Giddy Up Horsey!
Shaun and Ian's Pumpkins
Pikachu Go! And liz's pumpkin
The Witch and her Cowboy(& girl) Posse
Izzy Scooping
Little Pumpkin for a Little Boy
Ewwww, pumpkin brains
Shaun tool of choice
Looking spooky tiredWednesday, October 31, 2007
Halloween Fun
Giddy Up Horsey! Shaun and Ian's Pumpkins Pikachu Go! And liz's pumpkin The Witch and her Cowboy(& girl) Posse Izzy Scooping Little Pumpkin for a Little Boy Ewwww, pumpkin brains Shaun tool of choice Looking spooky tired
Happy Halloween
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
Open, locks,Whoever knocks!
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
Open, locks,Whoever knocks!
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Shaun, Liz, Isabel, or Ian.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Brain Food. Have some, because you need it.
From Shaun - As you all know, I enjoy finding bits and pieces of info, knowledge, and upcoming technology on the web. From now on when I feel like it, I will gather whatever I find and post it for your enlightenment. For some reason I thought about mom having sometimes called us "Smart Aleck". At the time, I thought it was a substitute for "Smart Ass". After looking it up in Wikipidea, I now know that unbeknownst to her, she was likening us to Alec Hoag, an obnoxious self-assertive and an impudent pimp and confidence man. Read on to find out the origin of this term. Thanks Mom.
According to Gerald Leonard Cohen, author of Studies in Slang Part 1 (1985), the phrase "smart alec" arose from the exploits of Alec Hoag. A celebrated pimp, thief, and confidence man operating in New York City in the 1840s, Hoag, along with his wife Melinda and an accomplice known as "French Jack," operated a con called the "panel game," a method by which prostitutes and their pimps robbed foolish customers.
The key to his activities was that they did so in close association with two police officers, who shared the loot and provided protection. Most was done by pickpocketing, with Melinda taking the victim’s pocketbook while the victim was otherwise engaged and surreptitiously handing it to Hoag or French Jack as they walked by. Hoag's downfall came because he got into financial difficulties and tried to cheat his police protectors out of their share of the loot. In one exchange, Hoag lay behind a wall in a churchyard and had Melinda drop the goods over the wall to him so that the constables couldn't see them.
The aforementioned "panel game" was a trick also used by the original Smart Alec, although not exclusively by him. George Wilkes, the assistant editor of the Subterranean, met Hoag while Wilkes was falsely imprisoned in the infamous New York prison called The Tombs. Wilkes described the trick in a diary of 1844, The Mysteries of the Tombs: "Melinda would make her victim lay his clothes, as he took them off, upon a chair at the head of the bed near the secret panel, and then take him to her arms and closely draw the curtains of the bed. As soon as everything was right and the dupe not likely to heed outside noises, the traitress would give a cough, and the faithful Aleck would slily enter, rifle the pockets of every farthing or valuable thing, and finally disappear as mysteriously as he entered." The victim was then persuaded to leave in a hurry through a window by Alec banging on the door, pretending to be an aggrieved husband who had suddenly returned from a trip away.
Hoag used this trick to avoid paying off his police protectors, so that when he was caught, the police were in no mood to aid him. He was sentenced to jail, but escaped through the help of his brother, only to be recaptured following extensive police searches, having been recognised by Wilkes.
Professor Cohen suggests that Alex Hoag was given the sobriquet of "smart Alec" by the police for being a resourceful thief who outsmarted himself by trying to avoid paying graft. It's impossible to be certain this is the true story, since the expression doesn't appear in print until 1865, but it does seem extremely plausible.
A search of several of the more reliable dictionaries pretty much confirms this definition. The Oxford English Dictionary traces it to mid-1860s slang, while the American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed., 2000) and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (16th ed., 1999) tentatively trace the etymology of the phrase to Hoag.
According to Gerald Leonard Cohen, author of Studies in Slang Part 1 (1985), the phrase "smart alec" arose from the exploits of Alec Hoag. A celebrated pimp, thief, and confidence man operating in New York City in the 1840s, Hoag, along with his wife Melinda and an accomplice known as "French Jack," operated a con called the "panel game," a method by which prostitutes and their pimps robbed foolish customers.
The key to his activities was that they did so in close association with two police officers, who shared the loot and provided protection. Most was done by pickpocketing, with Melinda taking the victim’s pocketbook while the victim was otherwise engaged and surreptitiously handing it to Hoag or French Jack as they walked by. Hoag's downfall came because he got into financial difficulties and tried to cheat his police protectors out of their share of the loot. In one exchange, Hoag lay behind a wall in a churchyard and had Melinda drop the goods over the wall to him so that the constables couldn't see them.
The aforementioned "panel game" was a trick also used by the original Smart Alec, although not exclusively by him. George Wilkes, the assistant editor of the Subterranean, met Hoag while Wilkes was falsely imprisoned in the infamous New York prison called The Tombs. Wilkes described the trick in a diary of 1844, The Mysteries of the Tombs: "Melinda would make her victim lay his clothes, as he took them off, upon a chair at the head of the bed near the secret panel, and then take him to her arms and closely draw the curtains of the bed. As soon as everything was right and the dupe not likely to heed outside noises, the traitress would give a cough, and the faithful Aleck would slily enter, rifle the pockets of every farthing or valuable thing, and finally disappear as mysteriously as he entered." The victim was then persuaded to leave in a hurry through a window by Alec banging on the door, pretending to be an aggrieved husband who had suddenly returned from a trip away.
Hoag used this trick to avoid paying off his police protectors, so that when he was caught, the police were in no mood to aid him. He was sentenced to jail, but escaped through the help of his brother, only to be recaptured following extensive police searches, having been recognised by Wilkes.
Professor Cohen suggests that Alex Hoag was given the sobriquet of "smart Alec" by the police for being a resourceful thief who outsmarted himself by trying to avoid paying graft. It's impossible to be certain this is the true story, since the expression doesn't appear in print until 1865, but it does seem extremely plausible.
A search of several of the more reliable dictionaries pretty much confirms this definition. The Oxford English Dictionary traces it to mid-1860s slang, while the American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed., 2000) and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (16th ed., 1999) tentatively trace the etymology of the phrase to Hoag.
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Start of a New Beginning
This blog makes it official. Our lives are intertwined with the rest of the world via the Internet. I hope I can keep it updated with new and exciting things. Currently, our lives center around our kids, work, and the desert.
We just celebrated Shaun's 30th birthday on the 25th of Oct. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of what we did. I am still upset with myself for that. Here is a rundown of what went on. Because of a phone call from the store, Shaun managed to figure out what I got him for his birthday. I wanted to surprise him with new motorcycle gloves for the winter. I did however, manage to surprise him with a lunch party with his buddies from work. Later, back at the office, we had a chocolate cake with all 30 candles blazing high as he blew them out. Shaun took the next day off of work to go 4-Wheeling with a friend. So all in all I think it turned out great.
We just celebrated Shaun's 30th birthday on the 25th of Oct. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of what we did. I am still upset with myself for that. Here is a rundown of what went on. Because of a phone call from the store, Shaun managed to figure out what I got him for his birthday. I wanted to surprise him with new motorcycle gloves for the winter. I did however, manage to surprise him with a lunch party with his buddies from work. Later, back at the office, we had a chocolate cake with all 30 candles blazing high as he blew them out. Shaun took the next day off of work to go 4-Wheeling with a friend. So all in all I think it turned out great.
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