Sleep is for chelonians

Words of the (week) whatever

Today I've got two portmanteaus to share. No, not coat-hanging furniture... As formulated by Wikipedia, portmanteau words are words "formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings". The article helpfully adds:

A humorous synonym for "portmanteau word" is "frankenword", itself a portmanteau word, blending "Frankenstein" and "word".

Spork
Nothing to do with non-kosher Vulcans; a spork is an eating implement (un couvert, quoi) that combines a spoon and a fork. You can sometimes get one those with the inflight dinner if you're flying a rubbish airline... They're decent enough as spoons but they're usually completely useless as forks, because the teeth are much too short. Not that plastic forks are ever any good anyway.

Spoodle
Moving away from combinatorial cutlery, spoodle is the "breed" name of Dizzy, my landlords' dog. Believe it or not, it's a cross between a cocker spaniel and a poodle. I'm reserving judgment on the aesthetics of the matter out of respect for Dizzy, who seems like a lovely individual, but I do love the name. It's just so Yankee Doodle, very fitting for New England.

Phrase of the month

Heard in a Doctor Who Big Finish audio adventure (I know, I know, major geek alert), from a military commander annoyed with the chief scientist's boasting:

"Oh great. The Ego has landed."

Heehee.

Okay, for those still clueless, it's a twist on the phrase "The Eagle has landed", which was the NASA code phrase for the landing of the lunar module during the Apollo 11 mission. Y'know, the 1969 moon landing? (the one that wasn't filmed in a Hollywood basement, denialists be damned)

This one's for the Brits

The toilet paper I'm currently using (which, incidentally, is called "Happiness") is apparently a variety from a brand named "Vinda". Heehee. What would make it even more perfect would be if it were made by an Indian company, although from what I've been able to decipher of the packaging, it seems to be a domestic (i.e. Chinese) product.

...

Okay, for those who don't get the joke, another word for toilet often used by the British is "loo", and "vindaloo" is a very hot Indian dish style, of the type that risks overstimulating your digestive system, if you see what I mean (interestingly, I'm told it's not originally "authentic" Indian but was created specifically to burn the tastebuds off annoying macho Brits who wanted a "really hot dish").

Joke of the week

This week, let's have a joke instead of just a word. Ah, I can hear people who know me cringing from halfway across the globe. It's true I'm not famous for my universally exportable sense of humor... but anyway, I think this is pretty funny. Told to me by a friendly English long-time expat in a bus on the outskirts of Beijing.

What do the letters "D.N.A." mean?

...

"National Dyslexia Association"

hehehehehe.... no?

Word of the week #2

This week, we're looking at a staple of academic jargon : the "poster". Not sounding very exotic yet? Well I know I've confused a lot of non-academics in the past with this one ("What do you mean, you're going to the US to *present a poster*? Can't you send a picture by email?"), and that's gotta stop.

The meaning of the word "poster", in the context of academic research, is distantly related to the common acception (large picture print, often displayed for decorative purposes on the walls of a child's, teenager's -in which case "decorative" can stand for "likely to piss off the parents"- or student's bedroom) but it comes loaded with waaaaay more baggage, conventions and consequences.

Word of the week #1

Alright campers, I'm starting a new semi-regular feature with the self-explanatory (if somewhat unimaginative) name "word of the week". I'm planning to highlight some interesting new or unusual words or phrases, ranging from obscure technical jargon (of any discipline) to pop culture and contemporary slang; whatever strikes my fancy. I'll introduce them with some context information about where I heard or read them, then give a brief definition (generally from Wikipedia). And there'll be pictures wherever it's (in)appropriate.

And because this is the inaugural post of the series, this week we'll have three for the price of one, in the slang category:

"tramp stamp", "whale tail" and "muffin-top" 

Read on to find out what they mean!