A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1161

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AWADmail Issue 1161

A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and Language

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Email of the Week -- Brought to you buy OLD’S COOL -- Fits wiseacres to a tee.

From: Timothy Mooney (tim timmooneyrep.com)
Subject: Word Pairs

In an aside, Hamlet complains that his uncle (and, now, stepfather) King Claudius treats him as “a little more than kin and less than kind,” but with the change of a single letter, he might also be complaining of being “less than king” as well. (See more)

Tim Mooney, Imlay City, Michigan

From: Sherry Sisson (sleesisson gmail.com)
Subject: Words differing by a letter

I proofread legal documents for many years, always looking for that word with one letter changing the whole meaning of a sentence. So it’s no surprise that my favorite letter-change poem is this limerick:

The bustard’s an exquisite fowl,
With minimal reason to growl:
He escapes what would be
Illegitimacy
By grace of a fortunate vowel.
(Details here)

Lee Sisson, Haddon Township, New Jersey

From: CJ Miner (cjminer magma.ca)
Subject: extort

One of the “gifts of the spirit” is said to be the gift of exhortation. I call the most effective fund-raisers in our parish “gifted extortionists”.

CJ Miner, Carp, Canada

From: John D. Laskowski (john.laskowski mothman.org)
Subject: Nemorous

May the forest be with you -- nemorous times.

John D. Laskowski, Carsonville, Pennsylvania

From: Glenn Glazer (glenn.glazer gmail.com)
Subject: androgynic

I have not heard this term in a very long time. Most queer folk I know prefer the term enby, short for non-binary.

Glenn Glazer, Felton, California

From: Glenn Biddlecombe (glenn.biddlecombe gmail.com)
Subject: word pairs

I like the connection between islander and inlander.

Glenn Biddlecombe, Canberra, Australia

From: Rafael J. Gonzalez (rjgonzalez mindspring.com)
Subject: transposing letters

How about transposing letters? Some words make no sense whatsoever, such as the English word for the Lepidoptera, butterfly. But transpose a couple of the letters, flutterby, and the word becomes more evocative and makes better sense.

Flutterby Tanka

Seeing the clear air
disturbed by bright colored wings,
the child cried, “Mama,
look, there goes the flutterby.”
New eyes make words more precise.

Rafael Jesús González, Poet Laureate Emeritus - Berkeley, California

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: androgynic and exhort/extort

Inspired by the usage example for our word “androgynic”, I arrived at this fanciful, dare I say surreal take on pop artist Ernest Trova. I was familiar with and admired his art, going back to my early ‘70s art college days. I marveled how Trova could get so much creative mileage from this singular motif, his Falling Man, a featureless image/form that defied gender specificity, the epitome of the androgynic.

Who can forget Trump’s desperate exhortation of Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to alter the state’s vote tally, so that he would win the state, and all its electoral votes? His pathetic plea clearly amounted to extortion, as he continued to pressure, and even threaten Raffensperger. Thankfully, Raffensperger didn’t bend to Trump’s feeble ploy.

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

Anagrams


This week’s theme: Words differing by a letter 1. Exhort 2. Extort 3. Nemorous 4. Memorous 5. Androgynic	=	1. I warn, due to drowning risk, “Hey!” 2. Cheat to get return 3. Forested 4. Memory morsel 5. Mix of both sexes
		-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)

=	1. Urge herd 2. Exact, milk, how theft is -- sorry 3. Woods 4. Easy to remember/remind, not forgotten 5. Unisex	=	1. Tries to coax 2. Terrify, bilk gent 3. Wooded summer home, houses 4. Noteworthy 5. Ref: transgender mix
	-Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz)		-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

Exhort

Is it true, that most recent report,
That somebody tried to exhort
Donald Trump to get lost
At no matter what cost?
He replied, it is said, with a snort.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

All voters out there I exhort:
Give Kamala Harris support.
Make Trump go away!
Then he’ll spend his day
Defending himself back in court.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Elections have turned to blood sport,
So now Haitians I need to exhort.
Please don’t eat my puppy,
Or kitty, or guppy,
Or Donald I’ll have to support!
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Extort

There once was a villain so vile,
That she hid all her scams with a smile.
Those whom she extorted,
Though, got it all sorted --
They’d sniffed out her secret profile.
-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)

Said Donald, “Ukraine I’ll extort,
And Zelenskyy will be a good sport.
He soon will be sidin’
With me to screw Biden,
Like judges I put on the Court.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Nemorous

I’ll tell you a nemorous tale
Of a boy and a girl, young and frail,
Who are lost in the woods,
And a witch with sweet goods
May entice them -- their fate I bewail.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

The nemorous parts of this land
Are the parts where wildlife takes a stand.
Lots of trees, left alive,
Let more animals thrive,
Which for them, and for us, would be grand.
-Sara Hutchinson, New Castle, Delaware (sarahutch2003 yahoo.com)

The nemorous spot was sublime!
We hiked, and we had a good time.
But there in the sticks
The deer carried ticks,
And that’s how I came down with Lyme.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Our walk opens onto a wood
That unfailingly makes me feel good.
The nemorous clime
Is one in which I’m
Always feeling as great as one could.
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

Joyce Kilmer, a favorite poet
Is author of “Trees”. You all know it.
With those nemorous lines,
Their great worth he defines.
Protect all the forests. Don’t blow it.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

At night she hides out where it’s nemorous,
But during the day, she’s adventurous.
She comes to my door
Asking “Please, sir, some more?”
Tillie knows that with birdseed I’m generous!
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Memorous

Your heart has been broken. That’s sad.
You’ve lost the great love that you had.
Those pains may be memorous;
They’re also ephemerous.
When you find someone new, you’ll be glad.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

To Paris one summer she went;
A memorous time there she spent.
She had found a French beau,
Though no French did she know,
And never quite got what he meant.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Though Donald will always be memorous,
From his clutches November will sever us.
Once Kamala’s Prez,
We won’t care what he says,
For from prison, he can’t tar and feather us.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Androgynic

RuPaul’s really not androgynic.
He dresses in drag as a gimmick,
To get some attention.
Allow me to mention --
He’s droll as can be as a mimic.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

Androgynic young people today
May remind you, “My pronoun is ‘they’.”
Though I find it confusing
That plurals they’re using,
I’ll call them whatever they say.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Two sexes in one single being?
Is that what you claim I am seeing?
Androgynic, it’s called;
Did the sex gene get stalled?
Misdirected, perhaps... maybe freeing?
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

Ron DeSantis would close every clinic
That caters to kids androgynic.
“If blessed with a willy,”
He says, “don’t be silly!
Why switch? You could end up bulimic!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Puns

Once he no longer had to listen to his nagging exhort-on heard a who.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Because they don’t stop to have s-extort-oises often beat hares when they race.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Nemorous (NEE muh ruhs) (adj.) - of or relating to individuals who travel long distances under the sea. Etymology: After Captain Nemo in Jules Verne novels and Nemo the clownfish in Disney films,” wrote Anu during eponym week.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Memorous (MEE muh ruhs) (adj.) - of or relating to political candidates who are so appalling that mocking images, video clips, etc. of them on the internet become cultural memes,” wrote Anu during coined words week.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

To remind Russell of the meeting, the boss’s secretary would memorous.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“A real man’s martini is never made with vodka. It’s an androgynic drink,” said the bartender.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (29 Sep 1547-1616)

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