R is for two charming words to call not-so-charming people...

Not much time to post today, I've been having too much fun playing with the Merriam-Webster online top ten lists.  

Some of my favourites include:

Words For Things You Didn't Know Have Names (What's a PHILTRUM?)

Top 10 Words with Bizarre Meanings (SPANGHEW?)

Strange Words for Body Functions (MICTURATE?)

The user-submittted lists are also mostly hilarious (SLACKTIVISM - "(noun) : activism (such as signing an online petition) that requires very little commitment or action"). 

Of course none of these begin with R, but I was pleased to find two entries in the 'Top 10 Charming Words for Nasty People' list that do.  

#1: Ruffian

Definition: a brutal person; bully Examples: "'You try me too much. A ruffian – a common brawling ruffian – that's what you have become.'" – Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World, 1912 "Tintin always moves (unless he's been knocked out by some ruffian). Motion is his appeal and the reason Steven Spielberg's representation rings true." – Matt Easton, The Michigan Daily, January 4, 2012 About the Word: Ruffians specialize in roughness, and between the 16th and 18th centuries, they were also synonymous with pimps – men who solicit clients for prostitutes.

#4: Rapscallion

Definition: rascal; an idle worthless person Examples: "The devil fetch ye, ye ragamuffin rapscallions; ye are all asleep. Stop snoring, ye sleepers, and pull." – Herman Melville,Moby Dick, 1851 "In his personal life [Christopher Hitchens] was no less the 'rapscallion iconoclast,' as historian Douglas Brinkley once described him. He left his pregnant first wife for another woman." – Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2011 About the Word: There are no scallions in rapscallion. Rapscallion is an alteration of rascallion, which is itself an irregular formation of rascal, a term born in Old French. Finally, one to get you through the weekend that I have long known to be true: Top 10 Latin Words to Live By #2: In Vino Veritas What It Means: "there is truth in wine" Where It Comes From: It has long been obvious that alcohol can cause people to say things they otherwise wouldn't. In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder referred to the "common proverb that in wine, there is truth [in vino veritas]."

Onya, Pliny.  

Q is for Quiet please. The dogs are reading.

Think about a library.

Go on.

Is the image in your head like this?  If it is, you might like to spend a little more time outside.  

You've probably got an image in your head that looks something like this:

I'll bet my bottom that no-one pictured this:

Caber the Great Dane and her reading buddy, Marissa.  Source: www.whatsonthorold.com

Someone let the dogs out...they're in the library! 

Check out this gorgeous article about kids reading to dogs in the Tell Tails Reading Program.   

Because, dogs are "non-judgmental listeners."

One of the kids says this about the popularity of the program: “It’s fun because it’s easier to read to dogs than humans. They don’t interrupt, unless they bark because they have to go to the bathroom.”

I'll leave you with that.  I'm off to find the dog and read him some of my work in progress.  Hope he's liberal-minded.  And that he's been to the bathroom.  

So please be quiet.  The canines are reading.  

P is for Pinterest

So.

I'm on Pinterest.  Are you?  

From what I understand, I'm a fairly visual person, so I've been gathering stuff to a board for my current WIP, which is currently (this is the third new title, because I have the attention span of a stick-insect), called Break at the Bend.  

It's about an uptight research scientist called Audrey, a cranky ghost looking for his killer, a dopey Great Dane called Genevieve, an English teacher who has some serious Jude Law going on, and Edie, Audrey's crocheting great-aunt who is conducting dubious business transactions with undesirables at all hours.  

Here are some of the pictures I've collated:

O is for...many things

I've been waiting very patiently for something marvellously profound (and hopefully, beginning with O) to fall into my brain since I last posted.  It appears my brain has either fallen out, combusted or possibly just stopped functioning.  (Did it ever?  Haha.  Quiet there in back.), because here it is a week later and I got nothing.

So, I went where any decent geeky technology fanboy would go.  TO THE INTERNET!

I typed in, "O is for."

And this is what was at the top of twenty-five gazillion results:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Oisfor.shtml

You get your Obama, Barack J:

And your oil (it's a greasy liquid):

Let's not forget the obtuse angle:

The okapi (a nocturnal, giraffe-like mammal from African Rainforests):

Or the very wonderful oropendola (in this case, the crested one, although it appears to be crestless).  It makes long, pendulous nests, which I would truly like to see:

Had enough O yet?  I DIDN'T THINK SO!

Guess these beauties:

Yes, that's the very fallic obelisk, olive, overalls (because very small boy does not start with O), oar (because spoon starts with S), our (This is our beach ball.  We share it.  We also share drugs), origami (got that one, surely?).

And my two favourites:  old people, and ogre.  Bet you didn't know that ogres actually look like crustaceous gingerbread men.

Well now you do.

In writing news, things are going well, I'm over my word count target for March.  Yay, me.  I also have just finished reading Tawna Fenske's Believe it or Not, which was fabulous.

I'm off to see what P is for...

N is for Nothing, or at least Not much.

Guess what I've got for you this week?

Yup.

Nothing.

It was my birthday at the weekend (I can usually be found shouting that from the rooftops a few weeks prior.  Not sure what happened this year.  Life, I suppose), so I've spent a good part of the week in a flurry of wrapping paper, cheese knives, wine corks and kisses.

It's been marvellous.

There were a number of highlights--Sparky, who may have noted my technology obsession--got me some new gadgetry to play with.  Love it.

Also, I lunched nearby at The Lane, which is a completely gorgeous thing.  Stunning food, beautiful scenery, luscious wines, great company.  I was in heaven.

Here's a teaser pic of my favourite red wine, Reunion Shiraz, off The Lane's website:

Nom nom.  I was lucky enough to try the '09 on Friday.  It was different, but no less lovely.

Since I have nothing for you, how's about I talk about people who have actually done something?

One of my super-fab CP's, Anna, has blogged about Archimedes.

Eleni, one of my SARA buddies, has a very active and dynamic blog at Eleni's Taverna.

If you're still hungry for news, check out the latest SARA News blog.  Compiled by none other than moi.

M is for Mortified

You all know that Sparky and I adore our children.  Well, he does always, and I do most of  the time.

I suspect because he sees them less, that he isn't as exposed to the circus that is our children on a daily basis.

I found these posters on Flickr.  They're by Nathan Rippenberger, and the collection is titled, "Things I Have Said To My Children."

They are startlingly, scarily accurate.  Except, our giant inflatable penguin is called Mawson, so I used 'Mawson' instead of 'Penguin'.

Also, we don't have a cat door, but we do have a snorkel.  And a cat.  Two, in fact.

It's true, too, I won't hold a conversation with anyone who is naked (there are a few rare exceptions to this rule, but the offspring should be at least partially clothed).

Just YESTERDAY I had to ask Anarchy to stop licking my arm.  I didn't addend, because "that's what weird kids do." but you can bet your bottom I will mention it next time.  

And there WILL be a next time.  

I consider us very lucky, the offspring rarely say inappropriate things in public (Oh, there was a, "Look at that fat lady" that one time in Woolworths...), but how mortified would you be if your children came up with some of these?

Bless our mortifying, hilarious offspring.  

L is for a Little Link

SARA writing buddy, Eleni Konstantine, is flashing her fiction over at Antipodean SF.

Go and check out her STRANGE BREW.

And because L is also for Laugh, I'll leave you with this: