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Showing posts from September, 2007

The Word of the Day:

Ushabti: a figurine in ancient Egypt that was put in the graves of the dead; ushabti were thought to become animate in the afterlife to work as slaves for the deceased.

A Room of One's Own

"Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size. Without that power probably the earth would still be swap and jungle. The glories of all our wars would be unknown. We should still be scratching the outlines of deer on the remains of mutton bones and bartering flints for sheep skins of whatever simple ornament took our unsophisticated taste. Supermen and Fingers of Destiny would never have existed. The Tsar and the Kaiser would never have worn crowns or lost them. Whatever may be their use in civilized societies, mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action. That is why Napoleon and Mussolini both insist so emphatically upon the inferiority of women, for if they were not inferior, they would cease to enlarge. That serves to explain in part the necessity that women so often are to men. And it serves to explain how restless they are under her criticism; how imposs...

The Word of the Day:

Schmoopy : n behavior that is excessively cutesy or adoring. This word was popularized by episode 116 of Seinfeld , first broadcast on Nov. 25, 1995. There is no evidence that the word "schmoopy" has Yiddish origins.