There’s no accounting for some people’s tastes — literally. Take the case of the Santa Fe man who for the third time has been charged with attempted atrocities on the foot of an ex-girlfriend.
The last time, earlier this month, Daniel Anaya was arrested after the woman reported that he attacked her after tracking her down in her new home in Albuquerque. Police say Anaya allegedly tried to cut off her big toe with a cigar cutter.
The ex-girlfriend fought him off by jabbing his back with a fork. Fortunately for the woman she’s all right, even if in an earlier fetish-driven attack, Anaya succeeded in biting off her toe nail.
Does such a fetish make him highly susceptible to contracting toemaine poisoning? Foot-in-mouth disease?
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A friend, Murl Baker, forwarded an item on my email which I, as a struggling wordsmith, appreciate. Murl’s email discusses the subtle differences between “complete” and “finished.” Are they synonymous? Are there shades of difference?
Here goes:
No dictionary has been able to adequately explain the difference between “complete” and “finished.” However, in a recent linguistic conference held in London, and attended by some of the best linguists in the world, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese, was the clear winner.
His final challenge was this: Please explain the difference in a way that is easy to understand.
Here is his astute answer:
“When you marry the right woman, you are complete. But, when you marry the wrong woman, you are finished. And when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are completely finished.”
His answer was received with a standing ovation lasting more than five minutes.
• • •
My friend Dorothy Simpson emailed a host of obscure engineering conversion factors:
- Ratio of an igloo’s circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi
- 2,000 pounds of Chinese Soup = Won ton
- 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope
- Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond
- Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
- Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong
- 365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer = 1 Lite year
- 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
- Half a large intestine = 1 semicolon
- 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
- Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
- Shortest distance between two jokes = a straight line
- 2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds
- One kilogram of falling figs = 1 fig Newton
- 1000 ccs of wet socks = 1 literhosen
- Eight nickels = 2 paradigms
• • •
One of the more frequent comments about Work of Art comes from those who enjoy reading about things typically Las Vegas. “I like it when you write about how we talk in Las Vegas,” or “I agree we have a peculiar way of speaking here,” are comments I’m familiar with.
An online discussion that generated a lot of interchange, for instance, deals with “You know you’re from Las Vegas when . . .”
Former Las Vegan Theresa Fulgenzi, now living in Las Cruces, is immersed in an even more ambitious project called “Our Las Vegas.” It’s a publication for online users and it contains a wealth of information on yesteryear.
Theresa explains that a friend and former Las Vegas resident, Donna Keserich Peters, on visiting the local museum, noticed a paucity of information from the ‘40s through the ‘60s. Theresa writes that Donna “felt the history of these families and the businesses they owned was in danger of being lost.” Donna voiced her fear and put out a plea in a publication called “Cardinal Rule,” asking people to start sharing these histories.
Theresa says she began publishing “Cardinal Rule” for her Robertson High School classmates in 2009, but soon the project expanded to other schools in the city, and even included family histories, tidbits of information on almost-forgotten classmates and other historical pieces of information. That gave rise to “Our Las Vegas.”
Want to see a photo of the I.C. Colts team that appeared in the first Stu Clark Tournament program in 1953? Want to view a photo of a West Las Vegas all-star baseball team whose players then are senior citizens now? Want to see a large group photo of an RHS class reunion?
The monthly issues of “Our Las Vegas” contain a wealth of information, much of it submitted and written by contributors. And there’s a variety of photographs — many of them possibly published for the first time — provided by Joseph Ulibarri, the son of Mitzi Ulibarri, who owned and operated a photo studio in Las Vegas.
Theresa claims around 200 subscribers to “Our Las Vegas,” and says she appreciates the assistance of people like Jesus Lopez, Mabry Vigil, Anna Marie Sedillo, Eddie Groth, Alberta Gonzales Vigil, Ernie Quintana and Doyle Daves.
Interested in a free subscription? Theresa suggests you first visit the office of the Citizens Committee for Historic Preservation on Bridge Street. There you will find a binder containing printed copies of “Our Las Vegas.” Contact information is available on the back page of each newsletter.
• • •
Did I mis-communicate in last week’s column on DWI fatalities? I thought I’d made it clear that the subject of the column, in which I would reveal my own adolescent penchant for imbibing, would also be the content of my final column.
I didn’t mean to imply that last week’s Work of Art would be my final column, so you members of my own family, hold your applause and cancel the celebration. I hope and intend to continue Work of Art until I’ve reached the 1,000th installment. We’re more than halfway there.
Sheesh! It’s depressing how an erstwhile communications teacher can botch up a simple message.
See you next week.