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AWADmail Issue 747A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Tidbits about Words and LanguageSponsor’s Message: What memories does “old school” evoke in you? “Thank you” instead of “No problem”? Saddle shoes. White handkerchiefs and white gloves. A hand-written note. Hitchhiking. Let us know -- we’re offering this week’s Email of the Week winner, Elizabeth Westmark (see below), as well as all you traditionistas out there a yuge chance to tell us what you miss most about the world we are losing or have already lost. You may even win some of our authentic ludic loot, to boot. ENTER The Old’s Cool Contest NOW.
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
What It’s Like to Learn a Second Language When You Can’t Read and Write in Your First
Literary Classics Through Donald Trump’s Eyes
From: Ramar Quacko (ramar.quacko gmail.com) Maybe I was slightly off when I called this “ruminant”.
Ramar Quacko, Maastricht, Netherlands
From: Andre Desnoyers (desnoyers msn.com) One day some serious enough brahmin, met in a Vishnu temple in India, told me, very religiously, that one of the best ways to communicate with god was to look deeply into the eyes of a cow... I’ve been ruminating on that one ever since!
André Desnoyers, Seattle, Washington
From: Elizabeth Westmark (ejwestmark gmail.com) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--bushwa My late father is the only person I knew who used the word bushwa. He was from a tiny town on the Florida/Alabama border called Jay, Florida. His family’s farm was in a wide spot in the road called Dixonville. It was in Alabama, but since the only hospital in the area was in Jay, my daddy was born a Floridian. My mother wouldn’t allow him to swear real cuss words, so “Ah, bushwa!” was as rough as it got around our house. Thanks for stimulating a memory. W.T.’s been gone since 1964 when I was little kid of 13.
Elizabeth Westmark, Pensacola, Florida
From: Tessa van Rooyen (tessnic iburst.co.za) So interested about today’s word as both my Afrikaans husband and his brother say “boogiewah” to describe something they deem a bit crazy or weird.
Tessa van Rooyen, Cape Town, South Africa
From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com) I thought it would be “thought-provoking” to pose the seated master modernist French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, ruminating over his next creative challenge, what would ultimately actualize as probably his most widely renowned, iconic work -- his pensive, powerful, consumed-in-deep-thought male figure... The Thinker. In the spirit of famed former underground cartoonist, R. Crumb, I’ve co-opted his 1960’s “Keep On Truckin’!” exhortation with a slightly more prescient twist, i.e., “Keep On Obambulatin’!” President Obama is fast approaching the “sunset” of his eight-year tenure as our president. But as a still vital, brilliant, caring, relatively young man clearly committed to public service, I see him confidently striding toward new horizons and personal challenges, fulfilling a destiny that has many glowing chapters yet to come.
Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California
From: Jimmy Hoeks (jhoeks objectmastery.com) How did whoever invented this word in 1481 know that there would, one day, be a person called “Trump” who would epitomise all three of its meanings?
Jimmy Hoeks, Melbourne, Australia
From: Nidia Edfelt (nidia.edfelt comcast.net) In Spanish there is the very common word tramposo, which probably derives from the same Latin root as does the English word trumpery (via French tromper). Tramposo (adj.) means cheat, dishonest, swindler, crook. As a matter of fact, my Spanish-speaking friends and I refer to Trump as “el trumposo”.
Nidia Edfelt, Saratoga, California
From: Gisele Mesnage (giselemesnage bigpond.com) Had a good laugh at this week’s theme. I have to say, between trumpery and hilarity, the world would be much better off with hilarity! ;) Many thanks for this light-hearted but very well-timed theme!
Gisele Mesnage, Sydney, Australia
From: Terry Morgan (tdmorgan qg.com) I am unsubscribing today after your insulting “Trumpeter” which was all negative and now TODAY’s “Hilarity” which is all positive.
Terry Morgan, Thomaston, Georgia
You think there’s something to nominative determinism?
-Anu Garg
From: Dharam Khalsa (dharamkk2 gmail.com)
Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina
From: Robert Jordan (alfiesdad ymail.com)
Robert Jordan, Lampang, Thailand
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
“When your bills pile up and accumulate,”
With words man can harangue or cogitate,
In primaries, Trump bashed what Jeb said,
During the final debate,
Said the Donald, his face scowling grumpily,
Both Clinton and Trump have a charity,
From: Phil Graham (pgraham1946 cox.net) Our pet cow was sad so she went to her ruminate balefully. “If it hadn’t a’been fer Bushwa we’d a’never found them WMDs. We did, didn’ we?...” Since I began submitting puns in May 2015, eight previous AWADs have ended with the “ulate” suffix. Each time I bent it into “you late”. However, I’m giving “obambulate” a different treatment than I gave to my other four pair o’ pathetic puns. Versus 6 spades, partner led a club. With no clubs in my hand, I thought, “I better trumpery might make his bid.” Golfers know that in hilarity shot goes farther than it does in valley air.
Phil Graham, Tulsa, Oklahoma
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Language is the amber in which a thousand precious and subtle thoughts have
been safely embedded and preserved. -Richard C. Trench, poet (1807-1886)
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