WordIQ.com: A Dream of Dogs

Interpretation: A dream of dogs is usually a fairly good omen. A dog barking happily shows that you will have a pleasing social life. A friendly, happy dog shows that you have lots of good friends. A dog barking and snarling fiercely at you shows you have some unfriendly friends, and also, if the dream dog is big and powerful, as well as friendly, shows that you have a very powerful protector.

The above is the first result of doing a search on WordIQ.com for “dog” and then clicking on the “Dreams” tab. Other tabs include “Search,” “Definitions,” “Ebooks,” “Reference,” “Articles,” and “The Web.” The “Definitions” tab results range form British TV shows (“Dog Eat Dog”) to “Gun Dog.” This might be the Google of the future, or at least an etymologist’s dream. I wasn’t dreaming of dogs, but I was thinking about my dog’s dreams.

Or, really, her thoughts as we walked around the neighborhood this morning. It was so frozen and cold that the sidewalks had not been cleared in most places, and my face felt as if it might be on the verge of a wind burn. But Bear was hardly affected by the temperature at all. As we walked, she seemed to be looking up though the trees at the ice and then the sky beyond. I think she was happy.

Office of Public Humiliation: Division of the (Kinder and Gentler) Grammar Police

“English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and education — Sometimes it’s sheer luck, like getting across the street.”
– E. B. White

“The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions of grammar.”
– Michel de Montaigne

from ETNI’s “Grammar Quotes

How do we control grammar? We have to have some rules, right? Otherwise, no one would understand each other. Maybe. English is a mongrel mutt of a language, full of all sorts of odd imports and add ons and historical oddities. It’s no wonder we get it wrong so often. Have you ever wondered why nothing rhymes with orange or pajama?

One explanation is that they are both words adapted from non-European languages. Orange, according to FreeDictionary.com, “is possibly ultimately from Dravidian, a family of languages spoken in southern India and northern Sri Lank.” [http://www.tfd.com/orange]. Pajama, is from the Persian word for pants [http://www.tfd.com/pajama]

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Ladys and Gentleman, the Butthole Surfers


Via: VideoSift

We used to go see these guys in Austin, TX, in the 80s. They were a lot stranger then, but this is a pretty cool song. This seems like an appropriate phrase on the day our president decides to outline his plan for a so-called ‘surge’ into Iraq. That’s what I call surfing on your butt! Oh, and you can listen to their web-radio too. Bush was also, of course, the (I meant to do that!) Shrub Governor of TX, too, in the 90s.


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