September 18
scugways (adv.)-- Clandestinely; with a hidden purpose or motive

September 16
perfretation (n.)-- A sea voyage or crossing.

September 15
miraculate (v.)-- To produce by a miracle

September 14
charette (n.)-- A period of intense work or creative activity undertaken to meet a deadline

September 13
epinicion (n.)-- A song or poem of victory

September 12
serendipitist (n.)-- Someone who benefits from serendipity or a serendipitous event.

This was the novella that inspired the film Eyes Wide Shut. I've seen the film several times, and had trouble getting it out of my head. Either way, the film was better.
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September 10
pot-valour (n.)-- Courage or boldness induced by drinking

September 9
agerasia (n.) A more youthful appearance than one's true age.

One of my high school teachers, Terry Crane, added fuel to the fire of my linguistic intrigue. He delighted in confounding us students by phrasing common statements in grandiloquent ways. One such phrase that lingers in my memory pertained to the fruitless pursuit of a nondomesticated waterfowl of the family Anatidae whenever referring to a wild goose chase.

September 7
prosopopoeia (n.)-- Personification, the application of human characteristics to an inanimate thing

A Coca-Cola employee was once fired for marrying a Pepsi employee.

People with mental illnesses tend to dream less.

Identity Crisis, Texas Style
The Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, Texas, at AT&T Stadium. That stadium is also home to college football's Cotton Bowl game, which is no longer held at the Dallas Stadium that's actually named the Cotton Bowl.

The Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain was started in Indiana by a man who initially wanted to run a “Colorado-themed“ restaurant.

The saddle shape of a Pringles chip is mathematically known as a hyperbolic paraboloid.

September 5
pogonophobia (n.) A hatred or dislike of beards.

There's no reason to hang on to beliefs you don't actually believe in and that don't make sense to you, just because you can't imagine a happy and fulfilling life without them. We know that leaving religion can be a scary and painful process-- but once it's behind you, life is good.

However, this tendency is a product of techno-fatalism-- the belief that we must acquiesce to the unsavory, unintended consequences of technology in exchange for reaping its benefits.

As I have found in just about every investigation I have looked at, a very plausible suspect always turns up who is not the culprit.

September 3
ambilaevous (adj.) Equally clumsy in both hands

September 2
ucalegon (n.) A neighbor whose house is on fire

September 1
sceptredom (n.) The reign of a king, royal power or sovereignty

In the 1950s, author/illustrator Maurice Sendak started working on a children's book about horses, but quickly discovered that he couldn't draw a horse to save his life. So he decided to draw monsters instead. The book, published in 1963 as Where the Wild Things Are, has since sold 20 million copies (probably more than if he'd stuck to horses).

Martin Van Buren was the first (and only) American president who was not a native English speaker. Also the first president born a U.S. citizen (his predecessors were all born before the American Revolution), Van Buren was born in the Dutch-speaking community of Kinderhook, New York. His parents could speak English when they needed to, but spoke only Dutch at home. Young Martin didn't get much exposure to English until he went to school.

John Adams was the first sitting president to not attend his successor's inauguration. Twenty-eight years later, his son, President John Quincy Adams, continued the family tradition and skipped out on Andrew Jackson's inauguration after Jackson defeated him in the election of 1828.

Russia is bigger than Pluto.

August 31
intershock (v.) To collide, to hit or strike together

“We spend millions of dollars protecting artwork like this, a couple hundred years old,“ he says. “But what we're about to lose in Argentina is infinitely more complex with a vastly elaborate history. Why do we have to convince people that it's worth saving this? Is it worth investing in the great works of art in the world? Of course it is. So are these birds-- not just because we depend on them, but because this is a feature of the living...

Three primary species of vultures that patrol India and Pakistan died off suddenly from an anti-inflammatory drug used on cows that the vultures in turn ingested. That left cow carcasses spread all over the country, which vultures would normally have consumed. This led to rabies and other diseases that killed thousands of people with an overall economic impact estimated at $34 billion.

More than 8,000 species of plants and flowers in North and South America, for instance, rely on hummingbirds for pollination. One Dutch study found that where birds are around to consume insects feeding on crops of apples, productivity goes up 66 percent.

August 30
anabiosis (n.) A revival, a coming back to life.

#2025Book36

#2025Book35

Life is a comedy of disorientation about people who believe in, commit to, and act on the erroneous.

A mondegreen is a misinterpretation the ear makes of a spoken (or sung) line. The term is derived from part of a folk ballad-- “They have slain the Earl of Moray/ And laid him on the green“-- which was misheard by Sylvia Wright (who coined the term) as “They have slain the Earl of Moray and Lady Mondegreen.“

Once I started seeing all those deathtraps out there, I couldn't shake my curiosity. I wanted to jump on and circumnavigate the planet on that unseen artery of mass transit. I wanted to know what it was like on the ferries that killed people daily, the buses that plunged off cliffs, the airplanes that crashed. I wanted to travel around the world as most of the people in the world did, putting their lives at risk every time they took off on...

I'd learned that the best response to a world conspiring against you is not to isolate yourself but to throw yourself more wholeheartedly into it.

In the U.S. it is often the case that only a couple of police officers are available to investigate a murder and that if they do not get some significant progress in the first day or two the case will be put on the back burner.

August 27
escaramouche (n.) A brief skirmish or fit of anger.

August 26
viaticated (adj.) Fully prepared for a journey

Just as in a fictional whodunit the villain needs to be particularly clever, devious or evil to highlight the skills of the detective, so in real-life investigations I have found the police will often concoct complex stories to explain the criminal's actions, making themselves seem especially insightful and intelligent.

As with the Bald Eagle, every major step forward typically follows significant population losses that force rescue efforts for birds heading toward extinction. If there's a single pattern that shows up time and time again in the history of our relationship with birds, it is this: we wait until a crisis to act. And that is where we still are today.

August 23
consanguinate (v.) To sympathize, to have an affinity with or fondness for.

Terrorism is a peculiar category of violence, because it has a cockeyed ratio of fear to harm.

Places are never without significance. Our lives are scratched into the surface of the Earth's crust, scratches that tell our personal history as much as our social history.

August 22
desulture (n.) The act of vaulting from one horse to another.

TALK TURKEY
Meaning: Dispense with the small talk and get down to business
Origin: The phrase first appeared in the American colonial days when the Pilgrim Fathers always seemed to want turkeys when they traded with the Indians. So familiar did their requests become that the Indians would greet them with the words, “You come to talk turkey?“

TO HANDLE WITH KID GLOVES:
Origin: Leather from the hide of young goats-- called kids -- was considered the finest in the glove industry. Kid-leather gloves were only worn when there was no danger of undertaking a manual task. Therefore, anyone or anything that is given the “kid-glove“ treatment is handled with extreme tact and gentleness.“

In Victorian England, the word “leg“ was considered too sexy and, thus, too vulgar. At the time, the preferred term, if one absolutely had to refer to a lower extremity, was “limb.“

August 21
cyllenian (adj.) Pertaining to theft or thieving