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#126445 03/28/04 10:16 PM
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Anathema
(Gr. anathema -- literally, placed on high, suspended, set aside).

A term formerly indicating offerings made to the divinity which were suspended from the roof or walls of temples for the purpose of being exposed to view. Thus anathema according to its etymology signifies a thing offered to God. The word anathema is sometimes used in this sense in the Old and New Testaments: In Judith, xvi, 23, it is said that Judith, having taken all the arms of Holofernes which the people had given him and the curtain of his bed which she herself had brought, offered them to the Lord as an anathema of oblivion. In II Mach., ix, 16, Antiochus promises to adorn with precious gifts (anathemata) the temple he has pillaged; and in Luke, xxi, 5, mention is made of the temple built of precious stones and adorned with rich gifts (anathemata). As odious objects were also exposed to view, e.g. the head of a criminal or of an enemy, or his arms or spoils, the word anathema came to signify a thing hated, or execrable, devoted to public abhorrence or destruction. "

From Catholic Encyclopedia


#126446 03/28/04 10:21 PM
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Anathema sit!


#126447 03/28/04 10:25 PM
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Anathema sit!

You have a dog named Anathema?


#126448 03/28/04 10:37 PM
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Actually Anathema is my lobster which I walk every day down the Champs Elysee. My dog's name is Piraña, but everybody calls her Fish.


#126449 03/29/04 11:44 AM
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Oh great! Thanks, too much, nuncle; now I'll be spending all day trying to imagine a lobster sitting.


#126450 03/29/04 12:41 PM
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Not a problem, nephew. Though, I can well imagine a lobster sitting in my plate, but not Anathema. BTW, I did have a pet wolf spider, when I was high school, named Hincmar after a French bishop.


#126451 03/29/04 03:21 PM
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Y'all jes a couple o heretics, if ya ax me.


#126452 03/29/04 09:06 PM
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now I'll be spending all day trying to imagine a lobster sitting.

It'd certainly take dogged determination to teach it!


#126453 05/05/04 09:05 PM
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Oscar Wilde had a pet lobster he used to walk. What's so much fun about walking a lobster? Seems it would be a rather annoyingly slow walk.


#126454 05/05/04 09:48 PM
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Funny. I allus 'eard it was Gerard de Nerval, not Oscar Wilde.

Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog ... or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I have a liking for lobsters. They are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea, they don't bark, and they don't gnaw upon one's monadic privacy like dogs do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he wasn't mad.


#126455 07/26/04 03:21 PM
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Well, thank you very much for the correction, jheem. I have believed for over three decades now that Oscar Wilde did walk a lobster and it is very good to learn today that it was de Nerval instead. I wonder how affectionate a lobster may become.


#126456 07/26/04 04:06 PM
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Well, thank you very much for the correction, jheem. I have believed for over three decades now that Oscar Wilde did walk a lobster and it is very good to learn today that it was de Nerval instead.

You're welcome, Wordwind. OTOH, Oscar did do some funny things. I've been waiting on a friend who has the French original and its provenance. I'll post when I get it.


#126457 12/20/04 01:04 AM
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> when I get it

[patiently waiting]
tap. tap. tap.
[/patiently waiting]
> placed on high, suspended, set aside


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