A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1169

A.Word.A.Day

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AWADmail Issue 1169

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

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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the Net

”Government by the Worst”: Why People Are Calling Trump’s New Sidekicks a “Kakistocracy”
The Guardian
Permalink

An Indonesian Tribe’s Language Gets an Alphabet: Korea’s
The New York Times
Permalink

From: Cécile Hessels (43cecile gmail.com)
Subject: hight

Always a pleasure to me when Old English meets present Dutch. Hight en heette; “A man hight Tosti” = literally “Een man heette Tosti” (but, of course, we have our troublesome grammar so it must be transformed to: “Een man, die Tosti heette. Hij was het die de lange vrede verbrak.” (A man named Tosti. It was he who broke the peace.)

Cécile Hessels, The Hague, Netherlands

From: Robert Berend (tactile8888 yahoo.com)
Subject: hight

A Man Hight and Yclept Otto: A movie no one would go see!

Robert Berend, Beverly Hills, California

From: Lucy Jane Nathanson (lulujn gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hight

Talk about writing signs in haste -- and giving the internet world an unsolicited laugh:

“Pen is Broken please use finger”

I saw this a few years ago, and it reinforced to me how important kerning is when making handmade signs.

Lucy Jane Nathanson, Hudson, New York

From: David Sherer (davidsherer seanet.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hight

“Due to unforeseen circumcisions the dining room will be closed.”

Perhaps they had just had unexpected twin boys!

David Sherer, Delray Beach, Florida

From: Patti Koning (koning sbcglobal.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hight

You wrote: Around here we don’t cut corners or cut anything unnecessarily.

I’m your devoted reader, a NOCIRC supporter, and the mother of two sons who were accorded the inherent right to determine their own physical integrity.

Patti Koning, Dallas, Texas

From: Marilyn Kagan (busybeadermarilyn aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--desistance

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
One cannot hire a hand; the whole man always comes with it. -Peter Drucker, management consultant, professor, and writer (19 Nov 1909-2005)

“May I have your daughter’s hand in marriage?”
“No, you have to take the rest of her as well.”

Marilyn Kagan, Providence, Rhode Island

[Also see synecdoche and metonymy. -Ed.]

From: Laura Peebles (lhpeebles aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--colander

Colanders can also be used to safely view the sun-shape of an eclipse.

Laura Peebles, Arlington Virginia

Email of the Week -- Brought to you buy One Up! -- “The funnest family game ever.”

From: Paul Castaldi (paulcast55 verizon.net)
Subject: Straining for Concision

Too bad a friend of mine didn’t see today’s selection colander, when he was a small boy.

He once told me, and his mother confirmed, that when he was little he didn’t know the word for this utensil. So he called it a “spaghetti stop water go through”.

Paul Castaldi, Havertown, Pennsylvania

From: Jim McFadden (athiker52 aol.com)
Subject: colander

My friend’s nonna (a native-born Italian) referred to a colander as “Spaghetti stay; water go”! True story.

Jim McFadden

From: Steve Fox (phixitphox gmail.com)
Subject: Liturgical Colander

And then there is the liturgical colander, which illustrates the colors of the church’s annual ritual cycle (Lent and Easter, Advent and Christmas, etc.).

Steve Fox, Bethesda, Maryland

From: Kevin Knox (ekknox gmail.com)
Subject: new words

I thought it rare and noteworthy to find not one but two potential word-of-the-year candidates in one article: Broligarchy and McMuskism.

How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world
The Guardian

Kevin Knox, Tucson, Arizona

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: circumstances/circumcisions and colander

I LOLed at this week’s word-theme intro’s usage example. What should have been a straightforward Pizza Hut message to customers becomes a risqué one. Taking note that this was in Canada, I resurrected the 1980s SCTV comedy troupe’s McKenzie Brothers, backwoods beer-swilling, back-bacon-loving doofuses, to act out my admittedly “suggestive” take.

In the mid-2000s, TV chef Gordon Ramsay hosted his own popular cooking show, Hell’s Kitchen. The volatile Scot demanded close-to-perfection in his contestants’ culinary creations. Anything short of near perfection would often ignite his notorious ire, peppered with choice expletives. Oh, and the occasional tοssing of food and kitchen utensils. Including colanders.

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

Anagrams


This week’s theme: Words that appear to be misspelled 1. Hight 2. Desistance 3. Colander 4. Proscription 5. Benison	=	1. Had termed, set... 2. Halt, cease doing (promise) 3. Pots with chink holes 4. Ban, stop press writers 5. Benediction, plea	=	1. Name a person’s called 2. I want this stopped 3. Cook here, water to the brim 4. I need this stopped 5. Rich blessings
		-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)		-Josiah Winslow, Franklin, Wisconsin (winslowjosiah gmail.com)

	=	1. Named 2. Dropped a trend 3. Kitchen strainer (perhaps cheesecloth is too limp) 4. It’s taboo 5. Sweet wish, blessing	=	1. Named; christened 2. Stop 3. The Spaghetti Monster ’postle’s iconic headwear 4. Prohibition’s law 5. Blessed perk
		-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)		-Robert Jordan, Lampang, Thailand (alfiesdad ymail.com)


Words that appear to be misspelled 1. Hight 2. Desistance 3. Colander 4. Proscription 5. Benison	=	1. “Lowness? He’s short?” No. Called, named! 2. Stopping practice 3. Strainer 4. Be prohibited, stop 5. Aid
		-Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

hight

There’s a view of New York that delights
From one of its touristy sites.
It’s on a small ridge
Near the famed Brooklyn Bridge.
It is apt that it’s hight Brooklyn Heights.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

He welcomed his son with delight,
And George the new baby was hight --
Named George like the others,
All four of his brothers!
Said Foreman, “It seems only right.”
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

It just doesn’t really seem right
And worried me all through last night.
Our club’s newest member...
Why can’t I remember
His name? What the heck was he hight?
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

A man who was born Reggie Dwight,
Decided to change it one night.
Now his fame carries on,
Under Sir Elton John,
Since that is the handle he’s hight.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

To Donald we’d said nighty-night,
But now POTUS once more he is hight.
The power of MAGA
Continues its saga,
Uniting straight males who are white.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

desistance

On the road to a tranquil desistance,
I have changed my entire existence.
When a beauty I spy,
By diverting my eye,
Temptation is kept at a distance.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

Desistance means just saying no,
This habit of mine’s gotta go.
Although it tastes nice,
On doctor’s advice,
I shouldn’t eat raw cookie dough.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

The mother was at her wit’s end.
Her rules all her boys they did bend.
Their lack of desistance,
Caused her insistence,
That all their TV she’d suspend.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“You’ve got to be kidding! Desistance?
Gee thanks, but I need no assistance!”
Said Donald. “Just laugh
And relax. As my staff,
You depend on my lies for subsistence.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

colander

Last Christmas I got as a gift
A colander. Boy, was I miffed!
I was totally freaked.
It had holes and it leaked.
In return my old friend got short shrift.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

“A colander some use to strain,”
The teacher told chefs she would train.
“But for reasons of taste
And because it’s a waste,
That water I choose not to drain.”
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Wow, packing my stuff is a mess!
What all do I need, well, I guess
From the kitchen, my stool --
And that colander’s cool!
I can fill it with more stuff, oh yes!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

“I’m a huge molecule,” said the polymer;
“Pretty soon I won’t fit through a colander.
As more bonds I devise,
I’m becoming king-size!
I’m nobility now, no mere commoner!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

proscription

I admit that I have an addiction
In spite of my doctor’s proscription.
If I don’t, I must say,
Have some chocolate today,
Expect me to have a conniption.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

One passenger had a conniption
When told of the airline’s proscription.
He smoked in the loo,
Which one mustn’t do --
Now cops will arrest that Egyptian.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“My boarding house has a proscription.
Disobey, and you’ll all face eviction,”
Said Anu. “Though cruel,
It’s an absolute rule:
No poor grammar or spelling or diction.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

benison

In the forest there lives a proud denizen,
Who knows that it isn’t a benison,
That his species of deer
(And to him that’s quite clear)
Is considered by some folks as venison.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

I encountered a beast that was menacin’,
I survived, and I offered a benison:
“Oh, thank you, dear Lord,
That I wasn’t gored!”
(I’m a poet, but no Alfred Tennyson.)
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Whenever I wake to a day
That is glorious in every way
The benison’s clear,
And a small, silent cheer
Will erupt; it’s an inner “Hooray!”
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

The hunter had made it quite clear
To the vicar who lived very near.
He wanted a benison
Said over his venison.
The cleric replied with, “Oh, dear.”
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“For dinner tonight me have venison,”
Said Oog, “but will not say a benison.
No scriptures yet written,
So me am not smitten
With nonsense descendants should jettison.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Puns

“Be careful walking along the beach at hight-ide,” the lifeguard warned the strollers.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“I’m a little concerned about the hight of this wall,” said Humpty Dumpty.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“You and your brother are so different in hight you’re like Mutt and Jeff,” Tom said to his buddy.
-Janice Power, Cleveland, Ohio (powerjanice782 gmail.com)

“My husband needs to improve his posture,” said Lucy about Desistance.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“How do you know Melania won’t talk to you, sir?”
“I tried to colander phone said she’d blocked my number.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Colander-son Cooper if you need a CNN source,” the editor told the reporter.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“The Bard being a notable exception, a good proscription-ning rhymes makes for better drama,” said the playwriting professor.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Benison isn’t nearly as funny as Jack was,” wrote the comedy critic.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. -Arundhati Roy, writer and activist (b. 24 Nov 1961)

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