an engine component that increases the engine's impressiveness.

(n.) an insectivorous animal that exists primarily to be the first entry in dictionaries.

(n.) the people or groups of people in charge of running things, or in charge of preventing things from running for safety reasons. The Man.

❝are bad❞

There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying.

The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Pick a nice day and try it.


The first part is easy:

All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt.
That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.
Most people fall to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.
Clearly, it is the second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.
One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally. It's no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won't. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you're halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it's going to hurt if you fail to miss it.

It is notoriously difficult to prize your attention away from these three things during the split second you have at your disposal. Hence most people's failure, and their eventual disillusionment with this exhilarating and spectacular sport.

If, however, you are lucky enough to have your attention momentarily distracted at the crucial moment by, say, a gorgeous pair of legs (tentacles, pseudopodia, according to phyllum and/or personal inclination) or a bomb going off in your vicinity, or by suddenly spotting an extremely rare species of beetle crawling along a nearby twig, then in your astonishment you will miss the ground completely and remain bobbing just a few inches above it in what might seem to be a slightly foolish manner.

This is a moment for superb and delicate concentration.
Bob and float, bob and float.


Ignore all considerations of your own weight and simply let yourself waft higher.
Do not listen to what anybody says to you at this point because they are unlikely to say anything helpful.
They are most likely to say something along the lines of "Good God, you can't possibly be flying!"
It is vitally important not to believe them or they will suddenly be right.
Waft higher and higher.
Try a few swoops, gentle ones at first, then drift above the treetops breathing regularly.
DO NOT WAVE AT ANYBODY.
When you have done this a few times you will find the moment of distraction rapidly becomes easier and easier to achieve.

(also: boeing)
(also: airbus)

(n.) a stubbornly elusive piece of knowledge.

life is full of mysteries, such as:
what keeps us from achieving world peace? is it greg?
are we alone in the universe, and if so why does god have such poor space management skills?
what kind of meat is used in salami, really?
who killed mr. black, and with what, and in which room?
why must trustycoffeemug make so many references to classic rock?

a daily dietary staple of American cuisine. Freedom has been described as tasting like milk and/or honey. Thus America is known as the both the Land of the Free or the Land of Milk and Honey

common three-leaved plant famous for sometimes having four leaves

(n.) a particularly seditious form of vegetable; unlike corn, which is dutifully regimented in rows of stalks, potatoes tend to dwell underground, where they might be up to any kind of subversive activity

still, they can be served a lot of ways and most of them taste pretty good.

(n.) an institution in which groups of people come together in public prayer to recognize their deity

public prayer can also be observed in other places such as a casino, but in a casino the people praying actually mean it

A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating.
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

The urge to slap, hit, punch, kill, or otherwise physically harm your sibling.
Named after Cain who, in biblical canon, commited the first murder by hitting his brother on the head with a rock.
(also: fratricide)
(also: bible)

A liar in the caterpillar state.
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

meat from an animal that was happy to be slaughtered

(n.) the fan-made art of scanning, translation, and editing of comics from one language to another (usually with Japanese manga; usually without author permission but hopefully taken in good faith).
ostensibly, derived by combining 'scanning and translation', but works just as well with 'scanning and collation'. two portmanteaus with one word, though a pretty clunky one, all in all.

(also: manga)
(also: good faith)

(also: portmanteau)
(also: two birds with one stone)
(also: vegans, don't crucify me)

part of the former yugoslavia, known mostly for

...

well, this is awkward

(n.) a vehicle powered by pasta. well, in a roundabout sort of way.

containing an endearingly and oddly concentrated number of bibliophiles & preservers of books (comparitively worldwide): https://thefateofbooks.wordpress.com/2020/11/09/miran-ivan-knez-the-bukvarna-and-the-quest-to-ban-destruction-of-books/

(n.) an octopus that has crossed into our universe from the funhouse mirror dimension

(n.) an Australian creature similar to a dog; it rejects the human partnership of its domestic cousin in favor of a life of eating babies