A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 925

A.Word.A.Day

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AWADmail Issue 925

A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and Language

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

Like A moth to a Flame, We’re Drawn to Metaphors to Explain Ourselves
The Guardian
Permalink

War of Words as Nigerian English Recognised by Oxford English Dictionary
BBC
Permalink

From: Eric F Plumlee (ericfplumlee hotmail.com)
Subject: Reduplicatives

Thank you for the reduplicatives, a great uplifting theme in a time where the world is otherwise grappled with the less happy Coronavirus and its effects on our everyday lives.

My grandparents lived on a farm in Walla Walla, Washington (state), and wherever they would travel and meet people they would tell those they met that the residents liked the city so much that they named it twice.

On a parallel note, children’s books are famous for reduplicatives because, hey, they’re so much fun! Book titles in particular make use of this kind of rhyming. There are older book series like Amelia Bedelia and newer ones like Fancy Nancy. One nice book series making use of reduplicatives written by Joy Cowley and illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller is about an older couple Mr. and Mrs. Wishy-Washy and the goings-on on their farm. Some of their reduplicatives are wishy-washy, splishy-sploshy, and scrub-a-dub, a lot of fun for the younger kids.

Now because of my family ties to Walla Walla, we have a children’s book called Double Trouble in Walla Walla, written by Andrew Clements and illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca. This book is a fun romp because the whole book revolves around reduplicatives (I counted 14 on one page), many used in common everyday conversations as well as some probably made-up ones. I don’t know who enjoys this book the most, the person reading the book or the audience listening to the reader. For the reader it is an obstacle course for the tongue, and for the listener it is an almost nonstop barrage of funny nonsense.

Eric Plumlee, Niederlenz, Switzerland

From: Judith Shapiro (jrshapir barnard.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--razzle-dazzle

You will want to watch the clip of Razzle Dazzle Them (5 min.) from the film Chicago.

Judith Shapiro, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

From: William Pease (wpease sdsu.edu)
Subject: Razzle-Dazzle

Whenever I see on TV a Trumpian rally, I hear that great song from Chicago: “Give’em the old razzle-dazzle, razzle-dazzle’em, Give’em an act with lots of flash in it, and the reaction will be passionate.” It keeps that 40% approval base intact.

Bill Pease, San Diego, California

From: Carlton Johnson (ctj.32803 gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hobnob

Your mention of razzle-dazzle as Monday’s word of the day brought to mind the very funny movie Stripes when Bill Murray is leading the platoon in a final performance before officers. (video, 2.5 min)

Carl Johnson, Winter Park, Florida

Brought to you by Wise Up! -- the family that plays together stays together.

From: Bonnie Cobb (boncobb mac.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--razzle-dazzle

This has particular significance for me. I had two friends in college, twins named Harry and Margaret, but always called Razzle and Dazzle. The reason was that when they were born they were unexpected, well one of them was unexpected. Their father called his mother to tell her that they had twins and she replied “Oh, don’t give me that razzle-dazzle!” And that stuck. Dazzle kept that all her life, but when Razzle graduated from Brown and went to law school, he felt Harry was more appropriate.

Bonnie Cobb, Dallas, Texas

From: Bill and Glenna Jo Christen (gwjchris earthlink.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--razzle-dazzle

We enjoy the enrichment to our vocabulary that you provide. As a World War One naval historian I thought you might enjoy this: Dazzle camouflage (also known as Razzle Dazzle).

Bill and Glenna Jo Christen, Chelsea, Michigan

From: Henning Søndergaard (h19ng hotmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--razzle-dazzle

ETYMOLOGY:
A reduplication of dazzle, frequentative of daze, from Old Norse dasa (weary). Earliest documented use: 1885.

The original Old Norse root dasa is still a common word in Danish, dase, where it means the opposite of razzle-dazzle. It means to relax, most often by lying down somewhere.

Henning Søndergaard, Copenhagen, Denmark

From: Bob Willits (sbwillits yahoo.com)
Subject: vulchy vulchy

When I was a kid (and I haven’t quite outgrown it as a 69-year-old)... Being a fast eater I would often finish my meal before most of the others at the table. I would look around covetously at my siblings’ as yet uneaten food, french fries, half a hamburger, unconsumed pie, or whatever, and say, “Are you going to finish that?”

Of course, if they weren’t, I would happily eat it, and often did. Acting like a vulture: Don’t leave anything edible around me or I’ll be on it like a scavenger on carrion. So my brother says, “Don’t go getting all vulchy vulchy on me! I’ll eat it. Just give me time!”

Bob Willits, Wheeling, West Virginia

From: Sonal Nayak (sonalnayak gmail.com)
Subject: Reduplicatives

We see a lot of reduplicatives in Hindi. They’ve crept into film songs as well. For example, “Dil vil, pyaar vyaar” (Heart vart, love, vuv) from the movie Shagird.

Sonal Nayak, Manipal, India

From: Brian Clark Cole (bhcole1 gmail.com)
Subject: Reduplication in Hawaiian

Reduplication is particularly common in the Hawaiian language. For instance, the state fish is the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a (humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apu-a-a)--three repetitions in a single word.

Brian Cole, Manhattan Beach, California

From: Susan Grodsky (sjgrodsky yahoo.com)
Subject: Reduplicate words

Speakers of Yinglish (English with some Yiddish words and phrasings mixed in) have a standard method of duplicating: repeat the word with a “sh” or “sch” prefix. This is typically used to indicate contempt or sarcasm. One example:

“Oedipus, Schmedipus, so long as he’s good to his mother.”

My cat uses this too: “Virus, schmirus, you’re home 24/7 now and that’s how I like it. Lap time!”

Susan Grodsky, Potomac, Maryland

From: David Millstone (davidmillstone7 gmail.com)
Subject: reduplicatives

It’s not just English that does this. Greek has έτσι κι έτσι (etsi ketsi), loosely translated as so-so.

David Millstone, Lebanon, New Hampshire

From: Catherine Burgos (cbbooks608 aol.com)
Subject: reduplicative

My family has been using “same same” since the grandchildren were very young. They learned many ASL words while watching children’s television, and the ASL hand-movement for “same” is repetitive in itself (three middle fingers folded into palm, pinky and thumb upright, hand rocked back and forth). So we all started saying “same same”. The phrase is a fixture in the extended family lexicon.

Catherine Burgos, Staten Island, New York

From: Cynthia Parker (cparker iowatelecom.net)
Subject: Reduplicatives

Reduplicatives lend themselves well to baby talk during evening cuddle time. For example: “Is my doggie-woggie my little baby-waby?” :)

Cynthia Parker, Fairfield, Iowa

From: Josephine Hammond (jmahammond gmail.com)
Subject: Guy

We called our son Guy to avoid annoying abbreviations. When we moved to Australia the impulse to create diminutives affectionate or otherwise was so strong that he became known as Guy-Guy to all and sundry except us.

Josephine Hammond, Llanmill, Wales

From: Shelagh Nation (shelaghsnation gmail.com)
Subject: Doubled words

When you’re down-town for a fun-run, it’s a no-no to wishy-washy similar words like top-up.

Thank you for more than 20 years of Wordsmith. You make my day (and I’ll be 90 this week, and hoping for at least a couple more years of words to ponder.)

Shelagh Nation, Muizenberg, South Africa

From: Michael Chirico (michaelchirico4 gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--razzle-dazzle

Japanese also loves reduplicatives... つるつる (tsuru-tsuru=slippery), ふわふわ (fuwa-fuwa=~fluffy/light), パクパク (paku-paku=~mouth flapping/bite-sized, source of Pacman!)... the list is endless.

One that I love and have started using in English is バラバラ (bara-bara), something like scattershot / scattered to the four winds, used to describe something that’s spread all over the place, e.g.

“It’s a pain to look up information on that topic, so bara-bara, it’s hard to know what’s authoritative or what I’ve missed.”

Mike Chirico, Singapore

From: Richard L. Coleman (richard.lewis.coleman gmail.com)
Subject: Reduplicative in Polynesian

In Polynesian, twice is for emphasis. Wiki is fast in Hawaii (as in Wikipedia) and wiki wiki is very fast. Tahitian has viti viti, same words, but w>v, k>t. Kamehameha, was “the lonely lonely” perhaps due to his position or vice versa.

Richard L. Coleman, Alexandria, Virginia

From: Tom Furgas (tofu4879 gmail.com)
Subject: reduplicatives

I used to have a co-worker who was always zipping around trying to do more than he needed to or could, just to impress the bosses. I used two different replicative words for him; one was busy-whizzy and the other was worky-worky.

Tom Furgas, Youngstown, Ohio

From: Tom Vandel (tom lesoverhead.com)
Subject: Reduplicate

Sneezy-wheezy: describes the symptoms shown by one who is on the verge of getting sick.

Tom Vandel, Portland, Oregon

From: Susan Coleman (skcoleman7 gmail.com)
Subject: reduplicate

When something is really comfortable (like relaxing on the couch with a cup of tea and a couple of cats), I call it comfy-shmumfy because of the comforting undertones of the sounds “sssshhhhh” and “mmmmmm”.

Susan Coleman, Coxsackie, New York

From: Maite Diez (maite18 yahoo.com)
Subject: Reduplicative

When my son was about seven years old, he would say “sar-sar” instead of “sorry”. It remains a funny thing to say in our family when you’re apologizing for something minor.

Maite Diez, Boston, Massachusetts

From: Don Fearn (pooder charter.net)
Subject: Reduplicative

What comes to mind for me is “oopsie-poopski” which both reduplicates and has the popular suffix -ski (as in “brewski” and many others).

Don Fearn, Rochester, Minnesota

From: Jo Sandrock (josandrock gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--razzle-dazzle

We’ve got a good one here in South Africa. We can only see boxes of mangos in the supermarket, so we ask the assistant, “Have you any mangos one-one?” and are directed to the display of single mangos on offer. Short and irreplaceable.

Love and thanks to you all from Joburg.

Jo Sandrock, Johannesburg, South Africa

From: William Boone (wmssg aol.com)
Subject: hobnob is his word

“Hob nob” is used in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the sense of murderous “give or take”.

In this video of our recent performance of Twelfth Night in Cambridge, MA, you can see “hob-nob” played out as Sir Toby Belch tap-dances on Viola’s head to convince her that the cowardly Sir Andrew Aguecheek is determined to fight a duel with her: Frances Addlelson Shakespeare Players Twelfth Night (about a minute into this clip).

Bill Boone, Director, The Frances Addelson Shakespeare Players, Cambridge, Massachusetts

From: Leah Justin-Jinich (ljustinjinich g.harvard.edu)
Subject: Fart Battle in Today’s Word of the Day (Re: artsy-fartsy)

Thank you so much for including an image of the he-gassen (Fart Battle) for today’s word! Any little way to get people interested in Japanese art history is fantastic!

I am a PhD studying Japanese art history and I actually wrote a whole paper about the genre a few years ago. I had a really good time laughing while writing it.

Leah Justin-Jinich, Cambridge, Massachusetts

From: Douglas Bietsch (adbietsch comcast.net)
Subject: More reduplicatives

I saw this on line at Hillbilly Hijinx:

Stamps - lickie stickies
Defibrillators - hearty starties
Bumble bee - fuzzy buzzy
Pregnancy test - maybe baby
Fork - grabby stabby
Socks - feetie heatie
Hippo - floatie bloatie
Nightmare - screamy dreamy

Douglas Bietsch, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania

From: Phil Graham (pgraham1946 cox.net)
Subject: artsy-fartsy

On a road trip several years ago my wife wanted to visit an outlet mall in Michigan City, Indiana. Upon leaving the interstate we spotted a billboard for a Mexican restaurant that bragged, “Less artsy, more fartsy.”

At that time such a bold (if hilarious) sign would NEVER have been allowed in Oklahoma. Probably still true.

Phil Graham, Tulsa, Oklahoma

From: Audie Finnell (via website comments)
Subject: partridge/fart

ETYMOLOGY:
The word fart is from Old English feortan, ultimately from the Indo-European root perd- (to fart), which also gave us partridge and futz.

Used to wonder about the partridge/fart connection until I read it is because of the fluttering sound made by their wings when taking flight. Anyone who has ever flushed out a covey of quail can attest to the similarities.

Audie Finnell

From: Susan Saunders (susansaunders2008 btinternet.com)
Subject: Summer is icumen in

An earlier instance of today’s word, fart, occurs in print, or at least in manuscript, some time in the 14th century, in an English song heralding the coming of summer. As summer arrives, says the song “Bullock sterteth (leaps), bucke verteth (farts).” I learned to sing it as a round in the late ‘40s, though in Modern English, bowdlerised to “All the woodland wakes and whispers.” The 14th century was also the century of the Black Death. Let’s emulate today’s Italians, and all sing to keep our spirits up, maybe with the original words.

Susan Saunders, Teddington, UK

From: Arthur Silverstein (arts jhmi.edu)
Subject: artsy-fartsy

A sociologist friend at university during my youth insisted on calling me Farty-Artie, but note that the -ie ending here denotes affection!

Arthur Silverstein, Falmouth, Massachusetts

From: Tim Miller (tkmiller000 hotmail.com)
Subject: Boy Scouts (Re: flimflam)

“James Stewart, a business columnist for The Times, noted that Citigroup’s flimflam made ‘Goldman Sachs mortgage traders look like Boy Scouts.’”
Thomas Friedman; Did You Hear the One About the Bankers?; The New York Times; Oct 29, 2011.

Possibly in 2011 the comparison to the Boy Scouts made sense, but now it’s hard to tell which of the two has the most flim and flam.

Tim Miller, Ithaca, New York

Poster: 20th Century Fox

From: Curtis Reeves (creeves alumni.usc.edu)
Subject: Flim-flam Man

A fun movie from circa 1965 starred George C. Scott as the grifting Mordecai tutoring the AWOL and naive Michael Serrazin in the ways of the greedy small-town world. The supporting cast includes Sue Lyon as Serrazin’s love interest; Harry Morgan, her father and local sheriff; and Slim Pickens and Jack Albertson as victims of the confidence games run by Scott and Serrazin.

Curtis Reeves, Fresno, California

From: Richard S. Russell (RichardSRussell tds.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--flimflam

40 years old now, but still a good read: Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions.

Eventually Randi was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.

Richard S. Russell, Madison, Wisconsin

From: Marty Rudolph (mrudolph57 aol.com)
Subject: Wordy-words

This might be artsy-fartsy, but, after hobnobbing (socially distanced) with Anu and his following, I can now state that tRUMP is a lardy-dardy flimflam whose only skill is razzle-dazzle.

Marty Rudolph, Oceanside, New York

From: Robert Carleton (enchanted128 outlook.com)
Subject: reduplicates?!

Two expressions come to mind. Will “foo-foo” qualify? A fellow zoo volunteer used it for restaurants he deemed too fancy because of emphasis on salads and veggies. (We used to go to out-state schools with a zoo truck on four-day trips to remote schools and other public institutions. We had about 15 teams who took these trips in a sort of rotation.) In the second example, a retired Air Force sergeant I used to work with used “nit-noy” to designate irritating situations that ranked below total crisis or chaos.

Bob Carleton, Albuquerque, New Mexico

From: Barbara Saczawa (bsaczawa cox.net)
Subject: Reduplicative

In the 50s and early 60s my mother and grandmother used to take me and my sister shopping downtown in Chicago. We’d have a nice lunch frequently at Berghof’s where we were usually surrounded by business men. One day a very well-dressed woman entered with a bit of an imperious air, and my mother and grandmother simultaneously said fancy-schmancy with a roll of the eyes, causing my sister’s and my jaws to drop as neither one of them ever spoke ill of anyone. After that, fancy-schmancy became something of a byword for us -- always with an eye roll.

Barbara Saczawa, Scottsdale, Arizona

From: Steve Benko (stevebenko1 gmail.com)
Subject: Reduplicatives

Somehow, in multiple languages, both excrement and parents seem to get reduced to reduplicatives: doodoo, poo poo, caca (Spanish), weewee, peepee -- and then Mama, Papa, Dada, Nana (for a grandmother), Abba (Hebrew for father). Coincidence?

Steve Benko, New York, New York

From: Steve Pavich (stevepavich gmail.com)
Subject: paper pauper

How about paper pauper for someone who has run out of toilet paper?

Steve Pavich, Fountain Valley, California

From: Kathy Borst (kborst mcn.org)
Subject: My new word

You’re a refugee if you’re fleeing a country. You’re a refugin if you’re fleeing a virus by staying home.

Kathy Borst, Yorkville, California

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: Razzle-dazzle and lardy-dardy

Although perhaps not cleaving to the strict definition of this week’s word, “razzle-dazzle”, i.e., particularly the part about “often in an effort to distract, or confuse”, I was nonetheless drawn to what I regarded as the decidedly razzle-dazzling dance performance of that now legendary whirling-dervish-like femme fatale of Biblical (New Testament) times, Salome, with her attempt to appease her step-father, the merciless Judean king, Herod Antipas. My rather ominous caption is a kind of portent of dire deeds to come, as Salome’s impressive “Dance of the Seven Veils” precipitates the beheading of revered holy man, John the Baptist, a heinous action ordered by the ruthless Herod. Ultimately, Salome is presented the severed head of the future saint on a silver platter by Herod, who had been decidedly moved by his step-daughter’s earlier dynamic, seductive performance. Salome became the prime subject of the eponymously titled play by Oscar Wilde, and the rousing opera Salome by Richard Strauss. That gal sure did get around. A genuine time-traveling razzle-bedazzler, I’d have to say.

More familiar with, say, the reduplicative, “randy-dandy” to describe a foppish or effete man of a certain age, for me, discovering our word “lardy-dardy” was a total revelation. For some reason, I immediately conjured up one of the most notorious lardy-dardies of the Victorian Age, poet/playwright and consummate wit (some may argue... “twit”), Irishman Oscar Wilde. His final comedic play, the 1885-premiering The Importance of Being Earnest, soon came to mind, Wilde’s farcical stage drama rooted in a clever plot twist involving switched identities. That led to my coming up with this time-warped cartoon scenario, pairing the quintessential high-society dandy, Oscar Wilde, with the man’s man, bon vivant, sportsman, and famed novelist, Ernest “Papa” Hemingway. Here, we have Wilde, who unabashedly curried the favor and intimacies of other men, which led to his late-in-life highly publicized criminal trial and conviction on grounds of “gross indecency” (sodomy), where he ended up spending months in a London gaol. On the other hand, our deep-sea angler, Hemingway, proudly poses with his just-reeled-in, immense marlin. He always projected this persona of the boffo, hard-drinking, hard-loving, hard-playing, ultimate macho-man... who, along the way, just happened to have become one of the greatest, most beloved fiction scribes of his generation. Yet curiously, over the years, up till his tragic suicide-by-firearm, there were rumors afoot that even the manly “Papa” Hemingway may have had the occasional intimate dalliance with a member of the less-than-fairer-sex. Oh behave!

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Anagrams of this week’s words


This week’s theme: Reduplicatives 1. razzle-dazzle 2. hobnob 3. artsy-fartsy 4. flimflam 5. lardy-dardy	=	1. wizardry 2. have smalltalk 3. arty pretense, dry fluff 4. bamboozles 5. Eddie Izzard - match his style!	This week’s theme is reduplicatives 1. razzle-dazzle 2. hobnob 3. artsy-fartsy 4. flimflam 5. lardy-dardy	=	1. razzmatazz 2. rub elbows; make pals 3. tritely flashy 4. shaft; fiddle; deceive 5. merrily dandyish sort
-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)			-Robert Jordan, Lampang, Thailand (alfiesdad ymail.com)

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

I once had a neighbor named Basil
Who’d give me the old razzle-dazzle.
He’d always bring flowers,
But visit for hours,
Until I was worn to a frazzle!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

Says his mother, “I’m sorry, my dear,
but your band cannot practice in here!
You know all that jazz’ll
create razzle-dazzle,
disrupting our calm atmosphere!”
-Anne Thomas, Sedona, Arizona (antom earthlink.net)

Marilyn Monroe oft stayed at the Ritz,
Some say the poor girl was a sad little ditz,
But she wowed all the men,
Because she was a ten,
With all the razzle-dazzle of Hollywood glitz.
-Marcia Sinclair, Newmarket, Canada (marciasinclair rogers.com)

Donald Trump said, “I’m in such a frazzle,
This new virus has caused a huge hassle.
All these weird elbow-bumps
Put me down in the dumps,
Life is losing its old razzle-dazzle.”
-Judith Marks-White, Westport, Connecticut (joodthmw gmail.com)

Quite fed up with the lawyers, the judge,
To give to those loudmouths a nudge,
Said, “I’m worn to a frazzle,
by dumb razzle-dazzle;
I surely can see through the fudge.”
-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)

There once was a young man named Basil,
A master of the razzle-dazzle.
He’d party quite late,
With date after date,
Which wore Basil down to a frazzle.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

Said the fairy, “You’re off to the ball,
And for you will the Prince surely fall.
For me, razzle-dazzle
Like this is no hassle,”
She smiled, “My wand does it all.”
-Janice Power, Cleveland, Ohio (jpmarlin456 gmail.com)

When the kids have you worn to a frazzle,
In the bedroom there’s no razzle-dazzle.
Though your husband is nice,
In that sauce there’s no spice;
But the pool boy adds pepper and basil.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

The socialite heaved a great sob:
“If it isn’t okay to hobnob,
What, then, shall I do?
Sit around and boo-hoo?”
Growled her husband, “Yeh. Now shut your gob!”
-Willo Oswald, Portland, Oregon (willooswald gmail.com)

With arrival of new cockatoo,
there arises a hullabaloo.
Cry sparrow and robin,
“We’ll not be hobnobbin’
with garrulous parrots like you!”
-Anne Thomas, Sedona, Arizona (antom earthlink.net)

To hobnob with Trump did they come,
Those power elites in a scrum!
But there on the scene
Was Covid-19;
That dinner was deadly for some.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

In order to get a job, Bob
With CEOs liked to hobnob,
But no position,
Met his ambition.
Sobbed Bob, “I am such a job snob.”
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“With Goldfinger, James, you must hobnob,”
Said M, “but be careful of Oddjob.”
“Of his hat I’m not fond;
Him I’ll dodge,” answered Bond,
“But to Pussy Galore be a heartthrob.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“A cutie, that poodle!” says she.
“But alas, it was not meant to be.
I knew from the start he
was too arty-farty
to party with mutts such as me.”
-Anne Thomas, Sedona, Arizona (antom earthlink.net)

In time of pandemic they say
Don’t gather together today.
But friends artsy-fartsy
Were not all that smart, see?
They foolishly held a soirée.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“You’re making me too artsy-fartsy,”
Said fertility goddess Astarte;
“Just hand me your chisel;
Your sculpture needs sizzle,
Like Donald gives maps with a Sharpie.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“My dentures are missing! Can’t chew!”
cries Grandma. “Don’t know what to do!”
Quit looking so grim, Gran.
It’s only a flimflam.
The kids are just messing with you!
-Anne Thomas, Sedona, Arizona (antom earthlink.net)

You met this smooth guy the other day
And loved everything he had to say.
I know what he’ll do,
Which is flimflam you.
I advise you to send him his way.
-Lois Mowat, Orinda, California (lmowat1810 gmail.com)

Said the swindler in Vegas, “Come here, Ma’am,”
With an effect that reeked so of flimflam.
“I would easily bet
We could win at roulette,”
But the broad knew at once ‘twas a cheap scam.
-Judith Marks-White, Westport, Connecticut (joodthmw gmail.com)

With schemes and with scams by the score,
Trump flimflams the public galore.
These con games he’ll play,
Then shift blame away --
Won’t somebody show him the door?
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

If faced with a clear cut flimflam,
Don’t fall for the huckster’s dim scam.
Just yell, “Hey Rube!
I’m nobody’s boob!”
The ruckus will sure make him scram.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“If you always were married to him, ma’am,”
Said he, “our affair was a flimflam.”
She replied, “The Resistance
Required assistance.”
He sighed, “Play the song that’s our hymn, Sam.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

To the peacock said rooster, irate,
“With my flock you may not copulate,
Monsieur lardy-dardy!
Get out of my yard!” he
commanded, while locking the gate.
-Anne Thomas, Sedona, Arizona (antom earthlink.net)

The old Prof, though still hale and quite hearty,
Was a man so incredibly tardy.
When so much time elapsed
That his students collapsed.
He waltzed in looking so lardy-dardy.
-Judith Marks-White, Westport, Connecticut (joodthmw gmail.com)

Beau Brummell would dress like a fop.
His outfits would make your jaw drop!
A man lardy-dardy,
He was hardly hardy --
He introduced colors that “pop!”
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

When my wife says I sound lardy-dardy,
The result is a huge argy-bargy.
But the argument ends
With us way more than friends;
It’s as though I’m a lord and she’s tarty.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

From: Joan Doria (tellerspoint yahoo.com)
Subject: Re: AWADmail Issue 924

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article about the Yiddish translation of HP. My father, who passed away three years ago on the 26th, signed me up for your emails, gifted me with Anu Garg’s book, but most of all, Tata shared his love of the English language with me and so many languages, although Slovak was his native tongue. When I receive your emails I think of him.

Joan Doria, Ithaca, New York

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat. -Louis L’Amour, novelist (22 Mar 1908-1988)

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