As in yesterday’s posting “Romper buddies”, about an ad for Romperjacks: not RAJ the land of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh, but ROJ the land of rompers, overalls, and jumpsuits. With a photo gallery. To whet your interest, two Romperjacks items:
(#1) The floridly beautiful Jungle Print romper
(#2) The elegant White Chateaux romper
Posted in Categorization and Labeling, Clothing, Fashion, Gender and sexuality, Lexical semantics, Masculinity, Play, Social class, Sociocultural conventions | Leave a Comment »
In today’s (1/2/22) Bizarro, the Old Balloon Peddler hawks his wares in the park:
(#1) And thought balloons too! Take a word or thought ride in one of these sturdy inflatable delights (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 5 in this strip — see this Page.)The Magical Adventure Balloon Ride
— a private basket adventure exclusively for thrill seekersHe gives the kids free samples
Because he knows full well
That today’s young innocent faces
Will be tomorrow’s clientele
Posted in Comic conventions, Linguistics in the comics, Music, Play | 1 Comment »
It started with a candid photo of people at a social gathering, with one person making a V hand gesture behind the head of the person next to them, much as in this photo of pro tennis players:
(#1) Swiss jock jokery: Stan Wawrinka doing the ‘bunny ears’ gesture behind Roger Federer
Bunny-earing someone is a prank (NOAD on the noun prank: ‘a practical joke or mischievous act’), pranks being a very culture-specific form of play + humor that deserve analytic attention that I’m not able to provide, but will just take as a cultural given here.
To come: a bit of the history of bunny-earing; senses of the expression bunny ears (illustrating (mostly metaphorical) sense developments in many directions); and uses of the V hand gesture (illustrating symbolic functions of many different kinds; the gesture itself is “just stuff”, without intrinsic meaning, which can be exploited for many different symbolic purposes). The act, the meanings of the linguistic expression for the act, the cultural significances (or “social meanings”) of the act.
Posted in Art, Gender and sexuality, Gesture, Language and ethnicity, Language and plants, Language and religion, Metaphor, Music, Play, Pranks, Signs and symbols, Social life, Words and things | Leave a Comment »
Because mammoths, today’s Rhymes With Orange:
(#1) Advances in Mammoth Science: early scientists encountering Mammuthus primigenius var. nudus
Posted in Books, Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics, Mammoths, Names, Play | 1 Comment »
Today’s Mother Goose and Grimm, featuring roly polies:
(#1)
Roly polies the fascinating creatures. Then there’s Jam Roly-Poly, the British sweet; the roly-poly toy; Roly Poly, the chain of sandwich shops; and the adjective roly-poly ‘having a round, plump appearance’, which leads us to the Australian film The Roly Poly Man. All are rooted in the verb roll, in various uses.
Posted in Language and animals, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv, Play | 2 Comments »
Chatted yesterday with Ned Deily about Erector sets and Meccano, and he mentioned Girder and Panel construction toys, which I hadn’t heard of but which he had enjoyed as a kid; they came along a bit late for me, though I had played with earlier construction toys: Meccano, Tinkertoy, Erector, and Lego.
I’ll start with Girder and Panel and then go back to the beginning.
Posted in Names, Play, Toys | Leave a Comment »
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