Happy Happy!

Happy birthday to fallwind and that geekboy, graveyardgreg!

Have a newly discovered mammal species! And Today's Forgotten English!

pettifoggery
Tricks, quibbles; the practice of a pettifogger, an inferior attorney.

--Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon, c. 1850

From French petite, small, and Saxon fogere, a wooer, suitor, or solicitor.

--Thomas Blount's Law Dictionary and Glossary, 1717

Feast Eve of St. Ambrose, a third-century attorney who became a patron of orators because a swarm of bees settled harmlessly in his mouth when he was an infant. Many writers -- both early and modern -- have found fault with attorneys, which has led to a host of opprobrious terms, such as ambidexter, one skilled at taking fees from both a plaintiff and a defendant in the same case. Dyche and Pardon's New General English Dictionary (1740) defined a pettifogger as: "That among the lawyers [as] a quack is among the physicians, an ignorant pretender, one that rather increases suits than justly settles people's rights and properties." This was accomplished, the dictionary continued, by pettifogging, "the vile practice of setting people together by the ears and promoting quarrels, by assuring each party of gaining advantage, by going to law upon trifling occasions."

-The Gneech

Fun With Databases

So, to make up for two weeks of not sending e-mail notices of posts, LiveJournal suddenly floods my inbox with notices going back a month or more.

Silly. :)

-The Gneech

Just a Reminder!

If you got a badge in the recent batch of offers and you haven't provided them already, you need to e-mail me a name and description of your character; reference pics if you have any would be useful as well. I hope to start working on these this weekend, so the sooner you give me the info, the sooner your badge will be done!

-The Gneech

(x-posted to suburban_jungle)

And Then BAM We Were Christmas Shopping!

Stopping into Best Buy to grab a few gift cards led to unexpectedly getting half our Christmas shopping done. 0.o

bauske should like this (and dilettante too, for that matter) -- lythandra and I picked up gifts for each other: deluxe wireless dance pads and a copy of DDR UltraMix 2.

Be afraid. 0.o

If we don't crash through the floor of the den to the crawlspace, I'll be amazed. But it'll be fun until then!

-The Gneech

Fictionlet

Greg struck a wild, exaggerated martial arts pose, one hand high over his head, the other brandishing a men's safety razor. "New! From Gillette!" he said dramatically. "The X-17 -- a little number we like to call ... The Widowmaker!"

Brigid stood in the hall and blinked at him, struggling to keep at least one eye open against the malicious morning glare. She didn't bother to say anything, though. What would be the point?

"Some razors have two blades; others have three. A few have four! But X-17, The Widowmaker, blows them all away with an unprecedented SEVENTEEN BLADES!" He shook his hands violently, making cheesy thunderclap noises. "You may not think it was possible, but we did it! That's X-17, The Widowmaker, new from Gillette! The man's razor that BLASTS your face smooth!" More thunder noises.

Brigid blinked at him, wordlessly. He began to look around, sheepishly, still standing in the martial arts pose.

A moment passed.

A moment later, another one passed.

Finally, Greg slunk back off to the bathroom, and Brigid let her eyes squeeze mostly shut again and continued towards the kitchen for her breakfast.

-The Gneech

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