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stranger
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stranger
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Many years ago there was a program on NPR (national public radio) called "A Word in Your Ear".
in one "episode" John Ciardi coined a word he called "klmnop" he pronounced it kelaminopee. He had a long story about what it was to mean etc... It made a deep impression on me!
Does anyone have any additional information on this word? Since Ciardi died in 1986 i doubt the
folks at NPR have posted real audio files of his programs on the web yet... but i really enjoyed that
NPR program ( "A Word in Your Ear")!! Anyone else recall this radio program?
Comments?!
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stranger
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stranger
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I remember that show. I always enjoyed listening to John. Have you tried contacting NPR?--perhaps they can even lead you to a sound file or a transcript of it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Was this word/definition intended to be funny? Just curious, never had the pleasure of listening to the show. The only other incidence I can recall of giving a pronunciation to a string of letters in the alphabet was an old Sesame Street show, and Big Bird sang all 26 as one word.
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stranger
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stranger
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A search of www.npr.org for the word "Ciardi" turns up a few hits, they are rerunning some old shows. One place where they are re-running them is _Morning Edition_. I emailed that program and all i got back was a mail-bot general reply. I guess i am not serious enough about this to do more....
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stranger
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stranger
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Jackie asked:
[snip]
Was this word/definition intended to be funny?
[snip]
Perhaps in Ciardi's sense of humor--yes. It was so long ago that i barely recall how he defined "klmnop"...
He pronounced it kelamenopee and said something about it being in the middle between somthing (like the letters do in the alphabet). I recall he had a lot of other parts to the use/definition and of all the Ciardi programs i listend to this is the only one that i can still remember well after 20+ years!!
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journeyman
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journeyman
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This rather reminds me of a famous crossword clue H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O (5)
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member
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member
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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All right, you have GOT to tell me how that answer is derived from that clue! Impressive, lusy!
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member
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member
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Well, yer see, it's like this:
H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O is "H to O", which leads to "H2O", which is "water", (5 letters).
The "2" should of course be subscript, but markup doesn't let me do this.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I think there is possibly a joke there too. It relates to a previous conversation about euphemism. The next letter should be "P" so the person answering the question hastily replaces it with .. "er ... water"
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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addict
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addict
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All this brings to mind the famous Christmas card message:
ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Cheers
Paul Bywater
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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addict
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addict
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Jackie (and friends): I'm happy to share the Christmas card message with you publicly -- but Christmas is months away!
If you just can't wait, send me a personal email.
Cheers
Paul Bywater
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>If you just can't wait, send me a personal email.
'el, No.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It's all Greek to me. ;-)
Well, the first and last letters, anyway. Can this be the key?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Just read tsuwm's reply, belatedly and anastrophically. Very good. As usual.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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That wasn't the first el no was it?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jo, no, I believe the first el (ni)ņo was sighted off-shore Peru, in 1982.
hope this helps, *EG*
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Man I ain't believin' this! Maht as way-ull put up
mah "Private swimmin' ool" sign.
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stranger
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stranger
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Ciardi's "A Browser's Dictionary" (New York: Harper & Row: 1980) has this entry:
kelemenopy (Accent on penultimate.) The one essential trope neglected by classical rhetoricians: a sequential straight line through the middle of everything, leading nowhere. "Teddy Kennedy's career has been the classical kelemenopy of the American twentieth century." - Angelo Registratore. ... /Kelemenopy/ is from my own psychic warp, to see if anyone would notice, and because I have always dreamed of fathering a word....
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