Apr 8, 2017

Wordology, Portmanteau

[pawrt-man-toh] It would be a terrible shame if portmanteau were not itself a portmanteau. The word originally referred to a large traveling case made of stiff leather, derived from a combination of the French porter, meaning "to carry," and manteau, meaning "mantle" or "cloak."

The word's literary significance is the work of Lewis Carroll. In Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that the strange compound words she hears in Wonderland are "like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed up into one word."

Deserts and Sand and Ice

The two biggest deserts are the Antarctic and the Arctic. Even though they are covered with ice, they are dry enough to be considered deserts.


The Sahara, spanning an area of 8.5 million square kilometers (covers 29.6% of Africa) is the world’s hottest desert and third in size. The Sahara is only twenty percent sand, the rest of it is mostly made up of  bare rock, gravel, and pebbles.

Happy Friday

The road to happiness passes through the sea of smiles.

I am swimmingly happy today, because it is Happy Friday!

Cheese Weasel Day

 It is the only Internet holiday to say thanks to Techies for all they do. It began in the early 1990s, is celebrated on April 3 or the first Monday after April 3, and has been dishing out great fun ever since then.
Legend has it the Cheese Weasel  travels the world, leaving a bit of cheese under keyboards or mouse pads of good techie boys and girls, men and women. Have some fun and surprise your favorite geek to some cheese on that day.

Give your favorite techie a Thank You shout out using #cheeseweaselday on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or your favorite social site. If you are not close by on that day, send a picture of some cheese.

National Tartan Day

The US Senate Resolution on National Tartan Day was passed on March 20, 1998. Tartan Day is a celebration of Scottish heritage on 6 April, the date on which the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320.

It commemorates the Scottish Declaration of Independence, from which the American Declaration of Independence was modeled. It also recognizes achievements of Americans of Scottish descent. National Tartan Day parades occur in major cities on or around April 6. They often feature bag-pipe bands playing Scottish music and people dressed in kilts with tartan patterns that represent their Scottish clans. 

Olympic Camera 1936

Nazi Olympics in Berlin in 1936 were the first to be televised. The six feet long zoom cameras were called "Fernsehkanonen" (television canon). Three of these cameras were used at that Olympics.

Snapping Windows

Windows 10 supports four window snap positions, one for each corner. You can use this feature to see two equal size windows at the same time. Useful if you want to compare things from. If you have Windows snap activated (It is usually default on), snapping a window into one of these quadrants with keyboard shortcuts takes a double move: Windows key plus left/right arrow, followed by Windows key + up/down arrow.

To snap a window into the upper-left quadrant for example, press Windows key + left arrow and then, while continuing to hold down the Windows key, press the up arrow.

Quick Clean Humor

I told my girlfriend she drew her eyebrows too high.
She seemed surprised.

What's the difference between in-laws and outlaws?
Outlaws are wanted.

And God said to John, come forth and you shall be granted eternal life.
But John came fifth and won a toaster.

I bought some shoes from a drug dealer.
I don't know what he laced them with, but I have been tripping all day.

I bought the world's worst thesaurus yesterday.
Not only is it terrible, it's terrible.

Wordology, Noisome

Noisome (noy some) It comes from Middle English noysome, from noy - shortened annoyance, alteration of anoi, from Anglo-French anui, from anuier to harass, annoy.

Noisome sounds like it might be a synonym of noisy, but it is not. Something noisome is disgusting, offensive, or harmful, often in its smell. Also
highly obnoxious or objectionable as noisome habits. English words annoy and annoyance are also related to noisome.