eerie, blistering cold

[Jonathan Lighter]

I
Newsindividuals have been saying "eerie" and "eerily" a whole lot over the
past few months,  with reference to similarities and resemblances.  First I
thought it would go away. But of course not!  CNN exx. include a report that
President Obama's "favorability numbers" are slipping, something "eerily
similar to what happened to Bill Clinton."

Also, the sitation in  Afghanistan is showing "eerie similarities to the
situation in Iraq before the Surge."

A cynic, unlike me, would claim that "eerie" now means "predictable," but
that would be incorrect.  It means "disturbing, troubling; (hence)
newsworthy."

II
Last night's two-hour History [sic] Channel extravaganza explained how the
Holy Grail was brought to America by refugee Templars who buried it Nova
Scotia in 1362, before moving on to carve the Kensington rune stone.  (The
proof is that when the sun shines through a window in a
fourteenth-century fortress in Rhode Island at the winter solstice, it
points directly to Minnesota. It was so long ago that it wouldn't
matter much if the Templars hadn't exerted their influence on the U.S.
Government: see the back of any dollar bill!)

The show mentioned that the Scottish clan Sinclair had to leave Greenland
for America in 1398 because of Greenland's "blistering cold."  For which I
find 25,000 Googlits.

Meanwhile, a study http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=11141949 shows
that 77% of Oklahoma high-school kids can't name the first president.

Nearly two thirds can name the two major political parties, though.

JL

--
"There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
Platypus"

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org