Snollygoster is a Fun Word to Learn

: a shrewd, unprincipled person

“Truman lamented that Dwight Eisenhower had given in to congressional “snollygosters“—unprincipled politicians.—Orme Wilson”

This is a quote I found on the Merriam Webster Dictionary website. I was going to talk about the word “gumption” which is today’s word of the day. I was sidetracked when I saw that snollygoster is the current top word look-up at this website. I did not know what it meant, so I looked it up. I found the above quote. I tried to look up Orme Wilson since I did not recognize this name. I found that there was more than one Orme Wilson, so I searched who was the Orme Wilson that used the word “snollygoster” to describe politicians. I found this:

“President Harry S. Truman. Truman lamented in his personal correspondence and speeches that Dwight D. Eisenhower had surrendered to congressional “snollygosters”—which he defined as unprincipled, shrewd politicians who care more about getting into office than about party, platform, or principles. Because Orme Wilson Jr. was a prominent diplomat during the Truman era, his papers, letters, or related historical records are cited by lexicographers as the source material verifying Truman’s use of the word.” I found this quote from Wikipedia.

According to Merriam Webster, the word can be traced back to the word “snallygaster” which was a mythical creature. Etymology– “probably alteration of snallygaster a mythical creature that preys on poultry and children.”

A dark winged dragon stands among dead chickens beside a rural wooden farmhouse.
Could this be a snallygaster or a snollygaster?

In case you are more interested in the word “gumption”, here is the link: Definition of gumption.

Passing Gas

I was reminded of this post today when one the boys in one of my classes farted. This caused a major class disruption with the other boys holding their noses and moving away from him. Once again I had to remind them that everyone does this, and that it is a natural reaction of our bodies when we digest food. It happened soon after lunch.

Here is my old post about this subject. Check it out here!

Holy Moly!

White flowering plant with exposed roots in an enchanted forest
White blossoms rise from twisted roots in a glowing, mushroom-filled forest.
Batman and Robin driving a Batmobile through a city at night
Batman and Robin speed through a city skyline in their retro Batmobile comic scene.

The word moly does not stand alone as a single word except in myth. There is a magical herb in mythology called moly. In The Odyssey moly is a magical herb given to Odysseus by the god Hermes to protect him from Circe’s magic.

Several years ago I read the book Circe written by Madeline Miller, and moly is a magical plant that is also mentioned in this book. This mention carries forward the mystery of moly. Many botanists have tried to determine if there ever existed such an herb like it is described in these books. Nothing can be established conclusively, and it remains a mystery, though several theories do exist.

I remember watching Batman cartoons when I was a kid, and Robin would frequently use the phrase, “Holy Moly, Batman”, to express his surprise or shock about what was happening around them.

Molybdenum Mo, atomic number 42, electron configuration [Kr] 4d⁵ 5s¹
A futuristic infographic explores molybdenum’s atomic structure, electron configuration, and metallic crystal form.
No. 74 Moly Alloy Racing prototype car cornering on a racetrack
The No. 74 Moly Alloy Racing prototype accelerates through a sunlit circuit corner.

In real life there is the chemical element Molybdenum. It is a silvery white transition metal. It has many industrial uses. One use is to create an alloy called “moly steel”, and this is a high strength alloy that is often used to build race cars.

All the images and their captions were created by the WordPress image generator. I did provide prompts, though nothing as specific as what it creates. I find this fascinating, and I often want to exclaim, Holy Moly!

August 24, 2026 School Will Begin

Are You Ready?

The day after the car racing… school will begin for many students in the outlying suburbs. Unlike the race which will last part of a day, the school year will last for approximately 180 to 190 days.

(The post above was originally posted August 21, 2022.)

Enjoy the weekend before school begins in 2026!

Going to school at 3 years old.

Are you ready for the race?

Two neon race cars on a rainy street beneath the Capitol
Neon-lit race cars speed through rainy streets beneath the U.S. Capitol.
In real news there will be a race this weekend in "Washington,D.C.,officially the District of Columbia,which is the federal capital of the United States."

It will look nothing like the picture here. This picture was created by an image generator.

The real race will be during the daytime. No neon lights will be needed.
I wonder if the real race will have rain. I have not seen rain predictions.
The noise should be loud like in the audio file above.
Have your earplugs ready. The excitement is building.
The road closures will cause frustration for many.
I hope everyone will stay safe!

Aug. 19th – Hiding in Plain Sight

Hocus Pocus Focus
When I originally blogged Hocus Pocus Focus I did not include a picture. Tonight I went back into my picture folders to find an example of a thing of beauty hiding in plain sight.
When I was taking pictures of these flowers I did not realize the bug was there. It was not until I got inside and got a good look at the picture that I saw it. It had been hiding in plain sight! 🙂 I edited the picture and zoomed in on what I had originally missed.

Unstoppable Pi

Pi symbol surrounded by concentric rings of digits and natural patterns
The symbol π anchors concentric rings of digits amid shells, leaves, flowers, and branching natural forms. (This was made by the image generator with the prompt the pi symbol in nature.)

I noticed that my total number of posts today was 395. This reminded me of the number pi, and it reminded me of the number 42. I did wonder if there was a real connection between 395 and pi, and this is what I found.

“When evaluating \(\pi \) out to 395 digits past the decimal point, the string of numbers finishes as follows according to Decimal Info:

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519

Within these first 395 decimal places, there is a distinct frequency breakdown of digits, including exactly 39 instances of the number 5. [1]” This quote was taken from the website decimal.info

How does the number 42 connect? Well, 3 times 14 equals 42. I have read that there are other connections, if interested, you can explore this possibility.

I deleted 3 posts last night, and by adding this post, my total will be 393 published posts. I have 1 post in the trash which I might restore into my drafts folder. It has a nice picture of my mother holding home grown rhubarb. She was famous for her rhubarb pies.

She grew rhubarb at her vacation home in New Brunswick, Canada. She lived on a Crow Island Road. You could see the Bay of Fundy tides come in and out from her home.

A Lookback – 2015/11/11. Tomorrow is a New Day of School

Goddess Lakshmi seated on a lotus flower holding lotus and gold pots during sunset by the ocean
Goddess Lakshmi blessing with lotus and gold at sunset by the sea

As I have been shown past posts over the past couple of weeks, I have seen some that I like and I have seen some that I ask myself “what was that about?” I just deleted a past post titled There is a Silver Lining from long ago. It fell into the ridiculous category with no saving grace other than its title.

The picture you see here was recently added to an old post from 2015/11/11 titled Cowrie, Cowry, Kauri. The old post had a picture of the cowrie shell that was not one of my pictures. It was very bland, so I upgraded with a picture from the WordPress image generator. Here is the post: https://movingforwardslowly.com/2015/11/11/cowrie-cowry-kauri/

I still have the shell that I found long ago. I placed it in an old jewelry box. There are cowrie shells shown in the new picture. The cow you see in the background is a powerful symbol in Hinduism. It represents Gau Mata (The Divine Mother).