The excellent, rather creepy cartoon I watched the other day was CORALINE. It's the dark fairytale of a blue-haired girl who wishes her parents weren't so self-preoccupied with themselves and cared more for her and her needs. With this is mind, she openly agrees to spend some time with the identical parents (with buttons instead of eyes) that she found through a small door in the wall... until... but I will let you discover her adventures, the witty cat and the dancing mice, all spiced up with some quote from Hamlet. If all ends well, that's for you to decide!
We all copy, whether that's during exams, or simply in our everyday life. We copy the way divas dress, act, eat or read (reading is good, so that doesn't count as a flaw). We copy ideas, and that's ok as long as we can at least add something of our own. We copy blogs and postings, hoping they will be as interesting to read and access as the original ones. Now, one question arises. Are we being less creative because of the internet and the so many sources available for every possible creative thought or this happened before but not at such a massive scale? I guess we just have to think for ourselves and the rest will follow! We are too consumed with checking if we are trendy and people will like what we do, say or write and these turn us into copy cats! Now, let me copy and paste this cute pic I found on the net, and then I'll go on reading one of Madonna's favorite books :)
Today I have read an interesting article about the so called theory of "broken windows". This theory states that ignoring little problems around us - litter, graffiti, shattered glass - leads to an irreversible decline in the community. In other words, if we ignore dirt, we will end up being suffocated by it. If we do not fix a broken window, chances are others will be broken as well. There are even studies and books to prove that the theory, dated back in 1982, is completely true. These petty crimes give birth to a negative feedback; e.g. if we see litter in an area, chances are we will be prone to throwing rubbish everywhere as well. Does this theory apply to you? Before saying no, try to be true to yourself! Is there anything we can do to change this pattern of behaviour? Definitely! The answer is being responsible and caring for what lies beyond our limited universe.
I am definitely a newbie in squash, but I love the game! It tests attention, strength and stamina, while also being fun to play. Squash is as old as the 16th century, originating in France. The squash racquet is smaller than the tennis one, and there are 5 types of balls, depending on the speed at which you want to play, thus giving you the possibility to play "differently" each time. There are two scoring systems, the English and the American one, but what's more important is that it is an excellent cardiovascular workout. In one hour it burns between 600 and 1000 calories and that is more than most other sports. Well, that just leads me to renewing my subscription :)
The first citation we have for the word SCRUMPTIOUS is said by Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary to be from 1830.
The Oxford English Dictionary points to 1836 and says it’s an American invention.
One of the more succinct definitions of scrumptious is “delicious” and most dictionaries say scrumptious usually refers to food.
While both Merriam Webster and The American Heritage Dictionary feel that scrumptious may have evolved from sumptuous, the OED has another theory.
Evidently there was an earlier word scrumptious called by the OED “dialectal” and it meant almost the opposite of “delicious.”
Our problem here is that since the OED considered this word non-standard English and part of a dialect, they didn’t actually include the earlier scrumptious as an entry. Instead they just offhandedly referred to it in the etymology of our word scrumptious.
That earlier scrumptious was a word applied to people not food, and it didn’t mean “attractive,” but “unattractive”—in fact “stingy” and “hard to please.”
Scrumptious is thought to be related to the word scrimp. So what happened?
The speculation is that the word scrumptious first referred to people who kept good things for themselves, and then scrumptious was transferred to the good things those people were hording.
Whatever they were hording must have been attractive so something that was scrumptious became something particularly attractive.
I looked at several trending tools to see if the use of the word scrumptious was on the rise or in decline. The data is mixed with Google trends on a gentle climb and Facebook lexicon showing a mild falling off.
The thing that did strike me was that although everyone seems to agree that this word originated in the United States, it is now more frequently used in England, Ireland, and Australia than it is in the US.
Plus, of all places there seem to be twice as many scrumptious users in Singapore that the US.
