Random Miscellaneous Things

[bread-in-the-void]

um?

[randommiscellaneousthings]

... I need to use this in a roleplaying game that uses playing cards for its mechanics.

[importantcatpics]

[rickybabyboy]

secret methods

secret reasons

[randommiscellaneousthings]

Because cat

Because cat

[jeusussavearmyveteran1205]

[hatesaltrat]

I can hear this image

[randommiscellaneousthings]

... mine is sitting just over there.

[deepspacepirate]

One of my favorite tropes is post apocalyptic towns being named after dilapidated signs with missing letters, like Novac (no vacancy) and Eaden (dead end). There’s something inexplicable about it

[togepipi]

catch me in the city of fre shavaca do

[randommiscellaneousthings]

Ah, yes, and the protagonist: Lane Oneform. :)

[tagfer]

one thing they don't tell u is if it's niceys outside u can go outside to look at phone . just go under the shade. it's literally better vibes than being inside looking at phone

[tagfer]

I'm literally at the creek y'all

[randommiscellaneousthings]

Ah, live stream...

[millionsknives]

can you curry anything else or is it just favor

[millionsknives]

tim

[sufficientlylargen]

So "currying" a furry animal means grooming or brushing it with a currycomb, which in turn comes from the Old French correier meaning "to prepare [something]", because you prepare a horse for riding by brushing it; it's most commonly applied to horses but you can get e.g. currycombs for dogs.

If I understand correctly, medieval French folk tales considered chestnut-colored horses to be deceitful and tricky; the Old French word for a chestnut or dun horse was fauvel, and so the Old French expression correier fauvel, literally "to brush the chestnut horse", meant lying or being hypocritical for personal gain. This turned into "curry favel" in 15th-century English, and then mutated into "curry favor" over the next few centuries as people forgot about the horse.

So "currying favor" is really "brushing the Horse of Lies", and the reason you can't curry goodwill, or love, or hatred, or even disfavor is that we didn't have Horses for those.

And it follows that we can gain the ability to curry other things by assigning them to Horses.

[sufficientlylargen]

#google is backing you up on this (via @oldguardians)

I realize, looking back on this post, that regular readers of my blog may have thought I made this up. Making up a ridiculous etymology is certainly the sort of thing I might do; in fact I've been meaning to start a sideblog dedicated solely to sufficiently accurate etymologies, and have a notebook with dozens of them jotted down, I just haven't had the time to do anything with them.

But I want to stress that this is not one of those cases. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the very real etymology of the phrase "curry favor".

The Old French fauve or falve referred to the light-brown color that's sometimes called "fallow" in modern English, but since it also sounded similar to faux, meaning "false", it was also associated with deceit and trickery ; the idiom estriller Fauvel literally meant "to groom the fallow one" but idiomatically meant "to lie or trick people".

Then in the 1300s we get the French poem Roman de Fauvel, a satirical poem about a fauve horse, whose name is derived both from the color and from the fact that FAVVEL is an acronym of Flaterie, Avarice, Vilanie, Varieté, Envie, Lascheté (Flattery, Greed, Vileness, Fickleness, Envy, and Cowardice) - all the different vices that this horse embodies.

Fauvel (purportedly modeled after Enguerrand de Marigny [source], an advisor to King Philip IV) is a sinful, conniving, and very rich horse who has various religious and secular leaders fawning over him and brushing him; it was well-known enough that "grooming Fauvel" came to mean "sucking up to someone powerful" more than just "being evil", and when it was translated into English the grooming was translated as currying, which specifically is grooming a horse with a curry comb [wiktionary]. From this we got the Middle English expression "currying Fauvel", which then mutated via folk etymology (in the "reinterpretation of unfamiliar words as more familiar ones" sense, not the "people are wrong about etymology" sense) into "currying favor".

Curry favor in:

Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/curry_favor

Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/curry%20favor

Etymonline: https://www.etymonline.com/word/curry

[luminarygardens]

@elodieunderglass

[elodieunderglass]

Absolutely in line with my interests. I hope you appreciate @sufficientlylargen as much as we all should ❤️

[randommiscellaneousthings]

So, we can also then curry death, famine, pestilence, and war, as we know they've got horses.

[liarsblade]

Love a character who is neither trustworthy nor untrustworthy but another secret third thing.

[liarsblade]

Guy who can be relied upon to make the right choice 98% of the time but God that 2% is a fucking doozy.

[randommiscellaneousthings]

Hmm... a description I have used multiple times for a friend of mine:

I would trust him with my life, but I wouldn't trust him with my underwear.

[the-elf-draws]

Asking for directions

[bonetrader]

Oh… - zooms in - Ohh…

That puts a whole different spin on it. It’s amazing either way, but now I need a moment.

[mockva]

This guy's illusions are great

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[theomenroom]

when applied to drinks, "dry" means "without sugar". therefore it follows that sugary drinks can be called "wet". the meanings of the terms "hot" and "cold" when applied to drinks are obvious. thus the aspect of any drink can be determined.

for instance, green tea, freshly steeped and served without additives, is hot and dry, and therefore has an aspect of fire.

a mocha, on the other hand, while hot, is sweet, and therefore wet, and thus has an an aspect of air.

lemonade, which is wet and cold, has a water aspect.

finally, the drink which most epitomizes the earth aspect, being both cold and dry, is vodka

[jawline-of-steel]

We have once again returned to the four humors

[errorschacha]

The entire point of, OK, my phone really wants to call it Anastasia so I guess we’re doing that? The entire point of Anastasia (as administered by a board-certified Anastasiologist) during sugary. Sugary? Haven’t I suffered enough? The entire point of Anastasia during augury. Jesus Christ. Hold up. You know what, augury is preferable to sugary. Augury is obviously performed by an auger (makes sense if you give it a think) whereas sugary is performed by…? A sugardaddy? NO THANK YOU. Anyway. The entire point of Anastasia is so that you don’t know what music your sturgeon. Fuck right off. Was playing. While you were under. You’re not supposed to wake up from Anastasia and immediately realize you managed to get earwormed by Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” during your sugary.

[shamebats]

This paints such a beautiful picture

[drst]

"You are not part of the itinerary Jonathan"

[justsightseeing99]

tbh more of everyone needs to be like this like go into public

[couldntbedamned]

If you come across anyone who starts off with "Scientists don't want you to know..." you need to understand that they're lying. They're completely full of shit and working a grift.

Because they've never met or spoke with a scientist.

Scientists WANT YOU TO KNOW. Scientists want you to know SO MUCH. Scientists would be THRILLED to teach you EVERYTHING they know in EXPLICIT DETAIL. Scientists LOVE to share information and their findings and their theories. They don't want to hide anything, ever. They are SO HAPPY to share.

[randommiscellaneousthings]

Hmm...

Either they are trying to grift you, or...

Capitalism doesn't want you to know, because they haven't worked out how to make money from it.

Either way, talk to an actual scientist, because they will definitely want you to know the actual truth. Just make sure you have plenty of time, because once they start...

[googlemenot-deactivated20230921]

[coopergriggs]

That sound lol!

[only-tiktoks]

[heedra]

really and truly honored that my post about a simple little slurp one can have has made it this far

[that-house]

“I have two literature degrees and no words”

[jabberding0]

Ling Ting and his bicycles

t's hard to find out much about this guy... who appears to be named Ling Ting, from China. He has such a hilariously whimsical and imaginative energy, channeled into his bizarre but entertaining bicycle collection.