BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE

THE SAURUS — The dinosaur that is a synonym for another dinosaur

designed by Lilly Krongard

**

Loot (n, hence v, whence looter): Hind lut denasalized from Sanskrit
lunrati, he plunders.

Eric Partridge. Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English
(New York: Greenwich House,1966

Dear Editors:

   Looting is very destructive to community and

our sense as citizens that we should look out for

one another, but there are different kinds of looting.

One kind of looting takes place when people smash

windows, enter a store, grab merchandise and run

off.

   There is a second kind of looting that we should

consider:  looting  done by persons of power and

authority.  Consider political leaders and their family

members who use their positions to squander so much

of tax payer monies for their own personal pleasures

and economic enhancement. Is that not looting?

   Or consider the Environmental Protection Agency.

how many regulations have been rescinded so that

future generations  of Americans can no longer

can count upon breathing clean air nor drinking

uncontaminated  water.

   Or stealing young people’s futures by loading them

Down with crippling loans for their education.

   Or denying citizens affordable health care.

  All kinds of looting are to be abhorred.  Which

is worse may be difficult to determine on a case by

case basis, but none of these lootings make us a

better nation. None of these lootings make us a better people.

Sincerely,

Louis Phillips

Image by Lilly Krongard
**

 
DESCENDING INTO BEDROCK
 
 
There is just so much sleep to go around
With the bed still warm
From my wife’s body,
Pillows piled high & the annoying sound
Of traffic going somewhere or not.
Another erratic midnight.
 
 Don McLean got it right:
“Bad news on the doorstep.”
& I got no Chevy either.
Am I the only person not dreaming?
In Apartment 8H, right
 
Below us, some idiot is playing
First Edition’s
“Just Dropped In to See
What Condition My Condition Was In.”
 
The human condition? Bah! Humbug.
 It’s the entire bedrock
Of a crumbling nation,
Entire oceans of fish
Are awash with waking & dreaming.
 
Oceans  choking
to death on plastic.
***

ABRACADABRA

By the incantation of a single word, this sentence becomes

transformed. It was formerly an epigram: Now it is closer

to the national anthem of Argentina:   “May the Laurels be

eternal That we know how to win. Let us live crowned

with glory Or swear to die gloriously.” Abracadabra.  

All that dying gloriously stuff: Now that’s real magic.  

**

ATOM SMASHING 
I do not understand why it took scientists so long
to split the atom. When my sons were 4 or 5, if
they had been given an atom for Christmas, they
would have broken it in no time at all.
**

LA TRIVIATA # 38

NOTE TO THE READER
 
All right, I know that more than a few of the questions 
in the various La Triviata quizzes  are unfair and often 
impossible for many readers, to answer. But the point 
of a quiz is not to test intelligence or even cultural and 
verbal awareness. Not by a long shot. The point is to
 have fun, to pass some time pleasantly while picking 
up tidbits of useful and useless information. I hope it’s 
a good party game or a good quiz to share with a friend 
or two. Actually I hope it is just a good quiz. And sometimes 
a useful one. If you get 6 correct you are doing very good.
 If you get 9 or more correct you are in the Genius
Category.
 
—LJP


 
1l Bees can see all colors except one. What color
cannot be seen by bees?
 
2.What is the only seven letter word in the English
language that contains all 5 vowels?
 
3. It has been claimed that the logo depicting a large
tongue protruding from a mouth is the most famous
logo in Rock & Roll history. It is the logo of what group?
 
 
4. What were the names of the famous NBC newscasters
who signed off each broadcast with:
       “ Good night, David.”
       “ Good night, Chet.”
 
5. What does a kinologist study?
 
6 In the Olympics Discus throw competition how much
does the discus weigh?
 
7.Fur is one of the official languages of what African
  country?
 
 
 
 
8. In 1984, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
   established the Television Hall of Fame and inducted
    seven people. Can you name any 3 persons of the
    first seven inductees?
 
9. A bit of IdMb trivia for this film, directed by John
Ford and starring John Wayne as Captain Brittles
Reveals that the regiment's blacksmith, named "Wagner" 
(Mickey Simpson), is seen at work, we can hear the orchestra
 playing the "Nibelung"-motif from Richard Wagner's famous 
opera, "Siegfried". In the opera the motif is connected with 
the forging of Siegfried's sword. What is the film?
 
10. Ithaca and Kerykara are Greek islands in what sea?
 
11.On November 25, 1864 the Winter Garden Theater
in NYC presented a production of Julius Caesar. Junius
Brutus Booth played Cassius and his brother Edwin Booth 
played Brutus. What part did the third brother—JohnWilkes Booth 
– play?
 
12. In the U.S. Presidential election of 1920 one of
the major candidates on the ballot was a prisoner
in a Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia . Who
was he?


13. What country has the oldest flag in the world?

14. How many eyes does a scallop have?
 
     A. none
     B. 30
     C. 50
     D. 100
 
15. What do the following all have in common?
 
 Mr. R. Nixon,  Phunky, Ty Kong, Wopsle, Squod
Nobs, and Hookem?

16. What U.S. President is associated with this
piece of advice: “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.”
 
17. What U.S. President gave Maxwell House Coffee
its famous advertising slogan “Good to the Last Drop”?

18. Edson Arantes do Nascimento is better known to
   the world by what single name? 
 
19. Richard Strauss was, of course, a famous German
composer and conductor, but what does his last name
mean?
 
20. What is paronomasia?
 



ANSWERS
 
1. Red (Do not ask me how scientists know such things)
 
2. Sequoia
 
3. The Rolling Stones
 
4. David Brinkley and Chet Huntley
 
5. A kinologist studies physics laws of motion
 
6. 4 pounds
 
7. Dafur
 
8. Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Paddy Chayesky, Norman Lear, 
Edward R. Murrow,  William S. Paley, David Sarnoff
 
9. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
 
10. The Ionian Sea
 
11. He played Marc Anthony
 
12.  Eugene Debs. He ran as a socialist candidate and
  received nearly one million votes.
 
13. Denmark
 
14.( D) 100
 
15. They are names of characters  in works by Charles
      Dickens
 
16. Theodore Roosevelt
 
17.  Theodore Roosevelt.  According to The Oxford Dictionary 
of Modern Quotations, Roosevelt uttered that phrase to 
Joel Cheek in 1907.
 
18. Pele’, the great Brazilian soccer player
 
19. According to Wikipedia , Strauss is a German: nickname 
for an awkward or belligerent person, from Middle High German 
struz 'quarrel', 'complaint'. ... Dutch: from a Germanic personal 
name, Strusso.
 
20. According to the online Merriam Webster Dictionary, 
paronomasia was first used in 1571. It is from Latin, from Greek, from paronomazein to call with a slight change of name, from 
para- + onoma name — more at NAME. It is simply a long word
 meaning a pun or play on words.
 
 ********************