I still think there should be noise in a vacuum. My vacuum makes noise.
Monthly Archives: June 2001
Spongebob is on!
*yodels for his sweetheart
C’mon, hon! 
C’mon gang! It’s the Flying Dutchman’s ghost teaches spongebob how to tie his shoes!!
Hooray for Gary! He can tie shoes!
I don’t know why it is, but I’ve been not really in a commenting mood lately. For the last month or so, the lions share of my comments have ben replies to other folks commenting in my journal… I think part of it is due to me neglecting to log in, letting me miss all the big juicy posts.
For anyone that’s hurt, or down, or ticked off, or feeling out of sorts, I hope things get better, and soon.
For anyone who’s happy, and having a great time, or in love…. I hope it only gets better for you.
word of the day
mephitic muh-FIT-ik, adjective:
1. Offensive to the smell; as, mephitic odors.
2. Poisonous; noxious.
Mephitic is the adjective form of mephitis, “a foul-smelling or noxious exhalation from the earth; a stench from any source,” from the Latin.
Newton’s litter box had quite a mephitic quality this morning…I think it was all the salmon-treats from last night.
Woohoo!! Thank you to
There are some adorable ones, and I received a lovely card, too!
I’m hitting the bed early tonight, so I’ll see you kiddies in the morning. Shower, and bed for me!
I be Mad Sadrach Indigo!
Yar…so it’s a pirate name ye be a wantin’, is it? Build one, me bucko!
Howyadoon?
Thanks to
From the straight dope – Why is cheddar cheese orange?
Why is cheddar cheese orange? Do they color it that way, or is it part of the cheese-ifying process? I know that cheese is made from milk, but I don’t think that I could make the milk in my fridge turn orange, no matter how long I left it in there. What’s up?
Answer –
It’s orange because they dye it orange. You knew this, of course. The question is, Why orange as opposed to, say, a nice taupe? As near as cheese historians can make out, the practice originated many years ago in England. Milk contains varying amounts of beta-carotene, the yellow-orange stuff found in carrots and other vegetables. Milk from pasture-fed cows has higher beta-carotene levels in the spring and summer, when the cows are munching on fresh grass, and lower levels during the fall and winter, when they’re eating hay. Thus the natural color of the cheese varies over the course of a year. So cheese makers began adding coloring agents. Nowadays the most common of these is annatto, a yellow-red dye made from the seeds of a tree of the same name. Dyeing the cheese eliminated seasonal color fluctuations and also played to the fact (or anyway the belief) that spring/summer milk had a higher butterfat content than the fall/winter kind and thus produced more flavorful cheese. Figuring if yellow = good, orange = better, some cheese makers began ladling in the annatto in double handfuls, producing cheese that looked like something you’d want to carve into a jack-o’-lantern. In recent years some smaller operations have rebelled and stopped using colorants. Be forewarned–according to one cheese making text, uncolored cheese is a “sordid, unappetizing melange of dirty yellow.” But at least it’s real.
A related question: What’s the deal with so-called process cheese and cheese spreads such as the infamous Velveeta? They’re not completely synthetic, as some believe; rather, they’re made by mixing and heating natural cheeses and emulsifiers, producing a “homogenous plastic mass.” (I am quoting from my cheese book, you understand.) While we gourmands may sniff at such stuff, it does have the advantages of uniformity, long shelf life, and comparatively low production cost, no small achievement in a world where many are glad to have any cheese at all.
I see a lot of bloviators on LJ…
bloviate BLOH-vee-ayt, intransitive verb:
To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner.
Bloviate is from blow + a mock-Latinate suffix -viate. Compare blowhard, “a boaster or braggart.” Bloviation is the noun form; a bloviator is one who bloviates.
Trivia: Bloviate is most closely associated with U.S.President Warren G. Harding, who used it frequently and who was known for long, windy speeches. H.L. Mencken said of him, “He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.”
Ah, smarterchild is working again.
make smarterchild your buddy on aim, and you can ask it all sorts of questions. A fun resource.
Yet Another Eliza Descendant, SmarterChild is a bot accessible through AOL Instant Messenger. Add its name to your AIM Buddy List, then try it out for weather, word definitions, movie reviews and times.
for more info – http://www.activebuddy.com/
word of the day – plica
plica (PLY-kuh) noun, plural plicae (PLI-see, -kee)
1. A fold, especially of skin.
2. Hair in dirty, matted form.
[From Medieval Latin, fold, from Latin plicare, to fold.]
goodnight.
“Sleep that knits up the ravel’d sleeve of care. The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath. Balm of hurt minds, Great Nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast.” MACBETH II, 11.36
*thinking good thoughts of my dearest. I really hope I get to hear form her today sometime… we’ve not gone a whole day apart yet, without at least poking a nose in and saying a quick “Hey, I love you!” ot one another.
I miss her very, very much… but I’m buoyed by the fact that she’s always in my heart, so I can touch my pulse and feel her inside.
Come home soon, darling.
word of the day, and evil news.
Word of the Day for Thursday June 21, 2001:
languor LANG-gur; LANG-ur, noun:
1. Mental or physical weariness or fatigue.
2. Listless indolence, especially the indolence of one who is
satiated by a life of luxury or pleasure.
3. A heaviness or oppressive stillness of the air.
Languor is from Latin languor, from languere, “to be faint or weak.” The adjective form is languorous.
Old Lady Arrested For Being Mean Old Lady
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Like many older people, 92-year-old Theresa Cocozzo enjoys sitting on her front
porch and people-watching.
That simple act, however, landed her in the city jail recently. Not once, but
twice.
Police say Cocozzo has been unleashing abusive and offensive language at
neighbors and passers-by and was arrested last week for the second time on harassment
charges.
“She sits on the front porch and howls obscenities at the people across the
street,” said arresting officer Steve Barton.
Police Chief Joseph Waldron said, “It’s been an ongoing problem for over a year
now. She comes outside her house and calls people names. There’s no physical
contact. It’s just ongoing conduct that’s alarming and offensive to the
neighborhood.”
The Rental Car Is the Snitch
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Turner’s really suing Acme Rent-A-Car on Whalley Avenue in New Haven for
cozying up with Big Brother. He’s trying to recoup a $450 charge for allegedly
speeding on his way to Virginia in an Acme minivan. The van was equipped with a
Global Positioning System, or GPS, which transmits data via satellite. It clocked
him “going at speeds in excess of 90 mph on three separate occasions,” according
to court papers. The internal device did, but the cops didn’t.
Anti-Jew?I Thought That Meant I Like Jews.
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FEDERAL MP Bob Katter today admitted signing a petition circulated by a far
right group which claims a cabal of Jewish bankers is trying to subjugate the
world…
…Mr Katter said he thought the document was a motherhood statement and he
signed to please a constituent.
6 Year Old Shot By Cops
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A 6-year-old boy was shot last night during a police chase on the East Side.
The child was on a porch on E. 149th St. when he was shot, neighbors said…
The shooting appeared to have started after police chased two drug suspects in
the neighborhood.
Guzman said police responded to a report of drug activity at E. 173rd St. He
said police arrived and saw two men in a white Delta 88 and began chasing the car
through neighborhood streets.
When they got near E. 149th and Ridpath Ave., the suspects got out of the car:
one was caught immediately; the other ran into the yard of Mark and Eileen
Latham, Guzman said. He said the man ran into another yard, where he was shot by a
police officer.
Guzman said police did not have enough details about how the boy was shot, but
he said only one shot was fired by police. He said there is no indication
either suspect had a gun.
Now The Brits Want Segregation
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A race advisor has called for the creation of schools to cater specifically for
the needs of black children.
“We need black schools where our children can study their own culture without
fear of bullying,” said Lee Jasper, senior race advisor to the mayor of London.
53% approval rating?? Really?
I must travel in a different circle. If I poll most of the people I hang with in meatspace, I think it’s closer to 20%.
Time for a Scottobear nosy poll of the day, just to get a cybersense.