MetaFilter posts tagged with curses

Sunday's Gloomy

empath — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:52:56 -0800

Hungary may be the gloomiest country on earth. Believed by its people to be suffering from a centuries long curse, it's most famous modern musical export is probably the "Hungarian Suicide Song" - Gloomy Sunday. Originally popularized by Billie Holiday in the US (with an upbeat ending tacked onto the original lyrics), it's been covered dozens of times since then. Links to a few of my favorites inside: Heather Nova Sarah McLaughlin Bjork Sarah Brightman Venetian Snares Ray Charles Elvis Costello Genesis (not the famous one) Kronos Quartet Angela Poka (in Hungarian) Happy Sunday, Everyone!

Time Has Not Been Kind To Curses

amyms — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:47:02 -0800

"Curse Tablets are small sheets of lead, inscribed with messages from individuals seeking to make gods and spirits act on their behalf and influence the behaviour of others against their will. The motives are usually malign and their expression violent, for example to wreck an opponent’s chariot in the circus, to compel a person to submit to sex or to take revenge on a thief. Letters and lines written back to front, magical ‘gibberish’ and arcane words and symbols often lend the texts additional power to persuade. In places where supernatural agents could be contacted, thrown into sacred pools at temples, interred with the dead or hidden by the turning post at the circus, these tablets have survived to be found by archaeologists."

May you grow like an onion- with your head in the ground!

blahblahblah — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 00:01:15 -0800

"May you be like a lamp: hang by day, burn by night and be snuffed out in the morning." Welcome to the long tradition of Yiddish curses. According to one scholar of insults: Curses in other languages differ from Yiddish in both content and style...Anglo-Saxon cultures prefer insults dealing with excrement and body parts, Catholic countries are partial to blasphemy, and cultures of the Middle and Far East go for ancestor insults, while Yiddish curses have a baroque splendor. A bunch more examples are here (keep scrolling).

kristin — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 03:08:17 -0800

When I got tired of saying the word Fuck all the time, I switched over to the word Fuckity. When my friends pointed out that perhaps Fuckity was a bit twee, I was in a deep funk, until one day, when I discovered Roger's Profanisaurus - the definitive thesaurus of all things Scatalogical, Sexual and Rude. Zuffled lately? Gone whitewater wristing? Expand your vocabulary!

Link via Scott

"Mister President! Duck!"

ZachsMind — Thu, 09 Nov 2000 00:15:06 -0800

"Mister President! Duck!" - I've always wanted to say that. =)