Word of the Day for Thursday, March 31, 2011

bivouac \BIV-wak, BIV-uh-wak\, noun:

1. An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

intransitive verb:

1. To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

The B.O. knows as much about a Marine on bivouac as he does about leading the country!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Rob had made his emergency bivouac just below the South Summit.-- David Breashears, "Death on the mountain", The Observer, March 30, 2003

They were stopped by savage winds and forced to bivouac 153 m below the day's goal.-- Erik Weihenmayer, "Men of the Mountain", Time Pacific, February 4, 2002

Bivouac comes from French bivouac, from German Beiwache, "a watching or guarding," from bei, "by, near" + wachen, "to watch."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 30, 2011

lucre \LOO-kuhr\, noun:

Monetary gain; profit; riches; money; -- often in a bad sense.

f

The B.O.'s concept of transfer of wealth includes his own personal lucre!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f His stories began to be published in the American Mercury before he moved to L.A., lured by the dream of Hollywood lucre.-- Jerome Boyd Maunsell, "Truly madly weepy", Times (London), June 10, 2000

f They ought to feel a calling for service rather than lucre.-- Sin-Ming Shaw, "It's Time to Get Real", Time Asia, July 1, 2002

f But surely there are other motives for writing, and they range from the desire for filthy lucre to the pleasure in doing the thing itself to the impulse to delight readers.-- Robert Alter, "The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages", New Republic, October 10, 1994

f Picture the place where you grew up. Now, imagine it trampled by an avalanche of capital and the stampede of lucre-crazed hordes chasing after it.-- Katharine Mieszkowski, "I Want to Blow Up Silicon Valley", Salon, July 14, 2000

f Lucre comes from Latin lucrum, "gain, profit." It is related to lucrative, "profitable."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 29, 2011

f bedaub \bih-DOB\, transitive verb:

f 1. To smudge over; to besmear or soil with anything thick and dirty.

2. To overdecorate; to ornament showily or excessively.

f

The copy of the U.S. Constitution that the B.O. is operating from is apparently so bedaubed with socialism that he can't read it any more!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f The patient's signature is less neat than usual, not only because of his agitated state but also, quite possibly, because the pen is so bedaubed with chocolate that it slips through his fingers.-- Marcel Beyer, "The Karnau Tapes.", Grand Street, Fall 1997

f Only their wagon keeps on rolling, empty, bedaubed with tears, under our windows.-- Laszlo Darvasi and Ivan Sanders, "Stories of Kisses, Stories of Tears.", Grand Street, March 1, 1997

f Bedaub is from be-, "thoroughly" + daub, from Medieval French dauber, "to plaster," perhaps from Old French dauber, "to clothe in white, white-wash, plaster," from Latin dealbare, "to whitewash, to plaster," from de- (intensive prefix) + albus, "white."

Word of the Day for Monday, March 28, 2011

afflatus \uh-FLAY-tuhs\, noun:

A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration.

Tonight the B.O. will attempt to enlighten the American public as to the real reason that he has chosen military action in Libya; it will be nothing less than his own afflatus imparted on his subjects!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Whatever happened to passion and vision and the divine afflatus in poetry?-- Clive Hicks, "From 'Green Man' (Ronsdale)", Toronto Star, November 21, 1999

f Aristophanes must have eclipsed them . . . by the exhibition of some diviner faculty, some higher spiritual afflatus.-- John Addington Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets

f The miraculous spring that nourished Homer's afflatus seems out of reach of today's writers, whose desperate yearning for inspiration only indicates the coming of an age of "exhaustion.-- Benzi Zhang, "Paradox of origin(ality)", Studies in Short Fiction, March 22, 1995

f Afflatus is from Latin afflatus, past participle of afflare, "to blow at or breathe on," from ad-, "at" + flare, "to puff, to blow." Other words with the same root include deflate (de-, "out of" + flare); inflate (in-, "into" + flare); soufflé, the "puffed up" dish (from French souffler, "to puff," from Latin sufflare, "to blow from below," hence "to blow up, to puff up," from sub-, "below" + flare); and flatulent.

Word of the Day for Friday, March 25, 2011

f
bumptious \BUMP-shuhs\, adjective:

f
Crudely, presumptuously, or loudly self-assertive.

f

So is the bumptious B.O. now going to send American jets over Syria because they too are rioting in the streets?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
The clown in the girl is bumptious as can be: bouncing about in the peaked cap and oversized coat of a boy she hasn't learned to love yet, pacing in lockstep behind a fellow-lodger for the sheer love of badgering him, blowing out her cheeks like a fussed walrus when crossed.-- Walter Kerr, Anne Frank Shouldn't Be Anne's Play, New York Times, January 7, 1979

f
Still a tremendous singer and a man so confident of his own sex appeal that he could make the most outrageously bumptious behaviour seem not only engaging but also entirely natural.-- David Sinclair, "Larger than life and twice as rocky", Times (London), March 13, 2000

f
Wells did not meet his father until he was an adult, by which time he had developed his own blunt, sometimes bumptious personality.-- George Vecsey, "An Outsider Who Became an Insider", New York Times, October 7, 1998

f
Bumptious is perhaps a blend of bump and presumptuous.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 23, 2011

f
eschew \es-CHOO\, transitive verb:

f
To shun; to avoid (as something wrong or distasteful).

f

One of the few policies that the B.O. actually has is to eschew the U.S. Constitution and the Republicans in Congress!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
In high school and college the Vassar women had enjoyed that lifestyle, but afterward they had eschewed it as shallow.-- Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman

f
While teaching in Beijing, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang in the late 1920s, he helped launch what became known as the "new poetry" movement, which eschewed traditional forms and encouraged topics based on everyday life.-- Bruce Gilley, Tiger on the Brink

f
Finally, the first American diplomats . . . made a point of eschewing fancy dress, titles, entertainments, and all manner of protocol, so as to be walking, talking symbols of republican piety.-- Walter A. McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State

f
Eschew comes from Old French eschiver, ultimately of Germanic origin, scheuchen.

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 22, 2011

f
fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shuhs\, adjective:

f
Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

f

The B.O.'s promises are of a fugacious nature!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
As the rain conspires with the wind to strip the fugacious glory of the cherry blossoms, it brings a spring delicacy to our dining table.-- Sarah Mori, "A spring delicacy", Malaysian Star

f
The thick, palmately lobed lead is lapped around the bud, which swiftly outgrows its protector, loses its two fugacious sepals, and opens into a star-shaped flower, one to each stem, with several fleshy white petals and a mass of golden stamens in the center.-- Alma R. Hutchens, A Handbook of Native American Herbs

f
When he proposed the tax in May, Altman thought it would follow the fugacious nature of some flowers: bloom quickly and die just as fast.-- Will Rodgers, "Parks proposal falls on 3-2 vote", Tampa Tribune, June 27, 2001

f
Fugacious is derived from Latin fugax, fugac-, "ready to flee, flying; hence, fleeting, transitory," from fugere, "to flee, to take flight." Other words derived from the same root include fugitive, one who flees, especially from the law; refuge, a place to which to flee back (re-, "back"), and hence to safety; and fugue, literally a musical "flight."

Word of the Day for Friday, March 18, 2011

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truckle \TRUHK-uhl\, intransitive verb:

f
1. To yield or bend obsequiously to the will of another; to act in a subservient manner.

f
noun:

f

1. A small wheel or roller; a caster.

f

Sadly, the B.O.'s foreign policy is to truckle to the United Nations!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Only where there was a "defiance," a "refusal to truckle," a "distrust of all authority," they believed, would institutions "express human aspirations, not crush them."-- Pauline Maier, "A More Perfect Union", New York Times, October 31, 1999

f
The son struggled to be obedient to the conventional, commercial values of the father and, at the same time, to maintain his own playful, creative innocence. This conflict could make him truckle in the face of power.-- Dr. Margaret Brenman-Gibson, quoted in "Theater Friends Recall Life and Works of Odets," by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times, October 30, 1981

f
I am convinced that, broadly speaking, the audience must accept the piece on my own terms; that it is fatal to truckle to what one conceives to be popular taste.-- Sidney Joseph Perelman, quoted in "The Perelman Papers," by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times, March 15, 1981

f
Truckle is from truckle in truckle bed (a low bed on wheels that may be pushed under another bed; also called a trundle bed), in reference to the fact that the truckle bed on which the pupil slept was rolled under the large bed of the master. The ultimate source of the word is Greek trokhos, "a wheel."

Word of the Day for Thursday, March 17, 2011

f
quaff \KWOFF; KWAFF\, intransitive verb:

f
1. To drink a beverage, esp. an intoxicating one, copiously and with hearty enjoyment.

f
transitive verb:

f

1. To drink (a beverage) copiously and heartily
noun:1. An act or instance of quaffing.

2. A beverage quaffed.

f

I expect the B.O. will quaff a few adult beverages this weekend while he is taking in the sights down in Brazil - I guess he felt that Brazil was the safest place to take his family for an outing; meanwhile, the rest of the world is falling apart!

Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
He gets drunk with his guides, makes eyes at the girls and gamely quaffs snake wine.-- Pico Iyer, "Snake Wine and Socialism", New York Times, December 15, 1991

f
If you were patient and kept your nose clean, you could slowly, almost effortlessly, rise from serf to squire and maybe even all the way to knight, in which case you, too, would be entitled to quaff bowl-size martinis at midday.-- Charles McGrath, "Office Romance", New York Times Magazine, March 5, 2000

f
Instead they consume caviar, feed off foie gras, chomp exotic cheeses, and quaff champagne.-- "Internet Shopper", Times (London), August 11, 2000

f
Quaff is of unknown origin.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 16, 2011

f
apposite \AP-uh-zit\, adjective:

f
Being of striking appropriateness and relevance; very applicable; apt.

f

The B.O.'s upcoming sightseeing trip to Brazil during this time of worldwide crisis is not in the least bit apposite!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
As we survey Jewish history as a whole from the vantage point of the late twentieth century, Judah Halevi's phrase "prisoner of hope" seems entirely apposite. The prisoner of hope is sustained and encouraged by his hope, even as he is confined by it.-- Jane S. Gerber (Editor), The Illustrated History of the Jewish People

f
Suppose, for example, that in a theoretical physics seminar we were to explain a very technical concept in quantum field theory by comparing it to the concept of aporia in Derridean literary theory. Our audience of physicists would wonder, quite reasonably, what is the goal of such a metaphor--whether or not it is apposite--apart from displaying our own erudition.-- Alan D. Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science

f
The author warns against doubling freely-bid contracts on the strength of a wealth of high cards, since the opponents usually have compensating distributional values. He gives the diagramed example, which is decidedly humorous though not entirely apposite.-- Alan Truscott, "Bridge", New York Times, September 18, 1995

f
Apposite comes from Latin appositus, past participle of apponere, "to set or put near," from ad-, "to, toward" + ponere, "to put, to place."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 15, 2011

f
blandishment \BLAN-dish-muhnt\, noun:

f
Speech or action that flatters and tends to coax, entice, or persuade; allurement -- often used in the plural.

f

More and more people have sadly found out too late that the B.O.'s pre-election blandishments have not translated into effective leadership!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
But she had not risen at all to the law fellow's blandishments, his attempts to interest her in his ideas and persuade her to set forth her own.-- John Bayley, Elegy for Iris

f
And that my English-speaking victims find my blandishments so pretty, accented as they are, and yield to my soft lustrous Italian pronunciations, is a constant source of bliss for me.-- Anne Rice, Vittorio, the Vampire

f
Perfect, gentle reader: I will not begin this book with a tribute to your discernment, because a person of your obvious accomplishments would certainly be immune to such blandishments.-- Richard Stengel, You're Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery

f
Blandishment ultimately comes from Latin blandiri, "to flatter, caress, coax," from blandus, "flattering, mild."

Word of the Day for Monday, March 14, 2011

f
pusillanimous \pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs\, adjective:

f
Lacking in courage and resolution; contemptibly fearful; cowardly.

f

Okay, everyone, have you ever noticed how many of the Word of the Day words seem to be pointed directly at the B.O., like today's word, pusillanimous? If that doesn't describe much of how the B.O. comes across, then I don't know what does! So go ahead and confound your liberal friends and use the B.O. Word of the Day; it will be like they were hit with a verbal tsunami!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Evil, unspeakable evil, rose in our midst, and we as a people were too weak, too indecisive, too pusillanimous to deal with it.-- Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times, October 20, 1999

f
Under the hypnosis of war hysteria, with a pusillanimous Congress rubber-stamping every whim of the White House, we passed the withholding tax.-- Vivien Kellems, Toil, Taxes and Trouble

f
You are now anxious to form excuses to yourself for a conduct so pusillanimous.-- Ann Radcliffe, The Italian

f
Pusillanimous comes from Late Latin pusillanimis, from Latin pusillus, "very small, tiny, puny" + animus, "soul, mind."

Word of the Day for Friday, March 11, 2011

f
epicene \EP-uh-seen\, adjective:

f
1. Having the characteristics of both sexes.

2. Effeminate; unmasculine.

3. Sexless; neuter.

4. (Linguistics) Having but one form of the noun for both the male and the female.

f
noun:

f

1. A person or thing that is epicene.

2. (Linguistics) An epicene word.

f

The world looks upon the B.O. as an epicene president, hardly worthy of the title of "Leader of the Free World"!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
He has a clear-eyed, epicene handsomeness -- cruel, sensuous mouth; cheekbones to cut your heart on -- the sort of excessive beauty that is best appreciated in repose on a 50-foot screen.-- Franz Lidz, "Jude Law: He Didn't Turn Out Obscure at All", New York Times, May 13, 2001

f
She smothers (almost literally at times) her weak, epicene son Vladimir, and is prepared to commit any crime to see him become Tsar, despite his reluctance.-- Ronald Bergan, Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict

f
Epicene derives from Latin epicoenus, from Greek epikoinos, "common to," from epi-, "upon" + koinos, "common."

Word of the Day for Thursday, March 10, 2011

f
ersatz \AIR-sahts; UR-sats\, adjective:

f
Being a substitute or imitation, usually an inferior one.

f

The B.O., as it has turned out, is the ersatz leader of the free world. Why, you may ask? President Sarkozy from France is now filling the leadership void in the middle east by calling for air strikes on Libya; meanwhile, the B.O. continues to play golf and his fiddle while the middle east is burning!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Meanwhile, a poor copy was erected in the courtyard; many an unsuspecting traveler paid homage to that ersatz masterpiece.-- Edith Pearlman, "Girl and Marble Boy", The Atlantic, December 29, 1999

f
All we can create in that way is an ersatz culture, the synthetic product of those factories we call variously universities, colleges or museums.-- Sir Herbert Read, The Philosophy of Modern Art

f
Then there was the sheaf of hostile letters larded with ersatz sympathy, strained sarcasm or pure spite.-- "Time for GAA to become a persuader", Irish Times, April 13, 1998

f
Ersatz derives from German Ersatz, "a substitute."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 9, 2011

f
fanfaronade \fan-fair-uh-NAYD; -NOD\, noun:

f
1. Swaggering; empty boasting; blustering manner or behavior; ostentatious display.

2. Fanfare.

f

The B.O. is a fanfaronade, filled full of grandiloquence and gasconade!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
George Manahan made his debut this week as music director of New York City Opera, and it is difficult to imagine someone laying claim to a major podium with less of a fanfaronade.-- Justin Davidson, "A Director's Toil Pays Some Dividends", Newsday, September 21, 1996

f
But like a demure singer in a long gown who is surrounded by chorus girls in sequined miniskirts, the statue may seem slightly lost amid the fanfaronade.-- Richard Stengel, "Rockets will glare and bands blare to celebrate the statue", Time, July 7, 1986

f
Fanfaronade derives from Spanish fanfarronada, from fanfarrón, "braggart," from Arabic farfar, "garrulous."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 8, 2011

f
puckish \PUHK-ish\, adjective:

f
Whimsical; mischievous; impish.

f

The B.O.'s idea of being puckish is ducking down in his limo when he is smoking a cigarette!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Superficially obnoxious, his friendly, puckish manner endeared him to those who relished the intensity of turn-of-the-century bohemian New York.-- William B. Scott and Peter M. Rutkoff, New York Modern

f
To his credit he exhibits on occasion a puckish humor. Commenting on elementary reasoning abilities of chimpanzees engaged in experiments, he says they may "be wondering whether people have the capacity for reason, and if so, why they need help from apes to solve such simple problems.-- Richard Restak, "Rational Explanation", New York Times, November 21, 1999

f
It happens that I had recently read an article on wordplay in the Smithsonian magazine in which the author asserted that some puckish soul had once sent a letter addressed, with playful ambiguity, to HILL JOHN MASS and it had gotten there after the postal authorities had worked out that it was to be read as "John Underhill, Andover, Mass." (Get it?)-- Bill Bryson, I'm a Stranger Here Myself

f
Puckish comes from Puck, the name of a mischievous sprite in English folklore, from Middle English pouke, "goblin," from Old English puca.

Word of the Day for Monday, March 7, 2011

f
chortle \CHOR-tl\, transitive and intransitive verb:

f
1. To utter, or express with, a snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle.

f
noun:

f

1. A snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle.

f

I must say I found myself chortling over the B.O. trying to get tough with the Libyan government; I'm sure they are just shaking in their boots over his comments and that they will immediately comply!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Benjamin himself chortled now, an odd laugh to which I grew accustomed in years to come.-- Jay Parini, Benjamin's Crossing

f
Even Isaksson's stern wife, who rarely cracked a smile, chortled with glee, and Old Mothstead slapped his thighs and flapped his apron and danced around the couple, who moved in ever larger rings amongst the kegs.-- Kerstin Ekman, Witches' Rings, translated by Linda Schenck

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A nation that was used to chortling over Charlie Chaplin or rejoicing with the high-stepping Ziegfeld girls found itself drawn to this more refined, decidedly European entertainment.-- Larry Tye, The Father of Spin

f
Chortle is a combination of chuckle and snort. It was coined by Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson), in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872.

Word of the Day for Friday, March 4, 2011

f
gastronome \GAS-truh-nohm\, noun:

f
A connoisseur of good food and drink.

f

With all of his royalty dinners in the last two years, the B.O. has become a bit of a gastronome; too bad he hasn't learned to be a good president during that time as well!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
If "poultry is for the cook what canvas is for a painter," to quote the 19th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin, why paint the same painting over and over again?-- John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger, "From Poussin to Capon a Chicken in Every Size", New York Times, September 22, 1999

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Even though Paris was then considered the culinary capital of Europe, the food at the Cercle was so highly revered that many well-known gastronomes regularly made the trip to Lyon to eat there.-- Daniel Rogov, "Three culinary tales for Hanukka", Jerusalem Post, December 6, 1996

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I am no gastronome at the best; moreover, I have, over the years, eaten in so many unpropitious circumstances and from so many truly awful kitchens that I have come to consider myself almost as much a connoisseur of bad food as other men are of good.-- James Cameron, "Albania: The Last Marxist Paradise", The Atlantic, June 1963

f
Gastronome is ultimately derived from Greek gaster, "stomach" + nomos, "rule, law."

Word of the Day for Thursday, March 3, 2011

f
gimcrack \JIM-krak\, noun:

f
1. A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw.

f
adjective:

f

1. Tastelessly showy; cheap; gaudy.

f

By golly, the B.O. is a gimcrack of a president, isn't he?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Yet the set is more than a collection of pretty gimcracks.-- Frank Rich, Hot Seat

f
In those cities most self-conscious about their claim to be part of English history, like Oxford or Bath, the shops where you could have bought a dozen nails, home-made cakes or had a suit run up, have shut down and been replaced with places selling teddy bears, T-shirts and gimcrack souvenirs.-- Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait of a People

f
And as for coincidences in books -- there's something cheap and sentimental about the device; it can't help always seeming aesthetically gimcrack.-- Peter Brooks, "Obsessed with the Hermit of Croisset", New York Times, March 10, 1985

f
The origin of gimcrack is uncertain. It is perhaps an alteration of Middle English gibecrake, "a slight or flimsy ornament."

How Do You Spell Crazy? M-O-O-R-E

Michael Moore. I have to actually stop and scratch my head in utter disbelief when I read the latest comments from him. Utter disbelief.

On the subject of wealthy people's money, Moore says, "That's not theirs. That's ours. That's a national resource."

The thought currently running through my head after typing that is that I'm internally questioning the best way to express my flabbergastedness. Thank you, English majors, I'm well aware that flabbergastedness isn't a word. But you get where I'm coming from, at least.

It's a national resource? Are you seriously saying that out loud and not hearing how insanely ludicrous that is, Michael? Really?

Michael Moore - captain of the Socialist cheerleading squad. Surprised he hasn't been assigned a Cabinet or Czar position by Barack Hussein Obama with that kind of language.

Michael, go to a country that agrees with you. Go sell that ridiculous brand of crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here and not interested, ever, in any more of it.

2+0 Still = 2

Howard Dean: "Obama has done a lot better than compared to his first two years."

Hey Howard! He's only been in office for two years!

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 2, 2011

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wunderkind \VOON-duhr-kint\, noun;

plural wunderkinder \-kin-duhr\:

f
1. A child prodigy.

2. One who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age.

f

Any honest evaluation of the B.O. at an early age will show that he was a train wreck of a young person; but his far left loons look on his life as if he were a wunderkind!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
It was even written that, at 20, his best days were behind him. He had gone from a wunderkind to an object of sympathy, a hero struggling not to be forgotten.-- "Owen shines like a beacon amid the wrecks", Times (London), May 29, 2000

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In the mid-thirties, he became the youngest and best state director of FDR's National Youth Administration, a Texas wunderkind who at age twenty-eight beat several better known opponents for a south-central Texas congressional seat.-- Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant

f
Wunderkind comes from German, from Wunder, "wonder" + Kind, child.

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 1, 2011

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masticate \MAS-tih-kayt\, transitive verb:

f
1. To grind or crush with or as if with the teeth in preparation for swallowing and digestion; to chew; as, "to masticate food."

2. To crush or knead (rubber, for example) into a pulp.

f
intransitive verb:

f

1. To chew food.

f

While the B.O. and his family masticate their barbecued ribs and other high fat, high cholesterol, tasty but bad for you foods, they come out on Saturday morning TV and tell all the little kids how they should eat proper nutritional foods like fresh vegetables and fruits - hypocrites!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Honestly, folks, the people at the next table ordered the same dish, and I watched as a young couple tried in vain to masticate those fossilized pieces of "toast."-- Pat Bruno, "Hits and misses", Chicago Sun-Times, June 2002

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Their powerful jaws allow hyenas to masticate not only flesh and entrails, but bones, horns, and even the teeth of their prey.-- Sam Tauschek, "A Hyena is no laughing matter", Sports Afield, May 2001

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In 1820, Thomas Hancock invented a machine that could masticate, mix and soften rubber.-- Rikki Lamba, "Effect of carbon black on dynamic properties", Rubber World, April 1, 2000

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The middle ear gives us our sound bite, our capacity to masticate without being forced to turn a momentarily deaf ear to the world, as most other vertebrates are.-- Natalie Angier, "In Mammals, a Complex Journey to the Middle Ear ", New York Times, October 12, 2009

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Masticate comes from the past participle of Late Latin masticare, "to chew," from Greek mastichan, "to gnash the teeth." The noun form is mastication.

Heartless Death Panel

Loving parents want their children to live long, full, healthy lives. Canada doesn't feel that way.

The parents of 'Baby Joseph' have agreed to let the child go home with his parents...but they're going to remove the respirator currently keeping him alive. This means he'll have just a few more minutes of life before he dies.

Canada's health care allocation officials have refused to allow the hospital to perform a tracheotomy which would likely allow the little guy about six more months to live. The parents had another child with a similar physical problem that had the tracheotomy and the surgery extended his life about six additional months.

A hospital in Michigan, a state already financially strapped, has denied a transfer for the boy.

How is this a political issue? Easy. This is a picture of what Obamacare will do to healthcare in the United States of America. The socialized healthcare in Canada is very similar to the unConstitutional Obamacare looks like.

Barack Hussein Obama's healthcare "death panel" will essentially sentence people to die, just like 'Baby Joseph.'