Word For The Day, Monday, September 22, 2003

The Verbivores | 9/22/03 | Teacher

[RikaStrom]

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”. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the “word of the day”; in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. Practice makes perfect.....post on....

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pernicious \pur-NISH-us\, adjective:
perniciousness; noun
perniciously; adverb

1. Highly injurious; deadly; destructive; exceedingly harmful.
2. Archaic. Evil; wicked. .
3. Quick; swift (to burn).

Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar. --Shak.

Etymology: [Middle English, from Old French pernicios, from Latin pernici sus, from pernici s, destruction : per-, per- + nex, nec-, violent death; see nek-1 in Indo-European Roots.]

[Argh]

A pernicious effect of socialised medicine. Typical.

The following uses today's word and ends in my favourite line in all the literature I've read. It's from Gulliver's Travels (published 1726), the King of the Brobdingnagians (the giants) has just listened to Gulliver's description of European (and by extension at the time, North American) politics, society, and warfare. You'll note in the King's response things haven't changed much: this is what he said:

My little Friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable Panegyric upon your Country: You have clearly proved that Ignorance, Idleness, and Vice may be sometimes the only Ingredients for qualifying a Legislator: That Laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose Interest and Abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them. I observe among you some Lines of an Institution, which in its Original might have been tolerable, but these half erazed, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by Corruptions. It doth not appear from all you have said, how any one Virtue is required towards the Procurement of any one Station among you, much less that Men are ennobled on Account of their Virtue, that Priests are advanced for their Piety or Learning, Soldiers for their Conduct or Valour, Judges for their Integrity, Senators for the Love of their Country, or Counsellors for their Wisdom. As for yourself, (continued the King), who have spent the greatest Part of your Life in Travelling, I am well disposed to hope you may hitherto have escaped many Vices of your Country. But by what I have gathered from your own Relation, and the Answers I have with much Pain wringed and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth.

[Texan5]

We committed to a vitamins, herbs, and fresh foods only diet/lifestyle several years ago, which includes a lot of fresh vegetables. Like Atkins with less fat. We don't fry food (other than stir fry Chinese) or eat processed foods, and I cook from scratch every day, except Saturday, when I get a much appreciated break by being taken to dinner by hubby. We do drink alcohol and smoke, though, so we're not totally stuffy. It works for us-the last time either of needed medical attention was after that wreck caused by a deer in the road. We even came away from that well, considering how bad it was.

[Texan5]

I knew someone would pick up on that sooner or later. Glad it was you and not me.......

[Gabz]

Good for you.

Very J on the bracelet.

But you apparently have hubby trained properly, just like xspup2!!!!

[Robert A Cook PE]

Just havin' pun with Mac's Pernacious tofuless world of Pern, a world of flying dragon and fair maidens that Miss Rika didn't recognize - so LonelyP got a bad grade...

Boo.

It's a typical topically appropriate tropically toplessly tropism of trying to figure typographically the topography of the draggin' curves :

http://www.strangecosmos.com/view.adp?picture_id=11587

[xsmommy]

you are, obviously, squealing for a beating, robt.... ; )

[Gabz]

I'm not a compulsive cleaner at all, but my fridge gets scrubbed out every other week.

I can tolerate a lot of things - but not a grungy fridge, and Jax has a tendency to stick the cup of whatever she is drining in there if she doesn't finish it all.

Sometimes I have no clue what has spilled in there!!!!

[honeygrl]

I wish I had that much will-power. I can't stand the taste of a single vegie though. It doesn't matter how it's cooked. Unless you count ketchup as a vegie...

[Gabz]

So the pup was an angel on the trip? No doubt intent on making a good impression on your relatives.

Sounds like Jax - everyone thinks she is this little angel - and then she gets home..........

And thanks all for the grocery reminder...........I've got enough ice in my freezers to keep a good sized bar stocked for a week - but I don't have any milk.

[Gabz]

But stuff in tupperware containers sometimes gets shoved to the back and not noticed until it bangs on the inside of the door to get out. Not a pretty sight..

ROFLMAO!!!! Sounds like mine as well.

Which reminds me, hubby put all the trash in my van - so in addition to going to the grocery, I've got to go to the dump. And be back by 4 for the school bus.

I wonder what's going to happen about groceries, trash, laundry etc if and when I get a job?????

[xsmommy]

i will clean the shelves off periodically, but the side of the door was gross with stuff that had dripped. it is pristine now and still awaiting food. i can't decide if i want to shower first or just go and get it over with. i called the cable co. and they have that all fixed up. i was on dialup til a minute ago here.

[CholeraJoe]

Well said. Clark can't even remember who he voted for in the last 3 presidential elections. I can remember back to 1972.

[xsmommy]

I wonder what's going to happen about groceries, trash, laundry etc if and when I get a job?????

the same thing that happens to the rest of us, you need to share those jobs. i am sure coolbreeze will adjust nicely.

[xsmommy]

i couldn't vote in '72, bc i was just little ; )

even if i had been able to, the alzheimers would prevent me remembering who, other than the fact that i know it would have been a dem.

my niece informed me this weekend that she will be voting in the next presidential election. she turns 18 in Feb. that is so cool! Ohio just got another rabid rightwinger, dubs : ) My younger niece (13) was griping how the state tax in OH had gone up to 7%. another rightwinger in the works!

[Gabz]

Hubby loves that site.

Go and register and get their catalog in the mail. It comes out about once a month. Their prices are fabulous.

But if you want most computer stuff - go to pricewatch.com.

[Gabz]

I vote shower then store. You'll be in a much better frame of mind.

[Gabz]

It was actually a rhetorical question. coolbreeze and I have shared ALL of the chores (except major construction jobs) for all the years we've been together. In fact, he does laundry better than I do!!!!!!

[SeaDragon]

so LonelyP got a bad grade...
Boo.

Poor LP. I am sure that Miss Rika recognized the dragons of Pern and even got the pun. He must have gotten a lower grade for another reason.....

You know how she is about current events.

[CholeraJoe]

It would have been George McGovern, the most liberal of the libs.

[Texan5]

Don't worry, Gabz, he'll just have to do some of the chores, like most other hubbys do. As you pointed out earlier, most of them are quite trainable. Mine doesn't like to do that stuff, I can tell, but he still does it because he knows it is fair when a wife is trying to help out by working. He also knows what a wretched temper I have when I am too tired, harried and my back hurts....