Cartoonists Are Closet Punsters

 

 Punsters are also closet cartoonists; so I've included one of my own.

Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace can be found here.

"Emoji"

       I learned today the name "emoji" was given by Shigetaka Kurita to the pictographs he was designing almost two decades ago.  The images were meant to replace Japanese words for cell-phone users increasingly communicating with text messages.

       The Museum of Modern Art in New York yesterday announced Kurita's original 176 emojis will be added to its collection.

       David Pierson's L.A. Times article notes:


       "Just last year, the Oxford English Dictionary declared a yellow face crying tears of joy as its word of the year. . . .

       "Today, a group called the Unicode Consortium vets new emojis and standardizes them so they can be used across different operating systems. . . .

       "In 2013, a group of 800 volunteers translated Moby Dick into emojis."


       "Emoji" is singular and plural; "emojis" is also correct.  The word's from Japanese denoting "picture character." 

 

"Edison, Schmedison"

       The Sunday L.A. Times was noting TV shows it thought would be worth watching this week.  One program blurb read this way:


       "Edison, schmedison.  The genius of inventor Nikola Tesla is celebrated on 'American Experience'.  Tuesday, 9p.m., KOCE"


       Another Yiddishism makes its way into American parlance.  Disparaging, belittling, pooh-poohing something or someone by adding a "sch" or "schm" to the front of the word.

       "Euphony" sometimes dictates (permits?) removing the front of the original word as well.  So you might say "Trump, schmump" or, alternatively, "Hillary, schmillary."

       No one seems to know exactly where demeaning things or persons by "schmooning" them came from.  One thinks Trump might enjoy making use of the idiom, but then it often has a jocular, light hearted tone to it.  So it might not be within his range.  


 

"Menstruation." There I've Said It

       The HopKins Black Box Theatre of Louisiana State University sent me a brochure of their 2016-17 season.  A goodly number of interesting shows, but I suppose the one that caught my eye most astonishingly was one titled You Menstrual Me.
 
       The description of the show rewarded the surprise and curiosity aroused by the title:

     
       "Is menstruation outgrowing its taboo?  As the subject moves into the mainstream, what unspoken rules persist that shape our talk about it?  If you can't bring yourself to tell 'em you are menstruating, you can at least tell 'em you saw a menstrual show!"

     
       They've got my interest.  That description is written with self-awareness of the possible tension and eyebrow raising, which is then answered perfectly by the witty punning at the end.  

"Use your words." And Kids DO!!

Click or touch on comic strip to enlarge

B.C., B.C.E. . . . Which One is More P.C.?

        Yesterday, at Torah study, Rabbi Sam was talking about an event that happened before the birth of Christ and said "B. C."  I was sitting next to him and sotto voce said, "B.C.E."

        Rabbi Sam said, "B.C., B.C.E., one of them's just more P.C."

       I chuckled at the wit.  B.C.E. Jews have adopted as their version to signify "Before the Common Era"; that's the one that's more P.C.

       I don't think Rabbi Sam gave a fig for making the distinction.

      

"If You Have an Erection . . ."

       I never thought I would hear a sentence on television like the following:  "If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, see your doctor."

       Yes, I know it's part of a necessary warning about an advertised medication.  But still . . .

       And willy-nilly, it leads me to start thinking of other clauses that MIGHT have followed "If you have an e. lasting more than etc.":

       "If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, congratulations!"

       "If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, here's my phone number!"

       "If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, put yourself out to stud!"

   

Words Bespeak Meanings AND Our Bodies

       No one can convince me that the sounds of words and the way we produce those sounds are only accidentally related to meanings.  I speak not of the clearly onomatopoetic words  like "crash," "bang," "thunder," "murmur."  The case is obvious for such words.

        I speak of words like "flame," flicker," "flash," "flare,"  which all have to do with moving light, and maybe something to do with the moving air that makes those lights move.  For palpable proof,
go ahead, try to make a candle flame flicker producing the sound [gl]; but you CAN do it making the sound [fl]!

       And consider these words:  "fly," "flight," "flute," "flutter."  Even when moving light is not involved, moving air is in the meaning AND utterance of all these words.

        Derived from our bodies, words can mimic meanings.
        

"Pro-crastinator"

       Being one myself, I really appreciated this declaration seen on a T-shirt:


       "He puts the Pro in Pro-crastinator."

     
       The first "pro" plays on the word "professional" and doubles down on the degree of procrastination.

       Cras from Latin means "tomorrow," and the "pro" part of it means "forward [till]".  I know that feeling well.

       I like the way the T-shirt nails down the joke and the accusation with that little hyphen.

"Dormant" and "Moribund"

       Contrasts, similarities, oppositeness of words pique my interest.

       A "dormant" state (the root meaning is "to sleep") is a state of suspended animation, capable of being animated or enlivened, but not yet alive.

       A "moribund" state (root meaning is "to die") is a state of near death, of being about to die, but not yet dead.

       "Dormant" and "moribund" are, perhaps not coincidentally, near, but not yet, anagrams.

"Things Are in the Saddle and Ride Mankind"

       This statement by Emerson is my reaction to changing to the new 10 operating system on my iPhone.  I've skipped two systems so am even more inundated with new stuff.

       Do I really need to have bubbles around my text messages to others?  I can put my message in "invisible ink"--scrape the clouded screen, and there it is.  I can send voice instead of text message; ( David said, "It's almost like telephoning.")  I can send a hand written message.

       iPhone informed me yesterday I was "sharing locations" with my son, then later informed me I had discontinued it--I didn't know I'd done it, didn't know I'd stopped it, and didn't know what it was.

       Emerson was talking about machines in the 19th century.  Our "things" are digital, but they're in the "driver's seat."

      

"How Do You Like Your Sushi Chef?" "Well Spoken."

       Another tongue twister on my mind.  "Speak the speech . . .  trippingly on the tongue" is Hamlet's advice to the players. Do not "mouth it, as many of your players do."

       But then, Hamlet, not too many people have to say "Sushi Chef" repeatedly, which I submit is more likely to "trip one on the tongue" than be easily said "trippingly."

       Have a go . . . try about 5 times fast?!

       "Sushi Chef."

The Spelling Communicates, But . . .

click or touch picture to enlarge

        This may well establish the driver's profession, but the more I look at it, the more it seems to be destroying my memory of how the word is really spelled.

        The crumpled state of the plate doesn't help.

"Dasn't"

       The return of a word I hadn't thought of or used in a long time.  My dad's word, at least on occasion, but I remembered it.

       Last night I was contemplating what snack to have at bedtime with my gin and tonic.  Told myself:  "I dasn't have them," i.e., too many cashews for the salt on them.

       I heard the words in my dad's voice.  I wasn't even sure it was a word.

       Merriam-Webster calls it dialectical and meaning "dare not," and it is partly a contraction of Middle English "darst not" and partly a contraction of "dares not."

       That was my surmise if I were to find it at all.  Don't know where or how Dad picked it up (his education ended with 8th grade), but I'm glad he was speaking good English!

        

Another Day of Gratitude?

       Being Rosh Hashanah this week, the Jewish New Year, it is a time for thankfulness.  That is why we say the "shehecheyanu" prayer.

       The blessing starts with the usual "Praised be Thou, O Lord our God" and then gives the reason for the blessing:

       "Who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season."

We've made it to another year, we're happy, and we're letting God know we appreciate it.  We'd better express our appreciation now because by the end of a week or so, we'll be praying that we've done a good enough job with the past year that we've earned an extension of the contract.
      

"Gratitude Is . . . the Parent of All Other Virtues."

    
       "Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but it is the parent of all other virtues."  This was said by Roman philosopher Cicero and quoted at the funeral of Stephen B. Sample, former President of USC.

       It was President Sample who appointed the first Jew to be head of the Office of Religious Life on the USC campus, Suzan Laemmle, whom I greatly appreciated for her teaching of a course connecting contemporary Israeli poetry with its sources and connections in Biblical literature.

       When Suzan retired, President Sample hired a Hindu to head the Office of Religious Life; I imagine no Hindu had previously held such a position either.

       My gratitude to President Sample for the breadth of his appointments, to Suzan Laemmle for her imaginative and scholarly teaching, and to Cicero for his wisdom.  

"Fulfillment"

       I learn from a mail order we've received that we can gain "fulfillment" in Reno, Nevada.

       I'd say that's a gamble.

"Hurt People Hurt People"

       At one of the too many violent events around our country in the past year (it was a killing that took place in Chicago, I believe, but could have been most everywhere), these words were uttered by someone, and they have stuck with me:  hurt people hurt people.

       It has the ring of truth, not as a solution, but as a pointer toward the cause.  Moving from adjective to verb with "hurt" in a pared down sentence is a masterful compression of both insight and language.