Yesterday, a friend and I snarked at each other on the phone. Then we apologized and all was well.

Notice that the word “snark” is only one letter away from “snarl.” I think that’s by design. But where did the word “snark” come from? You might think it’s a catchphrase invented by Kool Kids (or as Bando would say, the “tragically hip”) who operate heavily sponsored entertainment blog sites. Well, not so fast there, Speedy.

• The Hunting of the Snark was a nonsensical poem written by Lewis Carroll — in 1874.
• Math fun: a snark is a “graph in which every vertex has three neighbors, and the edges cannot be colored by three colors without two edges of the same color meeting at a point.” Riiiight. Point being — the study of snarks was begun in 1880 by some geometry Poindexter named Peter Tait.
• The SM-62 Snark Rocket was a cruise missile with a nuclear warhead, used by the US Strategic Air Command from 1958 until 1961.
• Novelist Jack London wrote The Cruise of the Snark, about a houseboat he lived on from 1906-1908. (He actually stole the name from Lewis Carroll.)

So there’s a snarky lesson for you. I like “snark,” because it’s a noun, a verb, an adjective. Multi-purpose, the way language should be.

Here is some snark. And here. (Does anyone else remember GeoCities and Tripod? I had sites on both.) Truly though, the real snarkiness is in the comments that follow. Some made me laff out loud, like the guy who referred to GeoCities as a “leper colony for the worst websites ever made.” HA. But the comments that blow the needle off the snark scale are the ones that attack the writer. Yikes. But hey, if the fluffy pink house slipper fits…

Now go have yourself a day.

FO

1. Well, now that this is over with, whatever will we do for entertainment?
2. Amusing, but you know, really true. (Like I’d know…)
3. You rarely see Slovenia in the news. By the way — Kay is home, and we visited on Tuesday. Life is good.

This is a place I would like to visit.

This is not.

(Supposedly, there is a rock wall that keeps people from sliding off into a 360-foot freefall. Nice.)

I prefer the dry ground, thanks all the same.

Fink, scaredy cat

I like stuff. And I think it’s good to make lists of the things you like (OK, it’s fun to make lists of things you hate, but let’s look on the bright side of life today, shall we?).

(More)Things That Make Me Happy (in random order)

1. Marshmallows. Fluffy, yummy goodness. They’re among my favorite candies to eat. And shoot. (Now about that launcher…)
2. Palindromes. Cool ones, like Do geese see God? and Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas!
3. When someone posts a comment on RtB.
4. In-tune singing. Can’t be overrated.
5. Cherry pie filling. The no-sugar-added kind, right out the can.
6. Fluff. Mixed with #5. Awwwww maaaaan….dass beautiful.
7. When Jakey comes to visit.
8. A good book on a cold night under a warm blanket.
9. Musical theater. Most of the time.
10. Hearing Lars laugh.
11. Going to breakfast with good fiends, and….
12. Reconnecting with old ones.

I wish I could add “getting ready for school” to the list today, but alas. And it’s not the going to school part. It’s the getting ready part. It simply takes too much effort to get this face prepared for safe viewing by the general public.

Oy.