Some Kind of Divine Right To The Blues

I've been behind on the 15minuteficlets assignments. We had a Cult of Pain meeting last night, so I wanted to get caught up. I did two fifteen-minute sessions on words, but I didn't get to the picture one. (They have pictures??) And then I didn't have time to post them before the meeting last night. Anyway, here they are:

( Word One )

( Word Two )

As you can see, I'm really struggling to incorporate the words, which means that the story has already taken on a life of its own...

So Afraid of Every New Romance

Seen chez ali_kira, here's the vastly exciting map of which American states I've visited:



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Although it looks like I drove straight through to Arizona through Utah, this was actually a plain flight from Edmonton to Phoenix where I transferred in Salt Lake City. So though I have technically been in Utah, I never got outside the airport. The rest are from a long-ago driving trip through Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Spokane, Washington, and at least part of Montana, and a cross-Canada trip where we crossed into upstate New York through Niagara Falls and drove through it briefly before crossing back into Canada. I'm pretty sure we never made it into Vermont.

Two Guys Fooling Around With The Moon

Interesting music-related meme care of lara7:

The Challenge: Name a band/solo artist you liked in High school, who is still releasing music now, who you still enjoy as they (and you) have matured.

The conditions:

1) You must have graduated from High School in 1995 or earlier to play. Sorry to any young whippersnappers, but the 10 year mark is important because tastes change and bands break up, and that's the whole point of the exercise.

2) Bands you name must have been releasing music and/or touring consistently from your high school years to now, without any breaks of longer than 3 years. Exceptions can be made for bands that have been around that long who regularly take over 3-4 years to make records (The Beastie Boys are a great example here, and Tom Waits took off 6 years between Black Rider and Mule Variations), but any one on a 4+ year hiatus (Guns 'n' Roses, anyone?) with no new material is excluded.

3) You had to be aware and a fan of the band when you were in High School. Do I adore Tom Waits now? Yes. Was he recording when I was in High School? Yes. Was I a fan at that time? I wish, but no. Therefore, I cannot count Tom Waits for this contest.

4) You must have purchased/taped/burned one of the artists last 3 albums AND still listen to it and like it for the artist to count. For example, if you name David Bowie as an artist you liked then and now, you must possess, listen to, and enjoy either "Hours", "Heathen" or "Reality" (his last 3 albums from 1999 to now. If you don't own any of these, you aren't "still a fan", you merely liked Bowie when he didn't suck).

Let me see:

I graduated in 1987. Let's see how some of my favourite bands measure up:

Pass:

U2: I became a fan with "The Unforgettable Fire", 1985, and I've stuck with them through the years. I have "All That You Can't Leave Behind" and like it.

A-Ha: I got to liking them with "Hunting High And Low" and "Scoundrel Days", high school era. The last one of theirs I have is "Memorial Beach", but I have listened to "Minor Earth Major Sky" and "Lifelines", and like both of them.

Bruce Cockburn: I started to really get into him with "Waiting For A Miracle", in 1987, a greatest hits album spanning his already lengthy career. The last album of his I bought was "The Charity of Night"; since then he's had one or two studio albums and another greatest hits compilation.

Depeche Mode: Got into them with "Some Great Reward" and "Black Celebration", and have all of their stuff up to "Ultra". There's only "Exciter" since then, though they have moved into the every-four-years period.

Stan Ridgway: I'm going to count him. I've got "The Big Heat" from high school, and through to 1999's "Anatomy". Only one(or possibly two)album since then, and he's on a 4-5 year cycle.

Suzanne Vega: Into her from her very first album. She's also on a longer cycle, but I'm only missing "Songs In Red & Gray", her most recent album.

The The: I'm missing "Hanky Panky", but I've got "NakedSelf", and he's on a longer release schedule anyway. I mean, how many musicians are there that don't slow down to once-every-four-years sometime in their second or third decade?

Weird Al Yankovic: Now this one dates back to junior high school. And still going strong all the way through to "Poodle Hat".

Fail:

They Might Be Giants: I had heard of them in high school, with a few videos from their first album, but I didn't like them until I heard "Flood", and I was in university by that time.

Barenaked Ladies: They didn't release their first album until after I graduated.

Billy Joel: Hasn't released anything in the pop circle since "River of Dreams", 1993?

Christine Lavin: I never heard of her until 1992.

Elvis Costello: Couldn't stand him in high school. Eventually I was won over by "Punch The Clock"(once I got past "Everyday I Write The Book"), "Tiny Steps", and "Spike".

Jane Siberry: At first I hated her(because of "I Muse Aloud"), and I'm not sure I really started to like her untli "The Walking". That might have been while I was still in high school...but I haven't bought any of her albums since "Teenager", and I don't like that one very much.

Laurie Anderson: I got into her with "O Superman" and "United States Live" in high school, but I don't know if she's even released any albums since "The Ugly One With The Jewels" and "Bright Red", which are probably mid-90's.

Madonna: I've been on-again, off-again with her. You know, I'd like "Live To Tell" and "La Isla Bonita", but not "True Blue" or "Cherish", but I would like "Like A Prayer" and "Oh Father", but not "Justify My Love" or "Rain". It wasn't until "Ray of Light" that I was truly sold on her, and began filling in her catalogue, and since then I haven't been that fond of her albums.

REM: Very close, since I liked them since "Fables of The Reconstruction" and "Document", but the last album of theirs I have is "New Adventures In Hi-Fi".

Eurythmics: They had that ten-year gap between "Peace" and "We Too Are One". Otherwise they'd be perfect.

Joe Jackson: I got into him with "Big World", but I don't think I've actually acquired one of his albums since "Laughter & Lust". I do like "Night & Day II" and "Volume 4", though.

Rush: I really liked "Grace Under Pressure" and "Hold Your Fire" in high school, but I haven't liked much since "Counterparts".

Shriekback: I'd like to count them, but they have a big gap between "Sacred City"(1992) and "Naked Apes & Pond Life"(2000).

Simple Minds: Surprisingly close, from "Once Upon A Time" and "Sparkle In The Rain" through to "Néapolis", but apparently they've had three albums since then.

Peter Gabriel: Depends on whether you can count him with the big gap between "Up" and "Us". ("Uq" and "Ur" apparently never having been released.) Okay, I don't have peripheral releases like "Ovo" or "Long Walk Home" in my collection.

Thomas Dolby: Sadly, he hasn't released much of anything since "The Gate To The Mind's Eye".

No Mermaid

You know, one often sees the one-letter abbreviations "M" and "F" used for "Male" and "Female". I've discovered, though, that in some circumstances(genealogy, for instance, or some of my simulation projects), those abbreviations become more ambiguous. Because they can also stand for "Mother" and "Father"--in which case they have precisely the opposite meaning.

It's just a coincidence of etymology, I imagine. The word for "mother" begins with "M" in most Indo-European languages(I think it's "N" in some of them); "father" is more likely to be a "p" sound, but in English the aspirated "p" turned into an "f".

I just looked up the etymology of "male" and "female". "Female" comes from "femelle", diminutive of "femina", which Latin for "woman"(and probably a direct cognate). "Male", on the other hand, supposedly derives directly from "masculus". Folk etymology may have brought the two different words closer together over time, until it looks like "female" is just "male" with a prefix. ...Though in English "woman" apparently resolves to "wife-man", and "femina" is probably similar.

So "female" and "father" having the same starting letter arises from a convergence of an aspirate-p sound and with "wife" morpheme, which as far as I can tell started as a labialized aspirate g("ghw"). In English that sound resolved to a "w", but in Latin apparently it became an "f".

"Male" and "mother" is just a coincidence. As is it all, really, but in this case I imagine they both originally began with "m" back in proto-Indo-European. Perhaps Merritt Ruhlen might be able to trace them back further, but I'm too lazy to check right now.

Somnolence

From the Fake Etymology article on Wikipedia I have learned the following:

"Rule of thumb" has nothing to do with the supposed English law that you couldn't beat your wife with anything thicker than your thumb.

While Otto Titzling, supposed inventor of the bra, is fictional, Thomas Crapper is real. He did not invent the flush toilet, though he was a plumber. I remembered reading an autobiographical book by a hoaxer who wrote books about both figures, so I thought they were both fictional. For some reason I had it associated with Abbie Hoffman, but it was, in fact, Wallace Reyburn. The word "crap" is not related to Crapper at all(whose name is a variant of "Cropper"), but it's unknown which of them lead to the slang term "crapper" for "toilet".

"Welsh rarebit" is, in fact, a folk-etymologized version of "Welsh rabbit", not the other way around, as I had always presumed.

California was named after a fictional island of Amazons in a Spanish book popular around the time of its discovery.

Anything else that supposedly came from an acronym(For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Port Out Starboard Home, etc.)from before the 20th century is almost certainly bogus, too.

And, in general, beware if the explanation sounds too cool, because like any such story, it's likely apocryphal.