I try to do my best, that's me, always giving till it hurts. Then If I can't get any drugs I'll just give up! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" />

September 26, 2010Word of the Day
PHATIC \FATT-ik\DEFINITIONadjective

: of, relating to, or being speech used for social or emotive purposes rather than for communicating information
EXAMPLES Joe has a tendency to take even phatic inquiries seriously, so when Kristen asked him how he was feeling, I knew the answer would be much longer than "better, thanks."

"Conversation is also more than the explicit back and forth between individuals asking questions and directly referencing one another. It's about the more subtle back and forth that allow us to keep our connections going. It's about the phatic communication and the gestures, the little updates and the awareness of what's happening in space." -- From an article about Twitter by Danah Boyd in Vator News, September 10, 2009
DID YOU KNOW?“Phatic” was coined in the early 20th century by people who apparently wanted to label a particular quirk of human communication—the tendency to use certain rote phrases (such as the standard greeting "how are you?") merely to establish a social connection without sharing any actual information. It probably won't surprise you, then, to learn that "phatic" derives from the Greek "phatos," a form of the verb "phanai," meaning "to speak." Other descendants of "phanai" in English include "apophasis" ("the raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it"), "euphemism," "prophet," and the combining suffix "-phasia" (used to denote a speech disorder). You may also have spotted a similarity to "emphatic," but that turns out to be purely coincidence; "emphatic" traces back to a different Greek verb which means "to show."

And here we have a further example of the above entry:

RATS - Noun. Entitled owner or privilege.

USAGE" "We Southerners are willing to fight for our rats"!
(todays southern word comes from a school teacher in America's southernmost state: Hawaii. As part of her class study of the "War of Northern Agression" (known to Yankees as the "Civil War"), she showed her class the movie Gettysburg. The students wondered why the Confederacy was fighting for their "rats." The answer, of course, is obvious: Southerners have very friendly rats... in fact, you could almost say that we have some downright civil rats.) Hey, I just type them as they come out of the printer.

OY! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" />................................................................... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

September 29, 2010Word of the Day
parlay \PAHR-lay\DEFINITIONverb

1: to bet in a parlay
2a : to exploit successfully b : to increase or otherwise transform into something of much greater value
EXAMPLES The young actor parlayed his popularity as a teen heartthrob into a successful film career.

"By combining on-the-job training with a willingness to learn new skills and take on additional work, analysts say, ambitious workers can parlay lower-level jobs into high-powered careers." -- From an article by Katie Johnston in The Boston Globe, September 12, 2010
DID YOU KNOW?If you're the gambling type, you may already know that "parlay" can also be used as a noun describing a series of bets in which a person places a bet, then puts the original stake of money and all of its winnings on new wagers. But you might not know that "parlay" represents a modified spelling of the French name for such bets: "paroli." You might also be unaware that the original French word is still occasionally used in English with the same meaning as the noun "parlay." Be careful not to mix up "parlay" with the similar word "parley," meaning "to confer." Although the spellings are very close, "parley" comes from the Latin word for "speech."


This had NOTHING to do with todays word, but I'm a Baptist and thought it was funny.

"She's wound up tighter than the girdle of a Baptist Minister's wife at an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast"!

I wonder what the Baptist wives think about that! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Is there sausage at the all you can eat pancake breakfast?

Bacon.


Meat candy for all ages.

This is a great thread. I'm going to work "infra dig" into my conversations tomorrow.

Probably wishing they could dance for the exercise! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

September 30, 2010Word of the Day
RACONTEUR\ra-kahn-TER\DEFINITIONnoun

: a person who excels in telling anecdotes
EXAMPLES a bona fide raconteur, Turner can turn even mundane experiences into hilariously entertaining stories.

"The story is constructed as a light mentor piece in which Henry, a sometime college literature professor, Christmas ball collector and raconteur, takes a boarder into his crummy New York apartment." -- From an article by Dennis King in The Oklahoman, September 10, 2010
DID YOU KNOW?The story of "raconteur" is a tale of telling and counting. English speakers borrowed the word from French, where it traces back to the Old French verb "raconter," meaning "to tell." "Raconter" in turn was formed from another Old French verb, "aconter" or "acompter," meaning "to tell" or "to count," which is ultimately from Latin "computare," meaning "to count." "Computare" is also the source of our words "count" and "account." "Raconteur" has been part of the English vocabulary since at least 1828.

And for those who are into landscaping...

RACONTEUR To change shape. - Sorry Mr Jones, but we're gonna need ta raconteur your back yard to get it to stop floodin yer root celler.
Ok, so I made this up and it's corny. I never said It was good, just kinda sorta funny.

Today's word is actually already in my vocabulary for regular usage <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />