Number 89
I have a contribution in a new anthology, Changing Course: Women's Inspiring Stories of Menopause, Midlife, and Moving Forward, edited by Yitta Halberstam. Halberstam is editor of a series called Small Miracles. These true stories are divided into four sections: Don't Look Back, Starting the Voyage, The Meditative Journey, and New Beginnings. I don't know yet which section my story falls into, but I'm guessing The Meditative Journey, although any could apply, perhaps; my story touches on reconciling with the past as well as stepping into a new life.
You still have time to make sure no one in your family buys pimp and ho ("whore") Halloween costumes for the kiddies, which I understand are for sale now in some places. Apparently some people find it amusing to hold "pimp and ho" costume parties, which is only faintly risible in adults. It's tantamount to child abuse for children.
"Pimp" and "ho" have dropped into ordinary slang, not just criminal slang, as in the TV show "Pimp My Ride," wherein "pimp" is a now verb meaning trick out (pun sort of intended) or refurbish. The show is about making an old car look good, not necessarily run well. I'm expecting a reality show any day now called "Hoin' My Life" or something. But while "pimp" has a vaguely positive connotation now, I'll be surprised if "ho" ever becomes slang for anything good. As in real life, the ho is definitely the under-bitch. I suppose rap music is what made these terms more familiar to the ear, so that they sound cool, as long as you don't think of the reality of their meaning.
The other day I saw a young man wearing a T-shirt that said "Pimp the System." At first I thought this was some sort of statement about political opportunism, but the shirt had a picture of what appeared to be sound equipment. This is one of those shirts I'd have snatched right off my kid's back if one of them had showed up wearing it.
I have watched a couple of documentaries on TV about pimps and prostitutes. Beyond the fact that more flesh and obscenity can be aired on TV than ever before, I was stunned at the cameraman's non-intervention when one prostitute punched another pregnant prostitute hard in the stomach, as a sign of her allegiance to and ascendancy with her pimp. Of this group, I'd send the cameraman to hell first.
Not sure what it means, but:
"I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe."
"Welcome Bread of Life
and Baker Family Reunion"
Some party!
Heard on TV: "The couple whisked away to Las Vegas." This didn't sound right. I've only heard "whisk" used as a transitive verb ~ "They were whisked away to Las Vegas by jet" or "A limousine whisked them away to their honeymoon" ~ the idea is that one is moved quickly as if by a whisk broom ~ but I find in www.yourdictonary.com that "whisk" can be an intransitive verb meaning "to move lightly, nimbly, and rapidly." Nevertheless, I don't remember ever hearing "whisk" used that way.
A "snipe" is the annoying text crawler at the bottom of the TV screen, telling you about some unimportant upcoming TV show during the unimportant show you are trying to watch. The only justification for using a crawler should be when there's an emergency (War! Flood! Fire!), and if it's that important, I think the TV show can be totally interrupted. Snipes are like call waiting. When you let someone interrupt your call because "it might be an emergency," I think the caller ought to be dialing 911. I admit I've picked up call waiting calls; the function is built into my cell phone, I never ordered it on purpose. But I know it's rude.
On TV now, nothing you watch is as important as the advertisement for something else. The snipes actually cut off parts of pictures you might want to see, and of course interfere with subtitles. This goes for the TV station logos too.
When the genius who came up with this marketing device was thinking up a name, which of the original meanings do you suppose he had in mind: the bird? the gunshot from a concealed place? the malicious remark? I'm thinking the concealed gunshot. It was not a friendly thought.
Weather report: "The storm causing majorly frayed nerves." "Majorly" now appears in the dictionary as slang; it's slang because it is ungrammatical. The grammatical form is English (as in "greatly frayed") but "major" was not used that way as an "ly" adverb, and it sounds ~ slangy. Maybe the tone it sets is not appropriate for a report on a major weather disaster (i.e. three hurricanes in a row). And, my nerves becoming majorly frayed by increasing non-use of verbs by news readers.
Someone on TV said something is "beneath the pale," meaning unacceptable or bad in some way. The correct phrase is "beyond the pale" and it's correct because it means something, "outside the fence" (pale, paling, picket, impale). The "pale" was a boundary or jurisdiction, e.g. the English pale, but I've read that this idiom came from the custom of burying an unredeemed sinner or an unbeliever outside the churchyard fence, rather than inside the churchyard with the others, thus the expression "beyond the pale." In any case, it doesn't make sense to refer to something as "beneath the pale" unless you're talking about something underneath a fence, like a dog digging a hole, and if a news reader were speaking literally rather than metaphorically, "fence" rather than "pale" would be the appropriate word choice.
Political headline: "Impeachment Calls Echo While Bush Is Coronated." There is no word "coronated." This is a grating back formation (folk etymology) based on "coronation." The word is "crowned."
People are using "vision" as a verb. I heard someone on TV say, "I vision . . ." We have a perfectly good verb for this, "envision." Use it or lose it.
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