Category Archives: Writing

Backyard brew

A cold beer after you’ve cut the lawn sounds good to most people.

But a beer with that ‘real lawn mower experience?’

lawn mower ad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think something got lost in translation back in Sweden…

Silent messages from cheese central

I flew to Atlanta today.

After check-in at the hotel, I grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant.  It had an extensive menu, but suddenly, I knew what I had to have –

Grilled cheese

When the waiter came back to the table, I pulled out my negotiation skills to get the sandwich, which oddly was not on the menu.  The nice man not only delivered a yummy grilled cheese — with fries — but gave it to me on the cheap.

Ya gotta love Southern hospitality.

Now, grilled cheese is my favorite sandwich, but I wondered why I had such a strong taste for it.  I later discovered that today is…

grilled_cheese_1

It’s like I heard the call of the curd…without even being aware of it.

We have that kind of relationship, cheese and I.

Story, story

Today was the first really warm day of spring, so Rory and I headed to Central Park before dinner.

image

That’s when we saw the film crew.

I’m pretty sure they are students, based on their youth and minimal equipment. But they were very focused on their talent, who appeared to be writing in a notebook.

Clearly, it is a period piece.

Rory and I loitered for a bit, trying to overhear any dialogue, but no luck. Perhaps the camera was zoomed in tight on the words he was writing…something like:

Where the heck did I put my iPad??

There’s a cold front a’comin’

What’s up with Dairy Queen?

They seem as fascinated with natural disasters as Quentin Tarentino is with blood and gore.

mudslideI’ve never really thought about it until today, when a friend posted a picture of a DQ Mudslide (left) on Facebook.

Looks tasty.

But then I realized DQ has Mudslides.  And Blizzards.  And Earthquakes.

And it makes you wonder what naming guru at DQ — or their agency of record — associates really bad weather with ice cream treats?

You gotta admit, it’s weird.

And probably weirder still that we don’t spare the names a second thought as we cram all that gooey chocolate sauce into our pie holes.

Wordvana

I learned a new word today…or, I should say, new to me:

HANGRY

As soon as I heard the word in conversation with a friend, I Googled it…and realized it was not just a word, but a phenomenon.

hangry

Hangry, simply stated, is that spirit-sucking irritability that results from being hungry.  I experienced it today when I had too many errands to run and not enough time to eat.

While I am all-too familiar with the feeling, I had never had the perfect word to describe it.

Until now.

So I am no longer hangry; instead, I’m simply happy.  ‘Cause the right word can do that for ya.

Bet the name makes it taste better, too

And the Oscar for Best Beverage Name goes to…

truth serum

Truth!

Trade you the funnies

Students who attend my classes know that I often pull examples out of thin air. And if an animal is part of the storyline, 9 times out of 10 –

It’s a squirrel.  (I don’t know why.)

So you will understand why this photo of a chipmunk in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park caught my eye.

chipmunk reader

Photographer Michael Higgins spotted the little fellow ‘reading a newspaper’ while on a camping trip.

Too cute.

And it explains the chipmunk’s Letter to the Editor the following week.

News so big it can’t be measured

Attention lovers of potty humor and word police alike:

BUTT LOAD is an actual unit of measurement.

buttload of whiskeyAll these years — I thought I was being rude when I described something ‘big’ as being a butt load!

How I laughed at this crude turn of phrase –

So evil!  So edgy!

But it still stopped short of being an actual curse word…so don’t try to accuse me of committing any great sin.

It’s just a good ol’ butt load of fun!

Or. So. I. Thought.

Now I discover a butt load is a traditional unit of volume for wine and other alcoholic beverages.  A butt is two hogsheads, which is equivalent to 63 US gallons.

Actually…that sounds way bigger than a butt load to me.

Jolly time

It’s been a mere two days since “hashtag” was declared 2012′s Word of the Year, and we already have a frontrunner in this year’s competition:

JOLLY

jolly EdithAs in,

“Lady Edith, have you done something jolly with your hair?”

In a Downton Abbey premiere episode chock full of plot twists and memorable one-liners, Sir Anthony’s clever compliment of the youngest Crawley sister’s coiff was, quite simply, the bee’s knees.

I hereby declare ‘jolly’ to be the Word of the Year for 2013…and heretofore plan to incorporate it into my day-to-day conversation whenever appropriate (and even when it’s not).

Isn’t that a jolly idea?

Speechless

And the word of 2012 is…

hashtagHashtag

This doesn’t surprise me.  It feels like hashtag has been around a lot longer — that’s how much a part of our vernacular it has so quickly become.

What does surprise me is who makes the grand proclamation of “Word of the Year” — the American Dialect Society.

I’ve never heard of them.

Founded in 1889, the organization is dedicated to the study of the English language and supports the Dictionary of American Regional English.  They also publish American Speech magazine.

#whoknew?