Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Caveat lector!

Today's blog is—perhaps fortunately?—totally unrelated to gardening!

The folks at Casey Research, if anyone, are to be blamed (perhaps credited) for this:  if they had not sent out that deliciously quixotic, and even sublime-in-some-places, Friday Funnies, and thereby activated the 'Oh-man-I-have-to-tell-everyone-about-this' gene that all of us seem to have, my post might not be going through this Jason Bourne-ish identity crisis and simply stuck to gardening.

But, they did.
And, to top if off, they also blessed my request to blog it.

So, thanks to Casey Research, enjoy their Friday Funnies below!


Friday Funnies
Here's a good one that's been going around for a few years. Supposedly, it's originally from the winning submissions from a Washington Post neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words. The winners are:
Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.
Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners:
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
Karmageddon (n): it's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Arachnoleptic fit (n..): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
And the pick of the literature:
Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

A big tip of the hat and thanks to Nan of Hayefield for her free and generous contribution of a whole bunch of seeds.  I just got them from my brother-in-law:  a big tip of the hat to him as well for bringing them over.

I shall be more than happy to share these once I try these out and if there are any left over: drop me a line if you are interested in any of Nan's seeds:

Zea mays 'Tiger Cub'
Zea mays 'Old Gold'
Ibicella lutea
Persicaria orientalis 'Shiro-gane Nishiki'
Solanum atropurpureum
Gossyprium herbaceum 'Nigrum'

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Cocoanuts

No, this is not about the eponymous Marx Brothers movie but about half-a-dozen or so cocoanut plants that I'd like to give away.

It will

  • be on a first-come first-served basis (yes, a FIFO queue with, let's say, toss-of-the-coin tie-resolution!)
  • have to be dug up and carted away by you

Any charitable, tree-loving, exnora-ish organizations welcome!

Flat Out

I didn't think I was going to be blogging this soon again--its just been about a year since my last post, really!

But, lo and behold, my lackadaisical, laissez faire gardening efforts appear to have been written up about in a recent issue of the Hindu. Yikes: Heinlein, I think got it wrong--it ain't the moon, but karma, that is a harsh mistress!.

Now, about the Hindu piece: the bit about me gardening in 'my apartment' is a bit off the straight and narrow, a, in the immortal words of Cool Hand Luke, failure to communicate. It is actually a house with a few yards of hard, clayey soil that I engage in my attempts (to garden, that is).

So, with that out of the way, we shall go back to our regularly scheduled programming :).