gamine gam-EEN; GAM-een, noun:
1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.

2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.

Gamine comes from the French. A boy who wanders about the street is a gamin GAM-in.

eminence grise ay-mee-nahns GREEZ noun, also, gray eminence
plural eminences grises ay-mee-nahns GREEZ

One who wields unofficial power, often secretly, through someone else.

From French éminence grise, literally gray eminence.

Clothes Make the Man. So goes an old saying. While we know it is what is inside that really counts, there is a grain of truth in the statement. And in many cases, it is the distinctive clothes that turn out to be defining marks of some. We all are familiar with redcoats (British soldiers) and blue stockings (women with intellectual interests). This term provides another example where clothes are used as a symbol for a particular type of people.

Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, aka Pére Joseph (1577-1638) was a French monk and secretary of Cardinal Richelieu. However, the monk was more than just a secretary. He was the Cardinal’s confidant who governed the diplomatic negotiations on his behalf and encouraged French participation against Protestant forces in the Thirty Years’ War. The Cardinal wore a red habit and was known as Eminence Rouge. The monk, on the other hand, went with a gray shade, and accordingly, his title became synonymous with people exercising unofficial influence.

gamine gam-EEN; GAM-een, noun:
1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.

2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.

Gamine comes from the French. A boy who wanders about the street is a gamin GAM-in.

eminence grise ay-mee-nahns GREEZ noun, also, gray eminence
plural eminences grises ay-mee-nahns GREEZ

One who wields unofficial power, often secretly, through someone else.

From French éminence grise, literally gray eminence.

Clothes Make the Man. So goes an old saying. While we know it is what is inside that really counts, there is a grain of truth in the statement. And in many cases, it is the distinctive clothes that turn out to be defining marks of some. We all are familiar with redcoats (British soldiers) and blue stockings (women with intellectual interests). This term provides another example where clothes are used as a symbol for a particular type of people.

Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, aka Pére Joseph (1577-1638) was a French monk and secretary of Cardinal Richelieu. However, the monk was more than just a secretary. He was the Cardinal’s confidant who governed the diplomatic negotiations on his behalf and encouraged French participation against Protestant forces in the Thirty Years’ War. The Cardinal wore a red habit and was known as Eminence Rouge. The monk, on the other hand, went with a gray shade, and accordingly, his title became synonymous with people exercising unofficial influence.

Evil Kitty!

Warning… may cause epileptic fits, or demonic possession.

Thanks, !!! Freaky!

http://216.166.23.98:8000

streaming audio of LOTR. nice.

also see the encyclopedia of arda

back from laundry, soft rain falling, time for a lay-down with a snuggly cat and a good book!

Today’s reading will be – Reality Is What You Can Get Away With – R.A.Wilson.

Screen goes blank, as if film broke. Weird extraterrestrial noises. Sign appears:

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR MIND
IT IS REALITY THAT IS MALFUNCTIONING

abeyance uh-BAY-uhn(t)s, noun:
Suspension; temporary cessation.

Abeyance derives from Medieval French abeance, “expectation,” from abeer, from a-, “to” (from Latin ad-) + baer, beer, “to gape (at),” from Late Latin batare, “to gape.”

Scotto’s Hateful/Distasteful Things

running out of hot water in the shower
unfulfilling food (Tasteless Produce for example)
people who think they’re brilliant, but aren’t.
paper cuts
folks with no sense of humor
circular arguments
high school level politics on LJ or at work
wearing neckties
melted slurpee
bullies
casual profanity
newsprint stains on fingers
software that only works “sometimes”
$.35 pay phones, without a dollar bill changer
tardy taxicabs
off-schedule buses
public toilets with ‘leftovers’ inside
bars with music too loud to converse
home-based e-mail spam of “this is sooooo funny” incoming a dozen times
hot Gatorade
toilets with no lids to shut pre-flush
insect bites
“reality” TV
badly handled firearms
greasy/sticky floors
folks in communications industry, that can’t communicate.

What harshes your mellow ?

Danny just called up, and invited me to go to his school’s volleyball game… leaving about 3ish.. I should be back around 6 tonight. I haven’t been to an event like that for a while…more in it for getting together and gabbing with ol’ Danski on the ride over. He’s going dancing with the Mrs this evening.

Primary colors

“All that we see, or seem is but a dream within a dream” – Poe

troglodyte TROG-luh-dyt, noun:

1. A member of a primitive people that lived in caves, dens, or holes; a cave dweller.
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish.

Troglodyte comes from Latin Troglodytae, a people said to be cave dwellers, from Greek Troglodytai, from trogle, “a hole” + dyein, “to enter.” The adjective form is troglodytic.

I know it’s not as uncommon as some of the words, but I really like it.

Walkies called on account of rain.

Chances of center of the hurricane passing within 65 nautical miles of listed locations through 7am EST Tue Nov 6 2001

Probabilities

Looks pretty safe for me… want to track paths? http://www.weatherpoint.com/hc/misc/0,1941,oso-intmap,00.html

check out andrew in the 1992 archive. yipe!

Did you know that German “Kaiser” is derived from the Latin “Caesar” and is pronounced a lot more like it than the English version? We’re stuck with our illogical pronunciation, so we have to memorize the correct spelling. (The Russians messed up the pronunciation as thoroughly as the English, with their “Czar.”) Thousands of menus are littered with “Ceasar salads” throughout America–named after a restaurateur, not the emperor (but they both spelled their names the same way). Julius Caesar’s family name was “Julius”; he made the name “Caesar” famous all by himself.