A Man After My Own Heart

If you've ever covered a sporting event (very few of you have) you would know that reporters are furnished with a sheet of quotes from the postgame press conference. So who compiles those quotes? A courtroom style stenographer.
Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes decided to have some fun with her.
In response to the first question he said “Before I answer that question, I would like to say a few words: cattywampus, onomatopoeia and antidisestablishmentarianism. Now, back to your question.”
When asked why he did that Hayes responded “She [the stenographer] does an amazing job of typing words, sometimes if words are not in her dictionary, maybe if I say soliloquy right now, she may have to work a little bit harder to type that word, or quandary, zephyr, xylophone, things like that, that make her job really interesting.”
Apparently Hayes, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker were fascinated with the stenographer and her machine from the previous day.

Funny thing is, none of this would have gotten out, if not for the stenographer.

Story suggested by Billy

What a Great Idea

Hot women explaining complicated vocabulary words. What's not to love?

Words You Should Know

Houghton-Mifflin unveiled a list of words everybody should know, basically if you know these words and can use them correctly you are pretty damn smart.

I must admit there were about 10 that I didn't really know. But there were another 20 or so that I use very frequently:

chicanery - best when used in conjunction with tomfoolery, hijinks and antics
churlish - I get truculent when people call me churlish
circumlocution - talking in circles
deleterious - Not knowing these words has a deleterious effect on your intelligence
facetious - I'm often being facetious
feckless - I can't effectively explain this one
gauche - This word is not great for people
hypotenuse - important when discussing the Pythagorean Theorem
incognito - my preferred mode
incontrovertible - everything I say
lugubrious - You want to impress me? Spell lugubrious
nihilism - I don't believe in this word
paradigm - I love to change the para dig em
photosynthesis - chlorophyll, more like bore-ophyll
supercilious - I like being super silly without us
vacuous - all the hot chicks you read about on this blog

I Love Big Words

Now that Toyota is the number 2 seller of automobiles referring to GM, Ford and Chrysler as "The Big 3" is no longer accurate. I declare that to be an anachronistic misnomer.

I Learned a New Word

It's very hard these days for me to come across a word I've never seen before but the other day the Wall Street Journal got me with one:

pu·sil·lan·i·mous [pyoo-suh-lan-uh-muhs] –adjective
1. lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid.
2. proceeding from or indicating a cowardly spirit.

The actual formed used in the Journal was pusillanimity meaning the act of being cowardly.