It's rather absurd, but I'm getting a feeling here in the office that eating a meal is a sign of weakness, especially if it's early. Somebody who takes a lunch break before noon gets more than a couple of looks, and I can't figure out if the looks are of jealousy, disinterest, or disdain. People who do get lunch wolf it down at their desk with a spreadsheet in their other hand, looking around nervously. Personally, I subsist on coffee all morning, take oatmeal at noon, small lunch at 3 (which makes the afternoon very, very short), and a BIG DINNER. Then there's this woman who makes a bag of microwave popcorn at exactly 3:15 every afternoon, and while it was sort of nice the first couple of days, I am now not all that excited to feel like I'm visiting a movie theatre all the time. That smell of popcorn used to be special. But now...
Published Monday, August 29, 2005 | E-mail this post 
Blake, following up on 'denoument', I'd also like to add 'schadenfreude' to a list of great words. It means a sort of pleasure out of others' misfortunes and is, obviously, German. That said, the police officer who called us out for having bad tickets in Berlin was overcome by schadenfreude as he took our money.
Hey! I -- I like words... with skin on 'em, yeah. Blake, I think we'd all agree that lately, what with all the rainy day traveling, you resemble that poor wayfaring stranger. You've become fairly peripatetic. Peripatetic is a word which refers to the philosophy or teaching methods of Aristotle, who conducted discussions while walking about in the Lyceum of ancient Athens. Bitchin!
Actually, 'bitchin' was at one point in time this summer, my favorite word - my mot du jour.
It's funny. the three words discussed so far have all been words Professor Peter Graham defined at one point in time or another during my college career. Then again, he was fairly loquacious. Garrulously going on and on about some Leonard Cohen song or repeating the line "... and his hair was perfect," from "Wherewolves of London" by Warren Zevon, he always managed to expand the vocabularies of even the least interested of us. Occasionally, I'll think of a definition he gave but I won't remember the word. I'll have this burdensome urge to write him and ask for the definition. This happened after a viewing of Brazil late last year. The word I wanted was dystopia, which he used in reference to Blade Runner, and I was about two and a half minutes from writing him, when - pop! - it came. Not utopia - dysssssstopia, he'd say serpentinely, like Sir Hiss in the campy animated version of Robin Hood done by Disney in the early seventies.
He was weird, even for a professor, but I'd guess nearly daily I still use the knowledge he imparted, practical or not. Thanks, P Graham.
Blake,
I know what you mean about the whole lunch thing. I work at home but it seems like it's a competition as to who can send me the most emails while I take ten minutes for lunch. I come back and people are wondering where I am. It was worse when the other lady was here and I was working with her. She never left the room, I didn't no what to do, I just sat there starving for three days...oh and she didn't drink coffee at all, so no coffee breaks...i was on the verge of death.
austin