chrisaldrich

Comments by chrisaldrich

• chrisaldrich commented on the word anti-library

  anti-library n. A person’s collection of unread books.

  Seen more frequently as antilibrary

  A private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allow you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

  —Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan, Random House, April 17, 2007

  see also: http://wordspy.com/index.php?word=antilibrary

  June 30, 2015

• chrisaldrich commented on the list variety-speak

  Some fun videos relating to Variety-speak:

  THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN (1984)

  THE ANIMANIACS

  May 12, 2015

• chrisaldrich commented on the word boffo

  Via http://www.boffosocko.com/about:

  Boffo and socko are neologisms in the family of Variety-speak after the well known business trade journal covering Tinseltown (often better known as Hollywood aka the Coast, aka H’w’d.)

  Their definitions from Variety’s slanguage dictionary follow:

  boff (also boffo, boffola) — outstanding (usually refers to box office performance); ” ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ has been boffo at the B.O.” (See also, socko, whammo)

  sock (also socko) — very good (usually refers to box office performance); ” ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ has done socko B.O.” (See also, boff, whammo)

  An excellent example of their use appears in the 1984 film The Muppets Take Manhattan in this clip.

  Other examples of Variety-speak appear in this clip from The Animaniacs

  May 12, 2015

• chrisaldrich commented on the word decacorn

  decacorn

  n. A technology company that is less than ten years old and worth more than ten billion dollars.

  See additional details via: http://wordspy.com/index.php?word=decacorn

  May 12, 2015