themusecalliope

calzephyr posting in

Bokmakierie - noun.

It's been a while since I posted a bird word! The bokmakierie is a member of the shrike family and found in Southern Africa. Like other shrikes, it preys on other birds, frogs, insects, and lizards. It's name comes from one of it's particular calls, bok-bok-mak-kik, which you can hear in this video.

By Alandmanson - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: We all probably have multiple WiPs, but which of yours has been hanging around longest, waiting to be finished?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Location: my desk

impala_chick posting in

polyamships

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prettygoodword

pongee (pon-JEE, PON-jee) - n., a light slub-woven fabric, usually raw silk but sometimes cotton or rayon.

Slub-woven fabrics use yarns of varying thickness, made by varying the strength of the twist -- sometimes the thicker parts are large enough to be noticeable, producing slubs. The word's been used in English since around 1710 and, given it was known from being a Chinese export, it's clearly taken from some Chinese dialect -- and given the era, I'd expect it to be Cantonese-or-related because Western merchants traded in southern China, but most dictionaries instead claim it's from Mandarin 本机, běnjī, glossed as meaning "one's own loom." Even aside from the question of what Westerners were hearing any Mandarin (which was the Beijing dialect), 本机 isn't actually a word in Mandarin. I mean, it can be understood as one's own machine, but 机 in itself doesn't mean loom, but any kind of machine -- loom is 织布机, zhībùjī. One dictionary hedges their bet with a perhaps and puts an asterisk of unattestation in front of běnjī, but still. OED claims it's from Mandarin, either běnjī, home-loom, or běnzhī, home-woven (presumably 本织), and that last is the only one that remotely makes sense.

---L.

marmolita posting in

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dine

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darlingsquid posting in

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myrtlebroadbelt posting in

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badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

lycomingst

I am not as amused by squirrels destroying my plants as I was by having a deer in my backyard.

prettygoodword

grice (GRAIS) - n., (chiefly Scot.) a young pig, the meat of a young pig; a breed of pig, now extinct, of the Highlands and Scottish Islands.

Plus a few other meanings, such as an alternate spelling of grece, an English dialect word meaning a flight of stairs, and as a slang verb, to trainspot. I honestly don't remember which sense was being used when I came across this and jotted it down, but it was probably the main entry above -- a sense that goes back to Middle English in the form gris, itself from Old Norse gríss, piglet.

---L.

simplyn2deep posting in

1word1day

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Beholden (adjective)
be·hold·en [bih-hohl-duhn]

adjective
1. obligated; indebted: a man beholden to no one.

Other Word Forms
un be·hold en adjective

Related Words
grateful, obligated, obliged

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
Synonyms
obliged, bound, grateful, liable.

Origin: 1300–50; Middle English, adj. use of beholden, old past participle of behold

Example Sentences
He warns that this may put them "in a position where they're beholden to China".
From BBC

That may seem baffling, but at Monday’s press preview, Miller spoke about how figures praised as Black dandy icons are “still beholden to the whims of the institution.”
From Salon

She’s no longer the woman thrown to the floor and beholden to her abuse, as we see in flashbacks.
From Salon

Lyle: I think an important question is, how much are you beholden to your family?
From Los Angeles Times

They seem not to want to be beholden to any actual constituency and are hoping to raise money from large dollar donors.
From Salon

fred_mouse posting in

unclutter

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

dine

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greetingsfrommaars

well, i can't say i've particularly enjoyed the past couple of months at work, but i'm sticking around... for now...

it has gotten warm enough to walk home from work :) the most dogs i've seen on the way home so far this year is 14! i've also started figuring out alternate public transit routes to avoid sportsball crowds on the subway when there's home games. can you believe the options aren't just "get squished between strangers in a metal tube" or "walk the entire way home every time"?

finally put together a fanwork permissions statement! it's basically me saying that i welcome fanworks based on my fanworks, with some caveats. (for more information, see Fanlore or this tumblr page.) personally i found it really useful to reference other ao3 writers' profiles for examples of specific things to allow/disallow.

it does feel ironic to be talking about permissions now in light of the recent scraping of ao3. neither a web scraper nor its thieving user is going to blink twice at a permissions statement of all things. (that sign can't stop me because i can't read! /meme) every few months i wonder to myself, is it finally time to restrict my works to logged-in users? haven't reached that point yet though... the scrape picked up locked fics anyway, and preventing scraping would have been my main reason for locking them 🥲

had one day where i got sucked into doing these kpop quiz/puzzle things on sporcle and had fun! i was only able to get like 70% of the tbz song crossword 😔 100% of the strands puzzle though.

and finally, i saw a couple of my friends in person for the first time in almost six years!! went on a trans-atlantic trip to visit one of them, and attended the wedding of the other! featuring their dog as the ring-bearer. really cute.

Current Music: one ok rock - the last time

jesse_the_k

On day one, she was beautiful, and brave, and ready to cuddle. She was underweight, so her sleek black-and-brown body just fills an oval bed. Staring right at the camera with hope and trepidation, her stuffed alligator rests in front.

( Click for pic )

Today was her last day.

( Euthanasia, generally described )

donut_donut posting in

little_details

Hi! I'm writing a novel that takes place in the French Pyrenees (modern day), and I'm trying to figure out what plants to place in this fictional garden.

More info:
The novel takes place at a villa owned by a middle-aged bohemian lady who moved there from Paris maybe a decade ago. Gardening is her hobby. In the back of the house is a potager (vegetable garden), and I've got that covered. But the front of the house has a flower garden, and I don't know so much about that.

It doesn't need to be plants that are native to the region, but it has to be plausible that they would be available and could thrive there. It's summertime (late July-August), and I would like there to be flowers, because we often see her pruning the old blooms. I assume rose bushes would work, but I would love some other options to work with. I've been picturing something like hydrangeas or rhodedendrons, but I don't know how common they are in this environment.

Some kind of ornamental tree would also be nice, for a character cry under. A flowering tree or large bush would be nice but not necessary.

She has somewhat offbeat tastes, so anything off the beaten track would be great, but it has to make sense for the climate.

Thank you!

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

yourlibrarian posting in

common_nature

I've only seen one here twice before, once in the months after I moved in, and again a few years ago. Unfortunately just as this time, I had been on my way to the grocery, and I assumed I'd have time to take photos when I came home. Which I didn't because it was gone. ( Read more... )

dusk_in_neon posting in

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themusecalliope

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themusecalliope

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Wednesday Word: Bokmakierie

Check-In Post - May 21st 2025

Fic: Intertwined by Circumstance (Roswell New Mexico)

pongee

Final Fantasy XV 2025 Remix

to achieve the impossible dream, try going to sleep

Elder Scrolls Kinkmeme

Highly Irregular Fargo Week 2025

Check-In Post - May 20th 2025

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grice

Tuesday word: Beholden

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pray to the god of sex and drugs and rock & roll

general update: May 2025

BELLA: We’ve loved every minute together

Plants for Garden in the French Pyrenees

Check-In Post - May 19th 2025

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