Woot! It's word derivation day!

I like today's words and phrases. As always, the information is from "The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson.

Tantalize. Tantalus, the son of Zeus in Greek mythology, divulged the secrets of the gods to humans. The Lydian king was punished by being submerged in a pool of water in Hades, a tree laden with fruit above his head. Whenever he attempted to drink the water or eat the fruit, they moved just beyond him -- the water receding and the fruit tree wind-tossed -- causing him agonizing thirst and hunger. This punishment gives us the word tantalize.

Rigmarole. Often spelled and pronounced "rig-a-marole," this word means confused, incoherent, foolish or meaningless talk, or any complicated procedure. It derives from a roll of names called the rageman, which originated in the 14th century. The name of this roll was altered through mispronunciation to ragman role and finally to rigmarole in the 18th century. Because the names and addresses on it were often changed or deleted, the rigmarole came to represent any confused or disconnected, incoherent statement.

Ring hollow; ring true. In the past, counterfeit coins could be detected by the dull, flat tone they produced when dropped on stone, in contrast to the clear ring of true coins. The test was called ringing or sounding a coin . . . The practice was so common that it inspired the saying to ring true, to impress one as genuine or good, as well as its opposite, to ring false or to ring hollow, the last a phrase that Ben Jonson used. Today . . . "silver" coins don't give off a clear ring anymore.

As you were. Carry on.

Trashing Ash Wednesday

I was going to write something vicious, but why bother? PZ has it covered. I won't ruin the fun by telling you what he said but if smudges on foreheads are ticking you off today, by all means, visit the link.

Ecologically sound burials

Recently, I wrote about the wasteful ways we dead with our dead. Well, it seems a woman has come up with a way to freeze-dry bodies and turn them into compost, lickety-split, with no harm to the environment. Sounds great to me. Here's the link.

Hopscotch research

There's a scene in one of my books where two little girls are playing hopscotch. Though I racked my brain, I couldn't recall what girls used to chant when they played this game. So I used the Intertubes to find out.

I found a lot of rhymes that were familiar to me, but they seem to be jump-rope rhymes, not for hopscotch at all. I'm hoping for reader input on this. Are any of the following used in hopscotch? And if not, can you tell me what girls say when they play this game?

(I'm not being sexist here by saying "girls" rather than "kids". Let's face it: no boys played except us gay boys. In elementary school, I always wanted to play with the girls when they were jumping rope or playing hopscotch. And I did play with them, after which the boys hated me. Since I'm huge this did not present a problem.)

Anyway, here's what I found on the Intertubes:

Miss Lucy had a baby

And she named him Tiny Tim.
She put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water.
He ate up all the soap.
He tried to eat the bathtub
But it wouldn't go down his throat.
Miss Lucy called the doctor,
Miss Lucy called the nurse.
Miss Lucy called the lady
with the alligator purse.

Rooms for rent,
Inquire within.
As I move out
Let Jenny come in.

A sailor went to sea sea sea
To see what he could see see see
But all that he could see see see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea.

As I went down to my grandfather's farm.

A Billy goat chased me around the barn.
It chased me up a sycamore tree,
And this is what it said to me:

'I like coffee, I like tea,

I like _________ to jump with me.

All I have to say in closing is this: what's with the alligator purse? Everybody knows it's the lady with the "big, fat purse". Any feedback from the peanut gallery?

Alcohol kills; guess what doesn't?

"GENEVA — Alcohol causes nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence, the World Health Organization warned [in early February].

"Yet alcohol control policies are weak and remain a low priority for most governments despite drinking's heavy toll on society from road accidents, violence, disease, child neglect and job absenteeism, it said.

"Approximately 2.5 million people die each year from alcohol-related causes, the WHO said in its "Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health."

But you can buy it everywhere in the country, and the deaths march on. On the other hand, you can be sent to jail for marijuana possession, despite it being a harmless drug. What's wrong with this picture?

No one has ever been killed by marijuana. As we all know, people smoke marijuana and become, if anything, more peaceful. Drink alcohol and go out and stab people or hit them with your car; smoke a joint and listen to music. That's pretty much the spectrum, yet the first is legal and the second is not. Again, isn't something obviously wrong with this picture? Our country has a totally incoherent posture on drugs, particularly marijuana.

Am I just going to complain about this? Certainly not. I've taken pro-active steps to change public opinion. In each of my three books, marijuana is presented in a positive light. One of my goals for my books is to repair marijuana's reputation.

Mind you, I still caution that young people should avoid it. I've told my nephews this. Let your brain mature fully (which doesn't happen until your 25th year; sorry guys) and then you can smoke dope as an adult, if you choose to. It does not have a good effect on the adolescent brain.

But overall, in terms of common sense, marijuana should be available to the public. And we need to rethink our cheery view of drinking alcoholic beverages. Just saying.

Evil science names II

I just discovered two strange new words in science: putrescine and cadaverine. However, these refer to molecules that are pretty much what the names sound like. Thus they are not on a par with rhinoplasty, a truly evil word invented just so people could feel badly about themselves.

T-shirt slogans

Once in a while, I come up with a pithy line that seems like it belongs on a T-shirt. Here are a few of my slogans. I want all of you to put these on T-shirts and wear them to church.

T-SHIRTS:

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I understand and I wish to continue.

Religion is hatred with a halo.

Sin. It's good, real good.

If heaven is filled with Christians, it must be avoided it all costs.

Everyone who believes in god is a traitor to mankind.

Faith is the problem, not the solution.

No matter how hard we look, there is no evidence for God. 
This is called a "clue".

"We will smear our shi_ty asses across your sky."
 Signed, The Religious Right

Just say no to god. [Alternate version: "Just say no to faith."]

There is no god.
This message brought to you by the Department of Mental Health.