Comments on: the drugs don't work

the drugs don't work

charlesv — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 10:40:05 -0800

In some places, they have firing squads or electric chairs. In Prague, they have defenestration. Defenestration, or the tossing of people from windows, is a tradition there, popularized first by the defenestration of 1419 and later by the defenestrations of 1618 and 1948. William Safire name-checked it in in his column a few weeks back, and another mention of it can found in the Houston Chronicle.

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 10:59:51 -0800

Ah yes, the defenestration of 1419.....an especially good year for defenestrations, if my memory serves.

By: kaemaril

kaemaril — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 11:01:55 -0800

I suppose somebody has to ask it, for obvious reasons : When is Bill Gates next due to visit Prague?

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 11:10:37 -0800

I was SO going to ration my posts today. One can hardly mention defenestration without bringing up the most notorious American example, approximately as mysterious as the contemporaneous death of Masaryk: the death of James Forrestal, the first US Secretary of Defense, some weeks after his replacement by Truman on winning a second term. For reasons undiagnosed, Forrestal developed emotional instability and paranoia during a period of intense political stress. To this day, some believe the paranoia was justified, and that his defenestration was by persons unknown; but the bitterest allegations focus on Zionists, or the CIA. I'm inclined to believe the suicide theory, myself -- mainly because of who seems not to.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 11:13:05 -0800

One of my favorite words! Is entering a building through a window "infenestration?" After being thrown out, "refenestration?" Throwing yourself through a window autodefenstration?

By: grimmelm

grimmelm — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 11:39:33 -0800

The window itself.

By: KettleBlack

KettleBlack — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 11:45:32 -0800

We should have more links like this - I'm interested in reading about this sort of thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.... v> oh look she's sleeping

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 11:47:34 -0800

That is seriously fupped duck.

By: donkeyschlong

donkeyschlong — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 12:16:34 -0800

defenestration is one of those words people seem to use because they think it'll make them look learned ... even though anyone who took european history in high school will recognize it.

By: azazello

azazello — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 12:59:33 -0800

dude, defenestration is old. dschlong: no, people seem to mostly use it for laughs. In fact, it's the funniest part of the entire European history knowledge base that I acquired in high school.

By: SpecialK

SpecialK — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 13:15:39 -0800

Next on Espn2 - Extreme Defenestration!

By: eddydamascene

eddydamascene — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 13:22:17 -0800

To make the situation more interesting, King Wenceslas IV... died of a heart attack upon learning of the defenestration. Good King Wenceslas? All this time, I thought it was "thefeastofstephen", not "defenestration".

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 13:45:46 -0800

Good King Wenceslas, in reality a mere Duke, lived considerably earlier. He was kind to the poor, halted persecution of Christians, and was himself martyred; the Feast of St. Stephen, by no coincidence, celebrates the first martyr of the Christian church. The song dates from the 19th century.

By: mdn

mdn — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 13:54:49 -0800

defenestration is one of those words people seem to use because they think it'll make them look learned ... even though anyone who took european history in high school will recognize it. people use it 'cause it's funny, and I think half of us learned it in 7th grade latin. It woke our class up that there was a word that meant "to throw out the window"; it just doesn't strike one as something you'd need a word for generally. (fenestra remains one of the few latin nouns I remember).

By: hadashi

hadashi — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 14:24:55 -0800

This is also one of my favorite words! I liked it so much that, at my last job, I took great pains to include it in my "self review" that HR insisted each employee write about themselves, a boring and pointless task that everyone hated. Since the review was distributed as a Word document I also took the time to rewrite some of the questions so that they were even less clear than their original. No one noticed, of course, but I was amused. Can you tell I was sort of bored at work?

By: StrangerInAStrainedLand

StrangerInAStrainedLand — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 15:27:11 -0800

anyone who took european history in high school will recognize it. That's funny, because on the last day of my ap european history course our teacher told us that if there was one thing we should remember from our class, it should be the meaning of defenestration. Honestly though, this has got to be one of the most unlikely words to survive the years and changing of languages.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 15:59:14 -0800

Great post! Reminds me of my favorite building in San Francisco.

"On March 9, 1997, hundreds of people came together to celebrate the opening of Brian Goggin's Defenestration installation. Over 30 pieces of furniture and home appliances are welded and rigged to the two sides of a currently-empty 3-story building at 6th and Howard Street in San Francisco. "

By: y0bhgu0d

y0bhgu0d — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 18:45:04 -0800

i love words with german background :)

By: IndigoSkye

IndigoSkye — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 22:11:25 -0800

Have to say the best Defenestration caught on screen was in 'Braveheart'.

By: mblandi

mblandi — Sun, 15 Dec 2002 00:31:02 -0800

In first pages of Pynchon's California novel Vineland, the main character Zoyd Wheeler has to do his yearly jump through a window to prove he's crazy enough to get a government check. It's a hoot, the local tv station reschedules him to a different diner for a better shot... Anyways, I believe Pynchon coins "Transfenestration" for jumping yourself through a window there.