Knobby Knees
[ No Comments ] Posted on 04.15.04 in linkage, random
Sort of like the white Tom Willis, this is my token post because it’s been about a week; I reinstalled Windows last weekend, so I had to reinstall all my programs and haven’t had much spare time.
You know what’s really amazing? Doorknobs. I was thinking the other day about how cool they are. Think about it: you turn a knob and, somehow, through a complex and interconnected series of gears and metal mechanisms, a little piece of metal moves so we can open the door. As if that were enough, you can lock the door. Just a flick of the wrist and you’re protected against intrusion. Which, incidentally, brings me to hinges. What genius figured that if you put two pieces of metal together you can move a giant slab of wood? Whoever he was, God bless him.
I just typed 102 words about the wonders of doors. Perhaps this is why I haven’t been posting much… When something worthwhile happens I should be sure to post it.
-Casey
Anger Management
[ No Comments ] Posted on 04.08.04 in pictures, random
Death to Blinky
Bologna
[ 2 Comments ] Posted on 04.06.04 in bad grammar, random
Merriam Webster defines it as “a large smoked sausage of beef, veal, and pork; also : a sausage made (as of turkey) to resemble bologna.” And I would agree – its bologna.
But it’s pronounced “baloney.” Come to think of it, Merriam Webster also defines such a word in that whimsical book of theirs: “pretentious nonsense : BUNKUM — often used as a generalized expression of disagreement.”
So, what we have on our hands here are two different words! Up until five minutes ago, I thought it was “bologna” in all contexts. Like, for example, when that Flick character on A Christmas Story argues with Shwartz about the notion that his tongue would stick to the flagpole, he cries (phonetically), “BALL-OH-NEE!” For sixteen years I always thought it would have to have been written “bologna” in the script, and for sixteen years I thought that such a spelling would be outrageously aesthetically unpleasing. Now I have been shown the light.
But what about other uses of bologna, not necessarily relating to pretentious nonsense? Admit it, it’s a funny word, but you’re telling me, Mr. Webster, that I’m supposed to spell it like you say even when I know full well that’s not how it sounds? When one uses the word “bologna” in somewhat humorous ways, I find that it takes away from the comedy when one spells it as if it were a deli meat.
So, here I am, submitting that whenever we aren’t talking about meat or a city in Italy, we spell it “baloney.”
QED