MindlessChatter

Every time we get together, my brothers and I tend to get hung up on a word or phrase; arguing over the origin and proper use or, more likely, misuse. With today’s smartphones, we can quickly ping the interwebs for an answer usually leading to more chin scratching and the muttering of phrases such as: “Ah yes.  That makes sense” or “Really? It sounds more Russian than French”.  The funny things is that we have no idea what we are talking about, but we like to pretend. There have been many ……discussions over the years: rife; lineagey; remote; etc.  Tonight the word that caught our interest was smithereens. For some twisted reason the first thing I thought of was Mr. Smithers (I already said we didn’t know what we were talking about).  A quick search led us to a page explaining that Smithereens was Irish in origin and could be based on an old Gaelic word ‘Smiodar’ meaning fragments.  The article had a second origin that I actually prefer; “’smithereens’ … ...

I've mentioned before that I am a fan of clever word smithing and love to read authors that are exceptional at it.   Patrick Rothfuss is one such example.   The King Killer Chronicles is a masterful example of a well written story and is chocked full of fun terms and phrases that are so quotable it carries a certain Douglas Adams.....esq feel.   Part of Rothfuss' charm is his habit of combining words in new and interesting ways or utilizing words that have long since gone out of style. This is a trend that I would like to see more of.   There are some words and phrases that provide such a colorful images that it would be a crime to let them retire into a lexicographical cemetery. Testicular Fortitude - I was introduced to this wonderful term in The Name of the Wind by the aforementioned Patrick Rothfuss   and I've only been able to use in once since then. Poppycock –What a wonderful word!   I rarely get to enjoy myself so much while yell...

#Leaves bar# Analogy?  Metaphor?  Matador?  #Drops Captn. Punc. off# Anagram? Pentagram? Candygram? Bananagram? #Enters freeway# Parallel? Simile? Lesson? Plethora? #Exits freeway# Ankle weights? Blustery? Bigotry? Story time? #Sits at red light# …. ALLEGORY!!! …. #Arrives at home# #Sigh# I feel better now #Sleep# ~Bibliotender

Remember the ‘lady’ who sent me her birthday wish list? She sent me a list of Nine words that women use.   I responded in italics.     Lets just say it didn't go over well... NINE WORDS WOMEN don't know how to USE… (1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up. ~This is the goal of every argument.   Once "Fine!" is reached the man realizes that he has won and no further discussion is needed. "Right" is a relative term that women don't understand.... (2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house. ~Five minutes = Five minutes.   I refuse to accept any other reasoning.   If you need 30 minutes, tell us 30 minutes or better yet, tell us 43 minutes and we will be pleasantly surprised when you are actually finished in 50.   If men ...

I am fascinated with words and routinely marvel at the descriptive power that they hold.  I Admit that I don't have the spelling skills that my mother and father were possessed with but that never stopped me from stretching my vocabulary as far as I could.  In my eagerness to use as many polysyllabic words as possible in my vernacular that I would often insert new words into sentences in places where they didn't belong drawing confused looks from those nearby.   Sometimes I would get fairly obsessive about where the words come from or when they were first used which lead to some interesting facts that I could add to my ever increasing collection of useless information.  I briefly entertained the idea of studying linguistics but quickly realized that I didn’t carry the testicular fortitude* and eventually abandoned that idea, forever guaranteeing my amateur status in wordsmithing.  Much of this behavior can be traced back to our parents  who loved to ...