Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.
Irish Medical Dictionary Daffynitions
Artery — The study of fine paintings and sculptures.
Bacteria — The back entrance to the staff cafeteria.
Barium — What the undertaker does when modern medicine fails.
Benign — What a child turns after being eight.
Caesarean Section — A prestigious residential district in ancient Rome.
Cardiogram — An overly affectionate Valentine’s Day greeting card.
CAT Scan — Searching the back garden for a runaway family pet.
Cauterize — Making direct eye contact with someone across the room.
Colic — A breed of working sheepdog prized in the Scottish Highlands.
Coma — A punctuation mark indicating a brief pause in a sentence.
Dilate — To live a remarkably long and fulfilling life.
Enema — Someone who is decidedly not on friendly terms with you.
Fibula — A small, harmless white lie told to avoid trouble.
Hangnail — A small coat hook affixed to the back of the front door.
Impotent — Distinguished, prominent, and commanding great respect.
Labour Pain — Getting injured on an active construction site.
Medical Staff — A walking stick kept beside the physician’s umbrella stand.
Morbid — A higher offer placed at an estate auction.
Nitrate — Considerably cheaper than the standard daytime telephone charge.
Node — Was fully aware of the facts beforehand.
Outpatient — A person who fainted in the waiting room chair.
Pelvis — A distant cousin of the famous rock-and-roll singer Elvis.
Post-Operative — A retired delivery driver from the local postal service.
Protein — Strongly in favour of adolescent young people.
Secretion — Keeping a private matter safely to oneself.
Tablet — A small, ruled pad of lined writing paper.
Terminal Illness — Catching a nasty head cold while stuck at the airport gate.
Tibia — An exotic country situated along the North African coast.
Tumour — A quantity that is two units higher than the previous estimate.
Urine — The opposite of “you’re out.”
Varicose — Located in very close physical proximity.
Vein — Possessing an excessively high opinion of one’s own appearance.
OGS Toronto Branch Meeting
The Branch monthly meeting, at 7:30 pm on Monday, 26 October via Zoom, kicks off with author Susan Goldenberg profiling her new book, Will Power: the Most Baffling Bequests, Ludicrous Last Wishes, and Daft Declarations in Final Testaments. It showcases some of the most astonishing, eccentric, funny, and vindictive bequests and last requests found in wills, both past and present, including a few memorable family feuds.
For the main presentation, Drew von Hasselbach will explore Canadian battlefield wills. Over the centuries, special rules allowed military personnel to make informal wills, from oral “nuncupative” declarations whispered from deathbeds to hastily scribbled notes from the trenches, all carrying the same legal force as a formal will, along with procedures for administering the estates of those who never returned.
BIFHSGO Conference
The video recordings from the 2026 BIFHSGO Conference are now posted in the Registrants’ Portal, along with handouts (scroll down on the main page to the Handouts and Videos section). You will find the speakers’ presentations and the discussions from the Expert Connect Q and A breakout rooms. The links to the video recordings and handouts will be available until midnight on 30 November.
60 Years Ago
Today I’m celebrating the anniversary of the day I landed in Montreal and took the train to Ottawa, arriving at the newly opened train station.
MI5
Over 100 Security Service (MI5) files are newly released by The National Archives (UK) covering a wide range of subjects and individuals for the period from the 1930s to the 1970s.
EL&P
I’d be amazed if you don’t enjoy this.
Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Christine Jackson, Gail, Helen Gillespie, Glenn Wright, Ken McKinlay, Nick Mcdonald, Teresa, Unknown.
