Enclave

Enclave: A political, cultural or social entity or part thereof that is completely surrounded by another. A group that is set off from a larger population. A distinctly bounded area enclosed within a larger unit.

Word over-used in conversation the other day, I'm not sure correctly either... :)

Progressive Walla Walla Snowman

Slush

Slush: A viscous, usually offensively dirty substance.

Synonyms: Mire, muck, ooze, slop, sludge, drivel, ice, pulp, sluice.

Gingerbread Barn (two days old)

Snow

Snow: 1. precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals 2. a layer of snowflakes covering the ground 3. verb: fall as snow "It snowed straight for the last three days. I'm tired of snow snowing."

Synonyms: 1. of adjective snowy: nival, niveous 2. of noun: blizzard, firn, grauple, snowstorm

Further definitions:

grauple: snow pellets or small hail

firn: partially compacted neve, a type of snow leftover from previous snows and compacted into a denser substance, or recrystallization of snow.

nival: (returned results in German. Hmm.)

niveous: snowy, resembling snow

Winter Walk Details

Decussation

Decussation: A crossing-over, as in the crossing of nerve fibers or tracts from one side of the brainstem to the other. Examples of decussation occur in the auditory and visual pathways in the brainstem and ventral surface of the brain, i.e., the comissural tract between the superior olivary nuclei and optic chiasm. In these two cases, decussation allows left- and right-side sensory information to reach both hemispheres of the brain equally. This is a safety mechanism; if damage occurs on one side of the sensory tract, the information from both eyes/ears may still reach the brain cortex (Synthesis of class notes, neuroanatomy).

Before and After

Sargonic

"The Sargonic Royal Seal: A Consideration of Sealing in Mesopotamia." by Richard L Zettler, University of Chicago, in Gibson. Seals and Sealing (BIM: 6).

Sargonic: of or pertaining to Sargon and his dynasty, the Sargonic Period (2334-2154 BC). Sargonic Royal Seal, as defined by Zettler: A seal with formula "royal name, personal name, his servant" in which the king is establishing the person in an office, equipping him with the tool of the trade, a cylinder seal.

Cylinder Seal: a cylinder engraved with a written inscription and a pictorial scene, used to roll an impression on wet clay. Example of many uses: to "lock" doors by sealing them shut. to roll over clay tablet you are issuing. Etc...

Mesopotamian Final-Today

Antimacassars

"It is all Victorian, as Rodman says, all covered up with antimacassars, all quivering with sensibility and an inordinate respect for the genteel" (Stegner, Angle of Repose, p. 68).

Antimacassar (plural, antimacassars): A cover to protect the back or arms of furniture.

Art, Spokane Style

Filch

"By age fifteen I was filching my dad's university library card..." uncredited source.

to filch: to pilfer, steal, cop, crib, hustle, lift, misappropriate, pinch, purloin, rob, scrounge, sneak, snipe, snitch, swipe, take, thieve, walk off with.

I see the start of a glorious career...

Favorite School Arch

Homunculus

Homunculus--the "little man" once believed to inhabit the sperm cell, comprising the beginnings of a fetus. (Porter, Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine)

Alternatively, a homunculus is a "map of motor control...drawn on the cerebral cortex to show how the muscles are innervated from the cortex." (Weiss, Neurology for the Speech-Language Pathologist, p. 25)

Study light