stuff about today

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

The gunpowder, treason, and plot

I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

It's Guy Fawke's Night!! I don't know why I find Guy Fawkes intriguing but NOT scornworthy... I mean, noble goals or not, blowing up Parliament is kind of an act of terrorism. But still, the guy seems like he was a good egg to me. I could be biased (I'm Catholic & ol' GF was workin' for the Catholic cause). Also I come on the scene well over 3 centuries after the fact...so uhhh, that could certainly skew my perspective. I think, after such time has passed, he's morphed into a sort of a general romantic, fight-the-power figure (a la Che Guevara or Jim Morrison...though I'm not really up on all the Che lore...so no, I don't have one of the Tshirts). At least he has in my 21st century history-dabbling (NOT specializing in history, you see ) mind.

Y'know, the fact that it was only *politicians* he meant to blow up make his intended deeds feel somehow less reprehensible(don't fret people...my rational brain knows how wrong that is)

Also Guy is somewhat of a looker if this ubiquitous portrait of him is to be believed . I mean, amongst the wearing-lace-collars-and-kooky-Pilgrim-hats set, he's fairly foxy.

I WOULD wear a T-shirt with him on it..

Another thing I read about today was ambergris. I think it was the MSN homepage that sported the curious "How will Whale Vomit Help me to Early Retirement?" headline. Now that is some TOP SHELF headline writing right there. Pulled the reader (ie : MOI) right in with a confounded sense of "WTF is this jibba jabba all about? I gotsta read this..." What I found most fascinating was all the many& varied uses for ambergris. Food flavoring, jewelry, perfume preservative....it truly is a magical substance. Miracle puke!! Or, as the Germans call it... Wunder YARRRF (forget the Germans...**I** wanna call it that!)

I have this "Forgotten English" desk calendar that has a word every day that was used back in the day (anytime between Guy Fawkes times and the early twentieth ce) but has fallen into disuse and been , for the most part, obsoleted . For some reason, this has not entertained me in 2007 as much as it did when I last got this desk calendar (that'd be 2004). It was interesting, somewhat, up until mid February, but then the novelty wore off. Or maybe , it's not really the premise that has lost its charm, only that they just ran out of good words for '07. I think this may be the case, because I find myself rather smitten with today's offering--

I was a big user of the word "ginormous" waaaay before it was annexed by lexicographers nationwide . Even before it was made bona fide. Before that...before it was even hip, man. But now it's popular parlance, and I'm feeling the need for new synonym for "huge" ...something obscure that everybody's not poachin' already. This may just fit the bill, friends....