Sorry, Larry .... too late. Hubris is
MINE 
timber
is that a redback, Larry?
Dunno, he says, after googling "redback." Just picked it up off an avatar site, after no one seemed to like "David Bowie Staring Upwards."
The Redback Spider
"There was a Redback on the toilet seat when I was there last night.
I didn't see him in the dark but, boy, I felt his bite.
The Redback on the Toilet Seat, Slim Newton, 1972.
"The Redback Spider is one of Australia's most famous, or infamous, spiders. It has earned this reputation through its widespread distribution and nasty bite.
More than 200 Redback Spider bites requiring antivenom are reported every year. Contrary to Slim Newton's famous song, the female is generally the offender.
As the Redback's bite is potentially dangerous to humans, it pays to know a little about this surprisingly common spider's habits and behaviour."
Larryiam the Librarian love the new avatar and it covers all your interests.
Thanks - intended to be temporary, but it fits so well, maybe I'll keep it. I have searched everywhere for the right avatar, but nothing has rung a bell yet.
A.Word.A.Day?-prudential
prudential (proo-DEN-shuhl) adjective
1. Of or relating to prudence.
2. Exercising good judgment, common sense, forethought, caution, etc.
[From Middle English prudence, from Middle French, from Latin prudentia, contraction of providentia, from provident-, present participle stem of providere (to provide). The words improvise, provide, provident, proviso, purvey, all derive from the same root.]
"When every artless bosom throbs with truth, Untaught by worldly wisdom how to feign And check each impulse with prudential rein." George Gordon Byron; Childish Recollections.
"Prudential reasons can be mounted on either side of the argument, although there are persuasive reasons not to go to war against Iraq: breaking the coalition, generating dissent in America, sidelining Israel/Palestine peace efforts, destabilizing several governments in the Middle East, undertaking a difficult and costly military campaign." Richard Falk; In Defense of 'Just War' Thinking; The Nation (New York); Dec 24, 2001.
This week's theme: what does that company name mean?
© 2003 Wordsmith.
Sorry JD, but I have to post this one..... Gives a whole new meaning to eating and drinking anything from the Super 8.
suppurate (SUHP-yuh-rayt) verb intr.
To produce or secrete pus.
Great word littlek and you should not be sorry. Everyone is welcome to post the word of the day.
Every member of A2k is invited to post a word for the day why I believe we could have more than one word a day. Hmmm
maybe the name of this topic should be changed to words of the day. There are so many of them.
JD - I know you are getting the same mailing and had a thing going with it. Do you know of Super 8s?
Nope nada just assumed it was like 7/11 or camera film.
It's a motel chain. For some reason, when I posted I was thinking it was a 7/11 type thing...
daedal (DEED-al) adjective
1. Ingenious and complex in design or function; intricate.
2. Finely or skillfully made or employed; artistic.
[Latin daedalus, from Greek daidalos.]
"I sang of the dancing stars,
I sang of the daedal earth,
And of heaven, and the giant wars,
And love, and death, and birth."
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, Hymn Of Pan.
I used the search on poetry.com and they did not have this word listed???
clerisy (KLER-i-see) noun
Educated people considered as a group; the literati.
[German Klerisei, clergy, from Medieval Latin clericia, from Late Latin
clericus, priest.]
"The artist, the scholar, and, in general, the clerisy win their way
up into these places, and get represented here, somewhat on this
footing of conquest."
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Manners: An Essay: Manners - Part II.
A.Word.A.Day?-Canossa
Canossa (kuh-NOS-uh, Italian: kah-NOS-sah) noun
A place of humiliation or penance. Mostly used in the form "go to Canossa": to humble or humiliate oneself, to eat humble pie. [From the name of a castle in Canossa, a village in Italy, where Roman emperor Henry IV sought pardon before Pope Gregory VII in 1077.]
"If I were to believe what you do about the policies of Russia there would be no way out for me but to crawl to Canossa ... " Edward S. Shapiro; Letters of Sidney Hook: Democracy, Communism, and the Cold War; M. E. Sharpe, 1995. (full-text on Questia)
"Having seen his famously revered spiritual compass appear this week at President Ezer Weizman's residence, one senior Shas activist was quoted as regretting Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's having `gone to Canossa'."
Amotz Asa-El; Thoughts on Canossa; Jerusalem Post; Jun 4, 1999.
Government is a good thing, mostly. Religion is perhaps a good thing too, most of the time. But when the two mix, it's a recipe for disaster (from Latin dis- + -aster, literally unfavorable stars). The story of Canossa is a small slice of the long history of such mix-ups. The metaphorical sense of today's term Canossa comes from the name of a ruined castle in Canossa village in north-central Italy. It was the site of penance by Roman emperor Henry IV before Pope Gregory VII in January 1077 for calling him a false monk. The emperor crossed the Alps in the middle of winter to see the Pope, who was a guest of Matilda, countess of Tuscany, at the castle. It's said that Henry stood outside the castle barefoot in snow for three days It was this incident that inspired German chancellor Bismarck to later coin the phrase "Nach Canossa gehen wir nicht" (We're not going to Canossa) during Kulturkampf.
A.Word.A.Day?-Tartarean
Tartarean (tahr-TAR-ee-uhn) adjective
Hellish; infernal.
[From Latin tartareus, from Greek tartareios, from Tartaros. In Greek mythology, Tartarus was the place in Hades reserved for punishing the worst.]
"The hatch, removed from the top of the works, now afforded a wide hearth in front of them. Standing on this were the Tartarean shapes of the pagan harpooneers, always the whaleship's stokers." Herman Melville; Moby Dick: Or, the Whale; Hendricks House; 1952. (Full-text on Questia).
"The late-afternoon skies over lower downtown Denver were Stygian dark and Tartarean dreary, as had been the Rockies in the series with the omnipotent Yankees, when Todd Zeile approached the plate in the culmination of the 10th inning, and there was a fulmination and fulguration of thunder and lightning." Woody Paige; A Ruthian Victory For the Locals; The Denver Post; Jun 21, 2002.
A.Word.A.Day?-Dunkirk
Dunkirk (DUN-kurk) noun
1. A desperate evacuation or retreat.
2. A crisis situation requiring drastic measures to avoid total disaster.
[After Dunkirk (also Dunkerque), a seaport and town in northern France. In World War II, it was the site of evacuation of more than 330,000 Allied troops by sea while under German fire during May-June, 1940.]
"Nearly a month before he was named head of the Office of Management and Budget in early December, Stockman had at the instigation of Congressman Jack Kemp of New York prepared a report for Reagan called `Avoiding an Economic Dunkirk' that forecast dislocations in the credit and capital markets, a 1981 recession, soaring budget deficits and the collapse of monetary policy." Lou Cannon; President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime; PublicAffairs; 2000. Full-text on Questia at
http://questia.com/CM.qst?D=wotddunkirk
"Humanity is now facing a sort of slow motion environmental Dunkirk. It remains to be seen whether civilization can avoid the perilous trap it has set for itself. " Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich; Brownlash: The New Environmental Anti-science; The Humanist (Washington DC); Nov 21, 1996.
