Throwback Thursday December 17, 2015 – Swampwater, yum

Oops! Missed Wordplay Wednesday! Let’s have fun with a Throwback Thursday Wordplay!

“Back in the day,” let’s say 1950s – 1970s, A&W Root Beer gave Coke and Pepsi a run for the money. Roy W. Allen – the “A” in A&W – opened his first roadside root beer stand in Lodi, California (1919).

Yep, that’s just down the road from Modesto – which gave us American Graffiti, complements of George Lucas’s memories of 1962.

Let me take you back ♪… to a simpler time of A&W drive-in restaurants, car hops and Swamp rock! 

How did you drink your A&W Root Beer? I mixed mine up ...

SWAMPWATER: Half A&W Root Beer and half Orange Drink [back in the day, only Orange Crush would do as the mixer].  

So where were you in ’62 ... or as this long ago drive-in car hop recalls, 1967...
 

Wordplay Wednesday™ December 9, 2015 – Holiday Wodge

Holiday fudge? Yum! Ummmm …

Feeling a bit bulky this Holiday season? Ah … yeah … the fun fudge, extra Christmas cocktails, and full-on four-, eight-, ten-course meals are already beginning to bulge.

You mean, you feel a wodge around your middle?

 

WODGE (wăj) – n. (Brit. informal) a chunk or lump of something [an object having a lumpy bulgy shape – like, I’m feeling kinda wodgey today].

The Brits are fun to follow for vocabulary. It’s so much more interesting and somehow less filling to say you’re a bit wodgey today, rather than fat or full, ya know? While we’re munching ... 

Wordplay Wednesday™ December 2, 2015 – Otiose Holiday Vanity

You’re So Vain … ♪

Since I’m a day late and a dollar short (again) this will be a quickie Wordplay word. (I know, hooray!)

During the Holiday time of year, with numerous parties, events, and special attention to fashions, we tend to go overboard wondering and worrying about our looks. (I used to – I’m a Boomer now – doesn’t matter so much! Heehee.)

We all know one or two friends or relatives, male or female, who stroll by a festive shop window and slow down to pat their hair in its reflection, with pleased self-admiration. There’s a word for this pretentious, vain, action …

OTIOSE (ōʹshē ōsʹ, ōtʹē-) – adj. 1) [Rare] idle; indolent; 2) ineffective, futile; 3) useless, superfluous – SYN. vain.

 

Anyone you know?

Try to remember, underneath the vanity and perhaps pompous attitude, is a person clamoring for attention. ‘Tis the season – better to give than receive.

Bestow Holiday praise on those who may act a bit too self-absorbed, but who demonstrate with worthy actions, that beauty can be more than skin deep.

They’ll appreciate your kindness and it’s a gift that will keep on giving – along with the day-at-the-spa gift card, or custom basket of healthy skin care items – just helping out with a tip! (Hint, hint.)

Cheers!

'Til next time ... have a wonderful "wordful" week!

                  

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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Wordplay Wednesday™ November 25, 2015 – MEINY gobblers

Thankfully Gobbling with your Gaggle!

How MEINY* ways can you say family? This time of year we often see our close and extended family members much more than in the previous ten months.

So, if you’re preparing to mix with them this Thanksgiving week, take a break from your over-committed, overwhelmed, unrested mind and let it flow to the right side, for a fun challenge: how many descriptive words for a gathering of your clan (hint) can you dredge up?

 

Let me help you count the ways:

1) clan

2) gaggle

3) madding crowd

4) cluster

5) *MEINY! See – it wasn’t a typo. Yep, it’s today’s offering for Thanksgiving week’s Wordplay Wednesday. :-)

MEINIE or MEINY (māʹnē) – n. 1) [obsolete] feudal retainers or attendants, collectively; retinue or household; 2) [Scots.] a crowd; throng; multitude.

Whether you enjoy a crowd, gaggle, or meiny – or giving thanks in solitude this week (which I have done often over the years, when away from the madding crowd of family, and yes, I cook a turkey with all the trimmings, and give thanks that I can!), consider all that you have / enjoy, and all who / what make your life richer. Ask yourself, “What more can Ido?” ...

Wordplay Wednesday™ November 18, 2015 – Ennead 9

Number 9 … Number 9 … there’s a word for that …

ENNEAD (enʹē adʹ) – n. group or set of nine (books, gods, etc.).

Although the term is generally applied to groups of gods, our modern dictionary(ies) define ennead as any collection of nine – deities, things, persons, books, what-have-you. In mathematics it’s the sum of or the number nine.

Exploring Enneads in literary circles, you’ll also find reference to ancient philosopher, Plotinus’s writings, which were organized into fifty-four treatises in groups of nine, edited and compiled by his student, Porphyry (c. 270 AD).

In modern terms however, probably the most infamous ennead is The Beatles’ eerie loop intoning “Number 9” in the song, “Revolution 9” … do you know which album it appeared on?