Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, December 26, 2021
through
Saturday, January 1, 2022
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It’s Saturday, January 1, 2022
Welcome to the 1,313th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Bronze coin of Antoninus Pius
minted in Abonoteichos and showing the snake god Glycon with the legend “ΓΛVΚΩΝ ΑΒΩΝΟΤΕΙΧΕΙΤΩΝ” (29 mm, 16.89 g)
Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com
Bronze coin of Antoninus Pius minted in Abonoteichos and showing the snake god Glycon with the legend “ΓΛVΚΩΝ ΑΒΩΝΟΤΕΙΧΕΙΤΩΝ” (29 mm, 16.89 g)
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Commentary
Blue Bottle closed their facilities to indoor dining.
That sucks.
It’s a retrograde. We have to learn to deal with this virus.
What about an intermediate step like the Bryant Park Blue Bottle in NYC which requires that patrons who wish to sit in, show their vaccination card to the cashier.
This filters out people who aren’t careful enough about their health so it adds to the safety of the diners.
And it rewards those who are getting in step: vax card holders can and non-holders, get your coffee to go.
It seems to me indoor activities should permanently require vax cards, even for flu.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Love the life you live. Live the life you love.
~Bob Marley
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
My friend Jim and I spent time on the phone and emailing regarding my manuscript pages on religion and dreams.
Blog meister responds: It’s good to have knowledgeable friend.
Christmas in NYC
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night was my last meal from the Christmas holidays. It was lasagna and meatballs. Extraordinary. But now I am in greater control of my diet. Today I shopped for salmon because I am fish starved. And I bought a game hen for a poultry fix. I also bought some caviar (on sale) to bring in the New Year.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
window display nyc dec 2021 #3
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Short Essay*
Alexander of Abonoteichus (c. 105 – c. 170 CE), was a Greek mystic and oracle, and the founder of the Glycon cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman world. The contemporary writer Lucian reports that he was an utter fraud – the god Glycon was supposedly made up of a live snake with an artificial head. The vivid narrative of his career given by Lucian might be taken as fictitious but for the corroboration of certain coins of the emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius and of a statue of Alexander, said by Athenagoras to have stood in the forum of Parium. There is further evidence from inscriptions.
Lucian describes him as having swindled many people and engaged, through his followers, in various forms of thuggery. The strength of Lucian's venom against Alexander is attributed to Alexander's hate of the Epicureans. Lucian admired the works of Epicurus, a eulogy of which concludes the piece, and whether or not Alexander was the master of fraud and deceit as portrayed by Lucian, he may not have been too different from other oracles of the age, when a great deal of dishonest exploitation occurred in some shrines.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, December 31, 2021
Welcome to the 1,312th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Les Paul
Paul playing a Gibson Les Paul at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City, 2008
Thomas Faivre-Duboz Paris, France - Les Paul Live @ Iridium Jazz Club / NYC
Les Paul Live @ Iridium Jazz Club in New York City in October 2008
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Commentary
So Blue Bottle café has adopted the extreme business model, no indoor dining.
What’s missing from this this option is the use of vax cards: proof of vaccination as a filter for patrons. When I was in NYC I patronized the Blue Bottle @ Bryant Park, and the vax card is exactly what they used there. In fact, it’s in use in all indoor stores, gyms, restaurants, shows. Not only does the vax card provide us a path back to normalcy, but it offers incentive to the non-vaxxers to get on the bandwagon.
On a personal level, it’s made it necessary for me to reconfigure my daily routine. Immediately, I’ve been using Eataly, which is virtually next door. It’s not as wonderful because Eataly doesn’t draw students or other writers who are laptop users. No camaraderie. We’ll see.
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Reading and Writing
The Epilogue just fell into place. Once I got started, the words flowed and it’s suddenly done. A ten-day estimate was finished satisfactorily in three. A week ahead of schedule. I’m sure one of the other five remaining areas of editing will cause a stumble. But we’ll take this little victory as a positive augur of things to come.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life:
it goes on."
~Robert Frost
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A friend slipped and fell on the ice Christmas Day morning. He hit his head which caused bleeding around the brain. He also fractured three of his lower vertebra. After a couple of days in the hospital, he texted this:
"Doing ok. Blood count is below normal. They’re monitoring it closely. If it decreases further that will indicate internal Bleeding. If it holds stead I possibly can be released".
Blog meister responds: We wish him well and urge him to take his recovery slowly.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night I had a large bowl of a lima bean and cabbage casserole. It was delicious. I also fried two sausages on the side. With mustard and sauerkraut, they were also very good.
Another window display in NYC in December, 2021
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Window display nyc #2
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Short Essay*
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. Paul taught himself how to play guitar, and while he is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. In the 1950s, he and his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford, recorded numerous records, selling millions of copies.
Paul is credited with many recording innovations. His early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing, and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention. His licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques, and timing set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day.
Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed. Paul is the only person to be included in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, December 30, 2021
Welcome to the 1,312th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini
Chris is on the right.
Ned Vizzini and Columbus at the New York Comic Con, 2012
Luigi Novi
The House of Secrets panel on Day 3 of the 2012 New York Comic Con, Saturday October 13, 2012 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. From left to right: An unidentified emcee, and House of Secrets co authors, young adult writer Ned Vizzini and filmmaker Chris Columbus. This photo was created by Luigi Novi. It is not in the public domain, and use of this file outside of the licensing terms is a copyright violation. If you would like to use this image outside of the Wikimedia projects, you may do so, only if I am properly credited, either by linking the photograph to this page, or with an easily visible credit placed near the photo in each instance in which it is used. Please credit authorship as follows: © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Please maintain the original file name in all uses. You can see a gallery of some of my other photos here. If you have any questions, you can contact me by sending me an email or leaving a note at the bottom of my talk page.
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Commentary
I hate that I am so susceptible to the cold. By cold, I’m talking about sitting in a mall and typing for a couple of hours. Whatever temperature they keep the mall at is cold enough to slowly drain me of heat and force me to move on.
Fortunately, the club I work out at has a sauna. So after an hour at the cafe, I close up my computer, repair to the sauna, and warm up. Then I return to the café for another bout of typing.
And there are many circumstances at home under which I get chilled. I’m hoping that I now have a fix for home chills in the works. My new sauna will be here by the end of January.
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Reading and Writing
I am one day away from completing the Epilogue. Very pleased with my progress.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Life is a long lesson
in humility.
~James M. Barrie
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A good deal of emailing among my sons and I re: my Christmas present.
I had been complaining about my susceptibility to cold weather. My son says, “We can buy you a sauna.” He sent me a link and I selected the sauna.
Blog meister responds: Thank you, my sons.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I find that leftover beef loses at least 50% of its flavor as a leftover. I had another meal of leftover roast. So I fried some onions in butter, salt, and pepper. When they were softened I cut the beef into 2oz pieces and added them long enough to warm them and imbue them with a little flavor. That was my meal for Tuesday, in a delicious ciabatta loaf and a side salad of lettuce and tomato.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Train at Bryant Park
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Short Essay*
Chris Joseph Columbus (born September 10, 1958) is an American filmmaker. Born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, Columbus studied film at Tisch School of the Arts where he developed an interest in filmmaking. After writing screenplays for several teen comedies in the mid-1980s, he made his directorial debut with a teen adventure, Adventures in Babysitting (1987). Columbus gained recognition soon after with the highly successful Christmas comedy Home Alone (1990) and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
The comedy Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), starring Robin Williams, was another box office success for Columbus. He went on to direct several other films throughout the 1990s, which were mostly met with lukewarm reception. However, he found commercial success again for directing the film adaptations of J. K. Rowling's novels, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), which are his highest-grossing films to date. In addition to directing, Columbus was a producer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and the drama The Help (2011). He also directed the fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) and the 3D action comedy Pixels (2015).
Columbus is the co-founder of 1492 Pictures, a film production company that has produced some of his films since 1995. More recently, he co-founded another production firm with his daughter in 2014, called Maiden Voyage Pictures. In 2017, he launched ZAG Animation Studios, alongside Michael Barnathan, Haim Saban, and Jeremy Zag.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Welcome to the 1,311th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Alexander Korda
Photograph of Alexander Korda
Macfadden Publications, Inc.; no photographer credited - Photoplay, January 1936 (page 25)
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Commentary
My son Mino, who is mentioned in the mail just below, walking with me, listening to me describe an unfortunate eating experience, commented, “There’s nothing worse than eating a shitty version of something not good for you.”
A classic.
My life took a turn for the worse today. Blue Bottle Café has closed its ‘in dining’ feature and is serving only coffee to go. I must reconfigure my day.
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Reading and Writing
The writing is getting exciting. I’m closing in on the final set of work. I promised that January 15 will be the date at which I will accurately know how much more time I will need to complete the manuscript for submission to agencies. After working Monday night, I am certain of that. In fact, I am pretty sure that I can set Valentine’s Day as Submission Day. Perhaps overstepping but the excitement drives me.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Keep smiling,
because life is a beautiful thing and
there's so much to smile about.
~Marilyn Monroe
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
My friend, Jim P sends this:
On sneezing and farting.
When my first daughter was about 2 years old and
learning responses to things,
she once said “God Bless you” after I farted 😊
Blog meister responds: Love kids. I remember my son Mino trying to reference our bartender, Maxie, who had a bald head, and described him as “the guy who has a bulbed head.” Couldn’t be more accurate.
Note: Read Mino’s latest witticism above in Commentary.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
My son Dom made perhaps the best tray of Lasagna I’ve ever had. He used noodles from Constantino’s in RI. His ricotta cheese filling was terrific and his gravy perfect.
What did I do to deserve that?
Stemming from my own and others entertaining during season, I am coasting on leftovers. I still have a soup day, another roast beef day, and another lasagna and meatballs day in my refrigerator. My plan is to eat these over the next three nights.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Bryant Park December 2021
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Short Essay*
Sir Alexander Korda (16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956) was a Hungarian-born British film director, producer and screenwriter, who founded his own film production studios and film distribution company.
Born in Hungary, where he began his career, he worked briefly in the Austrian and German film industries during the era of silent films, before being based in Hollywood from 1926 to 1930 for the first of his two brief periods there (the other was during World War II). The change led to a divorce from his first wife, the Hungarian film actress María Corda, who was unable to make the transition from silent films to "talkies" because of her strong Hungarian accent.
From 1930, Korda was active in the British film industry, and soon became one of its leading figures. He was the founder of London Films and, post-war, the owner of British Lion Films, a film distribution company. Korda produced many outstanding classics of the British film industry, including The Private Life of Henry VIII, Rembrandt, Things To Come, The Thief of Baghdad and The Third Man. In 1942, Korda became the first filmmaker to receive a knighthood.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Welcome to the 1,310th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
Lead Picture
Roman Foot Soldiers
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Detail from the Ahenobarbus relief showing two Roman foot-soldiers from the second century BC
Unknown artist - Jastrow (2007)
Sacrifice scene during a census: Right part of a plaque from the Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus known as the “Census frieze”. Marble, Roman artwork of the late 2nd century BC. From the Campo Marzio, Rome
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Commentary
Sunday after Christmas is an extension of Christmas. The mall is quiet. People are subdued but happy. Christmas joy.
This season I enjoyed the opportunity to meet individually with a goodly number of friends and family. Each of the meets was wonderful. So rare to have the time to hang long enough to go behind the headlines with the people you love. The season gives us the rationale to stamp these meeting as “Private” and “Extended.” Lovely. Perhaps the Spirit of Christmas.
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Reading and Writing
Work on the Epilogue to my manuscript is proceeding apace.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize
how close they were to success when they gave up.
~Thomas A. Edison
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Sally C:
Oh, yes, the computer glitches! They are becoming more frequent all the time, and it makes no difference if you are using the internet or not.
I’ve been dealing with computer issues at least once a week lately. About a month ago, my MS Office platform vanished entirely off my computer (when I wasn’t even using it – it was on and open to the internet, but I was elsewhere in the house for several hours, so it wasn’t an accidental deletion on my part). No Outlook, no Word, no Excel, no PowerPoint, no Nuthin. This was more than a little concerning, and none of the computer techs I’ve spoken to since can explain how that can happen. The only connection I had to the outside world was through MS Edge. A MS tech checked my computer and confirmed that the program no longer existed on my machine. So I had to find the product key and reinstall it. Since then, Outlook (only!) has uninstalled itself once a week – I’m getting to know what to do when that happens! And last week I couldn’t use my computer for the better part of four days because when I tried to add a second monitor to my set-up, the computer stopped talking to either monitor. This required an in-home service call, and the tech guy found all kinds of strange goings-on inside the machine, stuff that had been improperly installed in the factory ten years ago!
Weird, weird, weird!
By the way, do you know the origin of the word “glitch” in the computer world? “Gremlin Loose In Terminal; Call for Help.”
One thing about three-plus days without being able to use my computer, I got a lot of cleaning out and sorting done in the home office here. Also found a mess of old writings that I had forgotten where I had put them. It’ll be fun to go through those and maybe transcribe them into electronic format.
I did notice the extra step in accessing your blog post, but it only took a couple of posts for me to figure it out. You’re worth the extra step, Dom!
Blog meister responds: Don’t you just love Sally’s memories?
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Times Square from a distance, December, 2021
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday I ate Stuffed Squid, compliments of my friend, Cindy. They were delicious.
I had Squid Ink spaghetti to complement the sauce.
Key to this dish is a light, squid-tasting sauce. Cindy got it right.
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Short Essay*
The Battle of Panormus was fought in Sicily in 250 BC during the First Punic War between a Roman army led by Lucius Caecilius Metellus and a Carthaginian force led by Hasdrubal. The Roman force of two legions defending the city of Panormus defeated the much larger Carthaginian army of 30,000 men and between 60 and 142 war elephants.
The war had commenced in 264 BC with Carthage in control of much of Sicily, where most of the fighting took place. In 256–255 BC the Romans attempted to strike at the city of Carthage in North Africa, but suffered a heavy defeat by a Carthaginian army strong in cavalry and elephants. When the focus of the war returned to Sicily, the Romans captured the large and important city of Panormus in 254 BC. Thereafter they avoided battle for fear of the war elephants which the Carthaginians had shipped to Sicily. In late summer 250 BC Hasdrubal led out his army to devastate the crops of the cities of Rome's allies. The Romans withdrew to Panormus and Hasdrubal pressed on to the city walls.
Once he arrived in Panormus, Metellus turned to fight, countering the elephants with a hail of javelins from earthworks dug near the walls. Under this missile fire the elephants panicked and fled through the Carthaginian infantry. The Roman heavy infantry then charged the Carthaginian left flank, which broke, along with the rest of the Carthaginians. The elephants were captured and later slaughtered in the Circus Maximus. This was the last significant land battle of the war, which ended nine years later in a Roman victory.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, December 27, 2021
Welcome to the 1,309th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Adoration of the Magi
Bramantino -
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/bramantino-the-adoration-of-the-kings/
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Commentary
The last several nights I’ve been waking at 3.30am and been unable to return to sleep.
Decided my melatonin intake needed a boost: I went from 20 to 23 milligrams on Friday night.
I woke at 3.30am on Saturday but was easily able to return to sleep for another 90 minutes.
5.00am rise. Perfect.
Same on Sunday.
The speed and the widespread nature of the omicron pandemic is startling. Hope we’re all being extra-cautious.
When you’ve had a good night’s sleep, you exercise so much better. That’s a health plus.
But I am having some interesting side effects. In my life, I very rarely dreamed. Since melatonin, I’ve been dreaming once of twice a week. Short, neutral kinds of things. But not nothing.
Also, during my early morning hours, my first two active hours, I am regularly groggy, which I believe to be melatonin related. Not an issue for me since I can take a nap, usually 20 minutes. Sweet. Then I’m fine.
So, so far, @ 23 milligrams, me and melatonin are getting along fine. And that’s after three years of excellent sleep. I’ll continue taking it.
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Reading and Writing
Have started work on my Epilogue. Aim to finish by Jan 14 at which point I’ll know how much more time I need to prepare the manuscript to send out to agents.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Life is trying things to see if they work.
~Ray Bradbury
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
On Christmas Day, many exchanges of holiday greetings.
Blog meister responds: Merry Christmas to all…
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
To inaugurate Christmas Day, I walked out @ 6.00am by myself, braving the dark and the cold. At 6.28am I got this great view of Commonwealth Ave. The picture not so great. At 6.30am I was at the Street Bar at the Newbury, enjoying a pancake breakfast and very hot, delicious coffee while sitting at a window table watching the night turn to day. Santa did not join me.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Friday, I enjoyed a lighter meal: Tuna Salad Sandwich.
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Short Essay*
The Adoration of the Kings is a small oil painting on panel of c. 1500 by Bramantino in the National Gallery, London. In it the Holy Family and the Magi are, unusually, joined by an adult John the Baptist, whose Baptism of Christ was celebrated on the same day as Epiphany in the liturgical calendar. At 56.8 cm (22.4 in) × 55 cm (22 in), it was probably commissioned for private use by an individual rather than for placing in a church, but nothing is known about its early history. The panel entered the National Gallery in 1916 as part of the Layard Bequest.
Bramantino was a painter in Milan, who is relatively little known outside northern Italy, where most of his paintings remain; this is the only known example in the United Kingdom. In a Milanese art scene dominated by Leonardo da Vinci, Bramantino instead belonged to a tradition of "the structured but immobile realism of the Quattrocento ... that was fundamentally distinct from Leonardo's thought", descending from Piero della Francesca, via Bramantino's master Bramante.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, December 26, 2021
through
Saturday, January 1, 2022
If blog doesn’t appear, just click on the date. We’re working on it.
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It’s Sunday, December 26, 2021
Welcome to the 1,308th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Flatulence (or Fart)
Illustration of man suffering from wind. Rare Books Keywords: Abnormalities
https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/dc/0b/981d61bdee2c09d893e29ccaa2f2.jpg Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0005360.html Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-03-30): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/w5fytvhj CC-BY-4.0
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Commentary
Sneezing and (pardon the vulgarity) farting are two of God’s gifts. What is better than a full sneeze when you’re having trouble breathing? Blowing your nose is nothing compared to a real sneeze. Be sure to carry a tissue.
And when you’re feeling bloated and cramped, need to find a toilet, and then you pass gas? Oh! What a feeling. Of relief. Be sure you find an isolated space in case it’s a smelly one.
On my recent trip to NYC I had two dinners with daughter Kat et al. One of the thrills for those evenings was to see Kat enjoy wines she wouldn’t have appreciated just a couple of months ago.
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Reading and Writing
I’ve started on the Epilogue. Hoping to finish by Jan 14, 2022
and then take a day to assess how much time I will need to finish the manuscript.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.
~Charles Dickens
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
I wrote recently that Jim and I both dove in for seconds.
He wrote:
I think I dove in for thirds actually 😊
Blog meister responds: Don’t want to play one-up but I repeated the same dinner the night afterwards.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night I had a tuna fish sandwich for dinner. I needed a lighter meal.
My Friday night visit to my dear friend Cindy was postponed to Sunday morning. One of the attendees on Friday night was arriving from Foxwoods and I considered that too risky for me.
For me, finely chopped celery and red onions (and lettuce) are the essential ingredients.
I also pour out the olive oil in the can and use my own EVOO.
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Community Photos**
Wicked 2
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Short Essay*
Flatulence is defined in the medical literature as "flatus expelled through the anus" or the "quality or state of being flatulent", which is defined in turn as "marked by or affected with gases generated in the intestine or stomach; likely to cause digestive flatulence". The root of these words is from the Latin flatus – "a blowing, a breaking wind". Flatus is also the medical word for gas generated in the stomach or bowels. Despite these standard definitions, a proportion of intestinal gas may be swallowed environmental air, and hence flatus is not totally generated in the stomach or bowels. The scientific study of this area of medicine is termed flatology.
Flatus is brought to the rectum and pressurized by muscles in the intestines. It is normal to pass flatus, though volume and frequency vary greatly among individuals. It is also normal for intestinal gas to have a feculent odor, which may be intense. The noise commonly associated with flatulence ("blowing a raspberry") is produced by the anus and buttocks, which act together in a manner similar to that of an embouchure. Both the sound and odor are sources of embarrassment, annoyance or amusement (flatulence humor).
There are several general symptoms related to intestinal gas: pain, bloating and abdominal distension, excessive flatus volume, excessive flatus odor, and gas incontinence. Furthermore, eructation ("an act or instance of belching", colloquially known as "burping") is sometimes included under the topic of flatulence. When excessive or malodorous, flatus can be a sign of a health disorder, such as irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease or lactose intolerance.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
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