yarb has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 94 lists, listed 7830 words, written 8082 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 195 words.
Comments for yarb
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You know I spent a couple of nights in Bray in Ireland last year. Despite the palindromic potential, I did not think of you.
January 8, 2020
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Heya yarb.
January 8, 2020
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(but only at the appropriate moments)
September 18, 2019
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Agreed! Yarb is excellent.
September 18, 2019
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I have missed yarb coming on this site to say 'This is excellent' at the appropriate moments.
September 18, 2019
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Yes, Bogota. And beyond, hikingly.
November 8, 2014
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I think that might not be too harsh, mads.
Zuzu, not all eds are fascists - only the majority - but it would still be a funny joke. He did write quite a lot of the later cantos while he was locked up (in a psychiatric ward, I think) but I'm only 1/3 of the way through. Now distracted by the complete Calvin & Hobbes which my son recommended.
March 26, 2014
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Ah. It's 14 ways for the blackshirts (it's by Umberto Eco).
March 26, 2014
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madmouth: Pound? I'd make a joke about all editors being fascists, but it's not true--so it wouldn't be funny, and then what's the point? But... also... you'd said something about the Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, which reminds me that I once read something about Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt.
yarb: Didn't he write some of those cantos when he was in a cage or in a cell or something?
and ry: I was thinking some of the same things about religion over on your lies--1 list.
March 26, 2014
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He's certainly a strong presence in his own work, completely unlike Joyce and much more directly than Eliot, but more than that, he's a prickly presence... I think he challenges the reader very directly, polemically. In a work as long and (at times) claustrophobic as the Cantos it's like being locked in the basement with that nutty throwback.
March 25, 2014
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2 words:
glorified
editor
March 25, 2014
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I've been wanting to know more about The Lost Generation--I checked out a biography of Sylvia Beach and thought maybe it was time to read Ulysses, but I haven't gotten very far yet. I *have* read a little Eliot (all thanks to bilby's comments about the hyacinth girl), but Pound has always scared me.
March 25, 2014
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Joyce is a different animal, I don't think he ought to be in that famous triumvirate... Obviously Eliot and £ are very close to each other but £ is like Eliot's misbegotten, basement-confined progeny... undecorous, malformed, deranged. I like the Homeric strand of the Cantos and one or two other things but the stuff on monetary policy and the early politics of the USA is awful. And I've never liked troubadours, Chanson de Roland and all that, either.
March 25, 2014
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The Can't-os... I think Flann O'Brien was right:
My grasp of what he wrote and meant
was only 5 or 6 %.
The rest was only words and sound -
my reference is to Ezra £.
March 25, 2014
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I've had Gargantua and Pantagruel on my list forever--though lately I've been distracted by the Joyce/Pound/Eliot triumvirate and some of their detractors. Which Pound are you reading?
March 25, 2014
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Really I ought to re-read Rabelais first. I read a bit about the "carnivalesque" at uni but that was before I read Rab. Perhaps I'll make that my reward when I eventually finish the Pound-cake I've been trying to digest for some months now.
March 25, 2014
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Ha--I was hoping you could recommend one for me! I'm always starting in on Toward a Philosophy of the Act, but I'm always wishing I could read Rabelais and His World (especially this time of year, when the circus is in town).
March 25, 2014
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Pretty sure I did at uni... but it would have been a rather superficial reading. Recommend me a volume!
March 25, 2014
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Have you read any of Bakhtin's stuff about Rabelais?
March 25, 2014
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If you're still looking for prizes, you should ask the bear about miniature trebuchets.
March 13, 2013
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Is it time for another identify-the-wordienik?
March 1, 2013
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Plumbum. Is it the new crumb bum?
September 7, 2012
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You are what in Italian we call uno str<3'aordinario membro della comunità internet, che pensa come un uomo sobrio e si diverte come uno sbr'onzo.
January 13, 2012
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You two <3'shouldn't send too many messages in a row or I can't see them, but you also' crack me up.
January 13, 2012
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Screw <3'the people who read your comment and don't understand! It's fun to be back with' you!
January 13, 2012
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I heart <3' that Prolagus and I have figured out we can send secret messages to' you.
January 13, 2012
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Yarb, clivose is derived from Latin clῑvōsus, which means hilly, steep, precipitous.
Cliff is derived from Old English and Middle English words.
July 25, 2011
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Yarb, I just came across your villanelle on sustainism and am truly impressed. Kudos!
July 24, 2011
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oh, Yarb-thing - why in the world haven't we had a coffee yet??
June 13, 2011
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*favorited*
June 8, 2011
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Visiting the parentals in North Wales with pitstops in London at either end.
May 8, 2011
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Hey! Whereabouts in the UK, yarb?
May 7, 2011
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Hurrah! Now I'm treating myself to a well=deserved vacation (really: I'm in the UK this week).
May 7, 2011
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You won! You won!
May 6, 2011
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You cannot escape the charge that you have previously engaged in the amazing pastime that is IDENTIFY THE WORDIE.
You are therefore prime target material for inviting to IDENTIFY THE WORDIENIK.
The whole of the bit of Wordnik that joins in on this would be truly honoured should you participate this time round.
Easily find the right page right now because it is currently the most commented on list shown on the Community page.
April 14, 2011
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Marvelous! I've half a mind to join you in a re-read, although this sudden interest in Greek is taking up more time than I intended it to at the outset.
hh: it's always a pleasure to have one's lists pillaged, especially by such a luminary as you.
March 16, 2011
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I'm diving into Gargantua and Pantagruel. I will never think of bacon in the same way again.
March 16, 2011
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Thanks for your comments on my list Things We've Seen Moved By Ants, and providing a link to your list Of Ants and Men. I'll raid terms from that list to add to various of my lists, if you please, beginning with topochemical.
March 10, 2011
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glad to hear it
March 9, 2011
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Thank for adding “appendice” to my list; I particularly enjoyed the associated comments.
P.S.: Have you tried “nuncle”? It’s Shakespearean, rebracketed, and proscribed, so you can hardly loose.
January 28, 2011
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Check the Wordnik blog for tips for searching comments, lists, etc.
December 8, 2010
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its witty
December 5, 2010
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test the line talking bird with wit
December 5, 2010
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It wasnt you who insulted the crown and if you help me defend it i shall offer you my friendship
December 5, 2010
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Hey yarb do you know anyone who can promote the single and give it the rightfully Halfholy place in the shops of england it should have?
December 4, 2010
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thx 4 listing Thor.. how could I have missed that god!?
November 30, 2010
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thx 4 listing Brazil.. how could I have missed that movie!?
October 22, 2010
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Fantastico! I hear there was a bad mudslide in Oaxaca--ten cuidado.
September 28, 2010
Comments by yarb
yarb commented on the word guffstorm
Woven throughout this guffstorm of vacuity are brief, shruggingly indifferent "investigations" into various aspects of the modern dating "experience".
- review of Is There Still Sex in the City by Candace Bushnell, in Private Eye no. 1504.
September 16, 2019
yarb commented on the word concubinate
Unmarried mothers are even more prolific than the ones who are married, kept, seduced or concubinated.
- I The Supreme, Augusto Roa Bastos, 1974, tr. Helen Lane, Dalkey Archive edition (2000), p. 402
October 31, 2018
yarb commented on the word outraised
"But being outraised so dramatically (nine-to-one!) undeniably puts him at a palpable disadvantage"
- Washington Post, "Is Trump a Manchurian Candidate?", June 21, 2016
June 23, 2016
yarb commented on the list panvocalics
outraised
June 23, 2016
yarb commented on the word super bloom
Hard to diminish a desert effloresence, but this word manages it
March 10, 2016
yarb commented on the word thinkfluencer
oww
March 10, 2016
yarb commented on the word heteropaternal
Ha, I am definitely going to sing this over the next rendition of Superetc in my house!
March 10, 2016
yarb commented on the word anti-gay
A poor attempt on my part, vendingmachine! Although I rather think ideas can have gender. Not sure they can be attracted to other ideas, however.
February 15, 2016
yarb commented on the word on the pull
Thank you Bilby,
February 15, 2016
yarb commented on the word dual-ovenable
I adore the mouth-feel of this one. All muttery and subfusc.
February 15, 2016
yarb commented on the word zoo
Are you here all week Bilby? Should I try the shrimp?
February 15, 2016
yarb commented on the word anti-gay
Gay ideas are ideas that are attracted to ideas of the same gender.
February 15, 2016
yarb commented on the word autocunnilinctrix
"I would like to think my interpretation stretches the text less -- even as it requires prodigious flexibility of its autocunnilinctrix. And shouldn't that be a word?"
- Gideon Nisbet, Martial translator, link.
February 15, 2016
yarb commented on the word bibble
To tipple is not at all uncouth. To bibble, only slightly and in elevated company.
November 24, 2015
yarb commented on the list australian-films
I'm in for a Mad Max, Muriel's Wedding, Bad Boy Bubby triple bill.
November 24, 2015
yarb commented on the word young, dumb and full of mineral content
See entisol.
November 17, 2015
yarb commented on the word hard, tough and difficult to cleave
See ballas
November 17, 2015
yarb commented on the word entisol
Young, dumb and full of mineral content.
November 17, 2015
yarb commented on the word ballas
hard, tough and difficult to cleave. Belongs on a mad, bad and dangerous to know list I think.
November 17, 2015
yarb commented on the word Sequoical
Apparently a nonce-word of John Muir: link
November 13, 2015
yarb commented on the list panvocalics
Sequoical?
November 13, 2015
yarb commented on the list panvocalics
"The following morning, the ivth, Scapa Flow was raided, and the old Iron Duke, now a demilitarised and disarmoured hulk used as a depot ship, was injured by near misses."
- Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm
March 17, 2015
yarb commented on the word orgiophant
A sort of orgy-supervisor, then. A middle-manager of orgies. You can't put that there, it's more 'n my job's worth.
February 5, 2015
yarb commented on the word Portunhol
Brazilians are indeed proud people, most of them far too proud to learn Spanish... or even Portunhol.
February 5, 2015
yarb commented on the list foods-words-that-are-also-verbs
curry, mushroom, milk, trifle, chip, pork... cool list
January 22, 2015
yarb commented on the user Imawordsmith
I think "geschenk" is the noun, gift, and "schenken" the verb "to give as a gift". Anyway, gift is a verb in English, although not a very elegant one.
On the whole I agree with you that English lacks good verbs for "schenken" and "basteln".
January 22, 2015
yarb commented on the list of-or-pertaining-to-a-feather-or-feathers
I like feather much better than the plume- roots. "Feather" is a great word and seems very English with its 'f' and 'th'. Although apparently it comes from the same root.
January 12, 2015
yarb commented on the word maltcano
I love "when sparging and the wort spurts out the top of the malt" so much I typed it instead of copypasting.
January 12, 2015
yarb commented on the list days-of-the-week
Great list!
December 6, 2014
yarb commented on the list dickens-our-mutual-friend
What a lovely list. And Dickens's best novel (that I've read).
December 6, 2014
yarb commented on the word simiesque
"Fyne made an extraordinary simiesque grimace."
Conrad, Chance, 1913
November 25, 2014
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
This list shows how adept we are at describing things despite not having words for them.
November 8, 2014
yarb commented on the user bilby
Are you in Bogota? I was just there! Ships passing in the cliché.
November 8, 2014
yarb commented on the word flesh-brush
Dear Santa, this year I want a flesh-brush, some pricey booze and a labrador called Misha. Season's greetings, Yarb.
November 1, 2014
yarb commented on the word flesh-brush
I must say I like the idea of this "flesh-brush". I might ask for one for Christmas.
November 1, 2014
yarb commented on the list any-words-list-its-open
This is a brilliant list. Are you still there, alincarman? How you doin'?!!
November 1, 2014
yarb commented on the word jugum penis
So whence "jugum"?
October 31, 2014
yarb commented on the word coarse toilet gloves
See flesh-brush.
October 31, 2014
yarb commented on the word flesh-brush
Don't you mean coarse toilet gloves?
October 31, 2014
yarb commented on the list lost-for-word
Sensible? Hmm, probably not. Sorry.
Senseational? Even worse.
Sense-ient?
Argh.
How about "someone who has no sensory disabilities"?
October 31, 2014
yarb commented on the word beer snake
Beer Snake at Headingly.
Tantalisingly we don't see the epochal meeting of the beer snakes.
October 31, 2014
yarb commented on the list shahrestani
Whereas you are a lady or gentleman of the first order...
October 18, 2014
yarb commented on the word thoe
Or thoe you thay!
October 18, 2014
yarb commented on the word gleaning bell
Excellent!
October 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word Feance
I'm pretty sure Feance is a specific kind of excrement.
October 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word Triple Crown
Yeah but you have to ride full Grouse, up the logging road. Just riding on the tarmac to the bottom of the grind is like 2 1/4 crown.
October 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word paleo-ethnologist
Telofy - name a random occupation.
October 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word enjambment
I don't think it is accepted, ladybv. Everyone I know still pronounces it Frenchly.
October 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word oratorical cheesemonger
"A vendor of old-clothes, in the act of hanging out a pair of long hose, had distractedly hung them round his neck in his eagerness to join the nearest group; an oratorical cheesemonger, with a piece of cheese in one hand and a knife in the other, was incautiously making notes of his emphatic pauses on that excellent specimen of marzolino; and elderly market-women, with their egg-baskets in a dangerously oblique position, contributed a wailing fugue of invocation."
- Eliot, Romola
October 9, 2014
yarb commented on the word jubble
This may be a coinage based on the aforesaid "lovely jubbly". This is in widespread usage to mean "that's good", "good-oh", in a slightly ironic way. But the sound puts one in mind of jelly, and trouble, and belly, and bubble, hence perhaps, the usage. While I agree that the citation is pretty outré, so must many citations be, and this one made perfect intuitive sense to me. I don't mean to diminish HH's nautical proposal, but I struggle to see how it reaches us across such a void.
September 26, 2014
yarb commented on the list ends-in-a-silent-b
I certainly agree about the knowledge of the spelling affecting how I believe I pronounce them. I think that's probably right and after much practicing, I can't say there is any real distinction.
But clothes and close, are you serious?! My tongue is very firmly between my front teeth when I say the former - where's yours?!
July 1, 2014
yarb commented on the list ends-in-a-silent-b
I'm a big fan of the archaic past tense of climb, clomb.
Generally, though, I find it quite odd to think of most of these words as having silent final b's. Some of them - comb, tomb, succumb, bomb I am pretty sure I pronounce, if ever so slightly. Others like limb and jamb I don't think are audible but they're very much in my mind when I say the words. For me the real stand-out here is womb, which really does sound (and present itself) to me like "woom", no b to be seen.
July 1, 2014
yarb commented on the word spice-balls
See CD def. for urd.
July 1, 2014
yarb commented on the word urd
I love the CD's characteristically laconic "same as mash" and freaky "spice-balls".
July 1, 2014
yarb commented on the word trank
I want to make glove, but baby I trank too much.
July 1, 2014
yarb commented on the word armamentarium
But armory has come to refer also to the broader range of weapons or devices at one's disposal, I think. For example, a physician's armory might include fresh air, a week at Bath, laying off the booze and sausages, or reading more or less Poe. But the armamentarium would solely be the drugs.
June 22, 2014
yarb commented on the list the-different-kinds-of-kings
Do you like Dorking?
June 22, 2014
yarb commented on the word pronghorn
Bilby you put the rongh in porn.
June 22, 2014
yarb commented on the word doubling
I also like the "both not wearing helmets". As if the child bears some of the responsibility...
June 15, 2014
yarb commented on the word doubling
I think this might be an example of the linguistic fecundity of the Police Mind!
June 15, 2014
yarb commented on the word perspex
This week I learnt that this word isn't generally known/used in the U.S.
I guess they just say "plastic" instead?
June 15, 2014
yarb commented on the user mikejhelms
Mike, thanks for bringing it up. This is what wordnik is all about.
June 15, 2014
yarb commented on the word hoochie coochie
There is an oyster called the kusshi. It's known for its seductive dancing in your belly.
June 15, 2014
yarb commented on the word turnip
I don't understand why a vegetable as hypnotic, as vibrant as the turnip has come to refer to a dull person.
June 15, 2014
yarb commented on the word clipnosis
I try this with my cats occasionally, but they just think I'm sadistically pinching their necks.
June 15, 2014
yarb commented on the user mikejhelms
Basically, Holmes is sarcastically mocking Watson for not profiting by his (Watson's) amicable nature.
June 13, 2014
yarb commented on the user mikejhelms
I'm sure "lark" here is closely related to "lark" as in pastime or diversion. It's a way of making something out to be un-serious, sort of a folly.
June 13, 2014
yarb commented on the user mikejhelms
Perhaps as a Brit I could just step in here. "Not much cop" is a colloquialism meaning "not up to much", "not great". It is a frozen idiom; you can't say "much cop" or "pretty cop", only "not much cop".
Describing something as a lark, in the way that Sherlock does, is a mark of sarcasm. So Sherlock is saying that Watson's "caring" is basically a waste of time, a foolish thing. Again, this only works in context. "This x lark" is the construction, and it serves a healthy measure of disrespect to x.
E.g. "so, yarb, this Wordnik lark, enjoying it, are you?"
June 13, 2014
yarb commented on the word bubble
"I gave him the money, and professed myself so well convinced of his sincerity, that he had no occasion to put it to such extraordinary proofs for the future. "I thought," said he, "to have asked five pieces more, but hearing you were bubbled of eighteen last night, I presumed you might be out of cash, and resolved to model my demand accordingly." I could not help admiring the cavalier behaviour of this spark, of whom I desired to know his reason for saying I was bubbled."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
June 4, 2014
yarb commented on the list things-that-freak-me-out--plants
I will try and take photos but I don't know if they'll let me.
May 31, 2014
yarb commented on the list things-that-freak-me-out--plants
We've had an unwontedly wet couple of weeks here, and all along the usually dry canal bed, these barbarous matt-green fernlike things have sprung up, some taller than a small person. Terrifying! Sorry I don't know what they're called.
May 31, 2014
yarb commented on the list four-letter-colors
I love four letter words - and I mean that quite sincerely.
May 31, 2014
yarb commented on the list four-letter-colors
grue
May 29, 2014
yarb commented on the word spatterdash
"...I was, by hunger and hard duty, brought down to the meagre condition of my fellow-soldiers, and my linen reduced from three tolerable shirts to two pair of sleeves and necks, the bodies having been long ago converted into spatterdaches..."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
May 28, 2014
yarb commented on the word bumbo
"...he held up his hands, assured me he could do me no service, wished I might not be in a state of reprobation, and returned to his messmates, who were making merry in the ward-room, round a table well stored with bumbo and wine."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
May 27, 2014
yarb commented on the word coehorn
"That we might do the Spaniards as much honour as possible, it was determined, in a council of war, that five of our largest ships should attack the fort on one side, while the battery, strengthened by two mortars and twenty-four cohorns, should ply it on the other."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
May 27, 2014
yarb commented on the word ipecac
See also the immortal syrup of ipecac.
May 25, 2014
yarb commented on the word couteau
"...when they pretended to fasten him on his back he grew outrageous, and drawing a large couteau from his side-pocket, threatened to rip up the belly of the first man that should approach him..."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
May 23, 2014
yarb commented on the word banyan day
May 22, 2014
yarb commented on the word alforja
"The apothecary ... was a little old withered man, with a forehead about an inch high, a nose turned up at the end, large cheek-bones that helped to form a pit for his little gray eyes, a great bag of loose skin hanging down on each side in wrinkles, like the alforjas of a baboon, and a mouth so much accustomed to that contraction which produces grinning, that he could not pronounce a syllable without discovering the remains of his teeth, which consisted of four yellow fangs, not improperly, by anatomists, called canine."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
May 21, 2014
yarb commented on the word snack
"We went down stairs, and conferred together on our expectations, when I understood that each of them had been recommended to one or other of the commissioners, and each of them promised the first vacancy that should fall; but that none of them relied solely upon that interest, without a present to the secretary, with whom some of the commissioners went snacks."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
Thank you Cent. Dict. and Ruzuzu for helping me with this one!
May 21, 2014
yarb commented on the word big money
"I assured him no part of this extraordinary expense should fall upon his shoulders; at which declaration he was affronted, and told me he would have me to know that, although he was a poor barber's boy, yet he had a soul to spend big money with the best squire of the land."
- Smollett, Roderick Random, 1748
May 19, 2014
yarb commented on the word syneisaktism
Brilliant! Thanks ritw.
April 20, 2014
yarb commented on the word manic pixie dream girl
An Accountant Helps a Manic Pixie Dream Girl with her Taxes.
- McSweeney's, 15/4/14
April 15, 2014
yarb commented on the word veronica
Not sure why but I always assumed gangerh to be a Yorkshire lad.
April 14, 2014
yarb commented on the list bobs-burgers
Sadly, I know nothing of BB. My love of the list springs wholly from its awombatism and the general funcussion it provoked in me.
April 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list bobs-burgers
One of my favourite lists.
April 11, 2014
yarb commented on the word vice admiral of the narrow seas
"So to the Salutacion tavern, where Mr. Alcock and many of the town came and entertained us with wine and oysters and other things, and hither come Sir John Minnes to us, who is come to-day to see “the Henery,” in which he intends to ride as Vice-Admiral in the narrow seas all this summer."
- Pepys, 10th of April 1661
April 11, 2014
yarb commented on the word lawn bubble
I'm forever mowing bubbles...
April 11, 2014
yarb commented on the word taramosalata
Surely taramasalata, all the a's?
April 1, 2014
yarb commented on the list agentive-clothing
winckle?? Sorry! Please delete!
April 1, 2014
yarb commented on the list things-that-freak-me-out--animals
cool list!
March 28, 2014
yarb commented on the word muculent
Splendid!
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the word muculent
I've never had it pickled but I've had it grilled and quite enjoyed it. I had fried pickles for the first time the other day.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the list air-raid-precautions-1939-1945
That's good, but I prefer the sinister vagueness of rubber clothing.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the word Cupertinian
The scientific model holding that the earth revolves around a colossal holographic bust of Steve jobs.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the word muculent
And I end up back with Ruzuzu and her okra. See autophage.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the list air-raid-precautions-1939-1945
I think rubber clothing is my favourite.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the word muesli
Does anyone else think this word is kind of muculent? For a long while I didn't eat muesli, I think because of the slimy way it sounded.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the word autophage
You mean like, "I'm a muco-lactic cannibal - I eat snot and breastmilk, but not my own, and I don't do flaky skin-parts"?
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the word bogie
UK equivalent of booger.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the word autophage
I think I'd need more than one suck to completely evacuate one of my kids' nostrils when they're snotting full-on.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the user yarb
I think that might not be too harsh, mads.
Zuzu, not all eds are fascists - only the majority - but it would still be a funny joke. He did write quite a lot of the later cantos while he was locked up (in a psychiatric ward, I think) but I'm only 1/3 of the way through. Now distracted by the complete Calvin & Hobbes which my son recommended.
March 26, 2014
yarb commented on the user yarb
He's certainly a strong presence in his own work, completely unlike Joyce and much more directly than Eliot, but more than that, he's a prickly presence... I think he challenges the reader very directly, polemically. In a work as long and (at times) claustrophobic as the Cantos it's like being locked in the basement with that nutty throwback.
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the list lies--1
If you have to pretend that a work is fiction, doesn't that imply that you believe it to be real? I'm not sure that kind of self-deception is possible, or at least it must be very difficult (assuming by "real" Eggers means something like "describing events that actually happened"). For an author of course it's completely different.
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the user yarb
Joyce is a different animal, I don't think he ought to be in that famous triumvirate... Obviously Eliot and £ are very close to each other but £ is like Eliot's misbegotten, basement-confined progeny... undecorous, malformed, deranged. I like the Homeric strand of the Cantos and one or two other things but the stuff on monetary policy and the early politics of the USA is awful. And I've never liked troubadours, Chanson de Roland and all that, either.
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the user yarb
The Can't-os... I think Flann O'Brien was right:
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the user yarb
Really I ought to re-read Rabelais first. I read a bit about the "carnivalesque" at uni but that was before I read Rab. Perhaps I'll make that my reward when I eventually finish the Pound-cake I've been trying to digest for some months now.
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the word skive
Sensuous, passionate glove-making I presume?
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the user yarb
Pretty sure I did at uni... but it would have been a rather superficial reading. Recommend me a volume!
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the word skive
To pull a sickie is just one way of skiving. One would be equally skiving by spending excessive time in the local pie shop or discussing the meaning of words like this on the internet.
All those other definitions about paring and iron laps seem pretty obscure to me.
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the word immerde
See also bemute.
March 25, 2014
yarb commented on the word fine words butter no parsnips
Unless the words are "dearest, kindly butter these parsnips".
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word sagittipotent
The mouthfeel is really in the tongue-tapping ts and the p and the n. The sag doesn't contribute. And for sure you have to pronounce it the second way. I wonder if there's an IPA keyboard pack you can download?
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word frounce
Save the last flounce for me!
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word sagittipotent
Groovy mouthfeel here.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word frounce
Why have a specific word for anything? Why not just grunt and point?
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word hemicorporectomy
You could also look at it as removing the upper half...
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the list the-life-of-madmouth
Could you rephrase that comment as a list please? I only read list now.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the list burroughs
If I found out it was Edgar Rice it would make my day.
Actually, reading, it could be! But paradigm, no way.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word East Fife four, Forfar, five
<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23447439">Hypothetical football score.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word five-day forecast
East Fife four, Forfar, five.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the list polychronic-liquidators--cyf
Gorgeous list. Sorry for vomiting on it.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the list polychronic-liquidators--cyf
If tofu comes into contact with spam, they mutually regurgitate.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word hote
Hoters gonna hote.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word moss piglet
Just added this to as many of my lists as logically possible.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the word jean dimmock
wub?
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the list the-life-of-madmouth
When you read a list like this, it seems like prose - even good prose - is just a list with a lot of unnecessary words in it.
March 24, 2014
yarb commented on the list strangely-exigent-phrases
Inspirational!
March 12, 2014
yarb commented on the list gut--1
And surely you wouldn't disbar yoghurt just because it doesn't technically end with -gut??
March 12, 2014
yarb commented on the list gut--1
What about the Canadian beat combo Gorguts?
March 12, 2014
yarb commented on the list gut--1
what about guttersnipes &c?
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list its-like-1997-all-over-again
Ditto!
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list everyones-a-critic
I read Ulysses before Portrait and Dubliners, and it's so different from them I'm not sure how necessary they are. Personally I like an edition with copious endnotes but they're not essential either. Once I read it parallel with the Odyssey which was great fun (though you have to monkey with the order of the books/chapters to make it fit). It's really not that "difficult" a novel. I'm reading "The Recognitions" at the moment which is more difficult than Ulysses.
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the word toady
*holds lighter in air*
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list everyones-a-critic
YES
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list quaintnesses
Adorable list!
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list the-goldfinch
I finally got around to reading The Secret History, so I'll probably get to The Goldfinch in 2035.
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list ute
It's Swiss, according to the cite provided by bilby. So I'm thinking of something like a row of hobbit holes, in an alp, with optional raclette.
March 11, 2014
yarb commented on the list a-dram-too-many
It's not just a concept, madders! It's a thing!
March 2, 2014
yarb commented on the word vampyrus
The extravagant brother of your father, Pyrus.
March 2, 2014
yarb commented on the word bran new
Yeah but the meaning is completely different!
February 25, 2014
yarb commented on the word moloch
My favourite Moloch is in Flaubert's "Salammbo". The original, and still the best!
February 13, 2014
yarb commented on the word skinny pig
For some reason I read "almost hairless" as "still has its hair, but about to be ruthlessly shaved".
February 12, 2014
yarb commented on the word Phileas Fogg
Surprised to find all the tweets bar one referring to some kind of snack product!
February 10, 2014
yarb commented on the list a-fog-list
foghorn, fogbow?
Phileas Fogg?
February 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word consolatory brackets
See kip.
February 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word Strunk and White supremacist
Good one! Plenty of these around!
February 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word swedes
I'm in the mood for some lovely creamy swedes tonight.
February 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word boombastic
That Dream Warriors song is the one I always put in the hat for charades.
February 10, 2014
yarb commented on the word office girls
A <a href="http://www.yr.no/place/Antarctica/Other/Office_Girls,_The/">place in Antarctica</a>
February 5, 2014
yarb commented on the list nomenclature-of-the-pole
Only to realize that it was no more than a Folie d'Espoir.
February 5, 2014
yarb commented on the list nomenclature-of-the-pole
I think it's more fun if you do. Many's the time I've imagined myself stranded ten leagues from the pole, wondering if I should be justified in eating Imogen de Rierre.
February 5, 2014
yarb commented on the list nomenclature-of-the-pole
Why not?
February 5, 2014
yarb commented on the word bear garlic
Pretty sure I heard a Gratfeul Dead song by that name once, on the radio in deepest Colorado.
February 5, 2014
yarb commented on the word Fanta Caramel
Wait, maybe it's the name of a soft drink and not an incubus?
February 5, 2014
yarb commented on the word Fanta Caramel
I'm in Brazil right now, and pronouncing it as instructed, but it's not working?
February 5, 2014
yarb commented on the list call-me-russell---russell-peters
Where can I find more lists like this?
February 3, 2014
yarb commented on the list british-columbian-terms
I was bemused when my kids started calling them wood bugs. To me they were always wood louses. That is, wood lice.
February 3, 2014
yarb commented on the word bus loop
Hang on... I thought they had bus loops everywhere? How else do buses turn around?
February 3, 2014
yarb commented on the list top-500-shower-curtains
Significant overlap here with the list of Wikipedia lists.
February 3, 2014
yarb commented on the word erza
A dog in War and Peace.
"...a small, pure-bred, red-spotted bitch ... slender but with muscles like steel, a delicate muzzle, and prominent black eyes."
September 26, 2013
yarb commented on the list panvocalics
amplituhedron?
September 19, 2013
yarb commented on the word amplituhedron
""Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality."
- Quanta Magazine, 17-9-13
September 19, 2013
yarb commented on the word nisgul
And a particularly piercing call?
May 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word weyant
I dreamt about weyant recently. I was pointing at the internet and saying to my wife "look, it's real, it's real! They've found them" - it was aliens on Mars, large bright grublike things - and she replied "weyant, it's weyant."
May 3, 2013
yarb commented on the list fingernails-on-my-chalkboard
The heighth of ignoranth.
May 3, 2013
yarb commented on the word tyrology
The scholar in this particular mental image is wearing horn-rimmed spectacles. Should suffice against eruptions of larvae.
May 1, 2013
yarb commented on the word notch
Ha! c.f. oche then, I suppose.
April 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word cutting-tool
I can't decide if the CD is being cutting, or boring.
April 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word tyrology
Calls to mind the image of a scholar peering intently at a piece of cheese.
April 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word hebetude
A favourite of Conrad, along with desuetude and mansuetude.
April 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word bone oil
I would have listed it, if I weren't so bone-oidle.
April 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word Ion
The tweets are occasionally useful.
April 8, 2013
yarb commented on the word Ion
Wow, totally new to me.
April 8, 2013
yarb commented on the word night crawlers
Well that's cool. I always thought night crawlers were hookers or johns, being an amalgam of ladies of the night and kerb-crawlers, We had a little night crawler here tonight, snuck in just after sundown with rugged gusts.
April 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word night crawler
See comment on night crawlers.
April 6, 2013
yarb commented on the user AnWulf
I am really enjoying your esoteric contributions to Wordnik. Forgive my not rendering this in Anglish.
April 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word AGF
Did you notice that vancouverism is panvocalic?
April 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word pronkers anonymous
Have you pronked today, gangerh?
April 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word herethere
I'm glad Koontz added the explanation. I always thought Joyce would have done better writing "Snotgreen sea, making a single adjective from an adjective and a noun".
April 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word binged
They should have called it "Purg" instead.
April 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word herethere
Got the quote?
April 3, 2013
yarb commented on the word cheese
#cdcwtfbbq
March 29, 2013
yarb commented on the word baffoon
One baffled as to the spelling of buffoon.
March 29, 2013
yarb commented on the word rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
You don't have the house rule allowing bendy words?
March 29, 2013
yarb commented on the word bedraggled
I like reesetee's "bed-raggled". I can well imagine how an intense twelve-hour sleep could raggle a person, top to bottom.
March 27, 2013
yarb commented on the word rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Not a valid scrabble word. Presumably because of the umlaut?
March 25, 2013
yarb commented on the list and-i-will-tell-the-night
Absolutely, this is the night. Good list.
March 25, 2013
yarb commented on the word dorp
'...his ministry was here, here in the wilderness of conscience; this sodden dorp and river midden where he preached each week from a teepee...'
- Gass, Omensetter's Luck
March 24, 2013
yarb commented on the word furfuraceous
'His soul scaly ... furfuraceous scalp ...'
- Gass, Omensetter's Luck
March 24, 2013
yarb commented on the word hispidulous
'Mat's right eye rose, his hispidulous cheeks bulged with air: puff pop, he spoke.'
- Gass, Omensetter's Luck
March 24, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-word-ie-nik--2013
Well after the initial rush of excitement, we have run into a doldrum. Come on, hurry up and submit words before I get busy again.
March 23, 2013
yarb commented on the list x-up-or-x-down
Nice job. Possibly there's something on my Yo-yo words list that you've missed, but I doubt it.
March 23, 2013
yarb commented on the word lego
Just stopping by to make the exact same comment I made in October 2010.
March 21, 2013
yarb commented on the word competitive arousal
I'm not sure which I find more arousing: competitive arousal or foggy-windowed marathons of phony umbrage-taking.
March 21, 2013
yarb commented on the word competitive arousal
I find this term arousing.
March 20, 2013
yarb commented on the word poka-yoke
Derivation of this term anyone?
March 20, 2013
yarb commented on the list encapsulations
Cool list (to quote marky).
March 20, 2013
yarb commented on the word yarsagumbu
No tweets found. Someone really ought to tweet about yarsagumbu.
March 20, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-word-ie-nik--2013
No deadline. I'm enjoying inferring things about people based on how long they agonise over their words.
March 20, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-word-ie-nik--2013
No, a thinking cap is one of those caps with yellow, red, blue and green segments to it and a flower or whirligig sprouting from the top.
March 19, 2013
yarb commented on the word yarsagumbu
Yarsagumbu... you probably think this song is about clam stew.
March 19, 2013
yarb commented on the list words-lurking-in-lovecraft
Hello Harry. I have read Houellebecq on Lovecraft. Can't say I agree with most of what he says, but as a spectacle of literary nihilism it's just tits.
March 19, 2013
yarb commented on the list things-that-freak-me-out
How are you with hiccupping cows?
March 19, 2013
yarb commented on the word surd
I got into a fight after playing this word in scrabble once.
March 14, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
It's a mixed bag bilby. Eat no chips is still intact. Drink no soda, almost intact. Nose-picking is dscreet, I'm not adept but less inept than formerly with tools.
The spelling one was Ruzuzu I believe. The cats are as bloody lazy buggers as ever.
March 13, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Please email your words to idthewordienik13 at gmail dot com!
March 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word necessary
That's fine for my poop, but what about my tween deck, my orlop and my gun deck?
March 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word snowdrop
I read a novel called "Snowdrops" recently, set in Moscow. Wasn't really my cuppa but I love the snowdrop concept.
March 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word jounce
Looks like normal Twitter fare to me, bilby.
March 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word &c.
I much prefer this to etc and use it frequently.
March 13, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
OK, I'll do it! I'll be getting this show on the road pronto. All interested apply within. Ideas for a trophy? I'm loth to surrender my heavily tea-stained "molotov cocktail waitress" mug, but I'm sure I could arrange for a STF mug of the winner's choosing.
March 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word stick a fork in it
I understand the usage, but doesn't one stick a fork in it to determine whether it is in fact done?
January 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word vang
Vang you, Bilby.
January 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word gazzettino
What a coinc-idence!
January 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word poppywash
Sounds like an amalgam of poppycock and hogwash.
January 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop obsessively monitoring global seismic activity
A miserable failure. This one would have been so easy, too.
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word On the Sabbath day, communicate only by means of fridge poetry
No problems so far with this one. Thinking of extending it to other days, in fact.
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Start speaking Spanish to Marcelo
Another failure.
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Pick nose more discreetly
Didn't even try to keep this one.
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Drink no soda, except as a mixer
Managing to adhere to this one. Not difficult as I don't really like fizzy drinks (except as mixers).
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Eat no chips
I've broken this once so far but with an excuse.
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop speaking Spanish to Wladimir
There was never much hope of keeping this one. Only a fool's hope.
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word pogonion
Is that a mental protruberance in your pocket?
January 11, 2013
yarb commented on the list supernatural-creatures-according-to-m-a--denham
Marvellous list!
January 9, 2013
yarb commented on the list distinguishing-marks
Seems obvious, but watermark?
January 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word Canuckistan
I thought this started as a reference to the supposed origin of some (or all?) of the 9/11 hijackers north of the border. However it does now seem to imply more generally those crazy communistical Canajunisms you mention.
January 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word Start speaking Italian to Wladimir
Wladimir says 'quo vadis?'
January 5, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Clearly we all already know Latin. I suggest, ruzuzu, you refocus on ancient Greek.
January 5, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
benigne dicis!
January 5, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
quid pro quo. ubi sunt reesetee?
January 5, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
per mer per terris!
January 5, 2013
yarb commented on the word fircmarbles
I like it too. Sounds like a bowdlerized oath.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
in vino veritas
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
sic transit gloria mundi
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Start speaking Italian to Wladimir
This is the worst resolution I've ever heard of. There wouldn't be a recombobulation area big enough.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
Oh wait, it's here. Bilby, I knew it was you! *shakes fist*
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
Thanks for alerting me! I've added it to my newest list for safekeeping.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
ars longa, vita brevis
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word quantum spin liquid
I believe this is a setting on my new washing machine.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Shave a peach
Alternatively, peel a grape and bathe in asses milk.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word potential deathtrap
This was a catchphrase from a comedy sketch show of my youth whose name I've forgotten. It was always uttered in a Scottish accent.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Fear death by water
Tsunamis, puddles... tarns... paddy fields... potential deathtraps, all.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Introibo ad altare dei?
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Tanto religio potuit suadere malorum.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Et tu, zuzu?
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Errare humanum est. Alea jacta est.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Let's speak Latin then. Quo Vadis?
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Who's your favourite Latin writer?
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop dreaming about work
Me too, but I fear that resolving to stop will only reinforce this awful habit.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop riding on ice after dark
Ride faster? There must be some way you can continue to ride on ice after dark!
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop riding on ice after dark
Shurely "buy studded tires and a bright light"??
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
Got any resos of your own, zuzu?
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list adoption-agency
Thanks, but I already figured i- I mean, yes, well done you passed.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word recombobulation
Now I want to visit the Milwaukee airport. Not Milwaukee, just the airport.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word yeuky
Small island kingdom in the North Atlantic.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word discombobulate
I can't imagine using it professionally, but I use it quite a lot at home.
I did use paramour today in an official report.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list adoption-agency
Happy to oblige. In return, please tell me how one creates a new list. I haven't forgotten, I'm just testing you.
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list adoption-agency
Is that a holographic banana boat in your pocket, or are you etc?
January 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word grangerise
"He was a large, loose, fattish man with unintelligent brown eyes magnified by spectacles; he wore an ill-fitting frock-coat and a paper collar, and he showed me, as his great treasure and interest, a large Bible which he had grangerised with photographs of pictures."
- Wells, Tono Bungay
(I'm not sure if it ought to be "photographs or pictures" instead, but I'm going from the version at gutenberb.org)
December 3, 2012
yarb commented on the user toowoombachiro
Anagram of coma, writ, boo-hoo.
Hope Justin and Jason know what they're doing!
November 16, 2012
yarb commented on the user toowoombachiro
I was thinking name, but really either.
November 15, 2012
yarb commented on the user toowoombachiro
Sounds like a Star Wars character...
November 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word abuwtiyuw
I bet you think this song is Abuwtiyuw.
November 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word chorea
These are the en-ed times.
November 8, 2012
yarb commented on the user allamas
Quit probing my llamas!
November 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word cgulppl
You mean children?
November 6, 2012
yarb commented on the list hork-du-jour
At the end of the day, I'm probably guilty of that one myself. But I think we need to draw a line under closure.
November 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word ziphiid
'The spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii) is one of the 21 species of beaked whales, or ziphiids. They’re enigmatic animals. It seems that they spend their time diving to exceptional depths in search of food, so few people have ever seen one.'
- Discover Magazine, 5-11-12.
November 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word artisanal
Art is anal.
November 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word guybrarian
I do and it is. Thanks.
November 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word illusion
No, the other way round! Only the past is real. The present is a sensation, the future a diversion.
October 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word lingerie
The dictionaries differ. Is lingerie especially, or exclusively, for women? Which? Am I entitled to call my undistinguished nethergarments "lingerie"?
October 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word galloon
I mean that I checked my lingerie for galloons, not that there are checks but no galloons on my lingerie.
Speaking of which, does my underwear count as lingerie? I must check.
October 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word galloon
*checks* no galloons on my lingerie :(
October 6, 2012
yarb commented on the word Vufflens-le-Château
I wonder what they throw there, when they are in the mood for lobbing?
October 6, 2012
yarb commented on the user deinonychus
While we're on the subject, we got our daughter a toy deinonychus for Christmas a couple of years ago. Of course really it was just a generic pteranodon, but at her age she didn't know any better.
September 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word early
ron, that sounds more like Irish to me - was character an immigrant?
hat tip to sionnach's five year-old adverbial definition.
September 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word helicopter
I will never fly in one again.
September 27, 2012
yarb commented on the user nigelpike
wanker!
September 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word unclubbability
'...excluded by disinclination, weak sight and independent intellect from the boisterous milieu his father had meant him to enter, excluded by poverty, by Catholicism and by unclubbability from the Anglo-Irish milieu in which Yeats cut so distinguished a figure.'
- Hugh Kenner, Joyce's Voices
August 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word in all my born days
"I reckon the world is coming to an end. I never see the beat of it, in all my born days."
- Twain, Huckleberry Finn
August 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word crib house
'"He is a sweet man, down deep. Long as he lasts I'll stick to him. If it hadn't been for Pete I'd of probably ended up in a crib house."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word crib house
CHECK OUT THE VISUAL!
July 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word like all get out
Citation on crystal-reader.
July 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word wiz
Citation on crystal-reader.
July 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word crystal-reader
'"Pete's scared of something - I think he got good and scared of himself a long time ago. That's what made him such a wiz as a crystal-reader - for a few years. He wished like all get out that he really could read the future in the ball."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word coin sleight
'The first season is always the best and the worst for a carny. Stan's muscles hardened and his fingers developed great surety, his voice greater volume. He put a couple of coin sleights in the act that he would never have had the nerve to try in public before.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 8, 2012
yarb commented on the list nightmare-alley
Isn't it! I've made a few cock-ups which I can't correct right now due to a glitch. Still many more citations to come.
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word pound one's ear
'"Where's Molly?" he asked after a while.
"Pounding her ear. I talked the old gal that has the house into giving us the two rooms for the price of one."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word tonk
'Mist hung over the hills beyond the town, and from a slope rising from the other side of the road came the gentle tonk of a cowbell.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word blind pig
'He started off across the lot toward a shack at the edge of the village. Zeena watched him go.
"I'll bet that joint is a blind pig," she said to Stan.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word midway
'The floodlights were up and the carny boss had laid out the midway with his marking stakes.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word dead soldier
'From one pocket he drew a bottle, offering it to Stan, who shook his head. Pete took a pull, then another, and corked the bottle. Then he drew the cork out, finished it, and heaved it into the night. "Dead soldier."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word put up
Citation on roughneck.
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word roughneck
'The rain had slackened to a drizzle. In the lights of headlamps the roughnecks were busy tearing canvas from the trucks. Stan threw his slicker over his shoulders, went around to open the rear doors of the truck. He crawled in and gently shook Pete by the ankle. "Pete, wake up. We're here. We've got to put up."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word breenge
'The downfall of Rangers and the nature of their eventual recovery matters to Scottish society. Scotland's first minister acknowledged as much when he breenged in at the start of the scandal.'
- "It's not just Rangers' fans who should mourn", The Observer, 1-7-12.
July 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word grouchbag
See also grouch bag.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word do-re-mi
See also grouchbag.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word do-re-mi
Citation on do-re-mi.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word grouch bag
'"Any place is grand, so long as you got the old do-re-mi in the grouch bag," Zeena said.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word mitt camp
'"I do a little tea-leaf reading and one winter I worked a mitt camp in Miami. Palmistry always goes good in a town like Miami."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word mentalism
'"He began muffing the code and he always needed a few shots before going on. Booze and mentalism don't mix."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word great sheiks
'"Oh, the gamblers was the great sheiks in my day. Any gal who could knock herself off a gambling man was doing something."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word crystal act
Citation on soup and fish.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word soup and fish
'"Pete was working a crystal act in vaudeville. God, he was handsome. In a soup and fish he looked about two feet taller than in his street clothes. He wore a little black beard and a turban."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word rhubarb
Citation (in the sexual sense) on rumdum.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word rumdum
'She's a smart dame, all right. Too bad she's tied to a rumdum like Pete who can't even get his rhubarb up any more, so everybody says.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word sweatbox
'Stan slipped out of the sweatbox, quietly parted the curtains, stepped into the comparatively cooler air of the main tent, and sauntered over toward the soft drink stand.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word crick
'The old man's jaw hung open, his eyes frowning with concentration, trying not to miss a single word.
"Yes, green trees. Probably willow trees near a crick. And I see something under those trees. A - it's a wagon."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word rube
'"Where did they go? You know, day after day I stand here - wondering just where do they go!" That's Thurston's gag. By God, I'm going to use it until I see one face - just one - in this bunch of rubes that gets the point. They never do.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word vanisher
'He placed the bills in his left hand, slipping them into the vanisher. "Blow on the hand-" The vanisher, released, thudded softly against his hip under his coat. "Lo and behold! Gone!"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word souse
'...Zeena's husband slept in the tent to watch the props, he said. Really it was because he was a souse and he couldn't make love to Zeena any more.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word devil
Citation (as verb) on kooch show.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word steady
Citation on kooch show.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word make
Citaion on kooch show.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word carny
Citation on kooch show.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word kooch show
'It was a job with a carny. There was a Hawaiian dance show, what they called a kooch show - two other girls and Molly. The fellow who ran it and did the talking was called Doc Abernathy. Molly didn't like him a bit and he was always trying to make the girls. Only Jeanette, one of the dancers, and Doc were steady and Jeanette was crazy-mad jealous of the other two. Doc used to devil her by horsing around with them.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word hype gun
'...she started to scream and it was like laughing, only it felt horrible and she couldn't stop and then they came and stuck her arm with a hype gun and she went out again...'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word shamus
'The cop said, "Your Dad's been hurt, girlie. He's hurt real bad." He wasn't like a shamus now; he was more like the sort of man who might have a daughter himself.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word go to smash
'She was sixteen and all grown up when things went to smash. Some fellows from Chicago had come down and there was trouble at the place where Dad worked.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word get fresh
'... some of the boys whistled and that made Dad mad because he thought they were getting fresh...'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word softshoe
'Dad could dance a lot of softshoe himself and he never had a lesson.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word grubstake
'Only that was the year Centerboard ran out of the money and Dad had the bankroll on him to show and they had to sell everything they had to get a grubstake.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word hold the clock
'Also Dad said it was a shame to go to bed early and miss everything when you could sleep late the next day and catch up - unless you had to be at the track for an early workout, to hold the clock on a horse, and then it was better to stay up and go to bed later.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word get into
Citation on bubbies.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word jump
Citation on bubbies.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word cupform
Citation on bubbies.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word the nuts
Citation on bubbies.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word bubbies
'But this brunette kid, Molly, is the nuts. What a pair of bubbies! High and pointed - and that ain't no cupform either, brother; that's God.
I wish to Christ that kraut Bruno would bust a blood vessel some day, bending them horseshoes. Goddamn, that Molly kid's got legs like a racehorse. Maybe I could give her one jump and then blow the show. Jesus, it would be worth it, to get into that.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word equalizer
'Some day I'll blast 'em. I don't keep that equalizer in my trunk to play Boy Scout with.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word the crawling shakes
'"That night you drag out the lecture and lay it on thick. All the while you're talking he's thinking about sobering up and getting the crawling shakes. You give him time to think it over, while you're talking. Then throw in the chicken. He'll geek."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word the horrors
Citation on rummy.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word rummy
'"...nothing scares a real rummy like the chance of a dry spell and getting the horrors."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word booze fool
'"Listen, kid. Do I have to draw you a damn blueprint? You pick up a guy and he ain't a geek - he's a drunk. A bottle-a-day booze fool. So you tell him like this: 'I got a little job for you. It's a temporary job. We got to get a new geek. So until we do you'll put on the geek outfit and fake it.' You tell him, 'You don't have to do nothing. You'll have a razor blade in your hand and when you pick up the chicken you give it a nick with the blade and then make like you're drinking the blood. Same with rats. The marks don't know any different.'"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word as sore as a bull's ass in fly time
'When Stan came back with the cold bottles, Hoately tilted his gratfeully. "Jesus, my throat's sore as a bull's ass in fly time."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word calliope
'Against the summer night the ferris wheel lights winked with the gaiety of rhinestones, the calliope's blast sounded as if the very steam pipes were tired.'
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word rubber
"The talker waited while the crowd rubbered."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word mark
'The "marks" surged in - young fellows in straw hats with their coats over their arms, here and there a fat woman with beady eyes.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word geek
"The geek was a thin man who wore a suit of long underwear dyed chocolate brown. The wig was black and looked like a mop, and the brown greasepaint on the emaciated face was streaked and smeared with the heat and rubbed off around the mouth."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word mitt reader
'"Jus' give me chance make a demonstration. Real, old-time, A-number-one mitt reader. Take one look at the mark, read past, present-"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word cold reading
'A guy who's good at the cold reading will never starve.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word mitt camp
Citation on grouchbag.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word raghead
Citation (in the sense of a sideshow swami) on grouchbag.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word cinch
Citation on grouchbag.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word grouchbag
'The beer was bitter and he began to feel a little edge from it. This was all right. Keep it at beer for a while. Get a stake, working the mitt camp. Get a good wad in the grouchbag and then try working Mexico. They say the language is a cinch to learn. And the damn country's wide open for ragheads. They advertise in all the papers down there. Give that mess with the cop time to cool and I can come back in a few years and start working California. Take a Spanish name maybe. There's a million chances.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word hard cookie
Citation on nickle-nurser.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word nickel-nurser
'"You'll make it, kid," Joe said. "McGraw's a hard cookie, but he ain't a nickle-nurser once you got him sold."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word crap up
'The Negro's voice was softer. "Now you talking, brother. You let all that crap alone and come over here and talk. We got a long run ahead of us and ain't no use trying to crap each other up."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word hand in one's checks
'"You cold, mister? Or you got a fever?"
"Just shaken up. I thought I was going to hand in my checks."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word hotfoot
'"Dewey sure is a sucker for the hotfoot. This must be a thousand times somebody gives him the hotfoot. It's a dozen times, at least, that I give him the hotfoot myself."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word cartomancer
'The Great Stanton smiled thinly, pointing to the cards before him. "This is the Tarot of the Romany cartomancers. A set of symbols handed down from remote antiquity, preserving in their enigmatic form the ancient wisdom through the ages."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word Wassermann
'With a twist of triumphant glee her mind drew pictures of her two sisters as she had seen them last: Mina, spare and virginal, still proud of a Phi Beta key after all these years of beating Latin into the heads of brats. And Gretel - still looking like a wax angel off a Tannenbaum, with half a lung left to breathe with and a positive Wassermann.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word Dream Street
Citation on spook dodge.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word spook dodge
'"Money doesn't mean anything to that guy. He's willing to give anything - just to get square with his conscience. He's overboard on the spook dodge. He's letting his business run itself. He's living on Dream Street."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word screwy
Citation on Queer Street.
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word Queer Street
"Molly was so happy she could cry. It had been a long time since they'd had anything like a holiday together. Stan had been acting so screwy she was afraid he was living on Queer Street."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word how in the jumping blue merry blazes of hell
"But how in the jumping blue merry blazes of hell did he ever turn that light on and off inside the case?"
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word odylic force
'"You may have the gong - and the table, Mr. Grindle. It never before has rung by an exudation of psychic power - what we call the odylic force as it did just now. Someone must be trying to get through to you."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word do the Dutch
'"Say, y'know that actress, Doree Evarts - the one that did the Dutch night before last in the hotel across the way?"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word sob sister
'In his pocket was a clipping, the work of a sob sister thirty years ago.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word okana borra
"'The switch is what the gypsies call okana borra - the great trick. You have the chump tie a buck up in his hanky. He sleeps on it and in the morning he has two bucks and comes running back with all his savings out of the teapot. Then when he wakes up next time he has nothing in the hank but a stack of paper and he comes back looking for the gypsy."'
- Gresham, Nightmare Alley, 1946
June 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word chump
See okana borra for citation.
June 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word hank
Apparently short for handkerchief or hankie. My first encounter with this word was on hotel laundry lists. They would be forever listing "hanks" as an item, and eventually I asked the person at the front desk what the heck a hank was. I knew that the laundry list hadn't changed since the 1970's, since it also listed slacks and sports shirts and had no box for t-shirts. The chap was as lost as I was, or pretended to be, and it was only recently, when I saw the word in Gresham's "Nightmare Alley" (see okana borra), that I twigged the obvious. For who carries a handkerchief nowadays? The custom is from the days when paper was for writing on, not snotting. Handkerchiefs smell irremediably of one's father.
June 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word okanna borra
"'The switch is what the gypsies call okanna borra - the great trick. You have the chump tie a buck up in his hanky. He sleeps on it and in the morning he has two bucks and comes running back with all his savings out of the teapot. Then when he wakes up next time he has nothing in the hank but a stack of paper and he comes back looking for the gypsy."'
- Gresham, Nightmare Alley, 1946
June 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word full of rage
I am full of rage.
June 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word gab angle
"...that would have been a beautiful place to plant a bug if you wanted to work the waiting room gab angle when the doc's secretary came in."
- Gresham, Nightmare Alley, 1946
June 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word hock
Those of us who do not pronounce "hawk" the same as "hock" prefer to "hock" a loogie. Were we to "hawk" one, we would wait in vain for buyers.
May 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word hallux
If a girl were to say that to me I'd be hers forever.
May 21, 2012
yarb commented on the list old-western-slang
Superb list!
May 21, 2012
yarb commented on the list chop
Can I offer saex?
May 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word Memorical Day
I sometimes find the phrase "Moronical Day" in my head.
May 21, 2012
yarb commented on the list we-re-a-band
Has it happened yet? And if so, whidch of the six did you opt for? My vote would be for ugly t-shirt.
May 21, 2012
yarb commented on the word iä
Pronunciation. "Ee-yeah?"
May 11, 2012
yarb commented on the list flanges-c
I like the way there are two kinds of vortex finder. If you're not satisfied with a polyurethane vortex finder, would you consider a ceramic one?
Soon after this visit, or maybe even before (I have visited many warehouses and always enjoy them) I wrote a short story about a warehouse employee who comes across an alien item which alters his consciousness. I lost interest before long but the fact that I even began the thing shows that industrial wareouses (and their contents) are dear to my heart.
May 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word otium
A crafty translation!
May 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word slacks
Just came here in outrage at the New Yorker article, only to find my comment of 4+ years ago. I stand by what I said then!
May 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word beauty factory
That definition has the scent of Century about it.
May 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word interlock
Anthology please.
May 5, 2012
yarb commented on the list the-23-types-of-vagabond
Which are you, zuzu?
May 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word even
So even is translating particles in Hebrew and Greek?
I know zip about Hebrew, but from my scant knowledge of Greek, the "men... de..." construction connotes a sense of internal opposition, sometimes translated as "on the one hand... on the other hand..." or "while... whereas...", but not as strong as these English constructions and much more frequently employed, so often left untranslated.
So I would argue that while even in the Biblical examples is translating a kind of emphatic construction, it would be more appropriate, in this case, not to attempt a translation in English (notwithstanding the timbre the KJB derives from this kind of distinctive usage). However, perhaps there is an equivalent in Arabic?
April 4, 2012
yarb commented on the word gerund
Ha ha! Transvestite verbs.
April 4, 2012
yarb commented on the word even
I have also often wondered about this archaic sense of even. It doesn't seem to be adequately addressed in the definitions given here.
April 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word dactyl
I agree with his reasoning, but to me "Crowley" is more trochaic than spondulic.
March 28, 2012
yarb commented on the word shop
Lady Gaga... where have I heard that name before?
March 28, 2012
yarb commented on the word Marsala
Like a character from a story by Forster or Maugham.
March 28, 2012
yarb commented on the list sound--quiet
Cool list!
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word robotrix
Evidently he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word irreal
"That's very important," Westerburg said earnestly. "KR-3 is a major breakthrough. Anyone affected by it is forced to perceive irreal universes, whether they want to or not."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word Memory of Your Nose
Later, they sat in a booth at a coffee shop, a clean and attractive place with young waitresses and a reasonably loose patronage. The jukebox drummed out Louis Panda's "Memory of Your Nose."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word flipflap
She handed him the keys and crept into the rear seat of the flipflap. Jason, his heart pulsing with relief, got in behind the wheel, stuck the key into the ignition, turned the motor on, and, in a moment, sent the flipflap flipflapping up into the sky, at its maximum speed of forty knots an hour. It was, he noted for some odd reason, a very inexpensive model flipflap: a Ford Greyhound. An economy flipflap. And not new.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word pourout
...he felt his vision fail and his sense of gravity shift: his middle ear fluctuated in its pressures so that the room caromed around him, silently in perpetual ball motion. Like a pourout of Ferris wheel at a child's circus.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word fantidulous
"Your red," Jason said, "is fantidulous."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word pyloric
Ignoring him, Alys continued, "Felix especially likes Basque cuisine, but they cook with so much butter that it gives him pyloric spasms."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word balky
Alys shut off the quibble, kicked open a balky door.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word styroflex
Jason a moment later found himself seated in a leather-covered chair, leaning back into the softness of styroflex.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word shucky
It hadn't even occurred to Jason, and probably not to Ruth Rae either... except perhaps as a heavy, shucky gesture, thought of but never really considered.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word pornochord
No TV sets muttering, no thump of feet against the floor above their heads. Not even a pornochord somewhere, blasting out from a quad. "Are the walls fairly thick in these apartments?" he asked Ruth sharply.
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
yarb commented on the word lipperty lipperty lipperty
"A woman I knew, married, with three kids; she had two kittens and then she got one of those big gray Belgian rabbits that go lipperty lipperty lipperty on those huge hind legs."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.
March 27, 2012
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