Beware of Duck

Kissing & Candy Calories Conspiracy

Kissing for 1 minute can burn 26 calories.

One Hershey's Kiss^TM has 22 calories.

Hmmm....very close.  A coincidence? I think not.

verbicide

verbicide ver·bi·cide [vur-buh-sahyd] noun

1. the willful distortion or depreciation of the original meaning of a word.
2. a person who willfully distorts the meaning of a word.

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I thought of several instances of verbicide, but most were curse words or otherwise obscene. (I like to make the comments for these words funny, not offensive - this entry is a little more serious, though)  The only other two that came to mind were involving homosexuality; the word "gay" has changed its meaning by the gay community and "queer", once a term for "odd", then became a pejorative for gays, has now been embraced by many in the gay community.

I decided to see if I could find other examples and found this other definition of verbicide:

Facetious. misuse or overuse of a word or any use of a word which is damaging to it.

Words - at least those that AREN'T swearing -  are much easier to think of for this definition and the first one that popped into my head was racist; it's been thrown around so much for quite some time and particularly since President Obama was elected that it's lost it's meaning...and that's sad, because simply disagreeing with certain policies and actions of this administration are not racist in nature and it takes away from identifying actual racism.  That's as absurd as accusing a black person of racism just because they didn't agree with Bush's economic policies.

I've disagreed with many things from each and every President since I've been voting as well as with many president's actions before I was even born. I take great offense at being labeled a racist simply because I have different political views than the person making the accusation. (I also wonder if the person making the claim is guilty of projection)

It's one thing to call me a racist in a forum or on a message board, but it's another thing altogether to say it to my face. That would be a big, big mistake on your part.  That would make me guilty of assault and battery, not racism.

I Scoff at These Results

You Are a Scoff

You have a quirky sense of humor, and it's definitely on the darker side. You laugh at irony and life's craziness. Mainstream humor is not likely to appeal to you unless it's witty, complex, or intellectual. You won't laugh for laughing's sake. You sense of humor is your strength. Humor helps you keep everything in perspective, especially when the world seems against you. You laugh in the face of adversity and when others tell you that you can't do something. Living well is the best revenge!

What Kind of Laugh Are You?
 

Barely Passed

Elvis Presley got a 'C' in his 8th grade music class.

 

And, from reports, he was trying to pass when he died.

adret

adret a·dret [a-drey] noun
a side of a mountain receiving direct sunlight.

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I wasn't familiar with this word, but thanks to our Word of the Day module, I do now, as well as finding out the shady side is called an ubac.

The shady side, or ubac , is usually rocky, steep and densely forested, whereas the sunny slope, or adret , is gentler and much more fertile.

-- Pier Paolo Viazzo, Upland Communities: Environment, Population and Social Structure in the Alps Since the Sixteenth Century , 1989

I'd hate to have to make a choice on which side to live; if possible, I think I'd prefer to have half my property on the adret and half on the ubac. I could call it "Adretubac Acres".

On second thought, maybe not - I'd hate to have to keep explaining what the name meant. Maybe Sunny/Shady Acres?