I was watching 'Pop-Up Videos' the other day, and one of the videos featured was Pat Benetar's "Love Is A Battlefield". There's one scene that shows Pat climbing some stairs, and it's so dark you can barely tell that it's her. The pop-up notes that a "gaffer" is a person who is responsible for lighting in a video production, leaving you to make the connection to the word "gaffe", which is a mistake. Time to take a look at these two seemingly related words:
gaffe:
A clumsy social error, a faux pas.
From the Old French, gaff, meaning hook.
Looking further into the word gaff, it also has a slang meaning of swindling someone by rigging a game. Probably by using a hook to alter a target.
gaffer:
Al electrician in charge of lighting on a movie or television set.
Probably an alteration of grandfather/godfather.
Absolutely no relation whatsoever. So it goes...
Blogs I read
- Jim Smith II
Rumbling, bumbling, stumbling through middle age... - Kristopher Jones
- WWdN: In Exile
- Go Fug Yourself: Because Fugly Is The New Pretty
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March 2011
March 31, 2011
March 25, 2011
Friday pix
I took this picture for my niece's Flat Stanley project. This is Waiting for the Interurban statue, all dressed up for St. Patrick's Day:
March 18, 2011
Friday pix
I was surprised to see that I hadn't posted this picture before. A house near the freeway north of the U-District:
March 11, 2011
Friday pix
In honor of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, currently underway in Alaska:
March 04, 2011
Friday pix
I promise I'll get back to my own pictures soon, there just hasn't been a lot of time or opportunities...
