tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post8466743329907899631..comments2024-02-12T06:10:14.590-08:00Comments on Culture Shock: The Oregon Telephone Herald Co.-- It's Information, Inspiration and Amusementculturejockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14263465772349376129noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-48951371796390092052010-06-15T20:54:38.930-07:002010-06-15T20:54:38.930-07:00Miss Laura: Double points for using fetid and fete...Miss Laura: Double points for using fetid and feted in the same sentence. When you mentioned "store-bought" pie shells, my mind went on a tangent of wondering about the regional differences between "store-bought" and "boughten." (I'm with the former and suspect the latter is southern). <br /><br />While I'm at it, "tangent" reminds me of once having meandered into tracing the source of the word "meander." That was one twisting river. I wish I'd studied to be an etymologist, though I never cared much for bugs. <br /><br />I spotted you and Bob across the room at the Drammy's and intended to wend my way in your direction (there's that meandering again). Unfortunately, all the glad-handing got out of hand and I lost sight of you. What an evening.MightyToyCannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14523823158706838012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-33614118638486627392010-06-15T17:56:11.770-07:002010-06-15T17:56:11.770-07:00I was sitting in a Chinese grocery/lunch joint in ...I was sitting in a Chinese grocery/lunch joint in Oakland, CA early this afternoon eating some good cheap noodley ricey stuff and reading this string of lavishly erudite comments. I was dumbfounded, in a good way. I tried to leave a comment then, but my stupid Blackberry rebelled as usual.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13765688465211717384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-22161005993551470732010-06-15T11:11:10.956-07:002010-06-15T11:11:10.956-07:00After much-interrupted sleep and a grumpy morning ...After much-interrupted sleep and a grumpy morning staggering through grocery aisles with a mug of coffee so that I could make Felix/Martha happy by maxing out my baking skills and helping him make little desserts with instant pudding and store-bought pie shells for feted (not fetid) relatives, I finally sat down to happily track down sagacity, only to be smitten by sacagious. According to wordswarm.net, which I gather is a warm and fuzzy site for words, this definition -- check it out -- includes both Milton and Locke:<br /><br />Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)<br /><br /> Sagacious \Sa*ga"cious\, a. [L. sagax, sagacis, akin to sagire to perceive quickly or keenly, and probably to E. seek. See Seek, and cf. Presage.] 1. Of quick sense perceptions; keen-scented; skilled in following a trail. Sagacious of his quarry from so far. --Milton. 2. Hence, of quick intellectual perceptions; of keen penetration and judgment; discerning and judicious; knowing; far-sighted; shrewd; sage; wise; as, a sagacious man; a sagacious remark. Instinct . . . makes them, many times, sagacious above our apprehension. --Dr. H. More. Only sagacious heads light on these observations, and reduce them into general propositions. --Locke. Syn: See Shrewd. -- Sa*ga"cious*ly, adv. -- Sa*ga"cious*ness, n. <br /><br />OK, so that's more dictionaryish than word origin, but etymonline has this bad boy:<br /><br />sagacity <br /> 1540s, from M.Fr. sagacité, from L. sagacitatem (nom. sagacitas) "quality of being acute," from sagax (gen. sagacis) "of quick perception," related to sagus "prophetic," sagire "perceive keenly," from PIE base *sag- "to track down, trace, seek" (cf. O.E. secan "to seek;" see seek). Also used 17c.-18c. of animals, meaning "acute sense of smell."<br /><br />Notice that it somehow includes tracking AND pie AND an acute sense of smell, which all curiously stirs my heart to think that etymology and pie and Large Smelly Boys all go together!<br /><br />As if that's not enough, wordia.com invites us to upload videos of word definitions.<br /><br />Anyone notice that sagacity also spells -- hello! -- Saga City?Miss Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01623530213538794529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-31483533784447212272010-06-15T01:00:09.138-07:002010-06-15T01:00:09.138-07:00I am so completely entertained now, I'm not su...I am so completely entertained now, I'm not sure where to start ... the genie/genius/jinni/garden/paradise etymology, the Pachelbel/Franklin collision year, the twitchy computer withdrawals, the lede spelling that I completely read right over like it was my right hand, highnesses and a one-eyed camel, the word sagacity, and the serendipitous fact that that was our dentist office! Bob tried to make an appointment the day after the fire so heard all about it via the old-fashioned phone method. He had to be farmed out. If you read the little oral surgery mention on Art Scatter ... well, he didn't have it done in the smoldering ruins across the street from you. Now if we had had a conversation in person tonight at the Drammys, we could have sorted all that out, but instead we'll have to chat via the intertubes by different time clocks ... speaking of which mine is set for 3.5 hours from now because someone snoring next to me has an early flight tomorrow/today. Otherwise, I'd be diving in to find out the origins of sagacity. BTW, The Pantsless Brother made me put on college applications that I wanted to study etymology so that they would look good and stand out, but my low success rate would suggest they thought I was just geeky.Miss Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01623530213538794529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-1369447568613548012010-06-13T08:35:53.588-07:002010-06-13T08:35:53.588-07:00Jenny, the other night (while surfing the web, wat...Jenny, the other night (while surfing the web, watching TV and having a conversation with my wife), I was interrupted by sirens and flashing lights outside our window. I couldn't see what was going on, so immediately turned to Twitter to see if anyone else was commenting about it. I then went to a Portland Police website which puts recent 911 calls on a Google map. After about five minutes of frustration, I realized the answer could be found simply by walking outside and looking. Not only did I discover what was up (a fire at a nearby dentist office), but reality was all in 3D!MightyToyCannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14523823158706838012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-72761121787664387652010-06-13T08:31:46.887-07:002010-06-13T08:31:46.887-07:00Bob and Laura, your comments bring to mind an arti...Bob and Laura, your comments bring to mind an article in The Onion that had this as its lede*:<br /><br />“Unable to rest their eyes on a colorful photograph or boldface heading that could be easily skimmed and forgotten about, Americans collectively recoiled Monday when confronted with a solid block of uninterrupted text. “<br /><br />http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-shudders-at-large-block-of-uninterrupted-te,16932/<br /><br />* Note to Readers: In an ongoing effort to feign journalistic bonafides, and out of respect for Bob and Laura work in a dying trade, I intentionally chose to use the archaic “lede” instead of “lead” in that sentence.<br /><br />David, I doubly chuckled at your comment because this is a footnote I deleted before publishing this blog post:<br /><br />“As evidence of the Attention Deficit Disorder inducing qualities of the internet, I paused from writing this narrative for a solid fifteen minutes to research the etymology of the word 'serendipity,' which is derived from 'Serendip,' the Persian name for Sri Lanka? Henry Walpole coined it in 1754, using it in a letter:<br /> <br />“It was once when I read a silly fairy tale, called 'The Three Princes of Serendip'**: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a camel blind of the right eye had traveled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right—now do you understand serendipity? One of the most remarkable instances of this accidental sagacity (for you must observe that no discovery of a thing you are looking for, comes under this description) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who happening to dine at Lord Chancellor Clarendon's, found out the marriage of the Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her mother treated her at table."<br /><br />** This morning, I found additional information: "The Three Princes of Serendip" is the English version of the "Peregrinaggio di tre figluoli del re di Serendippo" published by Michele Tramezzino in Venice in 1557.MightyToyCannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14523823158706838012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-14238927381194956072010-06-13T08:14:05.774-07:002010-06-13T08:14:05.774-07:00I love hearing about the history of Portland and a...I love hearing about the history of Portland and also to see how marketing techniques have developed and shifted over the years.<br /><br />I can relate to the loss of attention span, though I've been attributing it to constant interruptions by small children in the house. Read an entire newspaper article in one sitting? Unheard of! <br /><br />My home computer recently crashed and it's been an eye opener. Sometimes I get twitchy just thinking about the email I can't check until 6pm when my husband comes home with his laptop. The world might be ending and I'll never know it! Er...at least not right away.Jenny Wrenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05622490947145712857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-67846538708101670002010-06-13T01:30:32.518-07:002010-06-13T01:30:32.518-07:00It's too late, though. We cannot put the genie...It's too late, though. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle, the toothpaste back in the tube, the—hang on, I'm looking up a couple more analogies—Oh, cool! Did you know that "genie" comes from the Latin "genius," which meant "a sort of tutelary or guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at their birth"? Apparently the French translators of "One Thousand and One Nights" chose "genie" as the translation of "jinni" only because they sounded the same and seemed related; but "jinni" comes from an Arabic root word that meant "to hide, or conceal" and also led to the words "garden" and "Paradise." The first English translation of the story was "The Arabian Nights' Entertainment" in 1706, the year Johann Pachelbel died and Benjamin Franklin was born.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17393279837801273712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-76176934407370443252010-06-12T13:13:02.492-07:002010-06-12T13:13:02.492-07:00My favorite line: "It will make millions merr...My favorite line: "It will make millions merry who have never been merry before ..."<br /><br />Now could you please call me on my Pleasure Telephone, otherwise known as my Land Line, and read me your post? I'll be waiting to take your call in my Demonstration Parlor.Miss Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01623530213538794529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128825.post-86907400149077485562010-06-12T13:01:34.235-07:002010-06-12T13:01:34.235-07:00Great post, MTC! Umm ... now, could you put out a ...Great post, MTC! Umm ... now, could you put out a digested version, please?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13765688465211717384noreply@blogger.com