Back to Myself

I'm baaaaack

and a little bit better.

In fact, I even have a fun word of the day: loo
We all know this is what English "pop to" instead of the restroom. But where did it come from? My co-worker James suggested its French origins, and Oxford Dictionary's etymology site supports him:

There are several theories about the origin of this common term for a familiar article of sanitary furniture. The first, and most popular, is that it is derived from the cry of 'gardyloo' (from the French regardez l'eau 'watch out for the water') which was shouted by medieval servants as they emptied the chamber-pots out of the upstair windows into the street. This is historically problematic, since by the time the term 'loo' is recorded, the expression 'gardyloo' was long obsolete. A second theory is that the word derives from a polite use of the French term le lieu ('the place') as a euphemism. Unfortunately, documentary evidence to support this idea is lacking. A third theory, favoured by many, refers to the trade name 'Waterloo', which appeared prominently displayed on the iron cisterns in many British outhouses during the early 20th century. This is more credible in terms of dates, but corroborating evidence is still frustratingly hard to find. Various other picturesque theories also circulate, involving references to doors numbered '00' or people called 'Looe'.

What I learned today: Well, clearly where English toilets came from.

What I love about London: To get into the office, I have a big old-fashioned trunk key.

My Successful Day
Today at work I felt good because I managed to fulfill every post-it everywhere and even cleaned out lots of my personal g-mail! My tasks included:

• Searching random news wires to make sure all aspects of our Web site had news, from private equity to prime brokerage, darnit!
• Editing our in-house style sheet for the Web. What an anal, Ellie-ish thing to do. For those of you who don't know, most publications have a style sheet that is a sort of policy of language and other things. Ours has words listed to use or not use in news stories and explains all our categories of news and all that jazz. Wow it's hard explain journalism sometimes...
  
• Watching the FINAL (well, almost final) cut of the riveting DVD on the securities services and listening to my boss' humorous and running commentary on the whole thing. It was quite fun, despite the fact that it was a long day. Then, you know, I had my nightly chat with Christopher about which transitions should be changed and maybe where this b-roll could go and I managed not to say anything majorly bitchy! What an accomplishment for me.
• Oh and I had yummy Turkish fast food (which I will miss after London!).

As much as I hate this DVD anymore, it will be sad when it is all over. Um, just kidding.

I am now listening to: Finally I have caught onto the soulful Joss Stone. I love it when I finally get around to listening to people everyone says I would love, but there are still so many left!

[Edit: I deleted a photo from this post.]