zugzwang

The Society for the German Language announced from Wiesbaden its selection for word of the year, a portmanteu GroKo for Große Koalition (Grand Coalition) for its characterisation of the political environment of post-election Germany—a surprising departure from the status quo and for the making of unlikely partnerships though the vote and the aftermath is fairly young and does not seem too influential in the grand scheme of things.

It beat out other candidates like Big-Data and Big Brother, referencing the spying and surveillance scandals, a descriptor for the Bishop of Bling for his extravagance and the new papacy's reforms, the idea of charging foreigners a toll for using the Autobahn (Ausländermaut), or Generation Sandsack for the increased and frequent flooding plaguing the country. The choice may prove prescient, however, as past title-holders have included candidates such as the novel term Bundeskanzlerin—federal chancellor-ess, to honour the first time the office was so inflected, in 2005 and enduring to the present, or Besserwessi, capturing the attitude of a newly-reunited nation with perceived and implied notions that westward-leading values and orientation were inherently better than those of reintegrated neighbours. To some extent the brunt of this thinking has shifted further east—mostly, but is still quite persistent in its application. What do you think? Could GroKo come to signify something like a marriage-of-convenience, a house-of-cards, or a pyrrhic victory in the future?

snowclone

Mental Floss shares a pretty keen list of winter-weather weather phenomena, not only for the stages of frost and snow— hoarfrost (Reif) and hard rime and thunder- snow—but also for optical effects created by nippy air, like a gloriole—from the term for a halo, an ice rainbow. The word snowclone (not a snow-cyclone) has come to mean some hackneyed phrase, a widely-employed saying, like aqua is the new black this season, a template, referring originally to widely-accepted—though probably linguistically incorrect, believe that the Eskimaux have dozens upon dozens words for snow and therefore... English has a plenitude of different and highly specific words for the weather and state of water, as well.

i wish i had a million dollars—hot dog!

Remember when Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life was a regular round, a continuum of the season, and one could just pick up or leave off at some point and still manage to catch the rest? I blame the media for the scarcity of air-time, but I suppose we're at fault for taking for granted the opportunity to wallow in all sorts of emotions over this cinematic classic.
The Week (via Neatorama) presents seven enduring life lessons from the film, and what better form could the reminding take (since these teachings are unfortunately also the most easily forgot) than watching this timeless film?
Among the more subtle points—which only come out in context and contrast—include the jolly, proper send-up when the Baileys christen the Martini's new home, counting ones blessings, and the interesting treatment of the cantankerous old bank and thief Mr. Potter, who is neither a reformed Ebeneezer Scrooge (someone who experienced something very similar to George Bailey with supernatural help) nor punished by the movie's conclusion, whose portrayal was considered typical of Communist propaganda and flaunted the US Motion Picture Code of Standards in effect in the 1940s that mandated that villains should be punished ultimately and before the ending credits, which was a conscious and intentional decision to reinforce the idea that sometimes bad people get away with bad things and there is not always resolution, though I could not imagine a better one.
I guess these and other points to consider, both subdued and over-arching, only are born out in analysis—not over-stepping appreciation by any means or lingering thoughts and moments of catharsis and are rather folded perfectly into the screenplay and experience.

rookie card

Artist Glen Brogan offers a rare, uncut series of iconic meme cards for swapping. These are great, like Garbage Pail Kids, something to trade and collect like baseball cards for someone not necessarily affiliated with sports fandom. The artist created these images for a gallery showing last year but I hope that more will be forthcoming, though fame and recognition is ever a relative and fickle thing. I firmly believe, however, so long as one person gets the reference—either now or later, it is all worth the effort.

pelagic waters or octopi, occupy

As an addendum to an earlier post, there is a tumble-blog (incidentally, the inter-webs though having an initial affection for the letter e, with e-commerce and e-mail and so on, seem to be launching an offensive against the vowel, easily elided for trade-marking sake) dedicated to propaganda featuring sinister octopodes called Vulgar Army, which includes, among many others, the advisement to know one's Communists enemies, which is baldly the inspiration for some latter day programmes.

disco fox

Boing Boing co-founder Cory Doctorow is sharing his discovery of the musical genre called Electro-Swing with a catchy introduction by the band Caravan Palace. It seems that similar strains were incident to some of the party scenes of the recent adaptation of The Great Gatsby and one can really picture flappers hustling to these re-imagined jazzy, Big Band sounds, nicely constructed from the classics of that era, but this style has roots that go back for quite a few years.