Wordplay

Just because I’m in a goofy mood today, I want to discuss my obsession with words. Not real ones. Made up ones. Or at least wrong ones.

What good is a language, especially one as nonsensical as English often is, if you can’t play with it a little bit?

My coworker, John Briggs, started this thread off by noting he felt “glunky” this morning. A perfect word that actually sounds the way  one feels while under the weather.

Brigss also made reference to the word “dooflus,” which is another way to describe somebody who is not too bright.

When something creeps me out, I usually tell people I feel “hinky” about it.

For some reason, unpleasant things become flowers to me. For instance, take  that  problem at the Vermont  Yankee nuclear plant, with the contamination in the wells.   The contaminate is radioactive tritium, but I perfer to call it trillium. Trillium is in reality a nice springtime flower, so picture the absurdity of having your property “contaminated” by a pretty bloom. This trillium idea isn’t original. I shamelessly stole it from a Facebook post from Seven Days columnist Shay Totten.

Flowers come into play with a notable former Illinois Governor. I can never pronounce former Gov.Rod  Blagojevich’s name.  So I call him “Governor Begonia.”  Well, sometimes he’s about as smart as a begonia (no offense to all you begonias out there)

While thinking of wordplay, I also think back to the unfortunate mistakes I have made in writing for the Burlington Free Press. Luckily, the following were caught and corrected before publication. I once referred to the senior U.S. Senator from Vermont as “Patrick Lengthy,” rather than “Patrick Leahy.” Well, he is tall.

I once described an injured accident victim as being taken away by the “Essex Rescue Squid.” Well, the patient was in good hands if a creature with eight arms was treating him. All hands on deck, right?

OK, this post is really strange. But it’s also an invite. Has anyone out there been creative or goofy with language? Do confess.