Genteel

GENTEEL, adj.  Refined, after the fashion of a gent.

 Observe with care, my son, the distinction I reveal:

A gentleman is gentle and a gent genteel.

Heed not the definitions your "Unabridged" presents,

For dictionary makers are generally gents.

GJ

 2008 Update:  Deferential towards the manners and mores of the careless.

Gent

GENT, n. The vulgarian's ideal of a gentleman. The male of the genus Hoodlum.

2008 Update: Informally, a man who admires tidiness sufficiently to carry a cloth handkerchief, which is useful for removing DNA, fiber and fingerprints.

The Unionville Chronicles

Twenty-first Canto

To hear this week's Canto, click on Rolando.

Click on the cowboy to read along.

This sketch, by Victor Hugo would have been the first picture if I'd known how to find it. Thanks, Ariel.

Gimlet

GIMLET, n.  An instrument somewhat smaller than the man "with an inexhaustible fund of anecdote."

2008 Update: A dainty cocktail likely concocted for drinkers who must be eased in to a margarita from a Shirley Temple.  The gentleman's alternative to perfume and tweezing.

Guinea-Pig

GUINEA-PIG, n.   A small Brazilian animal of the genus Cavia and frequently called the cavy.  

In the opinion of the President of the California Academy of Sciences it is rather a dog than a pig.  He grounds his judgement upon the classical admonition Cave canem.

2008 Update:  The officially sanctioned dish of Peru and enlightenment.  Metaphorically, a test subject, such as a scientist's journal submission.

Sic Semper Tyranni, a limerick

Though democracy sometimes looks rosy,

A despotic regime of the cozy,

Howe'er it's arranged,

Some things never change.

The law serves the idle and nosy.

ORDER, n.  The breach of the law and the opposite of progress.

Garter

GARTER, n.  An elastic band intended to keep a woman from coming out of her stockings and desolating the country.  An order of merit established by Edward III of England, and conferred upon persons who have distinguished themselves in the royal favor.  Other kinds of public service are otherwise rewarded.  

"'Tis Britain's boast that knighthood of the Garter

Was ne'er conferred upon a cad or carter;

Well, any thrifty and ambitious flunkey

Can drive a bargain- few can drive a donkey."

So the proud cynic.  Some ensuing dicker

Gave him that pretty bauble for his kicker.  

2008 Update:  The house of congress, a bigameral legislature.  

Among those things one shouldn't mention,

It's modesty commands attention.

Those things that are kept most in secret

Are the same as those we most would peek at

The blessing of the modern age

Is that secrets have become the rage

And those that once had been rarest,

Today, even the coward darest.

-Alistair Bakke

Gipsy

GIPSY, n.  A person who is willing to tell your future for a small portion of it.

2008 Update:  A foreigner without borders.

The Unionville Chronicles

Twentieth Canto

This week's reading was recorded by Aunt Lulu.  To hear Aunt Lulu's annotated reading, stop by the Lovelock bar.

Click to read all about it.

Or watch Lulu read.  You'll thank me.

Mendacious

MENDACIOUS, adj. Addicted to rhetoric.

2008 Update: Prolix.

Happy birthday, Mama