Author Archive
July 22, 2019
Following on my 7/7 posting “GN/BN”, about the Good News Bad News joke routine, which the hounds of ADS-L traced back to the early 19th century (at least). Other commenters offered formuations of the idea that there’s a good side and a bad side to everything, the bad comes withthe good, and lots of other things that, however interesting, are not instances of the joke formula (in any of its variants). But then on 7/16, Bill Mullins posted about an entirely different joke formula hinging on the opposition of good and bad.
Bill wrote:
Are you familiar with Archie Campbell’s “That’s Good/That’s Bad” routines? He used to do them on Hee Haw.
And we’re off!
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Posted in Jokes, Language play, Narrative, Pragmatics, Routines and rituals, Spoonerisms | Leave a Comment »
July 22, 2019
(An politico-sexual riff, with steamy underwear photos, on BoJo, the MP for Bone Juice and South Blowjob and the Man Who Would Be PM; you should be able to tell from this description that this posting is not for kids or the sexually modest.)
Passed on to me on Facebook by Dean Calbreath on 7/20, a link to a Business Insider article, “Boris Johnson called gay men ‘tank-topped bumboys’ and black people ‘piccaninnies’ with ‘watermelon smiles'”, by Adam Bienkov on 7/12/19.
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Posted in Captions, Metonymy, Music, Parody, Race and ethnicity, Taboo language and slurs, Underwear | Leave a Comment »
July 21, 2019
From Michael Thomas on Facebook yesterday, a link to a CNN travel story, “Pair of penguins waddles into New Zealand sushi spot” by Isabela Espadas Barros Leal on 7/19/19. Mike, knowing of my (separate) interests in sushi and in penguins, asked, “Does your local sushi joint have any of these?”
To which I replied, “Sadly, no. But pair of penguins waddles into New Zealand sushi spot sounds like the beginning of an exotic Walk Into Bar joke.”
Let’s take this one bit at a time, starting with the news story.
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Posted in Formulaic language, Jokes, Language and food, Penguins, Routines and rituals | Leave a Comment »
July 20, 2019
Appearing in my Facebook feed a couple of days ago, passed on by Joelle Stepien Bailard, this self-portrait of Swedish-speaking Finnish artist Tove Jansson:
(#1) Tove Jansson (1914-2001), Self-portrait in a fur hat (1941)
From my 10/19/14 posting “Tove Jansson tomorrow”:
Another multiple talent who doesn’t usually get pegged as Artist (without qualification), like many others I’ve written about on this blog (Edward Gorey, for instance). Charming but complex [Moomintroll] books for children (a favorite in our household when my daughter was young), among other things.
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Posted in Art, Categorization and Labeling, Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
July 17, 2019
A surprise entry in the Chronicles: this Julia Suits cartoon in the (just-arrived) July 22nd New Yorker (apparently, these days, everybody is an avocadoist):
(#1) “No, you said you’d bring lemon juice!”
Lemon juice (or olive oli) acts as a protection against avocados browning on exposure to the air — a parallel to sunscreen protection.
(Note that, as in the “You complete me” cartoon — #6 in my 7/14/19 posting “Avocado Chronicles: 3 the chemical formula” — the sexes of the two avocado halves are identifiable, as male insertive (convex) vs. female receptive (concave), but in #1 it doesn’t really matter which of the two is speaking.)
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Posted in Comic conventions, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
July 17, 2019
The original spur was this Pinterest item:
(#1) [ cowboy butter ] [ dipping sauce ]
On the dipping sauce in #1; the cowboy butter that is its basis; the interpretation of cowboy butter and other cowboy X compounds (cowboy casserole, cowboy rub); the combination of cowboys, butter, and meat (each with possible sexual associations); Jackson Hole Cowboy Cream; and cowboy cheese bites.
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Posted in Compounds, Gender and sexuality, Language and food, Language of sex, Language play, Masculinity, Metaphor, Semantics of compounds | 4 Comments »
July 17, 2019
Continuing the avo roll, a brief pointer to earlier postings on the avocado as California’s iconic food, with its apotheosis in the California roll (inside-out hosomaki sushi with crab, cucumber, and avocado). Noting also that though avocados are a significant crop in California, avos (and their name, from Aztec / Nahuatl) originated in Mexico and most of the avocados consumed in California come from Mexico. Making the California roll a proudly cosmopolitan food — not specifically American, Japanese, or Mexican, but all at once, as well as a bit of culinary chamber music, a trio of contrasting tastes and textures (plus the nori, the sushi rice, and the sesame seeds).
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Posted in Language and food | 1 Comment »
July 15, 2019
Although, or perhaps because, I live in one of the world’s avocado toast hot spots, I’d hoped to avoid posting on the silly fad for avotoast, but then this Mother Goose and Grimm cartoon — with its pun on toast — appeared in my comics feed:
(#1) Up off the counter and onto the table
Three things: avocados, toast, and avocado toast.
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Posted in Ambiguity, Child language, Culture, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Puns | Leave a Comment »
