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This is wonderful, Alia! Thank you for posting, and for answering the question forming in my mind, too, about the etymology of drollerie. It takes a properly weird person to know another! And btw I just double-checked the -ei or -ie thing for "weird" because sometimes I think I know things, and then I do a stupid thing, so while releived (kidding!) relieved that is was, in fact, -ei, I saw this:

weird

noun ARCHAIC•SCOTTISH: a person's destiny.

From OE wyrd, "destiny,"of Germanic origin. The adjective (late ME) originally meant "having the power to control destiny," and was used especially in the Weird Sisters, originally referring to the Fates, later the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth; the latter use gave rise to the sense "unearthly" (early 19th century).

How wytchy and cool is that?

But back from the weeds. In the U.S., we are running a big steaming bulk discount on the most disgusting Republican politicians and their coterie of zombies. The governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, wrote in her memoir that her 14 month-old PUPPY named Cricket would not "behave," went after some chickens, and bit her. It pissed her off, so she took the poor puppy to a gravel pit and shot her. WTF? That puppy had some common sense, if anyone is asking me—except for failing to hit that woman's jugular. The drawing of the drollerie bunny with a spear-wielding dog hoisted on his shoulders made me hope that Cricket will come back and serve up a helping of karma to that monstrous woman!

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Weird, what a useful power to have once existed! It's fascinating to see how meanings evolve over time, inching away from their origins to until one day they've become something quite different. I can see the path this word took to become what it is.

Ahh, yes, I have read about Cricket, and the goat and the horses. It's definitely messed up when someone mistakes cruelty for strength. Hopefully, she has sown the seeds of her own political downfall.

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