Damn the Roses

Our good friend Will did indeed say that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. This, however, has no real relevance to this blog entry- i just wanted to get off on the right, literary-savvy foot.

What I mean to say is that I want to clear up any confusion that there may be regarding this blog's title. Sisyphussy is not, if you were thinking, a juxtaposition of the two words "sissy" and "pussy" (both dwelling in some similar realm of meaning, ironically), made more politically correct by both being misspelled. Nope. Sisyphussy is, actually, culled from one of my favorite (yeah right) characters from Greek Mythology- Sisyphus.

Sisyphus, you see, was a king with a very sad name, and he was often teased as a child because of his very unfortunate name. However, his parents (feeling just a tad bit of remorse for naming their kid such) kept on telling him that Sisyphus, no matter how gay his name may be, is still a grand name meant for a grand person.

and Sisyphus took that encouragement seriously. In fact, so seriously did he take that little pep talk that when he grew up and became king (after singing with a lion cub and some weird blue bird; dancing in the forest with a pig and killing his sexily-tanned uncle) he became so convinced of his ruling powers.

And then, like most Greek Mythology characters, he committed a stupid mistake.

He challenged Zeus, Lord Daddy of all their gods, and said that he was better than any thunderbolt weilding, toga-wearing, hairy nippled Patriarch God.

Smart Sisyphus, Smart.

If you are unfamiliar with even the most basic of schisms in Greek Mythology, then allow me to enlighten you. Whenever someone challenges a god, said god takes revenge in a totally unfair way. And so, Zeus (in all his bitchy envy) took his revenge on Sisyphus and damned him such that when he entered Tartarus (hell), he was cursed to roll a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down at the end of the day. The next day, he'd do the same thing, and so on and so forth.

(as to why he even would've wanted a boulder on a hill is beyond me, though.)

And hence "Sisyphussy" - adj. 1.)a state of being initially repressed and tortured 2.)a subsequent state of arrogance and gross self-confidence 3.)a final state of severe frustration, particularly in attempting to accomplish stupid, unattainable tasks 4.)a sissy pussy 5.)the complete opposite of all of the above [antonym: "sisyphussy"]


go figure.


heeeeeeeeeeeeey, the roses ended up having some relevance after all.