Sex on Lake Balaton? Just rock my boat!

Sexy Summer on Lake Balaton?

The tourism authority in Balaton, Hungary is trying a new approach to attracting young visitors. Maybe they're trying to follow the well-known saying that "Virginia is for Lovers," a slogan that has endured for over thirty years. If that's the direction they're taking, than maybe their campaign on behalf of Lake Balaton should be called "Balaton is for Sex." We could also call it "Trolling for Tourism."

They have released a brief cartoon video [NSFW] depicting a young blonde woman having sex with an apparently married male tourist in a rowboat on the lake. The film, set to a popular local '80s song, shows the woman taking off her bra to the obvious pleasure of the man. They do what comes naturally (with two little cartoon bees accompanying them throughout their tryst) and as they lay in the boat afterwards in post-coital ecstasy, the tourist is shown hiding his wedding ring as the blonde gazes loving at him. If you can read Hungarian (I can't), then maybe Tékozló Homár can explain it better.

Since there wasn't much to explain the video, I did a little digging and found that the music is a remix of KFT's "Balatoni nyár" ("Balaton Summer"), originally released on the band's 1986 album Siker, pénz, nők, csillogás ("Success, money, women, glitter"). The video seems to closely follow the story laid out in the song, and this is supposed to be the loose English translation:

We were sitting on the pier watching the light dance on the water;
We enjoyed how good that conventional (or cheesy) situation was;
I remember how I waited for that blue-eyed girl at the ferry;
And of course she didn't come;
because that's what blue-eyed girls are like;

I was sitting in a boat with a girl and all moral chains fell from us;
Nobody could see us, because the reeds are thick;
I was in love and the truth would've hurt that girl;
I looked into her eye and said I wasn't married

Not meaning to sound picky, but the video showed the tourist wearing his wedding ring on his right hand. So do Hungarians wear their wedding bands on their right hands?

The region around Lake Balaton was a popular tourist spot for Hungarians, Germans and east Europeans at one time, but its popularity has dropped a bit in the past few years, and this season's start is "sluggish" according to The Budapest Times. Some visitors think that Lake Balaton is a great place to spend some time, but others don't. The tourism authorities said in a statement, "The marketing campaign is aimed at selling Balaton as a travel destination primarily for the young generation."

That statement seems strange when the video rejoices in the fact that the male half of the twosome is married to someone else. The cartoon ends with him droving home with photos of his vacation flashing in his memory... as that bee accompanies him on the trip.

The "The Official Touristic Homepage" offers plenty of "Linkajánló" (links) to activities for the "young generation" that they seem to be marketing towards. There is an annual Miss Balaton beauty contest, with a number of beautiful entrants. Who know, maybe there will be a Miss Universe contender there. There are discos, such as Flört and Dexion. There is the Coca-Cola Beach House, the Aquapark and a bobsled ride on rails called Balaton Bob. There are young ladies cavorting on the beaches in bikinis. There are churches, restaurants and places to stay, but when one searches for sex in a boat in Balaton, there are no references. If one googles this, one ends up with... stories or links to the aforementioned cartoon video. Even Hungary's great portal site, caboodle.hu, offers no results.

So if you had your heart set on having sex (or fscking) in a rowboat in Lake Balaton this summer, you'll have to start from scratch, just like the guy in the cartoon. Then again, you could always complain to the Hungarian state tourism bureau, Magyar Turizmus Rt, and see if they can help you out.

Here's a link to the full-screen version of the NSFW video.

Another view, probably pretty realistic, of Lake Balaton:

Tourist authorities would love for you to visit this summer, though this video doesn't make the place appear very inviting if you love the water. But never mind, just stay out of rowboats if you visit and are planning on enjoying sex there.

Additional Hungarian photos (some NSFW) from the tabloid Színes Bulvár Lap. Cultural background, useful if one is planning a visit

And so, our lexidiem is trolling.

Tags: adultery, balaton, balaton is for sex, balaton sex, balatoni szex, fscking, humor, hungary, lake balaton, miss balaton, nc-17, nsfw, sex, sex in a boat, szex, tourism, trolling, virginia is for lovers, wedding band

Updated: 7/27/2006

I want to go to Kipling and meet Kyle MacDonald

I want to visit Kipling, Saskatchewan. According to their Website, the Town of Kipling has a population of about 1,100 people, who appear to not only enjoy a quality lifestyle, but seem to be very friendly as well (see these photos).

Kipling is also the new home of Kyle MacDonald, the young Canadian man who traded the now-famous One Red Paperclip for a house in Kipling. For those who might have missed it, Kyle started with one red paperclip on July 12, 2005, made an interesting series of trades, and announced that he would be trading with the Town of Kipling for a three bedroom, two story house located on Main Street.

As he put it in the beginning:

one red paperclip.
one house.
one year.

Not only was this an amazingly creative thing to do, he has created quite a following, making him a bit of a cult hero to many. His Website has had over six million visitors since July 12, 2005, and the number keeps going up. It's an example of intuitive self-marketing at its best. Just follow the series of trades he made to get this house, including the trade he made with rock star Alice Cooper, then one for a paid role in an upcoming Corbin Bernsen movie called Donna on Demand.

Is Kyle a PR consultant, a marketing manager or advertising whiz? No, but he could teach all of them a thing or two about
promotion. He's a writer and a trade show rep. He runs a number of blog sites, and some of them are absolutely hilarious, including one requesting that the Queen of England politely asks the Canadian government to remove her head from all Canadian coins - except for the fifty cent piece. There's even a petition for one to sign on that issue, so go for it.

But credit is also due to Kipling's Town Council and local development coordinator Bert Roach. Once they found out about the available role in Corbin Bernsen upcoming production, they showed amazing foresight and marketing perception in moving quickly. They made Kyle an offer he couldn't refuse: a house.

And Kipling is a town of less than 1200 people, with this kind of marketing savvy?

So kudos to Kyle and his lady, Dominique, for reaching your goal… and in only 14 trades. And congratulations go out to the Town Council, Bert Roach and residents of Kipling for presenting such a friendly face to the media in July 2006 during all the media coverage.

Kipling’s Website has a slogan: ”Where If Becomes Reality.” Looks like this little town knows how to live up to their motto. Yes, I do want to visit your town.

By the way, it's great to see that Kyle has a great sense of humor. You can see on his site that you can join the One Red Paperclip FAN Club for free.

So, our lexidiem is paperclip.



Tags:
kyle macdonald one red paperclip 14 trades paperclip lexidiem kipling

Mickey Spillane, You'll Be Remembered

Legendary author Mickey Spillane, the creator of the best-selling, "hard-boiled" Mike Hammer detective novels, died Monday in his hometown of Murrells Inlet, SC. He was 88.

Born Frank Morrison Spillane in Brooklyn, NY, began his writing career during high school. After a brief time at Kansas State Teachers College, he returned to New York City to work in retail, but that bored him.

Spillane's true avocation was writing, so he found a job with a firm known as Funnies, Inc., a firm which later became Marvel Comics. There he wrote wrote text fillers and scripts for comics such as "The Human Torch" and "Edison Bell, Boy Inventor," and was one of the originators of the
"Captain Marvel" comics.

His first book, "I, the Jury" was written in only nine days. It became such success that he quickly produced five more Mike Hammer detective novels 1950 and 1952. "The Long Wait" (1951) sold 3 million copies in a single week in 1952. There were many young men from that era of the '50s and '60s who were quite "moved" for lack of a better term) by prose like this:

"No, Charlotte, I'm the jury now, and the judge, and I have a promise to keep. Beautiful as you are, as much as I almost loved you, I sentence you to death."

(Her thumbs hooked in the fragile silk of the panties and pulled them down. She stepped out of them as delicately as one coming from a bathtub. She was completely naked now. A sun-tanned goddess giving herself to her lover. With arms outstetched she walked toward me.

Lightly, her tongue ran over her lips, making them glisten with pssion. The smell of her was like an exhilarating perfume. Slowly, a sigh escaped her, making the hemispheres of her breasts quiver. She leaned forward to kiss me, her arms going out to encircle my neck.)

The roar of the .45 shook the room.

Charlotte staggered back a step. Her eyes were a symphony of incredulity, an unbelieving witness to truth. Slowly, she looked down at the ugly swelling in her naked belly where the bullet went in. A thin trickle of blood welled out.

I stood up in front of her and shoved the gun into my pocket. I turned, and looked at the rubber plant behind me. There on the table was the gun, with the safety catch off and the silencer still attached. Those loving arms would have reached it nicely. A face that was waiting to be kissed was really waiting to be splattered with blood when she blew my head off. My blood. When I heard her fall I turned around. Her eyes had pain in them now, the pain preceding death. Pain and unbelief.

"How c-could you?" she gasped.

I only had a moment before talking to a corpse, but I got it in.

"It was easy," I said.

Like so many others, I read "I, the Jury" at a rather young age, and felt that I had gotten away with reading something really erotic, but not really pornographic. Actually there were other books that had their "really dirty" sections, such as Grace Metalious' "Peyton Place" (1956), and later any number of novels by Harold Robbins, but there were many Mickey Spillane books to choose from, and they all seemed to have a certain comfortable familiarity to them.

Many of Spillane's Mike Hammer novels were made into movies, including the film classic "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955). Spillane himself starred in "The Girl Hunters" (1963), in which he played his creation, Mike Hammer. This was one of the rare occasions in film history where an author of a popular character later depicted his own character.

He married his second wife, Sherri Malinou, in 1965. She was a model who later posed in the nude for the cover of his book "The Erection Set" 1972. He dedicated the book to her.

Spillane appeared as a writer who is murdered in the TV series Columbo. He also appeared in a series of commercials for Miller Lite beer, which parodied his tough-guy image. Often criticized for his writing style and characterizations, with book sales of over 200 million, he remains one of the most successful writers of this era.

Mickey Spillane was apparently a victim of cancer. He wowed millions with Mike Hammer's shoot-'em-up sex and violence will be remembered by many of us.

Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.
~ Mickey Spillane

It should also be noted that another South Carolina resident, Robert Brooks, died of natural causes on Sunday at his home in Myrtle Beach. He was 69.

Brooks was the chairman of the Hooters restaurant chain famous for its scantily clad waitresses, and he made his fortune from the firm which uses the slogan "Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined" for its style of cuisine and service.

Hooters opened its first restaurant in 1983 and Mr. Brooks, with a group of other investors, bought franchise rights a year later. "Good food, cold beer and pretty girls never go out of style," he told Fortune magazine in 2003.

This coincidence makes one wonder if Mickey Spillane and Robert Brooks knew each other.

Lexidiem: "hard-boiled"

Technorati tags
Mickey Spillane
Mike Hammer
Robert Brooks
Hooters
lexidiem

Why I want to visit SJSU's English Department

I want to visit the Department of English & Comparative Literature at San Jose State University for the sole purpose of meeting Scott Rice, Ph.D. in person. Dr. Rice is obviously held in high esteem on the academic front, since he’s the Department Chair. His research interests cover the range of satire, grammar, British & European novels and commercialism in education.

Even more important, Scott Rice is the originator of the the world-famous Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, an annual competition for would-be writers that challenges them to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.

The contest is named after a minor Victorian novelist, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose novel Paul Clifford began with the (now-infamous) sentence:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."
~ Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Inspirational words, aren't they!

In any case, you can find a whole lyttony (Scott Rice's pun, not mine) of the gems that were presented for consideration this year at the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest site, including the prose of Jim Guigli, this year's winner. Don’t miss the wonderful listings and examples from past winners and runner-up entries. They’re well worth the trip.

Just reading them serves as inspiration for me to try my hand in 2007. Then maybe I’ll get to make my trip to SJSU, and shake the hand of the man who made this all possible.

See my progress at: Department of English & Comparative Literature on 43places.com.

Bulwer-Lytton
Jim Guigli
google
lexidiem
lyttony

You can google, but don't Google!

It's official, you can now google someone. Just don't say that you're going to Google them.

According to Merriam-Webster Online, google is now recognized as a verb. To some of us this isn't new, because using google as a verb has been going on for years.

goo·gle. transitive verb. 'gü-g&l 1. to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web. Inflected Form(s): goo·gled; goo·gling. Usage: often capitalized. Etymology: Google, trademark for a search engine.

Example 1: "I need to google for a map of Florida."
Example 2: "Wanda was googling for a new boyfriend yesterday."

Incorrect usage: "You can Google, but you can't Yahoo! to find that!"

Just remember, Google™ is a proper name, a trademark identifying Google Inc.’s search technology and services, while google is proper if it's used as a verb.

By the way, there's a sample online of the nearly 100 new words and senses from the 2006 copyright version of the best-selling Merriam-Webster's Collegiate^® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition which should be available in most bookstores this fall.

Sometimes we google to do a little lexpionage, as we search out new words and phrases. And then there's the massage that warns you of what will happen if you google yourself. If you take your googling experience serious enough to want to know what's hot, then you can always visit the Google Zeitgeist site, where you can "search patterns, trends, and surprises." And if you want to get the story behind some of the top queries in a video fashion, visit Google Current.

You can have fun while googling:

What does "Google" mean - officially?

The name "Google" is a play on the word "googol," which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. A googol refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by 100 zeros. A googol is a very large number. There isn't a googol of anything in the universe -- not stars, not dust particles, not atoms. Google's use of the term reflects our mission to organize the world's immense (and seemingly infinite) amount of information and make it universally accessible and useful.

More interesting information about Google, Inc. can be found here, or you could just google it.

Tags: google googling googled merriam-webster lexidiem

2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Winner

The winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for 2006 has been announced.

Jim Guigli of Carmichael, California, submitted 64 entries into this year's annual contest, which is sponsored by the English Department at San Jose State University. Mr. Guigli is a retired mechanical designer who impressed the judges with his "appalling powers of invention," according to Scott Rice, a professor in SJSU's Department of English and Comparative Literature.

Here's a sample of the entry which gave him top honors in this years contest:

"Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you've had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean."

Guigli is said to have commented that he had aspired to write detective novels at one time but, "I never got a good start on it."

Professor Scott Rice has organized the bad writing contest since its inception in 1982. Since then, it has drawn thousands of entries each year, and the judging has been covered quite extensively by the press.

Guigli will receive the traditional "pittance" (said to be $250.00) as a reward for his winning entry. Guess that now raises him from the ranks of an amateur to a professional writers.

The annual contest is named for Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" began with the frequently-mocked beginning, "It was a dark and stormy night."

It should also be noted that in his day, Bulwer-Lytton was possibly more popular than Charles Dickens, who was a contemporary. The line was also made popular by Snoopy's typewriter excursions in the Peanuts comic strip by the late Charles M. Schulz.

There's an extraordinary Lyttony of Grand Prize Winners which lists all of the winners since 1983, and some of these entries are truly extraordinary, including this jewel from 1992 by Laurel Fortuner:

"As the newest Lady Turnpot descended into the kitchen wrapped only in her celery-green dressing gown, her creamy bosom rising and falling like a temperamental souffle, her tart mouth pursed in distaste, the sous-chef whispered to the scullery boy, 'I don't know what to make of her.'"

Note to Professor Rice: though the verb "google" is now recognized by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it doesn't list the word "lyttony" but it can be seen being used (perhaps improperly) in a few areas in the 'Net. Is this word perhaps just a 1st Baron Lytton pun on "litany" or am I a bit off track here?

Congratulations to Jim Guigli, the 2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winner!

And our lexidiem is lyttony.

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
Bulwer-Lytton
Jim Guigli
google
lexidiem
lyttony

The REAL Paris Hilton - Exposed!

Paris Hilton - a Virtual Tour

OK, let's face it, we've all seen the ads for the Paris Hilton video taped in Las Vegas in 2001. Some may have actually seen the whole thing or bought it on the Internet. From the stills and short clips that are available, it was obviously filmed in the dark, so the the quality was grainy and exceptionally poor. There was a second tape that surfaced with supposed better quality, along with numerous open leg and open blouse shots seeming to pop up all over the 'Net.

Though the hardcore Paris Hilton sex video attracted a lot of attention, it proved that she's a born self-promoter, despite her occasional protests to the contrary. Recently she said that she gets "insecure sometimes."

Paris is the first-born in the latest generation of the Hilton family of 4-star hotel fame. She's also known for being a part-time fashion model, an actress and (more than anything else) a high-society party girl.

But you probably knew all this already from all of the news and tabloid articles that seem to surround her every move.

What you probably didn't know was that there is a new virtual tour available on the Internet, and it doesn't cost a penny. The quality is definitely up there, and it's truly a creative masterpiece. Without further ado, here is...

Paris Hilton - a Virtual Tour!

And if you really want some truly revealing Paris Hilton pictures, completely free, and without having to pay by credit card, just check here for an entire gallery of them.

You'll have to agree: when it comes to Paris Hilton, getting there is half the fun!

If you've been following the items above, you've already gotten the drift of this, so now it's time to shift gears a bit. Don't know if you remember it, but Paris Hilton was in an exclusive interview on Saturday Night Live in 2003, soon after her first videotape had been made public. Jimmy Fallon asked certain revealing questions of Ms. Hilton, such as:

• Is it hard to get into the Paris Hilton?
• Do they allow double occupancy...
• Do they have a ballroom...

See the complete video on YouTube.com or here (where you can download a copy). The short but hilarious transcript is available here.

Credit where it's due: Many thanks to April Winchell's Blog of 6/8/2006 (NSFW!) for inspiring this posting - cracked me up when I read her thoughts.

Paris Hilton video
Paris Hilton
hardcore
sex
virtual tour
YouTube
April Winchell

Paris Hilton with camera

Posted by: lexidiem on Buzznet

Paris Hilton with camera
Paris Hilton, using all her expertise and experience at being in front of a camera, doing what she does best: posing.

On second thought, maybe posing is what she does second best.

Paris Hilton

Flickr Testr

Testing flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Same images, but one on the left was resized.

flickr

Dynastic Wealth and the Lucky Sperm Club

FORTUNE Magazine broke the story on June 25, 2006 that Warren Buffett would be giving over $30 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Brace yourself," Buffett warned editor-at-large Carol Loomis with a grin, then described what he was going to do.

The press had a field day, and numerous news conferences were held with Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates in attendance. The Christian Science Monitor reported on Mr. Buffett's gift on June 28th in an article entitled A new era for supercharged philanthropy, noting that the gift "doubles the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's size to $60 billion, about five times the assets of the No. 2 Ford Foundation."

There were television interviews, such as the great one on June 26th with Charley Rose. One of the best ones came out in the New York Times (June 27, 2006), and there was straight-talking Warren Buffet bluntness, right there in print. To those who thought that he might be giving the lion's share of his billions to his three children, Mr. Buffett was direct as usual. "I don't believe in dynastic wealth," he said, calling those who grow up in affluent circumstances "members of the lucky sperm club." (see: lettrist: Two richest americans vow to fight "lucky sperm club" )

Wait a minute... dynastic wealth is pretty straightforward. But what is the Lucky Sperm Club? I must confess that I had never heard the term before.

For the first term for our lexidiem, we could simply define it as:

dynastic wealth,
n. 1. The inherited wealth of established upper-class families. 2. A person, family, or lineage possessing inherited wealth. 3.Old money (this as opposed to nouveau riche). [Borrowing quite liberally from Bartleby.com]

For the next term, the Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary has just recently defined it as:

lucky sperm club
n. jocularly and as a group, children who inherit from wealthy parents, especially when the children are seen as undeserving. Categories: English. Slang.

Citations:
1987 David Greising Chicago Sun-Times (Dec. 13) "Trump's greatest project: Himself" p. 18: He says Barron Hilton, heir to the Conrad Hilton hotel empire, belongs to the "Lucky Sperm Club."

1994 Michael Young Rise of the Meritocracy p. xvi: Even if it could be demonstrated that ordinary people had less native ability than those selected for high position, that would no mean that they deserved to get less. Being a member of the "lucky sperm club" confers no moral right to advantage. What one is born with, or without, is not of one’s own doing.

2006 Landon Thomas Jr. New York Times (June 27) "A $31 Billion Gift Between Friends": As for any thought he might have had in giving the bulk of his billions to his three children, Mr. Buffett was characteristically blunt. "I don’t believe in dynastic wealth," he said, calling those who grow up in wealthy circumstances "members of the lucky sperm club."

So it looks like our lexidiems here are pretty synonymous, for all intents and purposes. The term "dynastic wealth" seems pretty cut and dry... very dry. The term "lucky sperm club," however seems to have a number of references available, and some of them are quite humorous. A Google search of "lucky sperm club" shows over 150,000 entries, with a few of the most memorable being:

• George W. Bush for President in Campaign 2000
  The Lucky Sperm Club by George W. Bush, Charter Member. Like most Americans, I, George W. Bush, started out as a single sperm. However, unlike most people, ...
• Lyrics to The Lucky Sperm Club
  Complete lyrics to a the Lucky Sperm Club by the Reggae group The Toyes
• The Blog Arianna Huffington: Bush and Sulzberger
  Features Arianna Huffington's "Lucky Sperm Club" Quiz. And if you want her take on the members of the Lucky Sperm Club, don't miss this quiz.

It's interesting that Wikipedia recognizes neither the terms "lucky sperm club" nor "dynastic wealth" if that means anything. However, it does show several entries for "old money" so perhaps an astute Wikipedia editor could correct these simple oversights.

There is a downloadable Lucky Sperm Club MP3 track from a Canadian band known as Half-Baked. Seems to have nothing to do with what we've covered here, but you can be the judge. Maybe the irritating noises I was getting had to do with my personal audio setup.

Speaking of Arianna Huffington, there's a great video clip of her on the Bill Maher Show on October 21, 2005, one where she was discussing "Plamegate" with him. Towards the end of the segment, the following discourse took place:

MAHER: --you know, for something far less, that started with Whitewater. This is – where could this go? Where is this in two years?
HUFFINGTON: Here's where it goes. This story is bringing together two men: George W. Bush and Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of the New York Times—
MAHER: Right.
HUFFINGTON: --who are really charter members of the “lucky sperm” club. You know, the—
MAHER: The “lucky sperm” club?
HUFFINGTON: Yeah, you know what I mean.
MAHER: I have never heard of that club.
HUFFINGTON: They got there – they got there because of who they were born to.
MAHER: Wow.
HUFFINGTON: And what we have here is basically – to paraphrase Pete Hamill – “they were born on third base and they thought they hit a triple.” And now they're busy trashing the stadium. And it's about time that we stopped them. That we stopped George W. Bush, and that we stop Sulzberger. [applause]
MAHER: Arianna Huffington, everybody! [cheers]
Source: HBO Broadcast Transcript, 10/21/2005, Episode #321

Seems like I'm not the only one who had never heard of the Lucky Sperm Club until recently.

Found that there is an 83-foot motor yacht named Lucky Sperm, usually found in the San Francisco Bay area. It's owned by Cam Theriot, who is one of the heirs of the San Francisco Chronicle. It is said that he has had some luck breeding racehorses, which could be one of the reasons for this yacht's interesting name. According to nautical journal 'Lectronic Latitude, it is based in Climax, PA. Mr. Theriot is also involved in desert racing, and his team name is (now just guess) Lucky Sperm Racing, and he displays a rather characteristic logo on the side of his vehicle. Mr. Theriot is reported to be a benefactor to the Canary Foundation, St. Jude Children's Hospital and a number of other worthwhile causes.

The multi-talented Ben Stein, (lawyer, writer, actor, humorist, economist, etc.) wrote an interesting column in the New York Times entitled "First, Tame That Envy. Then Give Thanks." In it he discussed the things he had to be grateful for, then ended with the following observation:

Anyway, this was my gratitude list, or at least a small part of it. You can have a list, too, though yours may well be totally different from mine. Viewed this way, we're all in the lucky sperm club, and it's a great day. It may change tomorrow, but as someone a lot better looking than I am said in the best movie ever made, "Tomorrow is another day."
New York Times, April 9, 2006

So, on behalf of all of who aspire to be regular members of the Lucky Sperm Club, we'll just keep plugging away and try to follow Ben Stein's advice. And for those who are card-carrying colleagues of that elite group, please try to follow the examples of Warren Buffett, and let him be your mentor.

lucky sperm club
dynastic wealth
no pule zone
Arianna Huffington
George W Bush

Here's to Warren Buffett... Lucky Sperm Club?

musement park: here's to warren buffett
A great man, a wise man, a self-proclaimed member of the "lucky sperm club."

I know that he's way up there in the wealth category, but what is the Lucky Sperm Club?

We may have another lexidiem here...

Happy Birthday, America!

Independence Day July 4th, 2006

Today and every year on July 4th, we Americans celebrate our Independence Day. It's a day of parades, patriotic celebration and family cookouts, often followed by evening fireworks. This holiday has deep roots in our tradition of political freedom, a time there are many speeches extolling our American traditions and values.

Celebration
If anything (other than hot dogs or other types of food) is associated with the 4th of July, it has to be fireworks. Displays are common in almost every community across the nation. Public celebrations, parades, picnics, barbeques and family get-togethers are common. Many of us choose escape the heat at beaches, pools and other vacation spots.

It's interesting to note that construction of some important public works have begun on Independence Day. The Washington Monument, the Erie Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad all broke ground on July 4.

Reflection
One of our most erudite Founding Fathers, James Wilson, addressed a Philadelphia assembly on Independence Day in 1788, encouraging his fellow citizens to ratify the proposed Constitution. "What is the object exhibited to our contemplation?" he asked. "A whole people exercising its first and greatest power-performing an act of sovereignty, original and unlimited!"

Our second President, John Adams, stated that this holiday "... will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded Americans during those gloomy moments of World War II that July 4 was a symbol of "... the democratic freedom which our citizens claim as their precious birthright."

President George W. Bush issued a traditional proclamation on June 26, 2006. He also spoke outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 2001, stating that the Declaration of Independence continues to represent "... the standard to which we hold others, and the standard by which we measure ourselves. Our greatest achievements have come when we have lived up to these ideals."

However you choose to celebrate it (right now we're ducking raindrops), have a Happy 4th!

BTW - be sure to check this out:

• Spark It Up!!!: Fireworks, a Marriage of Art and Science

If you're into fireworks, it's well worth the visit, but be careful!

The lexidium is Independence.

The Word of the Day is...

Here's an interesting question: why isn't there a single word that means "Word of the Day?"

Well now there is, and Ironic Sans had it listed as follows:

• Lexidiem. n. sing. lek-si'-dee-im. (preferred) lek-si-dee'-im (altern. accepted) 1. Word of the day. [Modern American English, from Greek lexis (word) and Latin diem (day), reflecting the hodgepodge of international roots that make up Modern American English words].
  
  Example 1: "Lexidiem is not this blog's only lexidiem."
  Example 2: "Dictionary.com features a lexidiem section."
  Example 3: "The Merriam Webster Dictionary on-line has a lexidiem, too."
  
• Incorrect usage: "Lexidiem-of-the-day."

It looks like Double-Tongued Word Wrester has added the word to their dictionary as well. They also have a lexidiem of their own, with mailings five days per week. Another writer had commented that the term verbadiem was more appropriate, noting that that one should not mix Greek and Latin forms, and that in Latin, lex is "law." Maybe so, but we'll go along with the others who have agreed with David at Iconic Sans that lexidiem seems to be an appropriate definition.

Further, it looks like lexidiem has been nominated in Wiktionary as a featured word candidate.

Lexidiem