raze

raze\ reyz \ verb

1. to tear down; demolish; level to the ground: to raze a row of old buildings.
2. to shave or scrape off.

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When "raze" means to tear down and "raise" means to move up, it's no wonder English is considered one of the hardest languages to speak.

The Big Gulp

I've already forgotten what I was looking for (I've slept since then), but one of the results was Yahoo Answers and I clicked on the link to see if it really did provide an answer. Whatever it was, one of the answers was so incredibly stupid I clicked on the profile to see other answers by the person and got this:

I know they were trying for cute by saying "** gulp" (although they should have written it as *gulp*) but it was a big-time FAIL.  Whatever else the person had posted must've been really bad because Yahoo normally doesn't delete stupid comments or else they'd lose half or more of them. 

Yahoo isn't the worst about people making stupid comments, though;  YouTube wins hands down, followed closely by Facebook and IMDb.

cherry-pick

cherry-pick \ CHER-ee-pik \ verb

1. Informal: to select with great care: You can cherry-pick your own stereo components.
2. Informal: (in retail use) to buy only the sale items and ignore the other merchandise.

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I see people do this all the time with facts...and not just people, but websites, too.

For example, Yahoo had an article about President Obama's latest vacation and cherry-picked facts about the numbers of vacation days he had taken since being in office and comparing them to the total vacation days of other presidents. Even though the candidate Obama promised to devote every waking minute to the job, it's unrealistic to expect someone to never take a break, to not have any down time.

The way I feel about it, it's not the number of vacation days a president takes, but rather WHEN he takes them.  Making a short statement, then going on a golfing vacation after radical Islamists beheaded an American citizen and made threats towards the U.S. is not a good time to go on vacation, Mr. President. 

Midnight Snack Personality

Actually, here lately it's been a handful of cookies and a diet soda.

You Are Ice Cream

You are a comfort seeker and a comfort giver. You like to make sure everyone around you feels good, starting with yourself. You love to be pampered, and you don't turn down the opportunity to spoil yourself a little. You deserve it. You enjoy the good things in life, to the point of being a hedonist. You're the type to never refuse an extra scoop. You really savor more than most people. You enjoy every sound, smell, and taste just a little bit extra.

What's Your Midnight Snack Personality?

flibbertigibbet

flibbertigibbet \ FLIB-er-tee-jib-it \ noun

1. Archaic . a gossip.
2. a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

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Believe it or not, this word sounded familar, then I remembered hearing it in one of the Harry Potter movies - or maybe I read it in one of the books - but I didn't remember in which book or movie or in what context. Thanks to the World Wide Interwebs, I was reminded it was used as a password to get into the Gryfindor dormitory. I also discovered it was used in the song "Maria" in the 1959 musical The Sound of Music as well as in the Tom Hanks movie Joe Versus the Volcano.

I'm betting that I'll never read the word ever again in my life and I'm absolutely certain I'll never use it in conversation, even though I know a few flibbertigibbets.