Brave Creatures

[< classical L. nefandus : wicked, impious, abominable]
/neh FAN dous/ archaic
unspeakable, unmentionable; abominable, atrocious

"Only the bricks of the chimney, the stones of the cellar,
some mineral and metallic litter here and there, and the
rim of that nefandous well."
- Tales of H. P. Lovecraft

"Many of the persons who held such opinions were, of
course, guilty of the most nefandous conduct themselves,
and yet saw no paradox in holding such views because they
were not hypocrites themselves-they took no moral stances
and lived by none."
- Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age

I have to say, I can think of a few people this applies to.

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Pronunciation: san-TOR-um
Function: noun

1. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.
Etymology : Savage Love - 05/29/03

2. Senator Rick Santorum

This is an oldie but a goodie. Thanks to Dan Savage for another quality addition to the English language.

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Warnock's Dilemma, named for its progenitor Bryan Warnock, points out that a lack of response to a posting on a mailing list, Usenet newsgroup, or Web forum does not necessarily imply that no one is interested in the topic. Quoting Mr. Warnock:

The problem with no response is that there are five possible
interpretations:

1) The post is correct, well-written information that needs no
follow-up commentary. There's nothing more to say except "Yeah, what
he said."

2) The post is complete and utter nonsense, and no one wants to waste
the energy or bandwidth to even point this out.

3) No one read the post, for whatever reason.

4) No one understood the post, but won't ask for clarification, for
whatever reason.

5) No one cares about the post, for whatever reason.Mr. Warnock originally described the dilemma on a Perl 6 mailing list. The expression is now regularly used in the Perl world, and it has also been used by webloggers to describe the feeling one gets when no one comments on something they've posted.

There are other reasons one might not comment besides the ones Mr. Warnock enumerated. For example, perhaps writing a good reply would require doing research that the reader lacks the time to undertake. Perhaps one has a mild interest in the topic raised but doesn't feel qualified to comment. Or perhaps an overly insightful reply would commit one to additional work (common on software development lists, where the people who display the most knowledge about a feature often find themselves volunteered to implement it) but the reader doesn't want to get involved. In popular use, "Warnock's Dilemma" has come to refer to all the reasons one might not respond to a posting, not just the five originally proposed.

Traditionally, a dilemma by definition has exactly two choices, both unfavorable, which would mean that Warnock's Dilemma as originally phrased is not a true dilemma. However, many modern dictionaries consider this restriction needless and allow the word to be used colloquially to refer to a difficult situation with any number of choices. Alternatively, one can consider the Dilemma to be whether people aren't replying to messages because they aren't interested, or for some other reason.

It can probably be safely assumed in most situations that not everyone who does not reply to a posting refrains for the same reason, as a literal reading of Warnock's original formulation might imply.

Usages:

"He got Warnocked." He posted a question but nobody replied.
"Warnock applies." Warns one not to draw conclusions based on the lack of response.

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The 1990 Americal Dialect Societies "word of the year"Bushlips (similar to "bullshit" -- an insincere political remark.

This stemmmed from President George H.W. Bush's 1988 "Read my lips: no new taxes " promise, which he did not keep. Today it seems all the more relevant.

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Angertwink (noun):

A young urban gay male who goes through his life very angry because:

1) The rest of the gay world does not recognize his incredible hotness.

2) The rest of the gay world is not incredibly hot, like he is.

Identifying characteristics: Angertwinks can often be spotted wearing fauxhawks, popped collars, and expressions of disgust.

Thanks to Joe My God for this little tid-bit.

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The very ugly end of the early morning, daybreak seen in an unappealing condition.

Usage:

After three hours sleep I got up at the butt crack of dawn;

or

After dragging myself around Probe all night I crawled out of the place to face the butt crack of dawn.

The crack in this term alludes either to the suddenness of sunrise or to the small wedge of light appearing as the sun rises over the horizon. Originally the term was usually put as crack of day.

This phrase has merged with the term "butt crack" or "plumbers crack " meaning the slow moonrise as an overweight plumber with low-slung jeans bends down and leans further and further forward trying to reach behind a pipe under the sink.

Admittedly this is a phrase and not a word, but I am not the Oxford Frickin Dictionary either. So sue me.

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Truthiness - The quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.

A statement can be either "truthy" or "facty". Rarely is it both.

With the rise of punditry and the cult of the commentator, we seem to be dividing people into who's got the truth and, who's got the facts. Unfortunately, the truty, also seem to be the more entertaining, making them more listened to.

Truthiness is an excellent word and has been gaining in public recognition. It has been used in the media from Comendy Centrals Colbert Report through to the Melbournes Age. And you cant argue with that.

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