(no subject)
Word of the Day for Thursday February 9, 2006
Nothing to report but tons of snow. More than we've gotten in years, I think. It's crazy. My dog usually loves the snow, but he's scared to go out in it now because it's up to his shoulder and almost engulfs him.
I don't know why this amused me so much. But it did.
deus ex machina \DAY-uhs-eks-MAH-kuh-nuh; -nah; -MAK-uh-nuh\,
noun:
1. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, a god introduced by means
of a crane to unravel and resolve the plot.
2. Any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an
apparently insoluble difficulty.
In times of affluence and peace, with technology that
always seems to arrive like a deus ex machina to solve any
problem, it becomes easy to believe that life is
perfectible.
--Stephanie Gutmann, [1]The Kinder, Gentler Military
But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that,
when situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any
natural force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation
from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or
some other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable
and institute the unobtainable.
--Stephen Jay Gould, [2]Questioning the Millennium
Nothing to report but tons of snow. More than we've gotten in years, I think. It's crazy. My dog usually loves the snow, but he's scared to go out in it now because it's up to his shoulder and almost engulfs him.
I don't know why this amused me so much. But it did.
deus ex machina \DAY-uhs-eks-MAH-kuh-nuh; -nah; -MAK-uh-nuh\,
noun:
1. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, a god introduced by means
of a crane to unravel and resolve the plot.
2. Any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an
apparently insoluble difficulty.
In times of affluence and peace, with technology that
always seems to arrive like a deus ex machina to solve any
problem, it becomes easy to believe that life is
perfectible.
--Stephanie Gutmann, [1]The Kinder, Gentler Military
But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that,
when situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any
natural force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation
from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or
some other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable
and institute the unobtainable.
--Stephen Jay Gould, [2]Questioning the Millennium