Tuesdays with Muerte

Hunky-Dory Hunky-dory  is a term that means things are safe, all good, or going well. E.g., "Everything is hunky-dory" But where did the phrase come from? Adobe Stock The  Online Etymology Dictionary  claims that the phrase  hunky-dory  may have originated from the Middle Dutch word  honc , meaning "place of refuge, hiding place." Honc  then evolved into the Dutch word  honk , which was used in a Frisian variant of the game of tag (as in guten tag ) to mean the “goal” or “homebase.” The Dutch took this word (and presumably the game, too) overseas from New Amsterdam to New York. The first recorded usage of the term was around the 1840s in New York. Once the children's game hit New York, honk  may have evolved into the slang term  hunk  ("in a safe position," 1847). Perhaps hunk evolved into the cutsie derivative  hunkey  ("safe, all right, satisfactory," 1861). In other words, to achieve ...

Winning after a clutch penalty kick, Adobe Stock I love the word clutch , especially when it describes a person winning a game or accomplishing a difficult activity (such as being the only remaining player on one's team against several opponents). When I hear the word "clutch," multiple meanings come to mind simultaneously: Etymologically, clutch  comes from the Middle English clitch , which means to "close the hand," or "grasp something tightly" which reminds me of cinching the win (like a horse saddle strap), leaving no room for escape. In Old English, clyccan  means "crook" or "bend," which adds a new dimension to the word's meaning. A clutch play can be illustrated by a shepherd's crook, illustrating a sudden 180-degree change in the momentum of the game. In the vernacular, I imagine a bird of prey's clawed clutch , unexpectedly (or luckily) swooping in and snatching victory away from one's opponents. Clutch migh...

The Itsy Bitsy Spider: A Fan Theory I just learned about water sprouts . These bad boys love to grow on fruit trees. They provide the perfect structural support for spiderwebs. Fruit farmers are all too familiar with them because they qualify as "deranged wood" and need to be regularly pruned. However, as we will explore later, they can also serve as powerful metaphors. It reminded me of the familiar nursery rhythm "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (based on the original 1910 folksong, "Spider Song"). I wondered if the song included the lyric water spout at some point in its evolution . The first publication of the song involved a spider climbing and being washed from a web . "Oh, the blooming, bloody spider went up the spider web , The blooming, bloody rain came down and washed the spider out, The blooming, bloody sun came out and dried up all the rain, And the blooming, bloody spider came up the web again." Originating in Southern California during the...

Have you seen the 1965 film The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews ? There's a song lyric from "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" that I've misheard my entire life. I thought Rolf sang, "Timid and shy and scared are you of things beyond your kin (as in family)." But I recently learned while reading How To Know A Person by the wordsmith David Brooks that the lyric is not kin, but ken . I had to look up the full lyrics to confirm. Sure enough, ken . So what does ken mean? Turns out, it's a nautical term.  Merriam-Webster has this to say: Ken appeared on the English horizon in the 16th century as a term of measurement of the distance bounding the range of ordinary vision at sea—about 20 miles. British author John Lyly used that sense in 1580 when he wrote, "They are safely come within a ken of Dover." Other 16th-century writers used ken to mean " range of vision " ("Out of ken we were ere the Countesse came from the feast....

I dislike all five of these terms and will avoid using them when possible. But when they are misused (by myself or others), a little grammar nazi in my head starts to cough and spit. Common Misspellings "Disconscerning" vs. Disconcerting "Alot" vs. a lot "Could/Would/Should of" vs Could've/Would've/Should've "Ecetera" vs et certa Less vs. Fewer When you’re trying to decide between “less” and “fewer” first ask yourself: am I talking about a specific number of things? If you can count it, then use "fewer." If not, then use “less.”  Fore example: Less — If you’ve got a big bowl of salad (with an indiscernible or irrelevant number of leaves) and you can’t eat it all, you might ask for “less salad.” Fewer — If, however, there is a specific number of tomatoes in the salad and you think there are too many, you would ask for “fewer” tomatoes (or a fewer number of tomatoes). Nauseous vs. Nauseated For hundreds of years, nauseous  ...

I do not breath, yet I run. I do not eat, yet I sleep. I do not drink, yet I swim. I do not think, yet I grow. I cannot see you, but you see me every day. What am I? Think you know what it is? Cryptic Hint Easy Hint This is a photo of me relaxing on the side of Cascade mountain after scrambling up a draw filled with snow and ice. All I had to support my ascent was a pair of boots, walking poles, my muscular legs, and my incredible sense of balance; I only fell twice! You can't really see them from this angle, but try to look for all the scrapes I acquired! Answer Your Leg

Okay, folks.  That last game was ridiculously easy for most of you.  (Everyone got it in within the first 2 or 3 quotes—even the kids.) So now, THE KID GLOVES ARE COMING OFF!  You want to go toe-to-toe with Bryan, the single man who has probably seen more movies than all 5 of you (who follow my blog) combined—here's your chance to truly prove yourselves.  Since this is only round one, I'll still be pulling punches. (e.g. If I were going all out, I would have only shown you the image of the goat costume below, instead of all three.  You'll have to ask yourself, "given the 90s fantasy hint from last week, would I have gotten it?"  That's the kind of mental pain I'll be bringing in weeks to come.) Rules: Pop culture references ONLY. (No cult stuff that only I have seen.) Nothing R-rated. (G — PG-13, including things like NOT RATED popular documentaries.) Let's start off by saying, I have to own it.  (This includes digital videos, but they must h...

It's time for round 2 of a fun game I like to call, "GUESS THAT MOVIE CHARACTER!"  We played on this blog a couple of years ago ! To make this game fun: Read the quotes in order. (I tried to order the 10 quotes with the most difficult ones first.) When you think you know the name of the character, make your guess in the comment section below.  (Share how quickly you got it.) Then go back and check to see if you got the correct answer. The game ends Sunday, Feb. 24th, at which point I will post your replies and you can see how you all did. Movie Character Quotes: Quote #1 "It's true that Mavis and Sybil have ways that are winning, and Prudence and Gwendolyn set your heart spinning! Phoebe's delightful, Maude is disarming..." Quote #2 "You know, begging your pardon, but the one my heart goes out to is your father. There he is in that cold, heartless bank day after day, hemmed in by mounds of cold, heartless money. I don'...

I love easter eggs.  As an eLearning developer, I have been tempted to slip them into my lessons to reward the ultra-observant learner.  Why not? Disney artists have done the same thing for years--unfortunately, only their raunchy ones get publicity.  So, let's focus on some clean fun ones.  This clip has some fun guest appearances: Start paying close attention around 02:45. During the sequence in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame in which Quasimodo sings ‘Out There’ (one of the best songs on the soundtrack), as we pan over a view of Paris from the bell tower, characters from other Disney movies can be seen in the background. Most prominently is Belle (Beauty & The Beast) strolling along in her blue dress and reading a book of course. More sharp eyed viewers may also spot Pumbaa from The Lion King being carried by two men. A street merchant shaking out the flying carpet from Aladdin And even a satellite dish on one of the rooftops.

This is a photo of me and two of the principle actors in the LDS film, 17 Miracles; the story of the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies traveling from England to Utah. The photo itself was take just after shooting the cheesy love scene where the two love birds do this weird heart-tapping thing.  I still can't get that line out of my head—" That doesn't drive me crazy, you  drive me crazy."  Blah! Very cool people though.  Can you find the artifact that proves that this photo was taken in the 20th century? Click to Photo to Enlarge Jason Celaya  as George Padley  (Right) Bryan Tanner as featured extra (Middle) Natalie Blackman  as Sarah Franks (Left) Hint: An artifact is a man-made  object, typically an item of cultural or historical interest.  (E.g. I already cropped out a can of A&W root beer that Jason  was holding in his right hand.) The modern-day artifact that still remains is worn on the face, but it's...

I love Undercover Blues!   I catch something new and interesting every time I watch it.  While listening to some oldies music, I heard the MOST-EXCELLENT Undercover Blues reference. The Story of Dr. Lotte Lenya: Michael Bublé sang a cover of Mack the Knife .  Bublé covered Sinatra who covered Bobby Darin's "definitive version," who took it from Louis Armstrong, who brought it to the U.S. from Germany in 1956 from a beautiful singer/actress named Lotte Lenya . So I looked up the song on Wikipedia and found that The Ballad of Mack the Knife was originally a medieval, German murder ballad sung in an Opera called, Die Dreigroschenoper or The Threepenny Opera.   The Opera opens with a carefree, traveling mistral (read: Jefferson Blue), who sings the gruesome tale of Macheath, comparing him (unfavorably) with a shark, and and recounting the tales of his robberies, murders, rapes, and arson in order to intimidate and frighten the audience (read: Mr. Ferd...

Image  Source We may have known some of them, but we didn’t know that we knew them. 1. Domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and use them to find food. 2. Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking. 3. High cholesterol levels in midlife are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia later in life. 4. Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years. 5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not. 6. Obesity in teenage girls may increase their risk of later developing multiple sclerosis. 7. A fossil skeleton of an Aardonyx celestae dinosaur discovered in South Africa appears to be the missing link between the earliest dinosaurs that walked on two legs and the larg...

Despite the anti-American slur, I believe the following statistic to be veracious: If you want to know the answer, the image solution lies below: Hint #1: The answer is greater than thirty, but less that one hundred. Hint #2: Don't forget to count the triangles whose angles start from the bottom left, the bottom right and the center, where the lines from the left and right meet. Hint #3: Only equation to solve for the answer is (n+1)^3 where n is the number of internal lines coming from each side. Hint #4: Another way of looking at it is 4x4x4, so they say. I'm sure it's a little more complex than that. Solution: Want to see how it's done?

1. Question: It is one of the simplest, but most enigmatic mysteries of nature: why do flamingos like to stand on one leg? Answer: Flamingos stand on one leg to regulate their body temperature. 2. Question: What is the origin of "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil?" Answer: The main guess is that it is derived from a religious phrase, "If we do not hear, see, or speak evil, we ourselves shall be spared all evil." This religious phrase was put into practice in the form of three monkeys carved, one with its hands over its eyes, one with its hands over its ears, and another with its hands over its mouth, for the Nikko Toshogo Shrine in Japan. 3. Question: What is my favorite palindrome ? *Sambo: A negro; sometimes, the offspring of a black person and a mulatto [offspring of black and white]; - formerly used colloquially or with humorous intent, but now considered offensive or racist by African-Americans. Taught to me as a commonplace term in my Univ...

Did you know that Child Star, Gary Coleman lives in Santaquin, UT?! I sure didn't until this week! This is a picture of him after starring in "Different Strokes" but before he got married and moved out to Utah. (No, that is not a picture of his wife, below.) Catch Phrase : "Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?" Fun Facts : Appearing on TV court in front of Mills Lane, Gary was ordered to pay bus driver Tracy Fields $1665 for hospital bills resulting from a fight stemming from an attempt to get an autograph in a Hawthorne, California mall. Gary said he felt threatened by her insistence and punched her in the head. [2 November 2000] Had his first kidney transplant in 1973. His second in 1984. Ranked #1 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars". In 2005, ranked #10 in E's cutest child stars all grown-up. May 2000: Announced that he is going to run for the US Senate seat from California against incumbent Dianne ...

Where was This Photo Taken? If my sleuthing skills serve me correctly, I'd say. . . This photo was taken in a Transit Station in British Columbia [Canadian West Coast]. Notice the train outside. You will also observe a Canadian flag on the stand-alone sign. And finally, you will notice that all the final destinations are on the US west coast, from North to South. Thus, we must assume they are in Canada as it would be illogical to post a sign for travelers going North if the train were headed South. It is safe to deduce, since there are no major stops in Canada scheduled along the way, that they are currently located in the coastal city furthest south in the District of British Columbia: Vancouver. The real question is where is she heading? The options are posted on the wall: a. Portland b. San Fransisco c. Los Angeles ---------------- Listening to: Depeche Mode - Miles Away/the Truth Is

The "Rummikub" Pronunciation Debate Affirmative Constructive: "Cub" For years, I have been a firm advocate and defender of the pronunciation, Rummi-"CUB".  The game box I grew up with spelled it, Rummicub  on the box. However, other productions of the game have variant spellings: Rummykub , Rummy Kube , Rummy Tiles , etc.  Based solely on box spelling, the game's true pronunciation is open to interpretation. Therefore, Rummi"cub" is equally acceptable to any other given pronunciation. Negative  Constructive : "Cube" My opponents argue that since the game originated over seas, we ought to respect and maintain its original pronunciation. Affirmative Rebuttal: Americanization of the Term When the game was brought to America and given Americanized rules, its name was also Americanized. Pronunciation loyalists then counter my rebuttal with, "there are lots of adopted foreign words that have retained their original pron...