“…Americans are in a state of fear, and that fear has been manipulated by militarists and political opportunists to lead ordinarily decent people to the conclusion that we can be safe only by wiping out others.”

[via BKO]

Main Entry: ap.o.ca.plec.tic

Pronunciation: “a-po-ka-‘plek-tik

Function: adjective
Etymology: French or Late Latin; French apoplectique, from Late Latin apoplecticus, from Greek apoplEktikos, from apoplEssein, from English apocalypse
Date: 2002
1 : state of extreme agitation over the end of the world
– ap.o.ca.plec.ti.cal.ly /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb

Example: “George became quite apocaplectic when he discovered that the genetically-altered virus targeted his genome.”

[Originally posted at Feral Living, which is now sort of broken.]

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My wife tells me Austrians have the highest driving fatality rate in Europe. It’s not surprising, they combine the aggression of German drivers with the lack of discipline of Italians, the melancholy Slavic death wish with the English penchant for driving on the wrong side of the road. So all I could say was, tell me about it. In the middle lane minding my own business, I said. Left (passing) lane totally empty. Guy zooms up right behind me, passes me on the right, I said. Or this morning, a crazy woman on my bumper all the way into town, although I’m doing the speed limit. Then we hit traffic and slow down, she stays right on my bumper as if that’s going to speed up traffic. Then when we merge into another road, she crosses three solid lines to pass me. Zoom.

Stop it, you’re making my head ache. Why do you always rant like this.

Or that guy in the smokey little white compact with the refrigerator tied to his roof, did I tell you about him?

Look, I’ve been driving that stretch a lot longer than you have, she said. Don’t you tell me. Why do you let them get to you?

Because their aggression puts my life at risk, I said. And did you see how all the daffodils are blooming out front? And in the back yard too? And that purple thing, I think it’s a hyacinth?

??? she said.

And did you see how cute the little one was, sleeping with her stuffed animals?

???

To make the small one’s toast more entertaining this morning, so she’d eat faster so we could get out of the house earlier so I could fill my car’s tank at the gas station, I applied the Nutella in horizontal stripes.
“There. Now you have Tiger Toast.”
“Could you please make more stripes perpendicular to those? I’d like a checkered pattern instead.”
So I did.

On page 17 of today’s Vienna edition of the Austrian newspaper “Der Kurier” is an article entitled “Alkohol in Naschereien: Eine Gefahr f

There must have been shock in Baghdad and awe in Paris last week when the White House announced the news that Palau had joined the “coalition of the willing.”

Contemplating War in the Land of Peace