Folks, it’s been a long time in coming…two years in fact, but it’s here. I give you the official kirkham.com (.org) theme song performed by Clay Thomas and Jeff Loperfido!

[Read more →]

Definition: noun supreme self-confidence : nerve, gall : temerity
Etymology: Yiddish khutspe, from Late Hebrew ḥuṣpāh
Quotation: “I had the chutzpah to think that I could run in a state where I had lived for only a few years.”
- from “Questions for Ted Sorensen” in the New York Times Magazine
To the synonyms list I might add “balls”, [...]

[Read more →]

Definition: 1a: a small compartment : booth b: a box in a theater
   2a: a small partitioned area b: a separate forward section of a theater mezzanine or balcony c: a raised section or level of seats in a sports stadium
Quotation:
A new presidential box needed to be built, complete with wet bar and air-conditioning, and the [...]

[Read more →]

UNC is a school steeped in history and requires a mascot be cut from the finest cloth. Succession is swift and often painful as this article points out. Rameses XVII had a long and overwhelmingly successful reign as mascot. He presided over the fall and return to greatness of UNC’s storied basketball [...]

[Read more →]

Definition: noun a circumstance especially that is due to chance : happenstance
Quotation:
“It is only happenchance that the secretary’s waiver in this case involved laws protecting the environment and historic resources,” the groups told Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of Federal District Court in Washington. “He could equally have waived the requirements of the Fair Labor Relations [...]

[Read more →]

This article in Slate echoes a sentiment I’m sure you’ve all felt after seeing Subway’s newest line of commercials…they’re maddeningly addictive. Well, perhaps not as maddening as other commercials (”Like a Rock!”). In fact, the chord progression has something mysterious to it. I likened it to a Radiohead song after a second [...]

[Read more →]

Definition: noun an illicit lover
Quotation:
Internet security experts say the use of technology to snoop on a paramour is on the rise, though only a fraction of cases end up in court.
- from an article in the The News & Observer
Etymology: Middle English, from par amour for the sake of love, willingly, from Anglo-French par [...]

[Read more →]

Saw this beaut of a comic strip that reminded of similar situation in my own life. I’d like to recount it for you now…
Casa de Los sits on a quiet street near the Five Points intersection in Durham Raleigh (thanks Grant). Our neighbors include families, old maids, Korean immigrants, eccentric artists, and recent [...]

[Read more →]

Definition: adj 1 : having a smooth rich flow 2 : filled with something (as honey) that sweetens
Quotation:
His father died not long ago at 93, he says. “You have to think about him” on this day, he says. And the slightest drop in that mellifluous voice tells you it’s time to talk about [...]

[Read more →]

Definition: noun 1 : a provincial governor of the Mogul empire in India 2 : a person of great wealth or prominence
Etymology: Hindi navāb & Urdu nawāb, from Arabic nuwwāb, plural of nā’ib governor
Quotation:
In the United States today, we have more than our share of nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their [...]

[Read more →]