Annals of lexical confusions and innovations. Two word problems from Ruthie in the cartoon One Big Happy (two recent strips), a word confusion and two innovations from the tv show Psych.
Word times: two Ruthies, three Psychs
June 24, 2016Annals of lexical inventiveness: sternum bush
June 23, 2016From the tv series Psych (S1 E11), psychic investigator Shawn Spencer (played by James Roday) to Head Det. Carlton Lassiter of the Santa Barbara Police Dept. (played by Timothy Osmundson), on attracting women:
Chicks dig the sternum bush.
Translation from the very playful ShawnSpeak: ‘Women like chest hair’. That is, unbutton your shirt and show some chest hair. Standard sternum ‘chest, breastbone’ plus bush ‘luxuriant growth of hair’, especially in vulgar slang bush ‘a woman’s public hair’.
(The character Shawn is a high-energy, high-id showoff, but engaging: a big goofy kid.)
The lighthearted rooster
June 23, 2016From Sim Aberson on Facebook, this vintage crate label:
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(Crate labels on this blog: my posting of the 14th.) The heyday of crate labels was in the early 20th century, so gay ‘lighthearted’ and cock ‘rooster’ would be appropriate for the period, despite the way we’re inclined to read them now.
Two tests in cartoon understanding
June 22, 2016From the July 2016 issue of Funny Times, two cartoons that are real tests of understanding, the second more so than the first. From Bob Eckstein, a cartoon that is funny on the grounds of sheer silliness:
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And from J.C. Duffy, a cartoon that is just incomprehensible unless you have two pieces of (pop-)cultural information:
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More offers: contemporary folk, operettas
June 21, 2016I continue with the gigantic divestment / divestiture of belongings, designed to reduce the contents of two highly packed condos (including a truly gigantic library) to one relatively uncluttered one, preserving the things I think I’ll want to use in the scholarly life left to me (I am an old man).
The previous CD offer (now taken up) was here, and now, an offer of a collection of CDs (54 of them) of contemporary folk music. And separately, a small collection of operettas / light operas (Kálmán and Gilbert & Sullivan), in 8 albums; details below. Just pay for the shipping.
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Frenemones
June 21, 2016In the July 2016 Funny Times, this punning cartoon by Australian cartoonist Judy Horacek:
Layered portmanteaus: frenemy (friend + enemy) + anemone. Frenemy from NOAD2: ‘a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry’.
Frank Viva
June 21, 2016The cover of the latest (June 27th) New Yorker, by artist Frank Viva: “Love”, a defiant response to the Orlando Pulse massacre:
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We throw vibrant love — rainbow kisses — in the face of death
A quick sponge-bath
June 20, 2016… especially of the armpits and crotch / privates / genitals: a whore’s bath. I first noticed the usage in an episode of the tv series Supernatural (S9 E13 “The Purge”, first aired 2/6/14):
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The character Dean Winchester (played by Jensen Ackles), called to quick action on a case. Dean goes on, “I’ll be ready in five.”
Monday: attention, language stereotypes
June 20, 2016Among today’s cartoons: a Calvin and Hobbes on the paradoxes of attention, and a One Big Happy on Italians behaving stereotypically, and stereotypes of the Italian language:
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Language at the art galleries
June 19, 2016From the New York Times on the 11th, “Last Chance: Warhol, Basquiat and Other History Lessons” by Roberta Smith. I’ll be getting to Ruscha and Basquiat eventually, but first Smith’s background comments.