dedicated to answering skipvia's very question. To me, it's embodied by the Volvo 240 station wagon.
July 30, 2009
john commented on the word anomaly detection
“The ability to pick odd shapes masked in complex backgrounds — a “Where’s Waldo�? type of skill that some call anomaly detection — also predicted performance on some of the roadside bomb simulations.�?
The New York Times, In Battle, Hunches Prove to Be Valuable, by Benedict Carey, July 27, 2009
July 29, 2009
john commented on the word pole position
Can't believe this hadn't been listed yet. It refers to the prime starting position in horse and car racing: at the front of the pack, on the inside. It's also the name of a great (for its time) arcade video game of the early 80s.
Anyone know of any good motor sports or automotive or racing lists?
July 28, 2009
john commented on the word frigor
“Frigor�? is one of the names given by 19th-century scientists to the realm of absolute zero, the bottom limit of cold. This is a place, the chemist and physicist James Dewar imagined, so cold that molecular motion ceases and the “death of matter�? ensues.
The New York Times, Less Than Zero, by Mary Roach, July 23, 2009
July 28, 2009
john commented on the word derel
““Dash was like me, a polished derel�?—a polished derelict, says Kunle.�?
New York Magazine, Chasing Dash Snow, by Ariel Levy, January 7, 2007
July 27, 2009
john commented on the word rak
“McGinley and Colen met Snow when they were in art school (at Parsons and RISD, respectively) and Snow was 16 and living on 13th Street in Alphabet City and starting a graffiti crew called Irak (in graffiti slang, to “rak�? is to steal, which they did) with a guy named Ace Boon Kunle, “a big, black homosexual,�? as McGinley describes him, whose tag is Earsnot.�?
New York Magazine, Chasing Dash Snow, by Ariel Levy, January 7, 2007
July 27, 2009
john commented on the word dodrantal
From phrontistery.info: "of nine inches in length".
July 26, 2009
john commented on the word ad verecundiam
Thanks sionnach—it's so pleasing to discover a phrase to describe something you're aware of, but didn't previously have a label for.
Here's a good synopsis of it.
July 26, 2009
john commented on the word jovian
“Being an astronomy buff used to be a lonely pursuit, just you and the telescope, staring up into the night sky. But in an age when anyone can make a planetary discovery through a $400 telescope then instantly share it with the world — hey, check out my cool Jupiter shots on Flickr! — amateur astronomers have capitalized on opportunities like the big thud on the Jovian gas giant to confirm that they are not alone.�?
The New York Times, The Bruise Heard Round the World, by Alex Williams, July 24, 2009
July 26, 2009
john commented on the word bokeh
“Fujifilm says its $280 FinePix F70EXR and $600 FinePix S200EXR use its advanced EXR sensor and multiframe technology to enable users to simulate the wide-aperture background blurs (or bokeh) of D.S.L.R. cameras.�?
The New York Times, Fujifilm Adds EXR Sensor to Super-Zooms, by Rik Fairlie, July 22, 2009
July 24, 2009
john commented on the word lesbian bullet
“Have the 1990s vanished so quickly from memory? Has Hillary Clinton’s murder of Vince Foster, shooting him in the head with a lesbian bullet, been so completely forgotten?�?
Whiskey Fire, Regions of My Disease, by Marc Ambinder, July 22, 2009, as quoted in The New York Times, ‘Birther’ Boom, by Eric Etheridge, July 22, 2009
July 23, 2009
john commented on the word chumiles
“The Baron clanked in on his pointy silver-capped cowboy boots and began poking around, asking questions about the Southern Mexican cuisine on the menu — What was the difference between a cemita and a torta? Do they ever cook with chumiles, a tiny, fragrant insect sometimes used in salsa? — while Ms. Mata got busy at the stove.�?
The New York Times, A Bronx Star Without Pinstripes, by Melena Ryzik, July 21, 2009
July 23, 2009
john commented on the list guide-to-the-perplexed
Thanks brobbins, fantastic source for a list. Welcome to Wordie!
July 22, 2009
john commented on the word galápagos syndrome
“The Japanese have a name for their problem: Galápagos syndrome.
Japan’s cellphones are like the endemic species that Darwin encountered on the Galápagos Islands — fantastically evolved and divergent from their mainland cousins — explains Takeshi Natsuno, who teaches at Tokyo’s Keio University.�?
The New York Times, Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global, by Hiroko Tabuchi, July 19, 2009
July 20, 2009
john commented on the word bint
From the Wiktionary: "(British, pejorative) (also Digger slang) Woman, girl."
July 20, 2009
john commented on the word chorine
“Lena was farmed out fairly frequently and had to endure occasional racist slurs, beatings for minor infractions and schoolgirl mockery: she was called “little yellow bastard�? because of her supposedly “white daddy.�? At age 16, to the disapproval of some family members, she became a chorine at the celebrated Cotton Club, where Ethel Waters singing “Stormy Weather�? had a lasting effect on her.�?
The New York Times, No Prisoner of Love, by John Simon, July 16, 2009
July 19, 2009
john commented on the word health alteration committee
“Assassination is a word that still haunts the C.I.A. The most lurid of the volumes produced by the Senate committee headed by Frank Church of Idaho in the mid-1970s detailed the C.I.A.’s plots to kill foreign political figures, including Cuba’s Fidel Castro and the Congo’s Patrice Lumumba. Such intrigues were overseen by the agency’s so-called Health Alteration Committee, which once O.K.’d the dispatch of a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief to a left-leaning Iraqi colonel.�?
The New York Times, Government Hit Squads, Minus the Hits, by Scott Shane, July 18, 2009
July 19, 2009
john commented on the word hypersphere
Reminds me of Rounder Records.
July 19, 2009
john commented on the user briwref
Hi briwref! Thanks for all the collective nouns--I love "A darth of cheneys" :-)
The ones you added as comments to a shrink of violets, would you mind adding them to the list itself? It's growing to be quite a fantastic open list, your additions would be most welcome there.
July 19, 2009
john commented on the word aché
“In the lexicon of Santeria, “aché�? is the term applied to the life force, or to vital energy and good vibes. That word turns up in Caridad De La Luz’s new Off Broadway production, “Boogie Rican Blvd., the Musical,�? but in a larger sense Ms. De La Luz herself seems to embody and be guided by those qualities, both onstage and off.�?
The New York Times, A Wise(cracking) Latina Makes Her Way Onstage, by Larry Rohter, July 17, 2009
July 19, 2009
john commented on the word kibo
“NASA officials said it was a nuisance but not a safety issue, and they hoped to resolve the problem before the next spacewalk on Monday.
Indeed, Wolf and Kopra wasted no time 220 miles up prepping the Kibo lab -- Hope in Japanese -- and the new porch for their mechanical hookup.�?
The New York Times, Astronauts Embark on First Outing, Associated Press, July 18, 2009
July 19, 2009
john commented on the word anchor
“In 1952, the first presidential year in which television outshined radio, Mr. Cronkite was chosen to lead the coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions. By Mr. Cronkite’s account, it was then that the term “anchor�? was first used — by Sig Mickelson, the first director of television news for CBS, who had likened the chief announcer’s job to an anchor that holds a boat in place. Paul Levitan, another CBS executive, and Don Hewitt, then a young producer, have also been credited with the phrase.�?
The New York Times, Walter Cronkite, Voice of TV News, Dies, by Douglas Martin, July 17, 2009
July 18, 2009
john commented on the word cronkiter
“Along with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC, Mr. Cronkite was among the first celebrity anchormen. In 1995, 14 years after he retired from the “CBS Evening News,�? a TV Guide poll ranked him No. 1 in seven of eight categories for measuring television journalists. (He professed incomprehension that Maria Shriver beat him out in the eighth category, attractiveness.) He was so widely known that in Sweden anchormen were once called Cronkiters.�?
The New York Times, Walter Cronkite, Voice of TV News, Dies, by Douglas Martin, July 17, 2009
July 18, 2009
john commented on the word wanqueur
Although hamsteur is fantastic too. Also happily unsavory. I love this game. Well played!
July 18, 2009
john commented on the word wanqueur
FTW!
July 18, 2009
john commented on the word late blight
First the bananapocalypse, now this. This is awful:
“A highly contagious fungus that destroys tomato plants has quickly spread to nearly every state in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, and the weather over the next week may determine whether the outbreak abates or whether tomato crops are ruined, according to federal and state agriculture officials.
The spores of the fungus, called late blight, are often present in the soil, and small outbreaks are not uncommon in August and September. But the cool, wet weather in June and the aggressively infectious nature of the pathogen have combined to produce what Martin A. Draper, a senior plant pathologist at the United States Department of Agriculture, described as an “explosive” rate of infection.”
The New York Times, Outbreak of Fungus Threatens Tomato Crop, by Julia Moskin, July 17, 2009
July 18, 2009
john commented on the list escapemn-s-list
Hi EscapeMN, thanks for the words and the definition. A bit of guidance, if you don't mind: if you add those two words (epiplexis and epiplectic) to the list by putting them in the 'add word' form and hitting 'add', they'll be put into Wordie in a way that lets you see who else has listed those words, and it will let other people add them to their lists. That also creates a unique page for the word, and lets you add comments and definitions to the word page itself.
Welcome to Wordie!
July 17, 2009
john commented on the user sionnach
Ga, Sionnach, I somehow missed your bug report a few weeks ago about all the duplicates. I'll look into that ASAP, which unfortunately probably means this coming weekend. Last thing in the world I want is to diminish Wordie's appeal to you :-)
July 16, 2009
john commented on the word marsupial
Fire away at Jerseyland. It's more like my penitentiary.
July 16, 2009
john commented on the list landscape
When I first saw the name of this list, I misread it as "Listscape."
July 16, 2009
john commented on the word long john silver
Hi TaniaS, staying alert, I took the liberty of removing your spam link. Thanks!
July 15, 2009
john commented on the list logicalbiscotti-s-omniglottery
Omniglottery, I love that. Are you perchance affiliated with the delightful Omniglot.com?
July 14, 2009
john commented on the word quelquefois
Dayum? Dayum! That took me a second, as I was pronouncing it "day-yum" in my head.
July 14, 2009
john commented on the word features
Oops. Fixed, thanks. Perfectly straight forward indeed :-)
July 14, 2009
john commented on the word euskara
See also Euskera.
July 14, 2009
john commented on the word euskera
I've also seen this spelled Euskara.
July 14, 2009
john commented on the word hyena butter
I was dubious that the anus could be considered a gland, but apparently in hyenas and dogs there is indeed an anal gland. Which sometimes requires grooming. Yuck.
July 13, 2009
john commented on the word features
Soup is done :-)
July 13, 2009
john commented on the list gypsy-rapist
Wow. I'm having a lot of trouble triangulating what your blog might be about. Pantophobia, I really hope :-)
July 12, 2009
john commented on the word bilat
“The club is “a place to see and be seen,” as its Web site says — that is, unless you are a visiting president who after a day and a half of blinis, beluga and bilats (the diplo term for “bilateral meetings”) just wants to hang out with the clan.”
The New York Times, Obama Dines In, to Some Russians’ Distaste, by Peter Baker, July 7, 2009
July 8, 2009
john commented on the word glame
See also gawesome: GAY + AWESOME
July 8, 2009
john commented on the word glame
Applies to shitty Google products. Written GLame and pronounced "Gee-Lame," a la GMail.
July 8, 2009
john commented on the word iquitarod
“My 14-year-old daughter just told me that someone on Twitter has come up with a new term for Palin's resignation: Iquitarod.”
The Huffington Post, The Iquitarod!: Sarah Palin's Latest Arctic Sport, by Geoffrey Dunn, July 6, 2009
July 7, 2009
john commented on the word chichevache
Best defense: don't be virtuous.
July 4, 2009
john commented on the word hijra
“Outside the hall where the Naz Foundation news conference was held, dozens of young men and women gathered to celebrate, along with a group of hijras, men who dress and act like women who classify themselves as belonging to neither gender.”
The New York Times, Indian Court Overturns Gay Sex Ban, by Heather Timmons and Hari Kumar, July 2, 2009
July 2, 2009
john commented on the word amusia
“Anne Barker, however, sits at the opposite extreme: she suffers from amusia, an inability to hear or respond to music.”
The New York Times, Our Brains on Music: The Science, by Mike Hale, June 29, 2009
July 1, 2009
john commented on the word euridice
Doesn't mentos have some meaning in Greek, in addition to being a breath mint? But this just struck me as a nice bit of freely-associated doggerel. And I love the phrase "copy-off." And I love that the list it's on is called "Jejuju"--I have no idea what that means, either, and Gooble isn't helping.
June 25, 2009
john commented on the word badarak
What the Armenian church calls the divine liturgy.
June 23, 2009
john commented on the word euridice
Best definition in months. Been a while since Wordie left me snickering uncontrollably.
June 23, 2009
john commented on the user john
:-)
June 22, 2009
john commented on the word sarod
“Unlike his father, a volatile and uneven performer, Mr. Khan maintained an austere demeanor onstage while coaxing passages of extraordinary intensity from his sarod, an instrument with 25 strings, 10 plucked with a piece of coconut shell while the remainder resonate sympathetically.”
The New York Times, Ali Akbar Khan, Sarod Virtuoso, Dies at 87, by William Grimes, June 19, 2009
June 20, 2009
john commented on the word ustad
“Mr. Khan, whose name is often preceded by the honorific Ustad, or master, was born in Shibpur, a small village in Bengal (now Bangladesh).”
The New York Times, Ali Akbar Khan, Sarod Virtuoso, Dies at 87, by William Grimes, June 19, 2009
June 20, 2009
john commented on the word preggo
Some kind of pasta sauce, isn't it?
June 19, 2009
john commented on the list kawaii-headdesk
U, can't believe I missed this list first time around. I have a love-hate (ok, mostly hate) relationship with the words on it, but I love the list itself. And I really appreciate you putting into words, in the description, the inchoate discomfort this kind of language makes me feel, and your recognition that these are all of a piece. They're not just words, they epitomize a syndrome. I can live with rancor and bad spelling, but the cutesy superiority complex part is nauseating.
June 18, 2009
john commented on the word ughten
So this is like gloaming, for the morning?
June 18, 2009
john commented on the word donkey basketball
Image search earns its keep here.
June 17, 2009
john commented on the word little man in boat
How about "little gland in a coat," which is both gender neutral, and avoids anthropomorphizication. Or maybe moat?
June 16, 2009
john commented on the word squeeze box
Slang for accordion
June 12, 2009
john commented on the word barbecue
Yep, pickles. Slaw works too.
I'm very catholic in my appreciation of condiments. To paraphrase Will Rogers, I never met one I didn't like. There's a greasy burger place in the building where I work. I'm on the 2nd floor, and the kitchen is almost directly below my desk--I'm trying to convince them to install a dumbwaiter. When you order a cheeseburger, they always ask "ketchup, mustard, or mayo," to which I always answer, yes.
June 11, 2009
john commented on the word barbecue
ps -- Can any further discussion about this take place over on advertising, please? Barbecue is a very nice word and I'd rather not pollute it with talk of base commerce.
I would give my left pinkie for a really good pulled pork sandwich right now. With pickles.
June 11, 2009
john commented on the word barbecue
Arcadia, are you sure whatever pop-up you saw wasn't triggered by some other page? I use Google Adsense for ads, and the only kind of ads I have configured are the 250x250 jobbies you see in the upper right. I don't think Google even offers popups, and if they did I'd probably drop them all together. Which would really hit me where it hurts, since I average around $2.50 a day from them.
June 11, 2009
john commented on the word pappenheimer
From dictionary.com: "A heavy rapier of the 17th century, having a swept guard with two perforated plates. Also called a Walloon sword. Named after Gottfried Heinrich, Graf zu Pappenheim (1594–1632), German leader in the Thirty Years' War"
June 11, 2009
john commented on the list bio
Howdy, quick-draw mcgraw. I must say, this is one of the more unique off-label uses of Wordie. It's vaguely spammish, but after asking the ouija board, I'm gonna say it's not exactly spam, since you're not linking to anything promotional.
But... are you really going to send this to prospective employers?
June 11, 2009
john commented on the word take rate
“If we need to basically depend on the endowment, let’s increase the take rate,” Mr. Greenberg said, referring to the percentage of the endowment drawn down by the college every year.
The New York Times, A Small College Struggles With Economics, by Jonathan D. Glater, June 9, 2009
June 10, 2009
john commented on the word gynecomastia
Boobs know this as manboobs.
June 10, 2009
john commented on the word ymca
It's Fun To Stay At The...
June 5, 2009
john commented on the word cow of the future
“Still, Erin Fitzgerald, director of social and environmental consulting for Dairy Management, says the industry wants to avert the possibility that customers will equate dairies with, say, coal plants. It has started a “cow of the future” program, looking for ways to reduce total industry emissions by 25 percent by the end of the next decade.”
The New York Times, Greening the Herds: A New Diet to Cap Gas, by Leslie Kaufman, June 4, 2009
June 5, 2009
john commented on the word funemployment
Funemployment. Paycation. The Unemploymentality. Every generation has an argot to describe the confusing terrain of joblessness — the dole, deadbeat dads, UB40, and so on — and the lexicon of younger casualties in the most severe American economic downturn since World War II speaks volumes.
Here's how the blog Recessionwire defines “funemployment”: “A period of joblessness that you actually enjoy — maybe you get to lay out, sleep in, work out, read up. It helps to have savings, severance, or an unemployment check to help pay the bills. We're hearing this word used more and more, especially as people realize they may not be able to find a new job right away, so they might as well try to enjoy the time off.”
SFWeekly.com, Funemployment: Jobless young San Franciscans are welcoming the worst recession of their lives with open arms. Too bad the party can't last forever., by Peter Jamison, June 2, 2010
June 4, 2009
john commented on the user john
Thanks VO, nuked that other bozo too.
June 4, 2009
john commented on the word pansy
“The Alexander merited a place of honor on Esquire’s list of “the pansies,” the worst drinks of the Prohibition era. These included long-forgotten abominations like the Sweetheart, the Fluffy Ruffles, the Pom Pom and the Cream Fizz.”
The New York Times, Bar? What Bar?, by William Grimes, June 2, 2009
June 4, 2009
john commented on the word enfeeble
Mr. Bigsby, the sympathetic biographer, does give a strong taste of Miller’s critics. More than a few saw his work as programmatic. Mary McCarthy, for one, wrote that “Death of a Salesman” was “enfeebled” by Miller’s “insistence on universality.”
The New York Times, Some Like It Hot, Some Like It Literary: A Playwright’s Life, With Marilyn, by Dwight Garner, June 2, 2009
June 3, 2009
john commented on the word widower
Not to mention childbirth.
May 29, 2009
john commented on the word stylophone
The name Apple originally wanted for the iPhone*, but were prevented from using because of the trademarks on this fantastic little instrument.
* lie
May 29, 2009
john commented on the word dap
“But some sociologists pointed out that African-American boys and men have been hugging as part of their greeting for decades, using the word “dap” to describe a ritual involving handshakes, slaps on the shoulders and, more recently, a hug, also sometimes called the gangsta hug among urban youth.”
The New York Times, For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’, by Sarah Kershaw, May 27, 2009
May 28, 2009
john commented on the word bromance
“The prevalence of boys’ nonromantic hugging (especially of other boys) is most striking to adults. Experts say that over the last generation, boys have become more comfortable expressing emotion, as embodied by the MTV show “Bromance,” which is now a widely used term for affection between straight male friends.”
The New York Times, For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’, by Sarah Kershaw, May 27, 2009
May 28, 2009
john commented on the word kalishnarumpet
I probably would have spelled it Kalashnirumpet, but this design from the Extra Action Marching Band is teh alsome.
May 28, 2009
john commented on the word praxis
Ironically inactive, I like that. Though I think my own inactivity is sincere.
May 27, 2009
john commented on the word orwell v huxley
Thanks bilb, that was great. The book he's riffing off of--Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death--is great too.
I'm kinda proud to think that Wordie is contributing to the problem.
May 27, 2009
john commented on the word dozenal
Maybe their web site is returning so many PHP errors because they tried to program it in base 12?
May 27, 2009
john commented on the word middie
Slang for midfielder in lacrosse; also spelled middy.
May 26, 2009
john commented on the word middy
Also slang for "midfielder" in lacrosse, though a more common spelling might be middie.
May 26, 2009
john commented on the word insomnia
Pro, I feel for you, and at the same time I'm envious. Having moved too many times, the very notion of being able to call anyone my people seems fantastic. It sounds like a gift you'll always have, wherever you live.
I spent 7 years in New York and know what an alienating place it can be, even if you love it. I hope you find some peace while you struggle with the tension between roots and opportunity.
May 25, 2009
john commented on the word jigaram
According to this blog, this is a Farsi term of endearment, the literal translation of which is "my liver."
May 25, 2009
john commented on the word rapture of the nerds
See citation on singularity.
May 25, 2009
john commented on the word singularity
The concept of ultrasmart computers — machines with “greater than human intelligence�? — was dubbed “The Singularity�? in a 1993 paper by the computer scientist and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge. He argued that the acceleration of technological progress had led to “the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth.�?...
The science fiction author Ken MacLeod described the idea of the singularity as “the Rapture of the nerds.�?
The New York Times, The Coming Superbrain, by John Markoff, May 23, 2009
May 25, 2009
john commented on the word honq
According to qikipedia and straight dope, the English slur "honky" possibly derives from this Wolof word, which supposedly means red or pink.
May 24, 2009
john commented on the word postmodernism
Great Chomsky quote (something I don't think I've ever said before), also on the Wikipedia page sarra links to below:
"He asks why postmodernist intellectuals won't respond as "people in physics, math, biology, linguistics, and other fields are happy to do when someone asks them, seriously, what are the principles of their theories, on what evidence are they based, what do they explain that wasn't already obvious, etc? These are fair requests for anyone to make. If they can't be met, then I'd suggest recourse to Hume's advice in similar circumstances: to the flames.".
May 24, 2009
john commented on the word pomo
Short for postmodernism.
May 24, 2009
john commented on the user john
Alandriadenisewalker, I have no record of ever having received an email from the account you used to register for Wordie. If you have any questions or comments concerning Wordie that you'd rather send to me directly rather than through the site, please do, my contact info is on the about page.
May 24, 2009
john commented on the word radish
I lerve whichbe's definition. Great citation on destiny, too.
May 24, 2009
john commented on the list merovingians
Is Chrodobert a sort of medieval Dilbert? Kvetching about his dead-end job in the stables?
May 22, 2009
john commented on the word nascar effect
Nice! From the link below: "A collection of award icons, banners, webrings and ads that clutter the bottom or top of a Web page. Like a race car covered in ads, they blur and become meaningless."
May 22, 2009
john commented on the word turdus migratorius
Happens on roughly a quarterly basis.
May 21, 2009
john commented on the word aphasia
StefAnne: It wasn't posted by anyone. They gray definitions next to words come from WordNet.
May 19, 2009
john commented on the user john
Hi Guys. Um... can I offer anyone a beverage?
May 19, 2009
john commented on the word manpoo
What my eleven-year-old cousin calls shampoo marketed at men, products with scents like these.
May 11, 2009
john commented on the word motherboy
From an episode of Arrested Development: “Lucille always has trouble sleeping this time of year because she gets excited before Motherboy, a dinner dance aimed at promoting mother/son bonding.�?
May 11, 2009
john commented on the word whom
It tolls for yinz. Go stillerz!
May 10, 2009
john commented on the word burcad badeed
“Grass-roots, antipirate militias are forming. Sheiks and government leaders are embarking on a campaign to excommunicate the pirates, telling them to get out of town and preaching at mosques for women not to marry these un-Islamic, thieving “burcad badeed,�? which in Somali translates as sea bandit.�?
The New York Times, For Somali Pirates, Worst Enemy May Be on Shore, by Jeffrey Gettleman, May 8, 2009
May 9, 2009
john commented on the word donk
Image search--and this Wikipedia entry--show that it's a car moded with awesomely ginormous wheels. I would *love* to do this to my Prius.
May 9, 2009
john commented on the word park(ing) day
“PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)�? spaces: temporary public parks.�?
This one's for you, reesetee :-)
May 8, 2009
john commented on the word gardnerella
“Gardnerella Vaginalis is an infection of the female genital tract by bacteria of the Gardnerella vaginalis strain, often in combination with various anaerobic bacteria. Also called bacterial vaginosis.�?
healthcentral.com
May 7, 2009
john commented on the word wifebeater
American slang - a white sleeveless undershirt.
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word heteronormative
Unless I'm riding, in which case I tend to sport jodhpurs.
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word cocktail situations
“One White House insider described Mr. LaHood as “a master of odd jobs,�? whose knowledge of Washington allows him to take on assignments as varied as lobbying lawmakers on the budget and helping political novices in the cabinet navigate Beltway social rituals (“cocktail situations,�? as Energy Secretary Steven Chu calls them).�?
The New York Times, G.O.P. Résumé, Cabinet Post, Knack for Odd Jobs, by Mark Leibovich, May 4, 2009
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word ayuntamiento
From a comment by frangarnes on murcielago:
Spanish definition of ayuntamiento:
1. Acción y efecto de ayuntar o ayuntarse.
2. Corporación compuesta de un alcalde y varios concejales para la administración de los intereses de un municipio.
3. Casa consistorial.
4. Junta (reunión de personas para tratar algún asunto).
5. Coito.
(My 'macaronic') English translation of that:
1. Action or effect of 'ayuntar' or 'ayuntarse'.
2. Corporation composed of a mayor and several town councillors for the government of a town.
3. Town hall (or city hall).
4. Meeting, assembly.
5. Coitus.
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word heteronormative
Oh, I'm sorry, I don't mean to get my kickers in a twist--I hate to be a hater.
There's nothing wrong with the word per se. It's just that there was a period in the nineties when it was in heavy rotation with a certain type of person, pseudo intellectual kids from the Northeast U.S. who went to a certain set of schools, read (or pretended to have read) a certain set of books, who dressed disturbingly alike, and who repeated certain words and phrases with a knowing glance, like they were occult signifiers to be shared only between initiates. "Heteronormative" was one of those words, and it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word funtoosh
“In which the viceroy, Wavell, understood that he was finished, washed-up, or in our own expressive word, funtoosh.�?
Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word jati
See citation on shudra.
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word shudra
“The basis of this resistance lay in the village, and its distinct form of community: the jati. These groups, numbering in the thousands, were governed by strict rules of endogamy and by taboos about purity, and arranged a social hierarchy: varna. The precise ideological sources of this system are obscure, but elements may be traced to one of the very late hymns of the Rig Veda, which describes the dismemberment of the cosmic giant Purusha, the primeval male whose sacrifice created the world: 'When they divided the Man, into how many parts did they apportion him? What do they call his mouth, his two arms and thighs and feet?/ His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms were made into the Warrior (kshatriya), his thighs the People (vaishiya), and from his feet the servants (shudra) were born.' The resulting intricate filigree of social interconnections and division -- a hierarchical order of peerless sophistication -- defies any simple account Perplexed Westerners came to describe it by the term 'caste', but a wide distance separates the deceptively well-defined doctrinal claims of the caste order and the actual operations of what is an essentially local, small-scale system.�?
From The Idea of India, by Sunil Khilnani, excerpted in a review in The New York Times, The Jewel Without the Crown, by Judith M. Brown, Feburuary 15, 1998
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word nano
A small 4-passenger car built by India's Tata Motors, primarily for the Indian market.
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word paulistano
“Many Paulistanos, as São Paulo residents are called, say the interminable stop-and-go traffic and the wide gap between haves and have-nots are recipes for assaults and carjackings, especially now that Brazil’s boom times have come to a halt.�?
The New York Times, Fearful Brazilians Keep Armored Car Sales Booming, by Alexei Barrionuevo, May 3, 2009
May 5, 2009
john commented on the word heteronormative
I've heard too many pseudo-intellectual poseurs use this word to not dislike it--I buy the Valse hypothesis. All apologies to Rick Moody, but it has been ruined by semiotics majors from Brown, wearing clunky glasses and knit scarves and babbling about Derrida and reeking of smug.
So maybe it's not the word I dislike, but everyone I've ever met who has used it, up until now :-) Rolig, I very much appreciate your measured tone. You are Obama-like (Obamaesque? Obamian?) in your ability to speak dispassionately about topics that are sometimes combative or incendiary.
And knitandpurl, I agree it's useful to differentiate some of the trappings this word has acquired (pretention, smugness), from its original meaning, which certainly describes a real phenomenon.
May 4, 2009
john commented on the word nehru
See also nehru jacket.
May 3, 2009
john commented on the word nehru jacket
Interestingly, this was listed over a year ago, but the word Nehru itself hadn't been. Until now.
May 3, 2009
john commented on the word first bed
“Ms. Lario’s latest criticism also comes in the context of speculation about a brewing power struggle between the children of Mr. Berlusconi’s first marriage, or “first bed,�? as the Italian phrase goes, and those of his second, with Ms. Lario, over his media and even political empire.�?
The New York Times, Premier’s Roving Eye Enrages Wife, but Not His Public, by Rachel Donadio, April 29, 2009
May 3, 2009
john commented on the word lug
Wow--a god! See also discussion on hasbian.
May 3, 2009
john commented on the word hasbian
When I was in college in the late 80s and early 90s the term was LUG--Lesbian Until Graduation. I heard it from lesbian friends, talking about fears that they'd fall for someone who was only experimenting. I think it did say a lot about the people using it--it said they were scared of having their hearts broken. Like a lot of bitter words it was used to dispel or mask feelings of fear and vulnerability.
The norms in play, in my experience, were those of lesbians pissed off at breeders--a far nastier term in my book, though kind of funny in a perverse way.
May 3, 2009
john commented on the word heteronormative
Nice job unpacking that, MM :-)
Seriously though, I agree. It's a loathsome word and my new least favorite.
May 2, 2009
john commented on the word leotard
“I’m going to turn over a new leaf, TROS, and make a conscious, conscientious effort to break myself of the bad habit of using the word “retard.�? But I don’t think the “retard jar�? is for me. Instead, I’m going to use a substitution for the word. From now on, instead of saying “retard�? or “that’s so retarded,�? I’m going to say “leotard�? and “that’s so leotarded.�? I won’t be mocking the mentally challenged, just the physically gifted. I will pick on the strong—and the limber—and not the weak.�?
Savage Love, by Dan Savage, April 29, 2009
May 1, 2009
john commented on the word wiremen
“How many people does it take to change every light bulb in Grand Central Terminal?
Six, it turns out. And it’s a full-time job.
On Tuesday, those wiremen — their official title — unscrewed the last remaining incandescent bulbs in the building, replacing them with compact fluorescent bulbs and completing the greening of the lighting system at the bustling station.�?
The New York Times, At Grand Central, a Fluorescent Twist to a Light-Bulb Joke, by A.G. Sulzberger, April 28, 2009
April 30, 2009
john commented on the word island dwarfing
“Island dwarfing is a recognized phenomenon in which larger species diminish in size over time in response to limited resources.�?
The New York Times, A Tiny Hominid With No Place on the Family Tree, by John Noble Wilford, April 27, 2009
April 29, 2009
john commented on the word banana slug
The official mascot of the UC Santa Cruz athletic teams. They have a fantastic domain name: goslugs.com.
April 28, 2009
john commented on the word coolsploitation
“For the last two years, Bustelo has been a fixture at parties and giveaway suites from the Winter Music Conference to Sundance to the Oscars, and the company behind it has been sending truckloads of it to 50 Cent and Perez Hilton.
Whenever there is coolsploitation, however, there is potential trouble, and marketing experts say that Café Bustelo’s reboot will not be easy.�?
The New York Times, Out of the Bodega and Onto the Scene, by Ben Sisario, April 24, 2009
April 26, 2009
john commented on the list symonds-s-list
Welcome, sy!
There are also some useful Wordie how-to link on the about page.
April 24, 2009
john commented on the list denizens
How about Tico?
April 24, 2009
john commented on the word tico
A native of Costa Rica. Costa Rica's well-regarded English-language weekly newspaper is called the
April 24, 2009
john commented on the word range anxiety
“The problem of refueling is so significant that fans of electric cars have a phrase for it: range anxiety, the nagging fear that you’ll run out of juice before you can find a charge spot and be stranded at the side of the road.�?
The New York Times, Batteries Not Included, by Clive Thompson, April 16, 2009
April 23, 2009
john commented on the word curated soundscape
What @harrisj calls a mix tape.
April 23, 2009
john commented on the word palenque
See palenquero.
April 23, 2009
john commented on the user madmouth
Thanks for the additions to and citations on Yiddishkeit, they're great. Much appreciated!
April 23, 2009
john commented on the word cattlesnake
Half cat, half rattlesnake.
April 23, 2009
john commented on the word shovelhead
Also a type of Harley Davidson motorcylce engine produced from the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties.
April 23, 2009
john commented on the word cosmetic neurology
“In 2004, he coined the term “cosmetic neurology�? to describe the practice of using drugs developed for recognized medical conditions to strengthen ordinary cognition.�?
The New Yorker, Brain Gain, by Margaret Talbot, April 27, 2009
April 22, 2009
john commented on the word douchebaguette
JamesFlynn is not the first to coin this term! Image search reveals all.
April 22, 2009
john commented on the word douchebaguette
C_b, thanks for pointing that out, I dislike the disproportionate association of feminine and negative terms. Though anything associated with the privates has been pejoritized at some point or another.
I agree, the bread connotation is the best part. Revolting food connotations are great force multipliers. Like dick cheese.
April 21, 2009
john commented on the word douchebaguette
The product may be used primarily by women, but let's face it, most douchebags are guys, so this kind of makes sense.
If you want an explicitly male variant, there's always douche-cock.
April 21, 2009
john commented on the word nebelwerfer
A WWII German rocket artillery launcher.
April 18, 2009
john commented on the word nebelwurfer
Also spelled nebelwerfer.
April 18, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Think I just fixed the list description links thing, c_b. Sorry for the long wait on that folks, slipped past my (rusty, WWII-era) radar earlier.
April 17, 2009
john commented on the word exuberjoyment
I love this word, just love it.
April 16, 2009
john commented on the word geezer
Mike Skinner, aka "The Streets," who is awesome, mentions geezers in every third song. He uses the term in the yarbian sense, generally talking about un- or under-employed British guys in their 20s, whose major activities include smoking dope and playing Grand Theft Auto. From "Geezers Need Excitement:"
Geezers need excitement.
If their lives don't provide them this,
they incite violence.
Common sense, simple common sense
April 16, 2009
john commented on the word twitter
Best definition ever: “Twitter seems to be, first and foremost, an online haven where teenagers making drugs can telegraph secret code words to arrange gang fights and orgies. It also functions as a vehicle for teasing peers until they commit suicide.�?
McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Truly Groundbreaking Marketing Research: Understanding Twitter, by Dan Kennedy, March 31, 2009
April 16, 2009
john commented on the word mobsourcing
Letting things be decided by the stupidity of a crowd. The ugly side of crowdsourcing.
April 16, 2009
john commented on the word kettling
See also kettle.
April 16, 2009
john commented on the word kettle
“A kettle is a term that birdwatchers use to describe a group of birds wheeling and circling in the air.”
- Wikipedia
April 16, 2009
john commented on the word kettling
Waddington helped to develop "kettling," where police enclose protesters in a confined space, a tactic that replaced the use of horses or crowd charges by lines of baton-wielding officers to disperse demonstrations.
The New York Times, Technology Advances Put Police Behavior In Focus, April 15, 2009
April 16, 2009
john commented on the word minnesota
Updated motto: "10,000 Lakes and One Senator"
April 15, 2009
john commented on the word tatpurusha
"tatpurusha is a term coined by Indian grammarians more than 2,000 years ago for a class of compounds bahuvrihi dvandva karmadharaya"
- Maitani
April 15, 2009
john commented on the word american restroom association
All of America's restrooms decided to band together.
April 13, 2009
john commented on the word world toilet organization
The other WTO. Their mission is actually quite important: "World Toilet Organization (WTO) is a global non- profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide."
April 13, 2009
john commented on the word crastinate
What you do prior to upgrading to Wordie PRO.
April 13, 2009
john commented on the word quartodeciman
“The term "Quartodeciman" refers to the practice of celebrating Pascha or Easter beginning on Nisan 14 of the Hebrew calendar, "the LORD's passover" (Leviticus 23:5). According to the church historian Eusebius, the Quartodeciman Polycarp (bishop of Smyrna, by tradition a disciple of John the Evangelist) debated the question with Anicetus (bishop of Rome). The Roman province of Asia was Quartodeciman, while the Roman and Alexandrian churches continued the fast until the Sunday following, wishing to associate Easter with Sunday. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus persuaded the other, but they did not consider the matter schismatic either, parting in peace and leaving the question unsettled.�?
Wikipedia, Easter
April 13, 2009
john commented on the word camogie
“There, a friendly Irish waitress started peppering her with questions, most important of which was: Did Ms. Lavery play camogie, the female version of hurling?�?
The New York Times, The Fading of the Green, by Sophia Hollander, April 10, 2009
April 13, 2009
john commented on the word futurity
He's being ugly, but I find it a compelling poem. Full text is here.
April 12, 2009
john commented on the word arte rupestre
I like this game.
April 8, 2009
john commented on the word calèche
from wiktionary: “A type of carriage with low wheels, especially pulled by horses.�?
April 7, 2009
john commented on the word dyson number
“Let’s call the smallest possible number that doubles its value when its last digit is moved to the front, the “Dyson number�? for 2. The Dyson number for 3 would be one that tripled its value; the Dyson number for 4 would be one that quadrupled its value, and so on.�?
The New York Times, Freeman Dyson’s 4th-Grade Math Puzzle, by John Tierney, April 6, 2009
April 7, 2009
john commented on the word shabbes goy
Hired, or just asked—I've done favors like this for observant neighbors.
April 7, 2009
john commented on the word eppes
Also spelled eppis, I think. Means 'something' in Yiddish.
April 7, 2009
john commented on the list morbid-curiosity-words-you-should-be-very-hesitant-to-use-image-search-on
Right-O VO, so much so that you just gave it a new title. Nothing edifying here whatsoever. A list that makes you clamp your hands over your eyes, peer through the cracks between your fingers, and then wish you hadn't.
April 7, 2009
john commented on the word megillah
Also a famous gorilla.
April 7, 2009
john commented on the word features
Yeah, I think all I did was blow up the font size in a few places. Trying to be consistent with words and lists, I think, though I can see how it could be distracting.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word schlemazel
According to The Free Dictionary: “An extremely unlucky or inept person; a habitual failure.�?
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word engram
“The idea that experience leaves some trace in the brain goes back at least to Plato’s Theaetetus metaphor of a stamp on wax, and in 1904 the German scholar Richard Semon gave that ghostly trace a name: the engram.�?
The New York Times, rain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory, by Benedict Carey, April 5, 2009
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word schtupp
Vulgar Yiddish term for sex, on par with "screw."
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word schvartze
Yiddish term for a black person, sometimes derogative.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word schmutter
Rubbish.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word schmaltz
Literally means melted chicken fat.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word shrek
Yiddish for monster.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word pish
Yiddish for piss.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word nudje
To annoy, or a person who does so.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word schmeer
What you put on a bagel.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word shvitz
Yiddish, to sweat.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word noodnik
Yiddish insult, means an annoying pain in the ass.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word chazzer
Yiddish for pig.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word shiksha
More often spelled Shiksa.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word tuccus
Yiddish for ass. Also spelled tuchas.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word boychik
Term of endearment for a young man.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word nachas
Yiddish for joy and pride in one's children.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word mishuggenah
Also spelled mishugenah. Really weird that neither is currently listed anywhere.
Ah, I see--the preferred spelling here seems to be meshuggener.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word evolution
That might belong on devolution.
April 6, 2009
john commented on the word trolls
Folks, I really, really appreciate it when bad actors are brought to my attention. It happens infrequently, given the volume of traffic here, and I have a small bag of tools for dealing with them. It hasn't, knock on wood, been much of an issue.
But my opinion is that we should refrain from rising to the bait on the site. Most trolls are just out for attention, so yelling at them leaves them emboldened, not chastened. Though of course everyone is free to say what they will, and do what they want (except for the trolls, who I will nuke). And if anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to chime in here or let me know directly. Thanks.
Wow. The ads on this page are awesome.
April 5, 2009
john commented on the word cephalomancy
“Divination by study of the shape of the skull or head, esp. of a donkey or goat.�? Many citations here.
April 4, 2009
john commented on the word capnomancy
“Divination by the study of smoke rising from a fire.�? Many citations here.
April 4, 2009
john commented on the word guano
I think dingy was a freudian typo. The U.S.S. Guano is a sad, sad vessel. She's inflatable. She looks and handles like a large hot dog.
April 4, 2009
john commented on the word facebook
Wordie's not real life?
*eyes open wide, confused blinking*
April 3, 2009
john commented on the word guano
This is the name of my dingy--the U.S.S. Guano.
April 3, 2009
john commented on the word laicization
“Laicization — or removing a priest from the priesthood — was what Father Fitzgerald recommended for many abusive priests to bishops and Pope Paul VI.�?
The New York Times, Early Alarm for Church on Abusers in the Clergy, by Laurie Goodstein, April 2, 2009
April 3, 2009
john commented on the word paraclete
From the 1940’s through the 1960’s, bishops and superiors of religious orders sent their problem priests to Father Fitzgerald to be healed. He founded the Servants of the Paraclete in 1947 (“paraclete�? means “Holy Spirit�?), and set up a retreat house in Jemez Springs, N.M.
The New York Times, Early Alarm for Church on Abusers in the Clergy, by Laurie Goodstein, April 2, 2009
April 3, 2009
john commented on the word cura animarum
“We are amazed,�? Father Fitzgerald wrote to a bishop in 1957, “to find how often a man who would be behind bars if he were not a priest is entrusted with the cura animarum,�? meaning, the care of souls.
The New York Times, Early Alarm for Church on Abusers in the Clergy, by Laurie Goodstein, April 2, 2009
April 3, 2009
john commented on the word facebook
facebook burning?
April 3, 2009
john commented on the word curmudgeon
Curmudgeon day just isn't what it used to be.
April 3, 2009
john commented on the word april fool
There's a good one on guardian, too. And this, which was *not* done by the NYTimes
April 2, 2009
john commented on the word albatross that laid the golden egg
When something goes so well that you get stuck doing it all the time, and what had been a great success becomes a total drag.
April 2, 2009
john commented on the word guardian
Yeah yeah. But seriously, Wordie would sorta work over Twitter. It's the bastard offspring of Twitter and Wikipedia, sort of. Except that I think it predates Twitter. Their rate of growth has been slightly higher.
April 2, 2009
john commented on the word guardian
Apparently the Guardian is soon going to stop print publication and move to a twitter-only format.
That might actually be feasible for Wordie...
April 2, 2009
john commented on the word features
I hadn't announced that yet because it doesn't really... work :-) The query to get active lists is screwed up somehow. I'll work on it tonight though, should be fixed soon. The criteria are meant to be simple: open lists that have had words added to them in the past 24 hours, sorted by volume of words added in that timeframe.
April 1, 2009
john commented on the word wank
“Some publishers insist that consumers will pay for quality, which is perhaps the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. If that were true then, when Sirius satellite radio launched in the US, instead of poaching Howard Stern to lure over paid listeners, they'd have hired Charlie Rose to read out Proust. Meanwhile, the idea that people will pay for quality news or investigative journalism is simply the stuff of journalism professors' wank fantasies.�?
The Guardian, Viva la app app revolution!, by Paul Carr, March 25, 2009
April 1, 2009
john commented on the word newordizen
Patented, trademarked, copyrighted, and copylefted by bear in chains. Use it, you owe the bear a nickel.
April 1, 2009
john commented on the word goat
“Admittedly, I’m late to the party: goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world, a staple of, among others, Mexican, Indian, Greek and southern Italian cuisines.”
The New York Times, How I Learned to Love Goat, by Henry Alford, March 31, 2009
April 1, 2009
john commented on the word peis
I love WeirdNet's take on this as a plural proper noun.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the list deprefixed-words
Great list tts. Welcome to Wordie!
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word Բ
The second letter in the Armenian alphabet, according to French Wikipedia.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word ấ
Represents one of the five tones of â, the third letter of the Vietnamese alphabet.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word ệ
Represents one of the tones of ê, the ninth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word Φ
The Greek letter Phi. Used as a symbol for the golden ratio, among other things.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the list letters
I love this list. This is a lot to ask, but it would be cool to see the names of each letter on its respective page. Maybe I'll start chipping away at that.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word features
Yes, and done. Though I think it would be better still if Forvo let you add words from /word/(whatever). Like Wordie :-)
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word son of sam
aka David Berkowitz.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word samovar
Rolig, +1 on the show of support, your conversation and contributions are valued and enjoyed.
This is all in fun, right? Wordie is the house the pedantry built :-) If you can't argue/discuss/dissect the nuances of a word here, where can you?
Whatever the meaning of "samovar" (and it's allowed to have more than one, I think, and slightly different ones in different places; that's how words work), part of the 30 Rock joke is indeed that Toufer is himself a pedant. (*shoots joke in head by pedantically explaining it*)
But I think I have a solution to this all. Samovars used for anything other than tea should be called Son of Samovars.
March 31, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Login bug should be fixed now--once you log back in, you should stay in.
March 30, 2009
john commented on the word queequeg
Herman, no?
March 30, 2009
john commented on the word samovar
I like to think of the self-service soda fountains at Burger King as samovars.
March 30, 2009
john commented on the word iht
Short for International Herald Tribune, an international, English-language newspaper published in Paris, and owned by The New York Times. The paper used to have its own web site, but as of March 29, 2009 iht.com redirects to the global edition of nytimes.com.
March 30, 2009
john commented on the word bugs
Last night I made some internal changes (upgraded to Rails 2.3.2), which I think are causing issues with login. Looking into it, thanks for the heads-up.
March 30, 2009
john commented on the word samovar
Toufer: *Complaining to Liz* Surely our massive conglomerate parent company could spring for a samovar of coffee.
Frank: Yeah, or, like, a big coffee dispenser!
Toufer: *Condescendingly* That's what a samovar is.
Frank: Are there other black nerds, or is it just you and Urkel?
*Toofer just stares at Frank*
30 Rock, via imdb.com
March 30, 2009
john commented on the word walking bus
“This year the world’s first ever walking bus, which started in Hertfordshire in 1998, celebrates its tenth birthday!
Parent volunteers walk the children to school, with a ‘driver’ at the front and a ‘conductor’ at the back, collecting children from ‘bus stops’ along the route.�?
from hertsdirect.org, via @jonhansen.
March 28, 2009
john commented on the word serendipitous findability
Reminds me of Peter Morville's term—also the title of one of his books—Ambient Findability.
March 28, 2009
john commented on the word mash-up
See also mashup.
March 27, 2009
john commented on the list words-that-are-also-movies
Thanks LB! Just opened up this list, if anyone else wants to play.
March 27, 2009
john commented on the word goll-ee
Hi bilby! What? Oh sure, I'll have a bite.
*nibbles edge of toadstool, tumbles into alternate wordieverse*
March 26, 2009
john commented on the word neko
Also Neko Case, indie-rock chanteuse and New Pornographer.
For years I thought her name was pronounced "neck-oh," until I saw her in concert and realized it's said "knee-co," same as Nico.
March 26, 2009
john commented on the word vizier
“One of Dyson’s daughters, the Internet vizier Esther Dyson, says her father raised her without a television so she would read more, and has always been ‘just as interested in talking to’ the latest graduate student to make the pilgrimage to Princeton ‘as he is the famous person at the next table.’�?
The New York Times, The Civil Heretic, by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 25, 2009
March 26, 2009
john commented on the word macguffin
“Dyson agrees with the prevailing view that there are rapidly rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere caused by human activity. To the planet, he suggests, the rising carbon may well be a MacGuffin, a striking yet ultimately benign occurrence in what Dyson says is still ‘a relatively cool period in the earth’s history.’�?
The New York Times, The Civil Heretic, by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 25, 2009
March 26, 2009
john commented on the word blipper
Wordie PRO accounts get 17 characters.
March 26, 2009
john commented on the word suspire
A living, breathing—well, breathing at least—vampire.
March 25, 2009
john commented on the word inspire
Also, a hip vampire.
March 25, 2009
john commented on the word fuseful
Twitter is fascinating, Biz Stone sounds like a cool guy, but this word is fawful.
March 25, 2009
john commented on the word kkk
A repugnant hate group. Likes ferris wheels.
March 25, 2009
john commented on the word big bertha
“Big Bertha, as circus folk call Ringling, is under siege as never before. Kenneth Feld, the company’s 60-year-old producer, dismissed any idea that Ringling is no longer the Greatest Show on Earth.�?
The New York Times, Circus Flies O’er Troubles With Greatest of Ease, by Glenn Collins, March 23, 2009
March 25, 2009
john commented on the word there are no pockets in shrouds
In the past, I’ve tried pointing out to my parents that all money not spent by the Greatest Generation will only be spent by their heirs — and in not-so-great ways. Sometimes, after I’ve threatened to blow the inheritance on a box at the Metropolitan Opera or nightly meals at Le Bernardin, my parents will consent to a little extravagance for themselves, and my mother will remind my father of an old proverb: “There are no pockets in shrouds.�?
The New York Times, Oversaving, a Burden for Our Times, by John Tierney, March 23, 2009
March 24, 2009
john commented on the word hyperopia
“Consumer psychologists call it hyperopia, the medical term for farsightedness and the opposite of myopia, nearsightedness, because it’s the result of people looking too far ahead. They’re so obsessed with preparing for the future that they can’t enjoy the present, and they end up looking back sadly on all their lost opportunities for fun.�?
The New York Times, Oversaving, a Burden for Our Times, by John Tierney, March 23, 2009
March 24, 2009
john commented on the word malternative
“And in my household, in addition to my unrequited predilection for Drinks With Umbrellas, I recently learned that my husband hated the taste of beer in high school and so insisted on White Mountain, a “malternative�? beverage.�?
The New York Times, Your Signature Cocktail, by Anna Fricke, March 22, 2009
March 24, 2009
john commented on the word amitié amoureuse
See also friends with benefits.
March 23, 2009
john commented on the word friends with benefits
“I know, I know: You two physically disconnected after the births of your children (all too common), you engaged in some sleazy adulterate behavior, wocka wocka wocka. But that's all out in the open now, and you've decided to stay together because you're good parents, partners, and friends, and you've opened the relationship up to seek friends-with-benefits, as the straight people call 'em, or fuckbuddies, as we gay people like to call 'em.�?
Savage Love, September 3, 2008
March 23, 2009
john commented on the user mechanolatry
Better late than never, but I finally added etsy as an 'also-on' option. Sorry for the long delay :-)
March 23, 2009
john commented on the word norouz
“In President Barack Obama’s videotaped message to the Iranian people on Friday — which can be seen with Farsi subtitles on the Web site of Radio Farda, a broadcaster financed by the American government — he discusses the celebration of the Persian New Year, Norouz, which begins today. (Readers in Iran: Happy 1388!)�?
The New York Times, Obama, Peres and Colbert on the Persian New Year, by Robert Mackey, March 20, 2009
March 20, 2009
john commented on the word fantasound
The sound process used to record Fantasia. Has nothing to do with soda.
March 20, 2009
john commented on the word fantasia
Recorded in fantasound.
March 20, 2009
john commented on the word barococo
I thought I had just coined this, but apparently I didn't. Oh well.
March 20, 2009
john commented on the word trash out
“Just over an hour after they had arrived, they were done: the yard was clean, the house cleared, the “after�? pictures taken. The men, members of a “trash out�? crew charged with hauling away what’s left in foreclosed houses, had removed any sign of a home life from this one in Murrieta Oaks.�?
The New York Times, Foreclosure Trash-Out: Ill Fortune and Its Leavings, by Steven Kurutz, March 18, 2009
March 19, 2009
john commented on the word douchetard
“In a historic pairing of pop superstars who inspire the sort of hatred in A.V Club commenters most folks reserve for pedophiles, Nazis and Hilton sisters, 50 Cent of Vitamin Water and video game fame will be joining pop-punk punching bags Fall Out Boy for five magical dates on their current U.S Tour.
In a press release heralding this once-in-a-lifetime teaming of hip hop douchebag and rock douchetards 50 Cent is hilariously/erroneously described as “acclaimed�?.�?
A.V.Club, 50 Cent to join Fall Out Boy on tour. World rejoices, by Nathan Rabin, March 17, 2009
March 19, 2009
john commented on the word cacahuete
Spanish for peanut.
March 19, 2009
john commented on the word tiovivo
Oh sionnach, thanks--I love this word too, and had forgotten about it. It's right up there with electrodoméstico in my pantheon of great Spanish words.
It means "carousel."
March 18, 2009
john commented on the word wheelhouse
“McCain had blogged about body issues during the campaign — “I’ve been surprised by critical comments regarding my weight and body shape. It recently reached a ridiculous level when someone handed me a business card for a plastic surgeon and suggested I needed liposuction�? — so Ingraham’s jokes were, as the baseballers say, right in her wheelhouse.�?
The New York Times, Mean G.O.P. Girls, by Eric Etheridge, Marche 17, 2009
March 18, 2009
john commented on the list ford-to-city
Oops, sorry LB. It is now.
March 18, 2009
john commented on the word altogether
“Mr. Hepenstrick, 54, is an architect who loves to hike in the altogether.�?
The New York Times, In Thin Air of the Alps, Swiss Secrecy Is Vanishing, by John Tagliabue, March 16, 2009
March 18, 2009
john commented on the word stockdale paradox
Admiral James Stockdale, describing how he survived seven years as a POW in Vietnam, in Jim Colins' book Good to Great, as quoted in The New York Times:
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.�?
March 18, 2009
john commented on the list the-raven-by-edgar-allan-poe
Full text of the final version of the poem here.
March 18, 2009
john commented on the word phalacrocoracidae
The bird family including cormorants and shags.
March 17, 2009
john commented on the word mcgangbang
A McChicken Sandwich inside a Double Cheeseburger. The best mashup ever.
March 16, 2009
john commented on the list leev2s-list
Designer? *looks over shoulder*
March 16, 2009
john commented on the word iocaine powder
Clearly the inspiration behind this.
March 16, 2009
john commented on the word cheat
“A study of cheating among graduate students, published in 2006 in the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education, found that 56 percent of all M.B.A. students cheated regularly — more than in any other discipline.�?
The New York Times, Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools?, by Kelley Holland, March 14, 2009
March 15, 2009
john commented on the word vinegaroon
See also vinegarroon.
March 14, 2009
john commented on the user brettfagan
Thanks for editing that comment, I appreciate it. I meant what I said--Wordie does have decent PageRank and links from it can contribute in some small way to a site's SEO, as you know. That's not what the site is about though, so I try to discourage it.
March 13, 2009
john commented on the word privacy policy
In a nutshell: Google is spying on you. Right now. Details here.
March 13, 2009
john commented on the word colon blow
As seen here.
March 13, 2009
john commented on the word pants status
A twitter status update concerning one's pants, left by someone other than the account holder when a phone or laptop is left unattended and unlocked. First mentioned here, as far as I can tell, and trackable via http://pantsstatus.com.
March 12, 2009
john commented on the word muffin ii
A canine friend?
March 12, 2009
john commented on the word legitimated
“In most national jurisdictions, the status of a child as a legitimate or illegitimate heir could be changed – in either direction – under the civil law (as with the Princes in the Tower). Likewise under canon law, in most religious jurisdictions. In some jurisdictions, a child's birth could be retroactively "legitimated" if the parents married – usually within a specified time, such as a year.�? --Wikipedia
Came across this word while speculating about the Palin saga.
March 12, 2009
john commented on the word polysyndeton
qroqqa, the beginning of your first sentence ("I was cruising for Julie Myerson, as one does...") is somehow brilliant.
March 12, 2009
john commented on the word nixie
Also the name of one of the tubes, Jake tells me.
March 12, 2009
john commented on the word progress trap
This page has been cleaned up, so I'm removing my little joke from earlier. Leaving this placard though, so bilby's comment above isn't orphaned.
March 12, 2009
john commented on the list words-of-the-times
Awesome, thank you :-)
March 11, 2009
john commented on the word peregruzka
“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in greeting Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, presented him with a red plastic button emblazoned with the English word “reset�? and the Russian word “peregruzka.�?
The gift was a play on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s call in Munich last month for the two countries to “press the reset button�? on their relationship.
“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,�? Mrs. Clinton said, handing the button to Mr. Lavrov. “Do you think we got it?�?
“You got it wrong,�? he replied, explaining that the Americans had come up with the Russian word for overcharged.�?
The New York Times, Lost in Translation: A U.S. Gift to Russia, by Mark Landler, March 6, 2009
March 11, 2009
john commented on the word great depression
See also Great Recession.
March 9, 2009
john commented on the word great recession
“This recession, which began in December 2007, has already lasted longer than the average postwar recession. If it turns out to be as bad as the most protracted of the postwar downturns, we will touch bottom next month.
But my strong suspicion is that we are now in something more like a Great Recession. It won’t produce as steep a fall in American output as the Depression did, but it may prove to be as prolonged.�?
The New York Times, Our Great Recession, by Niall Ferguson, February 28, 2009
March 9, 2009
john commented on the word emoji
“Emoji (絵文字 ?) is the Japanese term for the picture characters or emoticons used in Japanese wireless messages and webpages. Originally meaning pictograph, the word literally means e "picture" + moji "letter". The characters are used much like emoticons elsewhere, but a wider range is provided, and the icons are standardized and built into the handsets.�?
Wikipedia
March 9, 2009
john commented on the word drifting
“This may be the most popular sport of Saudi youth, an obsessive, semilegal competition that dominates weekend nights here. It ranges from garden variety drag racing to “drifting,�? an extremely dangerous practice in which drivers deliberately spin out and skid sideways at high speeds, sometimes killing themselves and spectators.�?
The New York Times, Saudi Racers Roar All Night, Fueled by Boredom, by Robert F. Worth, March 7, 2009
March 8, 2009
john commented on the word tufush
“Some young people, asked why they risked their lives this way, said it was because of “tufush,�? a colloquial Arabic word for boredom whose meaning is said by some to derive from the gestures made by a drowning man.�?
The New York Times, Saudi Racers Roar All Night, Fueled by Boredom, by Robert F. Worth, March 7, 2009
March 8, 2009
john commented on the word pataca
We blew a shitload of these during our evening plenary sessions in Macau during that, you know, strategic planning retreat.
March 7, 2009
john commented on the word sawbuck
Noirish slang for a $10 bill. Good discussion of it on Language Hat.
March 7, 2009
john commented on the word press here for a random word
Sorry RT. The Board voted on it last week, when we used the first installment of our bailout money (Wordie: shovel ready!) to fly the Gulfstream to Macau for a gambling junke... uh, I mean, strategic planning retreat. Sacrificial killings are now only available with Wordie PRO.
You automatically agreed to the new tos by clicking on random word. Thanks!
March 7, 2009
john commented on the word tos
Terms of Service, the gobbledygook legalese that everyone clicks through at lightening speed when installing software or signing up for a web site. No idea why, or if, these have any legal standing, considering nobody in the history of the universe has ever read one. Or maybe one guy has, once. I wrote a TOS for a previous web site, and in the middle of it added a clause requiring you to agree that the Modern Lovers were the best band ever. Over six thousand people agreed to that, and as far as I know only one person noticed it.
March 7, 2009
john commented on the word press here for a random word
Yes, it's section IV, part 9, subclause 3b of the addendum to the indices of the TOS: be nice, and no sacrificial killings.
March 7, 2009
john commented on the word features
Good idea Pro. Didn't get to add Etsy tonight, ran out of time, but tomorrow I'll try to both do that, and add a preferences option to set who can see your also-ons,everyone or just registered users.
March 6, 2009
john commented on the word telekino
“In 1903, Leonardo Torres Quevedo presented the Telekino at the Paris Academy of Science, accompanied by a brief, and making an experimental demonstration. In the same time he obtained a patent in France, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States. The Telekino consisted of a robot that executed commands transmitted by electromagnetic waves. It constituted the world's first apparatus for radio control and was a pioneer in the field of remote control. In 1906, in the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Torres successfully demonstrated the invention in the port of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore. Later, he would try to apply the Telekino to projectiles and torpedoes, but had to abandon the project for lack of financing.�?
Wikipedia
March 6, 2009
john commented on the user mechanolatry
Hello mechnolatry, just answered your query over on features. See what you were talking about now. I think people were trying more to be informative than offensive, but I can see how it's borderline.
I think tagging things 'v' is just fine, since I haven't added anything to let you browse words by letter. Tags are pretty open ended.
March 6, 2009
john commented on the word features
Mech, sorry you feel your comments haven't been well received--maybe it was a misunderstanding? Wordie humor, such that it is, can be obscure, and somtimes tart (though also obvious, and sweet). I just looked at your comments and fwiw, they look cool to me. As I've said before, I like almost all comments, but have a particular fondness for quotes and definitions, like the ones you've added.
I love etsy, and will add it to the also-on list tonight. Thanks for the suggestion.
March 6, 2009
john commented on the word button
My daughter's first unequivocal word. There have been ambiguous maybe-words for a while. "Mama"... followed by a string of spittle-inflected vowels while she points at the fridge. But a few days ago she began began grabbing buttons, looking at you soulfully, and saying "button."
March 6, 2009
john commented on the word dodgeball
Verb meaning to acquire a company and destroy it through neglect, as Google did to dodgeball.com. Example: "Do you think Yahoo! is going to dodgeball jumpcut?"
March 5, 2009
john commented on the word green bullets
“America's military is about to lock and load with new ammunition that's tough on enemies but easy on mother earth. It's known as the "Green Bullet", which is a new lead-free projectile that defense officials say is just as lethal as the standard 5.56mm without harming the environment.�?
FirearmsID.com, U.S. Military “Green Bullet�?, by Don Mikko, Fall 1999
March 5, 2009
john commented on the list 30-rockisms
Love this list. 30 Rock is literature! Or opera buffa, or something. It's brilliant.
March 5, 2009
john commented on the word niue
“So far, more than 200 advertisements have run in more than 70 languages: in highbrow periodicals like The New York Review of Books and The Poetry Review in Britain; in general-interest publications like Parade and USA Today; in obscure foreign trade journals like China Copyright and Svensk Bokhandel; and in newspapers in places like Fiji, Greenland, the Falkland Islands, and the Micronesian island of Niue (the name is roughly translated as Behold the Coconut!), which has one newspaper.�?
The New York Times, A Google Search of a Distinctly Retro Kind, by Noam Cohen, March 3, 2009
March 4, 2009
john commented on the word auto polo
“Not a few of the dwellers or toilers along Automobile Row have been predicting a popular future for auto polo, the game from the South and West which gave the public a number of thrills as a game and furnished food for thought for the motor enthusiast at Madison Square Garden in the week just ended. There had been rumors of the game from time to time, and people had heard that the four-wheeled "ponies" on which it was played provided as many sensational moments as teh four-legged ones of the horse polo match.�?
The New York Times, ENGINE FLEXIBILITY MARKED NEW GAME; Wonder of Auto Polo Was Ability of Motors to Stand the Strain and Upsets., December 8 , 1912
March 4, 2009
john commented on the word allomother
“Human beings evolved as cooperative breeders, says Dr. Hrdy, a reproductive strategy in which mothers are assisted by as-if mothers, or “allomothers,�? individuals of either sex who help care for and feed the young.�?
The New York Times, In a Helpless Baby, the Roots of Our Social Glue, by Natalie Angier, March 2, 2009
March 4, 2009
john commented on the list trevorbutterworths-list
Check out the weaving of words from this list into an excellent Jabberwocky rip-off.
March 3, 2009
john commented on the word bananapocalypse
from @emckean's wotd: "the possible extinction of bananas, due to infection of the current Cavendish monoculture by Panama Disease."
March 3, 2009
john commented on the user Prolagus
Pro, thanks much for drawing my attention back to Forvo--I finally added a link to them on each word. They contacted me last year, and it got lost in my inbox--their email arrived the same week as my daughter. A lot of things fell through the cracks that week :-)
March 3, 2009
john commented on the word substantiality
We do. The copyeditors for the travel section sit right behind me.
This is a term of art in copyright law. It might have been a good idea to avoid jargon, or to at least mention that that's what this is. But it is a legit word, if fugly :-)
March 3, 2009
john commented on the word substantiality
“In the United States, the copyright law provides a four-point definition of fair use, which takes into consideration the purpose (commercial vs. educational) and the substantiality of the excerpt.�?
The New York Times, Copyright Holders Challenge Sites That Excerpt, by Brian Stelter, March 1, 2009
March 3, 2009
john commented on the word good grief
I don't mean to be flip or diminish anyone's grief, but this always reminds me of Charlie Brown:
March 2, 2009
john commented on the word blizzard
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were gusts of 35 m.p.h.,�? he said, “We have to keep our eye out for blizzard conditions.�? The weather service defines a blizzard, not by the amount of snowfall — though they tend to be accompanied by significant snow — but by three consecutive hours of winds blowing at 35 m.p.h. and visibility of less than a mile.
The New York Times, A Foot of Snow Is Predicted for New York City, by Emily S. Rueb, March 1, 2009
March 2, 2009
john commented on the word the rocky
“The Rocky Mountain News in Denver will cease publication on Friday.
E.W. Scripps, which owns newspaper, known locally as The Rocky, announced Thursday that it had failed to find a buyer for the daily. Scripps’s chief executive, Rich Boehne, said in a statement that The Rocky was “a victim of changing times in our industry and huge economic challenges.�? Scripps said the newspaper lost $16 million last year.�?
The New York Times, Rocky Mountain News Is Shutting Down, DealBook, February 26, 2009
February 27, 2009
john commented on the word butta la pasta
Ms. Bastianich agreed that using less water is O.K. “Yes, I think it’s doable to reduce the cooking water by one third,�? from 6 quarts per pound to 4. “But please ‘butta la pasta’ in boiling water.�?
The New York Times, How Much Water Does Pasta Really Need?, by Harold McGee, February 25, 2009
February 26, 2009
john commented on the word comp
It's also short for complimentary, and sometimes used as a verb in that form.
February 25, 2009
john commented on the word green man
This might also refer to the Chia Obama.
February 23, 2009
john commented on the word clawback
“But now, with a public backlash against excessive pay and taxpayer lifelines extended to crippled companies, the idea of recouping compensation, known as “clawback,�? is gaining traction.�?
The New York Times, After Losses, a Move to Reclaim Executives’ Pay, by Gretchen Morgenson, February 21, 2009
February 22, 2009
john commented on the word aperçus
“President Obama disdains sound bites, and he does not have Bill Clinton’s talent for reducing the abstruse to aperçus.”
The New York Times, Dark Dark Dark, by Maureen Dowd, February 21, 2009
February 22, 2009
john commented on the word notworking
For Wordie PRO! 2.0, the boss button will actually turn off your boss.
February 21, 2009
john commented on the word brinking
Short for "binge drinking," according to UD.
February 21, 2009
john commented on the word notworking
I just know. That's why we have the boss button.
February 21, 2009
john commented on the word notworking
What you're doing right now.
February 21, 2009
john commented on the word information exhaust
Tim O'Reilly just used this phrase at the TimesOpen conference to describe the cloud of data that's emitted by our devices: GPS data from our phones, search rank from links, etc.
February 21, 2009
john commented on the word dear john
Wow, nobody's listing John Deere. Doesn't someone have a list of brands?
February 20, 2009
john commented on the word the farm
“It was the New York Times that broke his heart,�? said Nancy Packer, a retired professor of English at Stanford, who knew Stegner well in the time he nurtured writers from Ken Kesey to Larry McMurtry here on the Farm, as the university is known.
The New York Times, Stegner’s Complaint, by Timothy Egan, February 18, 2009
February 20, 2009
john commented on the word urawaza
“In postwar Japan, the economy wasn’t doing so great, so you couldn’t get everyday-use items like household cleaners,” says Lisa Katayama, author of “Urawaza,” a book named after the Japanese term for clever lifestyle tips and tricks. “So people looked for ways to do with what they had.”
The New York Times, Low-Tech Fixes for High-Tech Problems, by Paul Boutin, February 18, 2009
February 20, 2009
john commented on the word propeller heads
“Sometimes, during the 30-minute briefings that Mr. Summers delivers in the Oval Office nearly every day, Mr. Obama addresses him as Professor, as in, ‘What do you think, Professor Summers?’ Sometimes, as he did in the Roosevelt Room one recent afternoon, Mr. Obama tweaks him and his fellow policy wonks, dubbing them ‘the propeller-heads.’�?
The New York Times, In a World Not Wholly Cooperative, Obama’s Top Economist Makes Do , by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, February 16, 2009
February 19, 2009
john commented on the word homophily
“The faintly depressing human tendency to seek out and spend time with those most similar to us is known in social science as "homophily", and it shapes our views, and our lives, in ways we're barely aware of.�?
The Guardian, This column will change your life, by Oliver Burkeman, January 31, 2009
February 18, 2009
john commented on the word wabi sabi
See also wabi-sabi.
February 18, 2009
john commented on the word machinima
“Video-game aficionados have been creating “machinima�? -- an ungainly term mixing “machine�? and “cinema�? and pronounced ma-SHEEN-i-ma -- since the late 90's. “Red vs. Blue�? is the first to break out of the underground, and now corporations like Volvo are hiring machinima artists to make short promotional films, while MTV, Spike TV and the Independent Film Channel are running comedy shorts and music videos produced inside games.�?
The New York Times, The Xbox Auteurs, by Clive Thompson, August 7, 2005
February 18, 2009
john commented on the word dog-fooding
“For many ideas, Google’s first and most important audience is its employees, and it typically tries products internally before releasing them.
Google and other technology companies refer to this as “eating your own dog food.�? Through such “dog-fooding,�? Google learned that the early version of its calendar program was fine for parents tracking children’s soccer games, but not robust enough to meet a corporate user’s need to book rooms, reserve equipment and delegate scheduling.�?
The New York Times, How Google Decides to Pull the Plug, by Vindu Goel, February 14, 2009
February 16, 2009
john commented on the list the-incredible-shrinking-list
Just deleted Helga's spam comment. Not sure why I didn't nuke the account, but yeah, I might have just deleted hir offending comments.
February 15, 2009
john commented on the word mere exposure effect
“First, it’s a lesson in the power of raw repetition — the ‘mere exposure effect’ identified by psychology studies that suggests we like things more simply by seeing them more often.�?
The New York Times, A Successful Failure, by Rob Walker, February 12, 2009
February 15, 2009
john commented on the word cursebird
I fucking love this.
February 15, 2009
john commented on the word larithmics
I used to love this band.
February 12, 2009
john commented on the user john
I haven't posted to Errata in an embarrassingly long time, but not sure why the old posts aren't loading, will look into it. And someday I do plan to be a blogger again, I swear.
February 11, 2009
john commented on the word scanties
“If the battered but unbroken stimulus package Washington finally serves up does not turn the trick, perhaps the answer to the country’s economic woes could be something a lot simpler. Bring back burlesque!
In the nostalgia-steeped new musical ‘Minsky’s,’ which had its world premiere here Sunday night at the Ahmanson Theater, dancing in your scanties while the world trembles is presented as noble service that might help keep a wounded country on its feet.�?
The New York Times, What’s the Cure for Those Depression Blues? Hoofing in Your Scanties, by Charles Isherwood, February 9, 2009
February 10, 2009
john commented on the word smoker
“More than two dozen amateur bouts, called smokers, were scheduled this evening for American Indian boxers.�?
The New York Times, Punching Back Against Despair on the High Plains, by Jeré Longman, February 8, 2009
February 9, 2009
john commented on the word sumptuary
“I’ve become increasingly concerned about the rising number of rich people who are being caught unawares by shifts in the sumptuary code. First, there were those auto executives who didn’t realize that it is no longer socially acceptable to use private jets for lobbying trips to Washington. Then there was John Thain, who was humiliated because it is no longer acceptable to spend $35,000 on a commode for a Merrill Lynch washroom.�?
The New York Times, Ward Three Morality, by David Brooks, February 2, 2009
February 4, 2009
john commented on the word roller derby
A friend of mine, Lesley E. Visserate, claims that roller derby has made her "a better, more strategic driver."
February 4, 2009
john commented on the word epizootic
The Panic of 1873 was caused by the "Great Epizootic," a world-wide epidemic of equine influenza that crippled commerce when horses became unable to haul people or goods. The horses recovered within a year; the economy took a decade. More info here and here.
February 3, 2009
john commented on the word frailing
See citation on clawhammer.
February 3, 2009
john commented on the word clawhammer
“Among country and bluegrass musicians, Mr. Martin is regarded as a master of a difficult five-fingered playing style known as clawhammer or frailing, in which the instrument’s strings are pushed down by fingernails, rather than pulled up with picks.�?
The New York Times, Jokes and Films Are Fun, but He Loves His Banjo, by Dave Itzkoff, February 1, 2009
February 3, 2009
john commented on the word lemon socialism
“I’m talking, instead, about the administration’s plans for a banking system rescue — plans that are shaping up as a classic exercise in ‘lemon socialism’: taxpayers bear the cost if things go wrong, but stockholders and executives get the benefits if things go right.�?
The New York Times, Bailouts for Bunglers , by Paul Krugman, February 1, 2009
February 2, 2009
john commented on the word ladybird
Ladybird Johnson's given name? Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson.
February 2, 2009
john commented on the word disgorgement
“The president’s disgust at Wall Street looters was good. But we need more. We need disgorgement.
Disgorgement is when courts force wrongdoers to repay ill-gotten gains. And I’m ill at the gains gotten by scummy executives acting all Gordon Gekko while they’re getting bailed out by us.�?
The New York Times, Disgorge, Wall Street Fat Cats, by Maureen Dowd, January 31, 2009
February 2, 2009
john commented on the word agnotology
Erin McKean's WOTD, January 30, 2009, from her Twitter feed:
"the study of culturally constructed ignorance." Robert Proctor, from WIRED Feb 09
January 31, 2009
john commented on the word fattie
“Mr. Day, a systems administrator who has been barbecuing since college, suggested doing something with a pile of sausage. ‘It’s a variation of what’s called a fattie in the barbecue community,’ Mr. Day said. ‘But we took it to the extreme.’�?
The New York Times, Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog., by Damon Darlin, January 27, 2009
January 29, 2009
john commented on the word bacon explosion
“This recipe is the Bacon Explosion, modestly called by its inventors ‘the BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes.’ The instructions for constructing this massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce first appeared last month on the Web site of a team of Kansas City competition barbecuers.�?
The New York Times, Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog., by Damon Darlin, January 27, 2009
January 29, 2009
john commented on the word continental army
a million bricks?
January 29, 2009
john commented on the word saddlebacking
“‘Saddlebacking: the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities.’ After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she's saving herself for marriage.�?
Savage Love, January 28, 2009
January 29, 2009
john commented on the word citiboobs
“The ‘Citiboobs’ — as The New York Post, which broke the news, calls them — watched as the car chieftains got in trouble for flying their private jets to Washington to ask for bailouts, and the A.I.G. moguls got dragged before Congress for spending their bailout on California spa treatments. But the boobs still didn’t get the message.�?
The New York Times, Wall Street’s Socialist Jet-Setters, by Maureen Down, January 27, 2009
January 29, 2009
john commented on the word boll weevil
“To get his budget and tax bills through the House, Reagan needed support from conservative Democrats, many of them from Texas, known as ‘Boll Weevils.’�?
The New York Times, Obama’s Reagan Transformation?, by Lou Cannon, January 27, 2009
January 28, 2009
john commented on the word 4711
Upgrading to WordiePRO also makes the site scratch and sniff. You can select your preferred scent: musty bookshop, printer's ink, or artificial strawberry.
January 28, 2009
john commented on the word updike
Great writer, sad day. The Centaur is one of my favorite books ever.
January 28, 2009
john commented on the word features
Pro, you're totally right. In the near future I'll polish up some of the admin tools I've built for myself, and deputize some of you regulars. Like Andre the Giant, I'll have a posse!
The tools make it pretty easy to zap things. I'll tighten them up a little and try to hand out the shiny badges within a week or so. Maybe divided up by time zone :-)
January 27, 2009
john commented on the word one-lunger
I've heard this term used in Maine, where I've also heard actual one-lungers in use. They have a distinct staccato sound.
January 27, 2009
john commented on the word creative destruction
“Indeed, Silicon Valley may be one of the few places where businesses are still aware of the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian economist who wrote about business cycles during the first half of the last century. He said the lifeblood of capitalism was ‘creative destruction.’ Companies rising and falling would unleash innovation and in the end make the economy stronger.�?
The New York Times, $200 Laptops Break a Business Model , by Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance, January 25, 2009
January 26, 2009
john commented on the word kata
“A kata is an exercise in karate where you repeat a form many, many times, making little improvements in each.�?
Code Kata
January 26, 2009
john commented on the word concupiscient
Maybe concupiscient means "knowledge of concupiscence?"
*pokes sionnach with a stick*
January 26, 2009
john commented on the word email bankruptcy
“Email Bankruptcy is a term used to identify or explain a decision to close an e-mail account due to an overwhelming receipt of garbage messages, compared to legitimate messages, usually attributed to author Lawrence Lessig in 2004 but can also be attributed to Dr. Sherry Turkle in 2002.�?
Wikipedia
January 25, 2009
john commented on the word teleiophile
NYT doesn't say anything, but Wikipedia says “Teleiophilia (from Greek teleios, ‘full grown’) is a term coined by sexologist Ray Blanchard to refer to the sexual interest in adults.�?
January 25, 2009
john commented on the word teleidoscope
“A teleidoscope is a kind of kaleidoscope. Unlike other kaleidoscopes, teleidoscopes have a lens and an open view, so they can be used to form kaleidoscopic patterns from objects outside the instrument, rather than from items installed as part of it.�?
- Wikipedia
January 25, 2009
john commented on the word teleiophile
“Daniel Bergner, 48, the divorced father of two teenage children, is what sexologists would call a straight, vanilla teleiophile. He is attracted to adults, that is, prefers the opposite sex and doesn’t shop for lovemaking accessories — clothespins, clamps, carabiners, rubber gloves — at Home Depot.�?
The New York Times, Surveying the Outer Reaches of Lust, by Charles McGrath, January 23, 2009
January 25, 2009
john commented on the word dyspareunia
“Meana, who serves with Chivers on the board of Archives of Sexual Behavior, entered the field of sexology in the late 1990s and began by working clinically and carrying out research on dyspareunia — women’s genital pain during intercourse.�?
The New York Times, What Do Women Want?, by Daniel Bergner, January 22, 2009
January 24, 2009
john commented on the word paraphilia
“In 1996, when she worked as an assistant to a sexologist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, then called the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, she found herself the only woman on a floor of researchers investigating male sexual preferences and what are known as paraphilias — erotic desires that fall far outside the norm.�?
The New York Times, What Do Women Want?, by Daniel Bergner, January 22, 2009
January 24, 2009
john commented on the word boomshakalaka
You can watch Sly and the Family Stone singing it, or a variant, in I Want to Take You Higher, at around :46.
January 23, 2009
john commented on the word shitogram
Could this be related to the bristol stool scale?
January 23, 2009
john commented on the word lingonberry
Also known as the Ikea berry.
January 22, 2009
john commented on the word epiphany
“Monday was Russian Orthodox Epiphany, and roughly 30,000 Muscovites lined up to dunk themselves in icy rivers and ponds, city officials said. The annual ritual baptism, which is believed to wash away sins, is enjoying a boisterous revival after being banished to villages during the Soviet era.�?
The New York Times, Russians Strengthen Their Faith and a Tradition With an Icy Water Plunge , by Ellen Barry, January 20, 2009
January 22, 2009
john commented on the word anaphora
“Using the technique that rhetoricians call anaphora, repeating a phrase at the opening of successive sentences, Obama said: ‘This is the price and the promise… This is the source of our confidence… This is the meaning of our liberty…’�?
The New York Times, ‘The Speech’: The Experts’ Critique, by The Editors, January 20, 2009
January 21, 2009
john commented on the word bolus
“On the one hand, they said, the new president’s apparent enthusiasm for science, and the concomitant rise of ‘geek chic’ and ‘smart is the new cool’ memes, can only redound to the benefit of all scientists, particularly if the enthusiasm is followed by a bolus of new research funds.�?
The New York Times, In ‘Geek Chic’ and Obama, New Hope for Lifting Women in Science , by Natalie Angier, January 19, 2009
January 21, 2009
john commented on the word hapa
“He is the first president who was a hapa, as they are called in Hawaii, with parents of different races.�?
The Washington Post, Restless Searcher on an Improbable Path, by David Maraniss, January 18, 2009
January 20, 2009
john commented on the user john
That was a mistake on erich13's part, and s/he contacted me about it, but in my new incarnation as not very useful or responsive, I hadn't gotten to it yet. I'll try to today though.
January 20, 2009
john commented on the user hernesheir
Don's stop, hernesheir, Wordie feeds off your OCD! I'm really enjoying the deluge of cheese.
January 19, 2009
john commented on the word clinker
“The United States spends more energy to produce a ton of cement clinker than Canada, Mexico and even China.�?
The New York Times, Energy Inefficient , January 18, 2009
January 19, 2009
john commented on the word my aircraft
“But as soon as the plane encountered the birds and the engines quit nearly simultaneously, Captain Sullenberger, 58, took over.
‘My aircraft,’ he announced to his first officer, using the standard phrasing and protocol drilled into airline crews.
‘Your aircraft,’ Mr. Skiles responded.�?
The New York Times, 1549 to Tower: ‘We’re Gonna End Up in the Hudson’ , by Matthew L. Wald and Al Baker, January 17, 2009
January 18, 2009
john commented on the word smelt
“While there is some debate about the best inaugural address in history, it’s pretty clear that the worst was the one delivered by William Henry Harrison, who went thwacking through a tangled thicket of classical allusions for an hour and 45 minutes. (Harrison’s editor, Daniel Webster, claimed it could have been worse, and that he had killed off ‘seventeen Roman proconsuls, as dead as smelts.’)�?
The New York Times, Imagining the Inaugural, by Gail Collins, January 16, 2009
January 17, 2009
john commented on the word secure location
Yesterday's crashed plane is going to go live at Dick Cheney's house:
“On Saturday, she said, investigators planned to extract the aircraft from the icy water with two large cranes, placing the plane on a barge for transit to a secure location.�?
The New York Times, River Is Searched for Clues to Crash, by Matthew L. Wald and Liz Robbins, January 16, 2009
January 17, 2009
john commented on the word situational altruism
“In emergencies, researchers have found, most people actually freeze until they're told what to do. Some people also engage in what's called situational altruism -- they help each other.
The Huffington Post, The Three Myths About Plane Crashes, by Ben Sherwood, January 15, 2009
January 17, 2009
john commented on the word misunderestimate
“‘Sometimes you misunderestimated me,’ Bush told the Washington press corps. This is not the first time our president has worried about misunderestimation, so it’s fair to regard this not as a slip of the tongue, but as something the president of the United States thinks is a word. The rhetoric is the one part of the administration we’re surely going to miss. We are about to enter a world in which our commander in chief speaks in full sentences, and I do not know what we’re going to do to divert ourselves on slow days.�?
The New York Times, He’s Leaving. Really. , by Gail Collins, January 14, 2009
January 16, 2009
john commented on the word steagles
“As national duty cut into N.F.L. rosters during World War II — more than 600 players were drafted at a time when teams seldom carried more than 28 — franchises scrambled for solutions. So in 1943, the Steelers and the Eagles became the Steagles, and in 1944, the Steelers and the Cardinals became Card-Pitt, all in the interest of keeping professional football alive during the war.�?
The New York Times, Steelers Shared Resources With 2 Teams During World War II, by Joshua Robinson, January 14, 2009
January 16, 2009
john commented on the word stupid o'clock
Sometimes stupid o'clock is the same as one million o'clock.
January 16, 2009
john commented on the word one million o'clock
When it's really, really late.
January 16, 2009
john commented on the word jell-o clown
As seen in your nightmares, and also on boingboing.
January 16, 2009
john commented on the word axis mundi
“Neuhaus spent the next days, months and years impressed by the overwhelming fact of death. This made him, he writes, a bit blubbery. ‘After some time, I could shuffle the few blocks to the church and say Mass. At the altar, I cried a lot and hoped the people didn’t notice. To think that I’m really here after all, I thought, at the altar, at the axis mundi, the center of life. And of death.’�?
The New York Times, In Defense of Death , by David Brooks, January 12, 2009
January 13, 2009
john commented on the list misunderstood-lyrics
Just finally opened this list up...
January 13, 2009
john commented on the word boffin
“Many thanks go out to Evan Sandhaus and the other boffins at R&D for making this resource publicly available to researchers.�?
The New York Times, Fatten Up Your Corpus, by Jacob Harris, January 12, 2009
January 13, 2009
john commented on the word chippies
See also chippy.
January 12, 2009
john commented on the word afronaut
“Mr. Shuttleworth looked to the stars. Paying an estimated $20 million to Russian officials, he secured a 10-day trip to space and the International Space Station on the Soyuz TM-34 in 2002 and became the first ‘Afronaut,’ as the press described him.�?
The New York Times, A Software Populist Who Doesn’t Do Windows, by Ashlee Vance, January 10, 2009
January 11, 2009
john commented on the word wrenboy
Also, a fan of The Wrens.
January 11, 2009
john commented on the word seroconversion
“Seroconversion is the development of detectable specific antibodies to microorganisms in the blood serum as a result of infection or immunization.�?
Wikipedia
“A close gay friend recently seroconverted after months of barebacking and meth use.�?
The A.V. Club, Savage Love, by Dan Savage, January 7, 2009
January 11, 2009
john commented on the word fatsophere
“And now a note to the infuriated fatsophere: I'm not saying that REAM's boyfriend is unattractive because he's heavier, or that heavy people aren't or can't be attractive, or that we all must forever maintain our ‘first-date weight’ over the multi-decade course of relationship/marriage/whatever.�?
The A.V. Club, Savage Love, by Dan Savage, January 7, 2009
January 11, 2009
john commented on the word skunk
“‘If the president calls, you have to accept,’ said Kevin Johnson, a former guard for the Phoenix Suns who was elected last year as mayor of Sacramento and has talked about sports and politics with Mr. Obama. What would he say if the president invited him to a game? ‘That would be his first mistake in office. I’d have to skunk him.’�?
The New York Times, Rule No. 1: Do Not Call Him ‘Ball Hog in Chief’, by Jeff Zeleny, January 9, 2009
January 11, 2009
john commented on the word festoon
“McDonald’s hasn’t silenced nutritional critics; some of its salads come festooned with fried chicken.�?
The New York Times, At McDonald’s, the Happiest Meal Is Hot Profits, by Andrew Martin, January 10, 2009
January 11, 2009
john commented on the word complementarianism
“Like many New Calvinists, Driscoll advocates traditional gender roles, called ‘complementarianism’ in theological parlance. Men and women are ‘equal spiritually, and it’s a difference of functionality, not intrinsic worth,’ says Danielle Blazer, a 34-year-old Mars Hill member. Women may work outside the home, but they must submit to their husbands, and they are forbidden from taking on preaching roles in the church.�?
The New York Times, , by Molly Worthen, January 6, 2009
January 11, 2009
john commented on the word pronk
See also pronking.
January 11, 2009
john commented on the user john
Poor sad Errata, feeling all neglected. I'll get back on the horse this weekend.
January 9, 2009
john commented on the word brassica
“The dish turned out fine, but I had unknowingly and luckily avoided producing a rotten egg stink. Brussels sprouts — and other vegetables of the Brassica family, including cabbage — release hydrogen sulfide as they cook, particularly when boiled for too long.�?
The New York Times, At the Stove, a Dash of Science, a Pinch of Folklore, by Kenneth Chang, January 5, 2009
January 8, 2009
john commented on the word difi
Headline shorthand for Dianne Feinstein:
“DiFi delivers one-two punch on Dems�?
Politico.com, , by Manu Raju, January 6, 2009
January 8, 2009
john commented on the word psammophile
“Occasionally offerings come from the community of psammophiles (formally, plants that live in sand) — people who collect sand for fun.�?
The New York Times, So Much to Learn About the Oceans From Sand, by Cornelia Dean, January 5, 2009
January 8, 2009
john commented on the word insectarium
“Opened just half a year ago, the Insectarium is the largest museum in the nation devoted solely to insects and their arthropod relations.�?
The New York Times, A Large-Size Focus on Life Lived Small, by Natalie Angier, January 5, 2009
January 7, 2009
john commented on the word buckle bunnies
“Rodeo groupies are called buckle bunnies for the saucer-size silver buckles that cowboys earn for winning rodeo events.�?
The New York Times, Bull Riders Wait All Day for a Few Seconds of Fury, by John Branch, January 4, 2009
January 6, 2009
john commented on the word dashboarded
“Snyder is a 26-year-old from Raymore, Mo., with a black hat, a dignified air and a nose reconstructed a few years ago by a surgeon who used Snyder’s driver’s license as a guide. That procedure followed a head-to-head run-in with a bull — a brutally common collision known among riders as being jerked down or, more graphically, dashboarded.�?
The New York Times, Bull Riders Wait All Day for a Few Seconds of Fury, by John Branch, January 4, 2009
January 6, 2009
john commented on the word third-hand smoke
“Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air for their children, but experts now have identified a related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.
That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after second-hand smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.�?
The New York Times, A New Cigarette Hazard: ‘Third-Hand Smoke’, by Roni Caryn Rabin, January 2, 2009
January 6, 2009
john commented on the word geta
Traditional Japanese footware.
“Clearly, understanding a visionary whose work shaped Japan’s literary culture requires more than walking a few steps in her geta.�?
The New York Times, Kyoto Celebrates a 1,000-Year Love Affair , by Michelle Green, , 2009
January 5, 2009
john commented on the word auto verseur
“Standing at the bar, Mr. Bergougnoux poured absinthe into four glasses, then arranged them beneath an auto-verseur, a small glass samovar that dispensed ice water.�?
The New York Times, Care for an Absinthe? Ptooey! , by Eric Konigsberg, January 2, 2009
January 5, 2009
john commented on the word smaller than life
“We like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean, or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians like Frank Langella. So here, too, George W. Bush has let us down. Even the banality of evil is too grandiose a concept for 43. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He’s the reckless Yalie Tom Buchanan, not Gatsby. He is smaller than life.�?
The New York Times, A President Forgotten but Not Gone, by Frank Rich, January 3, 2009
January 5, 2009
john commented on the word nerd boner
“I don't think I've been as excited for a film première as I am for Watchmen since Star Wars: Episode I. Here's hoping things work out better this time. I'm definitely surprised at how much of a nerd boner I've been popping over the trailers for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek: The College Years, considering that's a franchise I haven't been enthusiastic about since at least Generations (again, here's hoping things work out better this time), but Chris Pine's smarm and those gratuitous tit shots aside, it seems like it could at least be a fascinating disaster.�?
A.V. Club, AVQ&A: Anticipated entertainments, by The A.V. Club staff (quote from Sean O'Neal), January 2, 2009
January 4, 2009
john commented on the list vocabis4snobss-list
I like this list.
Question though. If vocab is 4 snobs, and presuming you don't want to be a snob, how do you avoid it? Silence?
January 3, 2009
john commented on the word ohana
“Residents who gathered outside the president-elect’s compound or at his appearances called, ‘Obama Ohana,’ meaning Obama family — that is, part of Hawaii’s family.�?
The New York Times, ‘Hail to Chief’ Ambience for President in Waiting, by Jackie Calmes, January 1, 2009
January 3, 2009
john commented on the word taphonomy
“The sciences of taphonomy — how bodies decompose and eventually become stone — and paleontology have allowed us to piece together many details of ancient ecosystems.�?
The New York Times, Reflections on an Oyster, by Olivia Judson, December 30, 2008
January 1, 2009
john commented on the word scat
“And this is without the help of creatures like hyenas, which pulverize and eat the bones of all but the largest animals. (That’s why hyena scat is white: it’s the remains of powdered bone.)�?
The New York Times, Reflections on an Oyster, by Olivia Judson, December 30, 2008
January 1, 2009
john commented on the word trencherman
“He is routinely cited as the foremost eater of the Gilded Age, a serial multicourse gorger (the word ‘trencherman’ always seems to come up) whose excesses were endearing rather than vulgar — or, at the very least, endearingly vulgar.�?
The New York Times, Whether True or False, a Real Stretch, by David Kamp, December 30, 2008
January 1, 2009
john commented on the word heeler
“He made it clear that the issue was not Mr. Burris’s qualifications, but Gov. Blagojevich’s standing as a desperate ward heeler who’s lost all credibility.�?
The New York Times, The Latest From Illinois, December 30, 2008
January 1, 2009
john commented on the word tacit blue
The Northrop YF-117D, a technology demonstrator.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word lightning ii
“The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multirole aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air superiority fighter missions.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word gray ghost
See Black Widow II.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word black widow ii
“The black YF-23 was nicknamed "Black Widow II", after the Northrop P-61 Black Widow of World War II and had a red hourglass marking resembling the underbelly marking of the black widow spider. The black widow marking was briefly seen under PAV-1 before being removed at the insistence of Northrop management. The gray colored YF-23 was nicknamed ‘Gray Ghost’�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word raptor
“The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It is primarily an air superiority fighter, but has multiple capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word kfir
“Twenty-five modified Kfir C.1s were leased to the US Navy and the US Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989, to act as adversary aircraft in dissimilar air combat training (DACT). These aircraft, designated F-21A Kfir, had narrow-span canard foreplanes and a single small rectangular strake on either side of the nose which considerably improved the aircraft's manoeuvrability, and handling at low speeds.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word tigershark
“The F-20 Tigershark (initially F-5G) was a privately financed light fighter, designed and built by Northrop.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word hornet
“The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to attack both ground and aerial targets. Designed in the 1970s for service with the United States Navy and Marine Corps, the Hornet is also used by the air forces of several other nations.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word cobra
“The Northrop YF-17 (unofficially nicknamed "Cobra") was a prototype lightweight fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) technology evaluation program.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word fighting falcon
“The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed as a lightweight fighter, it evolved into a successful multirole aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word tomcat
“The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing aircraft. The F-14 was the United States Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical reconnaissance platform from 1974 to 2006.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word tiger
“The Grumman F11F/F-11 Tiger was a single-seat carrier-based United States Navy fighter aircraft in operation during the 1950s and 1960s.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word panther
“The Grumman F9F Panther was the manufacturer's first jet fighter and the U.S. Navy's second. The Panther was the most widely used U.S. Navy jet fighter of the Korean War.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word cougar
“The Grumman F9F/F-9 Cougar was an aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft for the United States Navy. Based on the earlier Grumman F9F Panther, the Cougar replaced the Panther's straight wing with a more modern swept wing. The Navy considered the Cougar an updated version of the Panther, despite having a different official name, and thus Cougars started off from F9F-6 upwards.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word cutlass
“The Vought F7U Cutlass was a United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War era. It was a highly unusual, semi-tailless design, allegedly based on aerodynamic data and plans captured from the Arado company at the end of World War II, though Vought designers denied any link to the German research at the time.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word crusader
“The F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) was a single-engine aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft built by Vought. It replaced the Vought F-7 Cutlass. The first F-8 prototype was ready for flight in February 1955, and was the last American fighter with guns as the primary weapon.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word sea dart
“The Convair F2Y Sea Dart was a unique American seaplane fighter aircraft that rode on twin hydro-skis for takeoff. It only flew as a prototype, and never entered production, but it is still the only seaplane to exceed the speed of sound.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word skyray
“The American Douglas F4D Skyray (later redesignated F-6 Skyray) was a carrier-based fighter built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Although it was in service for a relatively short time and never entered combat, it was notable for being the first carrier-launched aircraft to hold the world's absolute speed record and was the first United States Navy fighter capable of exceeding Mach 1 in level flight.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word tiger ii
See Freedom Fighter.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word freedom fighter
“The F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter and F-5E and F-5F Tiger II are part of a family of widely used light supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop in the United States, beginning in 1960s.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word phantom ii
“The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the U.S. Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. Proving highly adaptable, it became a major part of the air wings of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Air Force. It was used extensively by all three of these services during the Vietnam War�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word demon
“The McDonnell F3H Demon was a United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter aircraft. The successor to the F2H Banshee, after initial problems, it served from 1956 until 1964.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word banshee
“The McDonnell F2H Banshee was a military carrier-based jet fighter aircraft, used by the United States Navy from 1948 to 1959 and by the Royal Canadian Navy from 1955 until 1962.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word fury
“The North American FJ-2/-3/-4 Fury were a series of swept-wing carrier-capable fighters for the United States Navy and Marine Corps.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word nighthawk
“The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a stealth ground attack aircraft formerly operated by the United States Air Force. The F-117A's first flight was in 1981, and it achieved Initial Operational Capability status in October 1983.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word aardvark
“At a ceremony marking the F-111's USAF retirement, on 27 July 1996, it was officially named Aardvark, its long-standing unofficial nickname. Aardvark literally means "earth pig" in Dutch/Afrikaans, consequently, in Australia, the F-111 is often known by the affectionate nickname ‘Pig’.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word spectre
“The Phantom II was briefly given the designation F-110A and the name 'Spectre' by the USAF, but neither title was used.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word rapier
“The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed American design for a long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft to defend the United States and Canada from supersonic Soviet bombers.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word ultra sabre
“The North American F-107, nicknamed "Ultra Sabre", was North American Aviation's entry for a United States Air Force tactical fighter-bomber design competition of the 1950s. The F-107 incorporated many innovations and radical design features, and was based on the F-100 Super Sabre.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word delta dart
“The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft for the United States Air Force from the 1960s through the 1980s. Designed as the so-called "Ultimate Interceptor", it has proven to be the last dedicated interceptor in USAF service to date.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word thunderchief
“The Republic F-105 Thunderchief, was a supersonic fighter-bomber used by the United States Air Force. The Mach 2 capable F-105 bore the brunt of strike bombing over North Vietnam during the early years of the Vietnam War.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word starfighter
“The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was an American single-engined, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1958 until 1967.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word thunderwarrior
“The Republic XF-103 Thunderwarrior was an American project to develop a high speed interceptor aircraft to destroy Soviet bombers. Despite a prolonged development, it never progressed past the mock-up stage.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word delta dagger
“The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an US interceptor aircraft built as part of the backbone of the United States Air Force's air defenses in the late 1950s. Entering service in 1956, its main purpose was to intercept invading Soviet bomber fleets.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word voodoo
“The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was a supersonic military fighter flown by the USAF and the RCAF. Initially designed as a long-range bomber escort (known as a penetration fighter) for the Strategic Air Command (SAC), the Voodoo served in a variety of other roles, including that of an all-weather interceptor aircraft with the Air Defense Command / Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) and fighter bomber and photo reconnaissance roles with the Tactical Air Command (TAC).�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word super sabre
“The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard (ANG) until 1979. As the first of the Century Series collection of USAF jet fighters, it was capable of supersonic speed in level flight, and made extensive use of titanium throughout the aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word thunderstreak
“The Republic F-84F Thunderstreak was an American-built swept-wing turbojet fighter-bomber.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word sabre dog
“The North American Aviation F-86D Sabre (sometimes called the "Sabre Dog" or "Dog Sabre") was a transonic jet all-weather interceptor. Based on North American's F-86 Sabre day fighter, the F-86D had only 25 percent commonality with other Sabre variants, with a larger fuselage, larger afterburning engine, and a distinctive nose radome.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word starfire
“The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was the United States Air Force's first operational jet-powered all-weather interceptor aircraft. It was a development by Lockheed of the two seater T-33 Shooting Star trainer aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word thunderceptor
“The Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor was a mixed-propulsion interceptor using a jet engine for most flight, and a cluster of four small rocket engines for added thrust during climb and interception.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word skyknight
“The Douglas F3D Skyknight, (later F-10 Skyknight) was a United States twin-engine, midwing jet fighter aircraft manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. The F3D was designed as a carrier-based all-weather aircraft.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word scorpion
“The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was an early American jet-powered all-weather interceptor. It has the distinction of being the first combat aircraft armed with nuclear weapons, (the Genie rocket) for air-to-air use.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word voodoo
“The McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo was a long-range, twin-engine jet fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force. Although it never entered service, its design was adapted for the subsequent F-101 Voodoo.�? More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word blackhawk
"The Curtiss-Wright XF-87 Blackhawk (previously designated the XA-43 and XP-87) was a prototype American all-weather jet fighter interceptor and the company's last aircraft project." More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word sabre
The North American F-86. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word goblin
The McDonnell XF-85. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word twin mustang
The North American F-82. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word shooting star
The Lockheed P/F-80, the first operational jet fighter used by the U.S. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word flying ram
The Northrop XP-79, and experimental flying-wing design. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word eagle
The name of both the General Motors P-75, and the McDonnell Douglas F-15.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word tornado
The Vultee XP-68. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word bat
The McDonnell XP-67. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word vanguard
The Vultee P-66. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word kingcobra
The Bell P-63. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word black widow
The Northrop P-61, a night fighter and the first U.S. military aircraft designed to use radar. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word airacomet
The Bell P-59, the first U.S. fighter jet. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word chain lightning
The Lockheed XP-58. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word black bullet
The Northrop XP-56. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word ascender
The Curtiss-Wright XP-55, an experimental fighter with a pusher design. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word swoose goose
The Vultee XP-54. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word mustang
The North American Aviation P-51, a classic World War II fighter. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word skyrocket
The Grumman F5F. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word thunderbolt
The Republic P-47, a classic fighter of World War II. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word rocket
The Republic P-44. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word lancer
The Republic P-43. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word warhawk
The Curtiss P-40. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word airacobra
The Bell P-39. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word lightning
The P-38, a classic fighter of the World War II era built by Lockheed. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word peashooter
"The American Boeing P-26, nicknamed the "Peashooter", was the first all-metal production fighter aircraft and the first pursuit monoplane used by the United States Army Air Corps." More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word viper
A prototype biplane fighter of the early 1920s. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word hawk
The name of the Curtiss P-1, an open-cockpit biplane of the early '20s. More on Wikipedia.
December 30, 2008
john commented on the word acid drop
Also a skateboarding move where you jump from a height, skateboard in hand, and simultaneously drop the skateboard under your feet and land on it. Here's an example.
December 29, 2008
john commented on the word mele kalikimaka
“On ‘Good Morning America,’ de Nies, who grew up in Honolulu, tasted a traditional plate lunch that Obama is said to favor. She and Miller also recruited a local ukulele player to sing ‘Mele Kalikimaka’ (the Hawaiian translation for ‘Merry Christmas’) on camera.�?
The Washington Post, Life's Not Necessarily A Beach for Press Corps, by Philip Rucker, December 26, 2008
December 27, 2008
john commented on the word expressions for merry christmas in various languages
You know, this would make a great list...
December 26, 2008
john commented on the list supralist
Hm... are you wishing for a 'lists of lists' feature?
December 24, 2008
john commented on the word nasaaq
Ha! My hat is a sort of faux-Prussian thing, to go along with the epaulets and gold braid on my doorman's uniform.
C_b, perhaps Nasaaq is the off-brand version of Flonase™?
December 23, 2008
john commented on the word nasaaq
Hi BB! I'm often skulking around, but don't pipe up as much as I'd like these days--busy. Plus, just because I built this doesn't mean I know much about words. I'm like the building super--changing light bulbs in the foyer, tipping my hat when you get off the elevator.
December 23, 2008
john commented on the word nasaaq
The NASAAQ has plunged this year.
December 22, 2008
john commented on the word tong war
According to Wikipedia, a Tong is a kind of nineteenth century secret society formed by Chinese-American immigrants.
December 22, 2008
john commented on the word tong war
“Regarding mortgages, Mr. Paulson is in a tong war with Sheila C. Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who wants to deploy a small fraction of the TARP money to refinance millions of mortgages. Her plan may not be perfect — whose is? — but she’s pushing in the right direction. But he, apparently, disagrees and has devoted no money to this purpose.�?
The New York Times, Missing the Target With $700 Billion, by Alan S. Blinder, December 20, 2008
December 22, 2008
john commented on the word kunsthalle
“Moderate in size, efficiently presented and somewhat stiffly titled “Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens,�? it is not at the Met or any other museum but at the Onassis Cultural Center in Midtown, a kunsthalle-style space, now almost a decade old, devoted to Hellenic culture.�?
The New York Times, The Glory That Was Greece From a Female Perspective, by Holland Carter, December 18, 2008
December 20, 2008
john commented on the list wordie-challenge
Sweet.
fwiw, I've been tagging challenges as 'challenge' (oddly enough).
December 20, 2008
john commented on the word hemispheric
“By the way, we’re approaching the one-month-to-go mark on the George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown calendar. The presidential quote of the week is: ‘Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods.’�?
The New York Times, Send In the Celebrities, by Gail Collins, December 17, 2008
December 19, 2008
john commented on the word kya
“On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I'm sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia.�?
Guardian.co.uk, The monster in the mirror, by Arundhati Roy, 13 December, 2008
December 17, 2008
john commented on the word mouthful
I deleted chayce the other week, but there was a bug that allowed him to still comment. I just fixed that, I think--trying to do anything from a nuked or frozen account should now send you here.
December 17, 2008
john commented on the word drunkenfreude
“For us sober people there is a kind of drunkenfreude to watching others embarrass themselves, mangle their words and do things they will regret in the morning — if they even remember them in the morning.�?
The New York Times, Drunkenfreude, by Susan Cheever, December 15, 2008
December 17, 2008
john commented on the word bugs
hi folks, sorry again about the long delay, but full-list sorting should be working. Go to your long list, click 'view all', then click any of the sort arrows.
December 16, 2008
john commented on the word cheesecake
“By 1951, the brother-sister photographers Irving and Paula Klaw, who ran a mail-order business in cheesecake, were promoting the Bettie Page image with spike heels and whips, while Bunny Yeager’s pictures featured her in jungle shots, with and without leopards skins.�?
The New York Times, Bettie Page, Queen of Pinups, Dies at 85, by Robert D. McFadden, December 11, 2008
December 13, 2008
john commented on the word i + i = i
Somehow reminds me to Bob Marley, too.
December 13, 2008
john commented on the word bugs
Sionnach, sorry about the long delay, I'll look into that and post when there's a fix.
December 11, 2008
john commented on the word scanda
They sell insurance, right?
December 11, 2008
john commented on the word car czar
Congress is right now considering the creation of a "car czar" to oversee the Detroit bailout. For those interested I just started a Facebook group supporting Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, for the position:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38836413586.
December 10, 2008
john commented on the word ghosts
7 minutes, at most.
December 9, 2008
john commented on the word politesse
“And to prepare for the role of Vito Corleone in ‘The Godfather,’ he ‘got himself invited to the home of a well-placed Mafioso in New Jersey,’ where at a dinner for some 40 people, he took mental notes on the ‘exaggerated politesse’ they showed to a stranger, the ‘manner in which powerful dons spoke in quiet voices; the way the men went out of their way to be gracious to their women, but also how they kept them in secondary roles.’�?
The New York Times, The Lion of the Screen, and What Made Him Roar, by Michiko Kakutani, December 8, 2008
December 9, 2008
john commented on the word neuropolicy
“Gregory Berns, M.D., Ph.D., directs the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University.�?
The New York Times, In Hard Times, Fear Can Impair Decision-Making, by Gregory Berns, December 6, 2008
December 8, 2008
john commented on the word endowment effect
“Why is this important? The reason has to do with the ‘endowment effect,’ the innate tendency to value things you own more highly than everyone else does.�?
The New York Times, In Hard Times, Fear Can Impair Decision-Making, by Gregory Berns, December 6, 2008
December 8, 2008
john commented on the word neuroeconomist
“I am a neuroeconomist, which means that I use brain-scanning technologies like magnetic resonance imaging to decode the decision-making systems of the human mind.�?
The New York Times, In Hard Times, Fear Can Impair Decision-Making, by Gregory Berns, December 6, 2008
December 8, 2008
john commented on the word muxe
“The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call ‘muxes’ (pronounced MOO-shays) — men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned netherworld between the two genders.�?
The New York Times, A Lifestyle Distinct: The Muxe of Mexico, by Marc Lacey, December 6, 2008
December 7, 2008
john commented on the word sexting
“That's not all in the way of teens being punished for ‘sexting,’ as it is now being called. Two teenage girls in Seattle were suspended from their cheerleading team after school officials discovered that they had taken nude cellphone photos of themselves that were circulated among students.�?
Salon.com, OMG, teens R "sexting", by Tracy Clark-Flory, November 25, 2008
December 6, 2008
john commented on the word hoptoad
Train slang for when a train goes off the rails, I just learned from the developers of hoptoad.
December 6, 2008
john commented on the word bubbles
Also the name of my favorite character from Trailer Park Boys.
December 4, 2008
john commented on the word cretin
“Indeed, the problem used to be widespread in the Alps. The word ‘cretin’ is believed to come from a mountain dialect of French, apparently because iodine deficiency in the Alps produced so many cretins. The problem ended when food was brought in from elsewhere and salt was iodized.�?
The New York Times, Raising the World’s I.Q. , by Nicholas D. Kristof, December 4, 2008
December 4, 2008
john commented on the list a-testicle-by-any-other-name
How about toodles.
December 4, 2008
john commented on the word toodles
Apparently a euphemism for testicles, according to this old woman with a machine gun.
December 4, 2008
john commented on the word white trash russian
“Skeptics like Mr. Doudoroff would probably blanch at a variation called the White Trash Russian. ‘You take a bottle of Yoo-hoo,’ Mr. Russell said, ‘drink half, then fill it with vodka and enjoy.’�?
The New York Times, White Russians Arise, This Time at a Bowling Alley, by Steven Kurutz, December 2, 2008
December 4, 2008
john commented on the word caucasian
What the Dude calls white russians.
December 4, 2008
john commented on the word weta
If you suffer from Acarophobia or other insect fears, *do not* click image search.
December 4, 2008
john commented on the word bugs
Lists should be deletable again. Sorry for the long delay on that.
December 3, 2008
john commented on the word ex parte
“Tuesday’s filing said the now-deceased Judge Laurence J. Rittenband, who handled the case, intentionally violated a plea agreement with Mr. Polanski after having engaged in what it called ‘repeated unethical and unlawful ex parte communications’ with a deputy district attorney who was not involved in the prosecution, but was independently advising the judge.�?
The New York Times, Polanski Asks Court to Dismiss Child-Sex Charge, by Michael Cieply, December 2, 2008
December 3, 2008
john commented on the word white noise
I quite liked "White Noise"--I thought it was taking the piss out of postmodernism more than anything else.
But I really loved Underworld. Not right off the bat--took a hundred pages or so before I was in its thrall--but by the end I was floored. It's up there with American Pastoral as one of my favorite books about America.
December 3, 2008
john commented on the word pthalo
Hot game franchise from Pthicrosoft.
December 3, 2008
john commented on the word boricua
“Children are taught from a young age that ‘hurricane’ is Taíno in origin, from the word ‘huracán,’ while no Latin pop music concert is complete without a shout out to Boricuas — those from Borinquen, the Taíno name for Puerto Rico, which means ‘land of the brave noble lord.’�?
The New York Times, Tradition Counts More Than Beauty at a Pageant, by Damien Cave, December 1, 2008
December 3, 2008
john commented on the word jai hind
“Then she signed off. ‘Jai Hind,’ she said, or ‘long live India.’
Mr. Zende quietly replied, ‘Jai Hind.’�?
The New York Times, For Heroes of Mumbai, Terror Was a Call to Action, by Somini Sengupta, December 1, 2008
December 2, 2008
john commented on the word hazel
A witch who first appeared in a 1954 bugs bunny episode, and a retired hurricane name from 1954.
December 2, 2008
john commented on the word carol
My mother's name, and a hurricane name retired in 1954.
December 2, 2008
john commented on the word hurricane party
A party, during a hurricane. Not always a
December 2, 2008
john commented on the word hurricanes
Dude, kick it off, and we will be your minions. There's lots of good source material out there, like this and this. It'll be like our own little hurricane party.
December 2, 2008
john commented on the word plastron
“From the fossil record, you’d think that turtles burst upon the world with their shells intact. The oldest known species, a 210-million-year-old fossil from Germany, has a complete bottom shell, called a plastron, and a complete top shell, or carapace.�?
The New York Times, Turtles on the Half Shell: New Fossils Show an Evolutionary Step, by Henry Fountain, December 1, 2008
December 2, 2008
john commented on the word incunabula
“As a young man Mr. Friedlaender had collected stamps in a serious way. In 1970 he began collecting rare books, specializing in incunabula — European books printed before 1501 — and medieval illuminated manuscripts.�?
The New York Times, H. N. Friedlaender, Bibliophile, Dies at 95, by William Grimes, November 30, 2008
December 2, 2008
john commented on the word features
bilby, I'm 90% sure that new user lists do default to 'just me', but I'll verify.
Pro, great suggestion, will add an open list icon or something like that soon.
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word aiguillettes
“Legionnaires with aiguillettes, or braids, dangling from their starched uniforms pack bar stools next to scantily clad women from Brazilian cities like Macapá and Belém.�?
The New York Times, Training Legionnaires to Fight (and Eat Rodents), by Simon Romero, November 30, 2008
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word képis blancs
“As temperatures soar to 90 degrees in the shade of transplanted baobab trees, legionnaires patrol Kourou, a quiet town of 20,000, their shaved heads shielded from the sun under white pillbox-style hats known as képis blancs.�?
The New York Times, Training Legionnaires to Fight (and Eat Rodents), by Simon Romero, November 30, 2008
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word secretary of war
A cabinet position from 1789 until 1947, when, along with the Secretary of the Navy, it was replaced by the Secretary of Defense.
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word secretary of the navy
Like the Secretary of War, a cabinet position from 1798 until 1947, when it was replaced by the Secretary of Defense.
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word ambassador to the united nations
This position is sometimes cabinet-level, depending on the administration. It was not under George W. Bush, but it was under Clinton and will be again under Obama.
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word glocal
“He pioneered ‘glocal’ news — outsourcing Pasadena coverage to India at Pasadena Now, his daily online ‘newspaperless,’ as he likes to call it. Indians are writing about everything from the Pasadena Christmas tree-lighting ceremony to kitchen remodeling to city debates about eliminating plastic shopping bags.�?
The New York Times, A Penny for My Thoughts?, by Maureen Dowd, November 29, 2008
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word nullipara
“At the height of her pregnancy, Cathy and I embodied several facets of femininity. She could be seen as the fertile, glowing mother-to-be as well as the hemorrhoidal, flatulent, lumpen pregnant woman. I could be the erotic, perennially sensual nullipara, the childbirth virgin, and yet I was also the dried-up crone with a uterus full of twigs.�?
The New York Times, Her Body, My Baby, by Alex Kuczynski, November 28, 2008
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word gummies
“I decided to call all of us Gummies — grown-up mommies — with the implication that some of us were so old we could have dentures.�?
The New York Times, Her Body, My Baby, by Alex Kuczynski, November 28, 2008
December 1, 2008
john commented on the word afropublicrat
“While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let’s just call them Afropublicrats.�?
The New York Times, Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority , by Charles M. Blow, November 29, 2008
November 30, 2008
john commented on the word ПОР�?О ПО К�?ТЕГОРИЯМ
Rolig and Pro, thanks very much for the translation, and early warning. Turbos is no more.
November 27, 2008
john commented on the word cheongsam
“This dress combines an Asian silhouette with a pheasant pattern printed on linen. ‘There were some lovely cigarette advertisements from the time, where you see the traditional cheongsam being Westernized,’ Ms. Martin said. ‘All those influences came together to make that dress.’�?
The New York Times, The Look of ‘Australia’, by Eric Wilson, October 31, 2008
November 27, 2008
john commented on the word woman
Even if the word has been used that way, that's a dumb definition and it inspires a new tag.
November 27, 2008
john commented on the word entropy
What does it mean for energy to become untranslated?
This word always reminds me of Thomas Pynchon.
November 27, 2008
john commented on the word harrier
See also hash house harriers.
November 26, 2008
john commented on the word hash house harriers
An international organization of running clubs, dedicated to running and beer.
November 26, 2008
john commented on the word harrier
Also the name of a famous V/STOL fighter jet.
November 26, 2008
john commented on the word cyberchondria
“If that headache plaguing you this morning led you first to a Web search and then to the conclusion that you must have a brain tumor, you may instead be suffering from cyberchondria.�?
The New York Times, Microsoft Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’ , by John Markoff, November 24, 2008
November 26, 2008
john commented on the word achievatron
“And yet as much as I want to resent these overeducated Achievatrons (not to mention the incursion of a French-style government dominated by highly trained Enarchs), I find myself tremendously impressed by the Obama transition.�?
The New York Times, The Insider’s Crusade, by David Brooks, November 21, 2008
November 22, 2008
john commented on the word valedictocracy
“This truly will be an administration that looks like America, or at least that slice of America that got double 800s on their SATs. Even more than past administrations, this will be a valedictocracy — rule by those who graduate first in their high school classes. If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.�?
The New York Times, The Insider’s Crusade, by David Brooks, November 21, 2008
November 22, 2008
john commented on the word oud
“‘If the World’ opens with acoustic guitar lines suggesting a Middle Eastern oud but segues into wah-wah rhythm guitar and sustained strings fit for a blaxploitation soundtrack, while Mr. Rose unleashes something like a soul falsetto.�?
The New York Times, How Axl Rose Spent All That Time , by Jon Pareles, November 20, 2008
November 21, 2008
john commented on the word no courant
I think this word is no courant. Which would make it autological.
November 21, 2008
john commented on the word double top
“The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is at its 2002 lows. (A friend of mine versed in technical analysis tells me that is an indication we had a double top, which he says means we are in deep trouble. I’ll stick to the fundamentals.)�?
The New York Times, A Bull Vanishes, by Floyd Norris, November 20, 2008
November 21, 2008
john commented on the word costermonger
“A costermonger was a street seller of fruit and vegetables. The term, which derived from the words costard (a type of large ribbed apple) and monger, i.e. "seller", came to be particularly associated with the "barrow boys" of London who would sell their produce from a wheelbarrow or wheeled market stall.�?
—Wikipedia
November 20, 2008
john commented on the word pearly king
“Or we can throw caution to the wind, as John Galliano did on Monday night, when he arrived at a party wearing the traditional button-covered costume of a Pearly King (the neighborhood monarch who protected the local street vendors of Victorian London).�?
The New York Times, Merrily They Dress, by Eric Wilson, November 19, 2008
November 20, 2008
john commented on the list minced-oaths
holy carp
November 20, 2008
john commented on the word no courant
Totally indifferent to recent trends. The opposite of au courant.
November 19, 2008
john commented on the word au courant
See also no courant.
November 19, 2008
Show 200 more comments...