Word of the day

[Bagumbawalla]

Local facilities

Amazing- I have never seen one of these before.

A suicide chamber? It senses your grief, hopelessness, emptiness and pain.
As you approach it makes itself available. Just step in and moments later you
are no more. Your government in action.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Apotheosis

Apotheosis is the glorification of a subject to divine level and most commonly, the treatment of a human like a god.
The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre. In theology,
apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature.

 

[Dedans Penthouse]

Amazing- I have never seen one of these before.

A suicide chamber? It senses your grief, hopelessness, emptiness and pain.
As you approach it makes itself available. Just step in and moments later you
are no more. Your government in action.

If you're a guitar-playing street musician it really helps with the tips when you stand on it - listeners love the cool, ascending "stairway to heaven" visuals it generates -lol

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Acedia

Acedia has been variously defined as a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with
one's position or condition in the world. In ancient Greece akidía literally meant an inert state without pain or care-

But also it is defined as spiritual or mental sloth; apathy, boredom, spiritual torpor and apathy; ennui.


And here is another take on the word- The news seems worse every day, yet we compulsively scroll through it. We get distracted by social media,
yet have a pile of books unread. We keep meaning to go outside but somehow never find the time. We’re bored, listless, afraid and uncertain.

What is this feeling?

John Cassian, a monk and theologian wrote in the early 5th century about an ancient Greek emotion called acedia. A mind “seized” by this emotion is
“horrified at where he is, disgusted with his room … It does not allow him to stay still in his cell or to devote any effort to reading”. He feels:

such bodily listlessness and yawning hunger as though he were worn by a long journey or a prolonged fast …

Next he glances about and sighs that no one is coming to see him. Constantly in and out of his cell, he looks at the sun as if it were too slow in setting.

This sounds eerily familiar. Yet, the name that so aptly describes our current state was lost to time and translation.

And from Wikipedia-

• Acedia plays an important role in the literary criticism of Walter Benjamin. In his study of baroque literature, The Origin of German Tragic Drama, Benjamin describes acedia as a moral failing, an "indolence of the heart" that ruins great men. Benjamin considers acedia to be a key feature of many baroque tragic heroes, from the minor dramatic figures of German tragedy to Shakespeare's Hamlet: "The indecisiveness of the prince, in particular, is nothing other than saturnine acedia." It is this slothful inability to make decisions that leads baroque tragic heroes to passively accept their fate, rather than resisting it in the heroic manner of classical tragedy.[16]
• Roger Fry saw acedia or gloominess as a twentieth century peril to be fought by a mixture of work and of determined pleasure in life.[17]
• Anton Chekhov and Samuel Beckett's plays often have themes of acedia.
• Aldous Huxley wrote an essay on acedia called "Accidie". A non-Christian, he examines "the noon day demons" original delineation by the Desert Fathers, and concludes that it is one of the main diseases of the modern age.
• The writer David J. Cord claimed acedia can even affect an entire organization, and in The Decline and Fall of Nokia cites a culture of acedia as a prime cause for the collapse of Nokia's mobile device unit.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Fetid-

Having a disgusting smell or stink- fusty, unpleasant, malodorous, putrid, rank...

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Vexed

To be annoyed, infuriated, irritated, angered, irked- especially over trivial matters.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Meniscus

If you fill a coffee cup up to the brim/rim, and then carefully
add some more, you will notice that it begins to form a sort of convex surface-
held together by molecular tension. This curved upper surface of liquid in a tube is the/a meniscus.
By extention, other things having a similar shape (lens, cartilage) can be called a meniscus.

 

[Vcore89]

Swashta [Sanskrit], means to be established (stha) in oneself (swa).

 

[Vcore89]

Sehnsucht [German] means life longings.
-- Scheibe, S., Freund, A. M. (2008) Research In Human Development

 

[chrischris]

Hotter (Than ever)

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Hotter (Than ever)

My wife hates the heat- so we took a "vacation" to the coast. Inland (central CA) where we "live" the tempreature
up and down from 99 to 113 degrees. The little town where we stayed (Moro bay) averaged about 65 degrees (f).
Got back home from vacation and it was 109f, by the end of the week it will be 107. These temperatures are not abnormal for
centra. CA- but the number of days at these tempreatures is increasing- as are the prices for costal property.

Hot hot hot

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Swashta [Sanskrit], means to be established (stha) in oneself (swa).

In Sanskrit, the word swastika is a combination of ‘su’ (meaning ‘good’) and ‘asti’ (meaning ‘to exist’)
Popularly, this gets translated as ‘all is well.’ The swastika is thus understood to be a symbol of auspiciousness and good fortune, and is regularly donned on Hindu homes, businesses, printed materials, cars, temples, and ashrams.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Preprandial

yes, we hear this word, but do we remember what it means?

Done or taken before dinner or lunch.
"a preprandial glass of sherry".
Or medicine that need to be taken before (or during) a meal.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Baliwick

Another word we hear- but what doea it mean?

Once upon a time "bailiff" meant something like "sheriff"- and
a sheriff had jurisdiction over a certain area. Eventually the word became "baliwick"
but it still meant area of jurisdiction, responsibility or expertise.

"organizing fundraisers for the senator is my baliwick"

And then- there is another phrase that may be derived form baliwick-
The whole ball of wax.

The whole ball of wax means the whole thing, everything. The whole ball of wax is an American idiom of uncertain origin, so far it has been traced back to at least the 1880s. Many apocryphal stories have sprung up to explain the origin of the phrase the whole ball of wax, but it is most likely a mondegreen of the idiom the whole bailiwick, meaning the whole territory.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Mondegreen

Mondegreen is a word or phrase the originates from a misunderstanding
or misinterpretation of something that has been said or sung.

A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning.
Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener,
being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.

In Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"- instead of "Can't read my, can't read my, poker face"
I always heard "Cherry pie, cherry pie, poker face".

This is one way that words and meanings change over time.

 

[Vcore89]

Autotelic, people who are internally driven [an autotelic personality]; from the Greek [autotelēs] autos, 'self' and telos, 'end' or 'goal'.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Begging the Question Fallacy Examples

A form of circular reasoning, begging the question is one of the most common types of fallacies. It occurs when the premises that are meant to support an argument already assume that the conclusion is true. If you start from a place where the conclusion being argued is already assumed true, then you’re not really making an argument at all. There is no supporting evidence.
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To Beg the Question
The origin of the begging the question fallacy can be traced back to the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. His original Greek writing was later translated to Latin, and one of the 13 fallacies listed in De Sophisticis Elenchis (Sophistical Refutations) was phrased as “petitio principii.”
More literally, this should have been translated as “assuming the initial point” or “assuming the conclusion.” The term was subsequently translated to English some time in the 16th century as "begging the question."
Technically speaking, to beg the question is not a logical fallacy. This is because it is logically valid, in the strictest sense, but it is utterly unpersuasive. The thing that you are trying to prove is already assumed to be true, so you are not actually adding anything to the argument. It would be like saying a product is the most expensive because it has the highest price.
A Common Misuse
Before getting to examples of the begging the question fallacy, it is important to clarify a common misuse of the term. “Begging the question” is often used incorrectly when the speaker or writer really means “raising the question.”
For example:
Jane is an intelligent, insightful, well-educated and personable individual, which begs the question: why does she stay at that dead-end job?
That’s an example of raising the question because it is not a fallacy to ask that question. But what about situations where you’re actually begging the question? Here are several examples to help illustrate the concept.
Freedom of the Press
Freedom of the press is one of the most important hallmarks of a modern, open society because modern, open societies value the ability of the press to report what’s happening.
The important to note about fallacies like begging the question is that the argument they’re trying to make isn’t necessarily wrong; it’s just poorly constructed or supported. In this case, the second half of the sentence simply restates the first half in reverse order. It would be akin to saying that the Civic is a car made by Honda because Honda makes a car called the Civic

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Albion

Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today.
A poetic or literary term for Britain or England (often used in referring to ancient or historical times).
"the ancient religious sites of Albion"

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Droodles

Droodles was a syndicated cartoon feature created by Roger Price and collected in his 1953 book Droodles, though the term is now used more generally of similar visual riddles.
Form
The general form is minimal: a square box containing a few abstract pictorial elements with a caption (or several) giving a humorous explanation of the picture's subject. For example, a Droodle depicting three concentric shapes – little circle, medium circle, big square – might have the caption "Aerial view of a cowboy in a Port-a-john." A pyramid shape with 3 black circles awa titled "Egyptian bolling ball".
Origins
The trademarked name "Droodle" suggests "doodle", "drawing" and "riddle". However, the form of the droodle – a riddle expressed in visual form – has earlier roots, for example in a drawing (indovinelli grafici) by the Italian painter Agostino Carracci (1557–1602), and the term is widely used beyond Price's work.[3]
Droodles are (or were) purely a form of entertainment like any other nonsense cartoon and appeared in roughly the same places (newspapers, paperback collections, bathroom walls) during their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. The commercial success of Price's collections of Droodles led to the founding of the publishing house Price-Stern-Sloan, and also to the creation of a Droodles-themed game show, Droodles, on NBC in 1954.[4] There was also a droodle-based game called "Mysteriosos" on HBO's Braingames. Series of newspaper advertisements for the News and Max brands of cigarettes featured cigarette-themed Droodles.[1]
Appearances in art and popular culture
One of Price's original Droodles serves as the cover art for Frank Zappa's 1982 album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. Price's other captions for that drawing include "Mother pyramid feeding her baby."
Pictures in a similar style feature in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.[3]

 

[Bartelby]

Much loved word of the bohemian rocker from the Libertines Pete Doherty.

Albion

Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today.
A poetic or literary term for Britain or England (often used in referring to ancient or historical times).
"the ancient religious sites of Albion"

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Moot
You hear about a moot point or something renedred moot,
and then there are the jokes:

And then there are "conflicting" definations- 1. Irrelevant, not worth discussing, no longer matters, unable to be resolved, and
2. Debatable, open for discussion.

So- if something is "debatable" then it seems that it can be discussed???.

I am going to try to combine the two ideas into something that makes sense (to me).

Something will be moot when it is no longer an issue, is no longer relevant, when, yes you can discuss the issue, but
discussing it has no value, because it would be useless and cannot change anything.

"The court has made a rulling, but the decision is moot, because the people involved are now dead".

To say something is moot is sort of like saying there is no point in beating a dead horse (or cow).

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Telegraph well nobody really uses the telegraph to send Morse code messages, so the more commone meaning is-

• convey (an intentional or unconscious message), especially with facial expression or body language.
  "a tiny movement of her arm telegraphed her intention to strike."
• "He telegraphed his intention to serve down the center and lost the point to the best returner he ever faced."
  
  

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Phone it in

To phone it in is to do something with low enthusiasm or effort. While the phrase may sound innocuous
enough in an age when telecommuting and conference calls are common, it originates from the notion of
someone who can't be bothered to show up when expected.


Mailing it in, or phoning it in, also refer to a performance that is without passion and perfunctory in every respect.
When an actor or singer (or an athlete) is just going thru the steps to get on and get off, it is not very pleasant to watch and the audience can tell.

Where did the term phone it in come from?
The expression phone it in is American, and seems to have originally been connected to the theater and acting.
During the early 1930s, a popular joke among theater actors alluded to having a role that was so small it was possible to
call on the phone, rather than appear on the stage in person.

 

[Vcore89]

Telegraph well nobody really uses the telegraph to send Morse code messages, so the more commone meaning is-

• convey (an intentional or unconscious message), especially with facial expression or body language.
  "a tiny movement of her arm telegraphed her intention to strike."
• "He telegraphed his intention to serve down the center and lost the point to the best returner he ever faced."
  

Extra Sensory Perception must be the offshoot?

 

[Bagumbawalla]

The check is in the mail

Often used as an excuse to avoid the pressure of creditors or someone expecting payment. Primarily heard in US. ...
Smith, your mortgage payment is now two months overdue." B: "The check's in the mail, I promise you!"
A: "Can you lend me $40 until I get paid next week?" B: "Sure thing, the check's in the mail."

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Signed, sealed and delivered

Satisfactorily completed. This nineteenth-century term originally described a legal document, specifically a deed, which in order to be valid had to be signed, sealed with a wax seal, and delivered to the new owner. Sir Walter Scott so used it in Rob Roy (1818): “How does Farmer Rutledge? . . . I hope you found him able to sign, seal and deliver.” In the twentieth century the expression began to be used more loosely.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Brad Gilbert uses the word

Chagrin

quite a bit- here is the definition-

It is a feeling of embarrassment, distress, himillation at having failed at something-
"Imagine his chagrin at being passed over for the starring role."

 

[Bagumbawalla]

What is the difference between a crater and a caldera?

Well, a crater is formed when matter is thrown up and around the ejection point-
sort of like a gopher pushing dirt out of its hole- it forms a mound around a hole
whitch it seals at the bottom and creates a sort of crater.

A caldera is formed when material from below the surface is expelled, leaving
empty, "hollow" areas beneath, that collapse and form a depression- often below the
normal ground level. Sometimes they fill with water and become lakes- like Crater Lake-
which is really a caldera.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

ASMR

Never heard of this before yesterday- but it seems to be "a thing".

Coined in 2010, ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a relaxing, often sedative sensation that begins on the scalp and moves down the body.
Also known as "brain massage," it's triggered by placid sights and sounds such as whispers, accents, and crackles.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

A cairn is a man-made pile of stones. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn. Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes, from prehistoric times to the present. In modern times, cairns are often erected as landmarks, a use they have had since ancient times.

Never been to Little Rock Arkansas, but have the idea they should encourage people from around the works to bring a rock- with their name inscribed?-
and leave it in an ever evolving mound.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Viscosity

The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids,
it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water.
Having a thick, sticky consistency between solid and liquid; having a high viscosity.
"viscous lava".

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Hank williams song- strange words- what do they mean?

A pirogue is a small, flat-bottomed boat of a design associated particularly with the Cajuns of the Louisiana marsh. In West Africa they were used as traditional fishing boats. These boats are not usually intended for overnight travel but are light and small enough to be easily taken onto land.

Jambalaya is a Creole and Cajun rice dish of West African, French, and Spanish influence, consisting mainly of meat and vegetables mixed with rice.

File gumbo
Lil' Dizzy’s Café in New Orleans is serving up some tasty Creole Gumbo. Their recipe for uses the traditional filé powder (ground sassafras leaves). Filé was first used by the Choctaw Indians as spicy seasoning that also acted as a thickening agent (rather than other traditional methods of using okra or roux as a thickener).

Ingredients for Creole Filé Gumbo

• 1¼ pounds seasoning ham
• 1¼ pounds smoked sausage
• 1½ pounds chicken pieces
• ½ pound hot sausage
• 1½ pounds peeled shrimp
• 6 to 8 gumbo crabs
• 1 dozen oysters
• 2 cups chopped onion
• ¼ cup chopped garlic
• 3 green onions, chopped
• ½ green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 teaspoons thyme leaves
• 5 bay leaves
• ⅔ cup vegetable oil
• 4 to 5 tablespoons flour
• 10 cups water
• filé powder
• salt and pepper
• hot cooked rice, for serving

Method of Preparation:

1. Cube ham and slice sausages. Heat oil in an eight to ten-quart pot. Add ham to brown.
2. Add onions and cook until tender. Add chicken and sausages and brown. Add shrimp and other seasonings and cook five minutes.
3. Sprinkle flour over meats and seasonings and stir well.
4. Add water and bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add gumbo crabs and cook on medium to low fire about 45 minutes. Add oysters and cook five minutes. Turn off heat.
6. Add filé powder (to taste) and stir into gumbo. Serve over cooked rice. Serves 10 to 12.

Note: seasoning ham is simply leftover baked ham, ham steaks, etc. chopped into 1/4 inch pieces. If your crowd doesn't care for heat, substitute your favorite breakfast sausage links for hot sausage; just make sure it isn't a variety that includes syrup or other sweeteners. Gumbo crabs are readily found in the freezer section of Louisiana supermarkets; they're the leftover crab after the jumbo lump meat has been removed from the body of the crab. If you do not have access to gumbo crabs, substitute 1 quart of boxed seafood stock for 1 quart of the water.

Bayou

In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area, and may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream or river, a marshy lake or wetland .

Machez amio mean? my good girlfriend.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Flummery

If you read Nero Wolf detective mysteries, you know he says things like,
"What kind of flummery is this?"

Flummery means- nonsense, drivel, stupidity, silliness, idiocy, humbug.
(It can also be a starch-based, sweet, soft dessert pudding known to have been popular in Britain and Ireland from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries).


Flume

A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch.
A flume can be used for transporting logs or used for (slide) rides at a water park.


Flummox

If someone is flummoxed by something, they are confused by it and do not know what to do or say. The two leaders were flummoxed by the suggestion.
Baffle, bewilder, mystify, confuse, puzzle, perplex.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends- say like the arts, movies, economy, fashion...
The term derives from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) leading a flock of sheep. ... JPMorgan Chase is a U.S. example of a bellwether stock.

A milestone is a significant event in your life. Often a milestone marks the start of a new chapter. For example, the day you graduated from high school was a milestone in your life.
Milestone literally refers to a roadside marker that lists the distance to a particular location.

Millstone- either of two circular stones used for grinding something (such as grain) 2a : something that grinds or crushes. b : a heavy burden. "The responsibility of running the family business was like wearing a millstone around my neck.

Touchstone- a piece of fine-grained dark schist or jasper formerly used for testing alloys of gold by observing the color of the mark which they made on it- saw them do this on that pawn-shop show to check a gold watch.
More often it is used to mean a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized. Job security has become the touchstone of a good job for many employees. A standard, criterion, measure (like measure of success).

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Acid test

A conclusive test of the success or value of something.

An experience or situation that proves how skilful or effective someone or something is. My first really stressful day when things go wrong: that will be the real acid test.

The acid-test ratio gets its name from the historic use of acid (hydrochloric acid) to test metals for gold. If acid was applied to a metal and didn't corrode it, that meant it was real gold.
However, if the metal failed the test, it was considered valueless.

On a completely different note- Acid Tests were a series of parties held by author Ken Kesey primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area during the mid-1960s, centered on the use of and advocacy for the psychedelic drug LSD, commonly known as "acid". LSD was not made illegal in California until October 6, 1966.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Pompadour • \PAHM-puh-dor\ • noun. 1 a : a man's style of hairdressing in which the hair is combed into a high mound in front b : a woman's style of hairdressing in which the hair is brushed into a loose full roll around the face 2 : hair dressed in a pompadour. The pompadour is a hairstyle named after Madame de Pompadour, a mistress of King Louis XV of France.


The good news is that you can still get that look with shorter hair. Short pompadours are a neat yet striking style that can suit almost any situation. For a more modern interpretation of the short pompadour, style your hair from your temple near the part line.

Poser- The noun poseur is defined as "a person who pretends to be what he or she is not : an affected or insincere person". ... 'Poser' can also mean "a puzzling question." The word is almost always used with a negative connotation, conveying the skepticism we have for those who put on airs.

Perambulating- walk or travel through or around a place or area, especially for pleasure and in a leisurely way.
"she perambulated the square"

Ponderous- Slow and clumsy because of great weight. "her footsteps were heavy and ponderous"

The pampered porter with a proclivity for pompous pompadours perambulated pompously about the pavillion.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Bon mot- (sometimes just "mot")- a witty or clever remark.

Beaucoup- Many, much, numerous, a lot- usually used faceitiously/jokingly- "She inherited beaucoup buckaroos from her dad, the cattle king."

Passe-partout- pronounced something like "pass par tue"- basically it is a way of framing a picture or photograph by sandwiching it between a cardboard backing and a mat and the glass,
then sealing the edges with tape. It has also been used to mean something that passes everywhere or provides a universal means of passage, a master key; skeleton key, a universal document of passage or entry.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Straw dog(s)-

Straw dogs were actual figures of dogs used in ceremonies in China. After the ceremony they were (unceremoniously) thrown away.
A line from the Tao Te Ching- "Heaven and Earth are impartial/ treating creatures like straw dogs". An explaination of the concept
goes- "Heaven and Earth are not partial. They do not kill living things out of cruelty or give them birth out of kindness. We do the same when
we make straw dogs to use in sacrifices. We dress them up and put them on the altar, but not because we love them, and when the ceremony is over,
we throw them into the street, but not because we hate them.

So, one concept of a straw dog is- something built up only to be torn down- for example, in a business meeting, ideas will be tossed out for discussion
and then torn apart- whatever good idea remains may then be useful.

Most modern uses of "straw dog" have some relation to the concept of something first having significance, then being discarded- sort of like "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

Another use is to desctibe a person who seems important, but is really only a front to cover for some others activities.

It can also refer to a person who was successful in youth, but faded in later years.

Paper tiger- A paper tiger is someone who appears powerful, dangerous, threatening- but is, in reality, weak, ineffectual, cowardly.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Horripilation- the bristling, standing up, of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, or excitement.
"a horripilation of dread tingled down my spine"- goosebumps-
sometimes also called cutis anserina or piloerection.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Perfunctory


(of an action or gesture) carried out with a minimum of effort or reflection.
"he gave a perfunctory nod"
Characterized by routine or superficiality : mechanical a perfunctory smile. 2 : lacking in interest or enthusiasm.
Performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial.
Lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent or apathetic- In his lectures he reveals himself to be merely a perfunctory speaker.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Alluvial plain

Is a usually flat expanse of land that is suppied by extensive deposis of alluvial material from
running water.

An alluvial plain is a large flat landform that is created from the deposition of sediment or debris over a long period by rivers from the highlands. Sediments are brought about by weathering and erosion then water and wind transport the debris along. Once the deposited sediments increase, they form alluvial soil.

Alluvial plains are flat surfaces aggraded by meandering, anastomosing, and/or braided river channels, which are bordered by flat-lying areas consisting of floodplains, lakes, and peatlands.

Alluvium, material deposited by rivers. It is usually most extensively developed in the lower part of the course of a river, forming floodplains and deltas, but may be deposited at any point where the river overflows its banks or where the velocity of a river is checked—for example, where it runs into a lake.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Micawber- Wilkins Micawber is a clerk in Charles Dickens's 1850 novel David Copperfield. He is traditionally identified with the optimistic belief that "something will turn up." If you describe someone as a Micawber- they are a (perhaps overly) optimistic personality in spite of having limited prospects.

Goodie two shoes- The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is a children's story published by John Newbery in London in 1765. The story popularized the phrase "goody two-shoes" as a descriptor for an excessively virtuous person or do-gooder. The phrase goody two-shoes describes someone who acts in an honest way whenever possible. In other words, they regularly do what is considered right. More recently Goodie two shoes is often used in a negative way to describe someone who is self righteous and ostentatiously virtuous. This usage began around the late 19th or early 20th century.

Pollyanna- An excessively cheerful or optimistic person.
"what I am saying makes me sound like some aging Pollyanna who just wants to pretend that all is sweetness and light"-
a person characterized by irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything. While the adjective pollyannaish describes an optimistic outlook and a determined cheeriness, it also implies that this attitude is taken too far.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Enclave- A portion of territory within or surrounded by a larger territory whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct.
"they gave troops a week to leave the coastal enclave" The Vatican is an enclave- completely surrounded by Italy.

A place or group that is different in character from those surrounding it.
"the engineering department is traditionally a male enclave".
a distinct territorial, cultural, or social unit enclosed within, or as if within, foreign territory, ethnic enclaves.

Exclave- a portion of territory of one state completely surrounded by territory of another or others, as viewed by the home territory.
In this sense, Alaska may be considered an exclave of the United States- set apart from the contiguous states and surrounded by Canada (and the Pacific Ocean).

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Strange psychological conditions/disorders

Those with Stendhal syndrome experience physical and emotional anxiety as well as panic attacks, dissociative experiences, confusion and hallucinations when exposed to art. These symptoms are usually triggered by “art that is perceived as particularly beautiful or when the individual is exposed to large quantities of art that are concentrated in a single place,” such as a museum or gallery, Medscape says. However, individuals may experience similar reactions to beauty in nature.


ALIEN HAND SYNDROME
This syndrome is characterized by the belief that one’s hand “does not belong to oneself, but that it has its own life,” Medscape says. Individuals experiencing alien hand syndrome have normal sensation but feel their hand is autonomous, with a “will of its own.” Those with alien hand syndrome may personify the limb as a separate entity: the unaffected hand is under the individual’s control while the affected hand has its own agenda. This syndrome may occur in individuals who have damage to the corpus callosum, which connects the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain. Other causes include stroke and damage to the parietal lobe. The hands then appear to be in “intermanual conflict” or “ideomotor apraxia,” meaning they act in opposition to one another-
possibly like Doctor Strangelove.

CAPGRAS SYNDROME
This syndrome is named for Joseph Capgras, a French psychiatrist who explored the illusion of doubles. Those with Capgras syndrome hold the delusional belief that someone in their life, usually a spouse, close friend or family member, has been replaced by an impostor. It can occur in patients with schizophrenia, dementia, epilepsy and after traumatic brain injury. Treatment approaches mirror those utilized for the underlying disorders and often include antipsychotic medications.

Diogenes Syndrome
Diogenes Syndrome is more commonly referred to as simply “hoarding,” and is one of the most misunderstood mental disorders. Named after the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope (who was, ironically, a minimalist), this syndrome is usually characterized by the overwhelming desire to collect seemingly random items, to which an emotional attachment is then formed. In addition to uncontrollable hoarding, those with Diogenes Syndrome often exhibit extreme self neglect, apathy towards themselves or others, social withdrawal, and no shame for their habits. It is very common among the elderly, those with dementia, and people who have at some point in their lives been abandoned or who have lacked a stable home environment.

Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), known formerly as Multiple Personality Disorder, is a terrifying mental illness that is included in myriad movies and television shows, but is extremely misunderstood. Very generally, the less than .1% of people who suffer from DID often have 2-3 different identities (and sometimes more). Sufferers routinely cycle through their personalities, and can remain as one identity for hours or for years. They can switch identities at any time and without warning, and it’s nearly impossible to convince someone with DID that they have it. For these reasons, those with Dissociative Identity Disorder are unable to live normal lives, and therefore usually live in psychiatric institutions.


Prosopagnosia: some people can't remember others' faces
The writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks recounts the story of a man who "mistook his wife for a hat". He suffered from a condition where he couldn't recognise faces, known as prosopagnosia, or face blindness. (Sacks himself has a moderate version of the condition.) Depending on how severe the case, a person may have a hard time recognising just familiar faces, telling strangers' faces apart, or even telling a face apart from an object. Some people with prosopagnosia can't even recognise their own face.


Cotard's syndrome:
this disorder makes people think that they're dead.
Mr. B was a 65 year old teacher with no family history of mental illness, when he suddenly began having sad moods, stopped being able to feel pleasure, slept and ate less, and developed feelings of worthlessness. He later started having delusions that his organs had stopped working and his house was going to fall down. After an attempted suicide, he started believing he was dead.
This man suffered from a condition known as Cotard's syndrome (or Walking corpse syndrome), in which a patient thinks he or she is dead. Counterintuitively, in more than half of cases, these patients also think they are immortal. Treatment for the condition can include antidepressant or antipsychotic drugs, or electroconvulsive therapy.


The Fregoli Delusion
The Fregoli delusion is the belief that different people are in fact the same person. For example, a man in his early twenties fell in love with a woman who rejected him, then came to believe that all of his Facebook friends were actually this woman in disguise. This led him to think that her many disguises and impersonations of different people meant that she was as obsessed with him as he was with her. It doesn’t take much analysis to see the young man’s delusion as a primitive ego defense.

Subjective doubles Syndrome
A person who has succumbed to the syndrome of subjective doubles believes that he or she has an exact double, but one with a different personality. The delusional person may believe that the clone is an “evil twin” or just a doppelgänger with different ideas and behaviors. For example, a teenager believed that her next-door neighbor had remade herself (like Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character in Single White Female) into an identical twin. In another case, following surgery, a man came to believe that his brain had been transplanted into another person, and that this other person was now his double.
The Sixth Day and The Stepford Wives are two movies that dramatize the plight of characters who must contend with doppelgängers, or exact duplicates of themselves who have separate lives and different personalities. In literary fiction, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is synonymous with the concept of the “evil twin.”

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Just came across this book- The Collected Schizophrenias- by Esmé Weijun Wang-
essays by a person suffering from some of those "wierd" syndromes
mentioned, above.

...This kind of honesty is bracing, and at times difficult to square with Wang's descriptions of her own psychotic episodes, audible and visual hallucinations, and perhaps scariest of all, the period of time she believed she was dead, or the stretches during which she believed those she loved had been replaced by false duplicates that didn't evoke any feelings in her. But it is precisely because of these experiences, she explains, that she's "uncomfortably uncomfortable" around the visibly psychotic: "I know that these are my people in ways that those who have never experienced psychosis can't understand, and to shun them is to shun a large part of myself."

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Susurration- Whispering, a hushed murmuring, or rustling sound- purr,whir thrum,
"the susurration of the river"-
"The susurration coming from the audience kept the actor on edge".

Sublimation- Means to change directly from one state or form into another-
to change the form, but not the essence- Physically speaking, it means to transform solid to vapor;
psychologically speaking- it means changing an inner feeling, oor urge from something base and inappropriate to something more positive or acceptable.

In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism, in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are
transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse.
Participation in sports and athletic competition can sometimes be examples of sublimation in action. Rather than acting on
unacceptable urges to fight with others, people may play competitive sports in order to dominate and win.
This might help explain those people who seem to enjoy bashing the ball at the net man in tennis.

Sublime- Of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.
"Mozart's sublime piano concertos".

In aesthetics, the sublime is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic.
The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation-

glorious, gorgeous, resplendent, splendid, and superb.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Philtrum- the vertical groove between the base of the nose and the border of the upper lip.
From an etymological standpoint, philtrum stems from the Greek word “philtron” meaning love potion. ... This stands to reason why
the Ancient Greeks referred to the philtrum as “Cupid's Bow,” and considered it the most erogenous part of the body.

Philter- A drink supposed to arouse love and desire for a particular person in the drinker; a love potion.
"his philters and potions". A kind of potion, charm, or drug; especially love potion intended to make the drinker
fall in love with the giver. To dose or mix with a love potion.

Phylum- In biology, a phylum is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally,
in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants accepts the terms as equivalent.

Philalethist- A lover of truth.

Philatelist- one who collects or studies stamps.

Philistine- A person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them.
"I am a complete philistine when it comes to paintings". A person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values. One uninformed in a special area of knowledge.

More PH words?

 

[Bagumbawalla]

More...

Phlox- Phlox is a genus of 67 species of perennial and annual plants in the family Polemoniaceae. They are found mostly in North America in diverse habitats from alpine tundra to open woodland and prairie. Some flower in spring, others in summer and fall. Flowers may be pale blue, violet, pink, bright red, or white (and more)- you find them everwhere- easy to grow.

Phlegm- The thick viscous substance secreted by the mucous membranes of the respiratory passages, especially when produced in excessive or abnormal quantities, e.g., when someone is suffering from a cold.
also- (in medieval science and medicine) one of the four bodily humors, believed to be associated with a calm, stolid, or apathetic temperament.

Phlebotomy- Phlebotomy is the process of making a puncture in a vein, usually in the arm, with a cannula for the purpose of drawing blood. The procedure itself is known as a venipuncture, which is also used for intravenous therapy
A phlebotomist is a key member of a healthcare team, tasked with taking blood samples from patients or donors. In addition to mastering clinical skills, they must also work well with people, offering comfort and reassurance to patients with a fear of needles or blood.

Phyllo (also filo) is a very thin unleavened dough used for making pastries such as baklava and börek in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Filo-based pastries are made by layering many sheets of filo brushed with oil or butter; the pastry is then baked.

 

[Vcore89]

Disanxiousuncertlibrium - people seek some explanation that allows them to see the world as more or less ordered and predictable.
- Proulx and Inzlicht, 2012

 

[chrischris]

Anthropocene.
We, human beings nowv can heal or destroy the life we depend upon for our health, wealth and life itself.

Imagining the good Anthropocene

Centre researcher Garry Peterson explains

www.stockholmresilience.org