Joke of the Week
Why shouldn't you study history?
Because there's no future in it.
Farmer Hoggett
Deep
Thought
Okay, I admit it: I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon and I'm tired out. So have this morning's poem. Like the song says, 'Take an old cold tater and wait.'
Featured
Insect
Zygaena ephialtes
Tavaron found this in her garden.
Deprecated
Buzzword of the Day
(Deprecated by me, anyway.)
Iconic:
What's wrong with 'iconic', you ask? Most people use it belligerently when
they talk to me – and, as I believe Mandy Patinkin said to Wally Shawn [in an 'iconic'
movie], 'I don't think that word means what you think it does.' Look it up. I'm going to ask Merriam-Webster.
Among other reasons, Merriam-Webster doesn't ask you for money. Or post snarky
pop-ups like the German one that said Gratuliere, dein Adblocker
funktioniert. (The page refused to display if you didn't disable your ad blocker, so I
don't know how clever the rest of it was.)
Definition
#1 is: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an icon. This is
helpful. So: The accessible parking sign is iconic. Good enough.
Definition
#2a is: widely recognized and well-established. So, Otto Waalkes is an
iconic comedian. At least, if you're familiar with German comedy. One
person's icon is another person's 'who'?
Definition
2b is: widely known and acknowledged especially for distinctive excellence.
Aha: this is the one you probably meant when you told me So-and-So was
'iconic'. Although what you probably meant wasn't really in the dictionary,
because what I suspect you meant was, 'This person made several quadrillion
dollars/euros/rupees/Triganic Pus last year and got megaquantities of hits on
their website, so they are much more important than you.'
As
Merriam-Webster remarks, '. . . iconic has become part of the
language of advertising and publicity: companies and magazines and TV hosts
encourage us to think of some consumer item or pop star or show as first-rate
or immortal or flawless. . . when that person or thing is actually simply
widely known.'
It's
a Sign
Seen in a London park: Beware of illegal
ice cream vans!
No prices displayed.
(Whew, we thought they were space aliens
or something.)
Video
of the Day
Ellie
the Cat on the Old Barn Foundation
by Mrs Hoggett
(she's a supervisor, is Ellie)
cu cool 
, Dmitri Gheorgheni, Editor
Your poem sounds like the collapse of civilisation or to quote Paul Simon 'Everything Put Together, Falls Apart (Life, The Universe, Everything)'
ReplyDeleteActually I was going to put puny-verse as more fitting with the current trend of thought and action (Paigetheoracle is going through treatment for not being around when he needs him. It's called being given a cold shoulder to cry on)
ReplyDeleteI was feeling entropic yesterday. We watched 'Project Hail Mary' and I felt better.
DeleteI remember first seeing a Zygaena ephialtes in my area, to find out it was one of the first sightings in the country.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's interesting! We have quite a lot of them in early summer.
Delete