Geek off!

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Much Ado About Nothing was first performed in the year 1600. Beavis and Buttheads of the time snickered, because "nothing" was sometimes used as slang for sexuality. As was "wit," a word oft-used in the play. Some scholars think, too, that the word "nothing" was chosen because it was so close to the word "noting," an activity that strings the play together. (Others --including myself-- think this interpretation is silly, since Twelfth Night usese notes even more.)

Neville Longbottom has been using his father's wand for the whole of his time at Hogwarts so far. He hasn't had a lot of success. We were told early on that each wand chooses the wizard. Neville's wand broke at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I wonder what will happen when Neville is finally chosen by a wand of his own?

JK Rowling gets very close to revealing important information, but will always interrupt the question or conversation that is about to occur right before that information is revealed. This was only initially recognized in hindsite. (Hey! If he wasn't interrupted, he would have found out the truth about Hagrid's expulsion right away! and so on.) Now that the trick is known, you can keep an eye out for interruptions, as invariably, they are important clues. The only notable interruption in Order of the Phoenix was when Harry asked Snape why he called Voldemort "the dark lord" when Harry'd only heard death eaters call him that. Oop! Interruption before the answer. In a side note, there is one other person who has used "the dark lord" before-- Ginny, during her stint in Voldemort's sway, called Harry "the hero who conquered the dark lord" in her Valentine poem.

Read your insurance policy closely. Often times the fatcats at your preferred (or designated) company will sneak in hidden fees or limits for certain procedures. For instance, many policies feature an annual cap on durable medical equipment (hearing aids, prosthetics, CPAP machines for nighttime breathing) that is about $2000. One CPAP alone can run you $2000, so you'd better not also be a one-legged deaf man with sleep apnea. Or you'd better get supplemental insurance.

It is rumored-- but not proven-- that Orson Welles went to Steven Spielberg for funding for his final picture. Spielberg refused him.

Alexander Payne used leitmotifs in "Election" which include requent images and references to garbage and fruit.

[Claire]

Hey now now.....I'm a teacher who reads incessantly...but I'm sure you're talking about a certain teacher in particular, Ponine. And fractions....gotta say I didn't learn them in school. I learned them at Nordstrom during sales. And that's how I've taught fractions to my old two--in the real world, usually involving pizza. The schools teach fractions in a crap way.

Hhhmmm.....my useless knowledge....comes from Tiger Beat and Bop and 16 circa 1984.

Okay. Here's the cast of The Outsiders:

C. Thomas Howell was Pony Boy Curtis (the C stands for Christopher...named after his dad who was a successful stunt man in the movies. Tommy Howell's first movie was E.T. He was handpicked off the set....his dad was working on E.T.....by Steven Spielberg. He played one of the older brothers friends--was in the poker scene at the beginning and then on the bikes later on.)
Rob Lowe was Soda Pop
Patrick Swayze was Darry
Leif Garrett was.....Bob? Can't remember, but he died.
Diane Lane was Sherry (Cherry) Valance
Matt Dillon was Dallas
Ralph Macchio was Johnny
Tom Cruise was Steve
Emilio Estevez was Two Bit (love the Mickey shirt!)
Darren Dalton was Randy the Soc

I jonesed for all these guys at one point or another in my adolescence. I used to have a mental imdb of every single freaking movie all of them have been in, together and separately. For example, Tommy Howell and Patrick Swayze were in Grandview USA together (Jennifer Jason Leigh was in that and The Hitcher with Tommy Howell). They were also in Red Dawn, with Darren Dalton and Charlie Sheen, Emilio's brother. And Patrick Swayze was in Dirty Dancing with Jennifer Grey who was in Red Dawn. Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze were also in Youngblood together. And Rob Lowe and Jennifer Grey were in a crappy French Cinderella movie that I watched FAR too many times in high school.

Man...if I morphed into the random people in the John Hughes movies or any of the John Cusack movies.....this could go on all day.

And any mistakes are because of my aged brain.

[mousepod]

some music stuff:

he Looney Tunes theme is called "The Merry Go Round Broke Down" - Daffy Duck sings a special version of it in his first appearance.

"Minnie's Yoo Hoo" is the only song for which Walt Disney got a writing credit.

Frank Sinatra used to sing the Beatles' "Something" at live concerts and credit it to Lennon & McCartney. The song was written by George Harrison.

Louis Jordan was stabbed by his wife. In bed. And lived.

Hüsker Dü means "can you remember"

Bobby Darin sings the theme for "That Darn Cat" but his version is not on any of the official soundtrack releases.

Jim Carroll was holding the tape recorder when the Velvet Underground's "Live at Max's Kansas City" was recorded.

[libraryvixen]

I, too, know chunks of the Dewey. My favorites are Travel (917 area), Art History (early 700s) and Chicken Soup for the Soul (158.128).

Early firehouses had spiral staircases so that the horses pulling the fire wagons couldn't walk up the stairs to the sleeping quarters.


The dot above the lowercase letter "I" is called a tittle.

[mousepod]

"/" is a virgule

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

A trichinobezoar is an extreme hairball that can be found in the stomach or intestines. Some people have to have them surgically removed. Hair is indigestible (which explains why cats spit of hairballs). It was once believed that bezoars could act as universal antidote to any poison.

Bluestocking means a woman with scholarly or literary interests. The name came from The Blue Stocking Society, nickname for a mostly female literary club in 18th Century London. Don’t know much about the club, but I came across the word in Vanity Fair.

According to Scientific American, parallel universes are real. I hope SA is right. Cause that's disturbing and cool.

[Claire]

I have some weird favorite body parts. Like the epiglottis. It's just so fascinating. I touch mine sometimes and it retracts...makes me gag of course, but it's just so darn cool, the functionality of it. I also am fond of my uvula, but I've never tried to touch it. It looks fragile all hangy dangy back there in my mouth. My sister is obsessed with her puncta, which is that little gland/pore thing in your inner eye. Are you touching yours? I'm touching mine. I also adore a good medulla oblongata. They turn me on.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

I'm folding. I feel like I'm being virtually surrounded by a bunch of brainiacs much brainier than I am.

I'm going back to picking at my belly button lint and daydreaming about having sex with Alaskan crab fisherman. And then eating a lot of crab afterwards.

[Morrigoon]

Every good geek-off needs a link to a site where people post pictures of building computers into strange objects - like 5-litre Molson beer cans, boxes made of Legos, cigar humidors, and um... old computers http://mini-itx.com/projects/atari800/

[Prudence]

"Immaculate conception" refers to Mary being born free from the original sin normally passed from parent to off-spring as a result of the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden; it is not synonmous with "virgin birth."

Those funny english words like "knife" and "gnat"? They used to be pronounced like they're spelled. "What" and "where" used to be "hwaet" and "hwere."

People in the "middle ages" did not uses spices to disguise spoiled meat. 1) spices were enormously expensive. More so than buying fresh meat. 2) do you think that medieval people could eat spoiled meat and not get sick any more than you could?

I used to be intimately familiar with the Dewey sections for cookbooks, travel, and biology. (I used to shelve books.)

I have pre-1600 recipes for: french toast, pancakes, fried cheese sticks, and ravioli.