1 Nov 2012

THE X - DEFINITION


Jenny Matlock
more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

When I was raking my brain to find a word starting with an X, I had x ideas, which could mean that I had a lot or no ideas. Not very clear. As usual I asked my dear friend Wikipedia and I learned a lot about X !

Its use in maths, X is often used to represent unknowns in other circumstances (e.g. Person X, Place X, etc.; see also Malcolm X). What I don't understand is why a person, a place or even dear Malcom has to do with maths ??

X-rays are so called because their discoverer did not know what they were. That happens often with me when I discover something which I don't know ! Very logical explanation indeed.

X has been used as a namesake for a generation of humans: Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X. It is the generation born after the baby boom ended, ranging from 1961 to 1981.  I wonder if this generation has problems with sizes up to XXXXL only because they belong to the Generation X ?

X is also used for referring to 'the end of conversation'. Of course I ignore this meaning, because there is never an X in my converations.

X is used by the illiterate in lieu of a signature and indicates a signature line on forms. As I am not illiterated I use three X to sign anonymous letters.

In cartoons, Xs are drawn instead of eyes to indicate the death of a character
. Didn't know that, probably I haven't read cartoons with dead characters.

X is commonly used as a generic mark (selecting an item on a form, indicating a location on a map, etc.). That's true, when I see an X on a map, I don't know where I am ! Although even without X,  I don't know where I am.

What Wikipedia has forgotten that X can be the nightmare of a woman when it comes to sizes ! "XS" is rather nice but when it cames to XL or more Xs combined with an L it could become a tragedy !

Of course there is also another X section which I don't dare to mention here for the simple reason that Google considers my blog as "family friendly" and I don't want to attract thousands of spammers too, who would think they could find here some beautiful naked women in rather acrobatic poses. I suppose that you are old enough to know what I mean ! If not some male around you will know !

To conclude this X post I wish you all that the day X comes when you win a million of dollars or euros ! 




When I googled : "cartoons" for this special section I got various pictures ! I was rather surprised that Snow White  and Donald Duck belong to the X category! It must have been Madame Google who made this choice.





11 comments:

  1. OMW you are amazing ! How do you find the perfect cartoons! This post really X-plained the X - definition perfectly. (((Hugs))) Jo

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  2. Now this is a fun way to feature the letter 'X'. I didn't know that about X-rays. Of course, I remember the Xs for eyes as I'm a big cartoon fan. Do you remember the movie, A Christmas Story? This is an American film made in the early 80s about a kid growing up in the 50s. Anyhow, there was one scene where the little boy was envisioning saving his parents from the bad guys with his BB Gun (that he wanted for Christmas) kinda like in as in an old western movie or something. They painted Xs over the villains eyes as if they had all been killed. I thought that was so retro and funny. Great Alphabe-Thursday post!

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  3. Great X references all. Thanks for the great lesson (and very funny cartoons).
    Sue

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  4. I am of the Gen X? I never knew that. However I did know that Jewish people wouldn't sign with an x when they were illiterate, they would use a circle!

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  5. great X post. I like that first cartoon. I wouldn't be surprise if some parents would try it.

    have a great day!

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  6. lol xnay on the xray. X is a fun letter.:)

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  7. Xcellent post about all xciting xplanations :-))))

    X is pronounced as "EX" in Swedish. So an ex-boyfriend is called X.

    We soon have an X-apartment, because we're moving around the second of December. That's why I've been too busy to hang around in the internet lately.

    Also, I send you:

    XOXO

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  8. X marks the spot where a treasure always lies: Gattina's blog. So funny...only you could make Wikipedia a comedy routine.

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  9. I've learned a lot! Thanks. I like the x-ray explanation! {:-Deb

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  10. What a X-tra-ordinary X post! Loved it!!! and loved your humor too!

    Blessings & Aloha!
    I am visiting our daughter, son in law and little grand baby, so only now catching up a bit with blog visits from last week!

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  11. I enjoyed your xtraordinary sense of humor here!

    I wonder if Disney knows there movies are getting X ratings now!

    ha!

    Thanks for a fun stop for this letter.

    A+

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