BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: WORDS,WORDS, WORDS

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not meant, then what ought to be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if morals and art deteriorate, justice will go astray; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence, there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”
                         Confucius
**
SUBCONSCIOUS – What Admiral Rickover was

**

ON BEING A BEAR LEADER OR A FRUMP

A bear-leader is “One who undertakes the charge of a young man of rank on his travels. It was customary to lead muzzled bears about the streets, and to make them show off in order to attract notice and gain money. Under favor, young gentleman, I am the bear-leader, being appointed your tutor. 
                                       G. Colman, Heir-at-Law

Frump –“The modern dictionaries define this as a cross-tempered, old fashioned woman. This is just the reverse of its original signification which, according to Bailey, was ‘plump, fat, jolly’”

Fact, Fancy, and Fable. 1889

**
“The grossest thing in our gross national product today is our language. It is suffering from inflation.”
                                       James Reston
**
AIBOPHOBIA-- Fear of Palindromes

**
MAIL BAGS FOR THE OLD PONY EXPRESS

"Mochila" means "knapsack" in Spanish, and it’s the name given to the mailbags used on the Pony Express. They were leather with four pockets and hung over the saddle. The pockets were always kept locked; three of them contained mail and could only be opened at military posts, and the fourth contained a timecard.
Source: National Postal Museum

History Quiz (January 12, 2023)

**
g= midnight
**

LEXICOGRAPHY

“This, the OED in its compact edition, carried a reading glass, a standard extra. What did I search for? Just like anyone , looked up CUNT, to see it under the reading glass.”
                 Gavin Ewart

**
OBSCENITY LAWS & THE OED

"...many words were kept out of the OED: 'homosexuality' was included in 1933, 'lesbian' not until 1976. When it came to slang , (JAMES) Murray was cautious about obscenity laws; first editions of the 'c'  and 'f' ' volumes remain clear of the obvious culprits."

Unsigned review of The Dictionary People by Sarah Olgive in The Economist (October 7, 2023
**
NRACOTIC—The biggest drug in the United States.
         Renders the Senate and House of 
         Representatives completely numb.

**

OUT ON PAROLE

"For flapper women who were becoming increasingly liberated during the Roaring ‘20s, an engagement ring could be seen as a handcuff. In the same vein, the slang term for a wedding ring was “manacle,” while "out on parole" referred to being divorced."

Word Genius (June 15, 2023)

**
A HOODOO

Chimney Rock is classified as a hoodoo, or a vertical pile of rock that was formed partly by volcanic ash.

Who do
Voodoo?
You do?
Hoodoo?
Hugh do.

**
DEFINITION OF A LIBERAL (circa 1960’s)

“What is a liberal? A liberal finds it in his heart to forgive Jane Fonda for being in Hanoi, but not for being in Barbarella.”
                          David Frost
**

Nominative, genitive, elative, accusative one, accusative two, ablative, partitive, illative, instructive, abessive, adessive, inessive, essive, allative, translative, comitative.

Sixteen cases to the Finnish noun

**
**
chyron
: a caption superimposed over usually the lower part of a video image (as during a news broadcast)
"I sometimes fantasize about spending the rest of my life studying them. CNN and Fox News would then have me on whenever there was a major hummingbird story. The chyron would identify me as "Christopher Buckley—Hummingbird Authority."
                                          Christopher Buckley

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chyron
**
THE IMPORTANCE OF ADVERBS

Suddenly
You enter a tunnel
Of  despond,
You travel endlessly,
No end in sight,

Tirelessly
You struggle
To save yourself
Or the self
You believe you are.

Incredibly,
The sky flickers
Into flame.
Is it the sun rising?
At that moment you must 

Reach out 
To grasp the light.
Bring it to your chest,
Hug the day
Gladly.

Louis Phillips