The word of the day is...

Defenestration.

That's the act of throwing something (or someone) out of a window. The term originated shortly after a group of Protestants defenestrated two Catholic Imperial governors along with their scribe at Prague Castle for alleged infringements on the right to freedom of religious expression. (The somewhat obscure disclaimer "Don't defenestrate the scribe," also has its origins in this event.) The three survived for reasons disputed along religious lines: Catholics claimed that divine intervention played a part in protecting them; "Horseshit," said Protestants. Admittedly, the mental image of angels descending from heaven to mercifully guide the men in their fall from a castle window onto a large pile of horse manure is a bit pythonesque. (Which is not at all to say I find it unbelievable.)
Good times.

All lifted from wikipedia of course. Anyone else care to admit to thinking "Meh, it's a cool idea but it's not like it will really catch on," about wikipedia a couple years ago?

Overheard while waiting at a red light

"Hey, if you get hungry on the way home, I put some food in your jacket."

To whom it may concern

It turns out that "gam" is in fact slang for "leg" so I was wrong there.
Much more importantly however, it can also mean "1 : a visit or friendly conversation at sea or ashore especially between whalers [or] 2 : a school of whales." ^{(M-W online)}
You can't make this stuff up. And it can be used as a transitive or intransitive verb. I'm sure that that just goes to show you something but I have no idea what.

English Well Talking

These are real english translations of signs posted in other countries that didn't quite work out for them...

In a Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
In a hotel in Athens: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9am and 11am daily.
In a Yugoslavian hotel: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers: Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
Outside a Paris dress shop: Dresses for street walking.
In a Rhodes tailor shop: Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.
From the Soviet Weekly: There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 15,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years.
A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest: It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.
In a Zurich hotel: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
In a Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand: Would you like to ride your own ass?
On the faucet in a Finnish washroom: To stop the drip, turn cock to right.
In the window of a Swedish furrier: Fur coats made for ladies from their own skin.
Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan: Stop: Drive Sideways.
In a Bangkok temple: It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner dressed as a man.
In a Tokyo bar: Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge: Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
At a Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
In the office of a Roman doctor: Specialist in women and other diseases.
In an Acapulco hotel: The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner: Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.
From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo: When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, then tootle him with vigor.
Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
- English well talking.
- Here speeching American.


I'm off to go tootle my horn melodiously at some passengers of foot..

And I Confess to you my brothers and sisters...

That I shamelessly bribed a United States Postal Worker with peanut brittle earlier this week.

She was closing up and trying to tell me I was too late to mail a package to Phil. So I got resourceful on her ass and busted out the brittle. It worked.

Ethical Dilemma

So let's talk about plagiarism again. Here's the thing. I hate to admit this, but I really do take full advantage of the ease and reliability of wikipedia. Thing is, that's kinda sketchy when it comes to using it as a source. BUT, it has good information that supports my thesis well. So can I use that information in my paper, but cite the source they cited for that particular information instead of citing wikipedia?... is that ethical? I'm actually not looking at these books or articles at all, nor am I in any way inclined to- it's not that long of a paper. But then again.. they are legit, peer-reviewed sources they're citing and it's the same info, so why not?

Also, why am I so mortified that I use wikipedia as an information source about everything under the sun? I mean... it is the most ultimately peer-reviewed source of information there is, practically.

I should check if wikipedia addresses this issue under plagiarism...

Also, I was wondering if any of you have contributed to wikipedia or know someone who has. Just curious.

Deceit and Bogus Words

I hate to do this to family, but the truth shall be heard.

When I was reading this post by asiankp, I asked her, "Hey, KP, what's verocious? Don't you mean FERocious?" She made up some definition and threw it nonchalantly across the room at me as though it was obvious. I accepted it.

... for about 10 seconds. Then I looked into it, and "verocious" is not listed in the OED, and if you type in define verocious on a google search you get a load of crap. It's bogus.

So what's up with that, KP? Why are you lying to me and the whole intranet? You could have just told me. I would have forgiven you. You didn't have to lie about it. I mean... at least it gets its meaning across even if it isn't legit...

Speaking of Plagiarism...

That reminds me. Apparently at Cardinal Stritch if you used a paper written by yourself in another class, or even parts of it, it's considered plagiarism. You can plagiarize... yourself. So what's up with that? Can't you just cite yourself?

Oh, and I hope you guys aren't going to think I'm a dirty plagiarist when I tell you a couple of my posts have been direct quotes from journal entries and I didn't cite them. Because that thing about spiciness came from my green 3X5" spiralbound little notebook dated August 30 (Happy Bday KP!), 2007. It was an untitled entry. Sorry if any of you misunderstood and thought it was original...