Here a monk, there a monk, everywhere a monk, monk

Technorati Tags: Benedictine Order,Townhall.com,Monks,Penises,Parents,Euphemisms

Apropos of absolutely very little, The Muckroom over at Townhalldotcom features an anti-choice article which uses a Benedictine order as a platform.

The article references an ad by the monastery which queries “Got Monks?”

My parents, Dear Gentle Reader(s), for reasons which I never questioned, when discussing…um…privates with my brothers and myself, referred to the penis as a monk.

How many times I heard some variation of “Wash your monk,” “Did you wash your monk?” “Be sure to…” is lost to the ages; but it was at least once a day until I was old enough, and trained well enough, not to have to be asked or reminded.

I’d never seen the Benedictine ad (which was designed as a recruiting tool—no pun intended—for the Order), but the answer to the question is “No.” 

Plural penises?  Ridiculous.

Reasoning out parental euphemisms?  Impossible.

Writing about Monks/monks?  Quite fun, actually.

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Ya gotta love…

Technorati Tags: Orbitz,American Express,BBC Ameica,Jamaica

…the Orbitz commercial with the hovercraft (is that what they call those things which fly over land?) guy greeting “The Hernandez..es..es..” 

Perfectly captures the American problem with plurals of names ending in the “s” or “z” sounds.

On the other hand, American Express and BBCAmerica show and have their names associated with an ad for Jamaica—possibly the most homophobic country in the Western Hemisphere.

Ah, well.

With joy comes sorrow.

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From Whence?

Technorati Tags: TNR,Michael Crowley,President Obama,Nobel Peace Prize,language

Well, Dear Gentle Reader(s), it didn’t take the nay-sayers much time to toss their little water balloons at President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

One of the many amusements attendant on their usual divertissements, is the way they use the language.

Take this example, from the on-line presentation of TNR:  from whence it comes.

Even though cited as used by Graham Greene, from whence is redundant.  It’s more “green” to say “whence it comes” since the definition of whence includes from.

Save ink, bytes, paper, and energy.  Learn the nuances of the language.  It’s patriotic.

Oh, and congrats to President Obama for the Prize and for the very nice speech at the White House Rose Garden this morning.

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Good luck with that

Technorati Tags: Afthanistan,Britain,New York Times,Taliban

It seems, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that there is some faith in the eventual success of NATO (read: U.S.) bringing some sort of democratized stability to Afghanistan.

The New York Times reports that British authorities have returned some 2,000 artifacts of Afghanistan’s history to Afghanistan’s National Museum.

Now, if Britain will step up and help NATO (see supra) secure the political situation in Afghanistan so those treasures will be safeguarded against a Taliban return to power, all will be truly well.

Yeah.  Well…

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