Podcasts about ceyx

Liv reads Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 11, translated by Brookes More. Orpheus is torn to shreds, Hesione faces a sea monster, the story of Ceyx and Alcyone, and more... Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content! This is not a standard narrative story episode, it's a reading of an ancient source, audiobook style. For regular episodes look for any that don't have "Liv Reads..." in the title! Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Coming from a background of digital transformation, Matt Wilkinson has created a live elearning company that combines human-delivered and digital learning in a scalable way, stealing a bit of a march on more content-focused competitors. His company, CEyX, help teams build the technology skills and confidence necessary to positively impact their performance. Clients include Deliveroo, PA Consulting and the Department for Culture Media and Sport. John asks him what is unique about his model, and why he thinks more technology training vendors haven't, to date, adopted it. 0:00 - Intro 3:15 - What does CEyX do? 5:28 - Matt's Background 7:42 - Perception of how tech skills are taught 10:58 - How CEyX teaches this different? 14:00 - How scale-able and tangible are these results? 18:54 - How unique is this model? 27:10 - Biggest challenges in scale-up companies 30:06 - Matt's thoughts on A.I. 42:29 - Where can we follow Matt Wilkinson? Follow Matt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-wilkinson-ceyx Website (company): https://www.ceyx.uk/ Website (personal) http://www.nutcrackermtb.co.uk/ Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack

This week, Brandon, Katerina, and Alex contemplate the beautiful sorrow that is Ceyx and Alcyone. This tale stands out among the Metamorphoses stories we've read so far, less driven by plot than rich imagery. What is Ovid trying to do here?Send questions and comments to podcasts@circeinstitute.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2022 is: halcyon • HAL-see-un • adjective Halcyon is most often used to describe a happy and successful time in the past that is remembered as being better than today. It can also mean “calm, peaceful” or “prosperous, affluent.” // She's relieved to be retired, but looks back fondly on the halcyon years of her career. See the entry > Examples: “I started the trip in Reno, a classic American city whose halcyon days may be behind it but which most will find engaging for both its faded glory and current fight to renew itself.” — William O'Connor, The Daily Beast, 26 Sept. 2022 Did you know? Halcyon has drifted along contentedly in English for centuries, but it hatched from a tumultuous story. According to Greek mythology, Alkyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught over her husband Ceyx's death at sea that she threw herself into the ocean to join him. The gods were moved by the couple's love, and took pity on them by turning them into halcyon birds, a bird identified with the kingfisher. (Kingfishers are known for plunging into water after prey.) According to the legend, the birds built their nests on the sea, which so charmed Alkyone's father that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds' eggs hatched. Our word halcyon reflects the story in multiple ways. When halcyon was first used in English in the 14th century it was as a noun referring to the mythical bird, and later to actual kingfishers as well. Adjective use developed in the 16th century and now most often evokes those calm waters—the word typically describes an idyllic time in the past.

The night is chill and crisp, a bright moon rides the racing clouds and stars shimmer on the surface of the canal. It's a perfect night for a night walk. Snuggle down and wrap up warm as you join me on a canal walk washed by moon light.   Journal entry:29th November, Tuesday“Reluctant daylight. The sun's cold shoulder. Three ducks bob on ruffled water. I walk on uphill Grateful for thick socks.” Episode Information:In this episode I read an extract from Niall Mac Coitir's retelling of the myth of Halcyone and Ceyx in his (2015) book Ireland's Birds: Myths, legends and folklore published by Swift Books. The book by Alexander Porteous that I refer to on the walk is The Forest in Folklore and Mythology first published in 1928 and subsequently republished by Courier Corporation (2001). I also cite a portion of Ralph McTell's song ‘Streets of London' released in 1969. You can listen to the complete song here: Ralph McTell – Streets of London. The first NoSW ‘Nightwalk' can be heard here: Episode 5: Nightwalk. For more information about Nighttime on Still WatersYou can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com. General DetailsIn the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org. Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. ContactFacebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoswPodMastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw  I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message using the voicemail facility by clicking on the microphone icon. 

Vic Verchereau welcomes Dean Rusch, who is the founder and owner of Rusch Entertainment. Dean Rusch brings years of industry experience—he's hosted more than 1,500 corporate events—and puts exciting twists on classic shows to maximize audience engagement. Take the dueling pianos show, for instance. The show is a hybrid of pianos as well as keyboards, drums, vocals and saxophones. Guests are invited to sing along and jump in with the band, Ceyx, which has been together since 1971. But there is so much more with this story! Dean has created Rusch Entertainment and helps connect business events and talented entertainers to make memories and fun creations! Dean has decades of experience and fun stories to share, listen in as Vic Verchereau and Dean review the business of fun and smiles. A real Mid-Michigan success and a story worth hearing! Turn up the volume and start tapping your feet! Dean Rusch is in the house! » Visit MBN website: www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/ » Subscribe to MBN's YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNX… » Like MBN: www.facebook.com/mibiznetwork » Follow MBN: twitter.com/MIBizNetwork/ » MBN Instagram: www.instagram.com/mibiznetwork/

Recently, Netflix released a new series titled, "The Sandman" which in turn inspired me to create an episode on who he is. In this episode we will talk about the Greek God of Dreams - Morpheus. He was the leader of the Oneiroi (dream spirits) who was extremely skilled at transforming and imitating humans and their form. In one story told, he was tasked to deliver the unfortunate message to Alcyone (through a dream), that her husband Ceyx had died. The Sandman who has similar qualities, was originally known to be a good being who had the power to make you fall into a deep sleep and offered you pleasant dreams. It wasn't until 1816, where he was reimagined to be an evil and scary being. Join us as we dive a little deeper into this topic. Also, Do you have a story to share? If you email me and share your story I will gladly, with your permission of course, feature it on a future episode for the rest of us to listen and enjoy. Check out our website at www.MysteriesBeyond.com and/or email us at LauraLavender.mb@gmail.com Check us out on social media on Facebook at Mysteries Beyond and/or on Instagram @LauraLavender.mb Website: www.mysteriesbeyond.com Email: lauralavender.mb@gmail.com Instagram: @lauralavender.mb TikTok: lauralavender.mb Facebook: Mysteries Beyond My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/LauraLavender.mb Intro Music by: Mystery by GoSoundtrack http://www.gosoundtrack.com/Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/mystery-gosoundtrackMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/8TKy9bzrk24 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mysteriesbeyond/message

On this episode we are reading Book 11 of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Book 11 opens with the grisly dismemberment of Orpheus, whose severed head floats down the Hebrus River, the waters causing his mouth to still murmur his sad songs mourning the loss of his wife Eurydice, as if the earth itself were mourning for him (or with him). This book also relates the famous story of Midas and his ill-fated wish to turn all he touched to gold, and of the violent king Daedelion, transformed into an equally violent bird. The book ends with the long, tormented soliloquy of queen Alcyone, who failed to prevent her husband, king Ceyx, from sailing to Delphi, and during his voyage, as she had foreseen, he died at sea. Her story ends when, as she is wailing on the beach, mourning Ceyx's death, his body washes ashore. She rushes to kiss his corpse, whereupon they are both transformed into seagulls… What do we owe the dead? How powerfully are the ghosts of the past alive in the present? Can a poet's song of mourning animate or re-animate inert matter? Can any human artifice do this? Is Nature built from human memory, or is all our suffering and all our loss merely absorbed into Nature's ever-changing flux, along with everything else?

In this episode Bobby tackles three myths where love led to drastic transformations. First up Ceyx and Alcyone, lovers whose tragedy transforms both of them into something new. Next is Iphis, whose love transforms them into a new person (lgbtqa+). Finally there is Pygmalion and Galatea, a story about how a man’s love transforms his beloved. Listen in and then join the discussion.

Miffsfires!   This weeks MIFF is a familiar narrative whereby two lovers anger the gods (just Zeus) and get a reasonable and rational punishment (absolute overkill and unnecessary torment). This is the story of Alycone and Ceyx, and their unlucky dice with the King of the Gods. Matt and Dan also discuss Matt’s recent trip to Dublin where he had a busman’s holiday writing poetry and drinking beer.  Hey you! Yes you. Why don't you follow us on social media at @MiffsPodcast. You can email us at MiffsPodcast@gmail.com and we love hearing your correspondence! Why don't you send us an email? Also please give us 5 Stars on ITunes. The only reason you should be exempt from doing THIS WEEK is if you have angered the gods by the most meaningless passing comment in the world. However, that is the only reason. Also you can now join our new group collective! Join the Miffs Podcast -The Miffsfits' page facebook group. Either click on the link OR search for it on Facebook. If you're feeling brave - post something on there and start a discussion! Why don't you also check out Matt's stand-up gig listings on his website:http://www.matthosscomedy.com/upcoming-gigs-1/http://www.matthosscomedy.com/viva-las-vegans/ Do you like what we do? Want to help contribute to us? Please donate to our podcast. This helps pay for stuff like trains, smelly National Express coaches and to pay for hosting the podcast. Donate how ever much you would like. If you wanted to do a one-off payment- please use Matt's Ko-fi account (let us know it is for Miffs or else Matt will keep the money for himself, even though he does all the hard-work). DONATE HERE! If you wanted to sustain the podcast over a duration, we can take regular payments from Patreon (like a dollar a week). The more you give the more we are able to give to the podcast. We do this podcast because we love it, so if you can't pay, don't worry. Just give us a rating and share with a friend. But if you can afford to give us some pocket money, we'd be eternally grateful. PLUS there will be some bonus content for Patreon donators (some of the best stuff). DONATE TO OUR PATREON HERE.   See you next week Miffsters

Episode 15: The Legends of Owlia! Intro music by Thomas Ragonnet. Featured game track: "Mountain Theme" by Derek Andrews. Closing track: "Ceyx" by Heosphoros. The Legends of Owlia can be purchased at: http://www.infiniteneslives.com/owlia.php and can be downloaded at: http://www.gradualgames.com/ More information for Kevin can be found at khangames.com. More information for Beau can be found at solegooseproductions.com. Please visit our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/nesassemblyline

Orpheus and Eurydice, Alcyone and Ceyx: starcrossed lovers. How will it end? Find out when Sarah and Paul dive into classic greek tales of sad love. Visit www.dragonwagonshop.com for awesome Mythunderstood shirts and mugs! Mythunderstood is a part of the Dragon Wagon Radio independent podcast network. Learn more at www.dragonwagonradio.com  

This week, we take a look at the story Ceyx and Alcyone — those two devoted, doomed lovers who endured a separation that tested the depths of their devotion and raised the sympathies of their gods.

Did you ever wonder why we capitalize the pronoun "I," but not any other pronoun? There's a reason, and it may not be what you think. Also, the romantic story behind our term "halcyon days," the origin of the phrase "like white on rice," and the linguistic scuttlebutt on the word scuttlebutt. Plus, a pun-laden word game, hold your peace vs. hold your piece, nixie on your tintype, and no skin off my nose.FULL DETAILSListeners have been posting photos of themselves with their favorite words on our Word Wall, including some that are new to us. For example, epalpebrate might be a good one to drop when describing the Mona Lisa in Art History class, since it means without eyebrows. And Menehune is a term for the tiny, mischievous people in Hawaiian folklore.If it's no skin off your nose, there's no harm done. This idiom, which the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms suggests may come from boxing, means the same thing as no skin off my back or no skin off my ear. If you have other idioms in this vein, share them with us!What's the difference between speak your piece and speak now or forever hold your peace? While speaking your piece refers to a piece of information you want to share, holding your peace relates to keeping the peace. This is a simple case of a collision of idioms.For years, teachers have warned against using the word ain't, apparently with some success. Emily Hummell from Boston sent us a poem that may have contributed: Don't say ain't/ your mother will faint/ your father will fall in a bucket of paint/ your sister will cry/ your brother will sigh/ the cat and dog will say goodbye. Did your parents or teachers have another way of breaking children of the habit of saying ain't? Have you heard the latest scuttlebutt around the water cooler? This term for gossip, which comes from the water-filled cask in a ship, is a literal synonym for water cooler talk! On our Word Wall, one listener fancies ginnel: the long, narrow passage between houses you find in Manchester and Leeds. Have you shared your favorite word yet?Our Puzzle Maestro John Chaneski has a great variation of his classic Tom Swifty game, based on adjectives that fit their subject. For example, how did the citizens feel upon hearing that the dictator of their small country shut down the newspapers? Beware of puns!Does capitalizing the pronoun I feel like aggrandizing your own self-importance? Timna, an English Composition professor at an Illinois community college, reports that a student contested refused to capitalize this first person pronoun, arguing that to do so was egotistical. But it's a standard convention of written English going back to the 13th century, and to not capitalize it would draw even more attention. When writing a formal document, always capitalize the I. It's a pronoun, not a computer brand. If you want to sound defiant, you could do worse than exclaiming, Nixie on your tintype! This phrase, meaning something to the effect of spit on your face, popped up in Marjorie Benton Cooke's 1914 classic, Bambi. Kristin Anderson, a listener from Apalachicola, Florida, shares this great poem that makes use of the phrase.Do you know the difference between flotsam and jetsam? In an earlier episode, we discussed flotsam, which we described as the stuff thrown off a sinking ship. But several avid sailors let us know that jetsam's the stuff thrown overboard, while flotsam is the remains of a shipwreck. Thanks, crew.Paula from Palm City, Florida, wants to know: What's so cute about buttons, anyway? Like the expressions cute as a bug and cute as a bug's ear, this expression seems to derive from the fact that all of these things are delicate and small. She raises another interesting question: Are the descriptors beautiful and attractive preferable to cute and adorable after a certain age? We want to hear your thoughts!  The weeks on either side of the winter solstice have a special place in Greek mythology. In the story of Alcyone, the daughter of Aeolus, she marries Ceyx, who arrogantly dares to compare their relationship to that of Zeus and Hera. Such hubris is never a good thing in Greek myth, and Zeus causes his death. But the gods eventually take pity on the mortal couple, changing them into birds known for their devotion to each other. Those birds, named after Alcyone, were said to nest on the surface of the sea during calm weather, giving rise to our term halcyon days.Is white on rice a racist idiom? No! It simply means that if you're on top of your tasks like white on rice, it means you've got it covered the way rice is covered in whiteness. In Geneva Smitherman's Talkin and Testifyin, she relays a lyric from Frankie Crocker that goes Closer than white's on rice; closer than cold's on ice. Now that's close!If something's got you feeling ate up, then you're consumed by the notion that it didn't go perfectly. You're overwhelmed, obsessed, or maybe you're just exhausted. However, among members of the Air Force, ate up has long meant gung ho, as in, that pilot's ate up, he loves flying so much.Via Maud Newton's Twitter feed comes this gem from The Sea, by William John Banville: The past beats inside me like a second heart. If you see a great quote somewhere, tweet it to us!How conversational fillers such as like and you know creep into our vernacular? Like most verbal ticks and pieces of vocabulary, we pick these things up from those around us. But contrary to some folks' opinions, the use of like and you know don't decrease one's credibility. When used appropriately, they actually make it easier for people to relate to us.This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.....Support for A Way with Words comes from The Ken Blanchard Companies, celebrating 35 years of making a leadership difference with Situational Leadership II, the leadership model designed to boost effectiveness, impact, and employee engagement. More about how Blanchard can help your executives and organizational leaders at kenblanchard.com/leadership.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2014, Wayword LLC.

Did you ever wonder why we capitalize the pronoun "I," but not any other pronoun? There's a reason, and it may not be what you think. Also, the romantic story behind our term "halcyon days," the origin of the phrase "like white on rice," and the linguistic scuttlebutt on the word scuttlebutt. Plus, a pun-laden word game, hold your peace vs. hold your piece, nixie on your tintype, and no skin off my nose.FULL DETAILSListeners have been posting photos of themselves with their favorite words on our Word Wall, including some that are new to us. For example, epalpebrate might be a good one to drop when describing the Mona Lisa in Art History class, since it means without eyebrows. And Menehune is a term for the tiny, mischievous people in Hawaiian folklore.If it's no skin off your nose, there's no harm done. This idiom, which the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms suggests may come from boxing, means the same thing as no skin off my back or no skin off my ear. If you have other idioms in this vein, share them with us!What's the difference between speak your piece and speak now or forever hold your peace? While speaking your piece refers to a piece of information you want to share, holding your peace relates to keeping the peace. This is a simple case of a collision of idioms.For years, teachers have warned against using the word ain't, apparently with some success. Emily Hummell from Boston sent us a poem that may have contributed: Don't say ain't/ your mother will faint/ your father will fall in a bucket of paint/ your sister will cry/ your brother will sigh/ the cat and dog will say goodbye. Did your parents or teachers have another way of breaking children of the habit of saying ain't? Have you heard the latest scuttlebutt around the water cooler? This term for gossip, which comes from the water-filled cask in a ship, is a literal synonym for water cooler talk! On our Word Wall, one listener fancies ginnel: the long, narrow passage between houses you find in Manchester and Leeds. Have you shared your favorite word yet?Our Puzzle Maestro John Chaneski has a great variation of his classic Tom Swifty game, based on adjectives that fit their subject. For example, how did the citizens feel upon hearing that the dictator of their small country shut down the newspapers? Beware of puns!Does capitalizing the pronoun I feel like aggrandizing your own self-importance? Timna, an English Composition professor at an Illinois community college, reports that a student contested refused to capitalize this first person pronoun, arguing that to do so was egotistical. But it's a standard convention of written English going back to the 13th century, and to not capitalize it would draw even more attention. When writing a formal document, always capitalize the I. It's a pronoun, not a computer brand. If you want to sound defiant, you could do worse than exclaiming, Nixie on your tintype! This phrase, meaning something to the effect of spit on your face, popped up in Marjorie Benton Cooke's 1914 classic, Bambi. Kristin Anderson, a listener from Apalachicola, Florida, shares this great poem that makes use of the phrase.Do you know the difference between flotsam and jetsam? In an earlier episode, we discussed flotsam, which we described as the stuff thrown off a sinking ship. But several avid sailors let us know that jetsam's the stuff thrown overboard, while flotsam is the remains of a shipwreck. Thanks, crew.Paula from Palm City, Florida, wants to know: What's so cute about buttons, anyway? Like the expressions cute as a bug and cute as a bug's ear, this expression seems to derive from the fact that all of these things are delicate and small. She raises another interesting question: Are the descriptors beautiful and attractive preferable to cute and adorable after a certain age? We want to hear your thoughts!  The weeks on either side of the winter solstice have a special place in Greek mythology. In the story of Alcyone, the daughter of Aeolus, she marries Ceyx, who arrogantly dares to compare their relationship to that of Zeus and Hera. Such hubris is never a good thing in Greek myth, and Zeus causes his death. But the gods eventually take pity on the mortal couple, changing them into birds known for their devotion to each other. Those birds, named after Alcyone, were said to nest on the surface of the sea during calm weather, giving rise to our term halcyon days.Is white on rice a racist idiom? No! It simply means that if you're on top of your tasks like white on rice, it means you've got it covered the way rice is covered in whiteness. In Geneva Smitherman's Talkin and Testifyin, she relays a lyric from Frankie Crocker that goes Closer than white's on rice; closer than cold's on ice. Now that's close!If something's got you feeling ate up, then you're consumed by the notion that it didn't go perfectly. You're overwhelmed, obsessed, or maybe you're just exhausted. However, among members of the Air Force, ate up has long meant gung ho, as in, that pilot's ate up, he loves flying so much.Via Maud Newton's Twitter feed comes this gem from The Sea, by William John Banville: The past beats inside me like a second heart. If you see a great quote somewhere, tweet it to us!How conversational fillers such as like and you know creep into our vernacular? Like most verbal ticks and pieces of vocabulary, we pick these things up from those around us. But contrary to some folks' opinions, the use of like and you know don't decrease one's credibility. When used appropriately, they actually make it easier for people to relate to us.This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.....Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2013, Wayword LLC.

Did you ever wonder why we capitalize the pronoun "I," but not any other pronoun? There's a reason, and it may not be what you think. Also, the romantic story behind our term "halcyon days," the origin of the phrase "like white on rice," and the linguistic scuttlebutt on the word scuttlebutt. Plus, a pun-laden word game, hold your peace vs. hold your piece, nixie on your tintype, and no skin off my nose.FULL DETAILSListeners have been posting photos of themselves with their favorite words on our Word Wall, including some that are new to us. For example, epalpebrate might be a good one to drop when describing the Mona Lisa in Art History class, since it means without eyebrows. And Menehune is a term for the tiny, mischievous people in Hawaiian folklore.If it's no skin off your nose, there's no harm done. This idiom, which the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms suggests may come from boxing, means the same thing as no skin off my back or no skin off my ear. If you have other idioms in this vein, share them with us!What's the difference between speak your piece and speak now or forever hold your peace? While speaking your piece refers to a piece of information you want to share, holding your peace relates to keeping the peace. This is a simple case of a collision of idioms.For years, teachers have warned against using the word ain't, apparently with some success. Emily Hummell from Boston sent us a poem that may have contributed: Don't say ain't/ your mother will faint/ your father will fall in a bucket of paint/ your sister will cry/ your brother will sigh/ the cat and dog will say goodbye. Did your parents or teachers have another way of breaking children of the habit of saying ain't? Have you heard the latest scuttlebutt around the water cooler? This term for gossip, which comes from the water-filled cask in a ship, is a literal synonym for water cooler talk! On our Word Wall, one listener fancies ginnel: the long, narrow passage between houses you find in Manchester and Leeds. Have you shared your favorite word yet?Our Puzzle Maestro John Chaneski has a great variation of his classic Tom Swifty game, based on adjectives that fit their subject. For example, how did the citizens feel upon hearing that the dictator of their small country shut down the newspapers? Beware of puns!Does capitalizing the pronoun I feel like aggrandizing your own self-importance? Timna, an English Composition professor at an Illinois community college, reports that a student contested refused to capitalize this first person pronoun, arguing that to do so was egotistical. But it's a standard convention of written English going back to the 13th century, and to not capitalize it would draw even more attention. When writing a formal document, always capitalize the I. It's a pronoun, not a computer brand. If you want to sound defiant, you could do worse than exclaiming, Nixie on your tintype! This phrase, meaning something to the effect of spit on your face, popped up in Marjorie Benton Cooke's 1914 classic, Bambi. Kristin Anderson, a listener from Apalachicola, Florida, shares this great poem that makes use of the phrase.Do you know the difference between flotsam and jetsam? In an earlier episode, we discussed flotsam, which we described as the stuff thrown off a sinking ship. But several avid sailors let us know that jetsam's the stuff thrown overboard, while flotsam is the remains of a shipwreck. Thanks, crew.Paula from Palm City, Florida, wants to know: What's so cute about buttons, anyway? Like the expressions cute as a bug and cute as a bug's ear, this expression seems to derive from the fact that all of these things are delicate and small. She raises another interesting question: Are the descriptors beautiful and attractive preferable to cute and adorable after a certain age? We want to hear your thoughts!  The weeks on either side of the winter solstice have a special place in Greek mythology. In the story of Alcyone, the daughter of Aeolus, she marries Ceyx, who arrogantly dares to compare their relationship to that of Zeus and Hera. Such hubris is never a good thing in Greek myth, and Zeus causes his death. But the gods eventually take pity on the mortal couple, changing them into birds known for their devotion to each other. Those birds, named after Alcyone, were said to nest on the surface of the sea during calm weather, giving rise to our term halcyon days.Is white on rice a racist idiom? No! It simply means that if you're on top of your tasks like white on rice, it means you've got it covered the way rice is covered in whiteness. In Geneva Smitherman's Talkin and Testifyin, she relays a lyric from Frankie Crocker that goes Closer than white's on rice; closer than cold's on ice. Now that's close!If something's got you feeling ate up, then you're consumed by the notion that it didn't go perfectly. You're overwhelmed, obsessed, or maybe you're just exhausted. However, among members of the Air Force, ate up has long meant gung ho, as in, that pilot's ate up, he loves flying so much.Via Maud Newton's Twitter feed comes this gem from The Sea, by William John Banville: The past beats inside me like a second heart. If you see a great quote somewhere, tweet it to us!How conversational fillers such as like and you know creep into our vernacular? Like most verbal ticks and pieces of vocabulary, we pick these things up from those around us. But contrary to some folks' opinions, the use of like and you know don't decrease one's credibility. When used appropriately, they actually make it easier for people to relate to us.This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.....Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.And from The Ken Blanchard Companies, whose purpose is to make a leadership difference among executives, managers, and individuals in organizations everywhere. More about Ken Blanchard's leadership training programs at kenblanchard.com/leadership.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2012, Wayword LLC.