my name is Cos's definitions

fictoid

A factoid that is false or unsupported by evidence, but gets into public circulation anyway. Once it is repeated and quoted enough times, it gains a life of its own, and people assume it is true because they get it from multiple sources, even though the original source is flawed or unverified, or the information turns out to be false.

One common fictoid is the idea that people need to drink 8 glasses of water a day to be healthy. There's no sound basis for this recommendation, but it is quoted and given as advice frequently.

Recently (as of new years 2009), one of the big news stories has been the collapse of a fraudulent investment fund run by Bernard Madoff, which turned out to be a ponzi scheme. Although it takes months to go through the records to figure out how much money was involved, an initial estimate was that "up to $50 billion dollars may have been lost". Despite the fact that this was an initial best guess rather than the result of actual auditing, and despite the fact that even a clear definition of "money lost" in this case is vague, this $50 billion estimate has become a fictoid, and is being repeated in the press. Plenty of people believe that it is well accepted that $50 billion is the amount of money that was lost in this fraudulent scheme.

by my name is Cos January 11, 2009

retrosex

A hookup or other episode of sex (such as the start of a new involvement) between people who dated or hooked up way back when, lost contact with each other for years, and became reacquainted.

See: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Life/75527-Are-you-a-retrosexual/

She's not dating anyone right now, but she's had retrosex with two guys she hasn't seen since high school who she found on Facebook recently.

by my name is Cos January 25, 2009

bleeped

To be ignored by someone without purpose or malice. You simply don't register on their radar screen. ::bleep, bleep, bleep::

I played arm-candy sufficiently well to get totally bleeped by a state rep. He said hi, and then utterly ignored me for the rest of the conversation. it was sort of entertainingly disconcerting.

by my name is Cos January 24, 2009

decrapification

You've been accumulating cruft year after year, a gnawing sense in the back of your mind that someday you'll have to do something with this stuff. Actually getting down to looking through it all, one by one, and throwing out everything you're never going to use: the decrapification of your apartment.

I know him, I took his Apple Unix when he was in New York.
Oh, yeah, that was when I moved out of the Brooklyn apartment. That was round one of the great decrapification.

Decrapification was the project for 2007, and oh my god the stuff we got rid of!

by My name is Cos January 13, 2008

cosominate

To sleep together in the same bed or similar space. Does not imply having sex. It's what "sleep together" would've meant if we hadn't turned it into a slang idiom meaning "to have sex".

"The kids used to cosominate until we got them separate beds when they were 6 and 8."

"You can crash here if you don't mind cosominating. I don't have a spare mattress."

"We just started having sex last week, but we've been cosominating for months."

by my name is Cos October 23, 2007

fenestrate

To install Microsoft Windows on someone's computer.

They won't like it, but the IT department says we need to fenestrate the entire department, including the ones who are using Linux.

by my name is Cos April 16, 2009

alany

The sort of unfortunate or amusing coincidence or contradiction that you're tempted to label "irony", but realize isn't actually ironic at all. Named for Alanis Morisette, whose song Ironic contains many examples of alany and none of irony (except for the song as a whole, which is ironic...).

You plan a trip to a faraway city, contact your friend who lives there who you haven't seen in months, and find out she's actually going to be visiting your city that same weekend, so you'll miss each other. Such alany!

by my name is Cos December 14, 2008