Silliness | Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Archive for the ‘Silliness’ Category

Central Shark

August 16, 2018

We’re in the middle of the SyFy Channel’s Sharknado Week (the 12th through the 19th), an event that continues to fly the banner of life-threatening sharp-toothed monster-fish even after the Discovery Channel has largely turned over its own SHARK WEEK offerings (July 22nd through 29th this year) to putatively informative feature stories. None of that wimpy speculative journalism for the staff at SyFy, who steadfastly maintain the tradition that has brought us SyFy-original gems like their 2010 Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda (which I watched again yesteday).

Each year some new movies (plus, of course, the classics of past years). Fresh meat this year:

Deep Blue Sea 2, Megalodon, Santa Jaws, Frenzy, Nightmare Shark, 6-Headed Shark Attack, with, as an extra attraction on Sunday, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time!

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Posted in Language and animals, Language play, Movies and tv, Puns, Silliness | Leave a Comment »

That bastard mongrel half-breed, the tromboon

July 25, 2018

To yesterday’s posting “Hybrid referent, portmanteau name” (mostly about the flumpet, with a bit on the fluba), Robert Coren added a comment about Peter Schickele / P.D.Q. Bach and his invention, the tromboon:

(#1)

The tromboon is a musical instrument made up of the reed and bocal of a bassoon, attached to the body of a trombone in place of the trombone’s mouthpiece. It combines the sound of double reeds and the slide for a distinctive and unusual instrument. The name of the instrument is a portmanteau of “trombone” and “bassoon”. The sound quality of the instrument is best described as comical and loud.

The tromboon was developed by Peter Schickele, a skilled bassoonist himself, and featured in some of his live concert and recorded performances. Schickele called it “a hybrid – that’s the nicer word – constructed from the parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both”. This instrument is called for in the scores of P. D. Q. Bach’s oratorio The Seasonings, as well as the Serenude (for devious instruments) and Shepherd on the Rocks, With a Twist. (Wikipedia link)

Here I’m focusing on that’s the nicer word: just what did Schickele think (in 2008) was a less nice, more offensive, way to refer to a hybrid (more specifically, to someone of mixed race, which is probably where the insult vocabulary for hybrids is going to come from)? Specifically, what does an old white guy addressing a mostly white audience think might be a more offensive way to refer to hybrids? (A young black guy would probably insult a half-black half-white guy by calling him white.)

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Posted in Insults, Language and race, Metaphor, Music, Portmanteaus, Silliness | 6 Comments »

The possessed and the damned gather over cheese dip

June 8, 2018

A 1969 Velveeta ad:

Ingrid Superstar is obviously possessed, perhaps as a consequence of the entire company of the damned dipping into her chafing dish.

With a little lesson in pronouncing Spanish, and of course a celebration of the processed cheese product Velveeta, which has been beguiling the unwary with its silky smoothness since 1918.

Plus the inventively crude sexual slang dip into s.o.’s chafing dish.

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Posted in Language and food, Language of sex, Silliness, Spanish | Leave a Comment »

Alchemilla

May 29, 2018

Alchemilla mollis. A satisfying plant we grew in Columbus OH. Handsome ground cover. Photographer’s joy. Etymologist’s delight.

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Posted in Language and plants, Names, Silliness | Leave a Comment »

50 shades of green

May 6, 2018

(from the annals of remarkable company names and the Index Paranomasiarum)

For Naked Gardening Day (today and every May 6th), this shot of a landscaping company in the Miami area:

If Christian Gray is out on call, Marquis De Sod will discipline you — work you over in raunchy verdure under the fierce Florida sun. They will bind you, edge you, train you, hold you back until tomorrow, when they will allow you the release of Masturbation Day.

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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Holidays, Names, Puns, Silliness, Trade names | Leave a Comment »

Gayupid’s Arrow: We are everywhere, and now you are too

March 23, 2018

Passed on by Billy Green last June, this hot news story from the website Only In American: For America, By Americans: a 6/26/17 posting by Marion Uncmeier, “Gays Invent Mini-Crossbow To Shoot Straight Men With Homosexual Chemtrail Tipped Toothpicks and Turn Them Gay”:

(#1) The gay crossbow

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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Language and animals, Portmanteaus, Silliness | Leave a Comment »

The penguins are coming, the penguins are coming

February 1, 2018

Into the chasm between Penguin Awareness Day (January 20th) and Groundhog Day (February 2nd) springs this warning cry on Doctor Anna’s Imaginarium page on Facebook:

Wake up sheeple! The penguins are coming!

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Posted in Libfixes, Penguins, Silliness | 1 Comment »

The news for penises, St. Lucy’s Eve edition

December 12, 2017

Tomorrow’s the day to set your hair on fire, especially if you’re a young Scandinavian girl. But while you’re waiting for Advent to culminate in Christmas, you can savor the lights of the season:

(#1)