Tag Archives: writing

Backyard brew

Posted on April 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

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

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

I think something got lost in translation back in Sweden…

Posted in Advertising, Commentary, Foods, Humor, Life, Writing

Tagged advertising, backyard brew, beer, commentary, drinks, Foods, Humor, lawn, lawn mower, life, liquor, real lawn mower experience, Sweden, writing

Story, story

Posted on April 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

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

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??

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Posted in Dogs, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Movies, Walking, Writing

Tagged Central Park, Dogs, Humor, life, Movies, New York City, students, walking, writing

There’s a cold front a’comin’

Posted on April 2, 2013 | Leave a comment

What’s up with Dairy Queen?

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

I’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.

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Posted in Advertising, Commentary, Food, Humor, Life, Restaurants, Weather, Writing

Tagged advertising, advertising agency, bad weather, chocolate sauce, cold front, commentary, Dairy Queen, DQ, DQ Blizzard, DQ Earthquake, DQ Mudslide, Facebook, Foods, Humor, ice cream, life, natural disasters, product naming, Quentin Tarentino, restaurants, weather, writing

Wordvana

Posted on April 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

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, 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.

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Posted in Blogs, Commentary, Entertainment, Food, Humor, Life, Writing

Tagged blogs, conversation, eating, food, Google, hangry, Humor, hunger, hungry, Internet, irritability, life, perfect word, words, wordvana, writing

Bet the name makes it taste better, too

Posted on February 11, 2013 | 1 Comment

And the Oscar for Best Beverage Name goes to…

Truth!

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Posted in Design, Foods, Humor, Life, Restaurants, Writing

Tagged ale, beer, Best Named Beverage, design, Foods, Humor, life, Oscars, restaurants, Truth Serum Wheat Wine Ale, writing

Trade you the funnies

Posted on January 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

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.

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.

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Posted in Animals, Humor, Life, News, Writing

Tagged Algonquin Provincial Park, animals, camping trip, Canada, chipmunk, Humor, letter to the editor, life, newspaper, Ontario, reading a newspaper, squirrel, writing

News so big it can’t be measured

Posted on January 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

Attention lovers of potty humor and word police alike:

BUTT LOAD is an actual unit of measurement.

All 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.

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Posted in Comedy, Commentary, Foods, Humor, Life, Writing

Tagged alcohol, butt load, comedy, commentary, curse word, Foods, gallons, hogshead, Humor, life, potty humor, sin, turn of phrase, unit of measurement, wines, word police, writing

Jolly time

Posted on January 7, 2013 | 1 Comment

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

As 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?

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Posted in Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Television, TV, Writing

Tagged coiffure, commentary, Crawley sisters, Downton Abbey, entertainment, hashtag, have you done somthing jolly with your hair, Humor, Lady Edith Crawley, life, one-liners, plot twists, Sir Anthony, Television, the bee's knees, TV, word of the year, writing

Speechless

Posted on January 5, 2013 | 2 Comments

And the word of 2012 is…

Hashtag

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?

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Posted in Blogs, Commentary, Education, Humor, Internet, Life, News, Writing

Tagged #whoknew, American Dialect Society, American Speech magazine, blogs, Dictionary of American Regional English, education, English language, hashtag, Humor, Internet, life, news, Twitter, vernacular, word of 2012, word of the year, writing