verb the whole object

A snowclone often used in New Age, pseudoscientific or borderline fields to cast a warm glow over the enterprise in question. Meant to imply, usually fallaciously, that the real scientists or professionals are missing out on something that their clients urgently need, or at least want very very badly but for some arcane reason are unable or afraid to articulate.

Examples of phrases using the "verb the whole object" construction would be:

"Alternative" practitioners treat the whole patient. (Unlike those bloody doctors, of course.)

Home birth widwifes read the whole woman.

Organic caterers use the whole plant. (I wonder if they make rhubarb crumble).

by Fearman February 23, 2008

very interesting but stupid

Comment that often deserves to be made of much of the quackery filling our global culture. Pioneered by Arte Johnson as Wolfgang the Nazi Soldier in the comedy series "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" from 1968 to 1973; Wolfgang would raise his head above a parapet after some preceding act, take a cigar out of his mouth, deliver the line and grin ear to ear. Best delivered in the original thick German accent, with a pause for effect midway through.

Hmm ... astral vibrations read for ninety bucks a minute. Very interesting but stupid.

by Fearman April 01, 2008

do a Begbie

To toss/drop a beer glass over the side of a balcony on pub customers below, esp. if this results in injuries downstairs. May be accidental, but strictly speaking is intended to provide a pretext for the dropper to come downstairs, claim to be upset, and escalate the punch-up. From the stunt pulled by Francis Begbie in the 1996 classic movie, Trainspotting. At its classiest when the glass is thrown nonchalantly over the shoulder, like a pinch of salt.

That fellah over there with the scars down one side of his face is leaning over the rail with his Erdinger glass in one hand and has a look of sick anticipation in his eyes. I suspect he may be about to do a Begbie on the broad with the big boobs and the red T-shirt.

by Fearman April 10, 2008

silicone ship

A busty woman, obviously heavily augmented in the breast area.

Don't look now, but I see two silicone ships at three o'clock.

by Fearman November 25, 2007

axis of evil

A list of countries that "President" Bush II chooses to use as a distraction from domestic issues and questions about his own popularity. Members of the axis are usually (but not invariably) Muslim, are often grindingly poor outside the palaces of tribal elites, and more to the point do not possess the ability, as states, to retaliate against American soil if subjected to an armed invasion.

China is not part of the Axis of Evil because it possesses ICBMs and incidentally is a large market for American businesses.

by Fearman January 29, 2008

out-Herod Herod

To deliberately outdo someone in cruelty, idiocy or something else so as to get back at them.

I didn't care what anyone else thought of his wedding speech in the marquee; one way or another, unaccustomed to public speaking as he was, it drove me to the edge of sanity. So in the end I just got up there when he was finished and for the next three hours, until the Security bundled me out the flap, I decided to out-Herod Herod and went for it.

by Fearman October 04, 2007

Ultima Thule

1. A weird and wonderful land beyond the nethermost north wind that some nineteenth-century mystics once imagined to be inhabited by incredibly evolved blond blue-eyed people known as the Hyperboreans. Proof positive that some people had way too much to drink.

2. Somewhere you see when you are paralytic drunk.

Belief in Ultima Thule barely survived the arrival of nuclear submarines at the North Pole.

After ten pints of lager and a few shots of absinthe or whiskey, he's headed for Ultima Thule.

by Fearman January 25, 2008