words

The words or not never follow the word whether. That’s it. That’s the rule. Whether implies or not. You don’t ever need to say both of them. The words or not should never be spoken. (They should certainly never be written.) Whether implies “or not”. Get it?

Five Wonderful Phrases That I Resolve to Use More Frequently in Conversation

1. soup to nuts
2. by hook or by crook
3. ass-over-teakettle
4. dollars to doughnuts
5. tits up

“Jump the Shark” has totally Nuked the Fridge.

The Pseudodictionary is full of words (and phrases) that aren’t really words but should be. In the early 80s we used to call these sniglets, a term coined by, I think, Rich Hall of HBO’s Not Necessarily the News. I first found the Psuedodictionary several months ago when there were only a handful of words there. Now the site is a veritable cornucopia of fun and exciting ways to say things you already say but didn’t know other people said, too.

I just submitted BFE (butt-f*ck egypt). BFE is, of course, a place very far away from where you are and to which you would need a very good reason to travel. BFE is interesting because in Gainesville, Florida it was any place that was more than a five-minute drive from me. I considered the Oaks Mall (less than ten miles away) to be in BFE. In Los Angeles though, BFE is much, much farther away. Now I don’t think twice to drive twenty minutes to get someplace. So.

On Speaking Goodly
“When it happens, it can be very misconcerting,” Gayle says. “I understand Bushonics. I was one. But under full analyzation, it’s really just an excuse to stay stupider.”

If someone devises a really incredible caper, why don’t we say that it was fully-baked? I’m constantly hearing of half-baked plans. Half-baked schemes. Half-baked ideas. Does anyone have a thoroughly-baked thought?

I took a class in early 20th century American literature while I was a student at the University of Florida. Every essay, book, or article we read struck someone somehow. I got so disgusted by students saying, “What struck me about …” or, “I was struck by …” that I wrote a response paper asking the professor to imagine me striking a student on the head with my Norton Anthology the next time someone said something about being struck. I found a list of world wide web dangerous words today and it reminded me of that class.

I‘ve talked about this happening IRL with several people recently and tonight I finally remembered to visit the site. bigdig.com details “The Central Artery/Tunnel Project” in Boston. Basically they are taking the entire highway system in Boston and putting it underground. It’s amazing.

Fun Fact: Underfund is the only other word in English that begins and ends with ‘und’.

my hucklebuck response
from Peter Bowler’s The Superior Person’s Book of Words

• defenestration n - the act of throwing someone or something out of a window
• napiform (adj) - shaped like a turnip
• quiddity n -
  1. the essence of something; literally, its whatness
  2. a quibble, or trifling nicety
• subderisorious adj. - mocking, but gently and with affection - as between friends or lovers. [A needed word, describing as it does a particular quality for which there is no other satisfactory adjective.]
• temulency n - inebriation, drunkenness

The proper term is nympholepsy. And not for Swedish furniture, either, pal.

Check it: New definitions added to the blog dictionary.

Spoon! Updated Appendix A - blog dictionary
Let me know if you can think of something to be added or edited.

More Vocabulary with Dan:
simulblogulation (si·mull·blog·u·lay·shun) n. the new (and pointless) act of identical content being posted to several weblogs simultaneous. I’m sure the authors believed themselves to be funny, but simulblogulation is simply stupid.

like that wasn’t gonna happen!

HEY! sketchy is my word! That’s okay, though. I’ll let you use it. But know that it is mine. After like 6 or 7 years - ever since Bill & Ted - my word was afoot. Now it’s sketchy. And so am I.