Comments on: Day Nine: Focus, For the Love of God, FOCUS

By: Tori

Tori — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:38:30 +0000

Jenny,
If you like to surf when you’re stressed, I highly recommend getting stumbleupon if you don’t already have it. It’s highly addictive though.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:58:55 +0000

And a couple more:

The Highland Communications Major’s Virgin Marquess
The Strongbadian Dragon Emperor’s Supine Countess

By: talpianna

talpianna — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:54:32 +0000

My last post (2 links) is apparently being moderated.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:53:54 +0000

There’s a rather charming Scottish idiom I learned from D.E. Stevenson’s books: “Are you wanting in?” meaning “Are you coming in?”

Story to scare Jenny; video to put her in a coma:

http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/08/28/giant-spider-bit-pet-dog-to-death/?icid=100214839x1208565574x1200481965

And here’s another fun thing I found at another forum: The Romance Novel Title Generator:

http://facstaff.unca.edu/pbahls/TitleGenerator.html

Here are some I got:

The Mayan Paper Company Sales Representative’s Robust Mistress
The Mesopotamian Prince’s Insatiable Captive
The Turkish Sadist’s Virgin Girl Friday
The Indian Outlaw’s Feminist Virgin
The Assyrian Thousandaire’s Tasty Princess

By: Moth

Moth — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:10:52 +0000

Have you collaged Wild Ride yet?

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:43:52 +0000

I am learning a whole new way to avoid work. I have packing to do. The dh packed the TV/DVD/Video player…I can just surf all of your suggestions and avoid all that nasty packing. LOL Thanks so much for the suggestions

By: L.

L. — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:05:57 +0000

If you want to see a short film (about an hour long) on American dialects, I recommend “American Tongues,” a 1987 film by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker, and produced by the Center for New American Media in New York. It’s a little dated, and doesn’t back away from either race or socio-economic class issues, but those are important aspects of dialects so it shouldn’t. Some parts are also very entertaining, including a section on words like “schlepp” and “schnikelfritz.”
The 2005 Robert MacNeil documentary “Do You Speak American?” produced by PBS goes into more detail with each of the hour long DVDs covering one of three sections of the country. If your local public library doesn’t have them, try a nearby college library.

By: RfP

RfP — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:18:17 +0000

Talpianna mentioned western Pennsylvania so after a couple of googles I tried "Pittsburghese". Heh. Apparently it's its own language. Yinz got gumbands n'at? The city chicken's kinda slippy. Google results for Pittsburghese

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:23:01 +0000

Wow, the Wikipedia even had that? What did you look under, RfP, “Weird Syntax in the Heartland”? (I’d say Midwest, but then I’d get mugged, although you’ll notice Wikipedia called us “North Midlands.” We’re not the Midwest, we’re the Midnorth.)

By: Slave Driver

Slave Driver — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:21:16 +0000

Office Wench Cherry wrote”Actually, your demon prision cells aren’t complicated at all. Wood, iron and magic – just what I’d use to bind demons.”

Duct Tape!!! For Bob’s sake, don’t forget the Duct Tape!
(for those times when you can’t find the correct Tupperware lid and you’ve a Demon that needs keepin’)

By: RfP

RfP — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:21:53 +0000

needs painted I'd never heard it until I visited Ohio. But knowing it's a regional usage, I enjoy it when it crops up in Crusie books. The glorious Wikipedia says that leaving out the "to be" is found in the "North Midland dialect region" (small cities in central and southern Ohio, central Indiana, central Illinois, Iowa, and northern Missouri), but mostly in southwestern Pennsylvania/Ohio. However, I'm not surprised it's traveled. It's sort of charming. The mortgage needs paid. Poor mortgage!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:21:41 +0000

I get called on that from copy editors all the time. I just assumed it was a Southern Ohio-ism. Everybody in the town where I grew up used it and I still use it constantly.

By: Tara

Tara — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:25:58 +0000

Tal said: Is “painted” a typo for “painting,” or an idiom? I ask because we had a discussion about this over on dictionary.com.forum and concluded that it was a western Pennsylvania idiom.

Not necessarily. I’m from Idaho and I would have said “painted.” DH is from California and he says “painted.” I think it’s pretty widespread.

By: MJ

MJ — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:21:23 +0000

RfP wrote:
You googled “procrastination”? Seems a little redundant.

More like desperate.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:34:15 +0000

I’m having a problem with the wooden chalices: I think of a chalice as a cup (the Holy Grail, the communion chalice). You can make cups out of wood, and presumably seal them so they won’t leak; but it seems an odd choice. Perhaps wooden caskets instead?

You wrote: paint all the stuff in the house that still needs painted….

Is “painted” a typo for “painting,” or an idiom? I ask because we had a discussion about this over on dictionary.com.forum and concluded that it was a western Pennsylvania idiom.

By: CrankyOtter

CrankyOtter — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:52:24 +0000

While I plan to read the procrastination essay, I was just using http://www.engrish.com for that purpose, myself.

By: Courtney De

Courtney De — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:54:28 +0000

This is a great essay on procrastination: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/index.php

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:26:25 +0000

Or winning one at the arcade … wow, that could lead to a great adventure.

By: McB

McB — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:57:43 +0000

Or winning one at the arcade

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:42:08 +0000

I feel about Google the way I used to feel about library stacks: if you wander around in there somewhere in the vicinity of your subject matter, you’ll find some cool stuff you can use.

The Twelve Days is from the Twelve Days of Christmas. It’s a LONG time so I have to actually do something during those days since I have to post blogs.

The collage for Wild Ride consists, at the moment, of a box of cool stuff and five toy amusement park rides. I’ll be getting to it soon.

As for bulky, that’s the point. Don’t want somebody shoplifting a demon from the park.