Where do we get the phrase be there or be square?
Not sure about this exact phrase but I heard that "square" comes from the 18th century when the style of shoe went, rather suddenly, from the square-toed single last style to the pointed-toe style made with right and left feet. Those who refused to change (or could not afford to) were unfashionable "Squares".
Grant Barrett said:
Why in the world would two people part from each other saying, "Abyssinia!" "Ethiopia!"? The hosts clear up the mystery.
In my family, when we parted, we said "Well, as they say in Africa ... Abyssinia!"
This discussion reminded me of words my father, a psychology professor, used to use with me and my little brother. He would say, "I can do (whatever) before you can say tachistoscopic episkatister." Of course we never could say tachistoscopic episkatister no matter how much time you gave us, so he always won this challenge.
I was in college before I found out what a tachistoscope or an episkatister was, or how to spell either one. Do you know what a tachistoscopic episkatister is?
Grant Barrett said:
Martha shares a puzzle sent in by a listener: "What's the longest word typed on the left hand's half of the keyboard?" Hint: It's the plural of a now-outmoded occupational term.
I used to work with a woman named Barbara Stewart. She made a big show out of taking her right hand completely off the keyboard before typing her full name.
For the other hand, I once constructed a fanciful "right-hand shopping list" of items such as hippo milk, onion pulp, pumpkin hull oil. That, and the sentence on opium poppy, in my opinion, you'll unpin my pink nylon kimono.
Grant argues that new commercial categories of literature, which include poop fiction, chick lit, K-mart realism, and tart noir resemble the kind of fracturing that already occurred in the music world. Here's the blog entry that got him started.
They left out "housewife porn", aka "bodice-rippers".
What exactly do you mean when you use the words couple, few, and several? Do they conjure specific numbers? The hosts disagree.
When I was about nine years old, I asked someone exactly what the phrase "room temperature" meant and was told "72 degrees Fahrenheit". Ever since, I've been unable to associate the term with any other number.
Regarding the sunlight phenomena you spoke of I would like to add to the moonglade list the word "alpenglow"
When the sun is setting or rising and you get one of those very red ones the light can be reflected off of low clouds onto the mountain causing the snow to look orange.
Quite spectacular. Only have seen once on the west side of the Wasatach range heading south from Ogden after a ski trip to Jackson.
Grant Barrett said:
What exactly do you mean when you use the words couple, few, and several? Do they conjure specific numbers? The hosts disagree.
I was arguing with the radio this weekend (I'm sure my wife found me a bit, well, off my rocker) but this conversation was driving me nuts!
It's the difference between the terms "quantitative" and "qualitative". Or, perhaps, between left brain and right brain personalities. I'm sure that you and I are both left brain people, but these are right brain terms.
1, 2, 3, and 4 are all quantitative. They don't tell you how good or bad something is, they just tell you how many.
Several and few are qualitative: they are also relative to the subject matter being described.
A "few" of something is just that: a lesser amount. It is significant (in that a "few less" or a "few more" is noticeably different from an original size) but it is not significant in that it almost doesn't matter. That's what's being conveyed: that while there is an appreciable amount, a few is qualitatively of little significance.
"Several", on the other hand, is a term that is describing much more significance in a quantity.
The whole point of the two terms is that the number associated with them is completely irrelevant independently and is only relevant in context.
For example, "trapped in the landslide, the hiker was killed when several large rocks struck his body."
Were there 2, 3, or 15 rocks? It doesn't matter: the point was that the amount was more than adequate to kill the hiker.
On the other hand, "while only a few rocks hit the hiker, he was unable to survive the blows" could describe the exact same scene,
Were there 2, 3, or 15 rocks? It doesn't matter: the point was that the amount seemed small enough to survive, yet obviously the results were not as expected.
In my opinion, trying to identify "few" or "several" with specific numbers is like trying to answer "How beautiful the Mona Lisa?" with a number.
Now, that being said, a "couple" is two. It doesn't really fit in with the other terms 🙂
"Many" on the other hand seems to me to be synonymous with "several".