According to legend finding four leaf clovers is lucky, but what about other configurations? A 45 year old Japanese man started cross pollinating clovers at his home in 2012 and recently managed to break the Guinness World Record by growing a 63 leaf clover, the previous record holder was a 56 leaf clover. In other news in Japan a 74 year old women who is also a surfer and trained Japanese classical dancer has joined a senior's break dancing group called Ara Style Senior...what could go wrong??
Most people associate the word adobe with Native Americans though it is a borrowed word from Egyptian, and hasn't really changed that much since its early usage about 4,000 years ago. Djebe or djobe comes from Middle Egyptian and means as you may have guessed, mud brick. Adobe is only one example of the many commonly used words coming from the Egyptian language widely used in English, the list is long. It also includes everyday names such as Lily and Susan both of which are flowers, Lily come from the word for flower and Susan (Seshen) means lotus or water lily. Not too surprising since English is basically a hodgepodge of many languages.
Today's post is more of a sentimental journey than any other purpose, unless of course someone who reads this adopts Pepper. As well as being a beautiful, colorful bird Pepper comes with a repertoire of colorful language. One of his two previous owners had a dog that didn't listen or obey commands so the owner would often say, "Do you want me to kick your ass?" Which Pepper picked up along with other curse words which might be a problem in some homes. The minimum requirements for adopting Pepper are: experience with large birds, someone who understands how chatty and loud the birds can be and someone who can meet Pepper's nutritional needs. 300 people have already reached out to the Niagara, NY SPCA but if you think you are just what Pepper needs for a new home feel free to contact them.
Today we're going to look at idioms and how some of them came about, starting with Butter Someone Up. This one means to praise someone with a motive in mind and it can be traced to an Ancient Indian Custom of throwing balls of ghee (Indian butter) at statues of the gods to gain their favor. Are You Pulling My Leg? This one's origin looks at two unpleasant options so how it got to mean joking with someone is mysterious at best. Both come from Victorian London, the first is that robbers would pull on people's legs to trip them then rob them when they fell, the second explanation isn't clear to me but I'm guessing it depended on how the accused was being executed as the executioner would hold onto the criminals leg to grant a quicker death...so drawing and quartering?
Today's post goes back in time to early 1900's slang, feel free to incorporate them into everyday conversations. Mutton Shunter=policeman, Gigglemug=a perpetually smiling face, Fly Rink=a highly polished bald head, Juggins- Hunting= looking for a man to buy drinks, Sauce Box=mouth, Bags o' Mystery=sausages, Arf' Arf' an' Arf=drunk, Gas Pipes=tight pants, Pumblechook=human ass, and Row-de-Row=riot. Enjoy!
The subject matter at Bogota's Care School for Men ranges from naming the dolls that will serve as their babies, learning to change diapers, how to properly hold/pickup the babies, how to make pony tails on older children, washing dishes, cleaning, laundry, ironing and other basic household tasks. The program is funded by the city and came to be after men started calling a help line during the pandemic when either their wives were sick and unable to perform as caregivers or they died. The need for gender equality still remains but in most ways it seems like we are on the right path. About damn time.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, no that's not what today's post is about! Our galaxy ( unless you're reading from a different galaxy) is best known as the Milky Way but it has different names in some areas. In Vietnam and China it's known as "Silver River", "Backbone of the Night" in the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, and "Winter Way" in the Faroe Islands and some Nordic countries. Who knew? Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
