sarcast (plural sarcasts)  noun  One who speaks sarcasticly.  quotations ▼

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sarcast



Snarky vs. Sarcastic  Some have questioned whether snarky is a real word.  There can be no doubt that it is; the adjective has been recorded in English since 1906.  Its original meaning, “crotchety, snappish,” has largely been overtaken, however, by the far more frequently-encountered sense “sarcastic, impertinent or irreverent.”  The precise difference between utterances described as sarcastic and snarky will vary somewhat based on the individual using each word.  Some feel that sarcastic usually implies irony, or stating the opposite of what is really intended (for example, “thank you so much for your promptness” spoken to someone who arrives late), whereas snarky implies simple impertinence or irreverence (as when Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess asks Isobel Crawley, “does it ever get cold on the moral high ground?”)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sarcastic



Nov. 30 is Kåldolmens Dag (cabbage roll day).  This date marks the death of King Karl XII, who spent a great deal of time in the Ottoman Empire in the 1700s and influenced Swedish culture significantly.  According to the Friends of Kåldolmens Association, the day is celebrated as a reminder that Swedish culture has always been shaped in interaction with the outside world.  According to an unconfirmed theory, the Swedes in King Karl’s service used the dish name ("dolma" is Turkish for "filled") from Bender or Adrianopolis, both Turkish towns of the then Ottoman Empire, where the king and the army stayed.  Other imports from the same time are believed to have been coffee, meatballs and the word “kalabalik”—meaning uproar (there was “kalabaliken i Bender” while the king and his troops resided in Bender), a word that exists now only in the Swedish and Turkish languages.  The oldest evidence for dolmar cooked in Sweden is a recipe for just "Dolma" in Cajsa Warg's famous cookbook (1765 edition), cooked Middle Eastern style with vine leaves, minced beef (not pork) and lemon juice.  The recipe is preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm.  An alternative theory indicates that Turks came directly to Sweden to ensure that the large loans the Swedes had taken were repaid.  Today in Sweden, cooked cabbage rolls are usually prepared with ground beef mixed with boiled rice, salt and pepper.  Leaves from a boiled cabbage head are peeled off, and a dollop of minced mixture is added as a filling in a cabbage leaf, which is rolled up into one package.  Dolmen is browned in a pan and then boiled in a saucepan or fried into cabbage rolls in the oven.  Often syrup is added for color and flavor.  The kåldolmen is eaten with gravy, potatoes and sometimes lingonberries.  http://www.nordstjernan.com/news/traditions/6732/

Words usually used in their negative forms:  trepid, conscionable, ruthful, mutable

Ruthful is indeed a word that derives from an old definition of ruth meaning “the quality of being compassionate.”  But unpaired negatives, like ruthless, unkempt, uncouth, or disgruntled, are common words that lack positive correlatives in common speech.  https://www.waywordradio.org/ruthful/

Don't automatically assume that all change is for the better.  Don't automatically assume the grass is greener on the other side.

                                                                                                           

WAGYU--a Japanese beef cattle breed--derive from native Asian cattle.  'WAGYU' refers to all Japanese beef cattle, where 'Wa' means Japanese and 'gyu' means cow.  Wagyu were originally draft animals used in agriculture, and were selected for their physical endurance.  This selection favored animals with more intra-muscular fat cells--‘marbling’--which provided a readily available energy source.  Wagyu is a horned breed and the cattle are either black or red in color.  There is some evidence of genetic separation into the Wagyu genetic strain as much as 35000 years ago.  Modern Wagyu cattle are the result of crossing of the native cattle in Japan with imported breeds.  Crossing began in 1868 after the Meiji restoration in that year.  In Japan there are four breeds that are considered Wagyu and those are the Japanese Black (the predominant Wagyu exported to the U.S), Japanese Brown (in the U.S. referred to as Red Wagyu), Japanese Polled and Japanese Shorthorn.  There are no Japanese Polled or Shorthorns being bred outside Japan.  Wagyu strains were isolated according to prefecture (state) and breeds imported for crossing were not the same in each prefecture.  The production of Wagyu beef in Japan is highly regulated and progeny testing is mandatory.  Only the very best proven genetics are kept for breeding.  Realizing the value of their unique product, the Japanese Government banned the export of Wagyu and declared them a national living treasure.  Wagyu cattle were first imported in 1975 when two black and two red bulls were imported Morris Whitney.  In 1989 the Japanese began to reduce their tariffs on imported beef and that encouraged U.S. producers to produce a high quality product for Japan.  In the 1990’s there were several importations of quality Wagyu.  Most were black, but a few were red.  These cattle have the greatest influence on the U.S. herd and those in many other countries.  Most US production was exported to Japan until 2003 when BSE was discovered and Japan and other countries stopped the import of beef for the U.S.  However, chefs and others in the U.S. were aware of the superior eating quality of Wagyu and the domestic market then and now utilize much of the U.S. production.

https://wagyu.org/breed-info/what-is-wagyu  Wagyu is generally pronounced WAG-yoo and can be either singular or plural.  It’s sometimes capitalized.  https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/11/wagyu-waygu.html

High fiving is the universal triumphant motion—but who first created the celebratory hand slap?  There are actually a few people who lay claim to the high five.  One of the most popular high five legends is that Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glenn Burke invented the move in 1977.  During the last game of that season, the Dodgers became the first baseball team in history to have four players hit at least 30 home runs each in a season.  Burke, who was waiting for Dusty Baker to finish his home run, raised his hand in celebration and his teammate, not knowing what to do in return, smacked it.  Another origin claim is from the University of Louisville’s basketball team in the 1978-1979 season.  Supposedly, the team’s forward Wiley Brown went to give a low five to teammate Derek Smith, but Smith looked on and said “No, up high!”  Magic Johnson also suggested that he invented the high five playing college hoops at Michigan State.  https://nowthisnews.com/videos/sports/heres-where-the-high-five-actually-comes-from

“Canny” is a very cool word.  It first appeared in Scots and Northern English dialects as an adjective meaning “knowing, judicious, prudent, cautious,” and is simply based on the verb “can” in the sense of “to be able” (as in “I can fly”).  “Canny” was picked up by English writers in the 17th century, who applied it to the Scots themselves in the sense of “cunning,” “wily” or “thrifty,” in line with the English portrayal of Scots as clever and frugal.  The sense of “sharp” and “shrewd” eventually became more generalized, and today we use “canny” to mean “perceptive and wise”  One of the other meanings of “canny” back in Scotland in the 16th century, however, was “trustworthy,” and when “uncanny” first appeared it was in the sense of “malicious or incautious” (i.e., not trustworthy).  By the 18th century, “uncanny” had come to mean specifically “not safe to trust because of connections to the supernatural,” and eventually the word took on its modern meaning of “supernatural,” “weird” and “strange.”  So “uncanny” came to mean something quite different than simply “not smart.”  http://www.word-detective.com/2009/01/cannyuncanny/



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.  That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. - Emily Kimbrough, author and broadcaster (23 Oct 1899-1989)



http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2172  October 23, 2019