A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1175

A.Word.A.Day

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AWADmail Issue 1175

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

Sponsor’s Message: “Scrabble on steroids, with a thieving twist.” One Up! -- where stealing is the name of the game. “My daily dose of dopamine.” A wicked smart Christmas gift. Game on!

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

How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking?
The New Yorker
Permalink

Firkle, Gluschdich, and More: 10 Words We Learned in 2024 That Will Expand Your Mind
BBC
Permalink

From: Billy Rainbow (billyr cruzio.com)
Subject: Skunkworks

There’s a Lockheed Skunkworks facility up on Ben Lomond here above my home in Santa Cruz that develops nuclear weapons. Some of us have gone to their gates to protest several times over the years, but somehow not only does nothing ever come of it, all news of it either disappears or is minimized and forgotten. They even took down the “Nuclear-Free Zone” official Caltrans-style sign we once had the Santa Cruz city council put up at the city limits on the road coming down from Lockheed.

But, the skunk is definitely cute, and the whole backstory to the term is great. As I remember, the SR-71 was also a Lockheed Skunkworks project, as was supposed to be the second-generation space shuttle that Lockheed never completed because they included innovation in their project plans. As in, they had new inventions, technological discoveries, scheduled. They got skunked, and it’s too bad, really. That second-generation shuttle would have been totally sci-fi.

Billy Rainbow, Santa Cruz, California

From: Dennis Pasek (dpasek gmail.com)
Subject: Skunkworks

As I recall, the Skonk Works, in Li’l Abner, operated by two perps, one huge and fat and one small and scrawny, whose names I do not recall, used a collection of odd ingredients to produce an intoxicating beverage called Kickapoo Joy Juice, which was highly frowned upon by Mammy Yokum due in part to frequent explosions at the facility.

Li’l Abner and Pogo were two of my favorite comic strips.

Dennis Pasek, Ogden, Utah

From: Joseph Nadel (jsnadel4 gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--skunkworks

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. -L.P. Hartley, writer (30 Dec 1895-1972)

Stephen King has a character in Joyland say, “When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction.”

Joseph Nadel, St. Catharines, Canada

From: David Crane (davewcrane1 gmail.com)
Subject: Sad Sack

During my basic training days we had a 29-years service soldier living in our recruits’ barrack. He had been stripped of all rank. He was drunk every day. They were letting him get to 30 years for his pension. When an inspection was due, we had to wake him, physically get him dressed, and hold him up for the inspection. When the colonel came through, he said, “A true sad sack. Very sad, but good of the army to let him ride.”

David Crane, San Rafael, California

From: Kenneth Kirste (kkkirste sbcglobal.net)
Subject: Sad Sack

Producer Hal. B. Wallis purchased the film rights to “Sad Sack” as another project in his string of movies starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. However, the comedy team broke up in late 1956, so the studio restructured it as a solo piece for Lewis. While The Sad Sack released in Nov 1957 and did well at the box office, it is merely a structure for Lewis’ being zany. It does not come close to the precision with which the comic strip’s creator had depicted a lowly private, suffering the absurdities and humiliations of military life.

Ken Kirste, Sunnyvale, California

From: Neal Copperman (neal swcp.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--embiggen

Ms. Marvel’s (video, 25 sec.) superpower is regularly described as embiggening.

In March 2018, Merriam-Webster added 850 words to its dictionary. This included the word embiggen, which first appeared in a 1996 episode of The Simpsons and was popularized in Ms. Marvel as an exclamation by Kamala when using her shape-shifting powers.

Neal Copperman, Albuquerque, New Mexico

From: Jim Mulrooney (jmulr0120 gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Lower Slobbovia

My boss, who was quintessentially English, would use this as a place of origin for those he disliked. He would sometimes enhance it further that their relatives were from Lower Excretia.

Jim Mulrooney, Toronto, Canada

From: Jonathan Rickert (therickerts hotmail.com)
Subject: Lower Slobbovia

I have sometimes wondered if Al Capp got the idea for Lower Slobbovia from the town of Slobozia in Romania. During Capp’s lifetime, Slobozia was a backward place that could/could have stood in for Lower Slobbovia. Whether Slobbovia or Slobozia, both words are evocative in a negative way for the English speaker.

Jonathan Rickert, Bainbridge Island, Washington

Email of the Week -- Brought to you buy One Up! -- Perfectly horrible holiday fun.

From: Sylvie Romanowski (s-romanowski northwestern.edu)
Subject: Ottawa

USAGE:
“Compared to the capital of the United States, we are an embarrassment, a crying shame. True, with one-tenth the US population, we could never expect our capital to fully match Washington. But do we really have to look like the first city of Lower Slobbovia?” Janice Kennedy; National Affirmation Is Something the Americans Do So Very Well; The Ottawa Citizen (Canada); Apr 6, 2008.

I lived in Ottawa in the 50s and 60s, and visited it frequently in the 70s and 80s. Then it started to become more cosmopolitan, and when I returned for a visit in 2019, I found it much more beautiful, livelier, so I’m surprised by the comparison with Lower Slobbovia made in 2008, because it had already started to change before then.

Sylvie Romanowski, Evanston, Illinois

From: Ron Brawer (ronnierayb gmail.com)
Subject: Lower Slobbovia

Not exactly a cartoon word, but I frequently use Bumfuck as a locale of last resort.

Ron Brawer, New York, New York

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

There is a not very well-known, but beloved computer game called Jade Empire. Think of it as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets steampunk. There is a character in that game, Qui the Promoter, who not only talks almost completely like this, he even uses the two words from “Lisa the Iconoclast”. Spirit Monk is the player character and we have:

Qui the Promoter: This is turning out to be an excellent day. Most austipacatious indeed!
Spirit Monk: “Austi...” Don’t you mean “auspicious”?
Qui the Promoter: I apologize if I’m using words beyond your grasp. Very few people can match either the supply or the command of my language.
Spirit Monk: Seriously, you’re using the wrong words. It makes you sound like a fool.
Qui the Promoter: Don’t get flusterated. Everything I say is perfectly cromulent, and it might do you well to embiggen your vocabulary before you fling accretions my discretion.

Glenn Glazer, Felton, California

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: cromulent and embiggen

Bart Simpson may not be the sharpest pencil in the drawer. But for his 4th-grade teacher, Mrs. Edna Krabappel, hope springs eternal. Here, Bart was instructed by her to print the same sentence a number of times over on the white-board. Not a punishment per se, but meant to be a motivator for Bart to hopefully stretch his intellect. Alas, Bart is destined to remain a barely satisfactory student.

Bart and Lisa Simpson check out the statue of Springfield’s founding father, Jebediah Springfield, a rugged individualist in the frontier tradition of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. Bart is flummoxed by the word “embiggens” from the revered pioneer’s quote, while sis Lisa, ever the brainiac, enlightens him.

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

Anagrams


This week’s theme: Words coined in comic strips and cartoons Skunkworks Embiggen Lower Slobbovia Sad sack Cromulent	=	Creators’ “home” Muse’s wand enlarges, wins learner’s mind Mocks, cows hick town Skirt good-soul Bobb’s inept advice Tick ok	=	Shambolic development section Lame duck Thicken or grow An obscure backwards kingdom risks snowiest winters So-so
		-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)		-Robert Jordan, Lampang, Thailand (alfiesdad ymail.com)
	=	Must mean creative workshops in US Grow, widen Backblocks, boondocks, wilderness A schnook, isn’t smart Legit, mediocre	=	Innovation or success shown (BMW) Make larger Poor district, boondocks, skid row Knucklehead, mess Legitimate (CBS News)
		-Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz)		-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

skunkworks

At our skunkworks we do R and D --
That’s the place where our minds can run free.
Innovation we prize
In all we devise:
We make wonderful things come to be.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

The skunkworks is where I should be!
Why haven’t they yet beseeched me?
I’m smart and creative
And not imitative;
Doggone it! Which boss should I see?
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

The company prez did complain,
“No one in this place has a brain.
It’s just full of bunk, jerks;
I’m lacking a skunkworks.
So business has gone down the drain.”
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

In a secretive Istanbul skunkworks
Worked some brilliant, but now sad and drunk Turks.
Their new light could fluoresce
Politicians’ b.s.,
But alas, it’s no use to debunk jerks.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

embiggen

High calorie meals I’ve been diggin’,
And very sweet drinks I’ve been swiggin’.
This holiday season
Is surely the reason
My waistline I’ll likely embiggen.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Said the miner, “For gold I am diggin’,
In the hope that my wealth I’ll embiggen.
When I find a good nugget
I’ll kiss it and hug it;
I’m sure it’ll be a great big ‘un!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Lower Slobbovia

That dress is from Lower Slobbovia!
Please allow me, my dear, to disrobe ya’.
As you know, I’m a snob,
So I’ll take on this job,
And with Paris couture I’ll enrobe ya’.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

As ambassador he had been sent,
And to Lower Slobbovia went.
“With nothing to do,
I’m washed up, I’m through!”
So his days playing Wordle he spent.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

The country today’s in a mess.
It’s gone way downhill, I confess.
Not movie Genovia,
Just Lower Slobbovia,
I fear that it will get worse, yes.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“I preyed on your immigrant phobia,
So you voted for me to watch over ya,”
Said Donald. “No more
Will you hear ‘Si señor’,
For I’ll send ‘em to Lower Slobbovia.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

sad sack

There was an old Scot known as Mad Mack,
Spent his militr’y days as a sad sack.
Yet he still fought each foe
But retired, and so
His worst enemy now is a bad back.
-N. Chris Louw, Naoetsu, Japan (whispershout gmail.com)

A sad sack she married, it’s true.
It seemed like the right thing to do.
They got a divorce,
And then she changed course:
A go-getter was Number Two.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“You’ve lost everything, even your quack,”
Said Daisy, “You’re such a sad sack.
Some guy with your name
Has upon it brought shame,
But it’s not your fault, Donald. Alack!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

cromulent

I don’t know where exactly to start,
But I think that you weren’t too smart.
To me it’s quite clear,
‘Twas not cromulent, dear,
To give to that loser your heart.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

I learned a new word yesterday.
How? I did it the cromulent way!
Teacher used it in class
I looked it up fas’
And have said it three times just today!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

Said the couple, “The surrogate mom you lent
For our fetus seems perfectly cromulent.
It was wonderfully kind,
And we’re glad you don’t mind
That we placed in your wife a small occupant!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Puns

“A skunkworks his pungent spray as a defense mechanism to ward off predators,” The zoologist explained to the class visiting the zoo.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“Of course, you should vote for Trump. The skunkworks for me,” Elon posted to his X followers.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Me embiggen strong, make cave great again! You go away, no belong here!” Oog warned the strange brown immigrant.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“You might be a well-groomed member of the upper class, but I’d take a lower slobbovia,” said the peasant girl to the arrogant nobleman.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Though it makes me sad sack half the employees,” ordered the empathetic new CEO.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“I had the seats, handles, and beam to make a seesaw, but nothing to mount them on so thanks for the ful-cromulent. I’ll give it back as soon as the new one comes from Amazon,” the dad promised his neighbor.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon. -Konrad Adenauer, statesman (5 Jan 1876-1967)

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