mmm. Sugar high

[yendi]

Sugar and caffeine, actually. In the form of Cappuccino meringue cookies. Yum.

Fact of the day: The word "buccaneer" comes from the French "boucanier," meaning "one who hunts wild oxen." This is important, as the people who wrote the trivia at the local Caribou seem to think that it comes from the slurring of the words "bacon eater." With all due respect to folks who work the latter job, I trust the OED over a barrista any day when it comes to word origins. I want my $.10 trivia credit, dammit!

In other news, I forgot my book (Hunted, by James Alan Gardner) at home. So I had to scrounge for something to read today at lunch. When you work in a library, this is not the worst tragedy imaginable. I ended up with the anthology "Not of Women Born," as that had a Kara Dalkey story I hadn't read (and could have dealt without reading -- it really wasn't up to her usual standards).

And although many of you have answered my question from last Friday (found here), a few of you haven't. And although some have answered it in their own journals at various times (I know that Shadesong and Voltbang have explained their LJ names before, at least), there are still a few who haven't answered it anywhere, as far as I know. So feel free to add your comments!

And on the kid front, Elayna has picked up a bad habit shared by Shadesong and myself: She now says "Jesus" as a curse. We've been great about not saying Carlin's seven words around her, and even "lesser" curses like "bitch" and "damn." But I suspect that we haven't been as good about using "Jesus," simply because it's not something either of us is likely to view as a curse. But I do want her to have respect for others' choices of religion -- the word may not offend me, but it could very well offend classmates and parents. It's only happened twice, but I want to nip it in the bud (while still making it clear we're not mad at her -- it's a habit she's almost definitely gotten from us).

And nifty literary fact of the day, for any Steven Brust fans not already on the SKZB mailing list. Regarding the codename "YAVN" for one of his novels, here's what the man said: "That was the working title of the book that eventually became ORCA, I think. YAVN, of course, stands for Yet Another Vlad Novel. Which now reveals how Savn got his name."

So Now We Know. :-)

Comments

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Could be worse. She could've picked up "Jesus fuck."

[yendi]

The first time she said it, I really was expecting "fuck" to follow "Jesus."

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

I've never used Jesus as a curse. It just never made sense to me, even when I was a christian. I just imagined a guy up on a cloud somewhere going, "What?! What is it?! What do you people want from me???" It would drive me nuts if someone kept calling me all day long.

[yendi]

To Elayna, though, "Jesus" is just as abstract as "shit."

Re:

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but "shit" isn't abstract. It's a rather real, brown, smelly substance. And since I'm such a visual person, whenever anyone says "shit," I see "shit."

I don't curse much, as you can imagine.

[hotcoffeems.livejournal.com]

The blasphemous cusses are the ones I have issues with too. For years I've tried to avoid them. But I've got just enough Henry County peckerwood girl in me to have as my very favorite epithet: "G*ddamn!" (anyone from the South knows exactly how that's pronounced), and for milder moments, all-purpose garden-variety "damn." I recently used "damn" nine times in one post, with I believe 2 "g*ddamns" thrown in for good measure. I'd had a trying day, I tell you what. I really need to eliminate the longer version of that one.

"Jesus"(pbuh) I've very consciously given up as an epithet; I made myself laugh and the person I was with say "What?" the last time it slipped from my lips, by following it up with a quick "Peace be upon him." It really didn’t change the meaning of what I'd said – it was cheating; but it made me conscious I'd said it, KWIM? It's a lot easier to eliminate this stuff from my writing than my speech, but it's a daily struggle. I figure my intentions are good, and the rest will follow…might not hurt to explain to her that some others may find it offensive, and why they find it offensive, and let her use her discretion.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Hey, I told you that before! Patrick told us at Clarion. It's how they're listed in the calendar at Tor before they get names. Yet another and Son of another :)

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

Since it's a library, why didn't you just go get another copy of Hunted?

Coincidentally I'm currently reading the book Pirates (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=29HA0NG5PO&isbn=1570362858), which offers this etymology of buccaneer:

"...French hunters were attracted to what is now northwest Haiti by vast herds of wild cattle and swine...The few remaining native Arawaks taught them how to smoke strips of meat on a wooden grill called a boucan. The boucaniers, or buccaneers, smoked beef and pork jerky..."

I've read only one book by Steven Brust. It was Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill, and it wasn't good at all.

[laurel]

Steve considers Cowboy Feng's his worst book, I'm pretty sure. Plenty of other people do, too.

(I kinda liked it, but it's really not at all like any of his other books).

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

Yes, I read in his web page, or an interview or somewhere, where he said he considers it a failure. I agree.

It's scared me off from trying him again.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

Ahem. I could have told you the origins of buccaneer.

Arrrrr!