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stranger
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OP
stranger
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This week's topic made me remember my favourite: formicate
bill
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stranger
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stranger
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Besides formicate I can remember all of the other similar words that piqued the interest of adolescent humor. Words such as masticate, thespians, neophyte, osculate, et al
We went to the lunch time show and watched the neophyte, thespians osculate while we masticated and our kids formicated in the grass.
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stranger
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stranger
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When hoary illiterates spew moans of deprecation at perfectly utile words that titivate the vocabulary, I blurt a snigger. Julian Bond said, in reaction to controversy over a remark by a budget aid to the mayor of Washington, D.C. that included the word "niggardly": "You hate to think you have to censor your language to meet other people’s lack of understanding." You may hate to think it, but sadly, it is true.
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stranger
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stranger
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Which children's book is it, which was notable for containing the "inappropriate" word "scrotum"?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Which children's book is it, which was notable for containing the "inappropriate" word "scrotum"?
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Apr 2007
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The book that stimulated this week's list is The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron, a book for children age 8-13. It is the Newbery Medal winner for this year, the Oscar of awards for children's lit along with the Caldecott and Coretta Scott King awards. As a retired classroom teacher and a current professor at a Faculty of Education in Canada, I wanted to read this "controversial" book after I read the review in the New York Times.
The novel is about a ten year old girl named Lucky, living with her guardian, Brigette, a French woman who chooses to come to Dead Pan, California to care for her after Lucky's mother died. The novel begins with Lucky eavesdropping on the Alchoholics Anonymous meeting next door. She regularly listens to the AA, Smoker's Anonymous, NA and Gamblers' Anonymous meetings that are held daily. Her part time job is to clean up after the meetings. She is intrigued by the stories of hitting "rock bottom" and folks finding their "higher power", enabling them to turn their lives around. The first chapter begins with such a story from Short Sammy who described a binge which left him passed out in his car with his dog. Awaking from a drunken stupor, he watched his beloved dog protect him from a rattler. While defending Short Sammy, the dog was bitten in the scrotum by the snake. This was "rock bottom" for Short Sammy who resolves that he would quit drinking if his dog survived, thus finding his "higher power.
The controversial word "scrotum" is used twice in that chapter and never used again. The context initially was in the story of Short Sammy's coming to "rock bottom" and finding his "higher power". The second time, Lucky is reflecting on the word, something wordsmith does regularly.
"Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much. It sounded medical and secret, but also important, and Lucky was glad she was a girl and would never have such an aspect as a scrotum to her own body. Deep inside she thought she would be interested in seeing an actual scrotum. But at the same time -- and this is where Lucky's brain was very complicated - she definitely did not want to see one."
What struck me as I read this section was how authentic the process of reflection was for a child of that age. It is the way kids would think about a word, particularly one about a "private" body part which clearly shows the development of "connotation", as well as a denotation or meaning. As a professor of Language Arts, it would excite me to have a child make meaning in such a way. That is the core of literacy.
To put the rest of the novel in context, this is an orphan story at its core. Lucky describes her grief at the death of her mother two years earlier, her anger at a father who won't care for her and a guardian she is afraid will return to France out of homesickness. The community in which she lives is full of characters quite out of the mainstream, whose struggles and compassion intertwine with and inform Lucky's life.
A lovely book I would recommend. To the ridiculous censors, most of whom probably never read the book, I ask:
Would you have left out the story? Would you have used "balls" or other more "vulgar" words instead of scrotum? Do you get the heart of the novel and the light within it?
B. Reilly
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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hey, Prof, you're basicly preaching to the converted here!
but welcome--we are always glad of a preacher (so long as there is no religion involved!) and experts (well ones who have Piled it on, Higher and Deeper) are usefull too.
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Feb 2007
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Preaching to the choir here, but the phrase is 'preaching to the choir'. And why would we object to a preacher, if he isn't one like this: http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/deacon.htmand is genuinely interested in language? Few engage in the art of rhetoric more frequently.
I exist! I am a pedant! I have a foreboding signature!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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It can go either way. '... Choir' out googles '... converted' by about 2 to 1 but they're both in the 100s of thousands. Free Dictionary has both. OTOH, I was once in a church choir, not for any reasons of religious belief, but because I enjoyed singing the music and I liked the challenges the choir director offered.
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Apr 2007
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Is "vanilla" plain enough for the bowdlerizers. It's just like a quiver but for the girls. From Latin "vagina" for "sheath" > Spanish "vaina" + diminutive > "vainilla".
What will the smut peddlers come up with next!
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