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AWADmail Issue 657

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From: Diane Campbell (diane.campbell internode.on.net)
Subject: Children’s hospital

There are odd names -- what image comes to mind with “Geriatric Physician”?

From: Garry Stahl (tesral wowway.com)
Subject: Children’s hospital

English is indeed rather slippery in its possessives and meaning at times. I consider it fun. Bread knife, steak knife, boy scout knife?

At the local market deli the girl was getting my order and noticed the line of dips in the cooler. “So,” said I, “chip dip is for chips, and vegetable dip for vegetables. I would assume the fruit dip is for fruit.” She replied in the affirmative. “What is the Mexican dip for?”

The poor girl lost it. English is fun.

From: Alain Gottcheiner (agot ulb.ac.be)
Subject: Children’s hospital

There is something to be said about genitive forms, and you’ve put your finger on it. Taken to the letter, a “children’s hospital” is a toy.

There is a tendency in official English to overuse the so-called Saxon genitive form. In languages which use case endings, the word “children” would be to the dative or, in the few which have this feature, to the attributive. The correct English equivalent would be “hospital for children”, as it is in French and Italian.

S-curvy:

From: Prunella Barlow (prunella shaw.ca)
Subject: Thought for today

Ellen DeGeneres borrowed from Robert Burns, in his poem “To a Louse”

From: Catherine McKnight (cara carascissoria.com)
Subject: Lighthearted image for a grim topic

I have a greeting card line and this is one of the more popular cards. It may not exactly fit the bill for this week’s words, but it is a light touch for a not always pleasant circumstance.

I so enjoy A Word A Day, it’s the first thing I read in the morning. Thank you!

From: Darla Doxstater (condorita sbcglobal.net)
Subject: Children’s Hospital

Children’s Hospital of Orange County, California apparently has a new advertising company which is responsible for the current “CHOC Children’s” campaign. I gnash my teeth every time I go near the place or see any of their advertising. *cringe*

From: Andrew Pressburger (andpress sympatico.ca)
Subject: Children’s Hospital

In Toronto, the children’s hospital is affectionately -- and universally -- known as the SickKids, plain and simple.

One of the characters in the radio series of the mid-twentieth century comedy team Bob & Ray was a guest expert named Dr. Sickening, Child Psychologist. His weekly appearance was invariably prefaced by the caveat that he was not a child. Then the host (Bob, I believe) would read write-ins from desperate parents seeking his advice. The doctor’s fall-back recommendation, if other treatment suggestions failed, was: “Whack ‘em!”

From: Ronald Davidson (davidsnr cogeco.ca)
Subject: medicine

I’m a pediatrician and was sitting at the nurse’s station working on charts one morning; an officious nurse was standing at the door to the toilet, clipboard in hand, waiting for a maybe three-year-old girl to emerge. When she did, the nurse asked, “Did you go #1 or #2?” The little patient answered, “I didn’t see any numbers in it.”

Obviously, this little scenario can easily be depicted by a cartoon and I promise you that it actually occurred!

From: Randa Serag (rserag gmail.com)
Subject: jaundiced

I have seen many jaundiced patients in my medical practice, but none as cute (or yellow) as Big Bird!

From: Diana Malley (kendiana juno.com)
Subject: jaundiced

Simpsons

From: Marni Hancock (mrh330 gmail.com)
Subject: metastasize

At some point during the school years from fall of 1962 to June of 1965 my history teacher in high school stated this description: Los Angeles didn’t grow, it metastasized.

From: Dominique Mellinger (dominiquemellinger yahoo.co.uk)
Subject: scabrous

Thanks for today’s word, scabrous. We have it in French too where it is commonly used with the meaning of knotty, complicated, and hard to believe, with a pinch of darkness to it. Typically, we’ll use it in ‘une histoire scabreuse’, ‘des explications scabreuses’, when what you hear feels far-fetched and not delivered with an air of authenticity. It usually implies one doesn’t believe in the ‘explications scabreuses’. I felt surprised to discover the origin of the word and happy to see it has more meanings than I thought, as if it were now in three dimensions..

From: Mike Stone (mstone lorencook.com)
Subject: Quotation attribution

The quotation in today’s (1/30/15) AWAD:

was previously (I’m sorry, I don’t record the dates quotations first appear in AWAD) cited as part of another quotation:

From: Steve Benko (stevebenko1 gmail.com)
Subject: Words of the week in limericks

Some sailors afflicted with scurvy
Reached an island with women quite curvy
“We’d like tea with lemon in,
And then something feminine,”
They said, which the natives found nervy

A master of Zen in Tibet
At cards lost his robe on a bet
When the game got too hectic
He turned apoplectic
Forgetting the teaching: “Don’t fret.”

East Coast snow day bonus:

A collector of artworks eclectic
Became what you’d call apoplectic
He realized he lacked
Enough paintings abstract
For of portraiture he was a skeptic

Moving on:

Politicians? In Maine we ah jaundiced
The lot of ’em, aiyuh, dis-hawnest
They come eat the lobstuh
And lie like a mobstuh
To hang onto powuh the longest

One can hear Amy Vanderbilt’s cries
And Emily Post as she sighs
But old H.L. Mencken
And I both are thinkin’
Bad taste will metastasize, guys.

In Dixie, attire thought scabrous
A Malibu girl finds just fab’lous
The nouvelle cuisine
On the coast keeps ‘em lean
But to Southerners’ taste they’re cadav’rous

From: Joan Perrin (perrinjoan aol.com)
Subject: Words for diseases

This week’s theme, “Words for Diseases”,
Metaphorically it teases,
With limericks I wrote,
Upon which you dote.
I do hope my effort pleases.

Long John Silver known to be nervy,
He sailed his ship all topsy-turvy,
With the hold filled with fruit,
And no cannon to shoot,
So his SCURVY crew got no SCURVY.

You know about Adam and Eve,
With “Forbidden Fruit” she’d deceive.
With their bites so septic,
God’s wrath, apoplectic,
From “The Garden” having to leave

“I’m not a coward,” he’d insist.
When bravery issues persist.
“It’s not that I’m yellow,”
Protested the fellow,
“It’s just that I really am JAUNDICED.”

With Cancer, it was no surprise,
Concern it might METASTASIZE,
But with chemo and prayer,
That real scare wasn’t there,
“I’m still here!” I do emphasize.

An old hermit crab I did see,
Strolling in the sand fancy free.
Saw his shell was SCABROUS,
Then heard the old crab cuss,
“Hells bells, are you staring at me?”