Vocabulary Thursday - Japanese Edition

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Art Appreciation Tuesday

Book Excerpt for the Day

"That word means something else, you know" his father had told him once, when Mission had spoken of revolution. "It also means to go around and around. To revolve. One revolution, and you get right back to where you started."

(from Shift by Hugh Howey)

8*/10. The complete review is here.

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Science Sunday

Friday Vocabulary

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Book Excerpt for the Day

O ants crawl my drunken arms

and they let Van Gogh sit in a cornfield

and take Life out of the world with a shotgun,

ants crawl my drunken arms

and they sent Rimbaud

to running guns and looking under rocks for gold,

O ants crawl my drunken arms,

they put Pound in a nuthouse

and made Crane jump into the sea in his pajamas,

ants, ants, crawl my drunken arms

as our schoolboys scream for Willie Mays

instead of Bach.

(from On Drinking by Charles Bukowski)

7½*/10. The complete review is here.

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Art Appreciation Tuesday

Monday Maths

s

u

z

Friday Haiku

Book Excerpt for the Day

Initially the docent had refused to take pity on the man who claimed to have come all the way from America to pray at the Baptistry of San Giovanni in hopes of curing his terrible skin disease. Eventually, though, he had been inspired to become sympathetic, aided no doubt by an offer of five hundred dollars for five minutes alone in the baptistry ... combined with the growing fear that this contagious-looking person would stand there beside him for the next three hours until the building opened.

(from Inferno by Dan Brown)

7½*/10. The complete review is here.

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Playing Guitar

g

l

o

Pronunciation

 

Sunday Sermon

Why I don't go camping

It's the weekend!!

Etymology Thursday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The drone nodded.  “We were sent out as cannon fodder.  We turned out to be better at staying alive than expected.  When they attached us to a praetorian regiment, we thought they wanted us for our survival skills.”

    “What did they want you for?”

    “Breakfast.”

    “So what happened?”

    SVN/2187 shrugged.  “There was an unfortunate error.  Our commanding officer accidentally got shot by the entire platoon, and then happened to set himself on fire and fell down a hole.  And then a bio-grenade rolled down there after him.  For some reason, high command decided that we were responsible.”

    (from The Pincers of Death by Toby Frost)

 

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Covid Testing

They've changed the sample-taking protocol for Covid-testing where we go. Before, they'd stick a Q-Tip in your nostrils. Now, you have to spit/drool/salivate through a straw into a vial.

My learning curve was rather steep for that new process.

Sunday Punnery

Better than a vaccine

 

Spanish Vocabulary Friday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “So,” I said, eyeing him closely, “maybe it’s good there’s no such thing as time travel.”

    He raised his eyebrows slightly.

    “Or to qualify further, no such thing as public access time travel.”

    “Exactly.  Although the phrase ‘time travel’ is so sci-fi.  We don’t do that.  Here at St. Mary’s we investigate major historical events in contemporary time.”

    (from Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor)

 

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Wednesday Punnery

Photoshop Tuesday

    A way-kewl picture even if it is completely fake.

Marketing

Sunday Sermon

 

Herbology Saturday

Masks

    Wear 'em correctly, peeps.  Lives depend on it.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “I didn’t drop acid before writing the lyrics, as many people later assumed.  And the lyrics weren’t about an acid trip.  I may have smoked a joint that night, but that was it.  Since birth, I’ve had achromatopsia – complete color blindness.  If I had dropped acid, I would have been hallucinating in vivid black-and-white.  I doubt that would have helped me or the song much.  (John Kay, regarding “Magic Carpet Ride”)

    (from Anatomy of a Song by Marc Myers)

 

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Music Wednesday

 

Waldo

Word for the day: *Waldo* (n.): a remote manipulator, as for puppets, operated either mechanically or electronically.

Today's Safety Tip

Polyglot Sunday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “I’ve left my husband,” she said, “and it’s for real, and I’m never going back.”

    “To him, or to New York?”

    “Neither.”

    “How come?  Is he the mayor?”

    “What?”  She looked blank for a second, and then she laughed.  “It’s all connected in my mind,” she said.  “It’s a journey into independence.  Or does that sound stupid?”

    “No, I can see that,” he said.  “If you’re making a big move, you want to make a move.”

    “Right,” she said.  “If I’m leaving, I’m leaving.”

    “Sure,” he agreed.  “If you’re throwing out the bath water, you might as well throw out the baby.”

    She frowned at him.  “Somehow that doesn’t sound the same.”

    (from Dancing Aztecs by Donald E. Westlake)

 

    9½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Creating Jobs

   Today's Wondermark comic.

Art Appreciation Thursday

  Or "your weekly Calvin & Hobbes dose".  Either one.

Scientific Proof: The Earth is Flat

    You can argue with me, but you can't argue with Science.

Horsing Around

    It took me a moment to 'get" this.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “It’s not fair, not fair.”

    “Your world is always fair.”  I didn’t make it a question, and she just straightened and looked at me without speaking.  I don’t think she would have or could have answered it anyway.  “There’s no fairness to worlds.  Fairness is a thing created by men.  It doesn’t exist.  It isn’t the same in different cities, or among different people.  How can fairness be the same thing in two different worlds?  In your world you were a scholar, in this one you’re nothing.  In this world I’m a warrior, but if I went to yours, I might be a beggar.”

    (from Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan)

 

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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English is a foreign language.