Word Of The Day

[BayouCityGirl]

Weds: Hunker Down (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGHH) scream like its "Pee-wee's playhouse"

Thurs: Contra-Flow (AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHH!!)

[jmancuso]

well, i guess i oughta hunker down on that contra-flow.

[BayouCityGirl]

scream twice!

ARRGGH!!! ARGGGGH!!!!

[Heights2Bastrop]

I thought the word of the day was "gridlock".

[lowspark]

If you watch Neil Frank on channel 11, it's "wobbling".

[TJones]

New day New word ! "SCARE-TACTICS" I hyphenated it so it would work.You have to say it kinda fast and let it roll together. Thanks to all the local news teams, look at the shear insanity you people have caused our fair city. It is absolutely impossible to predict a hurricane, You can put up 200 "models" of where it might hit, and you will probably get one right. Now we have a roll reversal of Katrina, all the "aftermath" came BEFORE this damn storm even hit. we have 350,000 people stuck on the damn freeways passing out from heat exaustion and stranded motorists having heartattacks over what the hell they are gonna do now. I think poor Bill White has done as best he can except working with TXDOT to open all the freeways a little earlier for everyone. Sorry, I'm rambling, I'll stop.

[editor]

New day New word ! "SCARE-TACTICS" I hyphenated it so it would work.You have to say it kindly fast and let it roll together. Thanks to all the local news teams, look at the shear insanity you people have caused our fair city. It is absolutely impossible to predict a hurricane, You can put up 200 "models" of where it might hit, and you will probably get one right. Now we have a roll reversal of Katrina, all the "aftermath" came BEFORE this damn storm even hit. we have 350,000 people stuck on the damn freeways passing out from heat exaustion and stranded motorists having heartattacks over what the hell they are gonna do now. I think poor Bill White has done as best he can except working with TXDOT to open all the freeways a little earlier for everyone. Sorry, I'm rambling, I'll stop.

Is it TXDOT? I thought I just heard him on the radio saying that the decision was made by him and Judge Eckels.

[TJones]

TxDot owns those roads, not the city of Houston,your state tax dollars pay for them. Mayor has to get together with TxDot and have to get a plan to close off exit ramps and entrance ramps, then they have to move the concrete barriers, and get the state troopers involved. TxDot, has to take time to evaluate the "situation" and then decide whether they can spend the money and time to do it. It is a very large effort. It just should have been considered alot earlier than 25 hours into the evacuation IMO.

[jmancuso]

well, i guess i oughta avoid the scare-tactics and hunker down on that wobbling contra-flow.

[BayouCityGirl]

Can you imagine "Safe Clear" for ALL those cars/trucks/SUV's/18 wheelers?

OMG!

yea, heard scare-tatics one or two times and don't you love the word "Wobbling"

so where is Radar? (isn't he the weather dog) c'mon show the nation our cute adopted (gagging sound) dog who can predict how hot it is!

I want the latest toy: Radar in his "dopplar 2000 yellow rainjacket stuffed dog"

when is that getting sold at the nearest dept store?

[BayouCityGirl]

Sunday: Unleaded Only (No Prem. gas avail) -I may be wrong on this.

[dbigtex56]

I'm unclear as to how, exactly, one 'hunkers'. It sounds like it might cause cramps after a while.

Do people hunker in polite society? Can one be arrested for Public Hunkering? And is it ever OK to hunker up?

[editor]

I'm unclear as to how, exactly, one 'hunkers'. It sounds like it might cause cramps after a while.

Do people hunker in polite society? Can one be arrested for Public Hunkering? And is it ever OK to hunker up?

When you really want to hunker, but haven't hunkered yet it's called hankering for a hunka hunker.

[RedScare]

hunker down

phrasal verb US

1 to sit down on your heels:

- We hunkered down round the campfire, toasting marshmallows.

2 to make yourself comfortable in a place or situation, or to prepare to stay in a place or position for a long time, usually in order to achieve something or for protection:

- The press have hunkered down for the night outside the palace, waiting for news of the royal birth.

hunker down:

in Spanish | in French | in Italian |

in context | images

Adapted From: WordNet 2.0 Copyright 2003 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

hunker_down

A verb

1 hunker_down

hold stubbornly to a position; "The wife hunkered down and the husband's resistance began to break down"

Category Tree:

insist; take_a_firm_stand

╚stand_pat; stand_firm; hold_firm; stand_fast

╚hunker_down

2 squat, crouch, scrunch, scrunch_up, hunker, hunker_down

sit on one's heels; "In some cultures, the women give birth while squatting"; "The children hunkered down to protect themselves from the sandstorm"

Category Tree:

sit; sit_down

╚squat, crouch, scrunch, scrunch_up, hunker, hunker_down

3 hunker_down

hun

[N Judah]

New day New word ! "SCARE-TACTICS" I hyphenated it so it would work.You have to say it kinda fast and let it roll together. Thanks to all the local news teams, look at the shear insanity you people have caused our fair city. It is absolutely impossible to predict a hurricane, You can put up 200 "models" of where it might hit, and you will probably get one right. Now we have a roll reversal of Katrina, all the "aftermath" came BEFORE this damn storm even hit. we have 350,000 people stuck on the damn freeways passing out from heat exaustion and stranded motorists having heartattacks over what the hell they are gonna do now. I think poor Bill White has done as best he can except working with TXDOT to open all the freeways a little earlier for everyone. Sorry, I'm rambling, I'll stop.

If I remember correctly, at its most threatening there was only like a 10% chance of a direct hit on Houston. I forget which weather site I saw that on, but I remember reading it and being surprised that the odds were that low. Obviously with 10% odds *some* people should evacuate, but not quite *so* many. And for this I think i will blame the media. Even when the news dudes admitted that Rita most likely would take a sharp eastward turn they still liked pointing out that if it followed its path in a straight line it looked like it would hit Houston (accentuated with lines and arrows they helpfully drew on the screen for you, pointing straight at downtown).

[escapee]

I'm unclear as to how, exactly, one 'hunkers'. It sounds like it might cause cramps after a while.

Do people hunker in polite society? Can one be arrested for Public Hunkering? And is it ever OK to hunker up?

If one has "spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle," one most likely would want to avoid hunkering DOWN. Unless one ENJOYS that sort of thing. lol

[ssullivan]

If I remember correctly, at its most threatening there was only like a 10% chance of a direct hit on Houston. I forget which weather site I saw that on, but I remember reading it and being surprised that the odds were that low. Obviously with 10% odds *some* people should evacuate, but not quite *so* many. And for this I think i will blame the media. Even when the news dudes admitted that Rita most likely would take a sharp eastward turn they still liked pointing out that if it followed its path in a straight line it looked like it would hit Houston (accentuated with lines and arrows they helpfully drew on the screen for you, pointing straight at downtown).

Yes, but those strike probability numbers are always that low until right before the storm hits. I've never seen a strike probability number above about 15% more than 12 hours before landfall. Even at the time Galveston had a 10% chance, the numbers were about the same for Matagorda Bay, Freeport, Port Arthur/Sabine Pass, Cameron Parish, and almost all the way to Morgan City. You're reading way too much into that number. A 10% strike probability 72 hours out is really saying that there's a 10% chance of the center of the storm coming ashore at a single given point on the coast. When you're dealing with a category four storm (or even a large three, as this one was at landfall) that's several hundred miles wide, you can't wait until that number becomes a 20% chance, or 50% or even 70%. You have to take action immediately when dealing with a metro area the size of Houston/Galveston. This storm could have just as easily come ashore west of where it did; even if it had been just 30-40 miles west of where it hit Houston would be in a lot worse shape than it is now.

A 10% hurricane strike probability number is not at all like the weatherman saying there's a 10% chance of a rain shower tomorrow afternoon. It's an entirely different animal when you're dealing with a storm the size of Rita, and about 200 miles of coastline that's all got a strike probability around 10%.

[ssullivan]

The remnants of Rita have brought severe weather to Mississippi and Alabama today. Earlier this afternoon I had to take shelter (I did not "hunker" down, up, left, right, or in any other direction) in the bathroom of my hotel room as a severe storm with a rotation in it passed over. It was quite unsettling hearing the civil defense sirens all going off and the TV coming on and reporting that a storm that had rotation was coming right for my neighborhood. Fortunately no tornado touched down.

It is going to feel sooooo great to be back in Houston in my own bed tomorrow! This trip has really drug on.

[2112]

My favorite:

"Cone of Uncertainty"

HAHAHAhahaha.

I gotta figure out where else I can use that one!

[west20th]

My favorite:

"Cone of Uncertainty"

HAHAHAhahaha.

I gotta figure out where else I can use that one!

I kept thinking of the "cone of silence" on the old "Get Smart" show whenever they said that.

[TJones]

My favorite:

"Cone of Uncertainty"

HAHAHAhahaha.

I gotta figure out where else I can use that one!

Maybe next time a buddy of yours picks up a questionable girl at the bar. You can ask him if she may have a "Cone of Uncertainty." in her pants.

[dbigtex56]

I kept thinking of the "cone of silence" on the old "Get Smart" show whenever they said that.

hehe! That crossed my mind, too.

Another 'word of the day': folks.

When did people, or motorists, or evacuees, or citizens all become 'folks'?

There's only one person to blame for this, of course. He Who Knows Only One-Syllable Words.

[MidtownCoog]

I really don't see how you can find fault with the word "folk"

From MW:

Main Entry: folk

1. a group of kindred tribes forming a nation

2. the great proportion of the members of a people that determines the group character and that tends to preserve its characteristic form of civilization and its customs, arts and crafts, legends, traditions, and superstitions from generation to generation

[nmainguy]

Perhaps Brownie was in a "Cone of Uncertainty" when he "miss-spoke"-as he put it in today's hearings-about just finding out about dying people in the NO convention center.

Therefore, in honor of Brownie, I nominate "miss-spoke" as today's "Word of the Day".

[ssullivan]

Another 'word of the day': folks.

When did people, or motorists, or evacuees, or citizens all become 'folks'?

There's only one person to blame for this, of course. He Who Knows Only One-Syllable Words.

It is very country sounding. I will never forget W's first public statement on the morning of 9-11 when he said "We're going to find the folks that did this." Sounds like something straight out of an old western after the town outlaws have stolen someone's horse.

[MidtownCoog]

OK, Bush bashing again...

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English folc; akin to Old High German folc people

Maybe we should have Websters remove the word from the dictionary since you don't like it.

Should "country sounding" (whatever in the world that means) words be removed from our lexicon?

We might as well remove all the Yiddish gibberish while we are at it.

Oy vey!

[sevfiv]

you have to admit that "folks" is might easy to say...especially when you're unter-eloquent

[MidtownCoog]

Considering the audience, folks is pretty appropiate.

Think hard on that one...

[BayouCityGirl]

Its funnier when non-southerners say "y'all"

[west20th]

Its funnier when non-southerners say "y'all"

I'm a non-southerner. It may sound funny when I say y'all but it rolls off the tongue much better then you'ns (east Ohio and west Pa.). And it's waaaaay better then youz-guys.

[RedScare]

OK, Bush bashing again...

It's not Bush-bashing...it's Bush-laughing.

[BayouCityGirl]

depending on where I am I can change my accent. A little bit does slip occassionally. My personal fav. is def. Canadian!

here's a good laugh. Watch the "Enron" movie filmed in Canada and listen to how wannabe Texans who are Canadian speak like they are from the south. OMG it was hilarious listening to their "trying" accent!

[dbigtex56]

I really don't see how you can find fault with the word "folk"

I don't find fault with the word, but I do fault the context in which it's being used. 'Folks' suggests an informal, casual, familiar relationship. One doubts if newscasters have such a relationship with hundreds of thousands of evacuees or storm victims.

Bank tellers who have the audacity to call me by my first name, rather than my title and surname also annoy me. There are times when formality is called for, and others when informality is permissable.

I resent that language is being stripped of its subtleties.

[nmainguy]

I don't find fault with the word, but I do fault the context in which it's being used. 'Folks' suggests an informal, casual, familiar relationship. One doubts if newscasters have such a relationship with hundreds of thousands of evacuees or storm victims.

Bank tellers who have the audacity to call me by my first name, rather than my title and surname also annoy me. There are times when formality is called for, and others when informality is permissable.

I resent that language is being stripped of its subtleties.

"Bank tellers who have the audacity to call me by my first name, rather than my title and surname also annoy me. There are times when formality is called for, and others when informality is permissable.

I resent that language is being stripped of its subtleties."

I could not agree more.

nmainguy bows to dbigtex.

[TJones]

New day, new word. DIVERSITY !

[ssullivan]

"Bank tellers who have the audacity to call me by my first name, rather than my title and surname also annoy me. There are times when formality is called for, and others when informality is permissable.

I resent that language is being stripped of its subtleties."

On my many recent trips to the Deep South for work, I've noticed an annoying habit of store clerks and restaurant servers to call people things names like darling, babe, and hun. Growing up in a rural part of Texas I've witnessed this before, but not with the regularity I see it in states to our east. I do find it annoying when the woman taking my drink and food order tells me "I'll have this right outt darlin'." We've never met, I am not your "darlin'" and I have no intent on ever becoming that. (Now if you have a cute brother in his late 20s/early-mid 30s who's single and likes guys then maybe we should chat ).

Anyway, dbigtex summed up my feelings about the use of the word "folks." I have no problem with the word itself, just its context in certain situations.

[west20th]

On my many recent trips to the Deep South for work, I've noticed an annoying habit of store clerks and restaurant servers to call people things names like darling, babe, and hun. Growing up in a rural part of Texas I've witnessed this before, but not with the regularity I see it in states to our east. I do find it annoying when the woman taking my drink and food order tells me "I'll have this right outt darlin'." We've never met, I am not your "darlin'" and I have no intent on ever becoming that. (Now if you have a cute brother in his late 20s/early-mid 30s who's single and likes guys then maybe we should chat ).

Anyway, dbigtex summed up my feelings about the use of the word "folks." I have no problem with the word itself, just its context in certain situations.

I only dislike the term "folks" because it is a favorite of Bill O'reilly. "I don't care what the elites think, I'm just looking out for the folks". Aaaah, I can sleep at night knowing 'ol Bill is looking out for me.

[editor]

Bank tellers who have the audacity to call me by my first name, rather than my title and surname also annoy me. There are times when formality is called for, and others when informality is permissable.

I resent that language is being stripped of its subtleties.

I always make it a point to correct them in a very stern voice. Especially when I'm talking to credit card companies, etc... on the phone. I haven't had to do it to one of these calls outsourced to India yet, but I'm interested to see what happens.

[BayouCityGirl]

I chat it up with the people in India like "what time is it there?" (I think night when I call) but normally when I had to re-order "Direct Energy" service I had a guy from India who could barely speak English and I told the manager if I had a choice I would NOT use this service! But because they were cheaper I went with Direct Energy. I just got frustrated they got people on the phones who don't know how to speak english you cant understand them b/c their accent is too thick.