kung fu grippe

The Steely Dan Dictionary

Ever wondered what a bodhisattva is? Or how to gaslight somebody? Then this site is for you! You’re looking at an A-Z glossary of over 90 obscure words, people and places — all taken from the lyrics of Steely Dan songs.

Found via looking for details on my new favorite pop song, “Barrytown:”

A town in upstate New York, close to Annandale-on-Hudson and Bard College (Becker & Fagen’s alma mater). Its biggest claim to fame would be as the headquarters of The Unification Church, a.k.a. “The Moonies”, a religious cult who gained notoriety in the 70s from reports of its mass weddings & alleged brainwashing of members. As a fundraising measure, followers would often stand at street corners, carrying small bouquets of flowers for sale (hence the lyric).

As I was falling asleep last night, I thought of a pretty good fake name:

C. Haskell Erlang

And, no, I have no clue how to do anything with C, Haskell, or Erlang, but I’m pretty confident Mr. Erlang would own a broadsword and four cats named “Ripley.” Also, a cape.

TED: Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

Yeah, I know you’ve seen it already. Me, too. Still, every time I watch it, this line makes me laugh:

Like my dad, for example, was a chemical engineer, and I don’t recall once in his 40 years of chemical engineering anybody asking him if he was afraid to be a chemical engineer….”That chemical engineering block, John — how’s it going?”