Uxorious:

: excessively fond of or submissive to a wife [Merriam-Webster]

My goodness. Noted in “King Charles III’s blood-red portrait is a stylistic mess,” Sebastian Smee, WaPo:

Architrave:

As we mentioned before, architrave is a form of interior moulding — those little timber (or plaster) strips or sections that cover up the otherwise messy joins between surfaces.

In the case of architrave, this is the strip of material (usually timber) that covers the join between door frames and the walls. Not only does it hide the join, it will also conceal future movement or shrinkage that may occur between the wall and the casing within the door surround.

Architrave is used for internal doors, external doors and also around windows and built-in cupboards — and can even be used to smarten up loft hatches.

Other examples of interior mouldings include skirting boards that conceal the junction between wall and floor, and cornice, the plaster mouldings that deal with the point at which the ceiling and wall meet. [Homebuilding & Renovating]

Noted in this video by Our Restoration Nation’s Laine Berry:

Heronry:

A heronry, sometimes called a heron rookery, is a breeding ground for herons. [Wikipedia]

Noted in this video by Animalogic.

Ophanim:

The ophanim (Hebrew: אוֹפַנִּים ʼōp̄annīm, ‘wheels‘; singular: אוֹפָן ʼōp̄ān), alternatively spelled auphanim or ofanim, and also called galgalim (Hebrew: גַּלְגַּלִּים galgallīm, ‘spheres, wheels, whirlwinds‘; singular: גַּלְגַּל galgal), refer to the wheels seen in Ezekiel‘s vision of the chariot (Hebrew merkabah) in Ezekiel 1:15–21. One of the Dead Sea scrolls (4Q405) construes them as angels; late sections of the Book of Enoch (61:10, 71:7) portray them as a class of celestial beings who (along with the Cherubim and Seraphim) never sleep, but guard the throne of God. In Christian angelology, they are one of the choirs (classes) of angels, and are also called Thrones. [Wikipedia]

Never sleep? I’d expect them to be insane. Noted in this video.

Fish storm:

Meteorologists sometimes use the term “fish storm” to refer to a storm that generally poses no risk to land. But these storms may still pose a threat to fishing boats or shipping routes, and the National Weather Service continues to issue reports on such weather systems in its High Seas Forecasts.

Occasionally, “fish storms” may also produce possible dangerous currents along the coasts. In 2021, for instance, Tropical Storm Odette actually moved away from the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region but meteorologists (including those at Nexstar’s WSAV) warned of possible rip currents nonetheless. [WFLA]

Ryan Hall uses “fish storm” in this video, I believe, but I have not pinpointed the position.

Liz:

My most successful bit of invented language is an acronym: the LIZ, which stands for low information zone. It’s a word I specifically invented to help convey a concept to the UFO community.

Let me first give you a dictionary definition:

LIZ or “low information zone” refers to the distance or set of circumstances at which UFOs are recorded when the resulting eyewitness account, image, or video contains insufficient information to identify them, even as non-human craft.

… I’d recognized the truth behind the old joke about UFOs and cameras, which goes something like “Look, a UFO, let me get my worst quality camera.”

The joke illustrates a sad reality in UFOlogy: UFO photos, like Bigfoot photos, are invariably blurry. This blurriness has remained remarkably invariant over the decades, despite the vast increase in the quality of casual cameras and the even larger increase in the number of cameras that people carry around with them regularly. [“Inventing Skeptical Language,” Mick West, Skeptical Inquirer (July/August 2023, paywall)]

Think of this as a PSA.

When all you have is crap evidence, all you got is a crap phenomenon. Not dispositively so, but generally the way to bet.

Chandlery:

A chandlery was originally the office in a wealthy medieval household responsible for wax and candles, as well as the room in which the candles were kept. It could be headed by a chandler. The office was subordinated to the kitchen, and only existed as a separate office in larger households.

Whether a separate office or not, the function was naturally an important one, in a time before electric light, and when production of candles was often done privately. It was closely connected with other offices of the household, such as the ewery and the scullery. While this usage is obsolete today, the term can refer to a candle business. The current meaning of “chandler” is a person who sells candles.

By the 18th century, most commercial chandlers dealt in candles, oils, soap, and even paint. As these provided ships’ stores, chandlery came to refer to a shop selling nautical items for ships and boats, although for a time they were called ship-chandleries to distinguish them. Americans used the term chandlery for these ship-chandleries,^[4] but tended to prefer the term chandler’s shop. Both terms are still in use. [Wikipedia]

Noted in this Country House Gent video:

Via Professor Richardson, from last night’s televised January 6th hearing, a videotape of Speaker Pelosi being told that then-President Trump is trying to travel to the Capitol:

“I hope he comes, I’m gonna punch him out… I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m gonna punch him out, I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m gonna be happy.”

The glaring eye of publicity!

I’d have paid good money to see that. I’ll bet he thought he’d be seen as some sort of savior, and she’d have laid him right out.

I wonder if Pelosi now becomes the leading contender to be “that woman” to conservatives. (You’ll have to imagine the bulging eyes.) Clinton had been, but with her retirement she doesn’t have the public’s attention any longer.

Umbonate:

An umbo is a softly curved bump in a flat cap. A cap with an umbo is said to be umbonate, as in the two larger mushrooms at the left [omitted]. The two small mushrooms at the right [omitted] have a central bump on a convex pileus, and are said to be campanulate, or bell-shaped. In this case, the bump is usually not considered a separate feature. [The Journal of Wild Mushrooming]

Noted in this video from gingerpale:

Don’t take Literally too literally.

I’m sure Steve Benen regrets this:

I’m not sure that helps, and it’s certainly not what the governor actually said. As the video of his comments shows, the Republican didn’t just say he and Abrams share different ideologies, he said, “I just want to be honest, that will be a cold war” between the two states if Georgians elect a governor he disagrees with.

The metaphorical sense of the word ‘share’ has to do with likeness, not loathed differences.

But, in the bigger picture, DeSantis has not only given Georgians some electoral interference to think about, but, assuming Georgia Gov Kemp (R-GA) wins the nomination, he’s then irritated former President Trump, who hate Governor Kemp.

Fun!

Algospeak:

Algospeak, also known as Voldemorting or Slang Replacement, is a term that refers to the replacement of keywords and phrases deemed NSFW or not brand-safe according to social media algorithms on platforms like TikTok, Twitch, Instagram and YouTube, among others, as well as online games. The term is a portmanteau of the words “algorithm” and “speak.” The history of algospeak dates back to examples like unalive, which function as a way to write banned and censored words or topics without fear of demonetization or removal. Many examples use symbols and emojis to replace letters and words or simple alternate spellings and phrases. In 2022, the term became more widely known due to the necessity of the practice for marginalized communities as chat and word filters became prevalent online. [Know Your Meme]

Noted in “Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’,” Taylor Lorenz, WaPo:

Or perhaps “dropped word of the day”, and it goes to Paul Fidalgo of The Morning Heresy:

A new video by Kite & Key Media explains the ridiculousness of the anti-GMO movement, especially when one considers how many billions of lives the “green revolution” of genetically modified crops.

Read creatively, I think he achieves the opposite of his intention.

Or perhaps he’s just frantically signaling the heroic conspiracy theorists for help.

Gematria:

Gematria (/ɡəˈmeɪtriə/; Hebrew: גמטריא or gimatria גימטריה, plural גמטראות or גימטריאות, gimatriot) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher which is used. [Wikipedia]

Noted in “Trucker Convoy Protester Spouts Wild COVID Conspiracy Theory in Viral Video,” Gerrard Kaonga, Newsweek:

She insisted that COVID-19 was a coded message for “see sheep surrender,” a conspiracy theory that was already debunked by a Reuters fact-check report in 2020.

“When it came out it was ‘corona’ right?” the woman said.

“Corona is six letters, when you use gematria and say A is 1, B is 2, C is 3 and you put Corona lined up is 6-6. So that is 6-6-6.

Dreadful incoherence. I wonder if gematria is related to pareidolia?

Crapulence:

1. adjective
   sick from gross excess in drinking or eating. [Dictionary.com]

Noted in Max Miller’s YouTube video “Rome’s Wonder Medicine: Cabbage“:

Selvage:

1. the edge of woven fabric finished so as to prevent raveling, often in a narrow tape effect, different from the body of the fabric.
2. any similar strip or part of surplus material, as at the side of wallpaper.
3. Also called margin. Philately. the surplus paper or margin around a sheet of stamps:
   The number of the plate block appears in the selvage.
4. a plate or surface through which a bolt of a lock passes. [Dictionary.com]

Noted in this video from Baumgartner Restoration, last year’s holiday season video, which also showcases a quite dry sense of humor:

The actual word selvage appears around the 50-55 second mark. BONUS: This year’s holiday season video!

Decorpestration:

Well, maybe it’s made up. Noted in this video on art restoration.

A Heady Proposition – Part 1

Trocar:

A surgical instrument. It is used to evacuate body cavities of their contents, especially for purposes of embalming a corpse.
“The mortician made a cut into the lower intestine, inserted the trocar, and activated the suction.” [Urban Dictionary]

Noted in this Ask The Mortician video. The first mention of a trocar is at about 8:30.

De fide:

De fide (of the faith) is a “theological note” “theological qualification” that indicates that some religious doctrine is an essential part of Catholic faith and that denial of it is heresy.^[1] The doctrine is de fide divina et ecclesiastica (of divine and ecclesiastical faith), if contained in the sources of revelation and therefore believed to have been revealed by God (de fide divina) and if taught by the Church (de fide ecclesiastica). If a doctrine has been solemnly defined by a pope or an ecumenical council as a dogma, the doctrine is de fide definita. [Wikipedia]

Noted in “US Catholic bishops advance communion document, setting up potential rebuke of Biden,” Tom Foreman, CNN/Politics:

“I accept my church’s position on abortion as a what we call de fide doctrine. Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life,” [then Vice President Joe Biden] said during the 2012 vice presidential debate. “But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews. I just refuse to impose that on others,” he said.

Mummiform:

1. Having the shape of a mummy. [Wiktionary]

Noted in this Ask A Mortician video at roughly the 1:40 mark.

The Ever Given may no longer be physically stuck in the Suez Canal, but it’s … legally stuck:

Lieutenant General Osama Rabie, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, confirmed in a press statement, today, Tuesday, that the Panamanian vessel “Evergiven”, which ran aground earlier for six days, was seized for failure to pay an amount of $ 900 million, which is the value of what it caused. The delinquent ship caused losses to the Authority as well as the flotation and maintenance process, according to a court ruling issued by the Ismailia Economic Court. [Ahram Gate (Egypt)]

WaPo notes there’s some confusion over who pays what:

The Ever Given is owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha, a Japanese holding company, but leased by Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwan-based conglomerate. Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, a German firm, was responsible for hiring the crew.

Egypt has not said which company it expects to pay for the damage, but Shoei Kisen Kaisha told the Journal last week that it was “in the middle of negotiations” with Suez authorities. The company has filed a lawsuit in British court aimed at limiting its liability for the incident.

Even more surprising – to me – is no word of other shipping companies, large and small, suing over an incident which cost any company ordinarily using the Suez Canal a good chunk of change.

Which leads me to wonder why these ships don’t carry insurance against exactly what happened. Will no insurance company offer it? I did a little digging but came up empty. It seems like a good idea.

In case you wonder how much it costs to use the Suez Canal, here’s a video that talks about that. I haven’t finished watching it myself, but this seems like a good place to put it.

Conspirituality:

Conspirituality, …, was coined by researcher Charlotte Ward. She describes conspirituality as “a rapidly growing web movement expressing an ideology fueled by political disillusionment and the popularity of alternative worldviews.” There is no official indoctrination video, no book to read; the hundreds of thousands of people who embrace these New Age-like beliefs find them on YouTube vlogs like [Lorie] Ladd’s, as well as Instagram and Facebook. Recently, conspiritualists have begun to overlap with the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. [“Why some New Age influencers believe Trump is a ‘lightworker‘,” Nicole Karlis, Salon]

Yes, properly vague. The article inspires no confidence in members of the movement, either.

Brad Heath:

Ex-girlfriends are hands-down the government’s most indispensable crime-fighting technique.

Motivation?

George Will of WaPo:

Marie Griffith, Director and John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities

From multiple origins, a conglomeration of superhero narratives have converged, luring countless numbers of Americans to see themselves as, in Ross Douthat’s words, “actors in a world-historical drama, saviors or re-founders of the American Republic.” Analyzing the Capitol insurrectionist whose military gear included patches sporting slogans like “Armor of God” and “God will judge our enemies. We’ll arrange the meeting,” Peter Manseau marvels at “the danger of comic book notions of faith meeting comic book notions of nation,” concluding, “We are being held hostage by permanent adolescents.” The armed so-called freedom fighters are doing their best to bring their comic book, their superhero movie, their violent video game, or their Book of Revelation revenge fantasy (isn’t it all the same?) to real life, and their target list includes all of us who don’t accept their reality.

Great. We’re under assault from pathological comic book nerds. It’s a grim humor.