*yawn*....
.....just woke up after falling asleep on the CHESTERFIELD several hours ago... (and..yes, yes... I know... I've been told that CHESTERFIELD is an "old-fashioned, snooty word"..but I like it...it feels *comfortable* to me...And, yes, I've been told that the "right word" these days is SOFA....but to me...SOFA always sounds more like something that I might find floating around on top of a bubble bath... SOAP + FOAM = SOFA... You be the judge....)
Anyhow, I'm not here to debate that fine point...
No.. just wanted to say that earlier tonight I saw a quotation on the tv screen....it just seemed to appear for no particular reason on some "Space Channel".... Perhaps there actually *was* a reason, but I happened to see it when I was half asleep and the sound was turned off, so it might just have seemed that way....
Can't tell you much about the quotation, like who said it, but I did note that it was attributed to Muriel R + a bunch of letters that made a name that I probably couldn't spell or pronounce" anyhow...
......but the important thing is that it was one of those quotations that just seems relevant... at least, at this particular point in time... so I thought I'd mention it....
"The universe is made of stories, not atoms"
I like that.... Think we could also say...
"The universe is made of stories, not names"
Hmmmmm....names.......They really are strange things, aren't they...? How we struggle to put the right names on things. Sometimes it's useful... and sometimes it's just for aesthetic purposes....
But sometimes names and words just become a nuisance... Lately, I forget the odd one... Sure, I know it's still "there"... lurking just beyond the periphery of my "name recognition vision", but I really can't "find" it... Which sometimes annoys me...but not too much. Instead, I just say "that thing that......" while pointing in its general direction (which, incidentally, annoys Mr. Croc to no end). However, it really *is* much more effective, nay....even "impressive", when I can say.... " Hey, look at the cushy echinus on that Doric column"... instead of referring to it as.. "that big sea urchin-shaped blob located on the top of that Doric column just below the abacus"....
I suppose I could be worried about not being able to remember a particular word at a certain moment in time... but, you know... I think I still do OK... really....
Just checked, and the old American College Dictionary which I keep on my desk says that it has "more than 200,000 basic entries", but that it also includes numerous other categories of words that are considered "more specialized"... and thousands more names of people and things that might be useful....
And this dictionary is kind of outdated... 1960s.... so there are all of the neologisms that have come along in the past 40 years...and there have been many of them.... especially over the past decade... new words... or new meanings for old words... or words that are moving from one language into another....
So, you see... if I can even remember...uhm...say 75 percent of the words in my dictionary... plus a few new ones... and a smattering of French, Chinese, and Spanish to boot... then it's probably OK if I forget some, or maybe even lose them for good, isn't it?
Main thing to me is that it's nice to see fluidity in words...a blurring of the boundaries.... to be able to move around and use words or names in whatever way I want to... and I do... constantly...
It seems that kids might be the masters of language though... I mean, the Masters of Invention.... of "new usage" or "incorporation" or "modification" or "deviation"... They don't bother getting hung up on rules or boundaries....
I think a kid could rename himself "Toaster Oven" or "Mix Master" or "Waffle Iron" without any hesitation... Seriously...
BTW, I had a friend who used to show dairy goats.... Well, actually, I used to have lots of friends who did.... But anyhow, this fellow had 2 kids (guess that would be "children" to some of you)... and each year, he would let each of his kids pick out a goat kid and name it and show it at the fairs....
Those goats received some very original names....
I will always remember the year that "Tree Stump" entered the show ring for the first time.... in fact, Tree Stump may have made that year the most memorable of all as I look back over the distance of time now....
What can I say?.. The kid was good with names. He's the same kid who decided to call his Black Moor goldfish with the bulgy eyes..... "Ballsy"....
Heck, he was right... it WAS... and look how I've remembered that goldfish's name for...hmmm...almost 20 years.... If he had have called it Goldie or Blackie, the name just wouldn't have stuck...
*yawn*... gotta crash again.... |
