v9.2 - What Pants?

Morning folks,

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ITS FRIDAY!! My anticlimatic work week has finally come to an end. Even though it was a short week, it still feels like I worked an entire month. Bleh

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You know, sometimes life can throw you some pretty odd curve balls. You can go from a place of certainty and stability to a place of utter chaos and unknowing within a heartbeat. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I don''t want to go into too much detail yet as it is too soon to say what will be happening. I do want to say, however, I''m happy about the change and am at a place where I don''t want to get my hopes (or anyone elses that may be affected by it) up just yet. There are some things I need to work out and some finer details to address before I can finally say "it is done".

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You may all now return from the edge of your seats. I know, if I wasn''t going to say anything about it, why did I bring it up? Well, basically, I want to keep you all interested. I will say, however, that this "change" will require one big move and a new job (which is in the works) in order to pull it off. If everything falls into place like I hope it will, then I will dedicate an entire musing to giving you all the details.

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For now, I want to touch on another subject that I think is quite interesting. Today, I want to talk about Pants. Why would I even want to talk about Pants? Well, I was a little desperate to talk to you all about something "interesting" today, so I choose something that was simple, yet complicated at the same time.

For starters, lets define Pants:

1. To breathe rapidly in short gasps, as after exertion.
2. To beat loudly or heavily; throb or pulsate.
3. To give off loud puffs, especially while moving.
4. To long demonstratively; yearn: was panting for a chance to play.

Not what you were expecting right? :) Although these are definitions of the verb meaing of Pants, today I want to talk about the Noun meaning of Pants:

1. Trousers. Often used in the plural.
2. Underpants. Often used in the plural.

Of course, Pants is only a slang word. The full word which fulfills the meaning above is "pantaloon", which (as luck would have it) has an origin. I don''t feel like writing it all out, so I''m going to copy/paste the origin text here into the musing.

Taken from dictionary.com:

One would not expect a word for a modern article of clothing to come ultimately from the name of a 4th-century Roman Catholic saint, but that is the case with the word pants. It can be traced back to Pantaleon, the patron saint of Venice. He became so closely associated with the inhabitants of that city that the Venetians were popularly known as Pantaloni. Consequently, among the commedia dell''arte''s stock characters the representative Venetian (a stereotypically wealthy but miserly merchant) was called Pantalone, or Pantalon in French. In the mid-17th century the French came to identify him with one particular style of trousers, a style which became known as pantaloons in English. Pantaloons was later applied to another style that came into fashion in the late 18th century, tight-fitting garments that had begun to replace knee breeches. After that pantaloons was used to refer to trousers in general. The abbreviation of pantaloons to pants met with some resistance at first; it was considered vulgar and, as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, “a word not made for gentlemen, but ‘gents.’” First found in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe in 1840, pants has replaced the “gentleman''s word” in English and has lost all obvious connection to Saint Pantaleon.

I''m not surprised the word Pants derives from a Catholic priest. :)

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Hopefully now you have more respect for the Pants. In fact, those of us who wear pants could be easily called Pantaloni. :) Nah

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By the way, for those of you who prefer to go Pantless (I know there are some of you), you may find this website interesting: http://www.nopantsday.com/

Luckly for you, on May 5th, 2006 we will get to celebrate NO PANTS DAY!! Read through this website when you get a chance, it is hillarious!!

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Alright my friends, my boss decided to show up for work today so I best be on my way. He came by my desk at 6am this morning (just to see if I was here on-time I bet) and told me we would need to have a team meeting today. He doesn''t look happy at all.

Therefore, verily I say unto thee, go forth and take off ye pants!

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Cheers,

Al