(no subject)

There are such bizarre, wonderful, interesting stories on the net. Here's one I found this morning...

You may remember that in 2000, the staff physician, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, at the south pole outpost diagnosed herself with breast cancer. Here is a great interview with her, which took place after her return and treatment. My favorite line from the interview:

Dick:
What made you decide to go [to the South Pole] in the first place?

Dr. Nielsen:
I saw an ad in the back of a doctor's magazine under help wanted.

Piepowder-court

One of my day-by-day calendars is of "forgotten English." A recent entry that captured my attention was "piepowder-court." The expression is more properly, "Court of the Dusty Foot," or (incorporating Old French)"court of pie poudre," from which we get piepowder.

This court's "jurisdiction was established for cases arising at fairs and markets, to do justice to the buyer and seller immediately upon the spot."

Such a court has been (according to the calendar) in England since 1476 (the entry is dated 1841, and the law may have been revoked since then--I don't know.

May make an interesting street show/bit for Ren Fest, eh?

upstart crow...

Again, from my "forgotten English" calendar.

In addition to a forgotten word-of-the-day, the calendar includes a daily entry "on this date in history" which is related to the word-of-the-day.

Today's word is "nose-swelling"
"To make a person's nose swell, to make him jealous of a rival"

"On this date in 1592, playwright and pamphleteer Robert Greene's A Groatsworth of Wit with a Million of Repentence was licenced for publication. In it Greene jealously warned budding writers in Cambridge about the mediocrity of writers such as young Will Shakespeare denouncing him as 'an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes Factorum [a Jack-of-all-Trades] is, in his owne conceit, the onlie Shake-scene in a countrie.'"

Isabel and insurance

Some of you may know this, others may not, but as Isabel approaches the DC/Baltimore/Annapolis area, take note!

Many homeowners insurance policies cover wind damage, but not flooding. In my policy, if water comes in through the basement, I'm not covered. Unless you live in a flood plain, you probably cannot get such insurance. If my house is flooded due to pipes breaking, sewer backup, or rain through the roof, I'm probably OK.

With regards to wind damage, many insurance companies discriminate between "wind" and "hurricane." According to this newsday article, Allstate calls it a hurricane if wind speed is over 100mph, and State Farm calls it a hurricane if wind speed is over 74mph. You will still be covered, but at a higher deductible than normal wind damage. Hurricane deductibles are normally between 2 and 5% of your homes replacement cost (not the total property value). In this area, that means your deductible on a $200,000 home with replacement value of $150,000 could be more than $5000.

So check out your policies before the storm hits!