Jim Dandy wanted to know how to say “turkey” in Spanish. I didn’t know. We recalled the word for chicken, “pollo,” and for ham, “jamón,” not to be confused with “jabón,” which means soap. Anyway, JD found that turkey is “pavo.” I subsequently wondered about the nation of Turkey, and that is “TurquÃa.”
Wordreference.com is your source for these vital inquiries.
We were wondering about the origin of April Fool’s Day last week. Of course, there are multiple theories. The most popular has to do with the change to the Gregorian Calendar. People that resisted the change celebrated New Year’s Day on April 1, were sent on “fool’s errands” and targets for other pranks. For a more elaborate summary of these theories, see museumofhoaxes.com.
With the fragile state of the Pope these days, my compatriots and I started wondering about the structure of the Catholic Church. Specifically, we wanted to know how many Cardinals are there? Well, it’s 183 as Paul found the answer at Catholic-Pages.com. Also of interest is the index of Popes through history, which includes 264 or 265 depending on who you believe. I’m not sure what the discrepancy is. For more info on JPII see the CNN biography (the Vatican site is swamped, so don’t expect to get in there).
Melissa inquires:
P.S. Do you like how I used the word “dig”? Thank you, Lenny Bruce. Although, I may not be hip enough to pull it off. Hmm…
Then there was this exchange between Odie and I:
Jer: …but I don’t like hot dogs.
Odie: Who hates hot dogs? Are you a communist?
Jer: I got 566 hits in google for the search “‘I hate hot dogs’” although I can’t confirm their political affiliation.
Odie: Oh google is a real good source of authority: I got 15,500 hits for the google search: “I hate America.” Some of them have to be overlaps. Although, in retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have just done that search on a federal government computer.
Jer: That means for every person that hates hot dogs, there are 30 that hate America. I’d say for such a crude measurement, it’s pretty close.
This is the best post I’ve ever made.
I first heard “pedantic” on a Seinfeld episode (The Big Salad) when George’s girlfriend describes a New York columnist as pedantic. George replies, “He can be pedantic. He can be pedantic!” I saw the word again reading 1984, so I thought I should finally learn what it means:
adjective
Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules
e.g.: a pedantic attention to details
Volgraf has come across some good words lately. Submitted for your approval is ablate:
verb (transitive)
To remove by erosion, melting, evaporation, or vaporization.
Medicine. To remove especially by cutting
Beaudry and I saw a couple pairs of shoes draped over the power lines while eating lunch last week. While we wondered what the significance was, we agreed that it looked funny. I asked Andy about it yesterday, and he didn’t know either, so I googled it. It turns out that nobody knows definitively, or at least there isn’t just one reason. These sites have collected some suggestions:
So Jim Dandy and I were walking through Sproul Plaza today on the campus of the University of California, when two guys flashing a handful of money asked us if we wanted to make a dollar. All we had to do was let them take pictures of our faces. They are conducting a study on how well people remember faces when shown for just a few seconds. So we did our part and walked away each a dollar richer. However, the study was put to the test about 45 minutes later when we walked back through Sproul and the same guys flagged us down to have our pictures taken for a dollar. Beaudry and I glanced at each other, shrugged, and said, “Sure, why not?” I feel like I should tell them not to spend much more time on their study. We got their answer right there.
Per a conversation at lunch, it seems that 01001 is the lowest numerical ZIP code. It’s Agawam, MA, near Springfield in Hampden county. For more info on the zone improvement plan, see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
I don’t want to sound like my vocabulary conversations with Beaudry are a one way street. He offered up “Bodhisattva.”
(Buddhism) noun
An enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others.
I think all this learning merits it’s own category.