RABID: having rabies. A cure was discovered by testing the anecdote on rabbits who were made rabid by a Pastor named Louis. He is more well known for drinking a lot of milk and helping popularize it as a beverage.
RASCAL: Raskolnikov was a sneaky rascal (and how can a rascal not be sneaky), when he beat to death the old badalax in the boudoir. Dostoevsky got the
name from a term for believers in the Prussian Orthodox Church before a schism in
the early 19th century. They were called Old Believers or Raskolniks. Rascals it
would seem are always religious, not evil all the way, just in part.
REEK: to create havoc, chaos. To wreak but more discretely. Have you ever
noticed that words signifying disorder; chaos, havoc, hooza reflect such disorder
even in their very spelling. Yes, all is spelled out for us, if only we look hard enough.
See HAVOC.
REFEREE: indecisive people who make decisions at sporting events. They
are always unsure and have to refer to each other to decide, always delaying the
game. The French word “arbitre" signifies the same quality, they arbitrate, negotiate.
They don't make firrn decisions but negotiate the result between the competitors
through their indecisive decisions.
REFUSE: garbage, trash, what is useless. lt is what we have no need for and refuse to keep.
RELIEF: what a tree feels in the spring when signs of life are sprung and
they leave their winter's sleep.
REMEMBER: to put the parts back together again, to re - assemble, to "re -member". ln a sense, when we take something apart to fix it, we remember it, when
we put it together again. Perhaps when we remember, the act of remembering is
"fixing'the past?
REMISSlON: to return to a worse state. All of life is a continual re mission. Each day we return and are given a new mission, a mission impossible -- to live without wanting. But we want and then restless go to sleep, to awake with another mission.
RENEGE: negotiate again, double negative. Two wrongs shouldn't make a right, right?
RENOWN: acclaim, importance. A person who is renowned is re-known many times through gossip, the press and speculation.
RETIRE: to get a new set of tires or to start again to get tired. This usually happens at the age of 60 - 65 after prolonged years of hard labour. (see POOPED)
REVENGE:vengeance repeated. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. One good
thing deserves another. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. A human
law of sympathetic magic, that all acts must be countered with a similar act so that
their affects be limited, cured. see HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE
REVOLUTION: what goes aroundcomesaround.Anhistoricalexpression ofthewillorvolition ofthepeople.This “will”,usuallycomesintheformofaspecific “want” ,the"want"isusuallygained through theuseofarevolver.
RIB: We had 13 of them but we now use one to poke fun at others.
RIDDLE: a verbal or written puzzle. The greatest unanswered riddles being Homer's, “We threw back what we caught and we kept what we couldn't catch” (and the answer isn't surreal fish) and more recently, Lewis Carroll's, “ Why is a raven like a writing table?” The word riddle means “to rid all” so as to reveal and arrive at the answer. We must shoot holes in all our possible answers until through this process, the answer forms. The earliest riddles were Zen riddles, as in, “ We know the sound of two hands clapping, what is the sound of one hand clapping?” or “What was your name before you were born.” Riddles show how inductively the mind works, that knowledge is arrived at as much through elimination as addition and regurgitation.
RIGHTEOUS: to be right, "the right is us", to believe in your truth at the expense of another's. This usually means that in the short term, that "might makes right", the more powerful becoming the bearers of truth or as the old adage goes, "history is written by those that win the war (the righteous).". Might also infers many
possibilities, maybe this, maybe that. The powerful are almost always those with a
lot of "might", so might, truly does make right.
RIGHT WINGED: conservative political slant or belief. Crowing and crying,
flapping with much fervour, these animals inevitably fly in circles (counter clockwise), loading down as they are with coins, leaden change in their right pockets. They don't helieve in social progress or development, we are all just moths circling dim lights. Those who don't get burnt are those whose thoughts don't seekthe light but are weighted down to earth, firmly rooted in things. Most right wingers are right handed, this hand goes quicker for the gun and is also easier to put over the heart. lt is also the hand plugged into the rational left brain, the hand of salute and allegiance. see Left Winged.
ROADIE: an ancient trekkie.
ROT: a rolling towards not
R O U G H: not sm o o o o o o th.
RUFFIAN: a rough, Fenian youth.
YOU ARE READING
The Idiot's Dictionary
Non-Fiction"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone. "It means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Hu...
