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Post by Phalon on Dec 15, 2007 0:13:34 GMT -6
Two hundred birds!!!!! Oh, what a fowl, fowl mess that'd be! BOLL at myself....I never sat down and actually figured it out; actually, I never looked at it as an accumulative gift-giving type thing, getting the same thing each day, in addition to a new flock of items.
But you're right....I suppose; I didn't do the math. Except for one feathered thing, which is the thing I was thinking about when I posed the question.
It's a literal meaning versus the true meaning type thing; the sort of tricky part of the question. Ever wonder why there's a bunch of birds, a handful of rings, and various jumping, leaping, and milking folks all being given to whoever is lucky enough to get such a menagerie? One of these things is not like the others; one of these things just doesn't belong.....
....the five golden rings. Everything else is living, and then there's a gold ring for every finger; inanimate objects that don't leap, jump, milk, or have feathers.
Or do they? The golden rings are actually ring-necked pheasants, and were meant to be part of a feast, as were all the other birds in the song, except possibly the swans....they were probably ice sculptures used to decorate the table which this fowl feast was laid upon. All those lords, ladies, maids, and whoever else was there were most likely plenty hungry from all that leaping, dancing, milking and whatever else was going on.
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ubernut
Whooshite Apprentice
Posts: 104
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Post by ubernut on Dec 15, 2007 0:27:22 GMT -6
One of these things is not like the others; one of these things just doesn't belong..... ....the five golden rings. Everything else is living, and then there's a gold ring for every finger; inanimate objects that don't leap, jump, milk, or have feathers. You know, I did use to wonder that (I've always loved this song, partly cuz it's really easy to remember the lyrics, and to figure out the tune on the violin, cuz it repeats). That makes sense. Yay! Actually, the swans could be marzipan, and that's why they're the last of the feast items mentioned, because they're the dessert? Why is the patridge in a pear tree? also a sculpture?
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Post by Phalon on Dec 15, 2007 0:43:07 GMT -6
Glazed partridge in pear sauce?
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ubernut
Whooshite Apprentice
Posts: 104
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Post by ubernut on Dec 15, 2007 0:46:47 GMT -6
heh. This is so the wrong discussion for the vegetarian...
that makes sense
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Post by Phalon on Dec 18, 2007 0:19:35 GMT -6
Here's one that's as pretty as its meaning.
Mel-lif-lu-ous 1.) having a smooth rich flow, (a voice). 2.) filled with something (as honey) that sweetens. mellifluent, mellifluously, mellifluousness
(that last one is a mellifluous mouthful)
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Dec 18, 2007 0:21:53 GMT -6
OOOOH....chocolate truffles
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ubernut
Whooshite Apprentice
Posts: 104
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Post by ubernut on Dec 18, 2007 0:55:52 GMT -6
Oh, I've always loved "mellifluous"! (shame I never use it)
Sagacious ~ adj. Having or showing keen discernment, sound judgment, and farsightedness.
discombobulate (old fave of mine) ~ to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate
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Post by Phalon on Dec 28, 2007 8:14:35 GMT -6
This has come up again - it's the season for it. Toboggans: Sleds or Hats?
I grew up knowing toboggans as long, runner-less sleds with the curly front. Oh! How much fun we had on ours, Dad on the bottom and all of us piled on top!
To Hubs, toboggans are hats. I've had the sled vs. hat conversation with many a Southerner before, though no one seems to agree on exactly what type of hat a toboggan is.
And how do you spell it, anyway - tobaggon, or toboggan? Spell-check here lists both; Webster's only toboggan....they also list "tobogganist", which is a fun word. No mention of hats, those wearing hats, or those knitting hats, (tobogganists?). "Toboggan" is the sled, and "tobaggon" the hat, maybe? Or perhaps the spelling is a regional thing also?
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Dec 28, 2007 12:12:01 GMT -6
Hats? Ok I thought a tobbagan was a long almost enclosed sled type thing....
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Post by Phalon on Jan 13, 2008 8:09:51 GMT -6
Snow ride, tuque it easy. Snow ride, tuque it sleazy.
Remember that song by Foghat, Snow Ride? Most people don't know it was written as an ode to the toboggan.
Yep, this off-tophat is stuck in my head....or on my head, if toboggan hats are what we're talking about, so I can't leave it unfinished. Neither can I just leave Scrappy thinking for the rest of her days, that a toboggan is an enclosed capsule. Those are called "cells", Poppet, and what one ends up in if one sleighs another. Or a "bobsled"..."bobsleigh" is appropriate too, if you've done the crime; poor Bob - some say he deserved it, but underneath it all, I thought he was a good guy. Maybe he just had me snowed.
But a toboggan is not enclosed; it lets it all hang out. It's made of wooden planks, and is flat except for the front, which is curled like one half of a handle-bar mustache or an elf's shoe. It has no runners on the bottom, except possibly the squished ones who could not get out of the way quickly enough. Toboggan's are fast. At toboggan races crowds gather to ring cowbells, and hoot and holler for the soon-to-be crowned champion. They raise their glass in toast, (I prefer rye with peanut butter):
"To-Boggan! To-Boggan! We love ya, Toboggan!"
The winner's crown, of course, is a toboggan. Wikipedia cleared that up for me:
"In Southern American English and Midwestern American English, toboggan can also refer to the type of hat. This is sometimes shortened to boggan or lengthened to boggan cap. This type of hat is more commonly referred to by other names: knit hat or knit cap, sock cap or stocking cap, watch cap, tuque, skull cap or sometimes as a ski cap.......The term toboggan referring to a hat is widely unknown in the northern and western United States.
And that explains that. I never heard the word "toboggan" referring to a hat in my pre-Hubs days, cuz that was before North Met South in my life. I did however, hear of "tuque" early on, when North Met Further North, and I, for one weekend of snowy teenaged bliss, hung out with a Canadian hunk in a tuque during a highschool ski weekend. He never did give me those "Five Golden Tuques" though, that Bob and Doug Mckenzie sang of in their version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". I guess it wasn't true love.
Only one thing left to explain....the variation of the word "Tobaggon". A two-minute drill showed results for only retailers....those selling tobaggon hats or tobaggons.....or misspelled toboggons.
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Post by Siren on Jan 13, 2008 22:58:03 GMT -6
Hubs has Okie compatriots, Gams. My folks call winter hats "toboggans", too.
Just for you, Gams: the menu for dinner at my mom's house tonight - fried chicken, home-grown green beans (seasoned with bacon drippings), corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, and, for dessert, yellow cake with 7-minute icing. Delish!
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Post by Phalon on Jan 14, 2008 0:15:05 GMT -6
Oh, Siren! Such beautiful, beautiful mouth-watering words!!!
That post takes the yellow cake with seven-minute icing of this whole thread as the best ever. Mmmmmm.
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Post by Siren on Jan 14, 2008 22:12:25 GMT -6
Lol! I thought you'd like that. My sis, GG, made the 7-minute icing. As she says, "It's a pain in the *ss, but it's worth it."
Here's a word that's interesting because of its origin:
tan·ta·lize (tnt-lz) To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach. [From Latin Tantalus, Tantalus; see Tantalus.]
According to Encyclopedia Mythica, here's the story on Tantalus:
Tantalus was the son of Zeus and was the king of Sipylos. He was uniquely favored among mortals since he was invited to share the food of the gods. However, he abused the guest-host relationship and was punished by being "tantalized" with hunger and thirst in Tartarus: he was immersed up to his neck in water, but when he bent to drink, it all drained away; luscious fruit hung on trees above him, but when he reached for it the winds blew the branches beyond his reach.
There are differing stories about what Tantalus' crime was. One account says that he tried to share the divine ambrosia with other mortals, and thus aroused the ire of the gods. A more famous account says that he invited the gods to a banquet and served them the dismembered body of his own son, Pelops; when the gods discovered the trick, they punished Tantalus and restored Pelops to life, replacing with ivory a part of the shoulder which had been eaten by Demeter.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 16, 2008 23:58:47 GMT -6
Sheesh! That Demeater...or in this case, Demeatereater...she'll eat anything.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Jan 17, 2008 0:19:37 GMT -6
Does that have anything to do with the phrase "chip on his shoulder"?
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Post by Phalon on Jan 17, 2008 0:53:11 GMT -6
And, if so, is it served with fish in Tartarus sauce?
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Post by Siren on Jan 24, 2008 23:08:00 GMT -6
I don't know how I overlooked this profusion of punishing puns till now. BOLL!
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Post by Phalon on Jan 26, 2008 22:02:58 GMT -6
What? Your punctuality was lacking in reading those pungently punishing puns? Pfft. Lucky you!
Have you ever walked into a page mid-paragraph, and wondered what exactly was being said?
I was reading the other day, and kept getting interrupted by this and that - this being LX, and that being BP. Then there was the other thing, which was Hubs, of course. When I finally returned to the book, I'd forgotten where I'd left off on the page, and actually had little grasp of what I had read before I finally gave up and set the book down.
I skimmed the page, trying to recall where it was exactly that I'd lost any idea of what I was reading, and landed on this sentence:
"To provide the unlikely detail that lends verisimilitude to a lie, he gave the man a mutilated right hand."
What an odd thing - to give a man a mutilated hand, whether it be right, or left!
The sentence cracked me up, taken out of context. The hand-giver was telling a tall tale, and to make it more believable, and his character more malevolent, (cuz that's the type tale it was - or else he might have given him a manicured right hand, I suppose), he "gave the man" in his story, "a mutilated right hand."
I did have to pause in reading just once more - to look up verisimilitude.
Verisimilitude: the state of being verisimilar, (that tells me a lot).
Verisimilar: having the appearance of truth: probable. depicting realism.
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Post by Siren on Jan 29, 2008 9:08:31 GMT -6
I've seen the word verisimilitude before, but had never looked it up. Thanks for doing the work!
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Post by Siren on Jan 30, 2008 23:11:47 GMT -6
This one came up today in a workshop about FCC regulations on indecency and obscenity. Isn't the origin interesting?
TITILLATE spelled pronunciation [tit-l-eyt] –verb (used with object), -lat·ed, -lat·ing. 1. to excite or arouse agreeably: to titillate the fancy. 2. to tickle; excite a tingling or itching sensation in, as by touching or stroking lightly. [Origin: 1610–20; < L tītillātus, ptp. of tītillāre to tickle; see -ate1]
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Post by Phalon on Feb 1, 2008 7:12:14 GMT -6
The origin is interesting, Siren, but not what I would have thought. It would seem "titillates" would have sprouted from late bloomers.
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Post by Siren on Feb 2, 2008 19:52:16 GMT -6
LOL! Or, I should say, BOLL! Gabbin would be so proud.
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Post by Siren on Feb 5, 2008 10:13:13 GMT -6
This one may make you blush:
lu·bri·cious (l-brshs) also lu·bri·cous (lbr-ks) adj. 1. Having a slippery or smooth quality. 2. Shifty or tricky. 3. a. Lewd; wanton. b. Sexually stimulating; salacious. [Alteration of lubricous, from Latin lbricus, slippery; see sleubh- in Indo-European roots.]
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Post by Phalon on Feb 6, 2008 1:06:51 GMT -6
First titillate, now lubricious - which would be fun to use in conversation, except I'd probably mispronounce it. BOLL, Siren - I've got to wonder what you've been reading.
How about this one? It came from a book I read a while back - Herb n' Lorna - which was packed full of lots of juicy (no pun intended!) words, and I wrote a bunch of them down, just because they sounded fun.
"luscious concupiscence"
con-cu-pis-cence: a strong desire; especially a sexual desire. concupiscent, concupiscible
How about using "titillate", "lubricious" and "luscious concupiscence" all in one sentence? Maybe tomorrow; right now the only concupiscent thought I've got is getting myself to bed.....to sleep, of course.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Feb 6, 2008 1:30:07 GMT -6
As I tried to titilate him with my eyes while running my fingers over his lubricious skin and licking my lucious lips as concupiscent thoughts clouded my brain.
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Post by moonglum on Feb 6, 2008 11:29:19 GMT -6
That's it, I'm off for a cold shower!
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Post by Phalon on Feb 6, 2008 12:26:48 GMT -6
BOLL, Luscious Lips Poppet. Ten points for causing Moonglum to run to the shower. You may trade them in for any cheap fuzzy, yellow-tagged trinket in Section B.
It titillates me; oh, the luscious concupiscence nearly overwhelming as I dream of that first lubricious taste, silky smooth melting on my tongue.
I was at the bakery/coffee shop this morning. Chocolate cheesecake staring at me from behind the glass.
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Post by Siren on Feb 6, 2008 22:34:43 GMT -6
Lol! You two are bad. Poor MG! But he needn't go far for a cold shower. He could've just stepped outside my door yesterday.
As for the rather colorful words I've posted, I hit the jackpot when I looked at the synonyms of a particular word. Hmmm - maybe I need to read something as interesting as you're thinking, Gams!
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Post by Siren on Feb 9, 2008 0:40:43 GMT -6
How have I lived so long without coming across this word? Saw it in a Roger Ebert movie review.
Main Entry: dif·fi·dent Pronunciation: \-dənt, -ˌdent\ Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin diffident-, diffidens, present participle of diffidere to distrust, from dis- + fidere to trust — more at bide Date: 15th century
1: hesitant in acting or speaking through lack of self-confidence 2 (archaic) distrustful 3: reserved, unassertive synonyms: see shy — dif·fi·dent·ly adverb
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Post by Phalon on Feb 11, 2008 22:26:30 GMT -6
Diffident - I've never run across it either, that I can remember. But it is me, me, me when speaking to a group, and definitely if I had to say "diffident" in front of a crowd; my mouth does not make that "square" sound. Such a shapely pronunciation. How'd you do that, Siren?
I like this phrase - I like the way it sounds, and feels.
"…the spring earth is fecund and odorous; the summers are damp and languorous…” from Herb n' Lorna
And the town in which fecund and odorous springs, and damp and languorous summers come and go seasonally? Cumangetit, (come and get it)....where no doubt, the locals shop at the Cum-n-go.
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