Oregon Rainy Day Woman

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Brain Rot Slang

Today's slang isn't just other words for common things, it's more like making up new words to cause confusion, and for the most part it's working. Apparently Kevin is the new Karen, then there's gurt or gurting which means smart but dangerous, but perhaps the oddest of the last week is IKIAB which translates to "Imma keep it a buck" meaning I'm telling the truth. It is argued that none of these "new" slang words/phrase mean anything since they are made up on TikTok and even though they might get a little play time will they stand the test of time? Doubtful. Then, of course, a person can always just put in any nonsense words into Google AI and get meanings, like banana slurp, or cyclops vibing. In conclusion maybe if we ignore it it will go away.

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Fear Itself

There are some really strange phobias not to discount them as I'm sure they are very real to the people who have them. For instance, xanthophobia is the fear of the color yellow which is usually associated with happy things. It must be fairly crippling considering all the yellow a person sees day to day. Optophobia is fairly rare which is fortunate since it's the fear of opening your eyes. Omphalophobia would probably be the easiest to deal with as it's the fear of belly buttons, even your own. We'll wrap up today with one last fear...linonophobia, the fear of string which at first sounds fairly simple to deal with until you think about clothes being made of many strings/threads and the fact that this phobia often includes being unable to touch strings/threads. Anyone with this phobia can kiss crocheting and knitting goodbye.

Monday, May 5, 2025

An Unloved Love Seat

Today's post is to make up for yesterday's rant in that it is a feel good story. First off, for an interesting side note, in the UK they refer to something that is illegally dumped as "fly tipped, or fly tipping" . A 49 year old amateur photographer first saw the fly tipped love seat while walking through his village, the barren area it was sitting in with forest for a backdrop made him smile. After thinking about it for couple of weeks he posted on the village's Facebook page asking people to come pose for portraits on the sofa. He shot photos from 10 in the morning until 8 that evening and a good time was had by all. Other items started showing up as company for the love seat, then without warning it was all gone. Looking at the comments online mourning the loss of the sofa one stood out, "Don't be sad it's over, be glad it happened."

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Golden Rant

Del Webb coined the phrase "Golden Years" in 1959 to promote the retirement villages he was building, he was 60 at the time so even though he wasn't a young punk he still wasn't old enough to know squat about the so called golden years. Sure most people are retired around 65 or so but that's also around the time that your life long friends start dying, your body starts degrading, your free to travel but have no one to enjoy it with and may be to decrepit to go to places far and wide unattended. I guess one could argue that making it past 65 is an accomplishment many don't achieve but it's not the walk in the park the phrase "Golden Years" implies...or maybe I'm just an exceptional curmudgeon? My conclusion is have your good time while you can enjoy it before infirmity grabs you for a slam dunk.

Saturday, May 3, 2025

What's That Mean?

There is no lack of odd city names and the origins of many of them come from native influence. For instance we've all heard of Punxsutawney, PA but what the heck does it mean? Derived from the Lenape language it means town of sandflies, or town of mosquitoes from the early insect problems before the swamps were drained. The next one is a little bit gruesome, Baton Rogue, LA named by a French explorer in 1699 when he came across a bloody cypress pole decorated with fish and bear heads, used to mark a boundary between two tribes hunting grounds. Last city for today is Tucson, AZ, the name coming from the O'odham tribe, meaning black base, or at the foot of black mountain, referring to Sentinel Peak, aka "A" mountain.

Friday, May 2, 2025

Whatever Happened to ZPG?

Back in the late 60s ZPG (zero population growth) was an ideal solution to curbing overpopulation in that the birth rate didn't exceed the death rate. Had we achieved ZPG we most likely wouldn't have many of the problems we are now facing such as global warming, food insecurity, homelessness, the list goes on and on. So someone needs to explain to me why the current administration thinks we need to encourage people to reproduce? even offering $5,000 to mothers upon giving birth, not to mention how out of touch that amount of money is with the actual cost of having a child, not even counting the mother's loss of income. The only reason that comes to mind when trying to imagine why we need to turn women into brood mares is to feed a future war machine, which in turn is another good argument why "not" to have a child. Nope, I just don't get it.