So...this guy showed up at the house the other day; Fat David. He seems to be happily ensconced out on his little pedestal out beyond the pool. This is what happens to you when a lithe and handsome guy from Italy gets a green card to the US, and discovers McDonald's. Just a testament to the society in which we live and the helplessness of the fast food generation we have become. Other than that, it was not a terrible day. It started early for me, I left the house just before 6:30 to make sure I had plenty of time to get to an 8:30 meeting. Then it was off to the office, then to another meeting, and then home. I am tired of talking about traffic issues, so I am taking a vow NOT to talk about it at least until the first of September. I don't think the odds are particularly in my favor to accomplish that task, so if anyone is taking bets, I would bet against the house.Supercilious -- Adjective. coolly and patronizingly haughty. The supercilious critic clearly wasn't expecting to be impressed by the new restaurant, but in the end he gave it and its staff a glowing review.
Did You Know? Arrogant and disdainful types tend to raise an eyebrow at anything they consider beneath them. The original supercilious crowd must have shown that raised-eyebrow look often, because the adjective supercilious derives from supercilium, Latin for "eyebrow." (We plucked our adjective and its meaning from the Latin adjective superciliousus.) Supercilious has been used to describe the censoriously overbearing since the late 1600s, but there was a time in the 1700s when it was used as a synonym of another supercilium descendant, superciliary ("of, relating to, or adjoining the eyebrow"). Although the eyebrow sense of supercilious is now obsolete, it does help explain what ornithologist John Latham meant in 1782 when he described a "Supercilious K[ingfisher]" with a narrow orange stripe over its eyes.
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