Thursday, May 28, 2026

clinquant \KLING-kunt\, adjective:

1. Glittering with gold or silver; tinseled.

noun:

1. Tinsel; imitation gold leaf.

Clinquant is from French, glistening, tinkling, present participle of obsolete clinquer, to clink, perhaps from Middle Dutch klinken

back door braggart

• n. A person who states a problem that they have with the express intention of letting everyone know how awesome they think they are, revealing their douche baggery to all.
• v. Back Door Bragging: The act of expressing a false statement in order to set up the conversation to prove how (seemingly) fantastic the subject finds themselves.
• effect: typically leads to eye rolls and general annoyance with subject.

Sarah: Lets go check out the new mall!

Lisa: Oh I hate clothes shopping anymore. Since I've been working out I can never find anything that fits because my waist is too tiny and my tits are too big. Life is so unfair!

Sarah: You're such a back door braggart, Lisa. Go fuck yourself.

History

• Indian Removal Act: law forcing the relocation of eastern tribes to the other side of the Mississippi River was signed by US President Andrew Jackson (1830)
• Sierra Club: environmental activist group was founded by Scottish-American conservationist John Muir, among others; it now has nearly three quarters of a million members (1892)
• Mathias Rust: 19-year-old pilot from Germany landed his plane near Moscow's Red Square; he was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison, but was released after a year (1987)

Birthdays

• Owain Glyndwr 1354 - Welsh ruler, Prince of Wales
• George I 1660 - King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1714-1727

  
• Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotine 1738 - Physician, he did not invent the guillotine even though he did propose the use of a mechanical device to carry out death sentences in France
• Thomas Moore 1779 - Lawyer, social philosopher, author
• Jim Thorpe 1888 - Olympic athlete, baseball and basketball player
• Taffy Abel (Clarence John "Taffy" Abel) 1900 - Hockey player
• Ian Fleming 1908 - Author, journalist, created character of James Bond
• T-Bone Walker 1910 - Musician, singer
• Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau 1925 - Singer, conductor
• Marvin Panch 1926 - NASCAR driver
• Jeannie Carson 1929 - Actress ("Andy Griffith Show")
• Sonny Burgess (Albert Austin "Sonny" Burgess) 1931 - Singer
• Carroll Baker 1931 - Actress
• John Karlen (John Adam Karlewicz) 1933 - Actor
• Jerry West (Jerry Alan West) 1938 - Basketball player
• Tony Mansfield 1943 - Songwriter, musician
• Billy Vera 1944 - Singer, actor, writer
• Gladys Knight 1944 - Singer
• Rudolph Giuliani 1944 - Mayor of New York City
• Gary Stewart 1945 - Country musician, songwriter
• John Fogerty 1945 - Musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• Ted Snell 1946 - Hockey player

  
• Madeleine LeRouix 1946 - Actress
• Beth Howland 1941 - Actress ("Alice")
• Sondra Locke 1948 - Actress
• Larry Gatlin 1948 - Musician (Gatlin Brothers)
• Roland Gift 1952 - Musician (Fine Young Cannibals)
• Arto Lindsay 1953 - Musician, singer
• Mark Howe 1955 - Hockey player
• Tony McGeoch 1955 - Musician
• Eddie Johnson (Edward "Eddie" Johnson) 1955 - Soccer player
• Susie Diane Owens 1956 - Model, actress
• Jerry Douglas 1956 - Country musician (Union Station)
• Steve Strange (Steven John Harrington) 1959 - Singer (Visage)
• Brandon Cruz 1962 - Actor ("The Courtship of Eddie's Father")
• Chubb Rock ( Richard Simpson) 1968 - Rapper
• Kylie Minogue 1968 - Musician (Locomotion)
• Justin Kirk 1969 - Actor ("Weeds")
• Morgan Fox 1970 - Model, actress
• Elisabeth Hasselbeck 1977 - Television host ("The View")
• Carey Mulligan 1985 - Actress
• Joseph Cross 1986 - Actor

  

 

 

 

  

Hasselhoff Wednesday: Knight Rider

David made his way into our lives driving a Trans Am named KITT in the series Knight Rider. A couple years ago a new TV series came out by the same name, but didn't star David nor a Trans Am. That time KITT is a Mustang (finally a fast car!) and Mr. Hasselhoff had a cameo. A little Hoff is better than no Hoff!

More on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1114258/

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

depredation \dep-ruh-DAY-shun\, noun:

1. An act of plundering or despoiling; a raid.
2. [Plural] Destructive operations; ravages

Depredation comes from Late Latin depraedari, "to plunder," from Latin de- + praedari, from praeda, "plunder, prey."

Manufactured Outrage 

• A falsified righteous outrage at things that are basically unimportant and meaningless, frequently employed by politicians, political activists, or the media. Politicians and talking heads use it to garner support for their causes, to claim the moral high ground and to tar their opponents; the media often just uses it in a cynical bid to increase ratings.
• Manufactured outrages of note include Nipplegate, the Monica Lewinski scandal, the 2009 tea partys, backmasked satanic lyrics, lapel pin controversies, Russian Collusion Hoax...

Just about any time you hear any politician, activist, or radio show host getting outraged about anything, really. The louder and angrier they get, the harder they're working at manufacturing it.

History

• St. Petersburg: city was founded by Peter the Great as his "window on Europe" (1703 N/S)
• Survivor: won the first running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico (1873)
• Golden Gate Bridge: opened to pedestrians; bicycles and wheelchairs are also allowed on the bridge's sidewalks (1937)
• Bismarck: German warship was attacked and sank; nearly 2,000 crew members died (1941)
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Soviet dissident novelist returned to Russia after 20 years in exile (1994)

Birthdays

• Ibn Khaldun (or Ibn Khaldoun) 1332 - Astronomer, economist, historian
• Cornelius Vanderbilt 1794 - Entrepreneur (shipping and railroads)
• Amelia Jenks Bloomer 1818 - American women's rights and temperance advocate
• Julia Ward Howe 1819 - Abolitionist, social activist, poet ("The Battle Hymn of the Republic")
• Wild Bill Hickok 1837 - gunfighter, scout, lawman

  
• Arnold Bennett 1867 - Novelist
• Isadora Duncan 1878 - Dancer
• Dashiell Hammett 1894 - Author
• Rachel Carson (Rachel Louise Carson) 1907 - Marine biologist, nature writer
• Vincent Price 1911 - Actor
• Hubert H. Humphrey (Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr.) 1911 - Served as Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson
• John Cheever 1912 - Novelist, short story writer
• Herman Wouk 1915 - Author
• Yasuhiro Nakasone 1917 - Prime Minister of Japan (1982-1987)
• Christopher Lee 1922 - Actor, musician
• Henry Kissinger 1923 - Former U.S. Secretary of State
• Ramsey Lewis 1935 - Musician, composer, radio personality
• Lee Ann Merriwether 1935 - Actress (Barnaby Jones, Batman)
• Louis Gossett, Jr. 1936 - Actor
• Don Williams 1939 - Country singer
• Cilla Black 1943 - Singer, actress
• Bruce Weitz 1943 - Actor ("Hill Street Blues")
• Bruce Cockburn 1945 - Singer
• Richard Schiff 1955 - Actor ("The West Wing")
• Eddie Harsch 1957 - Musician (The Black Crowes)
• Susan Janet "Siouxsie Sioux" Ballion 1957 - Singer (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
• Neil Finn 1958 - Musician (Crowded House, Split Enz)
• Cathy Silvers 1961 - Actress ("Happy Days")
• Peri Gilpin 1961 - Actress ("Frasier")
• Adam Carolla 1964 - Comedian
• Todd Bridges 1965 - Actor ("Diff'rent Strokes")
• Sean Kinney 1966 - Musician (Alice in Chains)
• Jeff Bagwell 1968 - Baseball player
• Frank Thomas 1968 - Baseball player
• Dondre Whitfield 1969 - Actor
• Paul Bettany 1971 - Actor
• Left Eye 1971 - Singer (TLC)
• Jack McBarayer 1973 - Actor ("30 Rock")
• André 3000 (André Lauren Benjamin) 1975 - Rapper (Outkast)
• Jadakiss 1975 - Rapper
• Darnell Dockett 1981 - Football player
• Ethan Dampf 1994 - Actor ("American Dreams")

  

 

 

  

  

 

Review Tuesday: THE BOYS Season Five

  

 

THE BOYS 

Season Five

FINAL SEASON

Even in a world of fictitious superheroes who are corrupt, ORANGE MAN BAD!

I am not sure where I got into THE BOYS along their timeline but I remember telling people about how I felt it was BRILLIANT. When other comic book heroes treat their abilities as a responsibility, in the world of THE BOYS, superheroes are flawed and corrupt and see ordinary people as meaningless as ants. 

 

So, after season four, in which the writers seriously deviated from the comic books, killed Black Noir and went down a political path, season five was destined to be a let down. 

 

Rather than continuing with the early concept of great power in the wrong hands is, surely, corrupting, they decided to poorly write a Trump allegory. Ideas are poorly fleshed out. Characters are killed off for no good reason. Kimiko just starts talking because she watches Tik Tok videos. Characters act out of character. The treachery of The Deep has been dragged on WAY too long. Starlight (Erin Moriarty) has ruined herself with plastic surgery and isn't even a fun reason to watch the show anymore. Put that all together and Season Five is a poorly written, misguided, and completely disappointing and unsatisfying series finale. Well done! You GoTd the franchise. As a result, the split-off series from THE BOYS hold little to no interest for me. I now know how they enjoy ruining a good existing story with their own political ideologies.         

 

  

Happy BOB Day - 2026

 

I'll drink to that!

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

equanimity \ee-kwuh-NIM-uh-tee; ek-wuh-\, noun:

• Evenness of mind; calmness; composure; as, "to bear misfortunes with equanimity."

Equanimity comes from Latin aequanimitas, "impartiality, calmness," from aequanimus, "impartial, even-tempered," from aequus, "even" + animus, "mind, soul."

 

metatation 

• Metatation: The act of contemplating meditation itself, putting oneself outside the very state of meditation.

I was not satisfied with my meditation practice, so I began a metatation.

 

Trivia
What was the first male name given to an Atlantic hurricane?  

• Bob, in 1979. That was the first year the World Meteorological Organization began alternating between male and female names in alphabetical order. For the previous 26 years, only female names had been used—starting with Alice.

Holiday

• Bob Day (May 26th, annually) 

History

• Edict of Worms: declared Martin Luther an outlaw and banned his writings (1521)
• Andrew Johnson: 17th president of the United States was acquitted by one vote in his impeachment trial (1868)
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: stock market index was first published by The Wall Street Journal (1896)
  Dracula - The vampire novel by Bram Stoker was first published igniting an entire genre of fiction and fantasy (1897)
• George Willig: the "human fly" scaled the South Tower of the World Trade Center in 3.5 hours; he was fined $1.10 for the illegal feat — a penny per story (1977)
• Ellis Island: the US Supreme Court ruled that the immigration landmark belonged more to New Jersey than New York (1998)

Birthdays

• Abraham De Moivre 1667
• Alexander Pushkin 1799
• Al Jolson 1886
• Norma Talmadge 1897
• John Wayne 1907
• Robert Morley 1908
• Ben Alexander 1911
• Peter Cushing 1913
• Jay Silverheels 1919
• Peggy Lee 1920
• James Arness 1923 - Actor ("Gunsmoke")
• Jacques Bergerac 1927
• Teresa Stratas 1939
• Brent Musburger 1939 - Sportscaster
• Cliff Drysdale1941
• Levon Helm 1942 - Musician (The Band)
• Ray Ennis 1942 - Musician (The Swinging Blue Jeans)
• Sam Posey 1944
• Gerry Paterson 1945 - Musician (The Guess Who)
• Stevie Nicks 1948 - Singer
• Pam Grier 1949
• Hank Williams, Jr. 1949 - Country musician
• Phillip Michael Thomas 1949 - Actor ("Miami Vice")
• Verden Allen 1949 - Musician (Mott the Hoople)
• Sally K. Ride 1951 - Astronaut
• Colin Vearncombe 1951 - Musician (Black)
• Margaret Colin 1957 - Actress
• Dave Robbins 1959 - Musician (Blackhawk)
• Wayne Hussey 1959 - Musician (Mission)
• Genie Francis 1962 - Actress ("General Hospital")
• Bobcat Goldthwait 1962 - Comedian, actor ("Police Academy" series)
• Joe Dumars 1963 - Basketball player
• Lenny Kravitz 1964 - Musician
• Helena Bonham-Carter 1966 - Actress
• Phillip Rhodes 1968 - Musician (Gin Blossoms)
• Joseph Fiennes 1970 - Actor ("Flashfoward")
• Joey Kibble 1971 - Musician (Take 6)
• Matt Stone 1979 - TV producer ("South Park")
  

  

 

 

  

 

 

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