Catching up with stuff

Sunday, August 16, 2009

bowdlerize \BODE-luh-rise; BOWD-\, transitive verb:

1. To remove or modify the parts (of a book, for example) considered offensive.
2. To modify, as by shortening, simplifying, or distorting in style or content.

Bowdlerize derives from the name Thomas Bowdler, an editor in Victorian times who rewrote Shakespeare, removing all profanity and sexual references so as not to offend the sensibilities of the audiences of his day.

blinker beat

• When the tic-toc of the blinkers syncs with the music playing on the car radio.

dude check it out, I got blinker beat happening on this Jay-Z song.
Trivia
What is the only nonhuman primate native to Europe?

• The Barbary ape, which lives on Gibraltar. (Despite its name, it’s a monkey, not an ape.)

Saturday, August 15, 2009
dalliance \DAL-ee-uhns, DAL-yuhns\, noun:

1. Frivolous spending of time; dawdling.
2. Playful flirtation.

Dalliance comes from Middle English daliaunce, which is probably from Old French or Anglo-French.
buffer race

• the race between the playback line and the buffer bar on an internet video.

damn i cant hear a freekin thing this guys saying it keeps skipping because of the damn buffer race. the buffer bar is losing.

Trivia
How many of the 1,093 patents held by Thomas Edison were for electric light and power?

• 424—almost 40 percent.