Happy Birthday, welah!

Here's Today's Forgotten English:

pluvial
Pertaining to rain; rainy. From Latin pluvialis, rain.

--Daniel Lyons's Dictionary of the English Language, 1897

Gravel Day
On the second Monday of the first term in the year, if the weather be at all favourable, it has been customary from time immemorial to hold a college meeting and petition the president for Gravel Day. ... The faculty grant[s] this day for the purpose of fostering in the students the habit of physical labor and exercise, so essential to vigorous mental exertion.

--Benjamin Hall's A Collection of College Words and Customs, 1856

In old times, when the students were few and rather fonder of work than at the present, they turned out with spades, hoes, and other implements, and spread gravel over the walks to the college grounds. But in latter days they have preferred to tax themselves to a small amount and delegate the work to others while they spend the day in visiting the Cascade, the Natural Bridge, or others of the numerous places near us.

--Boston Daily Evening Traveller, January 12, 1854

-The Gneech

On Behalf of Mice Everywhere...

Gaaah.

-The Gneech

PS: Link snagged from berin.

From rigelkitty...

Trolling now a Federal crime.

Is it my imagination, or are legislators getting stupider all the time? -.- You ought to be required to take a Constitutional Knowledge test before you can take office.

-The Gneech

Fictionlet

"So which is worse," Greg asked. "'Don't You Want Me Baby' or 'Jack and Diane'?"

"Oh, that's easy, no contest," Brigid said. "'Don't You Want Me Baby' is a perfectly decent song, it just has the misfortune of being played to death. 'Jack and Diane', besides being played to death, is a miserable piece of crap. Therefore, it's much, much worse."

"Okay, well, that settles that, I suppose," Greg replied. "So what happens when you put 'Love Is a Battlefield' and 'Tempted By the Fruit of Another' into the mix?"

Brigid put her hand to hip in exasperation. "I throw the radio across the room so I can listen to the beautiful crunch sound when it hits the wall, that's what."

"Alas, poor radio," said Greg. "Still, it had it coming."

-The Gneech

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