Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Today in Extraordinarily Odd

The Oxford University Press’ Word of the Year this year is “locavore” which is someone that only really eats locally grown produce. A runner up to “locavore” is “tase” which is the verb of using a taser to stun someone, “upcycling” which means the transforming of waste material into something more useful (hello, we have the word “recycling” for that although I suppose “upcycling” is more global). There is a list of others including “cougar”; an older woman who seduces younger men which feels like a really old word. The lamest has got to be “aging in place” which means to grow old in your own place but, as has been the case in past years apparently no one at Oxford notices that “aging in place” is, in fact, three words (bird flu was a runner up one year). “Locavore” also sounds mildly earnest and rather Park Slope. “Tase” on the other hand is a word and, indeed, action that anyone can enjoy. It’s a sad day for the word “tase” and an unfair victory for “locavore”. [source]


After stoning two dogs to death when he caught them mating, a man named Mr. Selvakumar – apparently in India they don’t always like to use first names – was stricken with a cursed affliction. "After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear," he told the Hindustan Times. Naturally, he considered it a punishing omen from one of his many gods and now, 15 years later he’s married a dog in an official ceremony to right his wrong. Interestingly enough, I would suggest that nothing short of intense psychotherapy will ever really be able to right the wrong elements of this story. What’s the bet the guy didn’t even really kill those dogs, he just told people that so he could marry his dog. That’s what all non-Christians do. They marry animals. That’s what someone told me anyway and I can’t be bothered trying to figure it out for myself. Too much work. [source]

New York City is thinking of banning the feeding of pigeons by slapping a $1000 fine on the practice. People are arguing with full on passion on either side of the argument as you’d expect in New York. There’s also an organization that lobbies on behalf of the pigeons - I'm going to take a wild guess that they're somewhere in the East Village. But apart from the central pigeon based issue here, it seems that $1000 is the base amount for everything in New York. To buy property in Manhattan you’re looking at about $1000 per square foot, but after that, you can pop on over for a little $1000 pizza or, if it’s earlier on, the $1000 bagel. Then the prices go up to like ten thous for a martini. If you're from out of town then you should know that that’s the only martini you can buy in New York. It’s an oddly expensive town. [source]

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