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AWADmail Issue 562

There is a somewhat ubiquitous t-shirt in South-East Asia which states
SAME SAME (on the front)
BUT DIFFERENT (on the back).

To which I feel like replying:
YOU AND ME
DIFFERENT
BUT SAME SAME
HUMAN BEINGS

And this quotation from Salman Rushdie (in The Enchantress of Florence): "The curse of the human race is not that we are so different from one another, but that we are so alike."

From: Jim Cosgrove (jcosgrove.law verizon.net)
Subject: Percipient

In the US legal system "percipient" is a term of art meaning someone with direct knowledge from having seen, heard, smelled, or felt something firsthand, as contrasted with having heard it from someone else. Most often used in the expression "a percipient witness".

From: Michael Strainic (ufo1 shaw.ca)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--percipient

In the field of Ufology (the scientific study of the UFO Phenomenon -- or Phenomena), 'percipient' is often used to refer to the 'witness' of a UFO or other anomalous event, i.e. "one who has perceived". This is preferred by many ufologists because even after several hundred years of study, we still have no idea as to what exactly is being observed or its true nature.

I won't bore you with endless detail, but UFOs -- for want of a much better term -- seem to have been here since ever, perhaps longer than the human race.

There are cave paintings in Russia scientifically verified to be truly prehistoric which clearly show images of what could be called "Classic 1950s-style Flying Saucers".

For anyone interested in seeing how Science deals with this enigma, drop in to cufos.org.

From: Keith Younger (kyounger133 msn.com)
Subject: temerarious

The British navy has had five ships named HMS Temeraire. I had wondered about the meaning, now I see it fits in well with HMS Audacious and other such names.

From: Ian Gordon (awad ipgordon.me.uk)
Subject: temerarious

There is a famous painting by JMW Turner, about the "retirement" of a sailing warship, called The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up. The same event is also commemorated in a ballad by Sir Henry Newbolt, titled The Fighting Temeraire.

From: Monroe Thomas Clewis (mtc265 yahoo.com)
Subject: temerarious

"Timorous" (as in "wee sleekit cow'rin Tim'rous Beastie") is an easily-confused, similar-sounding antonym of "temerarious" made famous by Robert Burns in his poem "To a Mouse". Among the mice "Temerarious Beasties" are hard to find.

From: Dominique Mellinger (dominiquemellinger yahoo.co.uk)
Subject: temerarious

"Courageux, mais pas téméraire", we have this phrase in French that we use, often with a smile and a little pause after the word 'courageux', when there is something a bit risky we don't want to do. The conversation can go this way:
- Did you eventually have a picnic at the place where we saw the viper yesterday?
- Ah non! Courageux, mais pas téméraire!

We also use it in a humorous way to comment about someone's actions: if the cat very prudently tries to go out in the rain and comes back almost instantly we may say in a slightly sarcastic way: "courageux/courageuse, mais pas téméraire".

From: Michael Tremberth (michaelt4two googlemail.com)
Subject: malapert

Could well be applied to wardrobe malfunctions.