Posted on 12/18/2012 5:12:57 AM PST by SoothingDave
Word For The Day, December 18, 2012
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
invigilate [in-vij-uh-leyt]
-vi
1. To keep watch
2. British to keep watch over students at an examination
[1545–55; < Latin invigilātus (past participle of invigilāre to keep watch, stay up late), equivalent to in- in-2 + vigilā- (stem of vigilāre to watch; see vigil) + -tus past participle suffix]
and your ‘grandpup’ can be your taste-tester!
and your ‘grandpup’ can be your taste-tester!
how did i do that 3x?
One afternoon at the Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge hall, the always-overweight Andy Brown walks in, carrying a large sack:
Kingfish Stevens: Wall, g'daftanoon Brutha Andy. Whatchoo got in dat sack dere?
Andy: 'Lo, Brutha Kingfish. Dese hyar is weights, fo' liftin'.
Kingfish: Whatchoo wanna be liftin' weights fo', Andy?
Andy: I jus' been to the doc fo' a physical kazamination. Doc sez I is run down an' need a lotta exasize.
Kingfish: Yabbut what's dem weights gotta do wit' dat?
Andy: Doc sez if I lift dese a buncha times, it'll tone me up. It'll invigilate me. I'll jes' set 'em right over hyar.
Kingfish: You mean you is gonna invigilate yo'self HYAR? In da lodge?
Andy: Dasright, Kingfish, righchyar.
Kingfish: No, you ain't either, Brutha Andy. Dat's right 'gainst da lodge rules. Artickle 3, paragraph 2, you need ta be readin' our bylaws agin'.
Andy: Whatchoo mean bylaws, Kingfish?
Kingfish: I mean da sacred rules of da' Mystic Knights o' da Sea is what I mean, Andy. Yo get dose weights outta hyar, y'unnerstand?
Andy: Kingfish, is you givin' me anudda ultomato?
=============
Now, all I have to do is sit here and wait for the PC police (lights pipe...).
Those are the years that I give my friends nd relatives a break and just send a card. This may be one of those years. It's always so gratifying when those friends and relatives clamor for a letter the following year!
I have a couple of rules about Christmas letters. Nothing depressing. No bragging. One page only and no font under 11 pt. and never a dark (red, or green, or purple) background color.
One year we tried a "spoof" letter because we were so tired of all the bragging missives we get. My husband wrote it, and we filled it with all kinds of ridiculous non-happenings, including a ficticious trip to Antartica. We bragged about non-accomplishments of our kids. We explained how my husband had launched a new business based on his clever development of a process of carving Chippendale legs with a chain saw for use in reproduction furniture, and on, and on. We even mentioned that this was all a joke at the end of the letter, but (much to our chagrin) many of our friends believed this blarney. I spent the next 3 years denying that letter!
Only ONE friend caught on to the joke. When I chided an old friend on the Chippendale legs, she said, "XXXX has always been so clever. We knew that if anyone could do it, he'd be the one."
And the folks we aimed it at didn't get it at all. We continue to get 2 page, single spaced letters on dark green paper bragging about dinners with the Queen of Sweden and mountain climbs in Nepal.
You talking about maiming male strippers?
Not so nuts. My husband is recuperating from his recent surgery and busy cooking for the dog this AM who still can't seem to hold down his dog food for no explained reason. He's had Lyme disease, but seems to be OK from that now. He's still suffering from a sensitive stomach, however, and we're going on the 2nd month of cooking for him twice a day. This is getting old, but we love the dog.
I'm talking about "antique" furniture, you card!
I'm talking about "antique" furniture, you card!
a spoof letter is truly the only gratifying way to counter the BS-filled ones that one receives. i would have LOVED your’s!
my husband’s BIL sends a multipage one in teeny tiny font. he has one child and he has the nerve to email me last week to ask for what’s happening with our family to include in his. i said, you will hear about our news when you receive our letter, i am not writing your’s for you!
BS or not, i prefer letters, as i don’t see a point to just a card with a signature in it. if it’s a photo card, ok, you can get away with just a card.
oh i’m not talking about chicken and rice for an upset stomach, did you click on that link? pumpkin cheesecake? i love my dogs dearly, but a $15 gourmet meal looking like human food is ridic.
xsbaby and hub each texted me this AM that Jules enjoyed a few chocolate candies bc someone forgot to shut the study door. Now i don’t know if it was the russell stover marshmallow snowmen i got for the kids stockings or the Perugina chocolates from Italy, but in any event, i instructed them to go and make sure that the candy was PUT UP HIGH. xshub had hershey kisses and m&ms on coffee and end tables for our party, and i said are you inviting the dogs to chow down on those bc you might as well have put a neon sign above them saying COME EAT THESE CHAN AND JULES.
yes i know chocolate is bad for dogs, but all of mine have eaten a piece now and again with no ill effects. Lucius ate a bunch of coconut hershey kisses one easter, he pooped blue foil out for days.
Hep me! Hep me! I bin invigilated!
Good response to your hubby’s BIL! The letters that really get me are the ones that recount the year’s events month by month including every visit the writer made to somebody’s great aunt and every ailment they had treated.
The sad thing this year is one I received from an old HS friend from California (retired pilot) who was always able to take his family on exotic trips. Last year’s letter included some horrid pictures of his once-beautiful wife, also a HS classmate of ours. I said, “Lyn never approved this letter. She would never approve these pictures.”
This year’s letter from that couple was just 6 small pictures — mostly of local landmarks with no discernable people included. The notation just said something like, “Due to Lyn’s memory problems, we have kept our travels close to home and to places that she remembers well.”
Having lived away from California for at least 40 years, my old friend’s choices of “exotic” travel seemed wonderfully exotic to me — San Juan Capsitrano, etc. The letter spoke volumes without being maudlin.
xshubby’s BIL’s letters are excruciatingly detailed like that. no one wants to hear your every thought/action described, believe me! The letter from your HS friend does sound very touching.
My previous Golden was such an easy going dog (and so resistent to being locked in the kennel) that the kennel owner would allow her to have the run of the office whenever we had to leave her when we went out of town. She often would sleep under the owner’s desk — totally unrestrained.
Unfortunately, one Christmas, she ate an entire bag of Hershy’s Kisses, foil and all, that the owner was storing under there. No harm done.
I think that whole thing about chocolate not being good for cats and dogs is just something we tell ourselves so we don’t have to share.
When I was a kid our old tomcat loved fudge. Didn’t seem to bother him.
Yes, indeed. He takes very good care of her. There were 13 couples who married other members of our HS class. I think that we are the last 2 couples left, and now her mind is going. The other 3 of us are just going to have to do all the remembering for her. It's very sad.
i see on dog-shaming.com that people are continually taking their dogs who eat chocolate to the vet or animal hospital for stomach pumping! My understanding is that the higher the cacao content the worse it is, and hersheys kisses are probably not as chocolatey as some things.
Our beagle once ate a Symphony Bar, one of the large ones, all milk chocolate. While I wouldn’t recommend it, he was fine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.