10 for 10 (10th entry): Three Hip Urban Slang Defintions............Defining Hottish with Tori Spelling

Greetings to our blog readers in the Netherlands, Argentina, and Burkina Faso....

We will be the first to admit that we should be at the gym in a yoga class or in a public library reading "Esquire," "Mental Floss," or "The Atlantic." But, we are here, and this will mark the 10th and final entry for a series commemorating the tenth anniversary of our blogging practice, which started on Sept. 21, 2005.

Today, we are going with three definition from The Urban Dictionary which have been slightly altered.

Tori Spelling, the former "Beverly Hills 90210" (original show) actress, is pictured here because she is the first woman who came to mind when we heard the term 'hottish.' The second woman who came to mind was Florence Henderson from "The Brady Bunch" (original version). And, the third choice was Sarah Palin (now, we are swimming over our heads).

To find out what that word and the other two urban slang words/terms of the day just keep reading, Angry Birds will be waiting for you when you are finished here:

1) Hottish: Somewhat hot. Although cannot be considered as 'hot,' a person who is hottish is not completely ugly either. (Our apologies to Ms. Spelling)....

2) Donald Trump: Living proof that money simply can not buy good hair.

3) More Issues Than Vogue:  When you imply that your amount of issues (personal problems) are greater than the amount of issues of Vogue (the magazine).

http://www.urbandictionary.com

Survey of the Best Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post (Oct. 19th edition)

Greetings to those of you reading this blog in Germany, Ukraine and Cyprus, and special greetings to those of you have just joined us after watching the Florida gubernatorial race debate between incumbent Rick Scott (R) and his challenger Charlie Crist (D) or for those of you who are already bored with the World Series, which is starting tonight.

This week, we really liked the "Pearls Before Swine" take on the old Abbott and Costello skit "Who's on First," but it was a week full of great comic strips in the Sunday Washington Post. The Danish import WuMo had Yoda, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh meeting in the children's section of a public library, perhaps they were in Hartford, Conn. (we have a gag about how we are posting from the Hartford Public Library even though we've never been in that building). "WuMo" got second place in our survey.

The bronze medal went to Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, no, we just said that to keep you from daydreaming; it actually went to "Rhymes with Orange" which features selfies from the whole family. We're sure our friends at the Urban Dictionary who have coined terms like 'shoefie' and 'brofie' got a hoot out of the Hilary B. Price strip (http://www.urbandictionary.com) The selfie gag is the reason why Kim Kardashian is in our top image slot.

We also enjoyed the educational comic strip "Mark Trail" which focused on various spiders like tarantulas (pictured center) and scorpions; the strip revealed that some spiders actually dine on fish?! Perhaps, they would like Red Lobster.

The cutting edge comic strip "Candorville" had a take on man seeing a shrink, and for that we are featuring an image of Lucy from "Peanuts," a nice comic strip that will probably be in newspapers until the year 2073, when Lucy will be 116 years old.

Here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. WuMo

3. Rhymes with Orange

4. Speed Bump

5. Sherman's Lagoon

6, Dustin

7. Lio

8. Big Nate

9. Mark Trail

10. Candorville

http://www.hplct.org/ (The actual web site of the Hartford Public Library)

http://www.slcpl.lib.ut.us/ (The actual web site of the Salt Lake City Library in Utah; they have 12,711 followers on Twitter)

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo

http://marktrail.com/

http://rhymeswithorange.com/

http://www.candorville.com

Quotes from Famous Authors (2 of 5): Margaret Atwood

"Being edited is like falling face down into a threshing machine," Margaret Atwood.

SIDEBAR: We learned from The Urban Dictionary last week that when a person takes a selfie of their shoes, it is called a ''shoefie.' We imagine it is popular with suburban narcissist women in places like Bethesda, Maryland, who want the whole world to see how they fit into their new Jimmy Choo high heels!

http://us.jimmychoo.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-jchus-Site/en_US/Default-Start?geoip=geoip

Quote of the Day: Famous Authors (1 of 5)

Alas, we did not get around to quoting authors of banned books during Banned Books Week last week. We know that Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., and other book stores, such as Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, NC, and the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo., probably took part as well.

There is also little doubt in our mind that many libraries and book shops banned D.H. Lawrence's erotic literary masterpiece "Young Lady's Chatterly," which has the distinction of being made into a cheesy sexplotation film that aired on late night cable in the 1980s and a highly respected French art film made just a few years ago.

Here is a quote from D.H. Lawrence:

"Never trust the artist. Trust the tale."

http://www.politics-prose.com/

http://www.malaprops.com/

http://boulderbookstore.indiebound.com/

SIDEBAR: This week, we are also referencing new slang word we have learned from the web site for The Urban Dictionary; they will not teach you these words in an ESL class at Guilford Tech Community College in Greensboro, NC (nudge, nudge, wink, wink):

'Walks on both sides of the street,' this is how someone in a rural hamlet like Welch, WV, will refer to a person who is bisexual; conversely, we presume it's risky to be a bisexual in West Virginia!

http://www.gtcc.edu/

http://www.urbandictionary.com/

http://visitwv.com/

Status Update- I am Vowing to Give Up French Fries

Ironically, I have decided to give up french fries starting on August 1st, even though I have nothing against France, a day before Bastille Day. Some believe that french fries actually originated in Belgium, which is celebrating its Independence Day on July 15th (Friday). And, there was the 'freedom fries' during the outset of the war in Iraq, which was started in part by Cong. Walter Jones (R-NC) who ironically would later question the George W. Bush administration's results with the Mesopatamian Mess.


According to "The Urban Dictionary," the French responded by calling American cheese, idiot cheese. Hopefully, this is all behind us now!

But, irregardless, for the sake of my own health, I am hoping that the fries I had today at a Burger King in Danville, Va., are the last ones I eat for quite a while!

I am reminded of how Morgan Spurlock, the documentary filmmaker who is my age and is from Beckely, West Virginia, about 80 miles from Roanoke, Va., where I grew up, when he went on his fast food odyseey for the film "Supersize Me." Spurlock's latest film "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" has just been released on dvd.

SIDEBAR: Dave Zirin, the sportswriter, for the liberal publication "The Nation" has written a column posted today which states that he will refuse to watch tonight's All-Star Baseball Game from Arizona because of the state's draconian SB-1070 bill, which takes radical, draconian measures to try to curb illegal immigration. As Zirin pointed out, many of today's top major league baseball players are from Latin America.

I am actually not big on boycotts for the simple reason that if you are a political conservative boycotting Citgo because it has petrol from Venezuela or if you are a liberal boycotting BP because of the notorious oil spill in Louisiana last year, you may well end up sitting on the side of the road.

But, I sympathize with Zirin's sentiments. As it is, due to time constraints, I have not watched a major or minor league baseball game all year. How are those Toledo Mudhens doing?