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AWADmail Issue 699

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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the Net

Singular ‘They’ is Word of the Year
The Web of Language
WebCite

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 is... an Emoji
OxfordWords blog
WebCite

Taste the Translation
AdWeek
WebCite

From: Simon Katzenellenbogen (via online comments)
Subject: sitzmark

The picture with this word reminds me of the first time I (an American) told my British wife and children that I would make a snow angel. They were rather disappointed when I sitzmarked, lay down, spread my arms, moved them up and down in the snow and got up. From a sitzmark to an angel.

From: Thomas E. Lund (tLund oppenheimer.com)
Subject: Sitzmark

This recalls memories of a group outing to a ski hill in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on a warm spring day. One novice skier wore new blue jeans. One could track her progress down the slope by the line of blue sitzmarks.

From: Libby A Durbin (ldbelle embarqmail.com)
Subject: sitzmarks

In 1954 on Oregon’s Mt. Hood I had my first and only skiing experience. I fell numerous times and left the slope more hazardous for other beginners because I didn’t know I was supposed to fill in my sitzmarks.

From: Scott Baltic (sbaltic rcn.com)
Subject: Outro

As a long-time print magazine editor, I’d like to add another meaning to the word outro.

Especially because many people tend to flip through a magazine from back to front, instead of front to back, the last editorial page in a magazine, that is, the page facing the inside back cover (or Cover 3 in magazine parlance) is considered to be particularly valuable real estate.

That’s why this page, usually called the outro, is typically home to a stand-alone, one-page item, such as a standing column, a stand-alone photo or mini photo essay, or some other attractive content.

It’s also a nice way to finish an issue of a magazine for someone who reads from front to back, since there’s a definite, quality *end* to the issue, rather than just some classified ads or similar rather unattractive miscellany.

From: Dr. Alexis Melteff (aapm52 yahoo.com)
Subject: outro

The earliest use of outro I remember was in the title of a very clever novelty record called The Intro and The Outro (recording, 3 min.) by the Bonzo Dog Band (1967).

From: Leo O’Neil (leooneil verizon.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--outro

I am an over-70-year-old pro musician. We use the words midtro and outro when the phrases contain musical elements of the intro. Without the similarities to the intro they are called interlude and ending.

From: Jamie Hook (hookshyu aol.com)
Subject: outro

The final measures of the outro of my father’s life slipped into silence on the day of intro of that word into my life. Your inspiration in the choice of that word for that day was reflected in his final inspiration. The joy of music that enveloped him mirrored my mother’s love of words and to have those fused and coming to me on this day of all days has given me unexpected solace. Thank you. (He was 98, my mom 91 when she went. They were both ready when it happened, and they and we were blessed in that.)

From: Clyde Dawson (clydawson xtra.co.nz)
Subject: Solipsist

In a little book of poetry about ‘Evolution’, which was my dad’s first gift to my mother, there was a poem called The First Idealist. Solipsist reminded me of that:

From: Ossie Bullock (osmundbullock aol.com)
Subject: solipsistic

Actually, ‘solipsistic’ itself can be a pretty good insult, assuming the recipient understands it. One ex of mine, a clinical psychologist, took to calling me that during our relationship’s painful end game.

From: Doris Waggoner (waggonerdoris gmail.com)
Subject: solipsism

When a nephew’s first child was a newborn, he noticed her eyes moving and commented, “I wonder what she could possibly be dreaming about. She’s got no experience yet so she’s got nothing to dream about.” I think that was solipsism (your second definition) on his daughter’s behalf. Even at the time, it occurred to me that in her own life, the baby had lots of experience -- being hungry, tired, uncomfortable, hot, or cold; needing to be changed; interacting with two parents, a big dog, and a lot of other people; hearing their music or conversation. Maybe my nephew was the one being a solipsist, since he couldn’t remember what it was like to be two weeks old!

From: Pierre-Alexandre Sicart (pa_sicart hotmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--solipsism

These are actually two very different concepts.

“The view or theory that the self is all that exists” is metaphysical solipsism.
“The view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist” is epistemological solipsism.

The latter finds its purest expression in Descartes’s cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am).

Our existence (not its nature) is the only absolute certainty, for each of us (or at least for me, since I can’t know for sure that you exist). Everything else requires some form of faith: I do believe that your existence is different in essence from the existence of the people I interact with in my dreams. But I cannot be sure.

From: Dharam Khalsa (dharamkk2 windstream.net)
Subject: Anagrams of this week’s words

From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Limericks

Little kids make sitzmarks for a lark
on the lawn, the schoolyard, or park.
But when I made one
it wasn’t for fun:
Mustn’t go in the snow after dark!

The event is approaching its outro.
Cries elephant, “Where’d my mahout go?
This howdah is slipping,
my passengers flipping.
Oh why does that man gad about so!”

Arriving at final decision
re: patient’s extreme solipsism,
his doctor opines,
“Since we’re two of a kind,
I suggest we attempt no revision!”

As a free-wheeling intrapreneur
You must still corporate bosses endure
Many lilies they gild
With the profits you build
While they probably pay you manure.

Said the Muskateer named Athos,
“It’s surely a case of bathos,
To have dropped down so far,
Hero to candy bar,
That’s why I wallow in pathos.”

From: Phil Graham (pgraham1946 cox.net)
Subject: A WAD of puns

In the pantheon of Olympic swimmers, there sitzmark Spitz.

Your song is ‘ok’ but you outro rewrite the ending.

My friend’s solipsism mighty good thing to receive when I’m distraught.

When walking in a cow pasture, don’t step intrapreneur.

We’ve definitely gone downhill when someone has to bathos.