Short List: Songs about Meeting New People You Just Can't Use Right Now

1. Nice to Meet You Anyway - Gavin DeGraw

2. If I Ever Feel Better- Phoenix

Free Rice Evidence

Free Rice is a great site where you can take endless vocabulary tests!

If you don't like vocabulary, you can take everlasting multiple choice tests on Art, Chemistry, Geography, Language Learning, and Math. Every time you get an answer right, the site donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme. It is so good.

The other day, a certain person I was speaking with asked me what my highest level was, and I said 48 out of 60, which I was not sure was true. It lead to terrible confessions about me being a liar all the time, which is a fact. So I played on Free Rice this evening until it was true. This is my screenshoot proof.

Songs I Could Sing at Karaoke From Hell

Karaoke From Hell is something that happens at Tiger Bar and Dante's where you sing karaoke in front of a live band. I have looked at their extensive song list, and these are the songs I believe I could pull off. This list is for me for later for reference.

The Band – The Weight (but better with harmony)
Beatles – Honey Pie
Pat Benatar - Heartbreaker
Elvis Costello – Peace Love and Understanding
Cream – Sunshine of Your Love (but better with harmony)
Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him?
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - I Hate Myself for Loving You
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time
Peggy Lee – Big Spender
Peggy Lee - Fever
Roy Orbison – You Got It
Pixies – Where is My Mind?
Tracy Bonham - Mother, Mother
Traveling Wilburys – Handle Me With Care

#11

Epic Redemption!

You'll get your comics in a bit, nerdlies.

This is a story about spelling bees. Story about good, story about bad.

In 8th grade I got out in on 'camouflage' but I didn't feel so bad because the 7th graders got the word list but we didn't but I was still a threat and I ended in 2nd place.

In college, I got out on 'dilapidated' and ended in 3rd place, and I got a UP license plate. (I would have won if I had gotten it right, because my next word was 'bauxite' and his next word was 'accouchement' and the 3rd guy was not a threat.)

Two weeks ago, I got out on the first round word 'dairy.' SHHHHHHHH.

THIS WEEK

This week I had fanbase and housemates and friends and my goodness my Guinness I was sure I would get out soon if not immediately. But then!

Round One: foreign
Round Two: lozenge
Round Three: umpirage
Round Four: emanometer (I got out on it. BUT SO DID EVERYONE ELSE. The entire 10+ people all got their words wrong, so we all came back.)
Round Four: quagga
Round Five: crwth (this round narrows it down to two)
Round Six: kakorrhaphiophobia (I got that one wrong but she was wrong too)
Round Six: prosopagnosia (I got that one wrong but she was wrong too)
Round Five: teosinte (I got it wrong, she got gentileness right, she wins)

FINAL RESULTS:
THIS FIDGETY GIRL WINS SECOND PLACE!!


(2nd place prize is a $5 gift certificate to Mississippi Pizza)
(3rd place prize is you're fired)

Short List: Songs in Which Cupid Uses Modern Warfare and Tactics

1. Happy Valentine's Day - Outkast

2. Geek in the Pink - Jason Mraz

3. LoveGame - Lady Gaga

4. Cupid's Chokehold - Gym Class Heroes

Insignificant Linguistics Mystery: Quizás

The other day the word 'quizás' came up at my office. It means 'maybe' in Spanish. The 'z' is pronounced lightly, like an 's' in Spanish. I tricked someone into letting me think aloud about where the word might come from. This is that story.

Quizás is 1/3rd of the repetitive title of the famous Nat King Cole song, "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás." This song is remarkable for two reasons. First of all, Nat King Cole does not speak Spanish, he enunciates Spanish. It's a hilarious song to listen to because every single syllable is brought into the spotlight, when it should really be rushed past as a schwa. "es-tas pear-dee-en-dow ell tee-emm-po, pain-san-do, pain-san-do." Secondly, I first knew about this song in English, 'Perhaps,' as sung by Cake. The lyrics are similar, but the Spanish one seems a little simplified. That phonetic line above is translated as "You are losing time, thinking, thinking." In English that part is "If you can't make your mind up, we'll never get started." Anyway, I like listening to the Cake song, and making fun of the NKC (do people say that?) version.

So the word. At the time I was thinking it was either directly from Latin (because it looks like quiddity: 'whatness'), or Basque from the Latin, because it reminds me so much of 'izquierda' and 'zurda' which are two fantastic Basque loan words meaning 'directional left' and 'left-handed,' respectively. These words were brought in to Spanish because the Latin offering for talking about things on the left is 'sinister' which brings with it evil suspicious untrustworthy connotations that are not necessary when just trying to give directions. (The word for right is 'derecha,' very close to it's Latin 'directus.')

So I was hoping 'quizás' would also be in that fun category of 'Basque loan words' and I came home and looked through the index of Ralph Penny's excellent book "The History of the Spanish Language." I've done several presentations in Spanish classes about the history of Spanish, and Penny's book is my number one resource for detail and examples of how every little word got into Spanish.

Quizás is not listed in the index. :(

So this morning, I decided to try the internet. I don't have any go-to Spanish etymology websites (unlike English where I prefer etymonline and wordnik) so I just googled "Spanish etymology quizás." It turns out that Wiktionary pages for Spanish words give the word origin when they can. Awesome. It says there that 'quizás' comes from 'quizá' which comes from the two-word Latin phrase, "qui sapit' meaning "who knows?"

Now having learned the real story, I don't feel bad for not guessing it. Over time, naturally lazy tongues have eroded away the back of the word, so the clues to the common root 'saber' in Spanish or 'sapere' in Latin, is gone, and the 'qui' at the beginning did not lead me to focusing on a 'someone,' just that it was ultimately from Latin.

Mystery solved!