marina
the greek word ὑποκριτής (hypokritēs) is beeing used already in the New Testment for somone who is pretending (not doing, what saying), so I think it’s not quite correct what you’ve said, that this word got that meaning in the 13th century. I think it was much earlier.
btw: Jesus called the Pharisees (members of a jewish sect) hipocrites, and that’s why the word “pharisee” became a synonim of hypocrite today, though “pharisee” comes from hebrew word which means: separated (from evil), rafinated, clean = saint, holy.
so it’s another word with twisted meaning
greetings
Actually, Bob, I never hear anyone in W.A. use the term “cobber”, even the most Occa (a true stereotypical Aussie,ie., thick accent beer swilling, barbie owning, guy with a blue heeler & a ute!). They always say “mate”. So, for example “no worries, mate”. I hardly ever use the term mate, having been born in NZ and raised in the UK, but I do say “no worries” which is equally used in NZ & Oz.
Jonny the cunning linguist!
My God mr Bob! Set the controls 4 the heart of the sun…awesome track! And footage! How come u keep hitting the nail on the head? Is it cos u’re always on the ball?
Anyway that’s the 1st time I’ve seen that footage & doesn’t David Gilmour look young? I served him drinks in The 100 Club Oxford Street London in the ’80’s at a Dave Stewart memorial gig with The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck woz there & Pete Townsend played on stage wiv the band. It woz gr8 2 c such accomplished musicians of such renown! I also served drinks to the dwarf who played R2D2! Of course I’ll NEVER 4get that nite!
Anyway Floyd’s Heart of the Sun sounds very acidy & Doorsy! Even post-Syd Barrett, & with Roger Waters smooth bass lines, they were still spacey!
Jonny
Best listened to on headphones with virtual surround sound. It’s like you’re standing in the centre of a revolving stage with the musicians playing all around you.
Who needs acid when you have music like that?
Wot’s with this Christian Lifestyle thing? Like someone else said earlier Religion’s getting a fair rap.
Anyway Bob (who I strongly suspect is a TA, altho’ he hasn’t admitted it openly yet, but then might be obvious to established officionado’s of HFW) has used the word “Gravatar” more than once recently. Wot duz it mean? My dictionary exhibits the word not, alas!
Jonny
Jonny, anyone can put up a picture of their own as an icon.
Just go to http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup/ , create an account and you will be able to upload your own picture from your computer or use any picture from the internet, to use as an icon.
Instructions are also on Marina’s “Help” page here.
I look forward to seeing an exotic picture next to your name in the near future.
Hey! Is it only the TA’s who get to choose their own profile icons? I mean mine ain’t too bad but duz look like I’ve got stiletto’s on, not quite my taste!
I’d like to become the ICON I choose!
He! He! He!
Jonny
Not to be confused with Western Medicine’s Hypocratic oath to save life whatever.
I have been a hypocrite by objecting to an ex-girlfriend’s flaunt her body (“it’s just a body”) by being an exhibitionist myself, altho’ only amongst consenting adults.
JC
Je vois que vous êtes un vrai phallocrate et un tringlomane au sang chaud, M. le tombeur.
Vous croyez avoir le monde en vos mains, quoique vous n’avez que la quéquette que vous n’utilisez que pour vous branler.
Lemondeenmains est définitivement plus branleur que tombeur, mais il semble être un branleur honnête. Où serait-ce un simple cabotin incapable de se branler tout seul et ayant un morbide besoin de le faire en public?
Monday from Moon (French; Lundi)
Tuesday (don’t know but the french is Mardi & Norwegian Tirsdag)
Wednesday form old Norse Onsdag…origin, I don’t know.
Thursday form the old Norse Thors Day the God of war or battle.
Friday from the old Norse Fredag, origin, I don’t know.
Saturday mmm don’t know.
Sunday maybe from Sun
Jonny Cumbo
You’re on the right track, Jonny, but we need Marina to flesh it out a bit. (Pun intended, of course.)
What’s interesting is that countries as far away as Thailand name their days of the week after the same things as you mentioned.
That’s all the hints I’m going to give now – I don’t want to spoil the story for Marina.
Yes Bob, u’re quite right we should wait for Marina to flesh out. And I suppose it goes without saying that anyone into this site enjoys puns! I certainly do, much to most other people’s annoyance! Anyway who cares?
I’m impressed by ur command of French! And where did u get that icon? I take it ur the elfish Father Xmas next to the gorgeous blonde? And is that gorgeous blonde Marina herself?
So many questions, so little time!
Jonny.
Uh! just noticed that she’s changed her gravatar again – probably does want to be confused with an irreverent old fart, old enough to be her grandfather.
As I’m unable to reply to ur reply about Norske og Bahasa Indonesia, I’ll have to do it here. It’s an amazing coincidence finding someone who’s experienced both those lands.
I worked on a farm in Norge near Roros (with a forward slash thru the 1st ‘O’!) for 2 consecutive summers, & had a beautiful Norske girlfriend. I also returned for numerous holidays there. In fact last year I returned for a week after 17 years’ absence! In ‘96-’98 I worked in a hospital lab in Ende, Flores, Indonesia & I acquired 2 adoptive families who helped me experience the beautiful, advanced culture to the full. Challenging & fulfilling times!
Jonny
Tiw and Wodin (Tuesday & Wednesday) were Norse gods; Saturday is named after Roman god Saturn.
But that’s just to tide you over until Marina can do it in a lesson.
Cool!
And u, like Bob, have a fair command of French. Does anyone speak Norwegian or Indonesian on this site? They’ve got some interesting words. Altho’ I wouldn’t fancy tackling Marina’s own tongue, so to speak. Or maybe I would…..mmmm…
Jonny
Yes, Jonny, I’ve lived and worked in both of those countries, though my capabilities in Indonesian/Malay have been superseded by the Danish/Norwegian and Thai.
You are right about Indonesian – that was a really fun language to learn because of the way you can build up complicated concepts from simple words. Also, the Indonesians are wonderful people with a great sense of fun and enjoyment of life.
Hey Marina, I have a word for you. I’m not sure of the spelling but where did the word “bigons” come from, like when you say “let bigons be bigons”. Thanks
Homework: Pretending to be a friend, but behind your back, says bad things about you to your enemies.
Okay now that I’ve done my homework, can you explain what ingnorence means ’cause from what I’ve learned, it has nothing to do with ignoring people.
Thanx~!
I’m confused
The daddy long-legs I know of spin webs, just like spiders. And yet that article linked above says they cannot
Looking at Wikipedia, it says they’re often confused with other species..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae
Confusion often arises because the name “daddy longlegs” is also applied to two distantly related arthropod groups: the harvestmen (which are arachnids but not spiders), and crane flies (which are insects).
Politics and religion have been getting a heavy rap in this post. If religion is a “belief set,” then we are all religious, because we each have some set of beliefs. Even if someone believes the total Big Bang thing, all primordial ooze, no god(s), then that is the belief set, or religion. The same rules apply to politics (at least in a democracy.) We each have a role to play, and we each decide how far to take take that role. If a citizen decides to not vote, then that is the political decision, that is his or her politics .
Okay, where was I… Oh yeah. Perhaps the object of most people’s complaints are the persons who choose to pursue these ends professionally, or for economic gain, and most importantly, have the charecteristics that allow them to do so. Because of the way voters and religious followers behave, persons of unscrupulous behavior generally gain the most notoriety (gain fame.) Political parties, organized religion, popular music, or the latest fashion trends – they are all the pursuasion of the masses by those who know how to pursuade.
I vote, but my criteria is all over the board. I am extremely religious, but I ask many questions that others label as blasphemy. My point is that when we complain about leaders, whether political or religious, who do we truly have to blame? We can follow or not. We can participate or not. We can offer alternatives or not. We make all our own choices!
Having egg on your face means that you have been found to have done or said something embarrasing. The chin is part of the face, but I have never heard it used in that sense.
You’re a hypocrite if you pretend to be something your not.
Since it’s the season, I was wondering if you would tell us the origin of the word “sleigh”.
PS: Happy Holidays!
Where did the term “gas station” come from? Gas is a state of matter, but fuel is what powers combustion. Technically wouldn’t it be called a “liquid to gas fuel station”?
Here, gas does not refer to a state of matter. It is short for gasoline, hence the phrase is short for gasoline station. You could claim it should be “liquid gasoline station” to cover all the bases, but that’s a mouthful.
I JUST DID MY BLOGTV THING!! I didn’t see any of you guys there though… My audio went and I was talking to myself for 5 mins…. I got some guy rapping to me, it was good… Time flew by…… I got 1 subscriber and 2 friend invites!!!
Charlieissocoollike was doing a show at the same time… I was watching him and didn’t know I was broadcasting so people were sitting there looking at me watch someone else.. Most people at one time were 12
People oftentimes fall short of their own or another’s standards and expectations… just a part of life. People go to church to learn how to improve oneself on one day and do things wrong on the next day. Some of it is unintentional… which should garner some slack or grace. Other forms of hypocrisy are reprobate and indeed require some correction.
LOL! What’s funny is that Marina did a lesson on Dick and this topic came up under discussion in the comments. Although Marina hasn’t done the origin in a lesson, there is still some useful information in these comments you might enjoy reading
How can they call you Jack ass when clearly your name is not Jack. Suprisenly I didn’t get called that very much when I was younger. I guess there was better names to call me.
I just watched the butterfly video…. I never knew you swore in a video…… I miss the intellegence is sexy beginning. I think your hair was nice back then too Marina, not that it isn’t now. I think it just had more length.. I don’t know… But anyway if it was because their shit looked like butter, does that mean kids in primary school were taught to call it a boterschijt?
Unless the two are pounding with the vigor of a super speed pile driver(a “wood” one)! The force tends to move both bodies and if Her head is directed toward the side,well,there Ya go,right off the bed!
Hi james,I just had a waking thought. You are one of the vid makers here. What do You think of the idea of an animated mountain that Marina digs back/down into,tunneling to and fro,till She comes out with the desired etymology? Is that a worthy idea?
Might be hard to make and also….. What digs? Moles, Worms etc.. I wouldn’t really like to associate Marina with any of those….You could have Marina as a lioness and all the etymologies fight for her until the correct one wins… Obviously Marina wouldn’t mate with the etymology because that is not possible but you know what i mean. Are you planning on doing a video then?
Archaeologists dig for the truth and history James,that was/is the idea connection to etymology. I don’t percieve archaeologists as moles or worms.
Nice job replying in a manner wich tells Marina You are in love(don’t We All?)tho! very creative.
Me do a vid?! I think not! It would look like a scribble mating with a scratch! That’s why I put the idea out there,,for folks with the talent.
side note:
Who knows for sure? Maybe she would opt to mate with the winning etymology,,,as it mounted Her the the lower part of “g” would straighten and enter Her,if it had a lion’s tendencies the mating would be over in a few seconds tho.Big cats are magestic,but,they don’t mate for very long.
Ooh hey! A HFW video game! Yer a genius melika! She could be something like Lara Croft or that adventurer Tia Carrera played,Has anyone expressed that idea here yet?
There’s just no way I can read all the posts to know and the old memory is suspect these days too.
There could be a series of forking tunnels that look like wormholes. When you come to a fork, you have to pick the right origin for a word by taking the correctly-labeled tunnel. While in the tunnel, you have to maneuver to stay in the middle and not crash into the walls. If you hit a wall, you lose points. If you pick the right fork, you get points.
If you pick the wrong one, you drop back to the beginning and start over. It goes real fast until you get back to where you last goofed, then it slows until you blow it again. Eventually you learn the correct origins and navigate to… well, you would have to have some reward for the player. All of the stats would be saved and displayed — number of goofs, number of forks, etc.
After a certain number of forks, you reach Marina and you have to plant a wet one on her lips to continue on to the next level. Then it gets harder. (Hey! I said “it.” ) I’m not a gamer at all, but there should be no shooting. (Hey! Not that kind of shooting!) Well, it’s a start.
“you reach Marina and you have to plant a wet one on her lips to continue on to the next level.”
Who would continue?! I wouldn’t leave for at least a week!
Nice idea man,but,no shooting?,I need to drive,fly,and shoot,2 out of 3 ain’t bad if 1 is shooting I guess.
I’m not a big time gamer either,My brothers are tho and I’ve played some.I’m about to load Fear to My computer for the 1st time,My son says it’s good so I wanna see if I like it.
Yer from sacto huh? I was there in like 1989 for a while,I don’t remember much about the city except it was one big party,there were some cool cruises through the Nevadas and the Sieras tho. We have nothing to compare here,mere foothills.
I have one last commetn to make for this post. DOn’t worry nothing negative or depressing. Marina asked me a few weeks ago to remind her to start trying to give out ringtones to her students. I hadn’t heard anything about them for a while and when I mentioned it in one of my comments, Marina said she would try to start them up again. SO heres my reminder. Hope I get one. Lots of love Marina and Merry Christmas to All
Word request:
I cam upon this in a news story:
“The origin of the word “condom” is unknown, though the story of a certain Dr. Condom in 19th century England remains one of the more persistent myths. The term at least trumps “intravaginal pouch,” a phrase suggested in lieu of “female condom” by an FDA panel tasked in the early 1990s with reviewing an early prototype of the women’s contraceptive.”
I am just messing around but tonight at 8pm GMT I am going to do a broadcast on blogtv it will probably be awful and the only one I will ever do but I might as weel give it a shot and try to use it to pedal my YT channel. By the way 8pm GMT is
Now here’s a paradox.
If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, doesn’t calling someone a hypocrite imply that the accuser perceives him- or herself as occupying higher moral ground than the accused?
That being the case, and since no-one is perfect, isn’t calling someone else a hypocrite itself hypocrisy?
Discuss.
Ma Kettle was the domineering Kettle personality,but She loved Pa Kettle boundlessly as is evidenced by the myriad children produced.
I watched it as a kid/teen/young adult,reruns that is,now,I’m trying to wake up so I can travel to see My 1st Grandchild on Her 1st birthday!.Time flies eh?
Hi Marina, I would like to request for you to find out more about the word: “smithereens”. I do not know if this is the correct way to write it but it is usually used in context to blowing stuff up. I.e. Blow that building to smithereens!
Thanks. bye bye.
Yeah, here’s the bad part about being a Celt and an accountant. I always have to stop and think of where I am when someone says “IRA” so I don’t misinterpret it!
Allright, here is a question, eventually. I do not like to belittle or demean people. I get frustrated at other people who do this, however… I find myself doing this very thing quite often. I do it much more while speaking than I do in writing, because I have time to retract my words before I click “submit” or “send.” I freely admit that I fall short of my desired behavior, but I also find fault with others’ negative words. Finally, the question: Does this make me a hypocrite, or just weak?
I thought you and your students might enjoy this short report which I just read:
“During a Supreme Court oral argument, a lawyer taught Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. a new word: romanette, the term for a lower case roman numeral. When Assistant to the Solicitor General Nicole Saharsky offhandedly used the word to refer to a regulation’s subsection, Roberts said quizzically, “Romanette?” “Oh, little roman numeral,” she said, and Roberts replied, “I’ve never heard that before.”
The Chief Justice should join HFW! Who knows what new words he would learn?
hi marina, i just wanna to let you know that you are amazing and that all your videos are really interesting, and i also want to know about the origin of the word EUREKA, thanks in advance, cheers
He was just exhuberantly celebrating his crowning achievement.
Eureka is California’s state motto and the name of one of it’s cities. And, in an emergency, because of the k, if you write the word down on a piece of paper and fold it the long way, it can be used as a makeshift can opener.
As far as I know there is no lead in tin at all. There is some lead in the solder used to seal the outside of the seam, but they held that to a minimum. I remember reading somewhere that a man invented a way to reduce the amount of solder per can and made millions from it. (I can’t remember where or who that tidbit came from. It’s just one of those factoids tucked in behind the, uh, factoid bone.)
drawing characters from out of an ink bottle is a term animators sometimes use to describe how they go about creating animation images by dipping their quill in ink and then scribbling preliminary sketches onto paper or plastic film
Rotoscoping reminds me of glass etching pulling a negative image out of it’s confines such is the similarity of technique defined in the a-ha video “Take on me”. Then there is the onion-skinning software which is 2D computer graphic technique incorporated into video animation taking layers of frames/images and sequencing them together to make a animated image that appears to move on the screen, such as a horse running in motion.
Somehow this lesson ties in with hotforwords lesson on animation and links to what is known as the scanner darkly effect which is a digital imaging film technique known as “Interpolated-Rotoscoping” Go figure
I think the world is curious about politicians who rise to top in the Chicago system and say they are not crooked. Maybe it’s how you define “crooked”. And how come crooked does not rhyme with looked, cooked, booked, and hooked?
It depends upon the standard by which they judge. Compared to their fellow politicians, they appear fairly uniform in nature. It reminds me of an old saying… “Men and water take the path of least resistance. This is why men and rivers are crooked.”
I worked with a dude whose brother was a mayor of some town in the L.A. area, and this mayor would sell out for a golf vacation. So this dude concluded that all politicians are crooked. My hunch is that this isn’t true in the majority of cases. But power corrupts, that’s proved over and over. Generally, politicians don’t become crooked, but they find themselves making ethical compromises, driven by the high cost of running campaigns.
In the case of Illinois, ingrained is a system of corruption that has been in place that encourages such practices as govt officials being required to raise money for higher up politicians, encouraging graft. According to TIME mag, Blago is the 6th governor to be subjected to arrest or indictment. I’m not from Chicago, but I would guess that Mayor Daley’s political machine didn’t die out with Daley.
Did anyone get the bit about the pot calling the kettle black If not, have a gander:
Poem found in “Maxwell’s Elementary Grammar” school book copyright 1904.
“Oho!’ said the pot to the kettle;
“You are dirty and ugly and black!
Sure no one would think you were metal,
Except when you’re given a crack.”
“Not so! not so! kettle said to the pot;
” ‘Tis your own dirty image you see;
For I am so clean -without blemish or blot-
That your blackness is mirrored in me”
I have never been to Mexico, much less Muhaharahara.
Now, why would you need to log out? And what does it mean exactly to be logged in at this site?
Several possibilities exist. Does the server actually hold a list of those who logged in but who have not logged out? If that is the case, then the list would continue to grow forever as those who were logged in simply never transmit again (at least until the next session). (This happens when they simply go to another site or power down.) Are they then removed from the list after a set time of no activity?
Or is their no list and when you try to do something that requires that you be logged in, the server queries your browser cookie, that, if you were logged in, would have your “in-ness” recorded in the cookie. If you ask to log out, the server then erases the cookie (or, more likely, modifies it to record the fact that you’ve logged out). If you check the Remember Me box, that is the same as never logging out, isn’t it? Your cookie would be forever good.
There is also the possibility of the client PC hosting more than one user. If two people use one PC, for example, a cookie could record that A “has left the building” and that B is now “on deck.” The two can alternate by logging on and off, with the current state being held by the cookie(s).
It is interesting to comtemplate what the server does when a client no longer transmits. Is the client still active, but waiting (busy reading, writing or thinking)? Has the client gone away entirely (end of work)? There is no idle signal put out by the client that the server can monitor. The server could periodically ping the client by trying to read a cookie (and this would be detectable by looking at the PC/modem lights). Or it could just count time and make assumptions. It has to do something to come up with the number of users on line at the bottom of the page, doesn’t it?
All of the above is surmise, because I haven’t studied industry practice, and I may have missed some points entirely. Anyway, it is interesting to think about and maybe I have started others noodling, too. If anyone knows for sure how HFW does it, please satisfy my curiosity by explaining it. Or add to the theories.
That was a compliment? When she told me she had a headache I figured she wasn’t in the mood for anymore of my nonsense so I just did what I had to do to play my part. grim and bear it. and so that’s just what I did.
My US Senator, David Vitter, is a prime example of hypocricy. He goes for the standard values vote, but spends his campaign money on high priced whores in DC.
Yes, it is shocking. In these hard times of economic woes, he should, as you imply, be buying only low-priced whores. He should be setting an example for all of his constituants by stepping up and skanking down.
O’clock is short for “of the clock,” meaning that the number refers to the hours of the clock. I imagine it started as “o’ the clock” and then the the was dropped to shorten it further. This phrase would be so often used that there would be great opportunity for shortening. I suppose someday in the future it will just be “‘o ck.”
OK, what gives? Every time I paste a URL, the “http:” disappears, causing a “malformed link” message at YouTube. And when I click edit, then save, the edit program shows “Saving…” but doesn’t close. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_A4Skusro
The Ajax* editor does not return to the blog automatically after clicking the Save button. Simply click the browser Back button to return.
As far as the http:// disappearing on pasting, I haven’t seen that at all. Would you start a topic in the HFW-General forum category and describe exactly how it happens, step by step?
—-
*The Acme editor was in use by W.E. Coyote, so Marina had to settle for the other one.
@Camp: this odd effect happened several times when I assembled my remark in a Word document before pasting it here. It’s late, so I don’t want to go through the whole detail.
G’night.
OK. Maybe it would help to use Notepad instead of Word (if you’re using Windows) so that there is no embedded formatting or other squirrelies to worry about.
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were selected by their state legislatures. And when they had finally drawn up the Constitution it was subjected to a thorough ratification process before it was put into effect.
There you have it in a nutshell (not that Tryant is nuts, Shelly).
I think what Dez is getting at is that by whatever process the first Congress came to be elected, it was technically illegal. The colonists were just that, members of a colony — the king’s colony. The King of England was the only legal kahuna, because he said so and had the firepower to back it up. This was morally OK as long as the colonists agreed to it. But as soon as they disagree, you see, we get into a spot of bother.
<civicslesson>>;By virtue of the electorate agreeing to be bound by the rule of law by the adoption of the Constitution and the election of representatives, we can’t just rise up nowadays as the Founding Fathers did. That is, as long as the government also plays by the rules and adheres to the Constitution. The Constitution is what protects us, and that is why the President, when ignaugurated, swears to protect and defend the Constitution and not our pink little butts, per se.</civicslesson>
Here’s the problem, though: The framers of the Constitution were selected by legally-elected state legislatures. If you’re going to say we have to look at what the history of the country was before that point in order to determine whether they were vigilantes, then the entire question itself becomes meaningless.
To decide whether they were vigilantes, you have to look at their immediate context. Their immediate context was that they were operating within the law. To go back further in history, you’re asking completely different questions, ones that will drag on back to the beginning of human history.
Here’s the definition of vigilante from the Oxford College Dictionary: “a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequete” [Emphasis Added]. So you see, the framers of the Constitution can’t be considered vigilantes: they weren’t going around physically enforcing what they thought the law ought to be. They were drafting an entirely new system of governance for the already-officially-independent country. And when they did that, they went through legal channels and got it ratified by the states.
Originally I was making a play on words… you mentioned that vigilantes take the law into their own hands. Literally and figuratively, the framers of the US Constitution took the law (that great document) into their own hands.
But concerning the history, CK sees my point well. The immediate context is that these colonists were rebels. They had no legal authority. They usurped and assumed authority. The framers of the Constitution were rejecting the law of Great Britain and instituting their own. They went outside of the law… hence, vigilantes.
And they did this in several stages. The “Founding Fathers” bemoaned “taxation without representation”. Parliament gave them representation and levied taxes on the colonies anyway. So these slippery men appealed to the King, reminding him that the colonies were under the authority and ownership of the monarch, and not Parliament. George agreed and ordered the colonies to obey Parliament. Failing to get their way, they made their appeal to God… who, amazingly, endowed them with the inalienable rights to countermand Parliament and the King. Once the Declaration of Independence was posted, these men were traitors. Any governments, state or federal, borne of their efforts are illegitimate (de jure)… but time, distance, armed resistance, and the aid of Britain’s enemies (France and Spain) enabled the rebellion to succeed and form its own new nation (de facto).
This is the American legacy… our rebellion succeeded. We often dress it up in glowing terms and convince ourselves that it involved freedom from tyranny. But the rebellion had less to do with the rights of men… as the Civil War can attest… and more to do with the desire of businessmen to avoid taxes to increase their profits.
Dezdkado, I agree with you that the American Revolution had a lot more to do with desire to make more money than most self-styled patriots will admit. Even the Civil War was about states’ rights, and not human rights.
But you’re leaving out the key part of the history that establishes the framers as not being vigilantes. After Britain gave up on suppressing the Revolution and recognized the United States of America as an independent nation, we had no true central government. The law binding the states together was the Articles of Confederation. But before long, a lot of people had realized that the Articles of Confederation didn’t provide strong enough a central government to bind the states together as a single nation. So the state legislatures selected delegates to go to Philadelphia to come up with proposals as to how to revise the Articles of Confederation [after a similar convention at Annapolis failed]. Instead of revisions, they came up with an entirely new system of governance, laid out in the Constitution. Then they went back to Congress with their document, and the long process of ratification began in 1787-1788.
Granted, the instructions for the Constitutional Congress were to revise the Articles of Confederation and not wholly rework the American government, but that’s still not vigilantism.
Individual rights, states’ rights, federal power… it is all where you draw the line. The founding fathers were not vigilantes, they were revolutionaries. Their goal was not to bring about justice by enforcing a law (or their moral code), but their aim was to establish an entirely new law. Somewhere in the middle of these two, would be the case of civil disobedience – breaking a law in order to cause a change in the law. It is all a matter of degree and context.
As far as the Brits were concerned (and many Americans, too, BTW), the founding fathers were traitors. If they had lost the war, history would have recorded them in that light.
@nathan – I agree in part that the Civil War was fought over states rights, but more broadly over which states would have power in Congress. The underlying issue for this power struggle was the creation of new states… and the use of slaves to inflate the numbers of representatives that a state could send to Congress. The concerns of largely rural and Southern states were being drowned out by more populous and industrial Northern states. The addition of slave states and free states continuously tipped the balance of power in Congress, giving undue influence in both Houses to either North or South. It is true that abolition was neither the reason the Confederate States seceded, nor the primary goal of the Union. That propaganda did not begin until after the war was well under way, the Union was performing poorly in the field, and Lincoln needed new allies to bolster approval of his administration.
Britain did not give up on its goal to reacquire the colonies. We see their influence and subversion in the War of 1812 and the Civil War. After Texas’ independence from Mexico (1836), Britain actively sought, through bribery and negotiation, to influence the Republic of Texas to avoid entering the Union with the hope of using the new nation as a buffer and a staging area to retake the trans-Mississippi East. Unfortunately for the UK, Texas politicians were all too willing to accept British bribes while courting statehood anyway.
I see where you’re going, and it’s a good argument. Due to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the UK recognized the independence of the US. The Constitution was written in 1787 and ratified in 1789 (the Bill of Rights in 1791). So how could these framers be vigilantes if by treaty they were citizens of a new nation in 1783, four years prior to the writing of the Constitution (and six before its ratification)? The framers of the Constitution were, by treaty, not rebels and therefore not vigilantes. The vigilantes were the writers of the Declaration of Independence, the creators of the Continental Congress, the writers of The Articles of Confederation and Permanent Union, the instigators of the Boston “massacre”, et al. that were established or occurred in the time of rebellion.
@bsomebody – I disagree. The “founding fathers” were very much interested in justice and enforcing law. Many colonists felt the Coercive Acts to be in violation of the British Constitution. Their objection to the Stamp Act and Townsend Act were points of law. The struggle to create the Bill of Rights also exemplifies the importance of law. Their goal was a new form of government, with expanded and protected rights, not a new law. American law is founded on British law, tracing its origins back to Magna Carta. But the government they created through the Constitution, inspired by Athenian and Spartan models instead of the Parliamentary model, and the rights that government guaranteed were the goal. Also, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s insurgent. We portray these men as revolutionaries as we look back, glorifying their accomplishments. But even the record of the Continental Congress shows that these men knew that they were traitors and, under law, subject to arrest, trial, and hanging for their rebellion.
DAGNABIT MARINA!!!..lol…marina dear whats the origin of the word DAGNABIT,i hear the word in westeren movies by older elderly guys. can you investigate?
Nope,can’t think of any.I could lie and make one up.
The world is full of hypocrasy.It is also full of truth.
Have You ever seen a parent trick a child into eating or going to school? Is that trickery a form of hypocrasy? If You teach a friend about trickery by using tricks,are You a hypocrite or only trying to give the friend a useful experience? I would have to say there *are* different levels of guilt *especially* when humans(taught differently)are the subject.
Add intelligence-add grey matter-add grey area.. If there is no grey area,You’re not thinking.
http://www.hotforwords.com/thumbs/hypocrite-big.jpg
You appear to be joyous and in a happy mood in this photo, makes me glad your enjoying your activities. There is is no sarcasm in my post here just a curiosity to the mind of mine.
Marina,What with the Big inviting smile and the word hypocrite plastered across your image a person might think you were speaking of your self?
I’m still a bit confused. Specifically, about the “If they merely profess it, they are hypocrites” part.
The way I look at it, if someone believes that there is no such thing as an underlying objective truth to morality, and then they behave in a way that you think displays a lack of character, they’re not really being a hypocrite, because they don’t profess to the same standards of character that you do.
If they claimed that they believed the same thing you did about morality and then acted in a way that goes against contradicts those beliefs, that would be a case of hypocrisy. But if they claim to believe something different than you and then act in a way that you perceive as bad character, it’s not a case of hypocrisy, it’s a case of conflicting values.
I don’t argue from a case of morality, theology, or belief, but from logic. The statement “there are no absolutes” is itself an absolute, and therefore a contradiction. If one states “truth is relative” how can anyone ever accept that statement as true? Or rather, because there is no standard of truth, no utterance by that speaker can be known to be true or false. One must seek another source.
Because of this, if one believes the declarations “truth is relative” or “there are no absolutes”, that person is a fool, not a hypocrite. If one does not believe them, but professes them (or presents them) as truth, one is knowingly engaged in falsehood. Presenting something to be true that you do not believe to be true, or know to be false, is hypocrisy… whether you call it a lie, acting, or hypocrisy.
When dealing with situational ethics, one is often not dealing with truth, but its perception. Truth is not relative, but our perceptions of truth are relative. Consider the lives of Galileo and Copernicus, who argued a heliocentric planetary system… contrary to the Catholic Church, which argued from Aristotle’s teaching that he observed a geocentric system. Perhaps you are familiar with the parable of the blind men and the elephant? One man touched a tusk and declared the object in their path was a spear. One man touched the elephant’s trunk and declared it to be a snake. One touched a leg and knew that a tree barred their way, etc. Each perceived his “truth” differently and incorrectly.
I hope this answers your question or clears your confusion.
Marina:
You had problems with the audio & video being out of sync with each other. I’d also like to thank you for my beautiful calendar. I look forward to looking at some very beautiful pictures each month!!!
Trikerskip
people who say or type, f–k, f-ing, f’d up, and so on. instead of just saying fuck. the replacement still conveys the exact same meaning. what guilt has been avoided? just don’t say the fucking word. there are alternative words, spelled out and everything. people who do this come off as both incredible hypocrites and fucking hypocrites.
bUZZARD
You have missed to point… Like the little top that Marina is wearing, We all know what is under it but class prevents her from just hanging it all out.. f88K :]
I said “Fuck” inadvertantly in front of my 24 year old son the other day… didn’t know whether to say sorry or what I shoulda’ used what Hellboy taught me “Oh Crap”.
Who else is waiting for the Supreme court decision ?
Haven’t checked email yet, but now that I know I got something I’m excited, had a good day with my wife, I shoveled snow, while she cleaned inside the house then we bought a Charlie Brown christmas tree Now I’m at the shop making sure the pipes in the building don’t freeze… this is supossed to be the palm springs of Canada, Brrrr.
Humm Now that I think about what you said, I think your right. Why do we abbreviate the word when we know full well what the abbreviated word means. We should either type it or not, but don’t be hypocrite.
He got me thinking the same thing. I use @#$% thingies, so I will not needlessly offend. If the word offends somenone, then its implied usage would too, would it not? The only difference is that I can say, “What? I did not actually say anything.” Good point.
Minions? …
(oh no, not again.)
Sorry, there was a guy here once who went on and on about minions. He didn’t choose to play well with others (I don’t know why…). Other than that, he was a good contributor.
Hmmm…. I notice this video is glitchy and slow.
I checked using two other computers – same result.
Anybody else noticing this? If not, I guess it’s the
server. Let me know – hm’kay? thanxalot
Nevermind – it’s the HD. Works fine at YouTube.
hey Marina
since Christmas is right around the corner
i wanna knew where does “SANTA CLAUS” come from
& im not talking about the north pole
lol thank you
Go to this websites Home page, look top left
The O’reilly Show Holiday Words
click it and watch the excerpt were Marina
gives you the origin of Santa Clause
if you watched her on Bill O’Reilly on her birthday she answered your request! Maybe it is posted on the home page,or you can find it on Bill’s home page.
Mon Dieu, Marina, you’re posting lessons on etymology like they’re going out of style. Which, beyond this little community, they probably are. But all this homework you’re assigning us…don’t you realize this is finals week?
I jest, of course. We all really appreciate your hard work.
Since neuroway stole my 16th Century Italian writers reference, I’ll give a more obvious example of hypocrisy: the Church and State. It’s really unsurprising these two institutions are so notorious for hypocrisy: the sole purpose of both of them is to help us become better people, which just automatically sets them up to be hypocrites.
It calls to mind a quote from George Carlin: “I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”
Teacher, you are absolutely beautiful tonight. And I would be quite an hypocrite if I wouldn’t say that you’ve probably got the most inspiring pair of boobs in the galaxy!!! )
The best example of the art of hypocrisy that comes to my mind is Machiavelli: The Prince. I’d say this has not been eclipsed by anything else so far. I’d guess it is still a good reference for people wanting to conceal information from others to achieve their own goals or simply to survive in a hostile environment.
Wow. You are so lovely I think I’ll follow you in a leash as blindly as Gorby (and most of your students) if you continue like this
Oh, you suck, neuroway. I was reading through all the comments, and no one had mentioned Machiavelli yet, so I was going to use that in my homework, but you just beat me to it. Go play in traffic.
In seriousness, though, kudos to you for making the reference.
Hi Marina…I wrote already before but Im writting again … First time I wanted to know where the word PIZZA came from… And now I was thinking why kiss is sometimes called FRENCH KISS. It was really invented in French or how I have to understand that. Thank you.
Marina
Great video, however the voice (yours) is
out of synch I dont even much lol notice Also you may want to take James’ screwdriver away b/4 he takes the whole website apart. B.B.
Why is it that although I stripped it down to its most simple parts I can’t hack the comment editor? I can do level 15 replies to foxbow. But that comment editor is like a brick shithouse
Hi there! I dont know if its proper to ask this but where does the word FUCK come from. Im not being funny i would really like to know. Maybe you can do a double whammy and look up the word SWEAR aswell but im not fussy.
Im hooked on words now!!!
Marina wrote an article for askmen.com that talked about the “Top Ten Word Origins Myths.” The number one myth was “fuck.” So if you want to know the origin of “fuck” you can read the article here.
Well, there was this poligamist who said, “The more, the marry-er!” (groan)
Kernunos — Ud. es asturiano, pero con nombre celtico — ?es que su gente todavia recuerda su historia celtica?
Otra cosita — tal vez “casarse” es una palabra corta para “encarcelarse”
Oh yes and you are far from being hypocrite! For some reason I always found honesty more attractive than hypocrisy. But unfortunately people most of the time make fun of honesty and they respect hypocrisy. They’ll just humiliate an honest weirdo and they’ll respect and kneel down before a hypocrite bastard. Should that be inversed?
Homework: I see it all the time. unfortunately
…and, I do my part, too.
In a perfect world, we could all be accepted for who we are,
what we think, what we believe, etc – but it’s not.
I am singing in a choir and the tunes selected are rubbish
to my ears. “New age” tripe for the uneducated masses.
I am “smiling” through it all, but itreally sucks major ass…
When I agreed to do it, I believed it would be traditional
Christmas music… no such luck… Oh Holy Night
would be an improvement, even with the cattle prod
Some 13 year old kid posted a reply under my YT comment regarding the HW question for Not too Shabby
My post for the HW question was “Outstanding”
The kid’s reply:
“how can you think that is outstanding i think she is stupid and this show thing is just to stupid to watch”
The little dumb ass did not even comprehend the lesson, betcha he’s an A student.
You are lucky to get that response
Usually, they can’t put together a complete
sentence. This is obviously someone who
doesn’t know Marina is the “A” Number One
Kahuna at YouTube. Maybe this someone
who REALLY enjoyed the Live YT Special.
That’s a special breed of cat – duh
I always wonder, if these folks don’t like the videos so much, certainly enough to express their dislike to Marina and her fans, why they bother to watch them in the first place… and then why do they bother to comment? Why not stop making others suffer their presence?
Dear совершенная Marina, Your spoken English has been improving, compared to your early videos. Once in a while, you still change pronunciation of a word, as when you said “plizz” instead of “please.” Overall, you are very understandable and you are a wonderful announcer.
I am a hypocrite if I say I watch your videos because I’m interested in English word origins. My work depends on proper use of the English language, but I don’t watch your videos for that reason. No, I watch to see your cleavage, your bare shoulders and bare knees, if you show them.
Nearly every politician is a hypocrite. Even the popular President-to-be Obama supported Blagojevich for his election to Governor of Ilinois. Now Obama calls for him to resign.
I’ll mail out Christmas cards this week. It’s a custom in this country. I don’t know if they were mailed in Russia, but I thought it would be nice for you to receive another one, here. Your dear student, seesixcm6
You certainly are judgemental, Evan Owen. Tell us how creepy your own comment from above is: “Before you ask…do you really want to hear about a sopping wet start naked Greek mathematician running screaming down a public street?”
It sounds like you’re living in a glass house.
Hi Marina-sama! Sama is a Japanese term of respect towards another like san but sama means a greater respect. Am I explaining this right? Thats my request! Sama or San, I’ve always wanted to know what it originated from. and also, I think you might have been asked this but how do you make your videos HD? I want to make my videos HD but I don’t know how and they’re only pictures. But I’ll just have my bro help me! I hope you do my request!
happychappy, go to the top of this page, in the upper right you will see a link that says ‘Forum’ click it, then investigate, read & ask question.
G’day
Che
I read manga online since my parents are so overly protective and won’t let me leave my house unless I have an adult with me. I go to onemanga and it doesn’t have that at all! And I wanted to know where the word originally came from.
Here is a site that explains the most common ones. They’re Japanese terms, so I would assume they originally came from earlier Japanese words of relatively similar meaning.
In medieval Japan, I believe “Sama” was equated with “Lord”. A Samurai was addressed as “San”, but a Daimyo, Lord, Shogun, etc. as “Sama”. Good link Nathan.
I prefer the old way the comments were too James. I guess I am not into change when I get used to something and how it works. Change is good but not for me. The more change I see the more I dissociate myself with a project or things that go on.
Marina has the timer set for approx. five minutes, which let’s those with a slow connection speed have a chance to edit. If this is new to you, it takes a little getting used to.
Alright, let’s stop this nonsense right here! That is the blog equivalent of littering. We don’t want to make it inconvenient for latecomers to scroll through the comments by interposing two yards of, uh, mindless incrementation. Shirley we can do better than that, Laverne.
Lessee. Oh, I know. Tell us your scariest winter driving moment. (At least we might learn something.)
There was the time I slid off the road, and ended up in a tree ten feet off the ground in a ‘62 Nova – but that’s a looong story…
… and don’t call me Surely! LOL
ummm….6?
Well, what caused you to go off the road? Tell us the guilty details! {…CK said, pointedly ignoring another useless number.} How did you get the car back on the ground? How did you get back on the ground? Was there any damage (except to your ego)?
I was driving a rental car in Sweden one time. There was snow on the ground and falling but not heavy.
The road had not been cleared by snow ploughs but there were clear tracks of tarmac which had been cleared by previous vehicles and I was driving at about 30 mph in the tracks. At some point, for some reason the tracks narrowed and one front wheel strayed into the layer of slush between them.
Suddenly I was facing the way I had come but was still travelling the same way I was before, and slammed rearwards int the snow bank at the side of the road.
Luckily there was no traffic and the car was not damaged. I pulled out, turned around and drove off gingerly to continue my journey but the car had a terrible vibration so I stopped again to see what was damaged.
The vibration was caused by packed snow which had been rammed into one wheel hub when I collided with the snow bank. After brushing it out I drove off again with no vibration and completed my journey safely.
While we wait for Cha Cha to get his story stra… uh, I mean, compose his thoughts, I will tell one.
I had to go to Quincy, which is in the N. Ca. woods, and you get there from Sacramento by first going over the Sierras to Reno and thence northward back into Ca. The trip “over the hill,” with chains and all was uneventful. I asked about the road conditions in Reno, and they said you needed chains outside of town, so I left them on. But there was no snow north of town and one of the chains wore out and broke on the dry pavement. “Canned rats!” So I took them off and continued on on perfectly dry pavement all the way to the outskirts of Quincy. The last 5 miles or so is a straight-arrow two-lane with sheer drop-offs on either side up to six feet in some places. No bother, the road was clean! Or so I thought.
I come up behind this car full of kids and they were slow, barely creeping along. What’s the matter with these guys? So I start to pass and I found out why they were slow. Black ice! “Canned rats II!” I had never been on black ice before. I eased off on the gas and s-l-o-w-l-y turned back into my lane and straightned out. But it kept on going and going and going and slid right off the edge of the road. Luckily the bottom was only three feet down a 20-degree slope at that point and I came to a stop, needing only a tow to get out of it.
While I was scratching my head, a cop came up and told me I was number two for the tow truck. Number one was the car full of kids. The cops had surmised that they were laughing at my situation, not paying enough attention to their own and rolled their dad’s car. They had tried to blame it on me, but the cops weren’t going for it, especially now that they could confirm there was no contact damage. Finally I was towed out and went on my way.
It was 2 am and snowing on a dark country road. The road took a bend downhill and to the left, the car went off the road straight and I flew through the air and landed ten feet up in a big tree! The tow truck driver rigged straps and craned it off the branches. Two days in the shop and my brother picked it up. He fell asleep at the wheel pulling out of the shop, ran it across the street, into a fire hydrant, and totalled it. No. 9
It was the first snow of the season and when I hit the brakes on my jeep to stop at a red light, I didn’t stop. I just slid on through and ended up about thirty feet past it. and this on my way back home from responding to an actual car accident (I’m a firefighter) The whole thing just flashed through my mind and I was sure I was gonna crash. 10
He fell asleep pulling out of the shop? He must have been a narcoleptic! Did he knock the hydrant off and cause a geyser? I know the piece of pipe under the hydrant is designed to fracture and save the hydrant (don’t ask).
Here’s another one:
I had to drive to Redding and it was raining, but, with I-5 being as good as it is, I drove at full speed the whole way, including a curve that is just before town. After doing my job, I started back, but unbeknownst to me, it had gotten colder. As I approached the curve, again at full speed, I saw white ahead. “Canned rats!”
As I was still on clear, albeit wet, road, I pumped the brakes to slow as much as possible. When I hit the snow/slush, I thought I just might make it around the curve. Almost, almost, a-l-m-o-s-t! I got about half way around and then it started slowly spinning in circles. It was like slow motion. There I was, holding onto a useless steering wheel, watching the world go by. After three turns, I came to a stop on the right shoulder facing forward, just as though I had planned it. Then an 18-wheeler went roaring by in the right lane. The road was clear all the way back home.
I’ve always wondered what would have happened if the road had had a dry spot when I was sliding sideways or if I had stopped on the pavement in front of the truck. I still haven’t won the lottery, though.
Nah, He worked the graveyard shift the night before and was stuck with picking up the car past his bedtime – poor shlub…
I haven’t had many accidents or incidents. I did run over the doghouse of a Camaro with a Mercedes Benz single axle dumptruck, though. Fortunately, witnesses came back and congratulated me for not getting killed. The other driver ran a stop sign and didn’t even look, I only had time to steer and avoid T-boning her.
I loved the first heavy snow days. I’d go find empty school parking lots and practise “brodies”. Lotsa fun
[CARD]
marina
the greek word ὑποκριτής (hypokritēs) is beeing used already in the New Testment for somone who is pretending (not doing, what saying), so I think it’s not quite correct what you’ve said, that this word got that meaning in the 13th century. I think it was much earlier.
btw: Jesus called the Pharisees (members of a jewish sect) hipocrites, and that’s why the word “pharisee” became a synonim of hypocrite today, though “pharisee” comes from hebrew word which means: separated (from evil), rafinated, clean = saint, holy.
so it’s another word with twisted meaning
greetings
Let’s try my patriotic exotic icon! Has it worked?
Jonny
YES (& there’s another gr8 band who’s 35th anniversary gig I saw in Perth Australia) it worked!
Thanx Bob!
No worries, cobber.
Actually, Bob, I never hear anyone in W.A. use the term “cobber”, even the most Occa (a true stereotypical Aussie,ie., thick accent beer swilling, barbie owning, guy with a blue heeler & a ute!). They always say “mate”. So, for example “no worries, mate”. I hardly ever use the term mate, having been born in NZ and raised in the UK, but I do say “no worries” which is equally used in NZ & Oz.
Jonny the cunning linguist!
Is there anybody out there (Pink Floyd “The Wall”) right now or am I alone in West Australian time?
Jonny 2 Basses
Set the Controls for the Heart of Marina.
My God mr Bob! Set the controls 4 the heart of the sun…awesome track! And footage! How come u keep hitting the nail on the head? Is it cos u’re always on the ball?
Anyway that’s the 1st time I’ve seen that footage & doesn’t David Gilmour look young? I served him drinks in The 100 Club Oxford Street London in the ’80’s at a Dave Stewart memorial gig with The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck woz there & Pete Townsend played on stage wiv the band. It woz gr8 2 c such accomplished musicians of such renown! I also served drinks to the dwarf who played R2D2! Of course I’ll NEVER 4get that nite!
Anyway Floyd’s Heart of the Sun sounds very acidy & Doorsy! Even post-Syd Barrett, & with Roger Waters smooth bass lines, they were still spacey!
Jonny
Best listened to on headphones with virtual surround sound. It’s like you’re standing in the centre of a revolving stage with the musicians playing all around you.
Who needs acid when you have music like that?
Wot’s with this Christian Lifestyle thing? Like someone else said earlier Religion’s getting a fair rap.
Anyway Bob (who I strongly suspect is a TA, altho’ he hasn’t admitted it openly yet, but then might be obvious to established officionado’s of HFW) has used the word “Gravatar” more than once recently. Wot duz it mean? My dictionary exhibits the word not, alas!
Jonny
Jonny, anyone can put up a picture of their own as an icon.
Just go to http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup/ , create an account and you will be able to upload your own picture from your computer or use any picture from the internet, to use as an icon.
Instructions are also on Marina’s “Help” page here.
I look forward to seeing an exotic picture next to your name in the near future.
Hey! Is it only the TA’s who get to choose their own profile icons? I mean mine ain’t too bad but duz look like I’ve got stiletto’s on, not quite my taste!
I’d like to become the ICON I choose!
He! He! He!
Jonny
This site is great
It’s not difficult to see why!
Not to be confused with Western Medicine’s Hypocratic oath to save life whatever.
I have been a hypocrite by objecting to an ex-girlfriend’s flaunt her body (“it’s just a body”) by being an exhibitionist myself, altho’ only amongst consenting adults.
JC
Here is a vaguely similar word to hypocrite that probably has an interesting history, “turncoat”. How about doing that one?!
Nick
J’aurais vraiment le goût de lécher ta chatte,
te manger les seins,
me faire sucer par ta belle bouche pulpeuse.
bye
Je vois que vous êtes un vrai phallocrate et un tringlomane au sang chaud, M. le tombeur.
Vous croyez avoir le monde en vos mains, quoique vous n’avez que la quéquette que vous n’utilisez que pour vous branler.
Voilà une remarque très intéressante, Bob.
Lemondeenmains est définitivement plus branleur que tombeur, mais il semble être un branleur honnête. Où serait-ce un simple cabotin incapable de se branler tout seul et ayant un morbide besoin de le faire en public?
Je crois, M. le juge, que Mme “hotforwords” fait en sorte qu’elle peut très bien s’attendre à ce genre de commentaires.
Ses attraits sont mis de l’avant assez bien merci.
je ne me sens pas coupable de quoi que ce soit
salutations
Je ne comprende pas bien, mais…”lemondeenmains” strikes me as a “lécher” all right!
suffira d’apprendre le français, Evan!
Where did we get the names for the days of the week?
Thanks, Marina.
Monday from Moon (French; Lundi)
Tuesday (don’t know but the french is Mardi & Norwegian Tirsdag)
Wednesday form old Norse Onsdag…origin, I don’t know.
Thursday form the old Norse Thors Day the God of war or battle.
Friday from the old Norse Fredag, origin, I don’t know.
Saturday mmm don’t know.
Sunday maybe from Sun
Jonny Cumbo
You’re on the right track, Jonny, but we need Marina to flesh it out a bit. (Pun intended, of course.)
What’s interesting is that countries as far away as Thailand name their days of the week after the same things as you mentioned.
That’s all the hints I’m going to give now – I don’t want to spoil the story for Marina.
Yes Bob, u’re quite right we should wait for Marina to flesh out. And I suppose it goes without saying that anyone into this site enjoys puns! I certainly do, much to most other people’s annoyance! Anyway who cares?
I’m impressed by ur command of French! And where did u get that icon? I take it ur the elfish Father Xmas next to the gorgeous blonde? And is that gorgeous blonde Marina herself?
So many questions, so little time!
Jonny.
Yes, it’s really Marina – the same picture she is currently using herself for her Xmas gravatar – but, alas, the elf is not me – I should be so lucky.
Uh! just noticed that she’s changed her gravatar again – probably does want to be confused with an irreverent old fart, old enough to be her grandfather.
As I’m unable to reply to ur reply about Norske og Bahasa Indonesia, I’ll have to do it here. It’s an amazing coincidence finding someone who’s experienced both those lands.
I worked on a farm in Norge near Roros (with a forward slash thru the 1st ‘O’!) for 2 consecutive summers, & had a beautiful Norske girlfriend. I also returned for numerous holidays there. In fact last year I returned for a week after 17 years’ absence! In ‘96-’98 I worked in a hospital lab in Ende, Flores, Indonesia & I acquired 2 adoptive families who helped me experience the beautiful, advanced culture to the full. Challenging & fulfilling times!
Jonny
Tiw and Wodin (Tuesday & Wednesday) were Norse gods; Saturday is named after Roman god Saturn.
But that’s just to tide you over until Marina can do it in a lesson.
Cool!
And u, like Bob, have a fair command of French. Does anyone speak Norwegian or Indonesian on this site? They’ve got some interesting words. Altho’ I wouldn’t fancy tackling Marina’s own tongue, so to speak. Or maybe I would…..mmmm…
Jonny
Yes, Jonny, I’ve lived and worked in both of those countries, though my capabilities in Indonesian/Malay have been superseded by the Danish/Norwegian and Thai.
You are right about Indonesian – that was a really fun language to learn because of the way you can build up complicated concepts from simple words. Also, the Indonesians are wonderful people with a great sense of fun and enjoyment of life.
hi, i wonder where the word “toe” comes from. like in mistletoe (aint that a good word in christmas time) or in camel toe.
greets from germany!
Hey Marina, I have a word for you. I’m not sure of the spelling but where did the word “bigons” come from, like when you say “let bigons be bigons”. Thanks
Let bygones be bygones.
I like the word ‘copacetic’, but I don’t know it’s origin.
Can you help?
I thought with all the controversy about the word Marriage you should research it. Thanks and Happy Holidays;-)
-Robbie
Please give the orgin of….sincere
Homework: Pretending to be a friend, but behind your back, says bad things about you to your enemies.
Okay now that I’ve done my homework, can you explain what ingnorence means ’cause from what I’ve learned, it has nothing to do with ignoring people.
Thanx~!
I would love to know about the word “daddy long-legs”, which is a type of very common spider!
Thanks
Their not spiders but i think a type of large lice.
Thats not quite what it says here.
http://texasnature.blogspot.com/2005/07/daddy-longlegs-are-common-in-summer-by.html
Perhaps same names but different species, What ya know? http://texasnature.blogspot.com/2005/07/daddy-longlegs-are-common-in-summer-by.html
Should we explain to nightnz the difference between “etymology” and “entomology”
It takes a little “etymology” to know the names of the “entomology” sometimes, right?
I’m confused
The daddy long-legs I know of spin webs, just like spiders. And yet that article linked above says they cannot
Looking at Wikipedia, it says they’re often confused with other species..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae
Confusion often arises because the name “daddy longlegs” is also applied to two distantly related arthropod groups: the harvestmen (which are arachnids but not spiders), and crane flies (which are insects).
So I think theres’ been some confusion!
i would love it if you could tell me what the word vindictive means thank you!
hey marina explain the word abdicate
Politics and religion have been getting a heavy rap in this post. If religion is a “belief set,” then we are all religious, because we each have some set of beliefs. Even if someone believes the total Big Bang thing, all primordial ooze, no god(s), then that is the belief set, or religion. The same rules apply to politics (at least in a democracy.) We each have a role to play, and we each decide how far to take take that role. If a citizen decides to not vote, then that is the political decision, that is his or her politics .
Okay, where was I… Oh yeah. Perhaps the object of most people’s complaints are the persons who choose to pursue these ends professionally, or for economic gain, and most importantly, have the charecteristics that allow them to do so. Because of the way voters and religious followers behave, persons of unscrupulous behavior generally gain the most notoriety (gain fame.) Political parties, organized religion, popular music, or the latest fashion trends – they are all the pursuasion of the masses by those who know how to pursuade.
I vote, but my criteria is all over the board. I am extremely religious, but I ask many questions that others label as blasphemy. My point is that when we complain about leaders, whether political or religious, who do we truly have to blame? We can follow or not. We can participate or not. We can offer alternatives or not. We make all our own choices!
hey marina can u please give me the meaning of word substantial
plz mention me in a video i beg you please!!!!!!!!!!!!
hey marina babe i was wondering if you could tell me about the word LOVE LIKE AND STUFF LIKE THAT PLEASE THANK YOU !
Last week some said to me that I had “egg on my chin” but I hadn’t eaten eggs that day! What does it mean??? And where does the saying come from??
Having egg on your face means that you have been found to have done or said something embarrasing. The chin is part of the face, but I have never heard it used in that sense.
You’re a hypocrite if you pretend to be something your not.
Since it’s the season, I was wondering if you would tell us the origin of the word “sleigh”.
PS: Happy Holidays!
Where did the term “gas station” come from? Gas is a state of matter, but fuel is what powers combustion. Technically wouldn’t it be called a “liquid to gas fuel station”?
Here, gas does not refer to a state of matter. It is short for gasoline, hence the phrase is short for gasoline station. You could claim it should be “liquid gasoline station” to cover all the bases, but that’s a mouthful.
I JUST DID MY BLOGTV THING!! I didn’t see any of you guys there though… My audio went and I was talking to myself for 5 mins…. I got some guy rapping to me, it was good… Time flew by…… I got 1 subscriber and 2 friend invites!!!
Charlieissocoollike was doing a show at the same time… I was watching him and didn’t know I was broadcasting so people were sitting there looking at me watch someone else.. Most people at one time were 12
This looks like fun…
That is a great movie.
“You said, ‘Feed me, Jack. Feed me.’ And I fed you.”
People oftentimes fall short of their own or another’s standards and expectations… just a part of life. People go to church to learn how to improve oneself on one day and do things wrong on the next day. Some of it is unintentional… which should garner some slack or grace. Other forms of hypocrisy are reprobate and indeed require some correction.
Want to know where the word Jack Ass comes from, because everyone always calls me that.
LOL! What’s funny is that Marina did a lesson on Dick and this topic came up under discussion in the comments. Although Marina hasn’t done the origin in a lesson, there is still some useful information in these comments you might enjoy reading
How can they call you Jack ass when clearly your name is not Jack. Suprisenly I didn’t get called that very much when I was younger.
I guess there was better names to call me. 
I just watched the butterfly video…. I never knew you swore in a video…… I miss the intellegence is sexy beginning. I think your hair was nice back then too Marina, not that it isn’t now. I think it just had more length.. I don’t know… But anyway if it was because their shit looked like butter, does that mean kids in primary school were taught to call it a boterschijt?
Merrry Christmas Marina
is it best not to do anything, when it is not the original HOTFORWORDS, like rating? Hey MARINA
For The Record
Morning Wood is not just a greeting to a guy nicknamed Woody
Why, yes
Morning wood prevents falls out of bed.
Unless the two are pounding with the vigor of a super speed pile driver(a “wood” one)! The force tends to move both bodies and if Her head is directed toward the side,well,there Ya go,right off the bed!
Is that like woden
Isn’t it good, Norwegian wood
Marina, could we possibly have somekind of thing that tells what users are logged in?
Hi james,I just had a waking thought. You are one of the vid makers here. What do You think of the idea of an animated mountain that Marina digs back/down into,tunneling to and fro,till She comes out with the desired etymology? Is that a worthy idea?
Might be hard to make and also….. What digs? Moles, Worms etc.. I wouldn’t really like to associate Marina with any of those….You could have Marina as a lioness and all the etymologies fight for her until the correct one wins… Obviously Marina wouldn’t mate with the etymology because that is not possible
but you know what i mean. Are you planning on doing a video then?
Archaeologists dig for the truth and history James,that was/is the idea connection to etymology. I don’t percieve archaeologists as moles or worms.
Nice job replying in a manner wich tells Marina You are in love(don’t We All?)tho! very creative.
Me do a vid?! I think not! It would look like a scribble mating with a scratch!
That’s why I put the idea out there,,for folks with the talent.
side note:
Who knows for sure? Maybe she would opt to mate with the winning etymology,,,as it mounted Her the the lower part of “g” would straighten and enter Her,if it had a lion’s tendencies the mating would be over in a few seconds tho.Big cats are magestic,but,they don’t mate for very long.
You mean like Dig Dug?
Ooh hey! A HFW video game! Yer a genius melika! She could be something like Lara Croft or that adventurer Tia Carrera played,Has anyone expressed that idea here yet?
There’s just no way I can read all the posts to know and the old memory is suspect these days too.
There could be a series of forking tunnels that look like wormholes. When you come to a fork, you have to pick the right origin for a word by taking the correctly-labeled tunnel. While in the tunnel, you have to maneuver to stay in the middle and not crash into the walls. If you hit a wall, you lose points. If you pick the right fork, you get points.
If you pick the wrong one, you drop back to the beginning and start over. It goes real fast until you get back to where you last goofed, then it slows until you blow it again. Eventually you learn the correct origins and navigate to… well, you would have to have some reward for the player. All of the stats would be saved and displayed — number of goofs, number of forks, etc.
After a certain number of forks, you reach Marina and you have to plant a wet one on her lips to continue on to the next level. Then it gets harder. (Hey! I said “it.”
) I’m not a gamer at all, but there should be no shooting. (Hey! Not that kind of shooting!) Well, it’s a start.
“you reach Marina and you have to plant a wet one on her lips to continue on to the next level.”
Who would continue?! I wouldn’t leave for at least a week!
Nice idea man,but,no shooting?,I need to drive,fly,and shoot,2 out of 3 ain’t bad if 1 is shooting I guess.
I’m not a big time gamer either,My brothers are tho and I’ve played some.I’m about to load Fear to My computer for the 1st time,My son says it’s good so I wanna see if I like it.
Yer from sacto huh? I was there in like 1989 for a while,I don’t remember much about the city except it was one big party,there were some cool cruises through the Nevadas and the Sieras tho. We have nothing to compare here,mere foothills.
I have one last commetn to make for this post. DOn’t worry nothing negative or depressing. Marina asked me a few weeks ago to remind her to start trying to give out ringtones to her students. I hadn’t heard anything about them for a while and when I mentioned it in one of my comments, Marina said she would try to start them up again. SO heres my reminder. Hope I get one. Lots of love Marina and Merry Christmas to All
Hi Marina,
My name is SylionBinkx or just Binkx. (Pronounced Beenks)
I would like to know the origin of the word, Valkyrie.
Marina,
Word request:
I cam upon this in a news story:
“The origin of the word “condom” is unknown, though the story of a certain Dr. Condom in 19th century England remains one of the more persistent myths. The term at least trumps “intravaginal pouch,” a phrase suggested in lieu of “female condom” by an FDA panel tasked in the early 1990s with reviewing an early prototype of the women’s contraceptive.”
Therefore I request the word condom,
Thank you,
Yours,
Robroy87801
Also, “condominium.” Is it a small prophylactic?
Yeah, but you own it and so have the right to sell it. However, you must pay a monthly fee for use and upkeep of the, uh, common areas.
not even close.
i would like to know the origin of the phrase :Going to the john.
as in going to the toilet or the bathroom
I wonder about the origin of “utter”. Why does it mean “to let out a sound” and “something extreme”, like “to utter a word” and “utter chaos”?
I am just messing around but tonight at 8pm GMT I am going to do a broadcast on blogtv it will probably be awful and the only one I will ever do but I might as weel give it a shot and try to use it to pedal my YT channel. By the way 8pm GMT is
3hrs and 6mins after this comment was posted
http://www.blogtv.com/People/jamesington
Marina,
This would make for a great lesson
Orange.. especially as nothing rhymes with it and it is similar to apron too…..
door hinge? That might rhyme with Orange
But yeah, it does sound like an interesting lesson
DOOR HINGE? Honestly
Well, then I guess you’d have to throw in whore binge.
That would make the orange blossom a ‘horebinger of spring.
A+!
Now here’s a paradox.
If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, doesn’t calling someone a hypocrite imply that the accuser perceives him- or herself as occupying higher moral ground than the accused?
That being the case, and since no-one is perfect, isn’t calling someone else a hypocrite itself hypocrisy?
Discuss.
It would be a case of the Ma calling the Pa Kettle.
((If you get that one, you are entitled to have your name put on the free Medicare Part B insurance brochure spam list if you aren’t already.)
Ma Kettle was the domineering Kettle personality,but She loved Pa Kettle boundlessly as is evidenced by the myriad children produced.
I watched it as a kid/teen/young adult,reruns that is,now,I’m trying to wake up so I can travel to see My 1st Grandchild on Her 1st birthday!.Time flies eh?
So far above my head that I still need a haircut.
Speaking of something above your head, watch this. It’s a good little skit. Then you can “ejicate” yourself here.
Its dead right now..
“Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.” — Matthew Arnold
Hi Marina, I would like to request for you to find out more about the word: “smithereens”. I do not know if this is the correct way to write it but it is usually used in context to blowing stuff up. I.e. Blow that building to smithereens!
Thanks. bye bye.
Here’s a start: it’s from the Irish Gaelic.
The bit about blowing things up or the origin of the word?
Oh! I’m BAD.
Yeah, here’s the bad part about being a Celt and an accountant. I always have to stop and think of where I am when someone says “IRA” so I don’t misinterpret it!
hmm i cant understand how the word evolved from “separate gradually” to “answer.” how is relevant? can anyone explain it to me?
I want to know why the word “Pussy” is used when telling someone that they are a coward. And why its used for the female genitals. Thanks.
Marina gives a partial answer in this video, she doesn’t give the entomology however she gives an alternative word to use instead of pussy.
http://www.hotforwords.com/2007/04/16/dont-be-so-pusillanimous/
sorry this video
Your use of “entomology” bugs me!
Yea been up all night and day and now nursing a sprained ankle, cut me a little slack please.
You also forgot “a feline.”
She coved that word in one of the Maximum Radio shows. Maybe someone hear can give you the link for the episode that contains that word.
Allright, here is a question, eventually. I do not like to belittle or demean people. I get frustrated at other people who do this, however… I find myself doing this very thing quite often. I do it much more while speaking than I do in writing, because I have time to retract my words before I click “submit” or “send.” I freely admit that I fall short of my desired behavior, but I also find fault with others’ negative words. Finally, the question: Does this make me a hypocrite, or just weak?
It just makes you human, Bob.
Don’t sweat it, just keep striving to improve.
Never Give Up.
I wonder what that must taste like?
i want to know who came up with the word “Seduction”
John=)
Her name was Marnia… Maria… Marino… Marine… Something like that. I can’t remember exactly.
Tastes like chicken.
Marina,
Could you do the word “Mercenary” ?
You haven’t done that one yet.
Thanks
Jay.
Only if you send in $100.
Dear Marina!
I thought you and your students might enjoy this short report which I just read:
“During a Supreme Court oral argument, a lawyer taught Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. a new word: romanette, the term for a lower case roman numeral. When Assistant to the Solicitor General Nicole Saharsky offhandedly used the word to refer to a regulation’s subsection, Roberts said quizzically, “Romanette?” “Oh, little roman numeral,” she said, and Roberts replied, “I’ve never heard that before.”
The Chief Justice should join HFW! Who knows what new words he would learn?
Cheers, Q
Would a little arabic number be an arabicette?
maybe an arabesque?
Have you considerd adding a yoga class to your lessons?
hi marina, i just wanna to let you know that you are amazing and that all your videos are really interesting, and i also want to know about the origin of the word EUREKA, thanks in advance, cheers
Before you ask…do you really want to hear about a sopping wet start naked Greek mathematician running screaming down a public street?
He was just exhuberantly celebrating his crowning achievement.
Eureka is California’s state motto and the name of one of it’s cities. And, in an emergency, because of the k, if you write the word down on a piece of paper and fold it the long way, it can be used as a makeshift can opener.
Thar’s GOLD in thum thar hills!!
“can opener” hehehehe,is that what is used to open a can of worms?
Even cans have “a can of worms”,remember when they were made with too much lead in the tin and sent folks for a ride on the wacko train?
As far as I know there is no lead in tin at all. There is some lead in the solder used to seal the outside of the seam, but they held that to a minimum. I remember reading somewhere that a man invented a way to reduce the amount of solder per can and made millions from it. (I can’t remember where or who that tidbit came from. It’s just one of those factoids tucked in behind the, uh, factoid bone.)
She mentioned “Eureka” in Serendipity
drawing characters from out of an ink bottle is a term animators sometimes use to describe how they go about creating animation images by dipping their quill in ink and then scribbling preliminary sketches onto paper or plastic film
Rotoscoping reminds me of glass etching pulling a negative image out of it’s confines such is the similarity of technique defined in the a-ha video “Take on me”. Then there is the onion-skinning software which is 2D computer graphic technique incorporated into video animation taking layers of frames/images and sequencing them together to make a animated image that appears to move on the screen, such as a horse running in motion.
Somehow this lesson ties in with hotforwords lesson on animation and links to what is known as the scanner darkly effect which is a digital imaging film technique known as “Interpolated-Rotoscoping”
Go figure
I think the world is curious about politicians who rise to top in the Chicago system and say they are not crooked. Maybe it’s how you define “crooked”. And how come crooked does not rhyme with looked, cooked, booked, and hooked?
It depends upon the standard by which they judge. Compared to their fellow politicians, they appear fairly uniform in nature. It reminds me of an old saying… “Men and water take the path of least resistance. This is why men and rivers are crooked.”
I worked with a dude whose brother was a mayor of some town in the L.A. area, and this mayor would sell out for a golf vacation. So this dude concluded that all politicians are crooked. My hunch is that this isn’t true in the majority of cases. But power corrupts, that’s proved over and over. Generally, politicians don’t become crooked, but they find themselves making ethical compromises, driven by the high cost of running campaigns.
In the case of Illinois, ingrained is a system of corruption that has been in place that encourages such practices as govt officials being required to raise money for higher up politicians, encouraging graft. According to TIME mag, Blago is the 6th governor to be subjected to arrest or indictment. I’m not from Chicago, but I would guess that Mayor Daley’s political machine didn’t die out with Daley.
Government should fear the people,not the other way around.
@muggins – I agree that Daley’s legacy yet lives. I heard a report that 4 of the last 8 governors of Illinois have been arrested and indicted.
@tryant – a mutual mistrust is beneficial for both sides
Did anyone get the bit about the pot calling the kettle black
If not, have a gander:
Poem found in “Maxwell’s Elementary Grammar” school book copyright 1904.
“Oho!’ said the pot to the kettle;
“You are dirty and ugly and black!
Sure no one would think you were metal,
Except when you’re given a crack.”
“Not so! not so! kettle said to the pot;
” ‘Tis your own dirty image you see;
For I am so clean -without blemish or blot-
That your blackness is mirrored in me”
cool… thanks for sharing this, GP
Hmm, can’t seem to log out. When I click log out it just does a refresh.
muahahaha! trapped forever! Have you tried just hitting your refresh button without clicking “logout” again?
Poetic justice for my remarks… I’m experiencing this issue as well.
muahahaha! trapped forever! Have you tried just hitting your refresh button without clicking “logout” again? muahahaha! muahahaha!
I have never been to Mexico, much less Muhaharahara.
Now, why would you need to log out? And what does it mean exactly to be logged in at this site?
Several possibilities exist. Does the server actually hold a list of those who logged in but who have not logged out? If that is the case, then the list would continue to grow forever as those who were logged in simply never transmit again (at least until the next session). (This happens when they simply go to another site or power down.) Are they then removed from the list after a set time of no activity?
Or is their no list and when you try to do something that requires that you be logged in, the server queries your browser cookie, that, if you were logged in, would have your “in-ness” recorded in the cookie. If you ask to log out, the server then erases the cookie (or, more likely, modifies it to record the fact that you’ve logged out). If you check the Remember Me box, that is the same as never logging out, isn’t it? Your cookie would be forever good.
There is also the possibility of the client PC hosting more than one user. If two people use one PC, for example, a cookie could record that A “has left the building” and that B is now “on deck.” The two can alternate by logging on and off, with the current state being held by the cookie(s).
It is interesting to comtemplate what the server does when a client no longer transmits. Is the client still active, but waiting (busy reading, writing or thinking)? Has the client gone away entirely (end of work)? There is no idle signal put out by the client that the server can monitor. The server could periodically ping the client by trying to read a cookie (and this would be detectable by looking at the PC/modem lights). Or it could just count time and make assumptions. It has to do something to come up with the number of users on line at the bottom of the page, doesn’t it?
All of the above is surmise, because I haven’t studied industry practice, and I may have missed some points entirely. Anyway, it is interesting to think about and maybe I have started others noodling, too. If anyone knows for sure how HFW does it, please satisfy my curiosity by explaining it. Or add to the theories.
My US Senator, David Vitter, is a prime example of hypocricy. He goes for the standard values vote, but spends his campaign money on high priced whores in DC.
Yes, it is shocking. In these hard times of economic woes, he should, as you imply, be buying only low-priced whores. He should be setting an example for all of his constituants by stepping up and skanking down.
were did roumba come from and what does it mean?
I wanna know the origin of the word “o’clock”
O’clock is short for “of the clock,” meaning that the number refers to the hours of the clock. I imagine it started as “o’ the clock” and then the the was dropped to shorten it further. This phrase would be so often used that there would be great opportunity for shortening. I suppose someday in the future it will just be “‘o ck.”
For The Record
No man is an island, …..he’s a peninsula
We have a saying in our home medical equipment store:
“No man is an island…but some are incontinent!:
lol
Since you post your videos on the internet, where did the origin of ‘Internet’ come from?
Al Gore?
“I’m shocked — SHOCKED to find that gambling is going on in here!” — Inspector Renault
OK, what gives? Every time I paste a URL, the “http:” disappears, causing a “malformed link” message at YouTube. And when I click edit, then save, the edit program shows “Saving…” but doesn’t close.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_A4Skusro
Anyway…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM_A4Skusro
Link works fine for me
The Ajax* editor does not return to the blog automatically after clicking the
Savebutton. Simply click the browserBackbutton to return.As far as the http:// disappearing on pasting, I haven’t seen that at all. Would you start a topic in the HFW-General forum category and describe exactly how it happens, step by step?
—-
*The Acme editor was in use by W.E. Coyote, so Marina had to settle for the other one.
@Camp: this odd effect happened several times when I assembled my remark in a Word document before pasting it here. It’s late, so I don’t want to go through the whole detail.
G’night.
OK. Maybe it would help to use Notepad instead of Word (if you’re using Windows) so that there is no embedded formatting or other squirrelies to worry about.
I do all of my copying and pasting and saving http addresses in notepad. It doesn’t distort them at all.
The word Press edit plug in must still have a few bugs.
CRAZY
the word Vigilante what dose it mean?
Vigil – staying up all night
Ante – to place a bet
a vigilante is someone who’s up all night playing poker
A vigilante is someone who takes the law into his own hands. Like Batman, Spider-Man, or the Punisher.
Would that make the framers of the US Constitution vigilantes?
No. The framers of the Constitution were elected statesmen. The exact opposite of vigilantes.
My statement was meant in jest… but as you put it, by what legal body (or bodies) were they elected? From what authority did they derive power?
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were selected by their state legislatures. And when they had finally drawn up the Constitution it was subjected to a thorough ratification process before it was put into effect.
Go deeper into the history. What is the source of the authority of these legislatures? Upon what were they founded?
Freedom.
There you have it in a nutshell (not that Tryant is nuts, Shelly).
I think what Dez is getting at is that by whatever process the first Congress came to be elected, it was technically illegal. The colonists were just that, members of a colony — the king’s colony. The King of England was the only legal kahuna, because he said so and had the firepower to back it up. This was morally OK as long as the colonists agreed to it. But as soon as they disagree, you see, we get into a spot of bother.
<civicslesson>>;By virtue of the electorate agreeing to be bound by the rule of law by the adoption of the Constitution and the election of representatives, we can’t just rise up nowadays as the Founding Fathers did. That is, as long as the government also plays by the rules and adheres to the Constitution. The Constitution is what protects us, and that is why the President, when ignaugurated, swears to protect and defend the Constitution and not our pink little butts, per se.</civicslesson>
Ooop! That was a freudian slip, wasn’t it? Inaugurated.
(At least we have the freedom to laugh about it.)
Here’s the problem, though: The framers of the Constitution were selected by legally-elected state legislatures. If you’re going to say we have to look at what the history of the country was before that point in order to determine whether they were vigilantes, then the entire question itself becomes meaningless.
To decide whether they were vigilantes, you have to look at their immediate context. Their immediate context was that they were operating within the law. To go back further in history, you’re asking completely different questions, ones that will drag on back to the beginning of human history.
Here’s the definition of vigilante from the Oxford College Dictionary: “a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequete” [Emphasis Added]. So you see, the framers of the Constitution can’t be considered vigilantes: they weren’t going around physically enforcing what they thought the law ought to be. They were drafting an entirely new system of governance for the already-officially-independent country. And when they did that, they went through legal channels and got it ratified by the states.
Originally I was making a play on words… you mentioned that vigilantes take the law into their own hands. Literally and figuratively, the framers of the US Constitution took the law (that great document) into their own hands.
But concerning the history, CK sees my point well. The immediate context is that these colonists were rebels. They had no legal authority. They usurped and assumed authority. The framers of the Constitution were rejecting the law of Great Britain and instituting their own. They went outside of the law… hence, vigilantes.
And they did this in several stages. The “Founding Fathers” bemoaned “taxation without representation”. Parliament gave them representation and levied taxes on the colonies anyway. So these slippery men appealed to the King, reminding him that the colonies were under the authority and ownership of the monarch, and not Parliament. George agreed and ordered the colonies to obey Parliament. Failing to get their way, they made their appeal to God… who, amazingly, endowed them with the inalienable rights to countermand Parliament and the King. Once the Declaration of Independence was posted, these men were traitors. Any governments, state or federal, borne of their efforts are illegitimate (de jure)… but time, distance, armed resistance, and the aid of Britain’s enemies (France and Spain) enabled the rebellion to succeed and form its own new nation (de facto).
This is the American legacy… our rebellion succeeded. We often dress it up in glowing terms and convince ourselves that it involved freedom from tyranny. But the rebellion had less to do with the rights of men… as the Civil War can attest… and more to do with the desire of businessmen to avoid taxes to increase their profits.
Dezdkado, I agree with you that the American Revolution had a lot more to do with desire to make more money than most self-styled patriots will admit. Even the Civil War was about states’ rights, and not human rights.
But you’re leaving out the key part of the history that establishes the framers as not being vigilantes. After Britain gave up on suppressing the Revolution and recognized the United States of America as an independent nation, we had no true central government. The law binding the states together was the Articles of Confederation. But before long, a lot of people had realized that the Articles of Confederation didn’t provide strong enough a central government to bind the states together as a single nation. So the state legislatures selected delegates to go to Philadelphia to come up with proposals as to how to revise the Articles of Confederation [after a similar convention at Annapolis failed]. Instead of revisions, they came up with an entirely new system of governance, laid out in the Constitution. Then they went back to Congress with their document, and the long process of ratification began in 1787-1788.
Granted, the instructions for the Constitutional Congress were to revise the Articles of Confederation and not wholly rework the American government, but that’s still not vigilantism.
Individual rights, states’ rights, federal power… it is all where you draw the line. The founding fathers were not vigilantes, they were revolutionaries. Their goal was not to bring about justice by enforcing a law (or their moral code), but their aim was to establish an entirely new law. Somewhere in the middle of these two, would be the case of civil disobedience – breaking a law in order to cause a change in the law. It is all a matter of degree and context.
As far as the Brits were concerned (and many Americans, too, BTW), the founding fathers were traitors. If they had lost the war, history would have recorded them in that light.
@nathan – I agree in part that the Civil War was fought over states rights, but more broadly over which states would have power in Congress. The underlying issue for this power struggle was the creation of new states… and the use of slaves to inflate the numbers of representatives that a state could send to Congress. The concerns of largely rural and Southern states were being drowned out by more populous and industrial Northern states. The addition of slave states and free states continuously tipped the balance of power in Congress, giving undue influence in both Houses to either North or South. It is true that abolition was neither the reason the Confederate States seceded, nor the primary goal of the Union. That propaganda did not begin until after the war was well under way, the Union was performing poorly in the field, and Lincoln needed new allies to bolster approval of his administration.
Britain did not give up on its goal to reacquire the colonies. We see their influence and subversion in the War of 1812 and the Civil War. After Texas’ independence from Mexico (1836), Britain actively sought, through bribery and negotiation, to influence the Republic of Texas to avoid entering the Union with the hope of using the new nation as a buffer and a staging area to retake the trans-Mississippi East. Unfortunately for the UK, Texas politicians were all too willing to accept British bribes while courting statehood anyway.
I see where you’re going, and it’s a good argument. Due to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the UK recognized the independence of the US. The Constitution was written in 1787 and ratified in 1789 (the Bill of Rights in 1791). So how could these framers be vigilantes if by treaty they were citizens of a new nation in 1783, four years prior to the writing of the Constitution (and six before its ratification)? The framers of the Constitution were, by treaty, not rebels and therefore not vigilantes. The vigilantes were the writers of the Declaration of Independence, the creators of the Continental Congress, the writers of The Articles of Confederation and Permanent Union, the instigators of the Boston “massacre”, et al. that were established or occurred in the time of rebellion.
@bsomebody – I disagree. The “founding fathers” were very much interested in justice and enforcing law. Many colonists felt the Coercive Acts to be in violation of the British Constitution. Their objection to the Stamp Act and Townsend Act were points of law. The struggle to create the Bill of Rights also exemplifies the importance of law. Their goal was a new form of government, with expanded and protected rights, not a new law. American law is founded on British law, tracing its origins back to Magna Carta. But the government they created through the Constitution, inspired by Athenian and Spartan models instead of the Parliamentary model, and the rights that government guaranteed were the goal. Also, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s insurgent. We portray these men as revolutionaries as we look back, glorifying their accomplishments. But even the record of the Continental Congress shows that these men knew that they were traitors and, under law, subject to arrest, trial, and hanging for their rebellion.
…oh, I almost forgot to ask how Gorby is — feeling better, I hope.
Hi Marina! I wonder if you could tell me the origin of the word “unbeknownst”.
DAGNABIT MARINA!!!..lol…marina dear whats the origin of the word DAGNABIT,i hear the word in westeren movies by older elderly guys. can you investigate?
It’s GOD DAMN IT, mixed up
Dag is a Norse deity. Residing in the underworld.
?
Nope,can’t think of any.I could lie and make one up.
The world is full of hypocrasy.It is also full of truth.
Have You ever seen a parent trick a child into eating or going to school? Is that trickery a form of hypocrasy? If You teach a friend about trickery by using tricks,are You a hypocrite or only trying to give the friend a useful experience? I would have to say there *are* different levels of guilt *especially* when humans(taught differently)are the subject.
What about sarcasm, does that count as truth?
I don’t know till I’ve had My coffee.
Hi Marina,
Loved seeing you on Bill’s show
How about the word: O’clock?
http://www.hotforwords.com/thumbs/hypocrite-big.jpg
You appear to be joyous and in a happy mood in this photo, makes me glad your enjoying your activities. There is is no sarcasm in my post here just a curiosity to the mind of mine.
Marina,What with the Big inviting smile and the word hypocrite plastered across your image a person might think you were speaking of your self?
No disrespect, inquiring mind want to know.
Marina are you tweaking the forum site?
I can’t log in, & not sure how I got log out
People who say “Truth is relative” or “There are no absolutes”.
I can understand if you disagree with that, but how exactly does it make them hypocrites?
Point taken… if they believe it, they are fools. If they merely profess it, they are hypocrites… especially if to excuse their own lack of character.
I’m still a bit confused. Specifically, about the “If they merely profess it, they are hypocrites” part.
The way I look at it, if someone believes that there is no such thing as an underlying objective truth to morality, and then they behave in a way that you think displays a lack of character, they’re not really being a hypocrite, because they don’t profess to the same standards of character that you do.
If they claimed that they believed the same thing you did about morality and then acted in a way that goes against contradicts those beliefs, that would be a case of hypocrisy. But if they claim to believe something different than you and then act in a way that you perceive as bad character, it’s not a case of hypocrisy, it’s a case of conflicting values.
I don’t argue from a case of morality, theology, or belief, but from logic. The statement “there are no absolutes” is itself an absolute, and therefore a contradiction. If one states “truth is relative” how can anyone ever accept that statement as true? Or rather, because there is no standard of truth, no utterance by that speaker can be known to be true or false. One must seek another source.
Because of this, if one believes the declarations “truth is relative” or “there are no absolutes”, that person is a fool, not a hypocrite. If one does not believe them, but professes them (or presents them) as truth, one is knowingly engaged in falsehood. Presenting something to be true that you do not believe to be true, or know to be false, is hypocrisy… whether you call it a lie, acting, or hypocrisy.
When dealing with situational ethics, one is often not dealing with truth, but its perception. Truth is not relative, but our perceptions of truth are relative. Consider the lives of Galileo and Copernicus, who argued a heliocentric planetary system… contrary to the Catholic Church, which argued from Aristotle’s teaching that he observed a geocentric system. Perhaps you are familiar with the parable of the blind men and the elephant? One man touched a tusk and declared the object in their path was a spear. One man touched the elephant’s trunk and declared it to be a snake. One touched a leg and knew that a tree barred their way, etc. Each perceived his “truth” differently and incorrectly.
I hope this answers your question or clears your confusion.
Yeah, I understand your position better now.
I can name two to start,Barack Obama and Joe Biden
Marina:
You had problems with the audio & video being out of sync with each other. I’d also like to thank you for my beautiful calendar. I look forward to looking at some very beautiful pictures each month!!!
Trikerskip
people who say or type, f–k, f-ing, f’d up, and so on. instead of just saying fuck. the replacement still conveys the exact same meaning. what guilt has been avoided? just don’t say the fucking word. there are alternative words, spelled out and everything. people who do this come off as both incredible hypocrites and fucking hypocrites.
Its Every Cuss Word We Know Stuckey & Murray
Chipmonk Version – Cuss Words
that video is fucking great! i just shared that with alx and a few others. thanks. the chipmunk version is fucked up! lol!
Hilarious Che… I will never listen to REM the same way again.
bUZZARD
You have missed to point… Like the little top that Marina is wearing, We all know what is under it but class prevents her from just hanging it all out.. f88K :]
Please behave Greg. You know darn well that’s not appropriate here.
Excuse me… what I meant to say was…
fuckityfuck!
One of my favorite clips from that movie.
I said “Fuck” inadvertantly in front of my 24 year old son the other day… didn’t know whether to say sorry or what
I shoulda’ used what Hellboy taught me “Oh Crap”.
Who else is waiting for the Supreme court decision ?
lol like the o.e.d. except funnier. i’ve read his stuff before. he’s good. here’s a link to the full video of his presentation.
didja’ get my email?
Haven’t checked email yet, but now that I know I got something I’m excited, had a good day with my wife, I shoveled snow, while she cleaned inside the house
then we bought a Charlie Brown christmas tree 
Now I’m at the shop making sure the pipes in the building don’t freeze… this is supossed to be the palm springs of Canada, Brrrr.
Humm Now that I think about what you said, I think your right. Why do we abbreviate the word when we know full well what the abbreviated word means. We should either type it or not, but don’t be hypocrite.
He got me thinking the same thing. I use @#$% thingies, so I will not needlessly offend. If the word offends somenone, then its implied usage would too, would it not? The only difference is that I can say, “What? I did not actually say anything.” Good point.
hey minions
Marina have you missed me? much
Minions? …
(oh no, not again.)
Sorry, there was a guy here once who went on and on about minions. He didn’t choose to play well with others (I don’t know why…). Other than that, he was a good contributor.
Hi Roadrunrunch. I know many of us have not missed you.
For The Record
Intelligence IS Sexy
Yes, I do realize that now Che.
I don’t even get distracted from her when I see these green Italian eyes lurking around next to the Teacher.
I guess “Gorby” must be some sweet and clean “hanky-panky” for her, and that’s why she’s so worried about him. I hope he’s doing better.
Hmmm…. I notice this video is glitchy and slow.
I checked using two other computers – same result.
Anybody else noticing this? If not, I guess it’s the
server. Let me know – hm’kay? thanxalot
Nevermind – it’s the HD. Works fine at YouTube.
For The Record
Do as I say, not as I do
{ sounds like a hypocrite to me }
where, when and did the word gay come around?
Donne we now our gay apparel Fa la la la la la la la?
For The Record
Coolwhip can be used in the bedroom as well as the kitchen
So can crackers, just leaves more crumbs on the sheets. Muahaahaahaa
Cool Whip
hey Marina
since Christmas is right around the corner
i wanna knew where does “SANTA CLAUS” come from
& im not talking about the north pole
lol thank you
Go to this websites Home page, look top left
The O’reilly Show Holiday Words
click it and watch the excerpt were Marina
gives you the origin of Santa Clause
if you watched her on Bill O’Reilly on her birthday she answered your request! Maybe it is posted on the home page,or you can find it on Bill’s home page.
Mon Dieu, Marina, you’re posting lessons on etymology like they’re going out of style. Which, beyond this little community, they probably are. But all this homework you’re assigning us…don’t you realize this is finals week?
I jest, of course. We all really appreciate your hard work.
Since neuroway stole my 16th Century Italian writers reference, I’ll give a more obvious example of hypocrisy: the Church and State. It’s really unsurprising these two institutions are so notorious for hypocrisy: the sole purpose of both of them is to help us become better people, which just automatically sets them up to be hypocrites.
It calls to mind a quote from George Carlin: “I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”
Я хотел бы знать, куда слово “Бог” Прибывает от, Спасибо!
Being part Irish, I also would like to know the origin of the word “Bog.”
OOOHHH…is that irreverent?
Maybe it’s Gaelic for “Pete”
Sumimasen, shibousha-san,
We make jokes here, but mean no disrespect!
Teacher, you are absolutely beautiful tonight. And I would be quite an hypocrite if I wouldn’t say that you’ve probably got the most inspiring pair of boobs in the galaxy!!!
)
The best example of the art of hypocrisy that comes to my mind is Machiavelli: The Prince. I’d say this has not been eclipsed by anything else so far. I’d guess it is still a good reference for people wanting to conceal information from others to achieve their own goals or simply to survive in a hostile environment.
Wow. You are so lovely I think I’ll follow you in a leash as blindly as Gorby (and most of your students) if you continue like this
You know what they say: Lead, follow or get out of the way, but don’t look up her dress.
Oh, you suck, neuroway. I was reading through all the comments, and no one had mentioned Machiavelli yet, so I was going to use that in my homework, but you just beat me to it. Go play in traffic.
In seriousness, though, kudos to you for making the reference.
nathan19 is right you suck. suckitysuck. machiavelli, fucking A+.
Marina:
Great job on O’Reilly the other week. I have a phrase I have always bee curious about…
Where does the phrase, “that really gets my goat” come from?
Thanks and have a great Christmas!!!!!
This is the first installment in a series of comments called:
For The Record
For the record, a tongue in cheek remark is not a French Kiss
It is if you say it while kissing
Hi Marina…I wrote already before but Im writting again … First time I wanted to know where the word PIZZA came from… And now I was thinking why kiss is sometimes called FRENCH KISS. It was really invented in French or how I have to understand that. Thank you.
Great video, however
out of synch
Watching in HD was fun.. not quite perfect, but I wasn’t expecting true High-Definition from YouTube just yet.
Marina, I am really getting annoyed.
Why is it that although I stripped it down to its most simple parts I can’t hack the comment editor? I can do level 15 replies to foxbow. But that comment editor is like a brick shithouse
James please stop tinkering with all the inner workings..hmmm
B.B.
if you break it you own it..lmaorotf
test
Hi there! I dont know if its proper to ask this but where does the word FUCK come from. Im not being funny i would really like to know. Maybe you can do a double whammy and look up the word SWEAR aswell but im not fussy.
Im hooked on words now!!!
Marina wrote an article for askmen.com that talked about the “Top Ten Word Origins Myths.” The number one myth was “fuck.” So if you want to know the origin of “fuck” you can read the article here.
That link isn’t working for me, and I can’t go back and edit it.
I’ll try again: You can read the article here.
Hi there! This video was made by JamesingtonIII in response to many requests for the word fuck. Enjoy…
Why don’t we have this kid stand in for Marina when she’s on vacation?
Hi Marina. Can you tell me the origin of the word Marry or Get Married??
Thank You ^^
Well, there was this poligamist who said, “The more, the marry-er!” (groan)
Kernunos — Ud. es asturiano, pero con nombre celtico — ?es que su gente todavia recuerda su historia celtica?
Otra cosita — tal vez “casarse” es una palabra corta para “encarcelarse”
Homework: Done in a previous lesson, and should probably remain there, as well.
Oh yes and you are far from being hypocrite! For some reason I always found honesty more attractive than hypocrisy. But unfortunately people most of the time make fun of honesty and they respect hypocrisy. They’ll just humiliate an honest weirdo and they’ll respect and kneel down before a hypocrite bastard. Should that be inversed?
Thumbs up!
Homework: I see it all the time. unfortunately
…and, I do my part, too.
In a perfect world, we could all be accepted for who we are,
what we think, what we believe, etc – but it’s not.
I am singing in a choir and the tunes selected are rubbish
to my ears. “New age” tripe for the uneducated masses.
I am “smiling” through it all, but itreally sucks major ass…
When I agreed to do it, I believed it would be traditional
Christmas music… no such luck… Oh Holy Night
would be an improvement, even with the cattle prod
That’s Decent.
Please, Hotforwords could you please investigate the origin of the world CHOCOLATE!!!!!! Thanx take care!
Extraterrestrial – I am a big fan of the X-Files and wonder where this word came from. Thank you.
Extra = outside of
Terra = Earth
Estial = Leftover letters from last night’s Wheel of Fortune.
Some 13 year old kid posted a reply under my YT comment regarding the HW question for Not too Shabby
My post for the HW question was “Outstanding”
The kid’s reply:
“how can you think that is outstanding i think she is stupid and this show thing is just to stupid to watch”
The little dumb ass did not even comprehend the lesson, betcha he’s an A student.
You are lucky to get that response
Usually, they can’t put together a complete
sentence. This is obviously someone who
doesn’t know Marina is the “A” Number One
Kahuna at YouTube. Maybe this someone
who REALLY enjoyed the Live YT Special.
That’s a special breed of cat – duh
If he went to my high school, I wouldn’t be surprised.
I always wonder, if these folks don’t like the videos so much, certainly enough to express their dislike to Marina and her fans, why they bother to watch them in the first place… and then why do they bother to comment? Why not stop making others suffer their presence?
Dear совершенная Marina, Your spoken English has been improving, compared to your early videos. Once in a while, you still change pronunciation of a word, as when you said “plizz” instead of “please.” Overall, you are very understandable and you are a wonderful announcer.
Your dear student, seesixcm6
I am a hypocrite if I say I watch your videos because I’m interested in English word origins. My work depends on proper use of the English language, but I don’t watch your videos for that reason. No, I watch to see your cleavage, your bare shoulders and bare knees, if you show them.
Nearly every politician is a hypocrite. Even the popular President-to-be Obama supported Blagojevich for his election to Governor of Ilinois. Now Obama calls for him to resign.
I’ll mail out Christmas cards this week. It’s a custom in this country. I don’t know if they were mailed in Russia, but I thought it would be nice for you to receive another one, here.
Creepiest comment of the day!
You certainly are judgemental, Evan Owen. Tell us how creepy your own comment from above is: “Before you ask…do you really want to hear about a sopping wet start naked Greek mathematician running screaming down a public street?”
It sounds like you’re living in a glass house.
happychappy, go to the top of this page, in the upper right you will see a link that says ‘Forum’ click it, then investigate, read & ask question.
G’day
Che
A lot of manga books have a page toward the beginning that explains the meanings of different Japanese honorifics.
I read manga online since my parents are so overly protective and won’t let me leave my house unless I have an adult with me. I go to onemanga and it doesn’t have that at all! And I wanted to know where the word originally came from.
Here is a site that explains the most common ones. They’re Japanese terms, so I would assume they originally came from earlier Japanese words of relatively similar meaning.
In medieval Japan, I believe “Sama” was equated with “Lord”. A Samurai was addressed as “San”, but a Daimyo, Lord, Shogun, etc. as “Sama”. Good link Nathan.
I’ve noticed that sometimes the comments I post doesn’t always show up on Recent Comments, to the right.
i prefer the old recent comments if that makes sense lol
I prefer the old way the comments were too James. I guess I am not into change when I get used to something and how it works. Change is good but not for me. The more change I see the more I dissociate myself with a project or things that go on.
I agree.
I agree also
I miss seeing which page the recent comments are on.
It takes some time now that the edit feature is added. After the time out on the editor runs out, your comment will appear on the list.
‘er…
i don’t have the edit function showing when i post…oops – i does!…it’s been shrunk & moved, tho’…
and still has the “hey, i’m saving – i’m gonna save forever” syndrome…
Marina has the timer set for approx. five minutes, which let’s those with a slow connection speed have a chance to edit. If this is new to you, it takes a little getting used to.
SUPERTHREAD
I want to create a super thread because the last super thread was a flame war
Ok.. lets learn how to count!
1
2
3
4
5
Alright, let’s stop this nonsense right here! That is the blog equivalent of littering. We don’t want to make it inconvenient for latecomers to scroll through the comments by interposing two yards of, uh, mindless incrementation. Shirley we can do better than that, Laverne.
Lessee. Oh, I know. Tell us your scariest winter driving moment. (At least we might learn something.)
There was the time I slid off the road, and ended up in a tree ten feet off the ground in a ‘62 Nova – but that’s a looong story…
… and don’t call me Surely! LOL
ummm….6?
Hi CK! 7
Well, what caused you to go off the road? Tell us the guilty details! {…CK said, pointedly ignoring another useless number.} How did you get the car back on the ground? How did you get back on the ground? Was there any damage (except to your ego)?
I have never driven 8
I was driving a rental car in Sweden one time. There was snow on the ground and falling but not heavy.
The road had not been cleared by snow ploughs but there were clear tracks of tarmac which had been cleared by previous vehicles and I was driving at about 30 mph in the tracks. At some point, for some reason the tracks narrowed and one front wheel strayed into the layer of slush between them.
Suddenly I was facing the way I had come but was still travelling the same way I was before, and slammed rearwards int the snow bank at the side of the road.
Luckily there was no traffic and the car was not damaged. I pulled out, turned around and drove off gingerly to continue my journey but the car had a terrible vibration so I stopped again to see what was damaged.
The vibration was caused by packed snow which had been rammed into one wheel hub when I collided with the snow bank. After brushing it out I drove off again with no vibration and completed my journey safely.
While we wait for Cha Cha to get his story stra… uh, I mean, compose his thoughts, I will tell one.
I had to go to Quincy, which is in the N. Ca. woods, and you get there from Sacramento by first going over the Sierras to Reno and thence northward back into Ca. The trip “over the hill,” with chains and all was uneventful. I asked about the road conditions in Reno, and they said you needed chains outside of town, so I left them on. But there was no snow north of town and one of the chains wore out and broke on the dry pavement. “Canned rats!” So I took them off and continued on on perfectly dry pavement all the way to the outskirts of Quincy. The last 5 miles or so is a straight-arrow two-lane with sheer drop-offs on either side up to six feet in some places. No bother, the road was clean! Or so I thought.
I come up behind this car full of kids and they were slow, barely creeping along. What’s the matter with these guys? So I start to pass and I found out why they were slow. Black ice! “Canned rats II!” I had never been on black ice before. I eased off on the gas and s-l-o-w-l-y turned back into my lane and straightned out. But it kept on going and going and going and slid right off the edge of the road. Luckily the bottom was only three feet down a 20-degree slope at that point and I came to a stop, needing only a tow to get out of it.
While I was scratching my head, a cop came up and told me I was number two for the tow truck. Number one was the car full of kids. The cops had surmised that they were laughing at my situation, not paying enough attention to their own and rolled their dad’s car. They had tried to blame it on me, but the cops weren’t going for it, especially now that they could confirm there was no contact damage. Finally I was towed out and went on my way.
It was 2 am and snowing on a dark country road. The road took a bend downhill and to the left, the car went off the road straight and I flew through the air and landed ten feet up in a big tree! The tow truck driver rigged straps and craned it off the branches. Two days in the shop and my brother picked it up. He fell asleep at the wheel pulling out of the shop, ran it across the street, into a fire hydrant, and totalled it.
No. 9
It was the first snow of the season and when I hit the brakes on my jeep to stop at a red light, I didn’t stop. I just slid on through and ended up about thirty feet past it. and this on my way back home from responding to an actual car accident (I’m a firefighter) The whole thing just flashed through my mind and I was sure I was gonna crash. 10
He fell asleep pulling out of the shop? He must have been a narcoleptic! Did he knock the hydrant off and cause a geyser? I know the piece of pipe under the hydrant is designed to fracture and save the hydrant (don’t ask).
Here’s another one:
I had to drive to Redding and it was raining, but, with I-5 being as good as it is, I drove at full speed the whole way, including a curve that is just before town. After doing my job, I started back, but unbeknownst to me, it had gotten colder. As I approached the curve, again at full speed, I saw white ahead. “Canned rats!”
As I was still on clear, albeit wet, road, I pumped the brakes to slow as much as possible. When I hit the snow/slush, I thought I just might make it around the curve. Almost, almost, a-l-m-o-s-t! I got about half way around and then it started slowly spinning in circles. It was like slow motion. There I was, holding onto a useless steering wheel, watching the world go by. After three turns, I came to a stop on the right shoulder facing forward, just as though I had planned it. Then an 18-wheeler went roaring by in the right lane. The road was clear all the way back home.
I’ve always wondered what would have happened if the road had had a dry spot when I was sliding sideways or if I had stopped on the pavement in front of the truck. I still haven’t won the lottery, though.
Nah, He worked the graveyard shift the night before and was stuck with picking up the car past his bedtime – poor shlub…
I haven’t had many accidents or incidents. I did run over the doghouse of a Camaro with a Mercedes Benz single axle dumptruck, though. Fortunately, witnesses came back and congratulated me for not getting killed. The other driver ran a stop sign and didn’t even look, I only had time to steer and avoid T-boning her.
I loved the first heavy snow days. I’d go find empty school parking lots and practise “brodies”. Lotsa fun
Oops! 10
Take a look at one of my favorite YT clips. It’s like curling, only with cars.
I can watch this thing over and over. Note the sound of the first car in the clip. Why is he gunning his engine?