Wordsmith.org
Posted By: lorenzo ballroom - 10/15/00 09:39 PM
I have ben trying to recall the name of the ball used in dance halls that is covered with mirrors which reflect light in little spots on the dancers.

Posted By: maverick Re: ballroom - 10/16/00 01:01 PM
the name of the ball

Gary Glitter

Posted By: tsuwm Re: ballroom - 10/17/00 03:37 AM
Glitterball - Radiate round the hall
Lifts me up - Then leaves me to fall
Glitterball - Radiate round the hall
As the great unloved go dancing all the way

-Simple Minds

Posted By: Father Steve Re: ballroom - 11/28/00 05:39 AM
Am I the only one too dense to understand why this inquiry is posted on a thread entitled "Words from medicine"?




Posted By: shanks Re: ballroom - 11/28/00 10:51 AM
Am I the only one too dense to understand why this inquiry is posted on a thread entitled "Words from medicine"?

I was going to appeal to surrealism - what's in a title, sort of thing, but then decided not to.

My suspicion (more seriously now) is that newcomers do not always find it easy to interpret the structure of AWADtalk (some, of course, taking to it like fish to bicycles), and may post their queries on whatever forum 'comes to hand'. If they stay, with time, their posts become more accurately targetted. But this is not a theory I would fall on my sword for. (Or go to the mattresses for?)

cheer

the sunshine warrior

Posted By: Father Steve Shame, shame - 11/28/00 03:59 PM
Shame on you, Shanks, for further counfonding the tangle of threads on this board, by subtly cross-referencing our discussion under "ditches" into this unrelated thread.



Posted By: Jackie Re: Shame, shame - 11/28/00 08:25 PM
[bristle]Kindly do not denouce my sweet shanks, if you please.[/bristle] ("Nod" to Anna of thanks for this idea!)

The idea of crossing threads is entrenched on this board.

And yes, lorenzo did not know his way around, and it looks like he may have disappeared. Counfond it.


Posted By: Marty Re: Shame, shame - 11/29/00 12:09 AM
>The idea of crossing threads is entrenched on this board.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

Posted By: Father Steve Retraction - 11/29/00 01:33 AM

Let us pause and give God thanks
for his loyal servant shanks
I am sorry for my saiding
he was bad for his cross-threading.

God made threads to be as tangled
As this meter to be mangled.
Sad I made Lorenzo go;
I won't do it any mo'.



Posted By: Jackie Re: Retraction - 11/29/00 01:57 AM
Father Steve, I loved your poem!
Howsomever, I fear you may have given offense with this one.

I now rue this trend I started,
Mourn lorenzo, dear departed;
Not all folks are loyal servants--
Non-believers can be fervents.

Posted By: xara poetry - 11/29/00 05:44 AM
This is probably going to sound stupid, but I never did understand how someone can write words that sound pretty just based on rhyme and rhythm. The only stabs I have ever made at poetry were completely devoid of rhyme and had no meter (am I remembering the poetry words correctly?) at all.

When I read something that just sings, regardless of the meanings of the words, it amazes me. I read a Lewis Carroll poem the other day that just sang straight to my heart. I had to read it a couple of times before I could understand the words because the sound of them was so beautiful that the meaning didn't even matter.

I can recognize beauty and understand that it is great, but I couldn't even begin to put together a little stanza that rhymed and sounded rhythmic, as Jackie and the good Father have done.

i wonder if this is at all related to the fact that I can look at a well dressed person or a well decorated room and appreciate it, but I couldn't begin to put together a fashionable wardrobe or living room without advice.

One also wonders why I am up at nearly 2am and have absoloutely no desire to go to bed, so I keep thinking of things to post. Sigh.

Posted By: shanks Wintersol for Dollabella - 11/29/00 08:21 AM
For Jackie, Father Steve and others here,
My ego isn't such a fragile thing:
A robust apostate I am, my dear,
Not failing under every rowdy sling
Or arrow flung by one-track-minded folk
Who, though they have invoked almighty God,
Most surely I suspect intend a joke;
For crossing threads is rife in our AWAD.
And who should claim this method plays us false?
It has stood us in good stead in the past
From Shona with velocipedal waltz
To anarchy in threads that diverge fast.
We come here stout of heart and good of will
Of language, not of rage, to have our fill.



Posted By: Jackie Re: Wintersol for Dollabella - 11/29/00 11:56 AM
(Sigh--so much for my resolve not to post...)

xara, I believe you can't develop poems or fashion because that's just the way your mind works. Last year I attended a training session on the seven learning styles. If you get the opportunity, I suggest you do the same--it was fascinating. We took a test, then divided into groups with people who had answered the same way. My group kept going,
"Yes! That's exactly the way I do things--why can't other
people understand that?" I almost didn't go into that group--I had FOUR categories score in the top three points,
but only one with full points (reading), so I went with that one. You might be a kinesthetic learner--I believe that's the rarest.

shanks--what can I say, but that you're wonderful and
I love you?
Oh--who's Dollabella?
Posted By: shanks Re: Wintersol for Dollabella - 11/29/00 12:45 PM
Seven learning styles. Bother - and I had been told there were four. Ah well - depends upon the management consultant in charge, I suppose. But yes - I agree that people have different learning styles and xara may well find one that works for her. After all (apart from the masterpieces Steve and you produced) we aren't claiming to write poetry here - just jingly-jangly verse.

And I love you too - just don't tell your husband.

xara - rhyme and rhythm, particularly when regulated in acknowledged verse forms - sonnets (my poor example above), limericks, terza rima, villanelles and the like - are very difficult to handle 'poetically'. Only the very best poets these days can do it. For most of us, doggerel is the best we can do. I suspect that this is the reason why so much poetry these days is written in 'free verse'.

It might be worth remembering that poets like Keats, Shelley and Byron (to take Romantic poets who also seem romantic to us) were actually punctilious craftsmen. They had been brought up on great poetry, had practised rhyming, alliterative verse, metrical experiments and the like in their youth, so that by the time they were in their late teens and had something special to say, poetry was natural for them. Even so they made innumerable drafts of their poems - and what sounds so spontaneous to us today was not just "profuse strains of unpremeditated art", but amazing craftsmanship as well.

If you want to achieve that craftsmanship, unfortunately, practice is the only way. It doesn't matter what you wish to write about - practice rhyme and rhythm. Restrict yourself to the tough forms - the villanelles, the ottavia rima and so on - and keep the words coming. Try it with diffcult rhymes. Try to use long words and still keep your rhythm. Then, some day, when you find yourself overflowing with emotion, and want to let it out somehow, see if formal verse will do.

Remember that almost any great artist was first a great craftsman.

cheer

the sunshine warrior

ps. for Jackie: Dollabella was the principal female character in Wintersol. (How's that for an uninformative answer?)

Posted By: Marty Re: Wintersol for Dollabella - 11/29/00 10:44 PM
>Try it with difficult rhymes.

...but whatever you do, keep away from purple, silver and orange!

Posted By: belMarduk Re: Wintersol for Dollabella - 11/30/00 01:54 AM
>rhyme and rhythm, particularly when regulated in acknowledged verse forms - sonnets (my poor example above), limericks, terza rima, villanelles and the like - are very difficult to handle 'poetically'...I suspect that this is the reason why so much poetry these days is written in 'free verse'

Ah ha. That explains that. [rant] soooo sorry if I insult anybody here but I really hate poetry that isn't. If you look in upscale magazines, like the New Yorker, those inane ramblings are being passed off as poetry. Most times, they don't even make sense, for heaven's sake. Maybe I'm just dense and the deep inner meaning of the words are over my head, but, dag nabbit, it seems like a bunch of drivel to me.[end rant]


Phew, had to get that off my chest. Back to my happy, cheerful self.


Posted By: Marty Don't knock free verse! - 11/30/00 02:57 AM
>soooo sorry if I insult anybody here but I really hate poetry that isn't.

The oesophagi are marching, marching,
Always marching,
And a shrill blue fills the nether.

I cry out to the spiteful Sunday,
But he's gone.
Wombat wandering over my mind.

Belle bel has spoken,
Softly,
Firmly.
And now we know, bien sūr, we KNOW,
What she thinks of
Poetry like this
Isn't.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: Don't knock free verse! - 11/30/00 04:21 AM
>The oesophagi are marching, marching

voilą tout! word[s] from medicine!!

Posted By: Marty Medical definition of ballroom - 11/30/00 05:11 AM
>voilą tout! word[s] from medicine!!

If it's relevance to the thread title and forum name you're looking for, tsuwm, you've got the right man. I also found the connection between "ballroom" and medicine. It's to do with the - ah - delicate subject of tight jeans (insufficient ballroom) and male sterility...
http://thriveonline.oxygen.com/sex/experts/delilah/delilah.07-31-97.html

And I hasten to add I found it today in a Web search just for the purpose - I'd never been to Delilah's site before. Honest! This site was just more succinct on the subject than the straight-laced medical ones with similar information.

Posted By: shanks I blame Whitman - 11/30/00 08:07 AM
Bel

Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" first popularised 'free verse' in the 19th century. While I don't like his poem much (I have animadverted about it on a different thread somewhere - oh yes - the book lists one), I have to admit that parts of it are quite rhythmically splendid. He deliberately avoids conventional metrical styles to achieve a spontaneity of effect.

Coming along with Eliot's subtle innovations in the early 20th century, it spelled the virtual death of verse in poetry. Few less gifted poets appreciated the genius of the rhyme and rhythm in Eliot, and saw it instead as a carte blanche for them to produce mystical musings with no structure at all. As you can see, the result (apart from Marty's mighty effort above) is often drivel. The problem, of course, is that any poet who writes in verse is likely to be dismissed these days as a mere versifier.

Even the more highly regarded ones (the late Ted Hughes in the UK, for instance) often need to establish their reputations before they can get away with good verse (sonnets in Hughes' case).

But there is no need to despair - I have read (or merely perused?) many books of contemporary verse that show there is, perhaps, a resurgence in the appreciation of the traditional values. See if you can track down the "Poems on the Underground" anthologies, or the (admittedly rather British) "The Nations Favourite Poems". Ted Hughes, before he died, also edited a delightful anthology called "By Heart", in which he makes the case for 'knowing' the poems by heart without trying to learn them by rote. One hundred gems - many old and well known, many startligly good new/fresh stuff.

Ah enough with the poetry, how about some medical words? Can anyone explain to me what dolichocephalic is supposed to mean?

cheer

the sunshine warrior

ps. Bel - some free verse is very, very good - and not all poetry should be rejected on the grounds that it doesn't follow the traditional structures...

Posted By: tsuwm Re: I blame Whitman - 11/30/00 02:41 PM
I'm not a medical expert (and I detest medical jargon), but dolicho- as a suffix means long and narrow -- don't know the signficance of having a long and narrow head unless it is related to being horse-faced.

Posted By: shanks Ahhh... - 11/30/00 03:13 PM
I tracked down the roots too - but they made no sense until you suggested 'horse-faced'. Only ever came across the word in Tom Sharpe's Wilt - I think with reference to the psychiatrist who is asked to assess the eponymous protagonist.

Posted By: emanuela dolicho... - 11/30/00 05:38 PM
I think that the word "dolicocefalo" (and also some similar words ) are related to Cesare Lombroso (about 1880?), who was thinking that it is possible to predict the behaviour (criminal or not) of someone from the shape of his skull ( and - I imagine- from the size of its brain). So he was classifying people in several classes, according to the kind of shape...
Do you remember "Frankenstein junior", when there is a collection of brains... and Marty Feldman takes the one with the label "ab normal"?
Ciao
Emanuela

Posted By: belMarduk Re: I blame Whitman - 11/30/00 07:43 PM
>Bel - some free verse is very, very good - and not all poetry should be rejected on the grounds that it doesn't follow the traditional structures...

Shanks dear, if you have any suggestions to make as to good free verse, I'd like to hear them. I promise I will look into it. As it stands, in the 'poems' I have seen, you can remove the returns and put them in paragraph form and it will sound exactly the same.

What I admire about poems is their rhythmic quality. Haiku's do not rhyme but they do have rhythm. What burns my butt is that, like you say, poets that use rhyme and rhythm are considered second-class – but it's hard work. I know I can't do it.

When I read something like:

I went to the grocery
…..store, and when

I was in the produce section I saw
that no more melons
…….were in the bin. And my dog was
waiting in the car


I want to pull out my hair at the thought that someone was PAID for this.

(Oy, two grumpy posts in a row. My jubilant reputation is going to take a beating. You can now call me Grumpy Gus )


Posted By: Jazzoctopus Re: I blame Whitman - 11/30/00 11:13 PM
Ok, Grumpy Gus,

Though I can't claim to be an expert on poetry, I am currently in a class based around it, and I think the main purpose of peotry is to convey an image, however twisted or droll that image may be. Poetry is a means of expressing one's artistic thoughts. In certain types of free verse, a poet can use a word here, a large space, a couple words here, another in all capitals here and make some sort of idea pop into the readers head. Spacing and using all lower case can be effective in certain ways. It may not be nicely organized and traditional, but it can get it's point across.

And, just to make sure I relate to the topic: dementia praecox.

Posted By: Father Steve Frankenstein - 12/01/00 06:35 AM

It took me a moment before I figured out that emanuela was referring to the 1974 American film "Young Frankenstein" when she mentioned a scene from "Frankenstein Junior." This, according to the Italian-language site of the IMDB, is because this film was released in Italy in 1975 under the name "Frankenstein Junior." Go figure.

And you're right, cara mia, it is a very funny scene where Feldman gets the brains mixed up.



Posted By: shanks Ahhh... - 12/01/00 07:52 AM
dementia praecox.

The condition of the virgin on her wedding night?

Posted By: shanks Re: I blame Whitman - 12/01/00 10:22 AM
Bel

I don't know if going here (http://www.thetube.com/webcode/contents.asp?ID=344&back=70) will help at all, but I've read the first two poems, both basically vers libre, and both very impressive. Perhaps you'll need to come to London and take a tube trip with me to spot 'em.

Posted By: belMarduk Re: I blame Whitman - 12/01/00 06:36 PM
Anytime Shanks dear. You know, of course, that when I do go to London I will hold you to this promissory post .

Posted By: jmh Re: ballroom - 12/01/00 10:51 PM
>the name of the ball used in dance halls that is covered with mirrors which reflect light in little spots on the dancers

I've always known it as a mirrorball.

You can have one too: http://www.ultimatesavers.com/index.asp?ID=61

Posted By: jmh Re: D'oh - 12/01/00 11:00 PM
Just spotted this thread. I had no idea of the things that go on here. I just tried to answer a simple question then I hit "show all" and found a cacophony of contributions. Amazing how y'all get around this board!

Posted By: Marty Re: I blame Whitman - 12/03/00 11:30 PM
>Perhaps you'll need to come to London and take a tube trip with me to spot 'em.

I'd tread carefully, bel. "Tube trip" sounds positively illicit to me. I do, however, concede that some of the world's best poems, music and paintings have been produced by people on "tube trips".

Posted By: shanks Re: I blame Whitman - 12/04/00 08:07 AM
I keep all my promissory posts. (I'm not sure about the promises, though... hmmmm - I think I keep most of those too.)

Posted By: musick Post deleted by musick - 01/08/01 12:39 AM
Posted By: belligerentyouth Re: ballroom - 02/08/01 11:04 AM
I've heard it called a mirror-ball before, or a disco-ball too

Posted By: spelchkr Re: ballroom - 02/08/01 12:55 PM
years ago i heard it referred to as a star ball, alluding to the image of shooting stars flying around the venue in question

Posted By: wwh Re: Retraction - 02/21/01 04:21 PM
Wrong sized athletic supporter has insufficient ballroom.

Posted By: wow Re: I blame Whitman - 03/10/01 06:36 PM
Like the Japanese haikus which evoke such wonderful images for the imagination and the mind to dream on
wow

Posted By: wwh Re: I blame Whitman - 03/10/01 08:34 PM
This is "Words from Medicine"? Rx One cup of Leaves of Grass
Well chewed and ruminated


Posted By: lastday Re: I blame Whitman - 03/29/01 07:32 PM
I believe the form of poetry you are describing is not free verse, but prose verse (yeah, a contradiction in terms I know). And if you take out all the line breaks they can make rather good paragraphs, but not all paragraphs can be turned into prose verse.

Posted By: Wordwind Paragraphs - 11/22/01 03:14 PM
What I'd like to see is Faulkner's paragraphs laid out in verse. Much of what he writes reads more like poetry than prose... I'll go a-seeking today after the feast for examples...

WW

Posted By: wwh Re: Paragraphs - 11/22/01 05:44 PM
Forgive my puzzlement. This thread subject is "words from medicine." I see no medical jargon anywhere. Unless "ballroom" is supposed to hint that trousers are too tight.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Paragraphs - 11/22/01 08:55 PM
Listen, wwh, you guys started this thread months ago, and it never was about medicine that I could see in a brief perusal. It has permutated from ballroom balls to a discussion of free verse, so I figured, what the heck, I'll give it a whack with my observation that Faulkner is often poetic in his prose. Now I don't know whether the old Southern bourbon tippler wrote about ballroom balls... If there were a story worth telling about one with ramifications about family secrets, I sure he would have worked it into his convoluted tales.

And anyway: there's the dreaded sports word on the German forum, so there are deep hidden secrets even on this word board. Makes me think of the Hardy boys... And we certainly are a hardy bunch of word hounds, if sometimes illogic (not illogical here in deference to previous posts about Dr. Spock on some other thread in the word lagoon).

Best regards,
WW

Posted By: wwh Re: Paragraphs - 11/22/01 10:32 PM
Dear WW: I have been subject to menacing minatory missives about posting in what the deponent declared dubious districts. I was mildly amused that the original gaffer had not been gutted. Anyway, a thing about words from medicine was uninspired, there are so censored deleted expurgated unmentioned unprinted many of them that no board member would ever want to know.Maybe lorenzo was dei Medici, and that explained his choice of place to post. His next question probably would have been what is the name of the ventilation opening in the ceiling above the ballroom, that was central to the stern inquiry:"Where were you when the skat hit the fan?"

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Paragraphs - 11/23/01 01:39 AM
In reading this thread again, I cast my vote for star ball...those glittering reflections of the ballroom walls, windows, mirrors, and tapestries take me right back to Disco Castle, where it was dreadfully difficult for the knights to boogaloo in that clanging armour.

DubDub

Posted By: Jackie Re: Paragraphs - 11/25/01 06:27 PM
This thread subject is "words from medicine." I see no medical jargon anywhere

Forgive the delay--I don't often read "below the equator" these days. I had it on good authority that the initial post was put here due to the person's lack of knowledge of how to use this board.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Paragraphs - 11/25/01 08:05 PM
Jackie, There's a dizzying continuity in this thread, however. You check under Medicine--you get the star ball--you dance through the posts here--you get dizzy--you fall down--you go to the doctor 'cauze your head's spinning 'round--he says, "Like a star ball?"--you say, "Yeah, funny your should mention that..."

WiredWeirdly

Posted By: consuelo Best medicine? - 11/25/01 10:12 PM
I come to this thread for the laughter it gives me.

Posted By: consuelo I need a 12 step program - 12/15/01 02:40 AM
Hi. My name is Connie and I'm an addict. I am addicted, as are many of you in this ballroom, to AWADtalk. I have to have it every day. I have logged on to other peoples' computers to check the board. I can no longer lurk, but have to post. Sometimes I click to reply and catch myself and force myself to cancel the reply. I am guilty of dittography. I often wear my cloak of invisibility while checking the board. I have met other addictsyou know who you are and we have talked about our posts to the board. I sometimes talk about the board to people that have never been here and say things like "I'll have to post that, that is hilarious." They look at me funny and move slowly backwards. But I know that you here in this ballroom are all saying "Amen, sister." I feel your love.ROTFLMFAO

Posted By: Jackie Re: I need a 12 step program - 12/15/01 03:20 AM
Hi, Connie. My name is Jackie. Um...I hate to tell you this, but I think it's about 12 steps to becoming Carpal Tunnel...

Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: I need a 12 step program - 12/15/01 03:20 PM
Having recently abandoned "addict' for "old" (I'll take the latter, I guess), I hereby pass the Addict Torch to you, consuelo...at least you still have a fighting chance! I'm afraid I'm already beyond AWAD Recovery! And, thanks alot, Connie, just what I needed...another Main Thread to follow!
[screaming-at-the-slower-than-molasses-loading-to-let-me-in-e!]

Posted By: wwh Re: I need a 12 step program - 12/15/01 05:38 PM
Dear WO'N: I am not happy when I check "Who's Online" and see myself called a "User"

Posted By: jmh Re: I need a 12 step program - 07/16/02 11:57 AM
Amen sister!

Posted By: Wordwind Re: I need a 12 step program - 07/17/02 03:03 PM
It is so good to see this strange thread up and running again. This is the "Anything Goes" thread. This is the thread that'll make you dizzy reading it, just like that spinning ball in the ballroom. And it's the thread that, unless you read the whole thing, you won't have any idea at all why it appears on the Medical Terms forum.

Thank you, jmh, for bringing this one back. Who knows what kind of nonsense might appear here in the next few days?

In case the Asp looks in, I want her to be very proud of me for referring to "Anything Goes" above and thinking inside my head, "Cole Porter, Cole Porter"!

Boat regards,
Wordwind

Posted By: consuelo And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/02/02 05:08 AM
Anyone longing for another go at the ballroom? May I have this dance?

Posted By: Wordwind Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/02/02 10:01 AM
I'll dance with you, Consuelo! Anything goes at the Medicine Ball!

Posted By: dxb Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/02/02 12:32 PM
I was knocked off my feet, when just a lad, by a medicine ball thrown at my stomach during gym...I still remember the way it felt for three days after. Why are (or is it were; have I outlived them and thus avenged myself on the instrument if not the perpetrator) they called medicine balls?

The ceiling-hanging, spot-dancing balls were called glitterballs at the palais. But not named after Gary Jesuit Glitter.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/02/02 12:44 PM
I think medicine balls might be so called because, in order to become strong, you have to take your medicine or the hard work you have to do with the medicine ball.

That's just a guess.

Posted By: dxb Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/03/02 04:27 PM
After a deal of searching I found this:

WHERE DOES THE TERM "MEDICINE BALL" COME FROM? It is rumoured that Hippocrates, the father of medicine used a large heavy padded ball to sweat fever from his patients. The earliest descriptions of what is now called a medicine ball can be found in ancient Greek and Egyptian writings.

Hmmm...well...maybe, just maybe.

Posted By: dxb Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/03/02 04:30 PM
By the way. That was a neat (US usage) way to get the topic back to medicine, don't you think?

Posted By: Wordwind Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/03/02 05:18 PM
In reply to:

I'll dance with you, Consuelo! Anything goes at the Medicine Ball!


and:

In reply to:

By the way. That was a neat (US usage) way to get the topic back to medicine, don't
you think?



....Do you now understand how my mind works?

Posted By: dxb Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/03/02 05:22 PM
Yep. You dangle the bait and see which of us takes a bite!

Posted By: consuelo Re: And the shiny ball continues to turn - 12/03/02 08:58 PM
This thread never was about medicine, unless you count the curative powers of smiling and laughing and dancing till you're dizzy

Posted By: Faldage Re: Take two medicine balls - 12/04/02 02:09 AM
This thread never was about medicine

Then what's it doing in Words from medicine? Huh? Answer me that!

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Take two medicine balls - 12/04/02 02:14 AM
Faldage,

Only Lorenzo knows, and Lorenzo disappeared on October 19, 2000.

Lorenzo's Ball

WW

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Take two medicine balls - 12/05/02 10:48 PM
Ironic, isn't it, that the most-read thread on the medicine forum has little much to do with medicine?

Posted By: dxb Re: Take two medicine balls - 12/06/02 01:08 PM
If its an irony board maybe we should all read in flat mode.

Posted By: wofahulicodoc Bored of Medicine? - 12/06/02 02:43 PM
Ironic, isn't it, that the most-read thread on the medicine forum has little much to do with medicine?

Ironic, but perhaps not that surprising. A medicine thread will probably be of only superficial interest to other-than-physicians or paramedical or complementary personnel, presumably hoping [altruistically, of course] to share their knowledge. Things may be worth a quick read but not yield more that a superficial discussion. The topics of keenest interest will be too personal to generate a broad base of (public) responses...

Back to work!

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Little Much - 12/06/02 05:23 PM
In reply to:

Ironic, isn't it, that the most-read thread on the medicine forum has little much to do with medicine?


No idea what I was thinking.

Posted By: wofahulicodoc much ado about little - 12/06/02 07:23 PM
Doesn't matter. We all knew exactly what you meant :-)

EDIT: And it's probably not too hard to figure out what you were thinking, either -- whether to say "has little to do with..." or "has not much to do with..." and winding up saying both at the same time. (I'm sure there's a word for that!)

Or maybe just writing one and then re-writing the other, with incomplete editing

Posted By: Faldage Re: much ado about little - 12/06/02 07:41 PM
knew exactly what you meant

And if that's the least worst we can say about it...

Posted By: Alex Williams nevermind the bollocks - 12/06/02 09:43 PM
This ungoverned thread has little to do with medicine, but it reminds me of one of my favorite medical words, gubernaculum, which is derived etymologically from little governor; from gubernare = to control, and the diminutive suffix -culum.

The gubernaculum of the testis is the fetal cord which guides the descent of the testis. (from http://www.emory.edu/ANATOMY/AnatomyManual/Etymology.html)

An interesting "ball" in medicine is the "fungus ball" that can grow in the lungs of patients infected with aspergillis. I've always thought it would be hilarious if a microbiology association had a yearly gala called "The Fungus Ball." But enough silliness. It is now nearly 6:00 PM on Friday, and time to leave work and go to our clinic's annual Christmas party.


Posted By: wwh Re: nevermind the bollocks - 12/06/02 10:17 PM
For the many of board members who never had to struggle with embryology, the testes
are originally close to the kidneys. I cannot grasp how the Lord brought it about that the
testes should keep moving toward the pelvis, passing between the layers of the abdominal
muscles and into the scrotum. I'm not religious, but I can understand the temptation to
believe in "intelligent design". I don't see any way just evolution could have done it.
Teleologically, the development of the sperm is favored by the somewhat lower tempreature
in the scrotum. Though it puts the testes at risk of external violence. (Cringe, cringe)

Posted By: wofahulicodoc That reminds me of the one about... - 12/06/02 10:27 PM
WARNING: adult theme

... the engineers discussing what kind of Engineer God must have been.

Shortening it (but not totally emasculating it in the process, I hope):

They concluded that He must have been a Civil Engineer,
because no one else would have put the playground
right next to a toxic waste dump...

Posted By: Faldage Re: nevermind the bollocks - 12/07/02 12:11 AM
"intelligent design"

On the other hand, if there were intelligent design, the development of the sperm could have been favored by somewhat higher temperatures.

Posted By: wwh Re: nevermind the bollocks - 12/07/02 12:39 AM
And if there had really been intelligent design, babies would be delivered by opening a zipper.

Posted By: Alex Williams Re: nevermind the bollocks - 12/07/02 03:06 PM
I find the structure and function of the eye to be mind-boggling, and it seems almost impossible that such a complicated organ could evolve.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: nevermind the bollocks - 12/07/02 03:13 PM
And then there's the mantis shrimp eye.

There are eyes and eyes, multitudes of eyes, evolved in different ways and for different purposes.

Posted By: consuelo EBTG Mirrorball - 11/08/04 07:41 PM
Some good times I remember - my birthday that September,
we lay down on the lawn,
and counted until dawn,
the stars that we lay under.
And is he still, I wonder, the fairest of them all, mirror,
mirrorball.

http://www.lyricsdir.com/e/everything-but-the-girl/mirrorball.php


Posted By: Wordwind Re: EBTG Mirrorball - 11/08/04 11:54 PM
Ah, I love this old thread. Glad to see it resuscitated, C..s...

Posted By: Zed Re: EBTG Mirrorball - 11/16/04 11:57 PM
I swore I wouldn't AWAD after work today I have too many errands to run on the way home. Well I hope the store is open late cos' here I am 45 minutes later reeling out the door and giggling to myself. Not only am I late but they'll think I have a bottle hidden in my desk.

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: EBTG Mirrorball - 11/17/04 07:12 PM
I swore I wouldn't AWAD ...

Best verbification of a noun I've heard in a long time!

Posted By: Bazr Mirror Ball - 06/13/14 11:07 AM
I have always known it as a mirror ball.
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