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Posted By: me2 John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 03/16/00 10:42 PM
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?!

Posted By: mf2hd Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 03/17/00 08:03 PM
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.

Posted By: Jackie Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 03/23/00 02:35 AM
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.

Posted By: me2 Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/09/00 04:08 PM
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....

Posted By: me2 Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/09/00 04:17 PM
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!!


Posted By: Philip Davis Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/12/00 02:36 AM
This rather reminds me of a famous crossword clue H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O (5)

Posted By: lusy Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/12/00 08:08 AM
Water?

Posted By: Philip Davis Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/12/00 09:29 AM
Correct.

Posted By: Jackie Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/12/00 08:02 PM
All right, you have GOT to tell me how that answer is derived from that clue! Impressive, lusy!

Posted By: lusy Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/12/00 09:34 PM
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.

Posted By: jmh Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/13/00 06:54 AM
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"

Posted By: Jackie Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/17/00 03:37 PM
Thanks! DUH!

Posted By: paulb Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/22/00 12:46 PM
All this brings to mind the famous Christmas card message:

ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Cheers
Paul Bywater



Posted By: Jackie Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/22/00 10:03 PM
Paul--
What the 'L'??

Posted By: paulb Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/25/00 12:00 PM
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


Posted By: tsuwm Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/25/00 01:12 PM
>If you just can't wait, send me a personal email.

'el, No.

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: the Christmas alphabet - 04/25/00 05:09 PM
It's all Greek to me. ;-)
Well, the first and last letters, anyway. Can this be the key?

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: the Christmas alphabet - 04/25/00 05:18 PM
Just read tsuwm's reply, belatedly and anastrophically. Very good. As usual.

Posted By: jmh Re: the Christmas alphabet - 04/25/00 09:25 PM
That wasn't the first el no was it?

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: the Christmas alphabet - 04/25/00 11:28 PM
Jo, no, I believe the first el (ni)ņo was sighted off-shore Peru, in 1982.

hope this helps, *EG*

Posted By: Jackie Re: the Christmas alphabet - 04/26/00 03:25 PM
Man I ain't believin' this! Maht as way-ull put up
mah "Private swimmin' ool" sign.

Posted By: Bear Re: John Ciardi's "klmnop" on NPR - 04/29/00 05:58 AM
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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