via Bifurcated Rivets
Sounding Circle is the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational. "The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing of one letter, and supply a new definition."
I quite like... Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.
I had a discussion with S today about the word geek. S is younger than I am - perhaps that's why he was unfamiliar with the term referring to the circus, and specifically the job of biting the head off a live chicken. Recall the Bob Dylan tune from Highway 61 Revisited back in the mid-sixties:
"You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel
To be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible"
As he hands you a bone".
I checked the urbandictionary.com for a little perspective.
I particularly enjoyed the first definition they put forward:
Geeks: the people you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult.
The geeky kid now owns a million dollar software company.
They also give some valuable information about finding out if you are in fact a geek:
There are certain signs to being a geek and not a nerd. You would be a geek if:
1. You have a "My other car is a Millenium Falcon" bumper sticker on your car.
2. You think your retainer resembles a Klingon Warship.
3. You can can tell what speed a computer is connecting just by the sound the modem makes.
4. You think your computer speaks to you in English.
5. You can write papers in Binary.
6. You use a VoiceModem headset when making calls.
7. Your idea of a house party is snacking on Rice Krispy Treats and watching Tron.
8. You've seen The Guyver.
9. You have the TIE Fighter ion cannon as your ringtone.
10. You call your bedroom the Fortress of Solitude.
11. If you are able to give ten identifying signs of a geek.
One of the biggest roadblocks to creativity is the "Fear Factor" fear of putting disparate items together. Why? Most people have been de-geniused to the immutability of what is, is. -Ernest Garrett
The following is excerpted from The Urban Dictionary
c-bonics
Canadian slang words.
An example of someone speaking in c-bonics "Last night, I cashed my pogey and went to buy a mickey of C.C. at the beer parlour, but my skidoo got stuck in the muskeg on my way back to the duplex. I was trying to deke out a deer, you see. Damn chinook, melted everything. And then a Mountie snuck up behind me in a ghost car and gave me an impaired. I was S.O.L., sitting there dressed only in my Stanfields and a toque at the time. And the Mountie, he's all chippy and everything, calling me a "shit disturber" and what not. What could I say, except, "Sorry, EH!"
C-bonics should not be confused with rebonics
rebonics
One who speaks in such redneck terminology, someone would have to take lessons in rebonics to understand them. Like ebonics, except redneck lingo.
1. "How much ya like" = how nuch longer will it take 2. "ya'll" = you all or everyone 3. "Fixunda" = I am about to do something
"If words, as Samuel Johnson said, are the 'dress' of rational thought, a good vocabulary is the Wonderbra of intellect." Hilary Bower
kaboo
Nearby area, local, neighborhood.
"We were hangin' in the kaboo." or "How far is it? Just in the kaboo. It's nuthin'."
This occasional feature makes liberal use of the Urban Dictionary for definitions and A Wee But Chockablock Vocabulary Book by Ernest Garrett for quotations. I don't know who Ernest Garrett is, but he wrote a very good book. My friend Stagg sent it to me some time ago in a box full of assorted ephemera (that's why they call him the Emperor of Ephemera).
"If anyone ever attempts to dumb you down, shoot 'em! - Ernest Garrett
Word of the day, chosen from The Urban Dictionary:
haber waaa
1) to show pleasure or excitement
2) to show disgust or annoyance
Note: increasing the number of "habers" before the "waaa" increases the intensity of the phrase
1) We are going to Disney World! Haber haber waaa!
2) Look at that obese tub of lard! Haber waaa.
