I was playing this game that used to be called bones. It was called that because it used them. Bones with little markings on them. Then it became dominos, something about dominance. Now this same game is called Mexican Train.
What’s with that, anyway?
—–
I was looking at a map of Mt. Merapi, the volcano that I’d had a chance to climb in Java. I noted that the area that I’d climbed was submerged beneath a new patterning.
It was ossified.
So I’m guessing this is gone.
ossify \AH-suh-fy\, intransitive verb:
1. To change into bone; to become bony.
2. To become hardened or set in a rigidly conventional pattern.
3. To change into bone; to convert from a soft tissue to a hard bony tissue.
4. To harden; to mold into a rigidly conventional pattern.
It was a case of fresh, consistent dogmatism against ossified, utilitarian dogma.
— Milovan Djilas, Fall of the New Class
Ossify is from Latin os, oss-, “bone” + -fy, from Latin -ficare, akin to facere, “to make.”
Here’s to a good one.
wishingwell
tsg