word of the day

[philip nod]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Zeitgeist \TSYT-guyst; ZYT-guyst\, noun:

[Often capitalized] The spirit of the time; the general intellectual
and moral state or temper characteristic of any period of time.

The best writers of that predawn era were originals who had the zeitgeist by the tail.
-- Gary Giddins, Visions of Jazz: The First Century

As most critics and all professors of cultural theory note, Madonna is nothing if not a skilled reader of the zeitgeist.
-- "Techno 'rave' just the same old Madonna", Chicago Sun-Times, March 3, 1998

Besides, the zeitgeist seems to be working against any hope of Hormel officials to limit...the usage of [the word] 'spam' on the Web.
-- Gracious Concession on Internet 'Spam', New York Times, August 17, 1998

Like other figures who seem, in retrospect, to have been
precociously representative of their times, Kerouac was not simply
responding to the Zeitgeist, but to the peculiarly twisted facts of his own upbringing.
-- Jack Kerouac: The Beat Goes On, New York Times, December 30, 1979

Zeitgeist is from the German: Zeit, "time" + Geist, "spirit."

[whatisit]

Re: word of the day



Okay. Apparently, Philip, when you declared Zeitgeist the word of the day you pulled on some serious weird strings in the universe or something.

Story time: Today a friend and I drove to Seattle to drop his car off to get some work. Our plan was to take the bus to the Amtrak and take that home. Soo, after eating we wait for the bus that will take us downtown, or so we think. It's nighttime and there isn't many people, quickly everyone filters off so we're the only people on the bus. We drive forever through neighborhoods until we pull into an entirely treed dead end area, where he stops the bus and turns the engine off. We were confused and getting nervous as he says (keeping in mind we can't see him at all) "Looks like you got on the wrong way." I say "um... we're supposed to be going downtown" "Yep, you're on the wrooong bus. This is end of the line. We're going to Everett now" I throw my head against the seat in front of me. Not only is seriously creepy, all silent and bathed in purple line, but we're totally fucked. "Just kidding," he deadpans "I'm a serial killer and I'm going to kill you"

!!!!!

It would be laughable in any other situation but at the moment it was seriously un-effing-funny.

"Just kidding. I'm too lazy to kill people." Still monotone. Finally he makes eye contact with me through the rear view mirror and smiles. "You know what, I think I have something you should watch" and he stands up, rifles through his bag walks all the way to the back of the bus and plops a DVD on my lap "Zietgeist- the movie"

Weirdest day ever.

Throughout the way back he got less creepy but no less weird. At stops he would occasionally walk back and hand me audiobooks and other things he wanted me to have. I didn't really feel comfortable until we entered the city lights again.

[philip nod]

Re: word of the day



f'ing great, i mean, killer story. the serial killer line is priceless. whole thing would make a great short film. thank god people are lazy. ha ha. but that is a serious bummer. the wrong way into the backwoods....

i guess i should have prefaced the word of the day with my own little story:

my german living in germany girlfriend has been staying w me for the past week and of course she has witnessed w horror my SZ addiction, i even made her take the "goodbye cruel year" pic about 30 times to get the right one...

so i told her last night my new years resolution would be to not look at SZ for a week. well i woke up today looked at my gmail account and in the mail from dictionary.com i get a word of the day. of course, it's zeitgeist. (w,g,w.) so i had to come on and post it, and of course that lead to other posts...

[whatisit]

Re: word of the day



Sometimes I feel like my life is a collection of bizarre short films.

I think your downfall was trying to make a New Years Resolution. I'm mostly a lurker, but it seems to me that one thing SZer's are not good at is denying themselves things that they enjoy. Nonetheless, she might need a gold star for taking all those photos. ;)

[RADO]

Re: word of the day

My post is not related to yours but it could be with the weird Whatisit?s story.

Last week I was hanging around at night with some friends ending up in a cosy bar. I was holding a MMM bag, posting here the picture which was stolen from the place where I left it. It was amazing the way they did it since all our overcoats were just above. We only discover it when leaving. Right away I cancelled my credit cards since my wallet was inside with everything there. Then, when going home totally depressed suddenly I bumped into the bag just in a street closed by. Few things were remained but I found the BAG. Some people were around just drinking, some other passing by but nobody grab it. I could not believe they did not pay attention to this gorgeous piece. I was at the same time furious and happy for finding the bag.

[mortalveneer]

Re: word of the day



Lu·per·ca·li·a /?lup?r'ke?li?, -'ke?ly?/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[loo-per-key-lee-uh, -keyl-yuh] ?noun, plural -li·a, -li·as. a festival held in ancient Rome on the 15th of February to promote fertility and ward off disasters.

Given the vast amount of historical Roman knowledge with which Stealth has already graced this board, he's probably well-aware of this of this obscure holiday, but I thought I'd toss it out there for the rest of you guys...

[Faust]

Re: word of the day

alas, he will not be able to answer you.

[mortalveneer]

Re: word of the day



[quote user="Faust"]alas, he will not be able to answer you.
[/quote]

Get rid of the alas, and you will have a true statement. [86]