the game is: guess the subject matter before watching the eponymous video.


(also: beef)

(also: eponymous)

in ancient egypt: a poo-bah, a big shot. the king (not elvis... except in semipopular musical stageplay "joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat")

a direct translation to english apparently would be "great house"

(n.) that wire chicken you sometimes see perched on top of buildings, pointing in the direction of the wind.

also called a weathercock. under no circumstances should you compress both of these words together to create a vaneycock.

(n.) something you won't enjoy until you've acquired some taste.

A certain literary quality frequently observed in popular novels, especially in those written by women and young girls, who give it another name and think that in introducing it they are occupying a neglected field of letters and reaping an overlooked harvest. If they have the misfortune to live long enough they are tormented with a desire to burn their sheaves.

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

land of paprika, goulash, and bushy mustaches

(1818-1883): an unruly german whose writings on political economy and good labor relations formed the basis for our modern understanding of communism.

debates will be ongoing on whether he would have approved of any of his fans from russia

One of the few characters of the Grecian mythology accorded recognition in the Hebrew. (Leviticus, xvii, 7.) The satyr was at first a member of the dissolute community acknowledging a loose allegiance to Dionysus, but underwent many transformations and improvements. Not infrequently he is confounded with the faun, a later and decenter creation of the Romans, who was less like a man and more like a goat.
(also: mythology)

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

(also: Birthday Suit)

In America the chief executive office of a county, whose most characteristic duties, in some of the Western and Southern States, are the catching and hanging of rogues.

---

John Elmer Pettibone Cajee
(I write of him with little glee)
Was just as bad as he could be.

'Twas frequently remarked: "I swon!
The sun has never looked upon
So bad a man as Neighbor John."

A sinner through and through, he had
This added fault: it made him mad
To know another man was bad.

In such a case he thought it right
To rise at any hour of night
And quench that wicked person's light.

Despite the town's entreaties, he
Would hale him to the nearest tree
And leave him swinging wide and free.

Or sometimes, if the humor came,
A luckless wight's reluctant frame
Was given to the cheerful flame.

While it was turning nice and brown,
All unconcerned John met the frown
Of that austere and righteous town.

"How sad," his neighbors said, "that he
So scornful of the law should be —
An anar c, h, i, s, t."

(That is the way that they preferred
To utter the abhorrent word,
So strong the aversion that it stirred.)

"Resolved," they said, continuing,
"That Badman John must cease this thing
Of having his unlawful fling.

"Now, by these sacred relics" — here
Each man had out a souvenir
Got at a lynching yesteryear —

"By these we swear he shall forsake
His ways, nor cause our hearts to ache
By sins of rope and torch and stake.

"We'll tie his red right hand until
He'll have small freedom to fulfil
The mandates of his lawless will."

So, in convention then and there,
They named him Sheriff. The affair
Was opened, it is said, with prayer.
—J. Milton Sloluck


(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

possibly derived from "looming naughties," which sums the concept up rather nicely

(n.) a mammal too stuck-up to slum it on the ground with the rest of us, the nocturnal bat takes to the air on wings made from the leathern webbing betwixt their long creepy fingers, using its unearthly shrieking to track prey

contrary to popular legend, bats do not drink the blood of human beings (or at least do not leave witnesses)

(n.) step two if your beloved has been cut to pieces in a fairytale: now pour the living water, the water of life. rejoice, for your beloved is with you once more! do not drink the living water. the gods frown on you testing their goodwill so. the water of life is for sacred purposes, not petty thirst. be on your way now, you still have a ways to go on your quest.

https://nicholaskotar.com/2018/10/05/living-and-dead-water/

(also: dead water)
(also: magical water)
(also: slavic folktales)

Professional grifter, gaslighter, narcissist, serial abuser of intimiate partners, drug addict, gold digger, fame chaser.

Dedicated to some religious purpose; having a divine character; inspiring solemn thoughts or emotions; as, the Dalai Lama of Thibet; the Moogum of M'bwango; the temple of Apes in Ceylon; the Cow in India; the Crocodile, the Cat and the Onion of ancient Egypt; the Mufti of Moosh; the hair of the dog that bit Noah, etc.

---

All things are either sacred or profane.
The former to ecclesiasts bring gain;
The latter to the devil appertain.
—Dumbo Omohundro

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

(n.) a large feline predator of south asia that takes a rather odd approach to camouflage but is always dressed in the right colors for halloween parties

some also come in monochrome and tones of gold

Exposed to a mutable ownership through vicissitudes of possession.

---

His light estate, if neither he did make it
Nor yet its former guardian forsake it,
Is portable improperty, I take it.
—Worgum Slupsky
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

(n.) without hair; the condition of baldness in human men is often taken as a sign of dignified maturity, or at least that's what bald men are repeatedly assured

the minutia in a debate that is what it is you're arguing about

euphemism for milkshake