Though of all the things I’ve heard Borat called, “queen” isn’t one of them.
Category: Humor
Star of Damocles
For various reasons, braved the crowds at South Coast Plaza yesterday. Oddly, it’s the easiest mall I’ve parked at all weekend. Getting to the Marketplace was a disaster, but that’s just because the streets are wholly inadequate to get cars in and out of the parking lot, and the Village (formerly the Mall of Orange) was just plain full.
At South Coast, as part of their Christmas decorations, they had these giant, shiny, 14-pointed stars hanging from the ceiling in several places.
Classic Christmas, but when you go down to the first floor and look up, there are all these giant, gleaming spikes hanging over your head.
It’s a little disconcerting. “Death from above!” is not something I want my holiday decorations to invoke.
Not quite botanical
Attended a friend’s wedding last weekend, held at the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas (north of San Diego).
One constant feature of botanical gardens the world over is the collection of placards identifying each type of tree, shrub, or other plant. In the walled garden where the ceremony was held, they took it a step further:
Quantum Home
The only problem is, you can’t be absolutely certain of where the home is and what direction it’s going at the same time.
The Origin of “Nukular”
After a great deal of painstaking research[1], I have uncovered the true[2] origins of the “nucular” pronunciation of the word nuclear.
Nukular turns out to be an abbreviation of “Nuke-you-la’r,” a traditional Texan leave-taking[3]. The phrase is a contraction of “Nuke you later,” and refers to the intense heat of a Texas barbecue grill. Essentially, one is saying that the other person is always welcome at a barbecue.
The word appears to have become conflated with nuclear due to their similarity, much as many people confuse affect and effect, or use infer when they obviously mean imply[4].
Nukular in its original sense has fallen out of use except in some rural parts of Texas, and most speakers are no longer aware of the saying.
—
- In other words, 30 seconds of making stuff up.
- No, not really.
- Or greeting. It’s kind of like aloha in Hawaiian: it can be used for both hello and goodbye.
- This isn’t hand grenades, after all.
Flip-Floppers, all of ’em!
Spotted on a school marquee:
Gee, I hope none of them ever runs for office. Some opposing PAC group will dig this up as evidence of constant flip-flopping!
Genuine Muppet Fur Pillow!
I forget where we found this—I think it might have been Linens and Things. Katie (shown here with the pillow) took one look at it and said, “Made of genuine Muppet hide!” It reminded her of a certain sketch from The State.