Kablammo!

• Mew’s And the Glass Handed Kites is one of my favorite albums from 2005, and due to its long-delayed American release, it’s one of my favorite albums from 2006 as well.
• One song, “The Zookeeper’s Boy”, has the word ‘ostrich’ in the lyrics, but it’s pronounced as three syllables: ‘os-ter-rich’.
• To me, that sounds an awful lot like Österreich. I wonder if there’s any relation there?
• Well, I know that ost- can mean ‘bone’ or the like, as in osteoporosis; and that öst- can mean ‘east’, as in Austria. I wonder what the etymology of ‘ostrich’ is.
• Apparently I was wrong on both guesses: ostrich c.1225, from O.Fr. ostruce (Fr. autruche), from V.L. avis struthio, from L. avis “bird” (from PIE *awi- “bird”) + L.L. struthio “ostrich,” from Gk. strouthion “ostrich,” from strouthos melage “big sparrow.”
• Incidentally, Austria shouldn’t be confused with austr-, meaning ‘south’, as in Austral, the opposite of Boreal.
• Interesting that Boreas, the Greek north wind, is the root of one word, and that Auster, the Roman south wind, is the root of the other. Is consistency in wind use too much to ask for?
• Of course, astr- (astral, astronomy, etc.) is yet another completely different root. Damn you, Greeks.

• Sometimes I get bored or distracted at work and I wish I could play some ADoM.
• Not that I’m ever actually going to, mind you.
• Speaking of ADoM, it kind of sucks (for non-chaotics) how Kranf Niest is so much better at teaching the Healing skill than Jharod is.
• “Kranf Niest”, the nefarious doctor, is clearly derived from “Frankenstein”.
• Frankenstein — what is that, Franken-stone?
• Maybe Al Franken knows.
• Babelfish tells me Franken means “Franconia”.
• Interesting how a region in Germany shares its name with a stop on the DC metro.
• Vienna is a metro stop as well.
• And what’s the deal with Vienna Fingers?
• Does the city of Vienna actually have anything to do with light-colored cream-filled sandwich cookies, or did they just go with “Vienna” because light-colored sweets seem to automatically imply “vanilla” and “Vienna” sounds kind of like “vanilla” but with more cachet?
• But then what about Bavarian Fingers? “Bavaria” sure as hell doesn’t sound like “chocolate”.
• Shapes aside, it’s interesting to note the color sequence: Vienna Finger, Oreo, Bavarian Finger. Like day turning into night.

• “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” is a pretty damn good song.
• The Proclaimers — are they Irish? Or are they Scottish? I can never remember.
• The Cranberries, now there’s a band I’m pretty sure is Irish.
• Are cranberries Irish, though?
• Because potatoes certainly aren’t Irish.
• What did the Irish eat before potatoes?
• Cabbage?
• What did people drink before potatoes?
• I mean in terms of hard liquor, none of this “wine” and “beer” stuff.
• Though mead is pretty awesome stuff.
• Shit, that reminds me, I was going to start homebrewing.
• Three months since I moved in here, and three months I’ve been meaning to get a homebrew kit.
• There’s a perfect place for storing a carboy or two, though it might actually be the polar opposite of the perfect place for storing such.
• But I’d also need to get a bigger pot for boiling stuff in, since our current pots simply wouldn’t cut it.
• Like when I made that bean soup and I had to leave out a quarter of the water the recipe called for, since it just didn’t fit in the pot.
• Of course, I’d have probably omitted that water anyway. I like soup I can eat with a fork.