From Victor Steinbok, this announcement of a food event in Brooklyn last October:
In the portmantradition of Shirtoberfest (here) and Snow(c)tober (here).
Archive for March, 2012
-tobers
March 10, 2012In the proper conditions,…
March 10, 2012The most recent Scenes From a Multiverse:
The cartoon uses the maxim of ambiogenesis; some versions:
Under the proper conditions life can arise spontaneously from non-living molecules.
Whenever a planet exists under the proper conditions, life will evolve.
Where the proper conditions exist, life will evolve.
But stretches it to absurdity. (Note that no horses are depicted.)
Then there’s sea horse, a standard example of a non-subsective compound (of the resembloid type): a sea horse isn’t a horse, though it resembles a horse.
Burlesques, parodies, playful allusions
March 8, 2012An inventory of postings on this blog — I’d have liked to include Language Log as well, but even sticking to this blog the project was tremendously time-consuming — about this sort of play. The focus is on poetry and song lyrics, but there’s some material on music and on visual art. The comics are especially well represented.
Summer in the comics?
March 8, 2012Something I’ve been up to: a proposal for a summer internship in linguistics for this summer, on Linguistics in the Comics. (more…)
Lunar matters
March 8, 2012Yesterday’s Scenes From a Multiverse:
Two things here: the X in the moon figure; and the burlesque of “That’s Amore”.
Trannysaurus
March 8, 2012Today’s Bizarro:
A portmanteau of Tyrannosaurus (the dinosaur fixture of popular culture) and tranny, slang for a transgender person or a cross-dresser. So: T. rex as a drag queen.
Tranny is often perceived as derogatory, but it’s been reclaimed in many contexts — for instance, in the name of the San Francisco drag club Trannyshack. Trannyshack webpage here, Wikipedia entry here:
Trannyshack is a monthly drag club taking place at DNA Lounge in San Francisco. It was started by drag queen Heklina in 1996 as an offshoot of Klubstitute, and was a weekly fixture at The Stud bar in San Francisco for 12 years, drawing large crowds on a regular basis. The Tuesday night performances at The Stud ended on 12 August 2008, with Trannyshack resuming as a monthly event at DNA Lounge in March 2010.
(The Stud goes on. Both The Stud and DNA Lounge are in the SOMA (South of Market) district of the city — on 9th and 11th Sts., respectively.)
A fixture of S.F. gay life.
persons
March 7, 2012Yesterday’s Scenes from a Multiverse:
Personhood for fetuses, personhood for corporations, personhood for every damn thing!
Portmanteau bots
March 7, 2012In the NYT Magazine of 3/4/12, Gaby Dunn’s “They’re Famous! (On the Internet): Two Women Joined by Justin Timberlake”, about Nikki Glaser and Sara Schaefer’s live-audience podcast “You Had to Be There”:
The fans of “You Had to Be There,” whom Glaser and Schaefer affectionately call “ho-bots and bro-bots,” now feel so close to the women that some have journeyed to live tapings at Schaefer’s apartment.
Rhyming portmanteaus, ho-bot for women, bro-bot for men, both based on robot.
pho x 4
March 7, 2012From Samy Alim on Facebook, this punning restaurant name:
(punning on fo(r) shizzle ‘for sure’, a piece of slang popularized by Snoop Dogg). It turns out that there are lots of Pho Shizzles, in various cities. Those rappin’ Vietnamese.