Happy Birthday, indigoangelcat!

For your present, here's today's Forgotten English (© Jeffrey Kacirk):

saltation
The act of dancing or jumping.

--Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775

Feast day of St. Vitus,
a patron of dancers and those suffering from Sydenham's chorea, an involuntary-movement disorder also known as St. Vitus's dance. George Wood's Vitalogy: Food Remedies for All Diseases (1896) offered the following observations about the disorder and its treatment: "This disease is characterized by convulsive movements of the limbs, occasioning ludicrous gesticulations, and arising from involuntary action of the muscles. It has wittily been termed 'insanity of the voluntary muscles.' Causes [are] fright, irritation from teething or worms, self-pollution, deranged uterine functions, hysteria and descent from nervous, hysterical women. ... The stammering and stuttering, local manifestations of St. Vitus's Dance, are frequently the result of seeing or imitating others having the same defect. The most important part of the treatment consists in the use of moral influences, especially when the disease does not occur from any appreciable cause. There must be removal from too sympathizing friends, the patient being placed under the care of a kind but firm guardian. He must be encouraged to ... walk on short stilts."

...and stick a banana in his ear.

-The Gneech

Honku

Sharp turn to the right -
60-ounce Super Big Gulp
winds up in my shoe.

...

Gruesome hit and run
fatalities up ahead
how awful - I'm late.

...

Atlanta traffic
easy to see why Sherman
burned this city down.

...

According to the news
it's another "bad air" day
so try not to breathe.

...

I love it. :)

Courtesy of an article linked by ozarque.

-The Gneech

This One is for huskyteer!

Fraud Squad! In Color.

Tonight's Episode: There Go My Trousers!

Nicked from award.

-The Gneech

Literary Serendipity

We went to Barnes & Noble tonight so I could write some scripts for Suburban Jungle, only to find there was a reading/signing going on by Laurie Notaro, who recently published a book titled there's a (slight) chance i might be going to hell -- missing caps and all. As I'd given this one a glance over a few times and made a note of in my head as "one I might read sometime," I listened to a bit of her presentation, picked up a copy, and asked her to sign it. I figure I'll probably read it after I finish Creativity Rules.

mammallamadevil: You'll be amused to hear that she lives in Eugene.

-The Gneech