The Lexicon of Our Lives
Linguistics experts like to say that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt us. This is true with the one exception of words that are forged out of razor-sharp steel letters, dipped in curare, and hurled like Ninja throwing stars. Now that we've cleared up that technicality, here's Merriam Webster’s #1 word of 2022, which, I dunno, seems to be arriving about six years too late to me:
Continued...
And let’s be crystal clear here, Merriam and Webster (IF those are even your real names): the gaslighting is being inflicted on people by conservatives. The only way the bullies, dopes, and snowflakes on the right can ever “win” is to convince people that what is ain’t and what ain’t is. A sad and lazy way, if you ask me, to spend one’s fleeting moment here on the pale blue dot.
Other letter-based vittles on MW’s shortlist: oligarch, Omicron, Queen Consort, and—in honor of the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search—raid. We salute all the winners and, as always, hope they enjoy their lifetime supply of alphabet soup.
And now, our feature presentation…
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Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, December 1, 2022
Note: Don’t dine with Nazis. A public service message from this blog and the Ad Council.
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By the Numbers:
Saturday!!!
Days 'til Baby Jesus Farts in the Manger Day: 24
Days 'til Chester Greenwood Day in Farmington, Maine, honoring the inventor of earmuffs: 2
Percent of new Covid cases that are the new "XBB" strain: 3.1%
Page on which The New York Times buried its story on Trump’s dinner with Nazi Adolf Fuentes: 20
Amount Facebook was fined for violating user data privacy laws in Europe: $275 million
Number of workers who died during construction of World Cup venues: 400
Number of full-line Sears stores that are still open for business, down from 3,500 in 2005: 15
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
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Puppy Pic of the Day: In Boston…SAVED!!!
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CHEERS to December. The year's glorious, sparkling, musical, snow-bedecked, bell-ringing, Norman Rockwellesque grand finale. Bring on the swans a' swimming, spin your dreidels (Hanukkah starts the 18th) and polish your Festivus pole (the 23rd).
Ahem. Mask?
Bring on the full "cold moon" (the 7th). Bring on the winter solstice. Bring on C&J’s 19th anniversary. Bring on the last-minute flurry of bills in Congress before the inmates take over the House! Bring on the latest Covid booster! Bring on the sequels—if we must—to Avatar, Aquaman, Puss in Boots, and Night at the Museum! Also: check the expiration date on the eggnog that's been sitting in the back of your fridge since 1999 before you take a swig. And settle your differences with 2022 because in 30 days it’s out the door and ain't comin' back. I believe I speak on behalf of everybody here when I say: "Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya."
JEERS to December. The year's stress-filled, bone chilling, dark-by-3, be-cheerful-or-else, and oh-here comes a-giant-blizzard grand finale. The Harry Simeone choir will make curmudgeons' ears bleed with enough pa-rum-pum-pum-pums to choke a horse, and you just know there are several beloved mega-celebrities who will inconvenience us by dying this month.
Fox News will continue hating on Christmas for another season by using this Satanic “greeting.”
There’s the Pearl Harbor anniversary to remind us how few of our WW II heroes remain above ground. Our cat will take up her favorite December tradition of batting glass ornaments off the tree for us to step on in the middle of the night. With the MAGA cult still hellbent on abolishing democracy and establishing a Fourth Reich in America, the wise among us will forgo candy canes and instead hang holiday-themed Prozac dispensers. Plus: I just guzzled a bunch of eggnog before checking the expiration date, so nice knowin’ ya. I believe I speak on behalf of everybody here when I say: "Bah humbug."
CHEERS to putting a padlock over the tied knot. Well, maybe the new law Congress passed this week isn't quite that ironclad (gotta protect the fee-fees of the haters who worship an invisible angry sky god whose existence has never been proven), but it's a sight better than what happened nearly 30 years ago when a "pro-gay" Democratic president (Hi, Bubba!) signed into law a total ban on marriage equality:
Well done. Oh, and before I forget: someone should probably go do a wellness check on Anita Bryant.
CHEERS to parking your kiester for equality. On December 1, 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks, who was also secretary of the local branch of the NAACP and trained in nonviolent civil disobedience long before John Lewis labeled it "good trouble," refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama public bus. The bus driver, James Blake, said he was just doing his job when he ratted her out. But history reveals his job apparently also included being a jerk:
As for Parks, she wasn't the first black American to challenge the discriminatory rules of public transportation. But in this case, her arrest and the ensuing boycott of the bus system—led by budding activist Martin Luther King, Jr.—became a signature event of the civil rights protest movement. I don’t like to play the game of "What If,” but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts she'd be rooting for the success of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Yeah—going out on limbs is my business.
CHEERS to today's edition of Miss Manners' Subtle Lessons in Etiquette. Today's lesson involves the proper way to deal with an unwanted guest whom you have inadvertently invited for supper. Pay attention, because this is a subtle move requiring finesse and diplomacy:
And, above all, don’t forget to extend your pinky.
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Ten years ago in C&J: December 1, 2012
CHEERS to closure. One thing about running for president: you know that if you lose you're gonna be on the receiving end of your side's rage and the other side's glee and it's gonna hurt like hell. So it was nice to see President Obama showing respect to Mitt Romney yesterday as they sat down for lunch at the White House. (Although I have to wonder whose idea it was to serve "white turkey" chili—nice touch.)
Barack Obama gave us eight years of maturity and class.
Among other things, Mitt gave the president point-by-point specifics on how to improve the economy. Because, of course, offering point-by-point specifics during the campaign would've been silly. With a final parting handshake, Romney left the White House grounds in the family station wagon, after which the Secret Service gave the all-clear to let Bo out of his undisclosed location.
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And just one more…
CHEERS (because it's important) and JEERS (because it's still necessary) to World AIDS Day. This year marks 41 years since the first published scientific account of the virus that would decimate the gay community and spread to the straight community with equal viciousness. Today more than 38 million people around the world live with HIV or full-blown AIDS. A minimum of 36 million have died from it. UNAIDS says the 34th anniversary of World AIDS Day brings with it additional complications, (no-)thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, says executive director Winnie Byanyima:
By the way, the last time the 54-ton AIDS quilt could be displayed in its entirety was 1996, and if laid out today it would cover more than 1,293,300 square feet. Not coincidentally, this is also Give A Virus The Finger Day. Knock yerself out.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Linguistics experts like to say that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt us. This is true with the one exception of words that are forged out of razor-sharp steel letters, dipped in curare, and hurled like Ninja throwing stars. Now that we've cleared up that technicality, here's Merriam Webster’s #1 word of 2022, which, I dunno, seems to be arriving about six years too late to me:
Continued...
Its origins are colorful: the term comes from the title of a 1938 play and the movie based on that play, the plot of which involves a man attempting to make his wife believe that she is going insane. His mysterious activities in the attic cause the house’s gas lights to dim, but he insists to his wife that the lights are not dimming and that she can’t trust her own perceptions.
Fuck all the gaslighters...the planet’s worst parasites.
But in recent years, we have seen the meaning of gaslighting refer also to something simpler and broader: “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage.” In this use, the word is at home with other terms relating to modern forms of deception and manipulation, such as fake news, deepfake, and artificial intelligence.
The idea of a deliberate conspiracy to mislead has made gaslighting useful in describing lies that are part of a larger plan.
And let’s be crystal clear here, Merriam and Webster (IF those are even your real names): the gaslighting is being inflicted on people by conservatives. The only way the bullies, dopes, and snowflakes on the right can ever “win” is to convince people that what is ain’t and what ain’t is. A sad and lazy way, if you ask me, to spend one’s fleeting moment here on the pale blue dot.
Other letter-based vittles on MW’s shortlist: oligarch, Omicron, Queen Consort, and—in honor of the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search—raid. We salute all the winners and, as always, hope they enjoy their lifetime supply of alphabet soup.
And now, our feature presentation…
-
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, December 1, 2022
Note: Don’t dine with Nazis. A public service message from this blog and the Ad Council.
-
By the Numbers:
Saturday!!!
Days 'til Baby Jesus Farts in the Manger Day: 24
Days 'til Chester Greenwood Day in Farmington, Maine, honoring the inventor of earmuffs: 2
Percent of new Covid cases that are the new "XBB" strain: 3.1%
Page on which The New York Times buried its story on Trump’s dinner with Nazi Adolf Fuentes: 20
Amount Facebook was fined for violating user data privacy laws in Europe: $275 million
Number of workers who died during construction of World Cup venues: 400
Number of full-line Sears stores that are still open for business, down from 3,500 in 2005: 15
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Quite a few people have been mishearing the Lord lately.
The Rev. Pat Robertson thinks the Lord told the people of Dover, Pa., they shouldn't ask for His help anymore because they elected a school board Robertson doesn't like. And Rep. Richard Baker of Louisiana said right after Hurricane Katrina that "we finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did it."
I kind of doubt Katrina was designed by the Lord as a form of urban renewal. I think it's a big mistake for us to go around putting our own puny interpretations on stuff that happens and then claiming the Lord meant thus-and-such by it. It is my humble opinion that some folks should do a lot more listening to God and a lot less talking for Him. —December, 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day: In Boston…SAVED!!!
-
CHEERS to December. The year's glorious, sparkling, musical, snow-bedecked, bell-ringing, Norman Rockwellesque grand finale. Bring on the swans a' swimming, spin your dreidels (Hanukkah starts the 18th) and polish your Festivus pole (the 23rd).
Ahem. Mask?
Bring on the full "cold moon" (the 7th). Bring on the winter solstice. Bring on C&J’s 19th anniversary. Bring on the last-minute flurry of bills in Congress before the inmates take over the House! Bring on the latest Covid booster! Bring on the sequels—if we must—to Avatar, Aquaman, Puss in Boots, and Night at the Museum! Also: check the expiration date on the eggnog that's been sitting in the back of your fridge since 1999 before you take a swig. And settle your differences with 2022 because in 30 days it’s out the door and ain't comin' back. I believe I speak on behalf of everybody here when I say: "Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya."
JEERS to December. The year's stress-filled, bone chilling, dark-by-3, be-cheerful-or-else, and oh-here comes a-giant-blizzard grand finale. The Harry Simeone choir will make curmudgeons' ears bleed with enough pa-rum-pum-pum-pums to choke a horse, and you just know there are several beloved mega-celebrities who will inconvenience us by dying this month.
Fox News will continue hating on Christmas for another season by using this Satanic “greeting.”
There’s the Pearl Harbor anniversary to remind us how few of our WW II heroes remain above ground. Our cat will take up her favorite December tradition of batting glass ornaments off the tree for us to step on in the middle of the night. With the MAGA cult still hellbent on abolishing democracy and establishing a Fourth Reich in America, the wise among us will forgo candy canes and instead hang holiday-themed Prozac dispensers. Plus: I just guzzled a bunch of eggnog before checking the expiration date, so nice knowin’ ya. I believe I speak on behalf of everybody here when I say: "Bah humbug."
CHEERS to putting a padlock over the tied knot. Well, maybe the new law Congress passed this week isn't quite that ironclad (gotta protect the fee-fees of the haters who worship an invisible angry sky god whose existence has never been proven), but it's a sight better than what happened nearly 30 years ago when a "pro-gay" Democratic president (Hi, Bubba!) signed into law a total ban on marriage equality:
The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to codify protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, a historic vote aimed at protecting people’s civil rights in the event that the conservative-led Supreme Court decides to dismantle marriage equality on the heels of gutting abortion rights.
Mazel Tov.
The bill does two things: It repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law that banned same-sex marriage, and it requires states to recognize valid same-sex marriages from other states. It also ensures the same protections for interracial marriages.
[T]he Respect for Marriage Act ensures that there is no federal ban in place that would invalidate hundreds of thousands of same-sex marriages that have been legally carried out to date. It also ensures that states with same-sex marriage bans, like Utah, would still have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states with their own marriage equality laws, such as Massachusetts.
Well done. Oh, and before I forget: someone should probably go do a wellness check on Anita Bryant.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to parking your kiester for equality. On December 1, 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks, who was also secretary of the local branch of the NAACP and trained in nonviolent civil disobedience long before John Lewis labeled it "good trouble," refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama public bus. The bus driver, James Blake, said he was just doing his job when he ratted her out. But history reveals his job apparently also included being a jerk:
Once, after she had paid her fare at the front, he had ordered her to board the bus at the rear and then, before she could do so, driven off.
The bus.
On other occasions he had ostentatiously driven past the stop at which she was waiting.
As for Parks, she wasn't the first black American to challenge the discriminatory rules of public transportation. But in this case, her arrest and the ensuing boycott of the bus system—led by budding activist Martin Luther King, Jr.—became a signature event of the civil rights protest movement. I don’t like to play the game of "What If,” but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts she'd be rooting for the success of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Yeah—going out on limbs is my business.
CHEERS to today's edition of Miss Manners' Subtle Lessons in Etiquette. Today's lesson involves the proper way to deal with an unwanted guest whom you have inadvertently invited for supper. Pay attention, because this is a subtle move requiring finesse and diplomacy:
And, above all, don’t forget to extend your pinky.
-
Ten years ago in C&J: December 1, 2012
CHEERS to closure. One thing about running for president: you know that if you lose you're gonna be on the receiving end of your side's rage and the other side's glee and it's gonna hurt like hell. So it was nice to see President Obama showing respect to Mitt Romney yesterday as they sat down for lunch at the White House. (Although I have to wonder whose idea it was to serve "white turkey" chili—nice touch.)
Barack Obama gave us eight years of maturity and class.
Among other things, Mitt gave the president point-by-point specifics on how to improve the economy. Because, of course, offering point-by-point specifics during the campaign would've been silly. With a final parting handshake, Romney left the White House grounds in the family station wagon, after which the Secret Service gave the all-clear to let Bo out of his undisclosed location.
-
And just one more…
CHEERS (because it's important) and JEERS (because it's still necessary) to World AIDS Day. This year marks 41 years since the first published scientific account of the virus that would decimate the gay community and spread to the straight community with equal viciousness. Today more than 38 million people around the world live with HIV or full-blown AIDS. A minimum of 36 million have died from it. UNAIDS says the 34th anniversary of World AIDS Day brings with it additional complications, (no-)thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, says executive director Winnie Byanyima:
To end AIDS, we must tackle the inequalities in resourcing.
The COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine have increased inequality worldwide. Every day, G20 countries receive 136 million dollars in debt repayments from poor countries in the South. Meanwhile in these countries debt repayments are 4 times more than they spend on health and twice what they spend on education.
Lest we forget, this asshole took years to even acknowledge that HIV/AIDS existed. Rot in hell, Gipper.
In the midst of a crisis of debt, austerity and inequality hitting developing countries, some rich countries have cut back aid for global health and are considering even deeper cuts.
This is not right. Now is not the time to step away, it is the time to step up.
Remember: it is through international solidarity that we reduced inequalities in financing and made amazing gains against AIDS including bringing more than 28 million people onto life-saving treatment. And we must complete the job.
On World AIDS Day, UNAIDS joins with people living with HIV and communities around the world in one shared call to action: Equalize.
Equalize access to rights, equalize access to services, equalize access to resources, equalize access to the best science and medicine. This is how we will end AIDS.
By the way, the last time the 54-ton AIDS quilt could be displayed in its entirety was 1996, and if laid out today it would cover more than 1,293,300 square feet. Not coincidentally, this is also Give A Virus The Finger Day. Knock yerself out.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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