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#44196 10/10/01 10:13 PM
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Ixtapalapa, 'burb of Mexico City


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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!)


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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...


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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!!!!!


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#44201 10/12/01 01:55 PM
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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.


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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.


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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....


#44204 10/12/01 03:07 PM
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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



#44205 10/12/01 06:22 PM
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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).


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