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#75816 07/11/02 07:05 PM
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Lateran The ancient palace of the Laterani, given by the Emperor Constantine to the popes. Lateran,
from lateo, to hide, and rana, a frog. It is said that Nero ... on one occasion vomited a frog covered with
blood, which he believed to be his own progeny, and had it hidden in a vault. The palace which was built
on the site of this vault was called the “Lateran,” or the palace of the hidden frog. (Buckle: History of
Civilisation.)


#75817 07/11/02 07:18 PM
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Lavender From the Spanish lavandera (a laundress), the plant used by laundresses for scenting linen.
The botanical name is Lavandula, from the Latin lavo, to wash. It is a token of affection.


#75818 07/11/02 07:19 PM
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There are several guys that I work with that brew their own - I've tried a little but can't say that I prefer it. I guess one grows accustomed to the 'commercial' stuff. That home brewed kind is stout and mean to the head!

We also have a nifty little microbrewery in downtown Montgomery - interestingly it's the only place in central Alabama where you can get beer 'on tap'. Apparently the Bible Belt thinks beer from the tap is worse fer ya. Anyhoo - their beer seems to be a happy medium between the usual Miller or Busch product and the home swill. Much more interesting taste with only a little more on the headache scale.

Anyone have any knowledge on why draft beer would be outlawed and bottled allowed??


#75819 07/11/02 07:23 PM
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Lawn Fine, thin cambric bleached on a lawn, instead of the ordinary bleaching grounds. It is used for the
sleeves of bishops, and sometimes for ladies' handkerchiefs.


#75820 07/11/02 08:05 PM
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When it comes to yeast, you need to go to Kentucky for the correct answers. Jackie may not know this, but most horse breeders do.

There are in Kentucky a variety of hummingbirds that builds their nests of hair from the manes of horses. So they sometimes actually build their nests in the horses' manes. Anyway, the Kentucky breeders have discovered that the cheeping sound made by the chicks has a detrimental effect on their breeding program. Basically, the particular frequencies increase miscarriages.

Someone though, discovered that a yeat paste discouraged the birds from their building the nests on the horses' necks. Yep, yeast is yeast and nest is nest, but never the manes shall tweet.

TEd



TEd
#75821 07/11/02 08:54 PM
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Left in the Lurch Left to face a great perplexity. In cribbage a lurch is when a player has scored only
thirty holes, while his opponent has made sixty-one, and thus won a double.


#75822 07/11/02 09:06 PM
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Legend means simply “something to be read” as part of the divine service. The narratives of the lives of
saints and martyrs were so termed from their being read, especially at matins, and after dinner in the
refectories. Exaggeration and a love for the wonderful so predominated in these readings, that the word
came to signify the untrue, or rather, an event based on tradition.


#75823 07/11/02 09:18 PM
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Lemures (3 syl.). The spirits of the dead. Good lemures were called Lares, but bad ones Larvae, spectres
who wandered about at night-time to terrify the living. (Ovid. Fasti, v.)

I wonder if this is where the name for a very small primate comes.


#75824 07/11/02 09:19 PM
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Lens (Latin, a lentil or bean). Glasses used in mathematical instruments are so called because the double
convex one, which may be termed the perfect lens, is of a bean shape.



#75825 07/11/02 09:21 PM
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Lent (Anglo-Saxon, lencten). Lenctentid (spring-tide) was the Saxon name for March, because in this
month there is a manifest lengthening of the days. As the chief part of the great fast falls in March, this
period of fast received the name of the Lencten-fæsten, or Lent. It is from Ash Wednesday to Easter.
The Fast of thirty-six days was introduced in the fourth century. Felix III. added four more days in
487, to make it correspond with our Lord's fast in the wilderness.
Galeazzo's Lent. A form of torture devised by Galeazzo Visconti, calculated to prolong the unfortunate
victim's life for forty days.


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