Possumblog

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REDIRECT ALERT! (Scroll down past this mess if you're trying to read an archived post. Thanks. No, really, thanks.)

Due to my inability to control my temper and complacently accept continued silliness with not-quite-as-reliable-as-it-ought-to-be Blogger/Blogspot, your beloved Possumblog will now waddle across the Information Dirt Road and park its prehensile tail at http://possumblog.mu.nu.

This site will remain in place as a backup in case Munuvia gets hit by a bus or something, but I don't think they have as much trouble with this as some places do. ::cough::blogspot::cough:: So click here and adjust your links. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's one of those things.

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Sure to warm Lileks' heart is the November issue of National Geographic that arrived at my house yesterday with an article about balmy Fargo, ND.

The site above has an excerpt from the magazine article, which had a little throwaway line with the writer describing a girl he met as having a "fulsomely pregnant" belly.

I realize that there is an archaic usage that means "full", but the usage for most of the past couple of hundred years has been to denote something offensively large or digustingly overdone or lustfully wanton.

Probably not what was intended, I imagine. I know the writer probably meant "abundantly" or other such to signify the girl was really, REALLY pregnant, but it still grated my eyes to read it.

Word meanings change--after all, "awful" used to mean about the same as "awesome"--but in this instance, it would have probably been better to use something else.

I also wish they would never have started printing reader mail.

posted by Terry at 8:52:00 AM

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