“I Put a Pishogue on You Because You’re Mine” -- The Colonel Carries On #26

By Ed Alia and Sue Forth

Epigraph: “Anyone who lies about Donald Trump is doing him a favor.” --Name Withheld for No Good Reason

A “pishogue” is a spell, incantation, or charm. It’s a borrowing from Irish, and occurs most often in Irish English.

Meet the chork (above). You’re welcome.

A “Brexpat” is a Brit who lives in Europe.

“Caucus” is a word of uncertain etymology. It could, seriously, be derived from a meeting of “caulkers” in Boston, pronounced the Boston way. It’s definitely not Latin, though.

“Kibosh” is another word of uncertain origin. So is "pishogue."

The winner of the oddest book title of the year contest was announced on March 18: “Too Naked for the Nazis.”

“Fewmets” are the droppings of an animal hunted for game, especially the hart, an adult male deer. By recognizing the differences between morning fewmets and evening fewmets, a hunter can tell how recently the animal was there.

“Heteropaternal superfecundation” refers to the situation in which twins have different fathers because two men have had sex with the mother in close succession. Its rarity is assumed rather than proved, because full investigation is awkward.

“Faceswapping” is taking a photo of two people and switching their faces. If you haven’t seen the wedding-day picture of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall with faces swapped, you don’t know what the word “bizarre” means. Send the children out of the room and I’ll show you:

Naldo’s odd advice from last week, “Always be around unsuccessful people because everybody will respect you.”

Last Trump thing for this issue: someone wrote about how anger on left and right is making many people “feel the Bern -- and the Trump.” Feel the Trump? Eeeeeww. Come to think of it, feel the Bern? Eeeew, too.

Have you ever noticed that in English, the name of no integer starts with the letter “p”? You’ve probably been too busy.

“It’s not the will to win that matters, it's the will to prepare to win.”  — Paul “Bear” Bryant

“None” has been used with a plural verb for more than a thousand years.

“Conscience is a barking dog: it can’t stop us from passing, but we can’t stop it from barking.” --Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Language is fossil poetry.” Does that stand up to analysis, even as a metaphor? Doesn’t it imply that poetry precedes language, and if so, what does that even mean?

Photo gallery time:

“Life is good”

Early Work on Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase"

Is this photoshopped or just another commuter waitin' for the helicopter?

"Hasta luego, baby. I'll be back."