Things the Hooverville Hexagon Saw Today

 

 

Editor's Movie Recommendation

 

We watched Project Hail Mary last night.

Best scifi script in forty years.

13/10, would recommend.

 

Famous People Out & About

 

I asked the writers to send photos of what they were doing this weekend. Robbie Stamp sent this selfie with this guy he ran into. From what I hear, he and Peter Gabriel discussed Life, the Universe, and Everything, which is as it should be. Carry on, froods.

 

A Thing of Beauty

Is a Joy Forever

 

Tavaron found this in her garden. Naturally.

 

 

Vocabulary Notes

 

Or, not all phrasal verbs are bad ideas.

 

Like the late bard Nanci Griffith, I was a child of the Sixties.  I know, I know: y'all are all busy trying to forget us faster than we can get off the stage. But in addition to what increasingly appear to have been our futile attempts to create a bit more breathing space for the meek of the Earth, we also contributed a fair number of neologisms to the language we're all using to talk to each other.

 

Yeah, I know: that other lost generation, the one in the Twenties? Made up a lot of words. Most of them are considered quaint and cute these days: phrases like cat's pyjamas do not exactly roll trippingly off the tongue. But try these on for size.

 

Turn on: as a verb, or hyphenated as a noun. Don't tell me you haven't used it. Beyonce turns me on. The news isn't exactly a turn-on these days.  And yes, Professor Leary used to advise people to turn on, tune in, and drop out. You don't have to go that far. But you're still using the phrase.

 

Rip off:  Yes, we were getting our phrasal verbs from the criminal underworld. That phrase goes all the way back to 1904 prison slang. And yes, Abby Hoffman said, Free speech is the right to shout 'theater' in a crowded fire. (Steal This Book) But a lot of the allegedly brilliant ideologies you're seeing in public discourse these days? It's all a rip-off, brother.

 

One more, then I'll quit.

 

Cop out: Jack Kerouac probably popularised this one. But for sheer volume of public demonstrations of copping out, we'd have to wait for the 2020s, eh?

 

I have more on my little list, and I'll come back at you with them from time to time, but in the meantime, don't say those hippie freaks didn't give you anything. And try to be a little less temporally provincial, won't you?

 

It's a Sign

 

50 Pfennig to use the toilet: 70 Pfennig if you wash your hands?

Caiman Raptor Elk is camping in Germany again.

He wrote: The sign is a bit aged, because we have left that currency behind us for quite a while. 

Me: Never mind that; this is an alarming approach to hygiene. And in Germany, no less.

Video of the Day

 

Hausmaus, by Tavaron

Tavaron: This is the same mouse in my house. Again. I recognised it from the hole in its ear.

Me: Why doesn't your cat catch it?

Tavaron: The cat seems to be of the opinion that if it is inside of the house it is not her business.

 

cu l8ter, Dmitri Gheorgheni, Editor