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Scott is back this week with another little known TV series that he absolutely loves.
If you have ever worked for (or still do) a large, faceless corporation, I have the perfect TV series for you. We discovered Better Off Ted show on Netflix a few years ago, and it is hands-down one of the hilarious shows I have ever seen. It's also a highly intelligent comedy. 
In a nutshell, it's the story of a cast of characters who work at Viridian Dynamics, a huge firm that has its hands in everything from the food supply to deadly weapons - and sometimes the two cross, like the episode where the scientists are asked to create an exploding pumpkin.
Each episode revolves around a new creation the boss, Veronica (Portia DiRossi) asks the staff to create. The dapper Jay Harrington plays Ted, the charismatic suit who carries out these commands. Andrea Anders is his love interest, Linda, and Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett round out the main cast as Phil and Lem, the scientists who do the actual R&D. We're re-watching the series now for the fourth or fifth time, and my favorite part so far? Veronica: "The company wants to freeze Phil." Which leads to the aforementioned freezing (in the name of science, of course), an accidental thawing, and the unfortunate side effect of Phil screaming at random times throughout the show. Oh, and did I mention the "commercials" for Veridian Dynamics that open each show? Think those GE "we do everything" ads, but on acid:
The series is fresh, funny and has a great cast. There are two seasons, both available on Netflix last I checked. :)
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Angel's back this week with a seasonal kind of thing - So, it's September, early September in that "the weather still thinks it's summer, but you can feel the fall trying to break through" way. It's still humid as hell this evening as I write. Though Hell is more of a dry heat, according to Shax. I wouldn't know. But the trees are starting to do fall things, like drop acorns and shed pine needles. The cicadas have settled down to occasional trills now, heading toward the end of their adult cycles. The crickets still sing in mass Hallelujah chorus and the peeper frogs will get their cue in about an hour now. There's just something in the air - a waiting, a holding of collective breath. Soon, the night sounds say, soon the heat will dissipate and a chill will come with sunset. Soon the squirrels will become less playful, engaged in the serious work of fattening up for the cold. Winter is coming. Mr. Martin was watching squirrels when he thought of that. (Probably not, but I do.) The video probably doesn't catch the night sounds for you well enough, everything soft and anticipatory after the raucous summer concerts. Kitty in the window is optional, but always preferable:  Welcome to another week of Stuff We Like. Brought to you by Freddy, the letter V, and the number 8. Yes, this week is about my love for V8. I have liked it for a long time because it's something - as a person with food issues and allergies - that is good for me and helpful. Plus I think it tastes good. (What can I say? I appreciate tomatoey things.) My biggest problem was being able to have something to pack. The 12 ounce cans were too much. I could never finish one, and by the time I came back to it, the V8 was icky. That's why I love the smaller single serving sizes. Isn't it adorable? It's one tiny can, equal to one serving of vegetables. It's easy to pack for a lunch and not overwhelming to drink. It goes down much easier in fact.
So what can I say? I love my little can. Yes, I went there! Someone had to and I figured it was a good thing for the Aussie to do. Pokemon Go seems to be the craze that is not only sweeping the nation these days but the world. Gotta catch 'em all! Now, I'll admit to being a complete Pokemon novice. I didn't grow up watching it, or playing with the cards or any of the other pokemon associated items. The extent of my knowledge before PG came out was that Pikahcu was a little yellow Pokemon dude and that was about it. I had no idea how you went about catching these things, what Pokeballs were for or how battles were fought and won (I'm still a little iffy on the last one). But I decided not to let that stop me. The main reason I decided to download the game was I thought it would be a good excuse to get out of the house with my daughter and go for a walk around the city. See what we could find on out way, and it's been fun. I haven't bothered yet about doing anything in the gyms. I don't know if I ever will, even though there's one right opposite my building. I'm just enjoying catching the little cridders so far.
I know I'm not the only one out there playing this game, hell, I'm not the only Mischiefer playing it, *Coughs* Freddy *Coughs* Sorry, I had something in my throat there for a second. Anyway. Love it or hate it, I do like what the game is doing by encouraging people to get out there and exercise, just please, look up from your phones every once in a while and take in the scenery. ;) Till next time, catch 'em all!
Scott returns to talk about a new word he just discovered... Okay, so I was happily working through a response from one of my beta folks on The Great North, my latest novella, when I ran across a puzzling note. It seems that I'd sown a little confusion with my choice of town name - Manicoan. It was a bastardization of the name of a reservoir in Quebec - Manicougan, but the problem lay in the fact that it was also the name I was using for the people of the village, and this was causing some issues in the story. So I went looking for how the names of inhabitants of cities, states and countries are formed, and came across a word I had never seen before:  There may be a reason I don't know this word (aside from my general ignorance). According to an article at Dictionary.com: "The word “demonym” was coined by Paul Dickson, an editor at Merriam-Webster, in his 1997 book Labels for Locals." Demo means municipality in greek, and as for that "nym": "The suffix -onym, in English and other languages, means "word, name", and words ending in -onym refer to a specified kind of name or word, most of which are classical compounds." Going back to Dictionary.com: "In English we denote place of origin by suffixes. The most common suffixes that denote place are: -(a)n (Chicagoan), -er (New Yorker), -ese (Chinese), -ian (Norwegian), and -ish (English). Where did these suffixes come form? Latin, of course. -ish actually comes from Old English, which is why citizens of the British Isles have -ish demonyms: Scottish, Welsh, English, etc. The other suffixes came from Latin, though they each convey slightly different senses. -ese most directly meant “belonging to or originating in a place.” -(a)n and -ian are variations on the same suffix meaning “belonging to.” -er was used principally in the sense of “one having to do with a thing,” as in lawyer or villager. As with most vocabulary in English, they all now coexist and serve the same purpose." So back to my problem. Here's lake manicougan - a reservoir in the remains of an ancient meteor crater. Pretty, isn't it?  My town name is Manicoan. So using some of the standard endings, my people could be:
Manicoani Manicoanish Manicoanese Manicoanan Manicoaner Manicoanian They're all so fricking long, and I wasn't happy with any of them. Then my beta reader suggested changing the town name. And so my problem was resolved. The new name? Manicouga - closer to the original name. And the inhabitants? The Manicougans. :) |
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