Wordology, Ironic

Often the word 'ironic' is much misused to remark on a coincidence, such as, “This is the third time today we have run into each other. How ironic.” It is also mistakenly used to describe something out of the ordinary or unusual, “Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. Truly ironic.” It is also wrongly used to emphasize something interesting. For example, “Ironically, it was the best movie I have seen all year.”

A true ironic remark conveys a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning, so in an ironic statement one thing is said, while another thing is meant. For example, it would be irony on a  nasty stormy to say, “What wonderful weather.” If you were suffering from a bad cold you might say, “I feel like a million dollars.” These are both examples of verbal irony.

Irony is also often confused with sarcasm. The two are similar, but in sarcasm there is an intent to ridicule or mock, often harshly or crudely.

Dramatic irony is inherent in speeches or a drama and is understood by the audience, but not grasped by the characters in the play.

Happy Friday

Respect is earned, honesty is appreciated, trust is gained, loyalty is returned.

I earn, gain, appreciate, and love to return a Happy Friday!

Happy Donut Day

The Salvation Army is behind the creation of this holiday. According to its website, "the first National Donut Day was celebrated in Chicago in 1938 to help raise needed funds during the Great Depression and commemorate the work of the “donut lassies” who helped make the donut what it is today by feeding the tasty confection to American soldiers during WWI." In modern times, companies like Entemann’s are donating a portion of their donut profits to the Salvation Army. Canadians eat more donuts per capita than any other country.

Snake Charm Myth Debunked

Snakes do not hear and react to music. Snake charmers play their flute and snakes appear to sway to the music, charmed by the soothing notes. Snakes can feel vibrations, but while the sway appears to be from the music, they are actually responding to the movements made by the snake charmer and not the sound of the flute.

Chicken Noodle Soup

"Chicken with Noodles" soup was a variety introduced to the public by Campbell's in 1934. It is now considered a comfort food, but sales back did not pick up until the product's name was misread during an episode of the popular Amos 'n' Andy radio show.

Once listeners heard the words "chicken noodle soup," and consumer interest was captured. Folks began to ask Campbell's about the "new" soup. It quickly renamed the soup to match the blooper.

I make no bones about adding the following to the discussion about soup. To make no bones about a matter means to speak frankly and directly. A form of this expression was used since the 1400s, meaning to have no difficulty. The allusion is to the occurrence of bones in stews or soup. Soup without bones would offer no difficulty, so one would have no hesitation to swallow soup with no bones.

Robot Grill Cleaner

Grillbot sits on your dirty grill and cleans it. Just press a button to set the amount of time you want it clean and place it on a hot or cold grill. A built in alarm tells you if the grill is too hot for the device. A built-in mini-LCD screen lets you to choose a light or deep clean.

Three motors power three wire brushes. The brushes should be good for one complete BBQ season and are replaceable. The Grillbot comes with a rechargeable battery pack, charger, AC adapter and a hanging storage case. Something to consider for Father's Day.  www.grillbots.com

Take a Raincheck

This phrase is usually meant to mean “I won’t do it now but I will later”. This is the commonly accepted meaning (and has been for a long time) so it is now considered to be correct. It is included here merely out of interest because its original meaning was slightly different. Initially, a raincheck was offered to people who had tickets to a baseball game that was rained out. They would offered a “raincheck” which was a ticket for a game at a later date to make up for the missed game.


This eventually found its way into shopping jargon in general where a raincheck was an offer to sell an out-of-stock good when it arrived back in stock. The meaning has eventually broadened to a point that it is not an offer any longer, just a response.

Seven Random US Facts

The seven rays on the crown of the Statue of Liberty represent the seven continents. Each measures up to 9 feet in length and weighs as much as 150 pounds.


Broken shackles lie at the feet of the Statue of Liberty, signifying freedom from oppression and tyranny.


More breakfast cereal is made in Battle Creek, Michigan than in any other city in the world.


Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.


Alaska is 429 times larger than Rhode Island, but Rhode Island has a significantly larger population.


Louisiana has 2,482 islands that cover nearly 1.3 million acres.

Although Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., it is technically 47th because Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit it to the Union until 1953.
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Rapture Myth Debunked

The “Rapture” is not in the Bible. Despite being believed by a large number of protestants (many of whom also believe that only that which is in the Bible can be true) it was actually invented in the 1600s by Cotton Mather, otherwise famous for murdering women by hanging them during the Salem witch trials.

The term in the Bible commonly mistranslated to the word “rapture” comes from the Greek ἁρπάζω (harpazo) which actually means “caught up” or “taken away” and it refers to one person only (Philip).

Wordology, Golacher

The term French kiss is commonly attributed to American soldiers returning from World War I, who apparently picked up the technique from the adventurous French maidens.


France has never had a word for "to French kiss" until now. The verb “galocher” meaning to kiss with tongues had just been added to the Petit Robert 2014 French dictionary. It is pronounced ga luh shay


It comes from 'La galoche' an ice-skating boot, so the new term plays on the idea of sliding around the ice. Also,  "galosh" or "overshoe" was used for hundreds of years before that, giving galocher a sort of onomatopoeic connection between the sound that galoshes make on a wet street and that tongues make during a French kiss.

Ten Ideas for Your Smartphone

Your phone is a great place to keep information that you may need to access quickly. Here is a list of things to consider.
• A picture of where you parked your car.
• Printer cartridges showing refill numbers
• Any replaceable items around the house, like battery sizes, light bulb watts, air filter sizes, etc.
• Travel confirmation numbers. It may be quicker than sorting through a few hundred emails. (Another trick is to forward the confirmation email to yourself just before you leave, so it is on the top of the stack.)
• Pictures of current medications including prescription names and dosages.
• Pictures of furniture or wall paint cans to remember colors.
• Recipes or ideas from a magazine that you find while waiting for your doctor or dentist.
• Things that you might want to buy, like the brand of perfume or shampoo you saw.

Another smartphone trick is to add one or more phone contacts or notes with phone numbers to call in the event your wallet, passport, credit cards, etc., are stolen. You do not need to keep the actual credit card number (in case your phone is stolen), the company can look it up.

Take a video of the inside of your home and save it in the cloud. This is what an insurance company would love to see, in case of fire, flood, robbery, or other disaster.

Bonus Idea - Add an ICEmergency contact to your contact list for the person to be notified in case of an accident or medical emergency. You can also add an ICEmergency note with doctor names and numbers, allergies, medications, etc. There are also free applications (Apps) for this on iPhone and Android. If you are a caretaker for others, keep their info on your phone, also.

Happy Friday

"I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate."

One thing everyone appreciates is having a Happy Friday!

May 35th

May 35 is next week. That date is used by some people in China to refer to June 4, which is the anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on student protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Other names include the Tiananmen Square massacre or the June Fourth Incident. Variations of the date June 4 are periodically banned from internet postings and search engines within China. "The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas" is also the title of a 1931 novel.

Gregorian Calendar Exception

Most of the world uses the Gregorian Calendar. We are currently in the year 2013. Even China also follows this calendar, although it also celebrates its own New year.

North Korea uses the names of months we are familiar with, but the calendar year one begins in 1912 rather than two thousand years ago. That year, 1912 was the birth of former North Korea despot Kim Il-sung (grandfather of Kim Jong-un). Three years after Kim Il-sung’s death, the nation promulgated the new Juche calendar after the state’s official ideology of the same name.

It is a government allusion to the idea of Kim Il-sung as god. When Kim Il-sung died, his son and successor, Kim Jong-il redid the calendar to imply that his father was divine. In September 1998, the North Korean constitution deemed Kim Il-sung the “Eternal President of the Republic.” Nice to have a family tradition that changes the calendar for an entire nation.