Drunken Pumpkin

“Almost” is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

The word “queue” is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.

I grew up knowing that the longest word in an unabridged English dictionary was “antidisestablishmenterianism”. Apparently I fell behind the times, as that is only the third longest, falling short of:

1. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis: a pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.

2. Floccinaucinihilipilification, which means “the act of estimating as worthless.”

No words in the English language rhyme with orange, silver, purple, or month.

When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a “portmanteau.”

The “D” in D-day means “Day”. The French term for “D-Day” is “J-jour”.

The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.

The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin “tri-” + “via”, which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets in Rome (or some other Italian place), they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of “trivia.”

A survey of Anglican vicars in Britain found that while some don’t believe in heaven, more than half believe in life on other planets. Worse, only 68 of the 200 surveyed could name all 10 of the Bible’s Ten Commandments. The only two that were almost universally remembered were the ones about adultery and coveting thy neighbor’s wife — both are no-nos. (UPI)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants Dennis Prager, a columnist and conservative talk radio host, removed from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council for criticizing Representative-elect Keith Ellison’s decision to use the Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in next month. Keith Ellison is the United States first Muslim Congressman.

In his column last week, Prager wrote: “Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.”

Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, sent a letter to the Council’s chairman, Fred Zeidman, saying, “No one who holds such bigoted, intolerant and divisive views should be in a policymaking position at a taxpayer-funded institution that seeks to educate Americans about the destructive impact hatred has had, and continues to have, on every society.”

For the full article excerpted above, visit the Washington Post

I still don’t see how we are going to get into deep space exploration with computers like Hal by 2010 at this rate.

The full article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, can be found here

ABC TELEVISION NETWORK CONTINUES A HOLIDAY TRADITION WITH THE ANIMATED CLASSIC, “A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS,” AIRING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6

For the very first time, a 17-minute behind-the-scenes story of how “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was created will air immediately following the special and will include interviews with producer Lee Mendelson, animator/director Bill Melendez and the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz — who will show how the PEANUTS characters almost never made it to television. In addition the original cast of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” from 37 years ago will be seen for the very first time.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

Jeff has been looking for the ideal place to live lately. And it’s looking a little like nowhere is free from the pitfalls of everyday life.

At first glance it would seem that living out in the country would be the safest of locations, but with the presence of so many free-range Jackelope that might not be so. This is yet another case where our governments willy-nilly experiments with the natural world has made our lives complicated for no good reason.

So, Jeff took a look at living in the city, where the deer and the jackelope don’t play and things weren’t much better, especially if you’re a duck. It would appear that the term “pitfall” becomes a little more literal in that case. And let’s not forget the unfortunate fact that everyone seems to own the same car anymore. I think Jeff may have suffered that poor fellows plight more than once. Only, in Jeff’s case, the cars didn’t look similar, his unconscious mind refused to accept that he was still driving a Yugo. Quite the sad state of affairs, really.

Tune in tomorrow as Jeff looks for the worlds perfect baked goods created by chimpanzees, and the zoos that allowed them near an oven.