340
12/19/05




Translate




Spoonerisms and Bermanisms

Two particularly fun plays on words are Spoonerisms and Bermanisms. The former is named for Reverend William Archibald Spooner who frequently said Spoonerisms without intending to say them. A Spoonerism is a slip of the tongue where consonant sounds are misplaced in a sentence. The resulting sentence often sounds funny. For example, the sentence "We must drink a toast to the dear old Queen" gets transformed into "We must drink a toast to the queer old Dean." Sounds kind of funny, huh? See if you can translate this Spoonerism into the sentence it was supposed to be:

"You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain."

Spooner said one particularly embarrassing Spoonerism when he intended to propose a toast to a pub named "The Boar's Head." I'll let you figure that one out :-)

A Bermanism is named for ESPN Sports anchor Chris Berman. Berman likes to give nicknames to different athletes during his broadcasts. The nicknames are usually in the form of clever middle names such as Wade "Cranberry" Boggs, Francisco "Umbilical" Cordova, and Bernard "Innocent Until Proven" Gilkey. Recently the fans of Jeopardy! posted Bermanisms for many well known players on the Jeopardy! Message Board. If you choose to leave a comment on this entry, create a Bermanism for yourself.

Comments
  • Justin Riddle "me this", Don "Dude you're getting a" Spidell, Ryan "Circular" Shaw
       Posted by Shaw on 12/20/05

339
12/16/05




Translate




The Good Old Days

I was sorting through some of our stuff as I was unpacking and I discovered a photo album containing pictures from a missions trip I took to Jackson, Mississippi with the PCNP Youth Group in 1998. This photo should bring back memories of the good old days when you could get a gallon of gas for less than a buck:

Comments
  • Those were the days! I remember paying $0.89 a gallon during '98. That was awesome. I could drive all over for next to nothing. I don't think we'll ever see that again. We'll be lucky, at this point, to see gas go to $1.75 ever again.
       Posted by Jon on 12/16/05

  • Wow, that was only 1998? *sigh*
       Posted by Josiah Ritchie on 12/16/05

  • I seen gas for 1.73 about a month ago.
       Posted by Big Ohn on 12/20/05

338
12/15/05




Translate




Hot Internet Models

Oh, yeah, Amanda and and I are a couple of hot internet models...heh. I realized recently that 2 of our wedding photos appear on the website of our wedding photographer. I'm not sure that putting my pic on a photographer's website will generate much business, but I can see why they'd want Amanda's pic on there. (Awwww...) Our pics are numbers 22 and 23 in the Flash-driven slideshow.

Comments
  • I dated the girl in pic 20
       Posted by Big Ohn on 12/20/05

337
12/14/05




Translate




Hook me up with some oil

Our new house (new to us, that is) has oil heat. It came with a 275 gallon tank that was 2/3 full. Today I looked into securing us some more oil when the time comes. I thought it would be as simple as calling up the oil people and saying, "Hey, we need some oil!" Then the truck would come, we'd pay, and that's it until the next time we're running low. Well, some oil companies are very sophisticated. Some offer automatic deliveries where they just keep coming by with oil to make sure you always have a full tank. Some companies offer guaranteed pricing where you pay a fee and there is a cap put on how much you'll pay for oil. If the prices goes above your cap, you don't pay extra. Heating oil prices fluctuate over the course of the year, though not as much as gasoline.

Anyway, I called four places asking for rate quotes. The lowest I got was $2.289, but that company was not accepting any new customers. Great. Then I called a big name oil company with a fancy website and dedicated "sales consultants." Their price was $2.459. But, for $50, you can set a cap on your price at $2.999. Eventually I called a place called "Peggy's Oil Company" and got a rate of $2.329. We're not signing up for auto-delivery at the moment. We'll see how much oil we use and go from there.

I had a hard time finding charts and graphs of last year oil prices. I am interested to know when the peak prices ususally occur and how the prices trend throughout the year. I know that past prices are no indication of future prices, but they may give a good enough idea.

We've been enjoying using the woodstove as a supplemental heat source. I'm learning how to keep fires within certain temperature ranges to minimize creosote buildup and to reduce the risk of chimney fires. Happy Cold Weather!

Comments
  • Think about the demand for heating oil. Prices will go up when demand is high, and down when demand is low. Demand goes up from Fall into late winter/early spring. Demand is lowest in early summer usually.
       Posted by Joe on 12/16/05

  • Don, my dad always prepays for his oil sometime in May or June for the next winter. That is usually a good way to save money, sometimes as much as $0.50 a gallon. As for this winter, you'll just have to keep calling different places to get the best price. Good luck and, once again, congrats on the new house!
       Posted by Jon on 12/16/05

336
12/09/05




Translate




Happy Winter Holiday?!

Every year the issue of what to wish people and what to call the season during the month of December resurfaces. It can be a sensitive subject to some people. In an effort to be "inclusive" of people who don't celebrate Christmas, nearly all of the TV commercials advertising sales during this time never use the word Christmas. It's always a "Holiday Sale" featuring "holiday bargains" and special "holiday prices" on "holiday merchandise." Municicpalities put up "holiday trees" in their public places. "Holiday music" is played on the radio and "holiday specials" are shown on TV. At the risk of offending someone, I feel that the word "holiday" has lost all meaning. Perhaps that's the point.

I used to work at a grocery store as a cashier. I used to unapologetically wish people "Merry Christmas" after I completed their order. I never got one negative response. If I knew a customer who was Jewish, I would not say "Merry Christmas" to them, but there was no way I'd not say it to anyone just in case I'd offend someone. I feel that it's rather impersonal and too generic to just say "Happy Holidays" to someone you know. If you really know them, wouldn't you know which holiday they celebrate?

Here is a story about a man from Nova Scotia who donated a Christmas tree to Massachusetts. He was miffed that officials in Boston dropped the word "Christmas" from the name "Christmas tree." The donor said that if he had known that it would be called a "holiday tree" he'd rather have it fed to a wood chipper! That's funny stuff. He also said that calling a Christmas tree a "holiday tree" is a bit like calling a Menorah a candlestick. That's a great analogy.

While Christmas is, first and foremost, a celebration of Christ's birth, people should be free to celebrate or not celebrate it as such. Just don't reduce it to the lowest common denominator and call it just a holiday. While it's important for people who celebrate Christmas to make sure that Christ isn't removed from Christmas, it is important not to shove that agenda down people's throats. What good does it do to sue cities that try to secularize Christmas? How is that spreading the good news of Christ's birth? That wouldn't convince me to become a Christian and celebrate Christmas.

Comments
  • Yeah I agree, I certainly don't mind if people whom know one another wish each other merry christmas, frankly it's none of my business. I am not a believer, but I still say it to those who are, or who, for other reasons celebrate christmas even if it's not because of a religious belief. Stores and such not created by tax dollars should be free to use what ever vernacular they wish, but I would be the first one boycotting and screaming a fit if they started using one holiday at the exclusion of others....but they have the right :) Merry first Christmas in the new house Don!
       Posted by Nathan on 12/14/05

If you are DonnySpi, you can enter a blog entry here.

Although the administrator of this site attempts to keep all objectionable comments off of this blog, it is not guaranteed that will happen. All comments are the express view of the author of the message and not those of Don Spidell. Don Spidell, the administrator and owner of www.donnyspi.com, will not be held responsible for the content of any comment.