Email: Netflix Support

Title request: A Very Fairy Christmas (TV)

Email: Knight, shining, etc. [CM]

I never mean to be complaining, only thinking out loud. I have no problem with men doing the heavy lifting; I have no problem with chivalry (holding doors, esteeming women). It gets a bit sticky when women also want to be treated as equals (which I am all for too, because women are equal to men -- and in ways better). I'm not sure everyone knows how to accomplish that balancing act -- of living in a modern age with the values we bring forth from the generations before us. And that's OK.

Email: Netflix Support

Title requests: Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular, Scary Godmother 2 (TV)

Press: Sneeze-free kittens not for everyone - HC

(Selling living beings as "products" bodes poorly for our world, as Jeremy Rifkin has been preaching for more than 25 years.)

(Houston Chronicle) "A small California biotechnology company says it is ready to deliver the Holy Grail of the $35 billion pet industry: a hypoallergenic cat.

At the start of next year, the first kittens will go home to eager owners who have been on a waiting list for more than two years.

Allerca, of San Diego, says it has received inquiries from people in 85 countries seeking to buy a cat bred so that its glands do not produce the protein responsible for most human cat allergies."

Words: flump, flumping [AHED]

NOUN: A dull heavy sound, as of something dropped on a surface.
VERB: Inflected forms: flumped, flump·ing, flumps

INTRANSITIVE VERB: To move or fall heavily with a dull sound: flumped onto the sofa.
TRANSITIVE VERB: To place or drop with a flump.
ETYMOLOGY: Imitative.

(I'd never heard this one before. It resembles fall-like-a-lump, doesn't it? Flumping reminds me of the sound a pot of boiled red potatoes makes as I pour them already drained into my heavy clay beating bowl and the countertop resonates with thrumming, causing Twerpette to think someone is knocking at the door and sending her into a fit of barking.)

Home: Our Name Is Mud mugs

I just ran across a selection of these at Kroger ($10.50 retail, $15 direct) -- they have dozens of holiday, personal, and personalized designs!

Words: hoise, hoist, petard [MW]

Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): hoised /'hoizd /; or hoist /'hoist/; hois·ing /'hoi-zi[ng]/
Etymology: alteration of hysse to hoist, perhaps from Low German hissen
: HOIST 1
- hoist with one's own petard or hoist by one's own petard : victimized or hurt by one's own scheme

Function: verb
Etymology: alteration of hoise
transitive verb
1 : LIFT, RAISE; especially : to raise into position by or as if by means of tackle
2 : DRINK 1
intransitive verb : to become hoisted : RISE
synonym see LIFT

Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from peter to break wind, from pet expulsion of intestinal gas, from Latin peditum, from neuter of peditus, past participle of pedere to break wind; akin to Greek bdein to break wind
1 : a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall
2 : a firework that explodes with a loud report

(So petard means breachcase or far'cracker?)

Email: Netflix Support

Title request: The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (TV)

Language: Jew's harp

Words: festoon [MW]

Function: noun
Etymology: French feston, from Italian festone, from festa festival, from Latin -- more at FEAST
1 : a decorative chain or strip hanging between two points
2 : a carved, molded, or painted ornament representing a decorative chain

Function: transitive verb
1 : to hang or form festoons on
2 : to shape into festoons
3 : DECORATE, ADORN; also : COVER

Musings: Albuterol made cool

If oxygen bars are considered cool by folks who have no need for such fripperies, imagine how popular a trend could be born by offering something people could really use: Albuterol bars! Just suck on a hookah-like pipe of the antiasthmatic gas that can make you feel like you've been inhaling caffeine -- your airways will be wide-open for all the oxygen the atmosphere can throw at you, plus you'll feel peppy -- and jazzed! Doctor's prescription may be required.

Words: tragus [MW]

Etymology: New Latin, from Greek tragos, a part of the ear, literally, goat
: the prominence in front of the external opening of the outer ear

Language: hormonally safe, hormone-free

In an exchange about platonic interaction, MG coined the phrase "hormonally safe." I like that. Platonic friends can enjoy "social interaction in a hormone-free environment" -- unlike "hormone-charged, integrity-challenged settings" such as night clubs or meat markets.

Words: groundsel [MW]

Pronunciation: 'graun(d)-s&l
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English groundeswele, from Old English grundeswelge, from grund ground + swelgan to swallow -- more at SWALLOW
: any of various senecios (as the nearly cosmopolitan European weed Senecio
vulgaris)

Words: gunsel [MW]

Pronunciation: 'g&n(t)-s&l
Function: noun
Etymology: argot gunsel catamite, perhaps modification of Yiddish gendzl gosling
slang : GUNMAN

Internet: Skitt's Law

(Wikipedia) "Skitt's Law is an adage in Internet culture that originated on Usenet. Its precise wording is a matter of debate, but its general intent is that someone who corrects another's grammar or spelling mistake is bound to make such a mistake in the very post that makes the correction."

Language: just deserts [MW]

(Thanks to Nicole Stockdale of A Capital Idea)

Main Entry: de·sert
Pronunciation: di-'z&rt
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English deserte, from Anglo-French, from feminine of desert, past participle of deservir to deserve
1 : the quality or fact of deserving reward or punishment
2 : deserved reward or punishment -- usually used in plural "got their just deserts"
3 : EXCELLENCE, WORTH

Technology: Microsoft Outlook inbox corrupts at 2 GB

I was too busy Thursday and Friday to pass along this nugget, but in case you didn't know:

Do not let your Outlook inbox reach 2 GB in size.
Do not put off archiving your inbox because you're not sure if it will take your mail history offline.

The inbox archive feature will break out mail for the intervals you define and keep them online but in a separate Outlook directory. Be sure to name the archive something other than the default archive.pst (for example, try archive-062Q.pst for second-quarter 2006 missives) or each archive will overwrite your previous archive. But archive! Or your inbox will become corrupt and require running the Inbox Repair Tool, which may or may not work (requiring an inbox truncation utility if the latter). Suffice it to say my work e-mail was down for a 26-hour period. You may not deal with as many attachments as I do, but a regular archive would appear to be part of a right-living, no-worries philosophy.