Download OneOneOne
This theme was created by me, Smaran, for Harry Richman. If you’d like to see the theme in action, visit his tumblelog.
With his consent, I’ve decided to release it. If you’d like to use OneOneOne on your Tumblr-powered site, you can download the code here:
oneoneone.txt
(Update: I’ve uploaded another version of the theme with support for Disqus comments. All you need to do is add the Disqus code provided to you right after {/block:Posts}. Get it here: oneoneone-disqus.txt)
You’ll need to manually add your profile links to the sidebar (it’s indicated where in the code). If you wish to be added to a list of people using this theme, follow this site on Tumblr.
You’re free to use it for non-commercial purposes, all we ask is that you leave the credit in the footer.
Enjoy!
“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Ways in which Doctor Who has made a difference in our lives and popular culture
Only a few TV series have added words to the English language. Doctor Who added at least two, possibly three. “Dalek” was the first one added to the Oxford English Dictionary. “Not only had I created a monster, I had created a word,” wrote their creator, Terry Nation. “What writer could ask for more?”
Later, the Doctor’s unique traveling machine, the Tardis, also found its way into the OED. Though it’s a handy machine (able to travel through time and space), it entered the language for one of its even more impressive properties: as it occupies two different dimensions, it’s bigger on the inside than the outside (which is just as well, because it’s outwardly disguised as a 1920s-style British police box, leaving little room to move). Hence, any room or cabinet that somehow seems more spacious on the inside is a “Tardis” (which, for the record, stands for “Time And Relative Dimensions In Space”).
But perhaps the series biggest contribution to the English language was the prefix “cyber,” to describe anything computerized. Though the term “cybernetic” was used in 1948, it was probably some ongoing Doctor Who villains, the Cybermen, who turned “cyber” into a prefix. Countless IT and internet geeks, not to mention science fiction authors, have followed their lead.
- Basil Fawlty: Madam, I don't mean to pry, but do you by any chance have a hearing aid?
- Mrs. Richards: A what?
- Basil Fawlty: A HEARING AID.
- Mrs. Richards: Yes, of course.
- Basil Fawlty: Would you like me to get it mended?
- Mrs. Richards: Mended? It's working perfectly all right.
- Basil Fawlty: No, it isn't.
- Mrs. Richards: I haven't got it switched on at the moment.
- Basil Fawlty: Why not?
- Mrs. Richards: The battery runs down.
palinode
Pronunciation:
(PAL-uh-noad)
Meaning:
noun: A poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem.
Etymology:
From Greek palinoidia, from palin (again) + oide (song). It’s the same palin that shows up in the word palindrome.
Notes:
The illustrator and humorist Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) once wrote a poem called The Purple Cow:
I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one.
The poem became so popular and he became so closely linked with this single quatrain that he later wrote a palinode:
Confession: and a Portrait, Too,
Upon a Background that I Rue!
Oh, yes, I wrote ‘The Purple Cow,’
I’m sorry now I wrote it!
But I can tell you anyhow,
I’ll kill you if you quote it.
Usage:
“The more lighthearted palinodes were more successful, such as Geoff Horton’s recantation of his youthful view that a martini should be shaken rather than stirred.”
Jaspitos; I Take It Back; The Spectator (London, UK); Jan 24, 2004.
(via A.Word.A.Day)
