When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything -- you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (7 Jul 1907-1988)

A.W.A.D.
words.ith.org
#awad

#TFG #GOP #ChristianRight #AWAD #AnuGarg

Today's word:

pecksniff

PRONUNCIATION:
(PEK-snif)

MEANING:
noun: A hypocritical person who pretends to have high moral principles.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Seth Pecksniff, a character in Charles Dickens’s novel Martin Chuzzlewit (serialized 1843-1844). Earliest documented use: 1844. The adjectival form is pecksniffian.

NOTES:
Pecksniff sounds like a man who moralizes in public and misbehaves in private. Which, spoiler alert, he does.

But Pecksniff, seriously? If a character’s name is Pecksniff, his moral downfall feels less like a character arc and more like a destiny. With a name like this, you have given them no hope. They’re doomed from page one. See nominative determinism.

It’s not just Dickens. The Harry Potter world has Voldemort (from French vol de mort: flight of death), 101 Dalmatians has Cruella de Vil, and so on. Heroes, on the other hand, get regular names like Oliver Twist or Harry Potter.

 
Today's #AWAD #AWordADay: ELSEWHEN
with Anu Garg

❛❛ Unlike a #BlackHole — a region of #SpaceTime from which you cannot escape if you get too close — a #Wormhole is a region into which you would disappear only to reappear #elsewhere or #elsewhen. ❜❜ 2001 May 20 #WaPo

https://Wordsmith.org/words/elsewhen.html 2025 Jan 06
https://Wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu_Garg … #AnuGarg

#Quotes #AWAD #Wilderness #WilliamCowper

I would like this, too, but I cannot help but feel for those unhappy or oppressed or troubled. I just can't help it.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore. -William Cowper, poet (26 Nov 1731-1800)

#AWordADay #AnuGarg #AWAD #Wordplay #DadJokes

In Anu Garg's weekday email, the word was "tangent" in a week of math/geometry terms.

Of course, my mind went:

Tangent: The dapper dude that sprays a certain orange-y bronze-ish color on an egomaniac and then tells him how great it looks.

#AWordADay #AWAD #AnuGarg

Another new word to me that I probably knew at one point. Maybe?

umbrageous

PRONUNCIATION:
(uhm-BRAY-juhs)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Inclined to take offense easily.
2. Cast in shadow; shaded.
3. Providing shade.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin umbra (shade, shadow) + -ous (full of). Earliest documented use: 1587.

À #Rennes, une famille palestinienne est menacée d’expulsion vers #Gaza. Le préfet d'Ille-et-Vilaine, #PhilippeGustin, donne son feu vert. Soutien à Shaden et Ibrahim #Awad
ainsi qu'à leurs enfants !

Un peu comme si en pleine guerre en #Ukraine, on expulsait une famille ukrainienne avec 3 enfants vers les zone de bombardement.

Les réfugiés, y'en a des biens, et y'en a, c'est des bronzés, #FautPasConfondre.