Redefining misanthropy for a fresh generation. Standard posts begin with a definition from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary followed by a modern adjustment. Miscellany on Wednesday and storytelling on Saturday.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Nonsense
NONSENSE, n. The objections that are urged against this excellent dictionary.
2006 Update: The first draft of a speech or the second of prophesy.
Nonsense: Expecting music but instead waking up to the screaming bleeps of the Emergency Broadcast System and being warned about the flashing of some dude named Ernesto. *stretches, yawns* Oh, heh, silly me! Seems we're under a tornado and flash flood warning thanks to tropical storm Ernesto.
"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities." ~Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
Speaking of nonsense, I just wanted to let you know that the blog of your former rival for Pansi's affections whom you mentioned the other day is not defunct.
dear Joel, I am reading you are supposed to be given special rabbit on this wonderful Friday, hope you like it fried with honey, beer and parsley, I think it smells like heaven...
Was away for a few days, Doug and now I'm BACK!! You won't believe what happened. Wait! I'll blog later at my blog and you tell me what you think. But of course, I'll email you all details later, dear friend :) Take care.
Nonsense: The list is long. Here goes:
1. Almost everything your boss tell you. 2. The idea of everlasting happiness. 3. Having a job from hell for some pennies at the end of the month. 4. Skinny girls (grrrr!) and oh, dieting!! 5. Paris Hilton.
Minka, that's a scandalous rumor and I'll thank you not to repeat it.
Brian, the blog has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
Weirsdo, thanks for yours.
Puppybrose, let's just hope age takes his hearing before his teeth.
Sar, if you don't have a coffee pot, I'd call emergency services.
Puppybrose, someone should start Waking Theodor.
Minka, that sounds so like you. Have you ever written on another topic?
Ariel, so how is it different from wisdom?
True, Solace, and yet original sin and hypochondria are eternal.
CJ, how do you think you sound to him (or her?)
Old Mule, that or not enough votes.
Weirsdo, didn't he change to a new site, though? I thought I got an email about a year back.
Ariel, that does sound good. I bet Walela would like it a lot.
A schoolteacher, for instance, Quilldancer? What's the second #1 rule again?
Sophisticated, I look forward to your news. It sounds like you're saying a reasonable person would ignore the boss, eat chocolate truffles, get paid lavishly for doing so and keep their sex life off-camera. That's hard to argue with, even for a boss.
NONSENSE, n. American money after it loses the penny.
Did you know that pennies made before 1986 each contain more than two cents worth of copper? (Nonsense rules, as does the shattering noise of piggy banks being mined for precious metals.)
Thank you one and all for the wonderful birthday wishes but to make such a fuss over the likes of me is utter nonsense! Just another year closer to that AARP membership and discounted insurance - yipee!
Happy Birthday Joel! Make sure to indulge yourself in a little nonsense today. Doug: "eye on the sparrow"...am I mistaken or did you just quote the theme to Baretta?
Logo, I bet it's nice to listen to that line over candles.
Mutha, I meant to quote a century-old hymn but I'll accept the theme from Baretta, too. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
TLP, or a platypus joke.
Mutha, it's also underrated as a management technique and a political platform.
Miz B, to respond to both your comments directed at me, my best ever use of the word "conejo" was in response to a Mexican's question as to what I wanted to do with my life. I told him "Viver en una cueva y comer conejos." That was almost 20 years ago and it's only gotten truer because my dogs agree.
Yes Doug - T.O. was a bucolic town when I lived there. A suitable place for rabbits. RABBIT RABBIT. Alas, of late it has assumed the larger, overgrown (overgroan) purportions of a crowded urban suburb, and it would be nonsense to relocate down there.
Doug -- my three #1 rules are not nonsense. Number two was penned my first year teaching after a little girl named Erika enlightened me to the necessity of having such a rule.
o ceallaigh -- cwningen, cwningen -- I thought you were singing an old John Anderson favorite ....
television: middle-aged men in suits are sitting around a table discussing how to explain this or that line of that great Hungarian poet, and what did the poet tried to say when wrote this or that. there's one with more sense than the rest, though.
"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?" ~Alice in Wonderland
Happy Birthday Bobo and I am hearing this nonsense of you getting older...
ReplyDeleteanything to it?
Other people's opinions.
ReplyDeleteNonsense: the dismissal of silliness (i.e. "I feel old, Honey." "Nonsense! Now put in your teeth and eat your oatmeal.")
ReplyDeletewhat can you expect from someone who has yet to partake of her favored form of caffeine?? nonsense is what you ask, and nonsense is what you get.
Happy Birthday to the brilliant and ever-so-patient Bobo, a man who's put up with my nonsense for over 21 years!
Happy Birthday Joel!
ReplyDeleteNonsense: Expecting music but instead waking up to the screaming bleeps of the Emergency Broadcast System and being warned about the flashing of some dude named Ernesto. *stretches, yawns* Oh, heh, silly me! Seems we're under a tornado and flash flood warning thanks to tropical storm Ernesto.
Got coffee?
"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities." ~Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
ReplyDeleteRabbit, Rabbit!
"Supercalifragilisticexpialedocious"
ReplyDeleteand everybody...................!
Nonsense is always the best of fun, isn't it?
In my linguistic studies at university I wrote an essay about this word, my professor said it was lovely nonsense :)
nonsense changes from day to day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with ariel... nonsense changes... what's nonsense today becomes the beliefs of thousands of rather silly-looking scientists tomorrow.
ReplyDeletenonsense: The jibber jabber that comes out of my 11 month old's mouth especially during the middle of the night.
ReplyDeleteHave a great holiday weekend everyone!
Speaking of nonsense, I just wanted to let you know that the blog of your former rival for Pansi's affections whom you mentioned the other day is not defunct.
ReplyDeleteand what did you say the link is...?
ReplyDeletedear Joel, I am reading you are supposed to be given special rabbit on this wonderful Friday, hope you like it fried with honey, beer and parsley, I think it smells like heaven...
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!
nonsense: n. a plain of existance occupied primarily by children and the adults they hold captive
ReplyDeleteWas away for a few days, Doug and now I'm BACK!! You won't believe what happened. Wait! I'll blog later at my blog and you tell me what you think. But of course, I'll email you all details later, dear friend :) Take care.
ReplyDeleteNonsense: The list is long. Here goes:
1. Almost everything your boss tell you.
2. The idea of everlasting happiness.
3. Having a job from hell for some pennies at the end of the month.
4. Skinny girls (grrrr!) and oh, dieting!!
5. Paris Hilton.
Dare I go on? :)
Minka, that's a scandalous rumor and I'll thank you not to repeat it.
ReplyDeleteBrian, the blog has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
Weirsdo, thanks for yours.
Puppybrose, let's just hope age takes his hearing before his teeth.
Sar, if you don't have a coffee pot, I'd call emergency services.
Puppybrose, someone should start Waking Theodor.
Minka, that sounds so like you. Have you ever written on another topic?
Ariel, so how is it different from wisdom?
True, Solace, and yet original sin and hypochondria are eternal.
CJ, how do you think you sound to him (or her?)
Old Mule, that or not enough votes.
Weirsdo, didn't he change to a new site, though? I thought I got an email about a year back.
Ariel, that does sound good. I bet Walela would like it a lot.
A schoolteacher, for instance, Quilldancer? What's the second #1 rule again?
Sophisticated, I look forward to your news. It sounds like you're saying a reasonable person would ignore the boss, eat chocolate truffles, get paid lavishly for doing so and keep their sex life off-camera. That's hard to argue with, even for a boss.
NONSENSE, n. American money after it loses the penny.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that pennies made before 1986 each contain more than two cents worth of copper? (Nonsense rules, as does the shattering noise of piggy banks being mined for precious metals.)
:)
baah baah and the bluebird of hipponess, Joel.
ReplyDeleteMinka, Minka! And Happy Birthday to Joel!
ReplyDeletenonsense:the quantum way to live, physics for dummies, What the Bleep do We Know?, closer to the truth than we could ever guess.
xoxo
Thank you one and all for the wonderful birthday wishes but to make such a fuss over the likes of me is utter nonsense! Just another year closer to that AARP membership and discounted insurance - yipee!
ReplyDeleteO Ceallaigh, it makes more sense when you consider the multiplication effect of currency.
ReplyDeleteMireille, we know perfume, by golly!
Joel, we keep our eye on the sparrow.
Flashback to a former life,
ReplyDelete"If the literal sense makes good sense seek no other sense lest you get nonsense."
too bad "good sense" is just a subjective measure.
Oh, and Happy Birthday, Joel!
ReplyDeleteRabbit rabbit
Happy Birthday Joel! Make sure to indulge yourself in a little nonsense today.
ReplyDeleteDoug: "eye on the sparrow"...am I mistaken or did you just quote the theme to Baretta?
Rabbit rabbit!
ReplyDeleteHappy day Joel.
Nonsense: A platypus.
Nonsense: a highly under-rated art form. See playing, making up songs in the car, and wearing things that are not hats on your head.
ReplyDeleteNonsense... the title of "early onset curmudgeon"... I DON'T BUY IT!
ReplyDeleteHappy, happy to one fab amigo Joel!
Oh hermano! Conejo, conejo was brilliant!
smlic~ Sam Licks!
bless him!
ReplyDeleteRabid, Rabbit
ReplyDeleteRabbit Rabbit
ReplyDeleteSkunk Skunk
Groundhog Groundhog
Rain Rain Rain Rain ...
Hey, bulldoooooog
ReplyDeleteLogo, I bet it's nice to listen to that line over candles.
ReplyDeleteMutha, I meant to quote a century-old hymn but I'll accept the theme from Baretta, too. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
TLP, or a platypus joke.
Mutha, it's also underrated as a management technique and a political platform.
Miz B, to respond to both your comments directed at me, my best ever use of the word "conejo" was in response to a Mexican's question as to what I wanted to do with my life. I told him "Viver en una cueva y comer conejos." That was almost 20 years ago and it's only gotten truer because my dogs agree.
Sam, Ariel? I hear he's on tour.
Artist, Artist, Mo'a.
eensy weensy spider, Dddragon dddragon.
Excellent example, Ariel.
Thousand Oaks, Terry? Pretty spot.
Nonsense: The foundation of my life.
ReplyDeleteYes Doug - T.O. was a bucolic town when I lived there. A suitable place for rabbits. RABBIT RABBIT. Alas, of late it has assumed the larger, overgrown (overgroan) purportions of a crowded urban suburb, and it would be nonsense to relocate down there.
ReplyDeleteIt's all otter nonsense.
ReplyDeleteOr is it just udderly ridiculous? Maybe I milked this pun for all it's worth.
one of my *all* time favorte bits of snicker-snack nonsense:
ReplyDelete"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
~ Lewis Carroll ("The Jabberwocky")
oh, as for Waking Theodor? i *like* it!
Yes, Doug all that sounds reasonable to me :D *sigh* Check out my blog, Doug till I email you :)
ReplyDeleteOh hermano! Nonsense!
ReplyDeleteCwningen, cwningen.
ReplyDeleteEverybody say what?!?
Cwningen. A Welsh rabbit, of course. See PIZZA WITH ANCHOVIES. And sleep well.
Well? Did you desire nonsense or not?
:)
Rabbit, rabbit! If it weren't for nonsense I'd have no sense at all.
ReplyDeleteSame old site. I think it changed name about a year ago.
ReplyDeleteSame old site. I think it changed name about a year ago.
ReplyDeleteMirelle, so exited about seeing me! How did I deserve such attention? It was my wet flipper wasn't it?
ReplyDeletepuppytoes, that little jibber jabber is soemthign a German at leats could pronounce :)
nonsense - Just about anything you read on a blog (present company excluded of course).
ReplyDeleteDoug -- my three #1 rules are not nonsense. Number two was penned my first year teaching after a little girl named Erika enlightened me to the necessity of having such a rule.
ReplyDeleteo ceallaigh -- cwningen, cwningen --
I thought you were singing an old John Anderson favorite ....
nonsense -- a grown man named, G Dubya
Jamie Dawn, and it flatters you.
ReplyDeleteTerry, it kind of filled up with Amgen and, I am told, adult film stars. I'm not sure which makes it crowded.
TLP, Moove on.
Brian, I think the Jackals are dancing and the owls wearing pants already. The rest looks prophetic, though.
Puppybrose, thanks for volunteering.
Sophisticated Writer, you and Square Girl. I'm sure I don't put anything in the water.
Hermana, nunca!
O Ceallaigh, according to Bierce that's a rarebit.
Aral, there's always absence.
Thanks, Weirsdo. I guess I haven't been since I won the posthumous date with Pansi.
Minka, Mireille seems to have confused a penguin with a rabbit. At least her nose works.
How's about duckfur, Actonbell?
Poobah, of course.
Quilldancer, Wild and Blue?
television: middle-aged men in suits are sitting around a table discussing how to explain this or that line of that great Hungarian poet, and what did the poet tried to say when wrote this or that. there's one with more sense than the rest, though.
ReplyDeleteThe cogent arguments of another dimension.
ReplyDeleteDoug, I gave the ex- custody of the country music in the divorce, but somethings can never be purged from the memory.
ReplyDeleteAriel, you tempt me to crack wise about Hungarian poetry but I'll restrain.
ReplyDeleteComfort Addict, good to see you back.
Quilldancer, I'm sure he needs it more than you do.
"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"
ReplyDelete~Alice in Wonderland
i'm a fan of nonsense.