A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1217

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AWADmail Issue 1217

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 anytime gift. Game on!

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

Italian Blasphemy and German Ingenuity: How Swear Words Differ Around the World
The Guardian
Permalink

You Caught Me. I’m Speaking Spanish.
The New York Times
Permalink

From: Steve Benko (stevebenko1 gmail.com)
Subject: Biographies

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals, the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great creative scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned if at all. -Martin Gardner, mathematician and writer (21 Oct 1914-2010)

He may be right about what’s taught in schools, but the antidote is available for us adults (I feel that I’ve learned a lot more through my own reading in life than I did at university). There are the marvelous biographies of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and U.S. Grant by Ron Chernow; Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson; John Adams and Harry Truman by David McCullough; Lewis and Clark by Stephen Ambrose; and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lincoln and his cabinet officials by Doris Kearns Goodwin. These are not hagiographies, the subjects are presented warts and all, but by so bringing their essential humanity to life, their struggles with their own flaws, in the end they come out all the more inspiring in my estimation.

Steve Benko, New York, New York

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

From: Bob Richmond (rsrichmond gmail.com)
Subject: orectic

The most common word derived from the same root is of course anorexia, loss of appetite from any cause, such as chronic disease (notably cancer) or its treatment, or loss of the sense of smell.

Anorexia nervosa is a specific disease entity, a psychiatric disorder involving sometimes life-threatening loss of appetite, most commonly seen in young women.

86-year-old doc here, with a mild case of “anorexia of old age”.

Bob Richmond, Maryville, Tennessee

From: Brenda J Gannam (gannamconsulting earthlink.net)
Subject: wrackful

The wrackful wrecking ball has wreaked ruin upon the rightful residence of “We, the people” and thus has wrought havoc on the cockles of our collective corda. O, misericordia!

Brenda J. Gannam, Brooklyn, New York

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: acerbic and orectic

Two-time Pulitzer winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes, with her acerbic cartoons, continues to maintain the long tradition of American editorial cartooning, speaking truth to power, exposing corruption, graft, hypocrisy and incompetence in high places, going back to “The Father of the American Cartoon”, Thomas Nast. Like many cartoonists in this Age of Trump, Telnaes has focused particularly on The Donald. Very tiny hands, extreme rotundity and an extra-long red tie nail down her superb caricatures of the wannabe king.

For pop artist Keith Haring, art wasn’t just his calling, it was almost his obsession, an unyielding desire to express his love of humanity, with all its permutations and combinations, its strengths and weaknesses, through his whimsical, yet bold style. His complex, almost childlike semi-abstract drawing style set him apart from his artistic contemporaries. From his early history as a renegade graffiti tagger, chalking up the walls of the NYC subway, to his eventual “legitimacy”, exhibiting his graffiti-inspired art at chi-chi art galleries, to ultimately establishing a Keith Haring brand, with shops selling his signature merch, by his late twenties he’d become a giant in the art world.

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

Anagrams


This week’s theme: Adjectives Acerbic Polemical Orectic Wrackful Homiletic	=	Caustic, like chickweed Critic’s memo Re: the objective Fatal Some will preach	=	Jeer, bitch, heckle Faced/met critical view Stomach Spoil ”Moralistic cue” week
		-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)		-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

acerbic

My comments acerbic had stung,
And that’s when Mom said, “Watch your tongue!”
She taught me, in fact,
It’s good to have tact,
A lesson best learned when one’s young.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“To the Trumps this would never occur, Dick,”
Said Pat Nixon, her manner acerbic.
“The laws they can flout,
But you’re getting thrown out
And replaced by that Gerald Ford nerd. Ick!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

polemical

Your lengthy polemical screed
Nobody will bother to read.
When making your case,
Please cut to the chase --
For sound bites instead people heed.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“You critics are being polemical;
We’re patriots here at Dow Chemical!”
Said the spokesman. “Napalm
Will soon save Vietnam;
Agent Orange is harmless. Be sensible!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

orectic

Her nature’s orectic, and so,
If food is on offer, she’ll go.
She seldom is sated;
Just ask men she’s dated --
Her appetite’s hearty, they know.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

More than anything, Jasper is keen
To create! And his budget is lean.
Plus he is dyslexic
But fiercely orectic;
He’ll do it! You know what I mean?
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

“With a passion intense and orectic
I make allies and foes apoplectic!”
Said Donald. “Such fun!
For a third term I’ll run,
And next time make the atmosphere septic!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

wrackful

Trump’s bulldozed the White House, in fact!
The East Wing’s no longer intact.
He’s wrackful indeed --
“Someone stop him!” I plead,
As all I hold dear he’s attacked.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

He’d just bought a shiny new car,
And parked it to go to a bar.
But alas, wrackful birds
Delivered some turds
Which his brand new Ferrari did mar.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

Forgive him for not being tactful
He’s got problems, oh boy, by the sackful!
I tried to help, but
Couldn’t ‘t find how or what
To do to help make ‘em less wrackful.
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

He speaks in terms frightfully wrackful,
And a president’s words are impactful.
But he cannot escape
From a limerick jape;
It’s our job in this space to attack bull.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

homiletic

The preacher, an earnest young bloke,
Would look at the crowd, and he’d choke.
His skills homiletic
Were rather pathetic,
And I fell asleep when he spoke.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“Must we hear all these rants homiletic?
Where’s the exit? We need an emetic!”
Said the generals. “Please!
We have work overseas!
What the F? This guy Hegseth’s pathetic!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Puns

“We knights of the round table don’t use such cheap pens,” said acerbic-ly.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“If you can’t row the boat ashore, try using a polemical,” suggested his sister.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Franz’s trip to Warsaw reflected his interest in all things Polemical.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“The traffic’s even m-orectic than usual today, guv,” apologized the London cabdriver.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

In his closet was a wrackful of the awful holiday ties he wore to the office every year.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“When he came homiletic-kle monsters in the house and that’s why he can’t stop laughing,” lied the child’s older brother who had given him nitrous oxide stolen from their father’s dental office.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Todd’s room dedicated to the Simpsons was decidedly Homiletic.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I really rebel against this idea that politics has to be a place full of ego and where you’re constantly focused on scoring hits against one another. Yes, we need a robust democracy, but you can be strong, and you can be kind. -Jacinda Ardern, 40th prime minister of New Zealand (b. 26 Jul 1980)

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