My Band Name For Today

• Mongolian Death Worm
• Fetlock
• The Sigmoid Process
• Edge Mountain
• The Tricola Tropes
  

A few days ago Bones added a word to my LIST OF WORDS THAT DON'T MEAN WHAT I THINK THEY MEAN:

• Priscus

Do your own Google work if you're not familiar with the guy. While we're still knee-deep in classical references, here is another term that you'll probably have to read twice:

• Homeric Simile

While we're still skinny dipping in this same aqua virgo, here is a term that would make a great character name in an allegory:

• Ignoratio Elenchi

Unlike the other items, I linked this to an external definition. It's not the kind of thing you're likely to come across more than twice in your life, no matter how well-read you consider yourself. I am speaking of the term itself. Unfortunately the specious logic it describes is as common as reality television.

Anyone who has been through a college psychiatry class will be familiar with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

If you're like me, some of the first PC oversensitivity I ever remember was expressed by psychiatrists on TV talk shows. The behavior (which I am briefly withholding for comedic effect) would typically occur when a non-psychiatrist would make a casual reference to someone's mental state. It was so predictable it became a sitcom stereotype.

The sense of proprietary outrage from certain doctors (not the industry as a whole) always seemed a little trumped-up. So I'm sure this next little clip will amuse you:

"Robert Spitzer, the head of the DSM-III task force, has publicly criticized the American Psychiatric Association for mandating that DSM-V task force members sign a nondisclosure agreement, effectively conducting the whole process in secret: 'When I first heard about this agreement, I just went bonkers.'"

• Bad Asthmatic
  
• Hex Triplets
  
• Illusion Gland
  
• Sonic Whips
  
• Low Energy Transfer

My doctor took a cell call while I was in the exam room with her. I overheard her tell someone "She's a BAD asthmatic!"

I thought she was going to say something else.

You know what word goes on my list of words that don't mean what I think they mean?
Angina.

Here are your band names for today:

• Lead Sandwich
• The Village Atheist
• My Emotional Favorites
• Physical Tickles
• Extraordinary Refraction
  

Today's band names:

• Salary Bait
• Gurdon's Light
• Nuisance Ghost
• Dangerous Science Island ™
• Her Pilgrim Soul

You know, when I first heard about dark energy, I found the concept repulsive.

These are the jokes, folks.

• Cat Foundry
• Complement Sandwich
• Cap'n Billy's Whiz-Bang
• A Light Year of Lead
• Rocky Leftovers
• Toutatis

"Toutatis" goes on my list of words that don't mean what I think they mean.