Sequestrate

SEQUESTRATE, v. A legal term for robbing the under dog in the fight.

2009 Update: To privilege with quarantine, isolation or inaccessibility, as a bank fund.

(or on a boat) Happy birthday to Tan Lucy Pez and to Terry.

The Reformation of Wolfshausen

Teil Sieben-Und Vierzig

To hear this week's reading, click on the cat in the window.

To read this week's episode, come to the towers of Elizabethskirche.

The story so far is here.

Tzetze (or Tsetse) Fly

TZETZE (or TSETSE) FLY, n. An African insect (Glossina morsitans) whose bite is commonly regarded as nature's most efficacious remedy for insomnia, though some patients prefer that of the American novelist (Mendax interminabilis).

2009 Update: A large fly native to sub-saharan Africa, principally known for spreading somnolence among vertebrates and alacrity among crossword puzzle solvers.

Turkey

TURKEY, n. A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating.

2009 Update: A creature that, by domestication, caging and overfeeding has evolved from a wild fowl into a symbol for American gratitude and ambition. The turkey retains enough power of flight to avoid a "flightless" description but not enough to avoid a recipe.

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans, foreign and domestic.

Gratitude in Odd Years

Given two knees to bend in prayer

And two lips with which to shape the air

Two hands to fold, two eyes to close-

So evenly appreciation shows.

For gratitude's an even state,

A grace to grace reciprocate,

A gift that we give in reflection

Of fortune smiling our direction.

The fourth Thursday in November

We appoint the day that we'll remember

Over second servings, to raise some cheer

For blessings we received this year.

How puzzling, then, the mystery-

That troubles come ennumbered three

And juggling, each of us must labor

To praise all those that plague our neighbor.

And so since we pray annually,

And count our blessings manually,

Some ambivalence is fine

For thanksgiving given in aught-nine.

ODD, adj. Indivisible by two, as a second portion.

Trinity

TRINITY, n. In the multiplex theism of certain Christian churches, three entirely distinct deities consistent with only one. Subordinate deities of the polytheistic faith, such as devils and angels, are not dowered with the power of combination, and must urge individually their claims to adoration and propitiation. The Trinity is one of the most sublime mysteries of our holy religion. In rejecting it because it is incomprehensible, Unitarians betray their inadequate sense of theological fundamentals. In religion we believe only what we do not understand, except in the instance of an intelligible doctrine that contradicts an incomprehensible one. In that case we believe the former as a part of the latter.

2009 Update: A Christian formulation for one being in three persons. Examples include the divine trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the earthly trinity of sinner, neighbor and pagan and the ecclesiastical trinity of the Fellowship Committee.

Tope

TOPE, v. To tipple, booze, swill, soak, guzzle, lush, bib, or swig. In the individual, toping is regarded with disesteem, but toping nations are in the forefront of civilization and power. When pitted against the hard-drinking Christians the abstemious Mohammedans go down like grass before the scythe. In India one hundred thousand beef-eating and brandy-and-soda guzzling Britons hold in subjection two hundred and fifty million vegetarian abstainers of the same Aryan race. With what an easy grace the whisky-loving American pushed the temperate Spaniard out of his possessions! From the time when the Berserkers ravaged all the coasts of western Europe and lay drunk in every conquered port it has been the same way: everywhere the nations that drink too much are observed to fight rather well and not too righteously. Wherefore the estimable old ladies who abolished the canteen from the American army may justly boast of having materially augmented the nation's military power.

2009 Update: To seek temperance in the bottom of a bottle. To be lush in view of the withered. To err among accountants or sin before the prim.

The Reformation of Wolfshausen

Teil Sechs-Und Vierzig

To hear Jamie Dawn and Taylor do this week's reading, cross the Jordan with Joshua and the Israelites. (Caution: Walls may come tumblin' down.)

To read this week's episode, follow the strangers appearing to Abram.

The story so far is here.

Gold-Bug

GOLD-BUG, n. In political matters, a miscreant who has the wickedness to know that legislation cannot maintain a permanent relation between the values of two metals, even by the luminous device pf binding them together in the same coins. A miller who grinds the faces of the poor and takes the whole grist for toll. A hideous monster that disturbs the Bulletin's repose by sitting astride Deacon Fitch's stomach, picking the bones of "the debtor class" and blaspheming the dollar of our fathers.

2009 Update: A politician whose crusade for purity leads him at last to the dollar, who reads Austrian treatises in the original Texan and who turns to smelted stone for wisdom and temperance.

Gastric Juice

GASTRIC JUICE, n. A liquid for dissolving oxen and making men of the pulp.

2009 Update: The humor that controls intelligence in a man, gravity in a woman and affection in a dog.