** Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and perhaps share advice. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. :-)
I'm out of time tonight and my mind is utterly blank, so tonight's topic is random: in honor of those who regularly claim this as their effing problem, Wikipedia's entry for Ennui:
Ennui (Pronunciation: "än-'wE) is a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction. The phrase mihi in odi est (literally translated as "to me in a condition of dislike or hatred is"), meaning "I hate or dislike," gave rise to the Vulgar Latin verb inodire, "to make odious," the source of the Old French verb ennuyer or anoier, "to annoy, bore." This was borrowed into English by around 1275 as anoien, our annoy. From the Old French verb a noun meaning "worry, boredom" was derived, which became ennui in modern French. This noun, with the sense "boredom," was borrowed into English in the 18th century, perhaps filling a need in polite, upper class society. Ennui is different from boredom in that ennui describes weariness or annoyance over a long period of time; boredom is relieved easily, while ennui is constant.
Also, Dictionary.com's selection of usage examples from when ennui was the Word of the Day:
He glanced at his heavily laden bookshelves. Nothing there appealed to him. The ennui seemed to have settled into his very bones.
-- Amanda Quick, With This Ring
He was often off sick or playing hooky and suffered from a kind of ennui, a mixture of listlessness and willful melancholy.
-- Elisabeth Roudinesco, Jacques Lacan (translated by Barbara Bray)
Yet if she felt anything it was ennui, . . . the grey sky and the cold wind obliterating every impulse she might have felt to seek comfort in another climate, another landscape.
-- Anita Brookner, Falling Slowly
He was ashamed and unhappy, adrift with a senseless ennui.
-- Brian Moynahan, Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned
Also, a characterization from Flame Warriors, a "netizen's guide to online belligerents":
Ennui only rouses himself from his torpor to cajole other Warriors to be more interesting - without, of course, ever contributing anything of interest himself. Ennui has limited weaponry at his disposal, but his majestic affectation of boredom provides an effective defense to attacks. When pressed in battle he will announce his intention of moving on to a more stimulating forum, but instead he will generally lurk quietly until the threat passes.
I'm not actually experiencing ennui myself, but I've always liked the word an awful lot. It's fun to say. On Wee. Anyway... what's your effing problem?
P.S. The Madison, Wisconsin kossack get-together is still on for tomorrow--2 PM at Michelangelo's. I've been advised that conflicts with a Brian Kennedy fundraiser at Glass Nickel Pizza, so I'm sorry about the unfortunate scheduling and I understand if some people can't make it for that reason!