Sex

Sex is the third most searched word on online search engines, after "and" and "the." So next time you're searching for "the meaning of life," remember, you're only one word away from the answer.

Wait... no...

This shouldn't be all that surprising if you can believe that by 2006 20% of all websites were dedicated to porn, a percentage that only continues to climb.

Source: The Penguin State of the World Atlas, seventh edition

United we're salad, divided just veggies

E Pluribus Unum, "One from Many," was taken from a recipe for salad in the early poem titled "Moretum" by Virgil.

"Moretum literally means garden herbs. From Virgil’s minor poems, this is a tribute “to common things and plebian associations. The lines are laudatory of early habits and rustic poverty. They close with a description of the ingredients and mode of preparation of a salad composed of garlic, parsley, rue, and onions, seasoned with cheese, salt, coriander, and vinegar, and finally sprinkled with oil." Bartleby.com

The Continental Congress apparently argued for a month about the motto for the recently declared country of the United Colonies of North America. This might be a surprising way to spend a month while your country is at war, but it's the little things, people. During the formation of the European Union one of the most heated arguments was picking a passport color.

Mmm... Tasty Country

It's like Baader-Meinhoff all over again!

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon occurs when a person, after having learned some (usually obscure) fact, 

word, phrase, or other item for the first time, encounters that item again, perhaps several times, shortly after having learned it.

 

My friend Adam from the "Zeugma" entry recently experienced an example of Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon reading this page. "I had just learned "mondegreen" the previous week. And I had also just learned about the phenonenon, so I'm happy to share it with you. Here's a link. You'll love this if you weren't aware."

 

He was right.  I do love it. Many thanks. 

Zeugma

I keep forgetting this wonderful word exists. I first saw it through Word Of the Day on Yourdictionary.com, but I found it again in Edward Gorey's Amphigorey Again.

Zeugma is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun. For example, when my friend Adam said, "I want to crack a beer open or over Pony's head," he was using a zeugma to express himself. And knowing Pony, he probably deserved it.

More examples:

you held your breath and the door for me.

Alanis Morissette, Head over Feet

"... and covered themselves with dust and glory." - Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

"You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff." - Groucho Marx, from Duck Soup

New words to dictionary

This tidbit I forwarded on to my brother-in-law who is attempting to mainstream a word or two of his own:

"The ants are my friends/They're blowin' in the wind." New Yorker magazine's blog The Book Bench celebrated the fact that "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has finally found space for the word 'mondegreen,' which it defines as 'a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung.'"

Espresso Book Machine

For years I've been saying that you can get practically anything from a vending machine: food, hot drinks, cold drinks, toys, DVDs and iPods. Now it is possible to get a book printed for you on the spot by the Espresso Book Machine, invention of the On Demand Books company.

First installed on June 21 2007 at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry, and Business Library, the machine prints paperback books from PDF files in about seven minutes. It won the Time 2007 Best Invention of the Year and can be found in more libraries and bookshops every month.

A Date NOT to go on

If someone says they want to lapidate you, do not think they want to date you on their lap. In fact, you should probably run away as they are thinking about stoning you to death.

Lapidate (verb)
Pronunciation: ['læp-ê-deyt]
Definition: To stone, to throw stones at, to stone to death.

Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin lapidare "to throw stones," derived from lapis, lapidis "stone," a relative of Greek lepas "crag, rock." The word "lapis" itself occurs in the name of the translucent, blue, semiprecious stone, "lapis lazuli." A dilapidated house might have originally been run down from loss of stones, for the word comes from Latin dilapidare "to throw away, squander" from dis- "away" + lapidare "throw stones." It is interesting that with metathesis of the [l] and [a], we get alpis "high mountain" in Latin, which many believe was borrowed from Celtic. No certain evidence for a link between these two words, however, has been found.
-Yourdictionary.com

on Civilization

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.


Civilization is the order and freedom is promoting cultural activity.

-Will Durant 

666 miles

It is 666 miles from Des Moines to Lexington.

But I don't believe in omens.

Umbriphilous

Umbriphilous (adj.) Fond of the shade.
 "Although this is a botanical word, used to describe things arboreal, I choose to use it to describe myself."

Shea, Ammon. Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages

I found a book that may lead to many many new words.