attila the hun

trustycoffeemug
attila (b. probably circa 406 AD) was a king of the huns and also ruled over a number of tribes in central asia and eastern europe between 434 and 453. he spent a lot of his time in office beating up the roman empire, which heaved a giant collective sigh of relief when he finally passed away on his wedding night. after that the huge kingdom he built basically dissolved into infighting.

sort of a western prototype for genghis khan.

according to a german opera-writer he is also the brother of brunnhilde, valkyrie and apparent queen of iceland, though he doesn't do much in the story besides marry Kriemheld (who wants revenge for the death of her husband siegfried, who was killed because he had a love triangle going with brunnhilde because he'd helped his friend woo her and yadda yadda yadda, there's a magic treasure involved or something)

web

trustycoffeemug
(n.) a complex thingy made of various interconnected bits of stuff. the web of a spider is made of silken strands strewn in a net-shape between tree branches and other detritus. the web of political intrigue is made of backstabs and power-grabs strewn between taxpayer dollars.

alternatively, "web" may also be a distinctly radical way of saying "the internet."

person-first

jason
having the adjective after the noun in nominal form joined by 'with', such as 'a person with autism' (rather than 'an autistic' or 'an autistic person'), 'a person with bisexuality' (instead of 'a bisexual' or 'a bisexual person'), or 'the person with presidency' (instead of 'the president' or 'the presidential person')

scambaiting

orikami
(v.) going to war with scammers of various sorts and wasting their time. often entertaining when produced as youtube videos/ twitch streams. also thought to inflict an opportunity cost on the scammer, as they cannot spend that time on an actual naive/ vulnerable person (victim).
there's a small hesitation with completely falling into the mindset of "scammers are evil" and therefore "scambaiting is justified and even righteous" because, well, it's not addressing poverty & other social problems that have sprung this kind of behaviour to begin with... it's like chopping off the dandelion stem, but not even digging up the roots.
but to watch a few hours of scambaiting content, or do some scambaiting (in phone call or email format) yourself, is a valid form of entertainment and, to a lucky few, this provides a proper income.

(also: scam)
(also: scammer)
(also: opportunity cost)
(also: mindset)

serial

the devils dictionary
A literary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine. Frequently appended to each instalment is a "synopsis of preceding chapters" for those who have not read them, but a direr need is a synopsis of succeeding chapters for those who do not intend to read them. A synopsis of the entire work would be still better.
The late James F. Bowman was writing a serial tale for a weekly paper in collaboration with a genius whose name has not come down to us. They wrote, not jointly but alternately, Bowman supplying the instalment for one week, his friend for the next, and so on, world without end, they hoped. Unfortunately they quarreled, and one Monday morning when Bowman read the paper to prepare himself for his task, he found his work cut out for him in a way to surprise and pain him. His collaborator had embarked every character of the narrative on a ship and sunk them all in the deepest part of the Atlantic.

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

black madonna

orikami
(n.) a madonna who is depicted with dark skin. found from Italy to France, to Spain, to Philippines, to South America. a patron saint of outsiders, often.
"Research into the Black Madonna phenomenon is limited due to a wide consensus among scholars that the dark-skinned aspect was unintentional." something in art, something on the outskirts of mainstream religion, found across *many* instances -- unintentional? the silliest thing I've read in some time now! it may be metaphorical & symbolic, or it may be literal, or (most definitely) it may vary across the cities and centuries, but it sure is intentional. and that outskirts/ outsider thing -- yea, you bet it is addressing an otherwise-unfulfilled need of the community.

Guadalupe, Spain (crying olive oil):
black madonna
Poland:
black madonna
Prague:
black madonna

https://www.matthewfox.org/blog/the-return-of-the-black-madonna-a-sign-of-our-times-or-how-the-black-madonna-is-shaking-us-up-for-the-twenty-first-century
https://podcastaddict.com/episode/123051483
https://www.missmelindasmetaphysicalservices.com/blog/cult-black-madonna-our-lady-guadalupe
http://libgen.rs/search.php?req=black+madonna&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def
https://www.goodreads.com/search?page=1&q=black+madonna&qid=WPqLt3m3OA&tab=books

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/793242.Longing_for_Darkness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1197067.The_Black_Madonna_In_Latin_America_And_Europe
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28648036-faces-of-the-black-madonna

kiwi

trustycoffeemug
(n.) an ovular blob fruit, consisting of a scrubby fuzzy skin encasing a ball of green flesh with more seeds than a tommy gun magazine has bullets.

(n.) a flightless bird with scrubby fuzzy plumage

(n.) one hailing from new zealand, a scrubby fuzzy country that floats about near australia

all in all a very versatile word

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