A to Z Challenge: Quisling

As we wend our way through the alphabet during April's A to Z Challenge, we see that not every word lends itself to humorous comments. Such is the case with

Vidkun Quisling (left) sitting with Nazi brass in 1941
(Wikipedia)

Quisling
A traitor, in particular one who collaborates with an enemy occupying force. Named after Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian politician who aided the Nazis when they took over his country.

A to Z Challenge: Pettifoggery

Hello again, fellow A to Z travelers and other cyberspace wanderers. This month we're working our way through the alphabet to find words that you might not often see but are part of our beautiful language. Today's word is

19th-century pettifoggery: Each assigns blame to
someone else, and each is right.

Pettifoggery
This is bickering over unimportant matters. It's not a word I knew as a lad, but my brothers and I engaged in lots of it. Whose turn was it to wash the dishes? That was a perennial favorite source of pettifoggery in my household.

If you'd be so kind as to leave a comment, I will reciprocate.

A to Z Challenge: Osculate

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, sometimes deservedly so. Today's word has two meanings.

Superman gets lucky

Osculate

To kiss, as we see the blue-haired superheroes doing at our left. Can we assume this is going on somewhere romantic, like in a telephone booth or in the supply closet at the Daily Planet?

But osculate has a more arcane, less titillating meaning. In mathematics, it means for two lines to intersect at a single point, per the illustration below. (Yawn. Bo-o-o-oring!)

Mathematical osculation

A to Z Challenge: Natatorium

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, sometimes deservedly so. Today's word is

Photo from
http://www.pemsurface.com/us-swimming-nationals.html

Natatorium
A swimming pool.

A to Z Challenge: Mellivorous

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, sometimes deservedly so. Today's word is

Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris),
Female on Common Heath (Epacris impressa),
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, Tasmania, Australia
(Photo by JJ Harrison via Wikipedia_

Mellivorous

This means honey-eating, such as bears, honey badgers, and hummingbirds.

A to Z Challenge: Luminaria

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention -- or not, if you live in New Mexico or have traveled South of the Border.

Luminaria
This is a light, typically a candle, inside a paper bag. It's used as an outdoor Christmas decoration in Mexico and parts of the Southwest. Travel north to Santa Fe, and you'll hear it called a farolito, or little lantern.

A to Z Challenge: Kachina

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention. Today's word is

Kachina

If you live in the Southwestern US, you know this word. A kachina is a Pueblo religious spirit.

A to Z Challenge: Jolly boat

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, sometimes deservedly so. Today's word is (all right, today's words are)

Jolly boat
Back in the days of sailing ships, a boat used to ferry people ashore from a ship.

A to Z Challenge: Inselberg

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, sometimes deservedly so. Today's word is

Inselberg

An isolated mountain. Ship Rock, in the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, is a perfect example of an inselberg.

A to Z Challenge: Hebdomad

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, sometimes deservedly so. Today's word is

Two hebdomads

Hebdomad
This is a group of seven, including a period of seven days. You know, as in "I'll see you next hebdomad."

A to Z Challenge: Garibaldi

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, sometimes deservedly so. Today's word is

garibaldi
--which I write in lowercase on purpose. The woman's red blouse on the left is a garibaldi, named after the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi.

A to Z Challenge: Fianchetto

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, and deservedly so. Today's word of limited use is

Fianchetto
If you ever played chess, you know this word already. From the Italian word for flank, in chess it refers to moving one's bishop one square into the knight's column early in the game. If you look at the intersections b2, b7, g2 and g7, you'll see the pieces represented by mitres. Those are the bishops, and they have all been fianchettoed.

If you never played chess, you can impress (maybe) a friend by pointing out a fianchettoed bishop as you pass by players in Harvard Square. Otherwise, never mind.

A to Z Challenge: Eleemosynary

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, often deservedly so. Our word for Monday, April 6, goes back to 1616, so it's about to reach its quadricentennial. Shall we plan a party?

Eleemosynary
Relating to or supported by charity. It's derived from a Latin word for alms.

A to Z Challenge: Decussate

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, and deservedly so. Today's word is

Decussate
This does not mean to take back your profanity. It means to form an "X," which occurs in nature, as the illustration plainly demonstrates.

A to Z Challenge: Corvée

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, and deservedly so. Today's word you'll likely never need is

Corvée: Unpaid labor due from a feudal vassal to his lord. Today it can mean forced labor in lieu of taxes, in particular on public roads.

The word is spelled the same in French and means drudgery.

A to Z Challenge: Bardolatry

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, and deservedly so. Today's arcane word is

Bardolatry 
the excessive admiration of Shakespeare

Among other 19th-century actors, David Garrick "broadened and altered the boundaries of Shakespearean discourse in specific ways ... thus contributing to the growth of bardolatry as a discursive phenomenon." -- Romantic Actors and Bardolatry by Celestine Woo
























Wikipedia asks that I add this source information:
"Thomas Banks Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry c 1789" by Thomas Banks, sculptor (1735-1805). Engraver: Benjamin Smith (1754-1833). Original uploader was Paul Barlow at en.wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia; Transfer was stated to be made by User:Rupert Clayton. Collection of Prints, From Pictures Painted for the Purpose of Illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakspeare, by the Artists of Great-Britain. London: John and Josiah Boydell, 1805. Original sculpture is here.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Banks_Shakespeare_attended_by_Painting_and_Poetry_c_1789.jpg#/media/File:Thomas_Banks_Shakespeare_attended_by_Painting_and_Poetry_c_1789.jpg

Whew!

A to Z Challenge: Absquatulate

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, and deservedly so. Let's begin with

From a Pinterest pin by Jennifer Lynn

Absquatulate: to leave somewhere abruptly.

Upon witnessing the heinous crime, the young lad absquatulated.

A to Z Challenge countdown

Less than a day until the A to Z Challenge, and I've changed the blog header. The flying pig is a souvenir from Mexico, as you may have guessed.

On April 1, we'll launch our examination of odd words with Absquatulate.

Counting down to the A to Z Challenge

I'm looking forward to Wednesday, not to play April Fool's jokes, but because April brings with it the A to Z Challenge. My blogs are planned out through the letter O so far, and my theme is odd words that may have escaped your attention.

So until then, have a look at the poppies blooming in my home town of Las Cruces:

Ted Cruz, climate denier

An easy call: No.

Today Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President. He is a Harvard and Princeton graduate, though he doesn't sound like it. How can someone who is so smart deny climate change? When scientists refer to global warming, they refer to a trend. That New England has an especially snowy, cold winter doesn't make a mockery of the scientific claims. Complex changes are going on and have been at least since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. That isn't to say that all changes are manmade; there are natural cycles that have brought on multiple ice ages, but human activity adds unprecedented quantities of pollutants to the air. That may be accelerating change, and most likely is.

Senator Cruz claims he wants to repeal "every word" of Obamacare and abolish the IRS. Neither will happen, nor should it. Both are simpleminded positions. If the Affordable Care Act is flawed, let's fix it. Citizens need access to health care and shouldn't be made to wait while Republicans destroy one system and then talk about whether to replace the Act from scratch. As for the IRS, they can't do anything Congress doesn't allow them to do. So Congress needs to tighten the controls and simplify the tax code. Good luck on either of those things happening.

Cruz is trying to nail down the right flank of his party, where the Primary voters tend to come from. He is far down in current preference polls, and it will be interesting to see how much support he can gin up.