You idiom!

I'm a huge fan of idioms.

Little birds talk to me. I handle delicate matters with kid gloves. I take stabs at new things. I'll beat the tar out of anyone who hurts my kids.

I hope you get the drift, because I'm tuckered out.

idiom
noun
A traditional way of saying something. Often an idiom, such as “under the weather,” does not seem to make sense if taken literally. Someone unfamiliar with English idioms would probably not understand that to be “under the weather” is to be sick.

Ye Olde Forked Tongue

Were there a serpent seen, with forked tongue,
That slily glided towards your majesty,
It were but necessary you were waked,
Lest, being suffer'd in that harmful slumber,
The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal;
And therefore do they cry, though you forbid,
That they will guard you, whether you will or no,
From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is,
With whose envenomed and fatal sting,
Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth,
They say, is shamefully bereft of life.
-Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II

This island is pretty much full of only two things: snakes and rats. And in the end of Mother Nature, we have Richard the Snake, who knowingly went after prey; and Kelly, who turned into the Rat, that ran around like the rats do on this island, trying to run from the snake. And I feel we owe it to the island's spirit that we have learned, have come to know, to let it be in the end the way Mother Nature intended it to be: for the Snake to eat the Rat."
-Sue Hawk, Final Episode of Survivor I


J'ai montré mon chef d'oeuvre aux grandes personnes et je leur ai demandé si mon dessin leur faisait peur. Elles m'ont répondu: "Pourquoi un chapeau ferait-il peur?"

Mon dessin ne répresentait pas un chapeau. Il répresentait un serpent boa qui digérait un éléphant. J'ai alors dessiné l'interieur du serpent boa, afin que les grandes personnes puissent comprendre. Elles ont toujours besoin d'explications.

(I showed my masterpiece to the big people and I asked them if my drawing frightened them. They responded to me: "Why would a hat be frightening?"

My drawing did not show a hat. It showed a boa snake, who digested an elephant. I thus drew the inside of the boa snake, so that the big people could understand. They have always need of explanations.)
- Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)

He's a cold-hearted snake
Look into his eyes
Oh oh oh
He's been tellin' lies
He's a lover boy at play
He don't play by rules
Oh oh oh
Girl don't play the fool
-Refrain of Paula Abdul song

ophidiophobia
noun
Fear of snakes.

Please

These children are still missing their families.

Please pass along this URL. No child should have that much pain in her face. This is someone's baby. More children can be viewed at the above link. These children are not missing, but their families are.

plea
noun
1. An earnest or urgent request: appeal, entreaty, imploration, prayer, supplication.
2. An explanation offered to justify an action or make it better understood: excuse, pretext.

Lemme pencil you in...

I haven't sat down, save to drive, since 7 am this morning. I am just now, 14 hours later, sitting down. And tomorrow promises to be more of the same, as I've nonstop appointments and calls and errands and children to ferry about.

chockablock
adjective
1. Squeezed together; jammed.
2. Completely filled; stuffed.
3. Nautical. Drawn so close as to have the blocks touching. Used of a ship's hoisting tackle.

Smelly-roll

If anyone else's dog has ever done what I call breakdancing and you wondered "why do they do that?" --I looked it up.

breakdance v.

1. To roll over and wiggle on poops, dead sea creatures or other undesirable debris, exclusively performed by Canis familiaris.

I'm sorry, what?

I refuse to post the picture - a link to it is below - but here's the caption:

LEKEITIO, SPAIN - SEPTEMBER 5: A girl takes hold of a goose's neck on September 5, 2005 in Lekeitio harbour, Spain. The Basque village of Lekeitio celebrates 'The goose day' as part of The San Antolin festival, which takes place between the 1st and 8th of September. The festival reaches its peak September 5 with the "Antzar Eguna" or 'the day of the geese', one of the most popular festivals in the province, where dead geese are hung from a rope while people on boats try to grab a goose head and are then lifted up over the water until they either fall down or pull off the goose's head.

civilized
adjective
1. Having a highly developed society and culture.
2. Showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, ethical, and reasonable.
3. Marked by refinement in taste and manners; cultured; polished.

Brain: off

Inanity

If you didn't feel helpless already

I came across this weblog in which people are giving out stranded locations people in New Orleans. I hope someone who can be of help reads it.

In honor of those hailing from parts stricken by Katrina

lagniappe
(pronounced lăn-yăp')
noun (Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi)
1. A small gift presented by a storeowner to a customer with the customer's purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called boot.
REGIONAL NOTE Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, “the gift,” and ultimately from Quechua yapay, “to give more.” The word came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean “an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.”

May those affected by Hurricane Katrina receive many lagniappes in the days to come.

Dig, dig, dig

It's happened. I have created a gallimaufry in my storage room much like the one we had in our attic when I was growing up.

The house I live in now, in fact, has an attic, but it's rather intemperate up there, so until we put in insulation, I won't use it for too much.

In the meantime, I store things in one of the back rooms we've yet to establish as anything else.

Mine is exactly the same as my mother's though: boxes full of old letters and books, toys from my own childhood, family china wrapped in antique linens, unused furniture, out-of-season (or fashion) clothes - all seemingly ajumble and all treasures awaiting discovery.

gallimaufry
noun
A collection of various things.