Ugh. What a weekend. Ten inches of snow on Friday, two more Saturday night, followed by arctic high winds on Sunday blowing drifts another foot higher and making a mockery of all the fine shoveling our children did for us, while driving wind chill temperatures to somewhere around 20 degrees below zero. Talk about bitter. And now more snow is predicted for tomorrow. Ah, well, at least we know we'll have a White Christmas.
Meanwhile, I'm going to borrow a shtick from the folks at Mental Floss and ask you to leave a comment, providing the answers to these questions:
1. What's the best food you tried for the first time in 2008?
2. What new hobby (or habit) have you picked up in 2008?
3. What movie have you seen this year that I should add to my Netflix queue?
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SLIGHTLY TWISTED WORDS
One letter spelling changes that provide a whole new meaning
Skilljoy: The friend who's just a little bit better than you at everything.
Larger-Than-Wife: How a husband prudently describes other women.
IOUprofen: The economy's current drug of choice.
Loingerie: Underwear for men.
Igloot: Cold, hard, cash.
Limpostor: A perfectly healthy person who borrows a car with handicapped tags or plates.
Insulatte: The little cardboard sleeve around the coffee cup.
Knewledge: All the stuff you've forgotten.
[selected from the Washington Post Style Invitational]
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WORD for YOUR WEEK: Let's do a simple word this week. As I watched the weather maps the past few days, they were full of "ominous" forecasts. "Ominous" is from the Latin word "ominosus" - you can see where we get the word "omen," which is related - and it means "full of foreboding." Well, then I had to go chase down "foreboding," which led to the word "bode," which is from the Old English word "bodian," meaning "to proclaim." So foreboding is a proclamation of something before it happens, which can be a sign instead of a verbal warning, in which case it's an omen, and the proclamation is ominous ... and all these definitions are imbued with an emotional subtext of danger, harm, or disaster ... bad news. Gee, that really wasn't so simple, was it?
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2 comments:
Let's see... new foods I've tried in 2008 that I loved: A potroast that my son made for me for dinner. It was roasted with apples and pears, a new one for me.
New hobby or habit: None, really, but I am getting MUCH better about keeping in touch (phone-call-wise) with my Mom and sisters. Does that count? heehee
Movies from Netflix? Hmmm... we have seen King Arthur (with Clive Owens), and Curse of the Golden Flower, Oh, and End of the Spear, 3:10 to Yuma (a western), Kingdom of Heaven was pretty good too. The rest were mostly Steve-picks. >_>
1. For me, it was fried pickles. Not bad, but I probably wouldn't order them for myself. In a group, though, I'd eat 'em.
2. I find as I get older it's a lot easier for me to call women - especially younger women - "hon." (Short for honey). That's probably an annoying new habit, but it's one I can't seem to shake. Maybe I should go into the restaurant biz.
3. I've seen a few of those movies, but Kingdom of Heaven sounds good. I'd looked at adding it to my queue, but decided against it based on what the critics said ... but I'd much rather base my decisions on what friends say, so I'll add it to the queue. Thanks!
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