Thought for the day.

[WikiWill]

Hey youse all, stop polluting this thread, I'm looking for my daily inspiration!  biggrin

[Vajras]

WW... here's one just for you - "People in glass houses...."

[veebee]

WW... here's one just for you - "People in glass houses...."

.... shouldn't get stoned.     

[Cruncher Pete]

Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream...


Word for the day:

solace (verb) to comfort or console, alleviate, soothe.

[Cruncher Pete]

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another...


Word for the day:

temperance (verb) moderation or restraint in feelings and behaviour, self-restraint, constraint.

[Cruncher Pete]

Man stands for long time with mouth open before roast duck flies in...


Word for the day:

diverge (verb) to move in a different direction, branch off, separate.

[Cruncher Pete]

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday...

Word for the day:

procrastinate (verb) to put off, to delay, dawdle, drag, linger.

[WikiWill]

Word for the day:
procrastinate (verb) to put off, to delay, dawdle, drag, linger.

Just what I don't need on a day I decided to work from home  biggrin

[Cruncher Pete]

Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith. -Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet (1792-1822)


Word for the Day:

hermetic

PRONUNCIATION:
(huhr-MET-ik) 

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Airtight.
2. Not affected by outside influence.
3. Relating to the occult sciences, especially alchemy; magical.
4. Obscure or hard to understand.


ETYMOLOGY:
From the belief that Hermes Trismegistus invented a seal to keep a vessel airtight in alchemy. Who was Hermes Trismegistus? It was the name of a legendary figure that Greek neo-Platonists thought was a blend of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Trismegistos is Greek for thrice-greatest, from tris (thrice) + megistos (greatest), ultimately from the Indo-European root meg- (great) that's also the source of words such as magnificent, maharajah, mahatma, master, mayor, maestro, magnate, magistrate, maximum, and magnify.
Another word coined after Hermes is hermeneutic meaning interpretive or explanatory.


USAGE:
"So far, however, the net increase in accessibility and therefore accountability is welcome and popular compared to the hermetic secrecy and executive authoritarianism of the Bush administration."
Obama Makes An Early Impression; The Irish Times (Dublin); Mar 27, 2009.

[Cruncher Pete]

 
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose. -Madame Anne Sophie Swetchine, mystic (1782-1857)    


WORD FOR THE DAY:

Cadmean Victory

PRONUNCIATION:
(kad-MEE-uhn VIK-tuh-ree)

MEANING:
noun: A victory won at as great a cost to the victor as to the vanquished.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Cadmus, a Phoenician prince in Greek mythology who introduced writing to the Greeks and founded the city of Thebes. Near the site where Cadmus was to build Thebes he encountered a dragon. Even though he managed to kill the dragon, only five of his comrades survived, with whom he founded the city. Other words coined after him are calamine (a pink powder used in skin lotions), from Latin calamina, from Greek kadmeia ge (Cadmean earth) and the name of the chemical element cadmium.
A similar eponym is Pyrrhic victory.

USAGE:
"In the real world, governed equally by the market and natural economies, humanity is in a final struggle with the rest of life. If it presses on, it will win a Cadmean victory, in which first the biosphere loses, then humanity."
Edward O. Wilson; The Future of Life; Knopf; 2002.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice - that is, until we have stopped saying 'It got lost,' and say, 'I lost it.' -Sydney J. Harris, journalist (1917-1986)

A WORD FOR THE DAY:
Pickwickian

PRONUNCIATION:
(pik-WIK-ee-uhn)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Marked by generosity, naivete, or innocence.
2. Not intended to be taken in a literal sense.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Samuel Pickwick, a character in the novel Pickwick Papers (serialized 1836-1837) by Charles Dickens. Mr Pickwick is known for his simplicity and kindness. In the novel Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Blotton call each other names and it appears later that they were using the offensive words only in a Pickwickian sense and had the highest regard for each other.
Another term that arose from the book is Pickwickian syndrome, which refers to a combination of interlinked symptoms such as extreme obesity, shallow breathing, tiredness, sleepiness, etc. The character with these symptoms was not Mr. Pickwick, but Fat Joe, so the term is really coined after the book's title. The medical term for the condition is obesity-hypoventilation syndrome.

USAGE:
"I kept a happiness diary, after the discovery by Professor Sonia Lyubomirsky that collating one's daily blessings resulted in Pickwickian good cheer."
Hannah Betts; The Pursuit of Happiness is Driving Me to Despair; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Apr 3, 2009.

"Mr. Tribe: Now, anybody reading that would realize that's a deadline only in a kind of Pickwickian sense. It's not a real deadline."
A Transcript of Arguments in the Supreme Court Over the Florida Recount; The New York Times; Dec 2, 2000.

"A Pickwickian chairman, rosy-cheeked, in frock coat and old-fashioned cravat, adopted the role of Santa Claus."
Mungo MacCallum; Growing Up: The Day Had Come; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jan 21, 1987

[Cruncher Pete]

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." - Abraham Lincoln



WORD FOR THE DAY:
slapdash  [/color]

(adjective, adverb)
[SLAP-dash']
   

adjective

1. marked by great carelessness: "Kira was so distracted by thoughts of her new boyfriend, that her cooking had become a slapdash affair with often unpalatable results."

adverb

2. in a careless or reckless manner; 'the shelves were put up slapdash'

Origin:
Approximately 1675; from English, 'slap': directly + 'dash': to hurl or thrust violently.

In action:
"Joined by friends -- including bassist John Stirratt and drummer Ken Coomer -- Tweedy launched Wilco, and the irony embedded in the name (trucker lingo for 'will comply') expanded. First up was 'A.M.' in 1995, a catchy but by-the-numbers effort that sounds like a slapdash jam session when compared with the twangy bravura of sophomore album 'Being There,' which earned raves in 1996. Tweedy was on top, yet, Kot writes, there were days when he 'awoke hating what his life had become.' Hating his fans too: Kot recaptures a London concert at which the singer belittled the audience, embarrassing his bandmates. A critic of 'tortured-artist syndrome,' Tweedy was slouching under the weight of authentic depression, and two longtime companions -- migraines and anxiety attacks -- made things worse. He gobbled pills and kept the pain to himself. Except when he wrote.

Multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett created a sumptuous canvas for their third album, 'Summerteeth,' but Tweedy preferred sandpaper. The album, a raw and poignant near-masterpiece, features tales of murder, domestic violence, and infidelity, and its bleak commercial potential sowed tension between Wilco and its label, Reprise Records, which intensified when 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' was completed in 2001. By then Coomer was out of the band, replaced by Glenn Kotche, with whom Tweedy had formed a musical kinship not unlike the bond he once shared with Bennett, who was next on the chopping block. Kot doesn't sugarcoat Tweedy's behavior, particularly the astounding cowardice of asking his manager to ax old pal Coomer. Each party gets time in the witness box."

Ryan Mulcahy. "Wilco' history captures a young man as tortured artist," The Boston Globe [Book Review: 'Wilco: Learning How to Die,' by Greg Kot] (August 19, 2004).

"The book's concluding chapters are without question the most revealing about the motivations of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. It is therefore disappointing that chapters 7 through 10 are not entirely well done. They are slapdash, and characterized by the amateur anti-Communism of an earlier era. These chapters seem to be written by an entirely different hand than the first part, as if by an author who is not as careful about evidence as a serious reader might wish. The change of voice and tone is striking, which is too bad, because this part is clearly the emotional heart of the Swift Vets' case.

Nevertheless, anyone who wishes to understand our era is going to have to read this book. Those who wrote it are honorable men, as are John Kerry and those who stand with him. But the issues on which the two sides are divided are vital. Some of these issues (like the Cambodia allegation) can be settled by checking objective records. Some may be due to the Rashomon effect among diverse witnesses to the same events."

Michael Novak. "A Matter of Honor: Kerry made his war service an issue."The National Review (August 24, 2004).

"Pre-Games headlines predicting incomplete venues and slapdash security were laughed off as Greece, one of the smallest countries to host an Olympics, stood on the dais of a success."

Kevin Norquay. "Olympics: Games end with chief's anti-drugs message," The New Zealand Herald (August 30, 2004

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire: not too near, lest he burn; nor too far off, lest he freeze. -Diogenes, philosopher (412?-323 BCE)


A WORD FOR TODAY:
passe-partout

PRONUNCIATION:
(pas-pahr-TOO) 

MEANING:
noun:
1. Something, for example a master key, that enables unrestricted access.
2. An ornamental mat used to frame a picture.
3. An adhesive tape used to attach a picture to a mat, glass, backing, etc.


ETYMOLOGY:
From French, literally, passes everywhere, from passer (to pass) + partout (everywhere), from par (through) + tout (all).


USAGE:
"Francesco Isolabella, one of her lawyers, said, 'Marion True is being used as an excuse to criminalize all American museums.' Ms. True should not be used 'as a passe-partout to get at the Getty.'"
Elisabetta Povoledo; Casting Blame for Looting In Trial of Getty Ex-Curator; The New York Times; Jan 18, 2007.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Poetry, indeed, cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

A Word  FOR TODAY:
tranche

PRONUNCIATION:
(transh) 

MEANING:
noun: A portion, especially of money, investment, etc.


ETYMOLOGY:
From French tranche (slice), from trancher (to cut).


USAGE:
"Some of the banks, including Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank, have already received the first tranche of capital."
Mergers of Public Sector Banks Favoured; Business Standard (Mumbai, India); Mar 31, 2009.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success. -Madame Anne Sophie Swetchine, mystic (1782-185

A WORD FOR TODAY:
beau monde

PRONUNCIATION:
(BO mond)

MEANING:
noun: The world of fashion; high society.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French, literally, fine world.

USAGE:
"The wealthy can be entertainingly absurd, as in Hannah Greig's enjoyable account of the struggles of the Countess of Strafford to be accepted as a leader of London's beau monde in the early 18th century."
John Mullan; Vex'd by Wallpaper; The Guardian (London, UK); Aug 18, 2007.