Tem42's New Writeups

Man of the cloth (idea)

2010-01-03T04:53:02Z

Long ago, in the 1500s and 1600s, many professionals were called 'men of the cloth', that is to say, men who dressed in special cloth (clothes). The clothes of their calling, or 'uniforms' as we would call them today, identified them as professionals, whether a baker, a steward, or a clergyman.

By the late 1600s, the meaning had narrowed to mean men of the church, a minister or clergyman who wore the formal garb of the profession. The phrase 'The Cloth' also came to refer to the priesthood at this time.

Today the phrase 'man of the cloth' can be applied to a minister, preacher, or clergyman of any Christian denomination. In recent decades the phrase 'woman of the cloth' has also come into use.

phrasal verb (thing)

2010-01-01T17:18:44Z

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a preposition or an adverb which creates a different meaning from the original verb. These include things like 'figure out', 'close down', 'screw up', 'come across', 'spell out', 'keep up with', and 'stick up'. Among many others.

Some grammarians think that only idiomatic conjunctions should count as verbal phrases. (For example, you could not deduce the meaning of 'nod off' from the words 'nod' and 'off'; therefor it is idiomatic.) They would call literal conjunctions (for example 'break in') verb-particle constructions. Others think that even literal compound verbs should be considered phrasal verbs.

Many phrasal verbs are separable; for example the idiomatic form of 'break in' (to break in a new pair of shoes) can be split 'break x in' (to break the shoes in). This is still a single phrasal verb, despite being smeared across the sentence. Others phrasal verbs, such as 'count on' and '…

Neapolitan ice cream (thing)

2009-12-31T03:42:52Z

Neapolitan ice cream is literally 'ice cream from Naples'. Back in the late 1800s Italy was known, among other things, for its frozen desserts. One popular preparation of ice cream was to layer various types of ice cream together, as in spumoni. Ice cream served in this manner came to be known as 'Neapolitan'. Over time it came to be most common to layer three types of ice cream together (in America, even spumoni is sold with only three layers), and then, to serve only three specific flavors. These flavors are now always chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. In that order. Despite the fact that these are somewhat boring flavors, and despite the fact that generally the chocolate and the vanilla get finished off long before the vanilla, Neapolitan ice cream is still a staple in the freezer section of grocery stores around the world.

knickerbocker glory (recipe)

2009-12-31T03:29:01Z

A Knickerbocker Glory is an ice cream-based dessert common in England. In America it would be considered a type of parfait or ice cream sundae. They are created by layering ice cream, fruit, flavored syrup, custard, jell-O, nuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, or pretty much anything else you can think of. They should traditionally be served in a tall, stemmed, clear glass, to show off the layers to good effect. There are, as you might imagine, hundreds of different recipes, and the original Knickerbocker Glory has been lost in the mists of time. The original probably appeared in the 1930s, and quickly spread through the ice cream shops of England. Those of us who are not fortunate enough to live in the British Isles can still make our own, however.

Tem42's Knickerbocker Glory

Place, in this order, in a tall glass:

1 small scoop of vanilla ice cream('cus your last bite needs to include ice cream!)

…

Reverse Psychology (idea)

2009-12-30T04:07:28Z

Reverse psychology is based on the simple idea that sometimes when you tell people to do one thing, they will choose to do some other thing. As you may have guessed, this is not actually a sub-branch of psychology; the phrase was apparently coined by a professor at Harvard Business School in the 1920s to make his marketing lectures sound more interesting. While it is still largely a marketing term, it has leaked into common usage, and has been used by the masses since at least the 1950s.

The classic example of reverse psychology is the salesman telling his mark "well, that model is probably a little too expensive/refined for you; let's look at something a little cheaper/simpler". The idea is that by putting the customer on the defensive from the start, they will try to prove that they aren't cheap, stupid, or tasteless by spending more. The term is used in many different contexts, and it is unsafe to assume that an author or speaker is using it in any particular sense. Stores…

screw up (idea)

2009-12-29T00:21:30Z

'Screw up' is a common English idiom that has multiple meanings. The most common usage is to mean 'make a mistake', or 'mess up'. It's uncertain how it came to have this meaning, although we have some clues. If you are an ESL speaker, the large number if different meanings is actually good news, as even native English speakers need to rely on context to decode the correct meaning.

1. verb To make a mistake. To mess up. "You really screwed up there."

2. noun A person who often makes mistakes. Often hyphenated. "Bob is a real screw-up."

3. noun An undertaking or event that did not work or is doomed to failure. Often hyphenated."Well, that was a royal screw-up"

4. adjective To be in error, to be wrong, to be broken or messed up. Often hyphenated. "That's one screwed-up car you have there"

To…