Word of the Day for Monday, February 28, 2011

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cofsset \KOSS-it\, verb:

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1. To treat as a pet; to treat with excessive indulgence; to pamper.

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noun:

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1. A pet, especially a pet lamb.

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The B.O. has, not surprisingly, cosseted the unions from day one; after all, they were the driving force for his getting elected; so it is no surprise that he is encouraging the Wisconsin unions in their local insurrection!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Sumner's parents, for instance, were routinely attended by butlers, maids, coachmen and grooms while little Sumner and his sister, Emily, were pampered and cosseted from infancy by nurserymaids and governesses.-- Benjamin Welles, Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist

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Assunta played a larger role in the lives of her children, whom she cosseted and cared for as best she could.-- Patricia Albers, Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti

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In these two years, Adolf lived a life of parasitic idleness -- funded, provided for, looked after, and cosseted by a doting mother, with his own room in the comfortable flat in the Humboldtstrasse in Linz, which the family had moved into in June 1905.-- Ian Kershaw, Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris

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Cosset comes from the noun cosset, "a pet lamb."

Dave Ramsey Would Not Be Proud

WH press secretary Jay Carney wouldn't elaborate on Barack Hussein Obama's comments about the "assault on unions" in Wisconsin. Instead, according to Fox News, he said that the whole country should be "living within their means."

Let's pause there for a moment to revisit a recent event at the White House. A huge, expensive Motown party - paid for by, Obama? Nope. You can't afford that kind of talent on his salary. To book all that entertainment - you don't want to know. To pay for the catering - you really don't want to know. The production (sound, lights, staging) alone is more than the salary that Obama pulls down.

Did Michelle pay for it out of her own pocket? Baaaaahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! I know, I know. Silly question. I couldn't even type that and keep a straight face.

So, back to that whole living within their means comment from Carney. Who paid for the Motown party at the White House, Carney?? Who paid for it, Mr. President?

I did! So did every other American citizen.

You tell us to live within our means, yet you throw lavish parties like this Motown 'tribute' in spite of our country's current financial position.

Hussein Obama = arrogant, elitist, hypocrite.

You do not look out for the average Joe Sixpack American, especially by your actions.

Try living within YOUR means, not within the collective means of the other 300 million Joe Sixpack Americans you're taxing into oblivion.

November 2012 is coming...

Dereliction of Duty

Dereliction of duty or delusions of a dictatorship...or both? Based on behavior, likely both.

Either way, it's clear that Barack Hussein Obama doesn't respect America, it's citizens or the position he has as President. His inaction certainly shows his position on marriage.

Big thanks to Newt Gingrich for calling it like it is with regard to BHO's EPIC FAIL inaction on the Defense of Marriage law.

Have you called your Senator or State Rep lately to remind them who they work for?

(hint hint - they work for you)

November 2012 is coming. Not soon enough, but it's coming.

The Good Wife Attacks Sarah Palin

Hollywood and the politics of Capital Hill have long been intertwined. Generally speaking, those tangled up vines lean to the left quite a bit. Not to say Conservatives don't get much exposure in the world of entertainment, but they sure don't get the kind they'd prefer. The press that Conservatives garner doesn't really fall into the "any press is good press" category.

Case in point, this 'dandy' of a character development on the show "The Good Wife" on CBS, who incidentally has had their own share of problems lately with another left-wing nut job - Charlie Sheen. The character is portrayed as a ballistics expert, Tea Party supporter and Sarah Palin fan whose name is Kurt McVeigh. Yes, like Timothy McVeigh the Oklahoma City bomber.

CBS signed off on co-creator Robert King's naming of the character and King stated that it was not intended to portray Republicans or the Tea Party in a negative light.

Really, dude? Are you sure about that? That's exactly what it does. Man up and say it because we all know it. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here talking about it.

If you don't like the political agenda of a TV show that's on the air, organize your network to communicate your feelings about it to the network. Do not just stand on the sidelines and let the liberals in Hollywood dictate to you what makes good television.

Word of the Day for Friday, February 25, 2011

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lexicography \lek-suh-KAH-gruh-fee\, noun:

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1. The writing or compiling of dictionaries; the editing or making of dictionaries.

2. The principles and practices applied to writing dictionaries.

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When updating the lexicography for their latest dictionary, the authors noted the following:

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B.O. -- A shortened version of the term body odor, which is an unpleasant odor from a perspiring or unclean person; more recently the term is also used to refer to Barack Obama, which serendipitously refers to an unpleasant and stinky president!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Dictionary of American Regional English, Volume I heroically preserves our rapidly disappearing folk expressions, and many of the rich, salty words and phrases found in its 904 pages could encourage a taste for lexicography.-- Shirley Horner, review of "Dictionary of American Regional English", New York Times, December 8, 1985

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Jim is a dictionary writer by trade, one of those sedentary wordsmiths who spend their lives in the library and retire with watery eyes and schoolteacher salaries--except he found a way to abandon lexicography and make a windfall fortune in the Internet economy.-- Christopher McDougall, "The Secret of Vuleefore", Outside magazine, September 2000

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The final arrangement of "set," achieved under the by then septuagenarian Murray, is perhaps lexicography's Eroica Symphony.-- Hugh Kenner, "Ode on an OED" review of The Oxford English Dictionary, The Oxford English Dictionary,New York Times, April 16, 1989

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I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.-- Samuel Johnson, preface to his Dictionary of the English Language

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Lexicography is derived from the Greek lexicon (biblion), a word- or phrase-book (from lexis, a phrase, a word) + graphein, to write. A lexicographer (thought to be formed on the pattern of geographer) is a compiler or writer of a dictionary -- as defined by Samuel Johnson in his own Dictionary of the English Language, "a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge."

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 24, 2011

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hypnagogic \hip-nuh-GOJ-ik; -GOH-jik\, adjective:

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Of, pertaining to, or occurring in the state of drowsiness preceding sleep.

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As the B.O. slowly drifts into his nightly hypnagogic state, visions of One World, One Voice, His Voice, dance through his head!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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It is of course precisely in such episodes of mental traveling that writers are known to do good work, sometimes even their best, solving formal problems, getting advice from Beyond, having hypnagogic adventures that with luck can be recovered later on.-- Thomas Pynchon, "Nearer, My Couch, to Thee", New York Times, June 6, 1993

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. . .the phenomenon of hypnagogic hallucinations, or what Mr. Alvarez describes as "the flickering images and voices that well up just before sleep takes over."-- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "The Faces of Night, Many of Them Scary", New York Times, January 9, 1995

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His uncensored and uncensoring subconscious allows him to absorb the world around him and in him, and to spit it out almost undigested, as if he were walking around in a constant hypnagogic state.-- Susan Bolotin, "Don't Turn Your Back on This Book", New York Times, June 9, 1985

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Hypnagogic (sometimes spelled hypnogogic) ultimately derives from Greek hupnos, "sleep" + agogos, "leading," from agein, "to lead."

Just a glimpse into the future!

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 23, 2011

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nimbus \NIM-buhs\, noun:

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1. (Fine Arts) A circle, or disk, or any indication of radiant light around the heads of divinities, saints, and sovereigns, upon medals, pictures, etc.; a halo.

2. A cloud or atmosphere (as of romance or glamour) that surrounds a person or thing.

3. (Meteorology) A rain cloud.

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That nimbus surrounding the B.O. after he was first elected was actually coming from the (conservative) train's headlight as he and his administration were about to be run over!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Sometimes when she stood in front of a lamp, the highlights on her hair made a nimbus.-- James Morgan, The Distance to the Moon

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The two lights over the front steps were haloed with a hazy nimbus of mist, and strange insects fluttered up against the screen, fragile, wing-thin and blinded, dazed, numbed by the brilliance.-- Karen V. Kukil (Editor), The Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950-1962

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Mara felt she could practically see a nimbus of light around her, like the biblical Esther before she becomes queen.-- Anna Shapiro, The Scourge

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Decorated in royal green and gold with crystal chandeliers and plush furniture, the office featured a lighted full-length portrait of Johnson leaning against a bookcase and two overhead lamps projecting "an impressive nimbus of golden light" as Lyndon sat at his desk.-- Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant

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Nimbus is from the Latin nimbus, "a rain cloud, a rain storm."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 22, 2011

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bailiwick \BAY-luh-wik\, noun:

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1. A person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work.

2. The office or district of a bailiff.

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Leadership is not the B.O.'s bailiwick!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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I'll give it a try, but this is not my bailiwick.-- Sue Grafton, 'L' Is for Lawless

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He "professed ignorance, as of something outside my bailiwick."-- Marc Aronson, "Wharton and the House of Scribner: The Novelist as a Pain in the Neck", New York Times, January 2, 1994

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Fund-raising was Cliff's bailiwick, anyway, and he seemed to have it in hand.-- Curt Sampson, The Masters

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Bailiwick comes from Middle English baillifwik, from baillif, "bailiff" (ultimately from Latin bajulus, "porter, carrier") + wik, "town," from Old English wic, from Latin vicus, "village."

Word of the Day for Monday, February 21, 2011

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inkhorn \INK-horn\, adjective:

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1. Affectedly or ostentatiously learned; pedantic.

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noun:

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1. A small bottle of horn or other material formerly used for holding ink.

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Since the (now former?) Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a tinhorn dictator, I wonder if the B.O. could be called an inkhorn orator?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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. . .the widespread use of what were called (dismissively, by truly learned folk) "inkhorn terms."-- Simon Winchester, "Word Imperfect", The Atlantic Monthly, May 2001

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In prison he wrote the De Consolatione Philosophiae, his most celebrated work and one of the most translated works in history; it was translated . . . by Elizabeth I into florid, inkhorn language.-- The Oxford Companion to English Literature, s.v. "Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus (c. 475 - 525)."

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Inkhorn derives from the name for the container formerly used (beginning in the 14th century) for holding ink, originally made from a real horn. Hence it came to refer to words that were being used by learned writers and scholars but which were unknown or rare in ordinary speech.

Word of the Day for Friday, February 18, 2011

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libation \ly-BAY-shun\, noun:

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1. The act of pouring a liquid (usually wine) either on the ground or on a victim in sacrifice to some deity; also, the wine or liquid thus poured out.

2. A beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.

3. An act or instance of drinking.

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I wonder how many "Kool-Aid" laced libations the B.O. has had over the years to get him to where his head is at now!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Hearing that the train had lost one of its engines and that the remainder of the trip would be very slow, I headed for the bar car for a libation and a snack or two to soothe my growing hunger pangs.-- Lawrence Van Gelder, "Tales of Flying Cars and Trees", New York Times, May 28, 2000

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Giving careful packing instructions to his Sherpas who would befreighting the spirits to his Base Camp, Todd more than half-anticipated some nights when the libation might serve to take off the edge.-- Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt, The Climb

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Libation is from Latin libatio, from libare, "to take a little from anything, to taste, to pour out as an offering."

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 17, 2011

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ululate \UL-yuh-layt; YOOL-\, intransitive verb:

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To howl, as a dog or a wolf; to wail; as, ululating jackals.

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Can't you just picture the B.O. as a youngster learning how to ululate in his native Kenyan village?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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He had often dreamed of his grieving family visiting his grave, ululating as only the relatives of martyrs may.-- Edward Shirley, Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran

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She wanted to be on the tarmac, to ululate and raise her hands to the heavens.-- Deborah Sontag, "Palestinian Airport Opens to Jubilation", New York Times, November 25, 1998

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She used harrowing, penetrating nasal tones and a rasp that approached Janis Joplin's double-stops; she made notes break and ululate.-- Jon Pareles, "On the Third Day There Was Whooping and There Was Moshing", New York Times, August 18, 1998

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Ululate derives from Latin ululare, to howl, to yell, ultimately of imitative origin. The noun form is ululation; the adjective form is ululant.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 16, 2011

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factotum \fak-TOH-tuhm\, noun:

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A person employed to do all kinds of work or business.

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The B.O.'s newest mouthpiece and factotum in charge of the White House propaganda, one Jay Carney, has proved to be as inept at his new job as the B.O. has been at his; birds of a feather flock together, I guess!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Mr. Hersey thus became Mr. Lewis's summertime factotum, copying pages of a play that Lewis was writing about Communism.-- Richard Severo, "John Hersey, Author of 'Hiroshima,' Is Dead at 78", New York Times, March 25, 1993

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She is a blind, paraplegic forensic hypnotist, and he is her brother and general factotum.-- Newgate Callendar, "Spies & Thrillers", New York Times, July 31, 1994

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Factotum is from Medieval Latin, from Latin fac totum, "do everything," from facere, "to do" + totus, "all."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 15, 2011

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uxorious \uk-SOR-ee-us; ug-ZOR-\, adjective:

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Excessively fond of or submissive to a wife.

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If the B.O. were as attentive to following the actual Constitution as he is at being an uxorious husband, the country would not be currently headed down the road to perdition!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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It is batty to suppose that the most uxorious of husbands will stop his wife's excessive shopping if an excessive shopper she has always been.-- Angela Huth, "All you need is love", Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1998

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Flagler seems to have been an uxorious, domestic man, who liked the comfort and companionship of a wife at his side.-- Michael Browning, "Whitehall at 100", Palm Beach Post, February 22, 2002

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Fuller is as uxorious a poet as they come: hiatuses in the couple's mutual understanding are overcome with such rapidity as to be hardly worth mentioning in the first place ("How easy, this ability / To lose whatever we possess / By ceasing to believe that we / Deserve such brilliant success").-- David Wheatley, "Round and round we go", The Guardian, October 5, 2002

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Uxorious is from Latin uxorius, from uxor, wife.

Word of the Day for Monday, February 14, 2011

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inveigle \in-VAY-guhl; -VEE-\, transitive verb:

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1. To persuade by ingenuity or flattery; to entice.

2. To obtain by ingenuity or flattery.

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Once again, the B.O. and his fellow Dems will attempt to inveigle the GOP into acquiescing on the budget; the GOP will once again give up their soul to show to the voters how bipartisan they are, and then the Dems will sucker punch them - again; you would think the GOP would learn!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Deep Blue had tried to inveigle Kasparov into grabbing several pawn offers, but the champion was not fooled.-- Robert Byrne, "Kasparov and Computer Play to a Draw", New York Times, February 14, 1996

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He used to tell one about Kevin Moran ringing him up pretending to be a French radio journalist and inveigling Cas, new in France, into parlaying his three words of French into an interview.-- Tom Humphries, "Big Cas cameos will be missed", Irish Times, May 4, 2000

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Once a soft touch for these ragged moralists who inveigled her into sparing them her change, Agnes began to cross the road, begging for some change in her circumstances.-- Rachel Cusk, Saving Agnes

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In fact, he spent the entire time in the car park, waiting for eye witnesses from whom to inveigle quotes he could use as his own.-- Matthew Norman, "Diary", The Guardian, January 1, 2003

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Inveigle comes from Anglo-French enveogler, from Old French aveugler, "to blind, to lead astray as if blind," from aveugle, "blind," from Medieval Latin ab oculis, "without eyes."

Word of the Day for Friday, February 11, 2011

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imbroglio \im-BROHL-yoh\, noun:

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1. A complicated and embarrassing state of things.

2. A confused or complicated disagreement or misunderstanding.

3. An intricate, complicated plot, as of a drama or work of fiction.

4. A confused mass; a tangle.

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Yet another motto for the B.O. -- "Imbroglios R Us!"

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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The political imbroglio also appears to endanger the latest International Monetary Fund loan package for Russia, which is considered critical to avoid a default this year on the country's $17 billion in foreign debt.-- David Hoffman, "Citing Economy, Yeltsin Fires Premier", Washington Post, May 13, 1999

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Worse still, hearings and investigations into scandals -- from the imbroglio over Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination in 1991 to the charges of perjury against President Clinton in 1998 -- have overshadowed any consideration of the country's future.-- John B. Judis, The Paradox of American Democracy

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To the extent that Washington had a policy toward the subcontinent, its aim was to be evenhanded and not get drawn into the diplomatic imbroglio over Kashmir.-- George Perkovich, India's Nuclear Bomb

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The imbroglio over the seemingly arcane currency issue threatens to plunge Indonesia -- and possibly its neighbors as well -- into a renewed bout of financial turmoil.-- Paul Blustein, "Currency Dispute Threatens Indonesia's Bailout", Washington Post, February 14, 1998

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Imbroglio derives from Italian, from Old Italian imbrogliare, "to tangle, to confuse," from in-, "in" + brogliare, "to mix, to stir." It is related to embroil, "to entangle in conflict or argument."

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 10, 2011

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daedal \DEE-duhl\, adjective:

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1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate.

2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious.

3. Rich; adorned with many things.

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The B.O. is incapable of understanding the daedal relationships between the middle east countries and the United States!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Most Web-site designers realize that large image maps and daedal layouts are to be avoided, and the leading World Wide Web designers have reacted to users' objections to highly graphical, slow sites by using uncluttered, easy-to-use layouts.-- "Fixing Web-site usability", InfoWorld, December 15, 1997

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He gathered toward the end of his life a very extensive collection of illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts, and took heightened pleasure in their daedal patterns as his own strength declined.-- Florence S. Boos, preface to The Collected Letters of William Morris

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I sang of the dancing stars,

I sang of the daedal earth,

And of heaven, and the giant wars,

And love, and death, and birth.

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hymn Of Pan"

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Daedal comes from Latin daedalus, "cunningly wrought," from Greek daidalos, "skillful, cunningly created."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 9, 2011

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doppelganger \DOP-uhl-gang-uhr\, noun:

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1. A ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.

2. Alter ego; double.

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I wonder who the B.O.'s political doppelganger is; hmmm, Karl Marx comes to mind!

Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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To readers of science fiction, the idea of a single atom existing simultaneously in two states or places is reminiscent of the supernatural "doppelganger" -- a flesh-and-blood duplicate of one's self encountered while walking along a street.-- "Physicists Put Atom in Two Places at Once", New York Times, May 28, 1996

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But my primary interest here is not the machinations of science itself but the fascinating life and times of its dark doppelganger, the mad scientist, in all his overreaching glory.-- David J. Skal, Screams of Reason

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Doppelganger is from the German doppel, "double" + Gänger, "goer."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 8, 2011
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philomath \FIL-uh-math\, noun:
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A lover of learning; a scholar.
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While the B.O. may publicly profess to be a philomath of the U.S. Constitution, he acts more like he is an antagonist as to what the founding fathers meant for it to be, especially when you consider that he said, "We are just 5 days away from fundamentally changing America."!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog
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It is precisely for the philomaths that universities ought to cater.-- Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies
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It's nothing to laugh about, he says. "Strange things happen in this country -- things that philosophers and other philomaths had never dreamed of."-- Tomek Tryzna, Miss Nobody
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Philomath is from the Greek philomathes, "loving knowledge," from philos, "loving, fond" + mathein, "to learn, to understand."

Word of the Day for Monday, February 7, 2011

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desideratum \dih-sid-uh-RAY-tum; -RAH-\, noun;

plural desiderata:

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Something desired or considered necessary.

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So what is the B.O.'s current desideratum du jour? -- To have the corporations of America share their profits with the American worker! Umm, still sounds like socialist-Marxist kind of stuff to me!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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No one in Berkeley -- at least, no one I consorted with -- thought art was for sissies, or that a pensionable job was the highest desideratum.-- John Banville, "Just a dream some of us had", Irish Times, August 24, 1998

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Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum.-- Frederick Douglass, My Bondage, My Freedom

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A technical dictionary . . . is one of the desiderata in anatomy.-- Alexander Monro, Essay on Comparative Anatomy

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Desideratum is from Latin desideratum, "a thing desired," from desiderare, "to desire."

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 3, 2011

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eclat \ey-KLAH\, noun:

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1. Brilliance of success, reputation, etc.

2. Showy or elaborate display.

3. Acclamation; acclaim.

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The B.O. has been showing off his political eclat with his incredibly deft handling of the current Egyptian crisis - NOT!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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It was a great object with her to escape all enquiry or eclat; but it was her intention to be as decidedly cool to him as might be compatible with their relationship ; and to retrace, as quietly as she could, the few steps of unnecessary intimacy she had been gradually led along.-- Jane Austen, Northanger abbey: A novel

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Aimee's Bistro combines Parisian eclat with contemporary California beach chic in this well- established bistro.-- Los Angeles Magazine, June, 2004

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Eclat comes from the French eclat, "fragment, burst, splinter, flash," which relates to esclater, "to burst, break violently."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 2, 2011

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elide \ih-LAHYD\, verb:

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1. To suppress; omit; ignore; pass over.

2. To omit (a vowel, consonant, or syllable) in pronunciation.

3. In law, to annul or quash.

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The B.O. and his liberal cronies seem to think it is okay to elide the U.S. Constitution and just make up their own rules as they go along!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Later she understood it was a smile born of fear at what she had to say, but in that moment when sleep and consciousness elide, her expression seemed humorous, so when the woman said she had bad news and that their father was dead, Annie thought it was a joke.-- Nicholas Evans, The horse whisperer

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Introductions were made - here I elide all of the tedious formalities and small talk - and the Marquise explained to me that she had been looking for a tutor to educate her daughter.-- Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver

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Elide derives from the Latin elidere, "to wound."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 1, 2011

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ambisinister \am-bi-SIN-uh-ster\, adjective:

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Clumsy or unskillful with both hands.

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The B.O.'s ambisinister handling of the whole Egyptian affair is proof positive that he is in way over his head on geopolitics!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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I feared I had simply become ambisinister until I realized that his sitar had fewer frets than mine did.-- Richard Connerney, The Upside Down Tree: India's Changing Culture

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Professor Fischer says that the reserve physicians "Were surgically ambisinister, medically at the zero point, and lacking in discipline, military skill and temperance."-- The military surgeon: Journal of the Association of Military, Volume 34, 1914

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Ambisinister is a combination of the Latin roots Ambi-, "both," and sinister, "to the left side."