Fearman's definitions

landlord's holiday

A break, usually involving travel abroad and of indefinite duration, so as to avoid tenant responsibilities, legal action, and so on. A time of leave for analogous purposes or of similar duration.

After taking ten million quid in cash from the public in begging letters, Karl O'Driscoll vanished on a landlord's holiday to his hidey hole in the Seychelles and lived a life of leisure.

by Fearman August 10, 2007

Supper's Ready

Epic song of love and the Apocalypse, from the hands of Genesis in 1972, in the good old days when Peter Gabriel was fronting the business. 23 minutes of sheer outrageous clashing bliss.

Near-climactic line from Supper's Ready:

And it's hey babe / your supper's waiting for you ...,

by Fearman November 26, 2007

Neptune

1. Officially the outermost major planet in the solar system after the demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet status in 2006. An ice giant with a cool, deep blue coloration. Similar composition to Uranus. Mean distance from the Sun 2.798 billion miles. Equatorial diameter 30,775 miles, give or take 20. Polar diameter 30,250 miles, give or take 40. Visible cloud deck is at temperatures around 218 degrees Centigrade below zero. Orbits once in 164.79 Earth years, or as of this writing just about once since it was discovered by Urbain le Verrier and Johann Gottfried Galle in 1846. Visited by Voyager 2 in 1989. At last count had 13 recognised moons. Had a dark blue marking looking remarkably similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot, with Neptunian proportions and colour scheme, at the time of Voyager's flyby, which was promptly named the Great Dark Spot; apparently this has since disappeared.

2. Roman divinity of the sea, influenced by but not identical to the Greek Poseidon. Also a god of horses. Had a fishy lower body and brandished a trident.

Neptune is visible in a good telescope.

Capitolus strode on board his ship and set sail across Neptune's kingdom.

by Fearman May 12, 2008

Tom Clancy

Middling quality thriller novelist who probably does his homework on the research end of things, is full of American jingoism, and avoids including sex scenes in his books because he thinks that makes them more respectable. Has had two middling good movies made of his work, The Hunt for Red October and The Sum of All Fears.

Bernie says she'd rather watch the movies they make of his books than read Tom Clancy's originals.

by Fearman May 26, 2008

lesbian

A woman with enough good taste not to be interested in guys.

That's lesbians for ya. Ladies with taste.

by Fearman September 30, 2007

Florida majority

A "majority" derived by excluding those likely to disagree. The type of majority that voted in "President" Bush in 2000.

God plus oil plus a couple of goons equals a Florida majority.

by Fearman December 23, 2007

200C

Dilution used on a homeopathic preparation called Occilococcinum, made from freeze-dried powdered duck liver diluted one hundredfold in solvent 200 times over and supposedly of use in curing cold and flu symptoms. This dilution, if accurately labelled, would represent one molecule of (allegedly) active ingredient in 1 followed by 400 zeroes other molecules, or in other words somewhere between the fourth and fifth exponential powers of the total number of atoms in the observable Universe.

Gimme some 200C vodka and see how drunk I get.

by Fearman December 28, 2007