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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Good words to have


Pittance 

A small portion, amount, or allowance; also : a meager wage or remuneration. Pity and pittance share etymological roots. The Middle English word pittance came from Anglo-French pitance, meaning "pity" or "piety." Originally, a pittance was a gift or bequest to a religious community, or a small charitable gift. Ultimately, the word comes from the Latin pietas, meaning "piety" or "compassion." Our words pity and piety come from pietas as well.


Good words to have




Napery 
NAY-puh-ree 
Household linen; especially: table linen. Napery has been used as a fancy word for our household linens, especially those used to cover a table, since the 14th century. The word derives via Middle English from Anglo-French nape, meaning "tablecloth," and ultimately from Latin mappa, "napkin." You can see part of the word napkin in that root; another, much less obvious relative is apron, which was once spelled as napron in Middle English but gradually evolved to its current spelling by way of English speakers habitually misdividing the phrase a napron as an apron.


Magnanimous 
1: showing or suggesting a lofty and courageous spirit 2:  showing or suggesting nobility of feeling and generosity of mind
The Latin word animus means "soul" or "spirit." In magnanimous, that animus is joined by Latin magnus, meaning "great." Basically meaning "greatness of spirit," magnanimity is the opposite of pettiness. A truly magnanimous person can lose without complaining and win without gloating. Angry disputes can sometimes be resolved when one side makes a magnanimous gesture toward another.


Muse
(myooz) 


A source of inspiration, verb intr.: To be absorbed in thought. To think or say something thoughtfully.
In Greek mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses, each of whom presided over an art or science. A museum is, literally speaking, a shrine to the Muses.
The Muses were the Greek goddesses of inspiration in literature, science and the arts. They were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the personification of memory), and they were also considered water nymphs. Some scholars believed that the Muses were primordial goddesses, daughters of the Titans Uranus and Gaea. Personifications of knowledge and art, some of the arts of the Muses included Music, Science, Geography, Mathematics, Art, and Drama. They were usually invoked at the beginning of various lyrical poems, such as in the Homeric epics; this happened so that the Muses give inspiration or speak through the poet's words.
There were nine Muses according to Hesiod, protecting a different art and being symbolised with a different item; Calliope (epic poetry - writing tablet), Clio (history - scroll), Euterpe (lyric poetry - aulos, a Greek flute), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry - comic mask), Melpomene (tragedy - tragic mask), Terpsichore (dance - lyre), Erato (love poetry - cithara, a Greek type of lyre), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry - veil), and Urania (astronomy - globe and compass). On the other hand, Varro mentions that only three Muses exist: Melete (practice), Mneme (memory) and Aoide (song).
According to a myth, King Pierus of Macedon named his nine daughters after the Muses, thinking that they were better skilled than the goddesses themselves. As a result, his daughters, the Pierides, were transformed into magpies.




Dog logic: John has a new hat and sunglasses, ergo,I have a new hat and sunglasses




Good words to have



Nemesis
 (NEM-uh-suhs)
1. A formidable opponent or an archenemy. 2. A source of harm or ruin. 3. Retributive justice. In Greek mythology, Nemesis was the goddess of vengeance. From Greek nemesis (retribution), from nemein (to allot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root nem- (to assign or take), which also gave us number, numb, astronomy,renumerate, and anomie.
In the ancient Greek religion, Nemesis also called Rhamnousia/ Rhamnusia ("the goddess of Rhamnous") was the goddess who enacted retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods). Another name was Adrasteia/ Adrestia, meaning "the inescapable". Her Roman name/ counterpart is Invidia.
The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν némein, meaning "to give what is due", from Proto-Indo-European nem- "distribute".
Divine retribution is a major theme in the Hellenic world view, providing the unifying theme of the tragedies of Sophocles and many other literary works.
Nemesis appears in a still more concrete form in a fragment of the epic Cypria. She is implacable justice: that of Zeus in the Olympian scheme of things, although it is clear she existed prior to him, as her images look similar to several other goddesses, such as Cybele, Rhea, Demeter, and Artemis.
As the "Goddess of Rhamnous", Nemesis was honored and placated in an archaic sanctuary in the isolated district of Rhamnous, in northeastern Attica. There she was a daughter of Oceanus, the primeval river-ocean that encircles the world. Pausanias noted her iconic statue there.  She is portrayed as a winged goddess wielding a whip or a dagger.
The word Nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what was deserved.[citation needed] Later, nemesis came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this right proportion, the sense of justice that could not allow it to pass unpunished



Myrmidon
(MUHR-mi-dahn, -duhn) 
One who unquestioningly follows orders. In Greek mythology, the Myrmidons were led by Achilles in the Trojan War. The name is possibly from Greek myrmex (ant). In a version of the story, Zeus created Myrmidons from ants.

The Achilleis (after the Ancient Greek χιλληΐς, Achillēis, pronounced [akʰillɛːís]) is a lost trilogy by the Athenian dramatist Aeschylus. The three plays that make up the Achilleis exist today only in fragments, but aspects of their overall content can be reconstructed with reasonable certainty. 








Kindness is more important than




Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. 

-Theodore Rubin, psychiatrist and writer 


We have art in order

  
 “We have art in order not to die of the truth.” 

Friedrich Nietzsche



Good words to have



Widdershins 
In a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction: counterclockwise
English speakers today are most likely to encounter widdershins as a synonym of counterclockwise. But in earliest known uses, found in texts from the early 1500s, widdershins was used more broadly in the sense of "in the wrong way or opposite direction." To say that one's hair "stood widdershins" was, in essence, to say that one was having a bad hair day. By the mid-1500s, English speakers had adopted widdershins to specifically describe movement opposite to the apparent clockwise direction (as seen from the northern hemisphere) of the sun traveling across the sky, which, at the time, could be considered evil or unlucky. The word originates from the Old High German widar, meaning "back" or "against," and sinnen, meaning "to travel."


Orphic
1. Melodious; entrancing. 2. Mystical; occult.
After Orpheus, a musician, poet, and prophet in Greek mythology. His lyre playing and singing could charm animals, trees, and even rocks. After his wife Eurydice, a nymph, died of a snakebite, he traveled to the underworld to bring her back. His music melted the heart of Hades, the god of the underworld, who allowed him to take his wife back on the condition that he not look back at her until they had reached the world of the living. They had almost made it when he looked back and lost her again. His mother Calliope/Kalliope has also given a word to the English language: calliopean. (kuh-lahy-uh-pee-uh n)
adjective
1.resembling a calliope in sound; piercingly loud: a calliopean voice.
In Greek Kalliópē means ”the beautiful voiced” and is the name of the Muse of eloquence, epic poetry, or even of all poetry.
In Greek mythology, Calliope (/kəˈlaɪ.əpiː/ kə-ly-ə-pee; Ancient Greek: Καλλιόπη, Kalliopē "beautiful-voiced") is the muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. She is spoken of by Hesiod and Ovid as the "Chief of all Muses." She is mostly stated to be the eldest of the Muses, sometimes vying with her sister Urania for the position.
One account says Calliope was the lover of the war god Ares, and bore him several sons: Mygdon, Edonus, Biston, and Odomantus (or Odomas), respectively the founders of Thracian tribes known as the Mygdones, Edones, Bistones, and Odomantes
Calliope also had two famous sons, Orpheus and Linus, by either Apollo or the king Oeagrus of Thrace. She taught Orpheus verses for singing.
According to Hesiod, she was also the wisest of the Muses, as well as the most assertive. Calliope married Oeagrus close to Pimpleia, Olympus. She is said to have defeated the daughters of Pierus, king of Thessaly, in a singing match, and then, to punish their presumption, turned them into magpies. She was sometimes believed to be Homer's muse for the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Roman epic poet, Virgil, invokes her in the Aeneid
Calliope is usually seen with a writing tablet in her hand. At times, she is depicted carrying a roll of paper or a book or wearing a gold crown. She would also be seen with her children.
A little more about her lesser known son, Linus. In Greek mythology Linus refers to the musical son of Oeagrus, nominally Apollo, and the Muse Calliope. As the son of Apollo and a Muse, either Calliope or Terpsichore, he is considered the inventor of melody and rhythm. Linus taught music to his brother Orpheus and then to Heracles. Linus went to Thebes and became a Theban. According to a legend, he wrote the story of Dionysus and of the other mythical legends in Pelasgic writing. His life was ended by Heracles, who killed Linus with his own lyre after he reprimanded Heracles for making errors.



Hyperbole 
Extravagant, exaggeration
The noun comes from the Greek verb hyperballein, meaning "to exceed," not from the name of the Athenian demagogue. Hyperballein itself was formed from hyper-, meaning "beyond," and ballein, "to throw." Unrelated is that in the 5th century B.C. there was a rabble-rousing Athenian, a politician named Hyperbolus, who often made exaggerated promises and claims that whipped people into a frenzy. But even though it sounds appropriate, Hyperbolus' name did not play a role in the development of the m

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