brasilein bra*sil”e*in, C16H12O5, to which brazilwood owes its dyeing properties. Brasque Brasque, n. [F.] (Metal.) A paste made by mixing powdered charcoal, coal, or coke with clay, molasses, tar, or other suitable substance. It is used for lining hearths, crucibles, etc. Called also steep.

My sweetie went out for ice cream, and never came back! Sheesh, what a nice way to end the work day… I hope she’s happily consuming a tasty morsel as we speak. I think I’m going to get some orange sherbert after work, or Ben and Jerry’s. I’m hungry for ice cream… (and marigolds…and a taco.) Hmm… old lingam is acting like a mango again… I guess that’s ok.. it’s bound to happen when I think about my dearest Ornj.

I’ve got an idea for a short story (well, a 2nd act) but no resolution…I think that’s my biggest trouble, writing an ending that I find satisfactory… They can’t all be cliffhangers, can they?

propitiate pro-PISH-ee-ayt, transitive verb:
To render favorably inclined; to appease; to conciliate (one offended).

ex –
Yet the Fairy Bridge… didn’t get its name for nothing. Here the locals lift a hand ever so slightly and mutter “Hello, little people,” to propitiate the fairies underneath.
–Helen Gibson, “Rewards and Fairies,” Time Europe, April 30, 2001

Propitiate derives from Latin propitius, “favorable.”

chaplet CHAP-lit noun

1. A wreath or garland worn on the head.

2. A string of beads.

[Middle English chapelet, wreath; from Old French, diminutive of chapel hat, from Medieval Latin cappellus, from Late Latin cappa, cap.]

“What was on Hannibal’s mind as he drove his elephants over the Alps?
Looking good, apparently, because on Hannibal’s head was a wig, which he wore into battle to cover his lack of locks. Julius Caesar used his chaplet for the same purpose, the comb-over having not yet been discovered.”

A woodchuck could (and does) chuck around 35 cubic feet of dirt in the course of digging a burrow. Reason dictates that if a woodchuck could chuck wood, he would chuck an amount equivalent to the weight of the dirt, or 700 pounds.

Oh… was that a rhetorical question?

Everybody knows a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Goin’ to bed. Nitey nite! Sweet dreams, folksies!

hmm… I really like adding the graphics to the last poll.. when you go to view results, it’s much simpler for me to see a colorful breakdown of results.

Wow… one type of ramen is really winning by a landslide… i’m going to have to try the chili ramen sometime soon.

My favorite comment so far – ‘s Ew!

There are many types of ramen designed for fast, convenient preparation. All contain the same basic ingredients: flour, water, salt, dough conditioner, and seasonings/spices.

Nissin Chicken Ramen was considered to be the first fast cook (instant) ramen in the world. Nissin’s Top Ramen brand was introduced in the U.S. in 1972. For many years, this product was known as “Oodles of Noodles” in the Eastern U.S. Due to it’s popularity, “Oodles of Noodles” was reintroduced throughout the United States in 2000.

Much more information can be gleaned from http://www.nissinfoods.com/ , the makers of top ramen.

Just what does kumbaya mean?

Oh Lord, kumbaya. Also spelled kum ba yah, cumbayah, kumbayah, and probably a few other ways. If you look in a good songbook you’ll find the word helpfully translated as “come by here,” with the note that the song is “from Angola, Africa.” The “come by here” part I’ll buy. But Angola? Someone’s doubtin’, Lord, for the obvious reason that kumbaya is way too close to English to have a strictly African origin. More likely, I told my assistant Jane, it comes from some African-English pidgin or creole–that is, a combination of languages. (A pidgin is a linguistic makeshift that enables two cultures to communicate for purposes of trade, etc.; a creole is a pidgin that has become a culture’s primary language.) Sure enough, when we look into the matter, we find this conjecture is on the money. Someone’s grinnin’, Lord, kumbaya.

Kumbaya apparently originated with the Gullah, an African-American people living on the Sea Islands and adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. (The best known Sea Island is Hilton Head, the resort area.) Having lived in isolation for hundreds of years, the Gullah speak a dialect that most native speakers of English find unintelligible on first hearing but that turns out to be heavily accented English with other stuff mixed in. The dialect appears in Joel Chandler Harris’s “Uncle Remus” stories, to give you an idea what it sounds like. In the 1940s the pioneering linguist Lorenzo Turner showed that the Gullah language was actually a creole consisting of English plus a lot of words and constructions from the languages of west Africa, the Gullahs’ homeland. Although long scorned as an ignorant caricature of English, Gullah is actually a language of considerable charm, with expressions like (forgive my poor attempt at expressing these phonetically) deh clin, dawn (literally “day clean”); troot mout, truthful person (“truth mouth”), and tebble tappuh, preacher (“table tapper”).

And of course there’s kumbayah. According to ethnomusicologist Thomas Miller, the song we know began as a Gullah spiritual. Some recordings of it were made in the 1920s, but no doubt it goes back earlier. Published versions began appearing in the 1930s. It’s believed an American missionary couple taught the song to the locals in Angola, where its origins were forgotten. The song was then rediscovered in Angola and brought back here in time for the folksinging revival of the 50s and 60s. People might have thought the Gullahs talked funny, but we owe them a vote of thanks. Can you imagine sitting around the campfire singing, “Oh, Lord, come by here”?

got me started thinking about ramen noodles, and my sweetie is a cup-a-noodle head, too.

so, for you ramen-o-philes, I present = The Ramen Recipe Database! Enjoy!

Ramen & Chicken in Vodka Sauce? Salsa Ramen Surprise? Apocalypse Stew? What’s your favorite?

i want a Rubber Track Conversion for my 4×4! oh wait, i don’t have a 4×4. or a car for that matter. never mind.

egress EE-gress, noun:
1. The act of going out or leaving, or the right or freedom to leave; departure.
2. A means of going out or leaving; an exit; an outlet.

intransitive verb ee-GRESS:
To go out; to depart; to leave.

In order to keep the crowds moving through the exhibits in his traveling show… Mr. P.T. Barnum posted signs that read: “This Way to the Egress.” Eager to view this presumably strange and exotic exhibit, the throngs would push through the door labeled “Egress” — and find themselves in the street.

Land Sakes… Have I been chained here a year already? I can’t believe that Fritz has been gone so long, and that the goon squad I hang with now, I’ve known the vast majority of my pals since at least last August. (When the interests list made it easy to find folks!) Thanks to for being my very first friend! *hug*

I think I’m in a better place than I was a year ago… a wonderful woman, none of my friends are irritating transient mobile types, Newt’s happy and healthy, as am I…Lj seemed more innocent, and there were no features… no interest lists, no privacy settings, only one lj user pic, and, it seemed, no petulent children or mean folks either. For wat seemed like forever, some folks thought that Darktrain and I were the same person…I’d post one word, and set of a rhyming game that went of over a hundred entries… romantic lovey words to my darling. 🙂 A bunch of fun stuff.

I love the memories feature… I’ve got a zillion links and fun posts marked. 🙂

Thanks to everyone who has made the last year here fun!I hope to see the lot of you in the next year, too!

When you agree with someone, do you say “Here Here!” or “Hear Hear” ? And what does it mean? What is the origin of “Here Here” or “Hear Hear”?

The correct term is, “hear, hear!” It is an abbreviation for “hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!”

Of course, if the speaker is actually asking a question, such as “and just where do you think we should open the new strip club?” it’s not hard to imagine that at least one yahoo in attendance might yell, “here, here!” But this would be the exception that proves the rule.

Looking Over The Edge
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/newsid_1343000/1343171.stm

Scientists have pointed a telescope in Hawaii toward a part of the universe viewable through our galaxy’s north pole, revealing a section of existence where galaxies are as plentiful as stars and look like sparkling jewels.

At least, that’s what a poet might say.

Me? I think it looks like an out-of-focus picture of blobs on a black background. Sure, the blobs are bigger than, well, almost anything and are an impossibly long way away from us – but they’re still just blobs.

. . .

Whole Hog
http://hollywoodandvine.com/radiohead/rha_primary_frame.html?music

If you can’t wait to hear the new Radiohead album scheduled for release next month, guess what? You don’t have to!

For two weeks, Capitol Records and the band are offering the new album in its entirety via streaming audio over the Web. By visiting the link above, you’ll get connected to Heavy.com and be able to listen to all 11 tracks in order, full-length, free free free.

Who says the Web is doomed?

. . .

Too Many Hackers
http://www.internetnews.com/wd-news/article/0,,10_770121,00.html

Attrition.org, which makes it its business to track and record Web site defacements by hackers looking for a little attention, is calling it quits.

This time, it isn’t because of lack of funds or an inability to find investors. Instead, Attrition is being forced to stop doing it’s job because there’s too *many* defacements going on and it can no longer keep up.

The site has over 15,000 records in their database now, but with the number of hackers and hacks increasing, they just don’t have the manpower to do it anymore.

Greatest Hits: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/

. . .

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…
http://pr.mp3.com/pr/337.html

Way back when MP3.com was being sued by every major label for copyright infringement, every label except one settled out of court for an equal share of the litigious pie. That one label was Vivendi Universal, which is now going to plug all that money back into the company along with another $300million to purchase the whole thing out right.

In what is being read in industry circles as the nail in the coffin of free digital music on the Web, Vivendi will spend $5 a share to purchase MP3.com and its millions of registered users, as well as founder Michael Robertson who will earn $150million all by himself on a URL he bought for $1,000.

Had I only known…

. . .

Avast Me Hearties!
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/05/21/software.piracy.ap/index.html

A new report suggests that 37% of the software on your computer (assuming you’re at work) is pirated. That’s right kids, even your company isn’t ready to start paying for everything they load on the hard drives.

And that’s $11.75billion that the software industry lost last year alone.

Most of the blame lands squarely on the growing prevalence of including CD-ROM burners on every new computer sold.

. . .

Bigger Blue
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2001-05-21-ibm-storage.htm

IBM has announced that it’s broken another unbreakable barrier, creating hard disk drives up to ten times larger than anything currently available. Think of all the pirated software you’ll be able to keep, now!

Using a three-atom thick layer of ruthenium, whatever the hell that is, the company has managed to cram 100billion bits of data per square inch, so that 40Gb drive on your Dell may soon be a 400Gb drive.

The repercussions would impact every type of hard drive made today, including IBM’s MicroDrive for digital cameras and MP3 players.