Seen on the telly, more specifically on Have I Got News For You? Prince Philips chat-up line is allegedly Hi, I’m a future king. Want a pull?
Naughty royals are such a fine thing for a nation to have.
Xsessive Confusion
I wrote earlier about the confusion surrounding the name of the new X-Men movie. Well, it would seem that I am not alone. The Guardian, for example, carried a 1/4 page ad for the movie on Friday, and guess what? Yup, it says X-MEN 2 quite clearly. Actually the words are superimposed on an X, but still.
Here things get even trickier. As noted in the Guardian Review, in the US the official name of the movie is X2: X-Men United. In the UK, it’s quite simply X-Men 2. So much for trusting the IMDB. I guess this has taught me a valuable lesson. Then again, probably not.
Word 51: Abdicated
Edward VIII was dependent on his brother’s generosity after he abdicated, and had almost no personal funds. William, in contrast, is sitting on a cool £8m inherited from his mother.
abdicate (v) : commonly expresses the act of a monarch in voluntary and formally yielding up sovereign authority; as, to abdicate the government. Resign is applied to the act of any person, high or low, who gives back an office or trust into the hands of him who conferred it. Thus, a minister resigns, a military officer resigns, a clerk resigns. The expression, ”The king resigned his crown,” sometimes occurs in our later literature, implying that he held it from his people – source: The Independent Review 9.5.2003, p. 3
Timezones corrected
The chronically nerdy might enjoy knowing that now I’m using the (modified) absolute, allconsuming, autocorrect, better_title, calendar, date_translate, directorybrowse, entries_index, flavourdir, foreshortened (for RSS feeds), interpolate_conditional, logger, (modified) menu, readme, referer, timezone, and writeback plugins.
Caught in testing hell
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Very Low |
| Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | Moderate |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | Very High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | Moderate |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | Moderate |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | Moderate |
| Level 6 – The City of Dis (Heretics) | Very High |
| Level 7 (Violent) | Moderate |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | High |
| Level 9 – Cocytus (Treacherous) | Moderate |
Take the Dante’s Divine Comedy Inferno Test
Blogger code
B2 d t+ k- s-- u-- f+ i o++ x-- e l- c. Create your blogger code.The Army screws things up
I am, however, delighted to inform you that I ordered the package using the highly intellectual name of Miss V Persilma. Can’t even remember what the V stood for. I think she was a 26-year-old Austrian doctor, or something. As Calvin once said, I love messing with statistical data.
The first sentences in the brochure are In the Army, you’ll live life at 100mph and it’ll be crammed full of action and responsability. You’ll experience the ultimate mix of travel, adventure and sport
. Suddenly the Finnish version is looking much better.
More on the brochure once I have some free time. Right now I’ve got more pressing matters at hand, like stalking the shower. Damn these shared house mornings.
Word 50: Extirpated
What was left of the nation of impious men has been extirpated.
extirpate (v) : to pluck up by the stem or root; to root out; to eradicate, literally or figuratively; to destroy wholly; as, to extirpate weeds; to extirpate a tumor; to extirpate a sect; to extirpate error or heresy – source: What If?, p. 113
Word 49: Scabrous
The saintly mood lasts until I refill the milk glass on a tiny, scabrous old lady with wild white hair who looks like she’s been folded into her wheelchair and squished.
scabrous adj 1: (biology) rough to the touch; covered with scales or scurf [syn: lepidote, leprose, scaly, scurfy] 2: dealing with salacious or indecent material – source: Nickel and Dimed, p. 66
”Discover Finland”
Well, yes and no. See, Finland has actually been voted the readers’ favourite European Country. Twice. In a row! Now that’s something to be proud of. I guess. Sadly the contents are nothing to go wild about. Helsinki City Tours, a quick pop to Turku and Lappeenranta (whatever, dudes), skiing in Lappi.
But there’s one delicious twist left. The pamphlet was put together by ”the Scandinavian specialist” … Norwegian Coastal Voyage Limited.
Okay, so the company is actually owned by the Guardian. But it’s still funny as hell.