Words and then some

The headline on the top of the front page of yesterday's Boston Globe said - Red Sox Hammer Orioles Pitching in 14-8 Victory. Guys, the Red Sox pitchers gave up eight runs. That's not a way to make the case that the other team's pitching stunk, even if Baltimore gave out more bases-on-balls than the Easter Bunny gives out eggs . Last night Curt Schilling threw a brilliant game and the Sox won 2-1.

We made a quick trip to the Cape yesterday with Sandra's parents to Scott, Val, and Russell's house. Along the way we passed signs urging us to vote Blank for Town Moderator. The occasion was the celebration of Woody's birthday, which we'll celebrate on the official date later this week. It was cloudy and cool all day. Sleet mixed in with the heavy rain from Franklin down to about Taunton.

We had a wonderful gathering and feast. Scott cooked meats from various animals on the grill in the garage. Others brought salads and cakes and pie, oh, my. Val is due to deliver twins in a few weeks, so we had good fun speculating about names. Sandra had researched names of twins in their family's lineage; the list sparked a whole new line of discussion.

On the way home, Sandra and her mother sang in delightful harmony. They sang rounds, old hymns, a couple of Christmas carols, several songs that shared the lyrics "dee-dee-dum-deedly-dee," and the jingle from the Ipana toothpaste commercials. It was fine and fun music.

A few notes on language:

• Can someone please tell me why the word 'kidney' shows up when I search thesaurus.com for the synonyms of the word 'description'?
  
  "Yes, ma'am. We will catch the perpetrator. Now, can you give me a kidney?"
  
  
• Words get hijacked often, taken from their original context and used in new and often incorrect (and even ironic) ways. Factoid, for example, was a word coined by Norman Mailer to describe the facts that he made up when writing a biography of Marilyn Monroe and used extensively in The Executioner's Song. Mailer himself described a factoid as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper". [1] Factoid is almost always used now to describe a tidbit of news. The speaker or writer is typically unaware that a factoid is something that isn't true, but was made up to make the narrative flow better.
• Meanwhile, we read that Air France is trialing cell phones in flight. (Google found more that 600,000 occurrences of that word.)
• The New York Times has an article (free registration required) about the new words that we've needed to describe the technologies and activities of current-day work.
  

Would you want your chiropractor to treat you by going back to the time when your injury occurred or by treating you telepathically? Me, neither.

There is a video of Yoko Ono on stage while audience members came up and cut off pieces of her clothing with scissors. I watched so you don't have to.

Our tax dollars at work. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has a kids' web page where the young'uns can learn what they need to know about trademark law. There are age-appropriate activities, such as a trip to the USPTO museum.

Sandra and her mother were wondering if there were any hymns specific to Palm Sunday. The Pope might know and he might even be listening to them on his iPod.