Ixtapalapa, 'burb of Mexico City

It has been suggested (Ciardi, I think) that the only reason people like blueberries is that the word sounds so delicious -- far more delicious than the fruit itself.
(sensing a food fight ... duck!)

xtabentun- wonderful mayan honey liqueur we had when we were in mexico. when our bottle runs out we're going to have to go back for more.

quark- i like the fact that gell-mann and his colleagues picked the name as a joke.

bumblebee- even though i'm allergic to them and had to go to the hospital on my wedding day because of one...

It makes me smile to call butterflies "flutterbys", because is it so much more Them!
There is a type of blotting paper that I use at work (which is a hospital laboratory). The paper is called bibulous paper and I find myself hollering "Bibulous!!" frequently just because!!!!!


Marigold

Wasn't Bibulus a Roman citizen who devoted most of his life to needling J. Caesar?

On the subject of paper: back in the days before everyone wanted to be like every one else, there was a particular size of paper (don't know the dimensions, but it was largeish) called "double elephant". That always made me smile.

My Dad used to pop off with the phrase Skinny Atlas! at random moments during my youth in Chicago. I did a triple take when we drove through the upstate New York town of Skaneateles years later.

Pillock.

One of my favourite words because of the way it sounds and the way its sound matches its meaning. Also because it can be used with a wide range of meaning:

"You PILLOCK!" = "You absolute idiot, it'll take ages to fix that!"

"Tch! Pillock!" = "My, my, you have been a silly person, haven't you?"

"you pillock" (with a smile) = response when someone tells about a minor lapse of judgement that they've just made.

And so on....

don't know the dimensions, but it was largeish
That's an understatement akin to, "The antarctic winter is rather coolish." Double-elephant is a huge size, creating a folio so big as to need a special stacking in the library. Some libraries have special sections called "elephant" and "double-elephant", for the folios kept there. no, Jackie; not the law library

I suppose the most famous book in the double elphant size is Audubon's Birds of North America. A complete examplar in good condition would fetch a good-sized fortune, as there are only a few known to be still in existence (it was a very expensive book when originally published).

Great quiz clue: "which double elephant has 864 pairs of wings?"

Didn't Audubon eat his birds?
Augh!
No, he was too busy stuffing them into an elephant...

Is an aspiring ornithologist an Audubon wanabe? an Audubon who audubeen?

Audubon would never have made it in society ...

lapis lazuli

I love the way it rolls off the tongue. Just thinking of the color brings me peace. The world needs more lapis lazuli. Anyone know if it has any significance(new age or old age)?

A quick Google got me this: with pictures of the stones
http://www.beadage.com/makejewelry/info/stones.html


For birth-month stones:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/wedding/gems.html

Excellent!
unakite, worn by Ben Franklin
malachite, worn by Ben Franklin after the lightning struck his unakite
hematite, worn by seamstresses
rhodonite, worn by long-haul truck drivers
peridot, worn by oral surgeons specializing in gum disease
chrysoprase, worn by yes-men
chrysocolla, worn by vendors at athletic stadia
azurite, worn by authors, or by ayleurs in the process of posting
amazonite I'm not getting near this one!

lapis lazuli

This stone has been mentioned frequently in my art history class. In Mesopotamian sculptures the eyes would not be carved in detail. Instead they would put lapis lazuli in to simulate a real eye.

If you can fit a double elephant in a folio, how many elephants can you fit in a Volkswagen?

Sesquepedalian. BTW, does anyone else think Boise is "fun"? Just kidding .. never been there. Now "Idaho", that's fun. For instance, who would want to eat a potato from Montana? (Or a steak from Idaho?)

Congratulations, Wordwind. You were a "newbie" when you started this thread. Now you are a "journeyman". trophy

Adventurite
What I wear when I start getting itchy feet, the travelin' kind, and start callin' myself by my middle name.
I think I feel the itchy feet coming on.

Mentions of gemstones and butterflies bring to mind the song
"Errantry" written by J R R Tolkien and set to music by Donald Swann as part of his song cycle "The road goes ever on". I've been fascinated by the song cycle since I first heard the tape many years ago (sung by William Elvin!). The text pleads to be spoken (or sung!) not just read.

There was a merry passenger, a messenger, a mariner:
he built a gilded gondola to wander in, and had in her
a load of yellow oranges and porridge for his provender;
he perfumed her with marjoram and cardamon and lavender.

He called the winds of argosies with cargoes in to carry him
across the rivers seventeen that lay between to tarry him.
He landed all in loneliness where stonily the pebbles on
the running river Derrilyn go merrily for ever on.

He journeyed then through meadowlands to Shadowland that dreary lay,
and under hill and over hill went roving still a weary way.

He sat and sang a melody, his errantry a-tarrying;
he begged a pretty butterfly that fluttered by to marry him.
She scorned him and she scoffed at him, she laughed at him unpitying;
so long he studied wizardry and sigaldry and smithying.

He wove a tissue airy thin to snare her in; to follow her
he made him beetle leather wing and feather wing of swallowhair.
He caught her in bewilderment with filament of spiderthread;
he made her soft pavilions of lilies, and a bridal bed
of flowers and of thistledown to nestle down and rest her in;
and silken webs of filmy white and silver light he dressed her in.

He threaded gems in necklaces, but recklessly she squandered
them and fell to bitter quarreling; then sorrowing he wandered
on, and there he left her withering, as shivering he fled away;
with windy weather following on swallow-wing he sped away.

He passed the archipelagoes where yellow grows the marigold,
where countless silver fountains are, and mountains are of fairy-gold.
He took to war and foraying, a-harrying beyond the sea,
and roaming over Belmarie and Thellamie and Fantasie.

He made a shield and morion of coral and of ivory,
a sword he made of emerald, and terrible his rivalry
with elven knights of Aerie and Faerie, with paladins
that golden-haired and shining-eyed came riding by and challenged him.
Of crystal was his habergeon, his scabbard of chalcedony;
with silver-tipped at plenilune his spear was hewn of ebony.
His javelins were of malachite and stalactite he brandished them,
and went and fought the dragonflies of Paradise, and vanquished them.

He battled with the Dumbledors, the Hummerhorns, and Honey-bees,
and won the Golden Honeycomb; and running home
on sunny seas in ship of leaves and gossamer
with blossom for a canopy, he sat and sang
and furbished up and burnished up his panoply.

He tarried for a little while in little isles that lonely lay,
and found there naught but blowing grass;
and so at last the only way he took, and turned,
and coming home with honeycomb,
to memory his message came, and errand too!

In derring-do and glamoury he had forgot them,
journeying and tourneying, a wanderer.

So now he must depart again and start again his gondola,
for ever still a messenger, a passenger, a tarrier,
a-roving as a feather does, a weather-driven mariner.

copyright: George Allen & Unwin Ltd 1962/J R R Tolkien 1967/Donald Swann 1967

Poor, poor butterfly[sob]! Doesn't no mean no?

At the risk of cross-threading: Did you say "Dumbledors" in that fourth verse from the end? "He battled with the Dumbledors..."? So Tolkien foresaw Hogwarts and Harry Potter ("real" or USAmerican) and all the rest? Maybe this whole poem is about Voldemort?

On a slightly less (only slightly) frivolous note, is there any other literary reference to a Voldemort, perhaps from years back, that we don't think of readily?

Yes, Wofa, Dumbledors is correct (I checked the sheet music again). The poem comes from Tolkien's "The adventures of Tom Bombadil".

I suppose the most famous book in the double elphant size is Audubon's Birds of North America. A complete examplar in good condition would fetch a good-sized fortune, as there are only a few known to be still in existence (it was a very expensive book when originally published).


As I understand it, the expurgated version is even harder to obtain.

... and how do you pronounce it?

Some of the words already mentioned also make me smile. And as for generics, 'most anything mainstream Yiddish or regional Brit makes me smile. Oh, OK, and U.S. Southern, too....

Glad are we you asked! - is it on the same table as

doi·ly (doi'lç)
n., pl. -lies.
A small ornamental mat, usually of lace or linen.
A small table napkin.
[After Doily or Doyly, 18th-century London draper.]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

an if it is, wassa boise?!

wassa boise?!
Capital city of the great state of Idaho, USA; pronounced to rhyme with "noisy", and of no particular note.

Capital city of the great state of Idaho, USA; pronounced to rhyme with "noisy", and of no particular note.

Actually®, I understand from a native that it's pronounced 'Boissy" and not 'Boizy." Not that it matters much, since nobody gives it much thought, but.

I wrote a song of the state capitals and states in the order of admission into the nation,

NEAT! And when may we expect to find the .wav on Max' site??

Hard ware required: PC, Windows, and microphone for your PC, sound card (pretty standard)

Look at the back of your computer.. you'll notice
1-- almost every plug that connects is a different size and or shape..
2--Many of the recepticle are labeled.. (ie, the jack for the keyboard has a icon of a keyboard)

Find the icon for a microphone.. Ear/head phones and or speaker are usually near by.. if you have speakers connected, start looking there! Plug in Microphone.

Software! You have it! each --> directs you to another menu...
Start-->Programs-->Accessories-->Entertainment-->Sound Recorder.. (open)

You'll get a little window, it will look like the front of your tape recorder-- and it has a red button on the right to "record" press it, and start singing into the mike.. Press stop when done. Use the buttons to go back to the beginning.. listen to your recording.. If you like it, use File--> Save to save it.. if not, file New, and make another recording... Voila! you have created a wav file.

{if nothing is recorded, send me a PM-- there might be some setting you need to adjust.. or if you have problems.. send a PM.. and i'll send you instructions with illustrations.. (and send the same to Max so in the future everyone will be able to do the same..)}

PS! Look at where you are saving it! it will default to a C: drive.. Usually My File or My Documents.. and give it a meaningful name..

Once you have created a file.. you can attach it and mail it --- recipients can "Play" or down load file to play it.. (depend on mail file system.. )

(Next lesson, how to attach file as an object so it will start to play automatically, (ie, a self opening file!))
-- much harder, since different systems (hardware/OS/Windows/mail services..(Hotmail, AOL, etc.) are all slightly different.. )

Needless to point out that all of the above applies only to users of *certain types of computers.

Is this really AnnaS? Faldage keeps you under such tight wraps, we never hear from you anymore! glad to see you are alive and well ( i was getting worried.. had our free lance fool done something beyond foolish?)

Yes, I Said PC-- Not MAC-- and yes, above are instructions for Windows based PC's-- some thing close to 93% of the computers out there.
Your welcome to post alternate instructions for MAC users..

Please send words ASAP. We can db-dub in the music later!

And a D'Oyly Carte is a menu.

Helen queries: Is this really AnnaS?

Yup! 'fraid you can't blame my prolonged absences on Faldage (though we can merrily blame a lot of other things on him; in particular, the propagation of pathetic poetry!).

I don't come around much these days because 1) I'm settling into a new life in a new town, as some of y'all know; b) my trusty old 1996 Mac finally did die and we're saving up for a new one* and iii) there's not as much word/language-focused material here any more. But I'm not making a dramatic exit or anything like that -- when I get a machine up and running at home, I'll be able to participate more and, I hope, help contribute thoughtful/amusing posts about words. Yeah, words.

----
* and then I'll post instructions for Macs... if I can figure them out!

D'Oyly Carte is a menu.
Unfortunately, D'Oyly Carte is but a fond memory. [sigh -e]

Combining D'Oyly Carte with Dub-Dub-s "states song" recalls the parody song listing the chemical elements, to the tune of the Major General's song. In honor of the return of Chemeng1992:
http://wiw.org/~drz/tom.lehrer/evening.html#elements

instructions for Macs... if I can figure them out!

1. Avoid.
2. See 1.

welcome back, everhow you travel!



Ps: did the hairy one give you the link to Vocabula review, in which there was quite a sharp review of the Atlantic article and another?

Thank you thank you Keiva!! It is nice to be missed....

Plenty of songs have heralded silver and gold, but never would I have imagined finding beryllium!! I'll have to share with my old Chemistry Prof, the esteemed Stephen Kauffman.