Random Thoughts

[defaux]

I compare the English language to a car crash involving the demolition of a number of vehicles, from which one attempts to reconstruct a working car from pieces of a Chevy, a Volkswagen, a Toyota, a Peugeot, and so on. The amazing thing is that it runs.

Amazing, the things you can do with duct tape. I wonder what the linguistic analogy is in that.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Amazing, the things you can do with duct tape. I wonder what the linguistic analogy is in that.

If one has duct tape, baling twine, and WD-40, one can cope with almost any situation.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Amazing, the things you can do with duct tape. I wonder what the linguistic analogy is in that.

Duct tape? The analogy might be grammar; it holds the language together.

If one has duct tape, baling twine, and WD-40, one can cope with almost any situation.

Don't forget superglue! Interestingly, I learned that super glue was used during the Vietnam War -- in a spray form -- as a hemostatic agent to seal open wounds and stop injured soldiers from bleeding, until conventional surgery could be performed. (Early formulations, though, could cause tissue toxicity -- so modern, medical-grade formulas are used nowadays).

Tissue adhesives are now used worldwide for a variety of suture-less surgical applications in humans and animals.

(Obviously, do not try this at home ... unless you're a doctor/surgeon/etc. and know how this works!) *G*

 

[defaux]

Don't forget superglue

Did you know... superglue (cyanoacrylate) doesn't actually "dry", it chemically changes state from liquid to solid. Water actually catalyses the reaction.

 

[Stuart Dren]

Did you know... superglue (cyanoacrylate) doesn't actually "dry", it chemically changes state from liquid to solid. Water actually catalyses the reaction.

That explains why they say to wet the surfaces.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Superglue is for people who don't have duct tape or baling twine.

 

[GrahamLewis]

Not sure where else to put this. I came across the following in Steinbeck's Travels With Charley: "After Spokane, the danger of early snows had passed, for the air was changed and mulsed by the strong breath of the Pacific." I can't find the verb mulsed in any dictionary, including The New Oxford American Dictionary. There is a word mulesing, which refers to a mostly-outlawed practice of removing strips of skin from the buttocks of sheep to prevent a parastic infection (mostly in Australia) but obviously it doesn't seem to apply here. My best -- unsupported -- guess is that it is a back-use from the word emulsify, which means to finely disperse droplets of one liquid into another. Any other thoughts?

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Merriam Webster says mulse is an obsolete term for a beverage of honey mixed with wine or water. Etymology: Latin mulsum, from neuter of mulsus mixed with honey, sweet as honey; akin to Latin mel honey

 

[GrahamLewis]

Merriam Webster says mulse is an obsolete term for a beverage of honey mixed with wine or water. Etymology: Latin mulsum, from neuter of mulsus mixed with honey, sweet as honey; akin to Latin mel honey

Yeah, I found that later in one of my son's ancient dictionaries. So I guess that sort of makes sense. Wonder why the OED didn't have it. As much as does emulsified.