Buddhist Marketer

50 cent words, part V

All your multi-syllable verbiage are belong to me.

1. ecclesiastic

Raised by a Methodist-turned-agnostic father and a Buddhist mother, it’s no surprise that knowledge of things ecclesiastic is a bit elusive to me.

of or relating to a church

2. factitious

I suspected at the time that her proclaimed sympathy and understanding was factitious, but I chalked it up to her being German and regrettably didn’t listen to the voice in my gut that said, “This person should not be trusted.”

produced by special effort; sham

3. gadfly

I sympathize with Dostoevsky’s underground man’s ceaseless barbs at those around him; I know the groove of solitude around which his head loops and have often been a bit of a gadfly myself.

a person who annoys especially by criticism

4. hackles

Mean-spirited heckling can often inflame hackles, though it’s true that even affectionate badinage can situationally rankle a sensitive soul.

tempers; also, the erectile hairs along the back and neck, esp. of a dog

50 cent words, part IV

Come join me for some Saturday afternoon GRE vocabulary studying.

1. abeyance

I promise that there’ll soon be an abeyance in the blog posts from yours truly.

temporary inactivity; suspension

2. badinage

Having a good bod is sexy; giving good badinage is sexier.

playful repartee; banter

3. calumny

I haven’t yet decided if I should include The Yale Free Press‘ Spring 1998 cover-story calumny in my Press section, and am open to feedback on the matter.

a misrepresentation designed to harm another’s reputation

4. decollete

The next time I wear my blinged-out Hillary Flowers dress, I’ll do more justice to its decollete by not tying the halter so darn tight.

a low-cut neckline

What would Tufte say?

This is my blog on algorithms:

This is my blog on drugs:

(Created with Wordle, which was put on my radar by Briggles.)

I wonder how these programs work.

I mean, I have a sense, but I want to play!