brand (n.): a class of goods identified by name as the product of a single firm or manufacturer. also, a mark made by burning with a hot iron to attest manufacture or quality or to designate ownership That’s right! I had never put two and two together and associated modern-day “branding” using logos and publicists [...]
hubris (n.): overweening pride or self-confidence; arrogance. from Gr. hybris, wantonness, arrogance, insolence. I don’t think there has ever been a more literal demonstration of the proverb “pride goeth before a fall” (video). (From AP drummer and douche-beating connoisseur Amit Wehle.)
convention (n.): an established technique, practice, or device The Democratic National Convention convenes in Denver today, and I have good news for all of you: I won’t be live-blogging it. In fact, I’m only really interested to see Obama’s acceptance of the nomination (natch) and Action Joe Biden’s speech, which I’m excited about for the following reasons: I [...]
nightmare: a dream arousing feelings of intense fear, horror, and distress. From night + mare, a Middle English word meaning “an evil preternatural being” McDonald’s, that bastion of metaphysical thought, has been spreading far and wide a print ad campaign featuring this image: Did no one in the extensive Inoffensiveness Division of Mickey D’s stop [...]
milpool (n.): a word that is miswritten or misspelled due to distraction, ideally with the misspelling including some element of the distraction. see THINKO The above definition comes from a Simpsons episode in which the Simpsons get a swimming pool but on a daring dive, Bart breaks his leg and thus can’t swim for the [...]
umlaut (n.): a diacritic mark placed (in proper usage) over a vowel to denote a sound change in German. used by extension in English to refer to any diaeresis or trema It’s Spam Week here at MTPN! The umlaut is an uncommon mark in American English, generally reserved for Frenchy-sounding names like Chloë and Anaïs and for [...]
spam (v.): to mark a message or posting as spam, as for a system administrator or automated spam filter’s use Welcome to the new and improved Maybe Tomorrow–Probably Not! I’ve missed you all. My experiment in Tumblelogging was more or less an abject failure. I’m just too much of a verbose blowhard for short-form blogging, [...]
