It’s Friday Eve, and we have snow on the ground, and chilly temperatures. I hope that this will translate to a comfortable temperature in the room where I’ve been training all week, which has been hot and uncomfortable, which makes staying awake an especially challenging task.
For those members of the class that couldn’t hear from the back of the room, about the origin of yesterday’s word. The word was used to describe a clan of Greeks, and the hero Achilles was one of them. He was the leader of the myrmidons. It also refers to two sub-families of ants.
I’m not sure what else to write here, so, I leave you with…
Today’s Word:
bantingism
As in:
The newest war for equality entered a new level this week when six people, who were booked on a smoke-free Carnival cruise, were kicked off the ship for smoking. Passengers sign an agreement that they will not smoke on the ship during the cruise, and if they are caught, the signed agreement allows the passengers to be removed and forced to find a way home at their own expense. Carnival recently stiffened the penalties to include a $250 “fumigation” fee to those caught lighting up on smoke-free ships.
Experts following the recent developments and the strong “antismoker/smoking” sentiment in the U.S. feel that such occurrences will become increasingly common, until the smoker becomes a despised minority. Several people feel that growing number of nonsmoking policies are a form of discrimination.
“This is the beginning of a war,” says one smoker. “First they take away our fundamental right to pollute our lungs, and then where will it end? Once they rescind our right to breathe as we wish, what will they take next? Our freedom of religion? Of speech? What about our right to eat what we want? Our freedoms cannot be stifled in this manner. It goes against everything that this country stands for.”
Nonsmokers are readying their offensive campaign against smokers, which involves lots of quick “sneak” attacks where smokers are known to congregate, and then a quick escape — on foot. “With our functioning lungs, the smokers don’t have a chance of catching us.”
And, since the completion of the huge tobacco settlement and the recession, smokers have been placed under severe economic sanctions by the nonsmoking world. The economic sanctions are proving quite disastrous to smokers, as the average price of a pack of cigarettes has risen to over $5.00, with highs of over $7 in New York and New Jersey. Those sympathetic with the plight of the smokers are encouraging that sanctions be softened and are suggesting a “food for smokes” program, which will allow food to be exchanged for the needed carcinogens.
This plan will reduce the amount of food consumed, and is hoped to be a kind of forced bantingism, decreasing the number of obese smokers, thus contributing positively to the health of the individual.
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Okay. That’s all for today. Type to you tomorrow.
bantingism: / BANT-ing-ism / a course of diet for reducing corpulence adopted and recommended by William Banting, a London merchant.
Word of the Day: bantingism
January 28, 2010 by