I feel that it is a basic act of courtesy to acknowledge, however briefly, when someone has communicated with you via text message. So if they send me some information, I often will just say ‘Thanks’. If they have made a suggestion to which I agree (“Let’s meet at 10:00am”), I will reply ‘Ok’. If they ask me to confirm some choice (“Shall I come at 10:00?”), I will reply ‘Sure’.

I notice that some of the people will use the thumbs up emoji instead of words. But I am not an emoji kind of guy and felt that my words conveyed the same sense of agreement or acknowledgement.

But I am not an expert on social media communication and recently I was listening to a radio program and someone said that just replying ‘Sure’ was bad, in that it implied sarcasm, as if I had said ‘Yeah, sure’ in a disdainful voice. However, I was assured that ‘Sure!’ was fine.

She then went on to say that ‘Ok’ was even worse than ‘Sure’, which startled me since that is my most frequent from of acknowledgment.

I am not sure how universal this sentiment it. The mores in the world of online communication can change rapidly over time as well as vary a lot from person to person, so maybe ‘Ok’ and ‘Sure’ are ok despite what the speaker said.

A portmanteau, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a new word that is obtained by smashing two familiar words together so that their meanings get combined. Many portmanteaus have now passed into regular usage and we no longer think of them as such. Examples are spork (spoon+fork), brunch (breakfast+lunch), motel (motor+hotel), malware (malicious+software), and frenemy (friend+enemy). For more examples, see here.

‘Portmanteau’ (meaning a large suitcase that opens up into two halves) is itself a portmanteau made up of two French words ‘porter’ (to carry) and ‘manteau’ (a cloak).

Some portmanteaus have an ephemeral existence because their lifetimes are clearly limited. Examples are Brangelina and Bennifer that have been coined for celebrity couples.

Journalists tend to try to insert portmanteaus into usage to liven their reporting and they sometimes seem forced because the combined meaning is not obvious. For example, I recently heard on the news someone using the word ‘vibecession‘. This is a portmanteau of the words ‘vibes’ and ‘recession’ and “refers to a disconnect between the economy of a country and the general public’s negative perception of it, which is mostly pessimistic.”

I find other portmanteaus to be too cute or ugly or unnecessary. Examples are ‘snowmageddon’ (snow+Armageddon to denote a massive snowstorm), ‘staycation’ (stay+vacation to denote spending your vacation at home), and the one I hate the most ‘bleisure’ (business+leisure to denote travel that is done for both business and leisure)

Language is dynamic and grows with the addition of new words and giving new meaning to old ones. The staying power of any new word or phrase is determined by how many people find it appealing and start using it. No single person’s opinions matter but there are some portmanteaus that I find grating and hope will disappear.

In her review of a book by Tommy Tomlinson titled Dogland: Passion, Glory, Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show, Kathryn Schulz begins with this story.

Bernard de Menthon was born around the year 1000, near what is now the border of Switzerland and France. He was raised in a castle, given a first-class education, and, in time, affianced by his father to a noblewoman, as befit the scion of an ancient and wealthy family. By then, however, de Menthon had grown into a pious young man whose plans for the future did not include marriage. According to legend, the night before the wedding, he fled the castle by jumping out of a high window, whereupon a band of angels caught him and lowered him gently to the ground.
Ordained as a priest, de Menthon began preaching in villages throughout the region of Aosta, a territory that included a mountain pass already in use for at least a thousand years to cross the Western Alps. In de Menthon’s day, it was a popular route for Christians making the pilgrimage to Rome, but the journey was perilous. Bands of brigands routinely staked out the area to attack travellers, the pass itself was harrowing—eight thousand feet high, buried in snow, prone to avalanches—and de Menthon often found himself ministering to travellers who had been subjected to its terrors. And so, when he became the archdeacon of Aosta, he established a hospice in the pass, staffed by monks who offered aid to pilgrims venturing over the mountains.
[Read more…]

At the recently held Westminster Dog Show, a small mixed breed dog named Nimble turned in an amazing performance in the agility event.

Stephen Colbert showed the clip on his show and said that the reason the dog ran so fast was that he saw that Kristi Noem was one of the judges.

I stopped listening to popular music around the mid-1970s or so. While the 60s and early 70s had some great music, it was also a time when some very silly songs managed to get air time on the radio. Recently, while cooking, the chorus of one such old song popped into my mind and I started singing it. My daughter and son-in-law who were present were incredulous that such a song could possibly have been made let alone become somewhat popular and accused me of making it up on the spur of the moment. So I gave them proof.

Here it is.

I having been having a wonderful time these last few days entertaining family and friends and so did not have time to blog.

Will be back soon.