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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 17

4/30/2014

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This week we had the obligatory carriage (gharry: a carriage used in India) and a whole host of antelope again:
    Gazelle: a small antelope
    Gemsbok/gemsbuck: a large antelope
    Gerenuk: a long-necked antelope
    Gnu: a large antelope
    Goa: an Asian gazelle

Do not confuse antelope with gantlope, however. Gantlope was a military punishment in which the culprit had to run stripped to the waist between two rows of men who struck at him with a stick or a knotted cord. (Also known as the gauntlet.)

There were a few words pertaining to the face that I thought were particularly descriptive:
    Gnathion: the tip of the chin
    Gonion: a part of the lower jaw
    Glabella: the smooth area between the eyebrows (less smooth if you've got a unibrow)

Enjoy.


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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 16

4/23/2014

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This week there were a lot of useful—albeit somewhat obsolete—direction words for describing where something is:

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The Space Between: Science and English

4/19/2014

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I have really enjoyed watching the new Cosmos series with my three-year-old (click here to watch the full episodes; they are available for 90 days after they air). I love science. I also love English, and I love working and moving in the interdisciplinary space between them.

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On Proceeding with Caution: Book Review of Michael Shermer's {Why People Believe Weird Things}

4/18/2014

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In 1997 (updated and expanded in 2002), Michael Shermer wrote Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, a non-fiction plea for people to take a step back to reason before jumping into bed with the latest craze.

Remarkably, many “weird things” are still going strong, others resurging, others dwindling: 2012 millenarianism, astrology, moon landing conspiracy theories, crystal healing, acupuncture, urine therapy, magnet therapy, channeling, ESP, rumpology (not joking!), Holocaust denial, Creationist cosmologies (that the earth is 7,000 years old and that geology can be explained by a global flood), alien abductions, Scientology’s Dianetics, anti-aging creams, even modern flat Earth beliefs.

Wow. (Click here for a more comprehensive list.)


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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 15

4/16/2014

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Lotsa nice flowers this week. I like not being totally and completely ignorant about flowers.

Also, MAKE SURE GET YOUR INSULTS RIGHT: a
fleabag is an inferior hotel; a fleapit is a run-down movie theater. Very important. See the rest of today's words for more great insults. That no one will ever understand. ("Ho! What felonry is this, ye feculent flimflammers!")

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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 14

4/9/2014

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No random patterns that this random pattern-discerning human could observe this week. Reading the Scrabble Dictionary like this is admittedly a grab-bag of words strung together only by the alphabet, which itself is a muddled chaos of history and mixed cultures. On that cheerfully chaotic thought, enjoy these factoids (a word appropriately included in this week's mix). Today I've included a test for you to see how well you know random words.


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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 13

4/2/2014

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(169–182)

👀  Observations
There were lots of bodily liquids and problems this week. And the obligatory antelope. Also some unanticipated connections. Example:
    Enat: a relative on the mother's side
    Enation: an outgrowth from the surface of an organ (also a band name that perhaps didn't intend to have that meaning)

Enjoy!


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