krakatoa

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Or, more specificially, I think they mean something else.

Well, I obviously confused/conflated Anita Baker and Josephine Baker.
Then, I somehow called 'Covenant Marriages' 'Contract Marriages'...
... while introducing the dubious concept of the 'Starter Marriage', something based on a bad statistical analysis with no real basis that I could find, at least not from an unbiased party. However, introducing it did derail the conversation, so my heart was in the right place.

According to the imdb's trivia page, it is a common misconception, one which I held, that Happy Days is based on American Graffiti. Happy Days is really a full version of a Love American Style sketch from before American Grafiti's release.
Saipan is an island in the Marianas. Japan controlled it during World War II, but only from 1914 until the United States invaded. Before that, it was controlled by a series of European occupiers, who wiped out the native population.
While the Magna Carta did establish limits on the regent's power, and specifically states that legal judgetment or law breaking is required for punishment or imprisonment, there is no specific reference to Habeas Corpus, with the term first appearing in use 90 years later.
Paper Moon was released in 1973; Tatum O'Neal was born in 1963. That is pretty different from what I said (1970/1978, I think).
The hottest outdoor ambient temperature was recorded not at Death Valley, but in Al'Aziziyah, Libya, at 58.0 C (136.4 F).
The Charge of the Light Brigade was during the Crimean War, not the Franco-Prussian War.
Crimson and Clover is sung by Tommy James & the Shondells. I was never going to guess that; if anything, it makes me want to find some of their stuff. When asked who sang it, I said 'Some supergroup, I think, you know, like Fleetwood Mac, but not them', not a category in which I would place the Shondells.

As near as I can figure, I was thinking of the murders in Ciudad Juárez, and probably had just read an article about the levantón. I can't find the article about the drug lords hunting the most dangerous game, but which may have been in the Post. I did find some refernces, though, to the larger state of affairs that would allow what people know as the 'Juarez Murders' to continue. (Although information from someone who actually registers the domain 'marxist.com' is obviously suspect.)
Umami is the flavor indicated by MSG. Fat may have its own flavor, but it is definitely not umami.
MSG may be a 'salt of an amino acid', but does not contribute to high blood pressure.

'Ballyhoo' is 'a noisy attention-getting demonstration', while 'shenanigans' are 'high-spirited or mischievous activities', and 'tomfoolery' is simply used for 'playful or foolish behavior'. While all three mean 'foolish behavior', ballyhoo presents the connotation of arrogance, while shenanigans presents mean-spiritedness or violence.
Henry Lipkin was played by George Plimpton, not Tom Wolfe.
The Hoff put on 'Good Will Hunting' last week, not this week. This week's free showings will be: Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa!), a night of Adult Swim cartoons, Oceans 12, Lemony Snicket and Clue (!).

A dactyl is a stress followed by two unstressed. An anapest is two unstressed followed by a stress.
Catharsis comes from the Greek meaning 'to cleanse.'
Xenia is the Greek word for hospitality, although that doesn't quite cover it.
Don Hertzfeld released a couple of shorts with his animation show recently.
Lots of writer-director's have good first movie endings. Charles Laughton, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Thomas McCarthy, etc.
Zaps are a symptom of Paxil withdrawal. Paxil withdrawal symptoms usually appear two to three days after ceasing medication, but can take anywhere between a day and a week to appear in force. Withdrawal of lithium seems to be less obviously verifiable. However, it is possible that, within the four days of the flick, Large has yet to start experiencing the real withdrawal symptoms. Another possibility is that he is getting the headaches because he really stopped taking his SSRIs while in CA, or that he is on the early withdrawal schedule and just starting to get the zaps at the reception.
Prozac was introduced in 1985. Paxil became publicly available in 1993.
Twins from a split ovum and two different sperm are referred to as 'polar body twins', or half-identical, Whether polar body twins exist is something I cannot say.