Fiction Repeat: "Diastolic Boisterousness"

It was time for another holiday dinner at the Brinkerhoff manse. Young Spencer, the black sheep of the family, was not looking forward to it. His father was a fishing boat captain and had no respect at all for Spencer's profession -- that of dictionary editor.

As the family sat down to a repast of brazed sailfish and checkered chitlings, the patriarch began to deliver his traditional rodomontade, which, as usual, was filled with imbecilic windiness. No one paid much attention, though. Spencer's comely sister, Adelia, exhibited her usual luminescent lassitude, with her chin planted firmly on her palm. His long-suffering mother, Philida, simply stared into the tureen of mashed potatoes.

Spencer, who fancied himself the Brinkerhoff's closest approximation to an upscale cutup, decided he'd had enough of his father's complaints about the fluctuating price of flounder. "I dig a sorrel pintaloosa!" he suddenly shouted, though he wasn't sure why. They were words he had been working on for the new edition of the dictionary, and they had simply come to him. His father halted in mid sentence and glared menacingly. Spencer was sure he had sounded like an adenoidal landlubber engaging in undignified ebullition to everyone at the table.

"What? What kind of fish is that?" Captain Brinkerhoff demanded. "It's not a fish!" replied Spencer. "Look it uuuupppp!" he bellowed, pounding the table with what he intended to be a raffish drub.

His diastolic boisterousness had the intended effect. His mother and sister began to giggle, nervously at first, then uncontrollably. And Captain Brinkerhoff was uncharacteristically silent for the duration of the feast.

Photo of the Week: Bricks (by me)

Because moss. In December. Click for a closer view. You have nothing better to do.

Random Sequence: oppugnancy

"Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe...."
--William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 3

oppugnancy (noun) = contrariness, opposition, antagonism

Our politics today is full of oppugnancy. But wasn't it always?

Link Mania: This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism....

23 Perfect Words For Emotions You Never Realised Anyone Else Felt
Oh, so I could call it "jouska".

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20 Latin Phrases You Should Be Using
"Barba non facit philosophum" -- I should tape this to my bathroom mirror. And let's all start slipping "Carthago delenda est" into our conversations.

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Merriam-Webster announced their pick for the 2015 Word of the Year, and for the first time, the winner isn’t an entire word; it's a suffix
Absurdism? "This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism
All we are saying is give peace a chance."

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26 Beatnik Slang Words and Phrases We Should All Start Using
Interview your brains and focus your audio! Reading TWITO will keep your claws sharp. And this list may help you to know your groceries, slang slingers.

Fish Food for Thought

Photo of the Week: Lonely Tree (by me)

This aint no Christmas tree. Click for a closer view. You know you want to....

Word of the Day: distichous

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's....

distichous [dis-ti-kuss] (adjective) [TWITO, page 42]

Divided into two parts or two rows

"His eyes? Nor pen nor camera can present them. Imagine a black pearl imprisoning a diamond; imagine a dewdrop trembling on polished jet; add to these beauties life, and you will have the dormouse eye. His tail? Distichous, say the books. Feathers are mostly distichous, hair-partings are distichous, the moustache is distichous. So is the dormouse tail; but the hairs along it do more than merely part. They curl, upwards from the root, downwards to the point, and form a plume."
--Douglas English, Wee Tim'rous Beasties (1903)

(photo by me)

Story Cubes 13: Gurgle (fiction)

I stood on the bridge, ready to drop my phone into the river.

I wouldn't regret losing the contacts, but I would miss the photos. So many faces, some cheerful, some gloomy. There was Henry, with a light bulb in his hand, illustrating a joke: "How many millennials does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

There was Evie (with Adam), from Halloween, in her flesh-tone tights and caressing an apple -- Adam and Eve.

And then there was the image of my own eye -- an extreme close-up with a tear in the corner. The one I sent to my false friends. The ones who turned me in. The ones I didn't want to know anymore, now that I was out of the slammer. Now that I was starting over.

The phone made a soft splash and sank out of sight. But just before it disappeared, I heard a gurgle. It was ringing....

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(The bold-faced words are interpreted from the images on Rory's Story Cubes)

Random Sequence: evitate

"Since therein she doth evitate and shun / A thousand irreligious
cursed hours."
--William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene 5

evitate (verb) = to shun; to avoid

I've often wished I could levitate in order to evitate.

Link Mania: Snaketongue Truffleclub?

40 Vibrant V-Words To Revamp Your Vocabulary
Including "verbigeration" [ver-bij-uh-RAY-shun] (noun): compulsive repetition of meaningless or stereotyped words and phrases [TWITO, page 155]. Isn't that vecordious?

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70 Totally Amazing Common Names for Fungi
Need a name for your punk or metal band? How about "Bitter Poisonpie" or "Hairy Nuts Disco"? Not sure if any of these are edible mushrooms. Anyway, they don't sound appetizing. Snaketongue Truffleclub?

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7 Beautiful Words only Nature Lovers Will Understand
They forgot "bosk" (noun): a small wooded area or thicket (TWITO, page 23).... Are you a "nelipot"? Even at this time of year?

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Guess the Surprising Meanings of These Really Weird Words
Do you engage in "epeolatry"? Feel free to consider TWITO your altar. And are you one of the "bibliobibuli"? I'm not sure such people exist.

Fish Food for Thought