Word of the day for Friday, July 29th

So, I was reading this thing about nose flutes this morning when I came across one of those words that doesn’t seem to need any text animation embellishment. That word is:

Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukakapiki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­kitanatahu

See that? I made it all small to try to fit it on one line here, and that still didn’t work. It is the name of a hill in New Zealand. If that’s the name of a hill, I wonder how long the mountain names are. Anyway.

It roughly translates to “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.” This, of course, is one of the shorter forms of this hill’s name. One of the longer ones is:

TaumatawhakatangihangakoauauoTamateahaumaitawhitiurehaeaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu

(oh geez; see, it just won’t fit, and this time it’s not even wrapping around. Go here) and provides further description of this fellow Tamatea: “The hill of the flute playing by Tamatea — who was blown hither from afar, had a slit penis, grazed his knees climbing mountains, fell on the earth, and encircled the land — to his beloved.” Wow, Tamatea. Be careful with yourself. We need all the good nose flute players we can get.

For this word I am in your debt, penguinicity.

Early bird special

“Hi folks! And welcome to Home To Roost, the only age-restricted community for active-minded senior birds. We’re nestled in a tree in the front yard of a house in beautiful Carthay Circle.

“Home To Roost offers an avian lifestyle you can not find anywhere else, in a place you will definitely want to call home. We offer amenities aplenty, but respect your need for independent living.

“Deciding to live in a safe environment shouldn’t mean giving up your unique personality; no siree, bob-o-link. We have a diverse society here and we encourage you to express yourself. For instance, what would our tree be without our beloved characters? Cecil at the bait shop. Lydia’s dragonfly collection. Sideways Herb and his crooked house.

“And if you do find yourself needing a higher level of care, you’ll find our assisted living tree right across the sidewalk. It’s nothing fancy, but you’ll find it provides you with all the continuing care a senior bird needs.

“So hop on over for a visit. We’re sure you’ll be coming HOME TO ROOST.”

A celebration of me

Oh hey! It’s my birthday. Well, not today. Not for about two weeks, actually. But hey! Perfect time for you to get me a birthday present. I mean, if you want to. I’m not expecting anything. But yeah.

There happens to be this periodical publication devoted to clip art in a specific theme. It’s called Crap Hound. This current edition that they have compiled is superstition-themed clip art. So that’s two out of three things in the subtitle of Fancy Notions – superstition and ephemera. The thing is that they aren’t going to be able to publish this edition unless they get enough donations from their Kickstarter fund. If they don’t publish this edition I am going to be very disappointed. So maybe you could go to their Kickstarter page and donate some money. And I will be so happy. And maybe they’ll have a future edition devoted to etiquette clip art. I don’t know. Hooray for my birthday!

Orderly, consistent, unchanging

My friend Bridget and I were talking about how much we liked wearing uniforms. It would be so much easier to get dressed for work if you had to wear a uniform, wouldn’t it?

 

 

 

A summer feast

In digitizing its files of old recipes from the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Public Library has uncovered this adventurous dish:

BARBECUED COON

1 raccoon, skinned and cleaned
1 large onion
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3/4 cup catsup
4 beef bouillon cubes
4 cups water
5 gingersnaps
3/4 cup vinegar
3/4 cup brown sugar

Cut raccoon into serving pieces. Cut all fat from pieces and remove fat glands from the legs. Parboil and scrape the remaining fat off the pieces. Places pieces in a roaster or roasting pan. Add onion, cut up. Sprinkle with mustard, allspice, salt and pepper. In a separate pan, heat catsup, bouillon cubes, water, gingersnaps, vinegar and brown sugar. Pour mixture over raccoon pieces and roast, covered at 350 degrees until done, about three hours. Serves eight.

I’d make a meal out of this with some Bee Cake and Baked Beans au Schlitz, but where am I going to get a can of Schlitz?

via metafilter

An amusement in Kansas

Yesterday I went to Disney’s California Adventure. It was crowded and there wasn’t a heck of a lot to do. I need to find an amusement park that is empty but has a lot of things to do. Do I have to go to Wichita?

 

Trending

About a month ago, noted lost pet flyer finder Janet spotted this notice:

And then late last week, Benny spotted this notice:

“Handsome” is clearly the adjective to watch this summer.

Tour de Prance

These guys are never going to win a stage if they don’t stop swimming and losing their shoes and stuff.

Word of the day for Friday, July 15th

A very happy Carny Etymology Day to everyone! Today is the day when we discuss a bit of carny lingo and where it originates from. If we want to be technical about it, today’s word is actually a professional wrestling term that originates from a carny term so it might be better discussed on Pro Wrestling Etymology Day, but let’s not spoil Carny Etymology Day by getting technical.

Let’s talk about

Kayfabe is the storyline wrestlers adhere to – the rivalries, romances, the ownership of signature moves – that killjoys refer to when they say pro wrestling is fake. It might come from a ruse that carnies would use when calling home from the road. The carny would place a collect call (look it up, kids!), and give the name “Kay Fabian” when the operator asked who was calling. When the call recipient heard the operator say, “Collect call from Kay Fabian,” he/she would not accept the charges and the call was done. The carny had called home to say all was well simply by saying the code word. It is not clear who the original Kay Fabian was, or if this ruse makes placing phone calls difficult for women currently named Kay Fabian.

Etiquette & superstition: personal mobility issues

I was wanting to do an etiquette & superstition post about handicapped restroom stalls, but 1) there don’t seem to be any superstitions related to that, and 2) Larry David seems to be the only person that agrees with me that it’s okay for a fully-abled person to use the handicapped restroom stall. Well, maybe Larry David isn’t the only one who says it’s okay, but I still can’t find any disabled people giving the green light on that point. I give up.

ETIQUETTE: When describing a person with limited physical capabilities, do not use the word “handicapped.” “Handicap” is a sporting/gambling term referring to methods used to equalizing the playing field. The phrases “handicap stall” and “handicap parking space” are still generally accepted, however. You could make the point that this is because the handrails and extra clearance room “handicap” (in the oldest sense, referring to money added to the lesser object in the barter game) the space in order to make it equal in value to a disabled person as a regular space is to a fully-abled person, but the reality is that it would just take a lot of time and money to replace all those signs. If we’re trying to balance the budget by complaining that teachers make too much money, we’re probably not going to change those signs any time soon.

SUPERSTITION: If you take a nail from a coffin and hammer it into someone’s footprint, you will make that person lame for as long as the nail stays in the footprint. This also works in hunting, but you hammer the nail into the poop of the animal you are tracking in order to slow them down.