“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.” (Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon)

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Ischia. The newest Motorola handset to clear FCC certification. Good grief, who thought of “Ischia”? How do they plan to pronounce it?

Being medically-minded, I look at that brand name and think instantly: Ischemia.

(Ischemia: A decrease in the blood supply — and therefore oxygen flow — to an organ, tissue, or body part. Ischemia is often associated with tissue destruction or death.)

An ischemic limb might be blue or black… you get the point. “Ischia” is not evoking pretty pictures in my mind.

The only other word that comes to mind is eschar (eschar: a necrotic mass of tissue).

Ew.

[via Crave]

“Poised between the Scylla and the Charybdis”: Why anyone would choose to be poised there, I don’t know. But it must provide a gratifying feeling of importance to be able to express your lose-lose situation so dramatically.

Oxymoron (ooh, that should have been Word of the Day): a figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory ideas, such as “old news” or “extensive briefing”. My step-dad used to put in that category “military intelligence” and “civil war”. And there’s always the deadpan “criminal justice”.

Seen in Shaare Tzedek Hospital’s Emergency Room, Jerusalem:

Unfortunately, as with most ER waiting rooms, an oxymoron.

Normobs: normal mobile users

…as opposed to early adopters and industry insiders, who think that everyone sends email / uploads pictures to Flickr / posts to blogs on his or her mobile phone.

I don’t know where the term began; I saw it used first on SMSTextNews a year or so ago.

Today’s word: isthmus.

A narrow land bridge connecting two larger bodies of land.

I was thinking about my visit to Gibralter, if you must know.

or, rather, Term of the Day:

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia: Pain in the forehead and face caused by rapid cooling and rewarming of the blood vessels of the palate, eg, by  quickly eating something cold, like ice cream.

 This week’s Israeli government slang verb: le’kandel.

“to run around, be busy, attend lots of meetings, but not actually do anything”

The verb root is derived from the name Condoleezza…

Actually, I’ve always liked her since seeing her photographed in a really professional maternity business suit.

Things I packed today:

• cufflings (what my son uses to fasten his French cuffs)
• banging suit (what my daughter wears to the beach)
• o-ganki des (a toddler’s blankie)
• twenty white shirts, folded with great care and tension (note to self: make appointment for massage upon arrival)
• an entire rainbow of Crocs (red, brown, purple, green, pink, blue, white, and black)

Nine people. Eleven days. There’s very little floor visible in this house tonight. (Tread lightly on the duffle bags, please.)