7/21/2003 ·  8/ 6/2003
 5/29/2003 ·  7/18/2003
 4/25/2003 ·  5/28/2003
 3/24/2003 ·  4/24/2003
 3/ 1/2003 ·  3/21/2003
 1/28/2003 ·  2/28/2003
11/30/2002 ·  1/23/2003
11/ 1/2002 · 11/29/2002
 9/23/2002 · 10/30/2002
 9/ 5/2002 ·  9/20/2002
 8/10/2002 ·  9/ 4/2002
 7/24/2002 ·  8/ 9/2002
 6/27/2002 ·  7/23/2002
 6/ 3/2002 ·  6/25/2002
 4/24/2002 ·  5/31/2002
 4/ 1/2002 ·  4/23/2002
 3/ 1/2002 ·  3/31/2002
 2/10/2002 ·  2/28/2002
 1/22/2002 ·  2/ 9/2002
 1/ 3/2002 ·  1/16/2002
12/16/2001 ·  1/ 2/2002
12/ 2/2001 · 12/15/2001
11/ 1/2001 · 11/29/2001
10/16/2001 · 10/31/2001
 9/23/2001 · 10/13/2001
 9/11/2001 ·  9/22/2001
 7/29/2001 ·  9/10/2001
 7/ 2/2001 ·  7/28/2001
 5/29/2001 ·  6/30/2001
 5/ 1/2001 ·  5/21/2001
 4/ 8/2001 ·  4/29/2001
 3/25/2001 ·  4/ 7/2001
 3/11/2001 ·  3/24/2001
 3/ 4/2001 ·  3/10/2001
 2/18/2001 ·  3/ 3/2001
 2/ 4/2001 ·  2/17/2001
 1/23/2001 ·  2/ 2/2001
 1/ 1/2001 ·  1/22/2001
12/18/2000 · 12/31/2000
11/30/2000 · 12/ 7/2000
11/ 6/2000 · 11/28/2000
10/29/2000 · 11/ 5/2000
10/11/2000 · 10/19/2000
10/ 1/2000 · 10/ 9/2000
 9/24/2000 ·  9/30/2000
 9/15/2000 ·  9/22/2000
 9/ 7/2000 ·  9/13/2000

Search rbgilbert.com

This is my blogchalk:
United States, Massachusetts, Boston, Brighton, English, Ron, Male, Photography, Nudity.

Last night of the year
Last night of the century
Last night of the millennium

I hope that's clear now.

More Words
These first two are from Dictionary.com
To subscribe to their word-of-the-day by email, send a blank message to WordoftheDay-on@lists.lexico.com
Or go to www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/list/

Hogmanay \hog-muh-NAY; HOG-muh-nay\, noun:

The name, in Scotland, for New Year's Eve, on which children go about singing and asking for gifts; also, a gift, cake, or treat given on New Year's Eve.

This is Hogmanay, the gifting of another year, the coming of midnight, the darkest hour, before the turn towards dawn.
--John F. Deane, "The music of what happens,"

The biggest celebration in Britain was in Edinburgh, where Hogmanay drew about 200,000 people to a free street party in the city centre.
--"Archbishop of Canterbury calls for greater generosity,"

The origin of the word Hogmanay is unknown.

One who is curious to know everything that passes; one who knows, or pretends to know, all that is going on; a gossip; a busybody.

What a treasure-trove to these venerable quidnuncs, could they have guessed the secret which Hepzibah and Clifford were carrying along with them!
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables

Some wretched intrigue which had puzzled two generations of quidnuncs.
--L. Stephen, Hours in Library

Quidnunc is formed from the Latin for "What now?" (or "What's the news?"), quid nunc?

1 a : to make (as color or a painting) less brilliant by covering with a thin coat of opaque or semiopaque color b : to apply (a color) in this manner
*2 : to soften the lines or colors of (a drawing) by rubbing lightly

Example sentence:
Joan squinted critically at her self-portrait, then scumbled the outlines of her face with her finger, and she found the vague dreamy effect of the smeared edges was much more to her liking.

Did you know?
The history of "scumble" is blurry, but the word is thought to be related to the verb "scum," an obsolete form of "skim" (meaning "to pass lightly over"). Scumbling, as first perfected by artists such as Titian, involves passing dry, opaque coats of oil paint over a tinted background to create subtle tones and shadows. But although the painting technique dates to the 16th century, use of the word "scumble" is only known to have begun in the late 18th century. The more generalized "smudge" or "smear" sense appeared even later, in the mid-1800s.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Omigawd, are these hemorrhoids?

A vacation getaway right in the middle of Berkeley, California? Free entertainment. Free furniture. No charge. Paid for by the government. And it's not ROTC! What the hell!?

What's this! Go here to read about this flaming conspiracy!

Hey, this is good: MetaFilter!

Also this: SpamMimic which you can use to encrypt a secret message. It travels over the internet looking just like Spam! No kidding! Give it a shot.

Bread Enhancer
There are several things you can add to a bread recipe to help it to rise, to increase its nutrition and to improve its texture. You can go spend a bundle on something Laura Brody's Dough Enhancer, or you can just mix up my mix:

Ron's Bread Betterment

• 1 Cup Lecithin granules (texture and nutrition)
• 1 Cup Instant potato flakes (texture)
• 1 Cup Whey (texture and nutrition)
• 2 Cup Soy flour or granules (nutrition only)
• 1 Tbs Ascorbic acid, that is vitamin C powder (improved rise)
• 1 Tbs Ginger (improved rise)
• 1 Tbs Diastatic malt (powder) (improved rise)

"God grant me the Senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones that I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference."

Just in time for the millennium
An article on hangover preventions and cures.

But my preferred method is to drink lots of water along with the alcohol, and consume these nutritional supplements:

Anti-alcohol antioxidants from the Life Extension Foundation. They contain vitamins C, B1, and E as well as selenium, cysteine, and glutathione. The directions are to take one capsule for each alcoholic beverage consumed, up to 6.

New (Cheaper) Technology
Here's an article in USA Today (I am so embarrassed!) about GeoSpatial Technologies plans to begin selling to consumers the sort of technology used for satellite tracking emergency vehicles. For about $150 installation plus $50 to $70 per month you'll be able to track the location of your vehicle via the web. The article addresses the expected applications: companies tracking employees in company cars and parents tracking wayward teenagers in the family station wagon. They say nothing of tracking your car when it gets stolen, an exciting but probably dangerous idea. If you have a cell phone with web access you'll be able to actually follow your vehicle around town. I have visions of people leaping into cabs, thrusting their cell phone into the driver's face and shouting "Follow that cursor!"

A little more creative use is being worked on by Laidlaw, the big yellow bus people. They want to be able to keep track of whether the driver stops and opens the door at all railroad crossings; and they are looking at "an automated call to a student's home when the bus is near. Under the project, special-needs students will get an automatic phone call telling them to be ready, because the bus is 10 minutes away." Too cool, but why limit it to special needs students? Let the regular needs (?) students buy into it. You know there are some lazy-ass teenagers out there with too much money who would love to be able to sleep right until they get the ten minute warning. Bam! They would leap into the clothes they laid out the night before, and run out the door with a Mountain Dew and food-like calorie source in their hands. It'd be best to schedule Phys. Ed as the first class for these kids, so they can get their showering done early.

And why just school buses? Why not any city bus or train? Real people could benefit from this, too!

I can think of some nice enhancements they should consider on the receiving web end. You don't want to have to sit and watch a tedious web display when your teenager/boyfriend/spouse/deadbeat friend is using your car. I assume the thing stores some kind of log. But what you really want to do is to be able to draw a "permitted" or a "forbidden" zone. For example, you might map out a permitted zone for your teenager from your home to school to work. If he strays from the permitted zone in that shitbox Chevy of yours, your computer would perhaps flash the screen or make a sound or dial your cell phone. A forbidden zone is similar. You don't want your new boyfriend to drive within a half mile of his ex-boyfriend's house, so you draw a half-mile radius forbidden zone around it. For your alcoholic deadbeat friend, you might draw a forbidden zone around his favorite bars or liquor stores.

I think the greatest fans of this device will be those people who live in the city and park on the streets. You wake up in the morning and you know you parked somewhere within half a mile of home, but your memory of just exactly where that spot was is a bit vague. Just get on the web and find your little honey. It will also be useful to determine just exactly where your car is after it's been towed. With that bit of info, you may be able to sneak into the tow lot and get it out free!

The real excitement comes when we find out that the manufacturer has provided the police with a backdoor password that allows them to track all vehicles that have these devices.

Some Interesting Sites

• chipmunktesticles
• non-sequitur spanikopitas
• THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CARP
• RetroHippy
• CoryCNC
• Article on Blogging

Bread
How have I gone so long and said nothing about bread, more specifically bread-making, or, to tell the truth, bread machining? I had the DAK version of a Welbilt machine for years--too many years. Then it finally died, thank gawd. That model had a tendency to underbake, so I had to be careful with my dry/liquid ratio. Then I got the Breadman Ultimate TR2200C; an expensive model, but I've loved it. I can't make it fail ... well, there was the one time I left out the yeast. In fact, it does better if the dough is a little bit too wet, but it will still turn out a good loaf if it's too dry.

Want to get a machine? I love my Breadman, which you can order from King Arthur or buy at Williams-Sonoma. Most experienced bread machiners agree the Zojirushi BBCC-V20 is the best model. But there doesn't seem to be much need to go high end. I've heard of machines for as little as $50 that turn out excellent bread. For the higher price you get more bells and whistles (hey, I can make jam in mine!) and maybe a bigger capacity. Click here for a few bread machine reviews. Or, click here for some general information on machines.

If you've got a machine and you want recipes and advice. Useful websites are:

• Bread-Machine Digest
• King Arthur for bread supplies in the east
• Bob's Red Mill for supplies in the west
• Hodgson Mill
• Wheat Montana for bulk flours
• Bread-Bakers
• Bread Machine Recipes
• Bread Machine Magic
• Bread Bakers Forum
• Red Star Yeast
• Fleischmann's Yeast

• Bread-Machine
• ABM-Recipes
• All_Bread_Recipes
• Bread-Recipes
• Bread
• Bread-Bakers Digest and Daily Bread lists

By the way, the most frequently asked question on the lists is "how much yeast in a packet?" The answer is 2¼ to 2½ teaspoons. The next most frequent question is "does it matter if I use instant or rapid yeast?" This one produces lengthy explanations and arguments. My answer is, use any kind of yeast except cake yeast and keep it in the fridge. Frozen is supposed to be okay, too, but I haven't tried that.

The Bread-Machine Digest and the Bread-Machine mailing list are both run by this guy Robert who I think is in the UK. He's quite knowledgeable and has built an attractive and functional website with no unnecessary gimmickry. For that we praise him. But he also has this bug up his butt about converting measurements by volume (used generally in the U.S.) to measurement by weight (popular in the UK and elsewhere). The argument in favor of measuring by weight is that it compensates for humidity and it avoids the inherent inaccuracy of measuring by volume that is due to the amount of air incorporated in what you are measuring. That is, take one cup of fluffy, just-sifted white flour and tap-tap-tap it to settle it. Now you can add more flour and it's still one cup.

So right, it makes sense to weigh, but the problem is converting all those hundreds of recipes we've already got. To do it, you need a conversion scale for every item you bake with. Obviously one cup of white flour does not weigh the same as a cup of whole wheat, or a cup of water, or a cup of milk, or a cup of wheat germ, or a cup of butter (yowzah!), or a cup of popcorn, or a cup of sugar, or a cup of molasses. But go look at Robert's measurement conversion charts, or, more accurately, chart singular. One cup, according to the chart, weighs 123.6 grams. One cup of what?

The chart has other problems as well. One tablespoon is three teaspoons, right? Then if a teaspoon "weighs" 3.5 grams shouldn't a tablespoon "weigh" about 10.5 grams? His chart puts it at 9.7 grams.

There was quite a heated discussion about this on his mailing list for awhile. Robert refused to admit that a single volume to weight conversion chart couldn't possibly be accurate. He was hysterical on the point. After several days of wrangling it finally came out that he had bought an expensive electronic scale. On that scale he could press a button to convert the display between metric and U.S. measures (of weight). Fine enough. But it also claimed to convert dry ounces (weight) to liquid ounces (volume). He could not accept that even though the device would display the legend "fl. oz.", it could not possibly measure fluid ounces by weight.

By the way, I measure, I never weigh, and my stuff turns out great. I think if you just open your eyes and turn on your brain, everything will work out...at least in the high stress world of bread making.

Guns
The usual suspects are calling for the usual increased restrictions on gun purchases or ownership after the shootings at Edgewater in Wakefield this week. What nonsense. Here we had a guy who illegally possessed and transported his weapons and walked through his office with the guns illegally loaded and illegally killed seven of his law-abiding co-workers. And more restrictive laws would have done what? Made it more illegal? The guy's already looking at a life sentence. We don't have the death sentence in this state (thank gawd for at least that much).

Would the suspect's behavior have been different if he had thought any of his co-workers might also be armed? Maybe. The gun control laws in this state have done nothing more than disarm the innocent.

The real lesson from this is that if you have a guy who looks like an obese prophet out of the old testament, is single and middle-aged working for you and you have to tell him that the IRS is going to garnish his wages, you should be sure he knows it's the IRS that's taking the money, and that he has the address for the nearest IRS location. If you can provide a home address for an IRS agent, and information as to whether that agent is packing heat, your employee might appreciate that too. If this loser had gone and shot up an IRS office, public reaction would be a lot more mixed than it is now.

Here is an op-ed piece that appeared in (of all places) the Boston Globe!

What we can do after Wakefield
By John R. Lott Jr., 12/28/2000

WITH A GUNMAN'S attack that killed seven people at a Wakefield Internet company on Tuesday, the question is simple: What can be done to stop similar shootings in the future?

For many the answer is more government regulation. The creation of gun-free zones, waiting periods, background checks, and safe storage regulations are just a few of the laws typically proposed. Yet, Massachusetts already has these restrictions and many more.

Surely the intentions of these laws are noble. The goal of preventing concealed handguns or creating gun-free zones is to protect people. But what might appear to be the most obvious policy may actually cost lives.

When gun control laws are passed, it is law-abiding citizens, not would-be criminals, who obey them. Unfortunately, the police cannot be everywhere, so these laws risk creating situations in which the good guys cannot defend themselves from the bad ones.

This point was driven home to me when I received an e-mail from a friend recently, telling me that he had just dropped off his kids at a public school and outside the school was a sign that said "This is a gun-free zone." I couldn't help think, if I put up a sign on my home that said, "This home is a gun-free zone," would it make it more attractive or less attractive to criminals entering my home and attacking myself or my family?

While horrible crimes like the one in Wakefield get the attention they deserve, rarely mentioned are the many attacks that are stopped by citizens who are able to defend themselves. About two million times a year people use guns defensively. Few realize that some of the public school shootings were stopped by citizens with guns.

For example, in the first public shooting spree at a high school, in Pearl, Miss., in October 1997 that left two dead, an assistant principal retrieved a gun from his car and physically immobilized the shooter for more than five minutes before police arrived.

A school-related shooting in Edinboro, Pa., in spring 1998 that left one dead, was stopped after a bystander pointed a shotgun at the shooter when he started to reload his gun. The police did not arrive for another 11 minutes.

But anecdotal stories cannot resolve this debate. A study at the University of Chicago by a colleague and myself compiled data on all of the multiple-victim public shootings that occurred in the United States from 1977 to 1999. Included were incidents in which at least two people were killed or injured in a public place; to focus on the type of shooting seen in Wakefield, we excluded gang wars or shootings that were the byproduct of another crime, such as robbery. The United States averaged more than 20 such shootings annually, with an average of 1.5 people killed and 2.5 wounded in each one.

So what can stop these attacks? We have examined a range of different gun laws, such as waiting periods, as well the frequency and level of punishment. However, while arrest and conviction rates, prison sentences, and the death penalty reduce murders generally, they do not consistently deter public shootings.

The reason is simple: Those who commit these crimes usually die. They are either killed in the attack or commit suicide. The normal penalties rarely apply.

To be effective, policies must deal with what motivates these criminals, which is to kill and injure as many people as possible. Some appear to do it for the publicity, which is itself related to the amount of harm they inflict.

The best way to stop these attacks is to enact policies that can limit the carnage. We found only one policy that effectively accomplishes this: the passage of right-to-carry laws.

With Michigan's adoption this month, 32 states now give adults the right to carry concealed handguns as long as they do not have a criminal record or a history of significant mental illness. When states passed such laws during the 23 years we studied, the number of multiple-victim public shootings declined by a dramatic 67 percent. Deaths and injuries from these shootings fell on average by 78 percent.

To the extent that attacks still occur in states after these laws are enacted, they disproportionately occur in areas in which concealed handguns are forbidden. The people who get these permits are extremely law-abiding and rarely lose their permits for any reason. Without letting law-abiding citizens defend themselves, we risk leaving victims as sitting ducks.

John R. Lott Jr. is a senior research scholar at Yale University Law School and the author of "More Guns, Less Crime."

This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 12/28/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.

Other articles by John R. Lott Jr.:

• Gun Locks
• More Guns Equal Less Violent Crime
• How to Stop Mass Shootings which makes an interesting comparison between the U.S. and Israel
• More Gun Controls? They Haven't Worked in the Past which includes this astounding information: "Until 1969, virtually every public high school in New York City had a shooting club. High-school students carried their guns to school on the subways in the morning."
• Gun Regulations Can Cost Lives
• Cities Target Gun Makers in Bogus Lawsuits
• How To Stop School Shootings
• Why new gun laws won't work
• Crime, Deterrence and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns
• Cheney on the Issues: He Was Right All Along, Gun Control: Strictly Symbolism
• Papers
• Interview by University of Chicago Press
• Guns, Drugs And Insider Trading, an interview in Forbes.
• Interview in Reason magazine
• Interview in the National Review
• Another National Review interview
• Another list of more articles

Seen On Usenet
Subject: Re: help w/pics of boat...
From: spunk1111@aol.comQQ (Spunk1111)
Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art

><peghtsovcu1vb64gd8eekl1jnacjnjmc5o@4ax.com>
>
>43-lined signatures rule! :)

then you'll like mine...

-joan
--

                                     _
                                    /\\
                                   /  \\
                                  / /\ \\
                                 / // \ \\
                                 \ \\ / //
                               _  \ \/ //  _
                              /\\  \ \//  /\\
                             /  \\ /\ \\ /  \\
                            / /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \\
                           / // \/ // \/ // \ \\
                           \ \\ / /\\ / /\\ / //
                   _        \ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ //        _
                  /\\        \ \// \  // \ \//        /\\
                 /  \\       /\ \\  \//  /\ \\       /  \\
                / /\ \\     / /\ \\  `  / /\ \\     / /\ \\
               / // \ \\   / // \ \\   / // \ \\   / // \ \\
               \ \\ / //   \ \\ / //   \ \\ / //   \ \\ / //
             _  \ \/ //  _  \ \/ //  _  \ \/ //  _  \ \/ //  _
            /\\  \ \//  /\\  \ \//  /\\  \ \//  /\\  \ \//  /\\
           /  \\ /\ \\ /  \\ /\ \\ /  \\ /\ \\ /  \\ /\ \\ /  \\
          / /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \\
         / // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \ \\
         \ \\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / //
       _  \ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ //  _
      /\\  \ \// \  // \  // \  // \  // \  // \  // \  // \ \//  /\\
     /  \\ /\ \\  \//   \//   \//   \//   \//   \//   \//  /\ \\ /  \\
    / /\ \/ /\ \\  `     `     `     `     `     `     `  / /\ \/ /\ \\
   / // \/ // \ \\  joan stark  -=-  spunk1111@juno.com  / // \/ // \ \\
   \ \\ / /\\ / //       http://www.ascii-art.com        \ \\ / /\\ / //
    \ \/ /\ \/ //  _     _     _     _     _     _     _  \ \/ /\ \/ //
     \  // \ \//  /\\   /\\   /\\   /\\   /\\   /\\   /\\  \ \// \  //
      \//  /\ \\ /  \\ /  \\ /  \\ /  \\ /  \\ /  \\ /  \\ /\ \\  \//
       `  / /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \\  `
         / // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \/ // \ \\
         \ \\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / /\\ / //
          \ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ //
           \  // \ \// \  // \ \// \  // \ \// \  // \ \// \  //
            \//  /\ \\  \//  /\ \\  \//  /\ \\  \//  /\ \\  \//
             `  / /\ \\  `  / /\ \\  `  / /\ \\  `  / /\ \\  `
               / // \ \\   / // \ \\   / // \ \\   / // \ \\
               \ \\ / //   \ \\ / //   \ \\ / //   \ \\ / //
                \ \/ //     \ \/ //  _  \ \/ //     \ \/ //
           jgs   \  //       \ \//  /\\  \ \//       \  //
                  \//        /\ \  /  \\ /\ \\        \//
                   `        / /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \\        `
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                               `  / /\ \\  `
                                 / // \ \\
                                 \ \\ / //
                                  \ \/ //
                                   \  //
                                    \//
                                     `

Seen On Usenet Too!
Subject: Re: Someone's sig - Completely O/T
From: BlueShift2000@hotmail_is_a_spam_magnet.com (BlueShift)
Newsgroups: alt.books.iain-banks

Oh, yeah, if you were interested in why I wanted it, it was in reply to a mate who sent me a Dune parody:

It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the Beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

To which I responded:

Beer is the mind-killer.
Beer is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my beer.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
When the beer has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Webring Galore
Gotten approval from the Happy Homo Webring which is described as "Websites with great links for the gay, lesbian, bi & trans community." So there!

This is all there is
I recently learned from a fan (may I call you a fan?) that he didn't know if he could share this URL http://www.rbgilbert.com/log/ronslog.html with friends because he thought this site was still in beta! Well sorry, this is as good as it gets! Please embarrass me and yourself and bore your friends by sending them this URL.

Queer As Folk
Here's a good column from Mubarak Dahir regarding the meaty issues of QAF.

Grow Your Brain
There was a year back in the '80s when I had a Word-Of-The-Day calendar that was really good! There were words on there I didn't know! I think it was published by Merriam-Webster. Since then I have not found any so good. But a few months ago I found a couple of on-line WOTD subscriptions, and the one run by Merriam-Webster is really paying off. I've kept copies of the words new to me so I could share them with you darlings. Run down 'em here and feel either educated or smug, your choice.

cachinnate \KAK-uh-nayt\ (verb)

• to laugh loudly or immoderately

Example sentence:
Lila thought ill of the Dowager Whitten, due to the elderly lady's embarrassing habit of publically cachinnating at statements which Lila didn't find particularly funny.

Did you know?
"Cachinnate" has been whooping it up in English since the 19th century. It is from the Latin "cachinnare," meaning "to laugh loudly," and "cachinnare" was likely coined in imitation of a loud laugh. As such, "cachinnare" is like the Old English "ceahhetan," the Old High German "kachazzen," and the Greek "kachazein" -- all words of imitative origin that essentially meant "to laugh loudly."

• of or relating to prophesy

Example sentence:
It didn't require any special fatidic powers to foresee that Yolanda would succeed in making a go of her new business, since she'd already proven herself a successful entrepreneur.

Did you know?
As you might guess, "fatidic" is a relative of the word "fate." Both terms descend from the Latin "fatum" -- literally, "what has been spoken." In the eyes of the ancients, your fate was out of your hands -- what happened to you was up to gods and demigods. Predicting your fate was a job for oracles and prophets. Not surprisingly, "fatidic" also shares an ancestor with the word "predict." Both words trace to the Latin "dicere," which means "to say."

• understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary

Example sentence:
One biographer clearly felt Babe Ruth was best described by litotes, calling his 60 home runs in 1927 "no small accomplishment" and his lifetime batting average of .342 "nothing to sneeze at."

Did you know?
Even if you've never heard of litotes, chances are you've encountered this figure of speech. If you've ever approved of a job well done by exclaiming "Not bad!" or told someone you're "not unhappy" with your job, you've even used it yourself. In fact, you might say that it would be "no mean feat" to avoid this common feature of our language! And litotes isn't only common; it's also "simple" -- etymologically speaking, that is. "Litotes" evolved from a Greek word meaning "simple," and perhaps ultimately from another Greek word meaning "linen cloth."

• a banner, symbol, or ideal inspiring devotion or courage

Example sentence:
The retired jersey of the basketball star served as an oriflamme, inspiring the current team members to their best performances.

Did you know?
The original "oriflamme" was the banner of Saint Denis, the patron saint of France. The word derives from the Latin "aurea flamma," meaning "golden flame," presumably because of the banner's red or orange-red coloring. In the 12th century, French kings began carrying this banner into battle as a way of inspiring their troops. This tactic met with such success that by the 17th century, "oriflamme" came to refer to any group's rallying symbol.

• ostentatiously learned : pedantic

Example sentence:
Professor Fastuous peppered his lectures with inkhorn terms of pseudo-Latin and Greek, a practice he felt essential to instilling in his students the proper respect for his knowledge.

Did you know?
Picture the ancient scribe, pen in hand, a small ink bottle made from an animal's horn strapped to the belt, ready to record the great events of history. In 14th-century English, such ink bottles were dubbed (logically) "inkhorns." At that time, learned writers often used Latin and Greek, eschewing vulgar tongues like English, but in the 16th century, British pride and wars throughout Europe prompted many to favor the "plainnesse" of native terms over Latinate forms. Those who favored English branded what they considered ostentatious Latinisms as "inkhorn terms" after the bottles carried by scholars, and since then we have used "inkhorn" as an adjective for any pretentious scholarship.

• intellectually servile

Example sentence:
The teacher preferred those students who formed their own opinions over the sequacious followers who merely echoed her own ideas.

Did you know?
"Sequacious" is formed from the Latin "sequac-," or "sequax," (which means "inclined to follow" and comes from "sequi," "to follow") and the English "-ious." The original and now archaic meaning of "sequacious" was "inclined to follow" or "subservient, tractable." Although that meaning might as easily describe someone who willingly dropped into line behind a war leader, or who was unusually compliant or obedient in any sense, the concept gradually narrowed into the image of someone who blindly adopts another's ideas without much thought. Labeling a person "sequacious" is not very complimentary, and implies a slavish willingness to adopt a thought or opinion. It is also possible to accuse someone of "sequacity," but that would be equally unkind.

• a private showing or preview of an art exhibition

Example sentence:
"'What is this?' I asked in primitive French. 'Why are they giving out free drinks?' 'It is a vernissage,' he told me gently.... It was clear he had found a rare specimen at a Paris opening: someone who had never heard of a vernissage." (Peter Lennon, The (London) Independent, April 21, 1994)

Did you know?
"Vernissage" has its roots in the old practice of setting aside a day before an exhibition's opening for artists to varnish and put finishing touches to their paintings -- a tradition that reportedly dates to at least 1809, when it was instituted by England's Royal Academy of Arts. (One famous member of the Academy, Joseph Mallord William Turner, was notorious for making major changes to his paintings on this day.) English speakers originally referred to this day of finishing touches simply as "varnishing day," but sometime around 1912 we also began using the French term "vernissage" (literally, "varnishing"). Today, however, you are more likely to encounter vino than varnish at a vernissage, which is often a gala event marking the opening of an exhibition.

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The other WOTD list is from www.yourdictionary.com. It's not as productive. Here's the one new word it sent me:

Synecdoche [sin-'ek-dê-kee or sên-'ek-dê-kee] (Noun)

• Metaphorical technique of naming a specific part when referring to the whole, or, conversely, naming the whole to indicate a part.

A literary term for a habit that is ubiquitous in common speech.

Suggested Usage: A good football receiver might be called "Hands." Indeed, "All hands on deck!" presupposes an entire sailor will bring them up. When you hear someone say "the (big-) mouth knows everything" referring to someone who talks a lot, that is synecdoche. On the other hand, "The law is after him" implies a part of the law is looking for him--only the police.

Another Webring
I've got a link to the "One Percent" webring down below. This webring describes itself as being for those who actually WRITE their web logs.

More Amtrak
Go look at Amtrak's website. Do you find any mention of the Acela there? I didn't when I last checked. A search turns up only press releases, all of which were from before December 2000. I complained to them (via e-mail) and they wrote back! They told me all of the Acela stuff is at www.acela.com, and so it is! But don't you think one teensy weensy link on the Amtrak site would have helped?

I wrote to the same address asking how to link up my Acela ticket with my "Guest Rewards" (AKAK, "frequent flier") miles. They haven't answered that one yet, and I think it's a bit more important.

I was at South Station to watch the arrival of the first regular paying-passenger-carrying Acela on the 11th. It was 10 minutes late, and has nice brakes. I'll post a photo here when I get them back.

Another Page
I've been working on another bike-related page for this website. That's a partial explanation for why no postings here for so long.

Air Glide
Here is the Air Glide by Bike Friday.

Click for a bigger pic

It's a touring bike, if you can believe that. I found it hard to believe. And I was frustrated that the Bike Friday website shows no pictures of it fully loaded for touring. Fortunately, I was able to get info from a bunch of other Air Glide owners, including this picture:

Click for full size

Helluva lot of bungee just to carry what looks like a foot long piece of 2x4, but never underestimate the insanity of a cyclist. Click here for a picture of a more fully-loaded one (on the left) along with a cousin bike called the "Pocket Llama" (on the right). Or better, go here to check out what this guy Jym has to say about Bike Fridays and biking and stuff.

Essential Bike Gear

Click here to find out what this marvelous stuff is!