Skip to main content

Fearman's definitions

quack-my-ass clause

Advice invariably found in the literature handed out by purveyors of so-called "alternative" or "complementary" medicine, in which customers intending to buy quackery are advised to check with their GPs first to find what "mainstream medicine" has to say.

The venomous diatribes against real medicine, and science and rationality in general, behind the closed doors of the "alternative" movement should tell you all you need to know about the sincerity of the quack-my-ass clause. On the face of it, it sounds obvious, egalitiarian and big-hearted. However, the real intention of the advice is to ensure that if anyone dies or is incapacitated by taking the quack's advice or products (or by swearing off real medicine, which may not be advised on the packaging but is a stock in trade in the "alternative" industry), if the matter comes to court the quack's lawyer can claim that the product or the service was misused; obviously, they didn't check with their GP, how unfortunate, it's not our fault.

Besides, the quack knows perfectly well their client is unlikely to see their GP or specialist about whatever the problem is, or if they do they won't pay much attention to their advice. If they did, they wouldn't be coming to the quack in the first place.
Ah, here's the booklet; 123 symptoms this product may be able to cure, 256 further lists of types of people the product may be able to help, 25 more natural products from the same factory that might be able to balance your energies and so on, and, oh yes, the quack-my-ass clause.
by Fearman September 10, 2007
mugGet the quack-my-ass clausemug.

karmamechanic

Spiritual (or pseudospiritual?) guru who attends to the inexpressible needs of the multitude, in return for lots and lots of cash. A pun on "car mechanic", from an early Genesis song, "The Battle of Epping Forest", from the album Selling England by the Pound (1973). Think Rajneesh, Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, or any of a host of others.
He employed me as a karmamechanic/ with overall charms/ his hands were then fit to receive/ recieve alms ...,

- Genesis, "The Battle of Epping Forest"
by Fearman March 31, 2008
mugGet the karmamechanicmug.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1) When Elian Gonzalez's family ran out of things to throw at the cops.

2) When the USA under JFK narrowly avoided an eldritch rendezvous with destiny.
Oh, no!!! Not another Cuban Missile Crisis!!!
by Fearman September 7, 2007
mugGet the Cuban Missile Crisismug.

chime in the slime

Local term for a digital counter with a green readout submerged in the River Liffey immediately upstream of O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, Ireland some time in the mid-1990s and intended to count away the remaining seconds to the start of the year 2000 CE. Within a matter of weeks it was clogged up with scum and dirt, broke down and had to be removed.
What do you think was better: the stiletto in the ghetto or the chime in the slime?
by Fearman December 10, 2007
mugGet the chime in the slimemug.

Christopher Walken

Quirky and slightly mental-looking Hollywood actor. Hasn't got nearly as many good roles as he should. Look out for him in David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone, Spielberg's Catch Me if you Can or in the movie of Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers.
Watch out. Here comes a Christopher Walken character.
by Fearman December 17, 2007
mugGet the Christopher Walkenmug.

make me one with everything

"Make me one with everything", the mystic said to the pizza chef. Need I say more?
by Fearman April 11, 2008
mugGet the make me one with everythingmug.

Uranus

1. Third largest planet in the solar system by diameter and least massive of the gas giants. Discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. A naked eye object in good conditions if you know where and what to look for. Higher proportions of water ice, methane and ammonia in the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune have led astronomers to class these worlds in a separate category known as the ice giants. Knocked on its side by an early impact to its current 98-degree axial tilt, Uranus rolls almost like a ball along its orbit, with first one hemisphere and then the other experiencing daylight. Uranus is known for a system of dark rings of carbonaceous material. Orbits the sun at 1.787 billion miles mean distance, or approaching twenty times Earth's distance, from the Sun. Wins the booby prize for the least photogenic planet in the system, appearing a more or less featureless cyan globe, though this may change at the equinoxes every 42 Earth years. Visited by Voyager 2 in 1986. At last count, 27 moons.

2. Romanised form of the Greek god's name Ouranos, god of the heavens.

3. No scatological jokes, please.
If you know what part of the night sky to look at, you can see the planet Uranus if you squint.

Uranus, god of the heavens.
by Fearman May 12, 2008
mugGet the Uranusmug.

Share this definition