Archive for May, 2009

virii

I occasionally see people use "virii" as the plural of "virus," but there's no good reason (that I know of) to do so. See Wikipedia's entry on the plural of...

energumen

An "energumen" turns out to be a person possessed by an evil spirit, or someone who acts like they're possessed, or a fanatic. I'm now surprised that I haven't seen...

TASER

According to a variety of sources, the word "TASER" was coined as an acronym for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle." Apparently the Taser's inventor was a fan of the Tom...

Headline

Headline from a news story: Gay rights activist makes Clinton stop What did the activist make Clinton stop doing, and was it President Clinton or Secretary Clinton? Answer: Neither: the...

House rules, part 4

I've previously posted various fortune-cookie fortunes that I find entertaining when you add ". . . in bed" to the end: Column HHH: House Rules Blog entry: House rules Blog entry: Spam, fortunes,...

Pan

Occasionally, critics and reviewers can be entertainingly vicious. I generally don't approve of that sort of thing, but sometimes I can't help being amused. Case in point: the first line...