If you haven't visited the For Word Nerds links at right, do give them a whirl. You don't even have to be a nerd to enjoy them! I'd like to briefly spotlight a couple, plus one more link that's funny and word-related but not quite worthy of the nerd list.
1. The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks
While lunching at a local hot spot...wait, I'm not writing for People magazine. (At least I didn't use the verbs "nosh" or "canoodle.") Anyway, while out to lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant on Saturday, I spotted a menu item worthy of inclusion on The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.
Apparently, the Crab Enchiladas contain a substance resembling "real crab meat." You know, if there were no quotation marks, I wouldn't doubt the authenticity of the crab meat. But now, even the emphatic assertion that it's real doesn't cancel out the effects of those unnecessary quotation marks. For even funnier examples of quotation marks run amok, pay a visit to the "blog." I have as much fun reading Bethany's witty commentary as I do laughing at all the excessive punctuation.
2. Save the Words
I'd been here before to look around, but my pal Renee just reminded me about Save the Words, and I actually adopted my first word today! It's completely free, and they even send you a certificate of adoption. Here's mine:
I definitely adopted a winner. "Mingent" is an adjective meaning "discharging urine." Oh, I can think of lots of uses for this word. "Mingent" will not fade away into obscurity, not if I have anything to say about it. In fact, I'll come up with three sentences right now, just to prove it:
- "The mingent baby smiled and kicked his legs while dousing his unfortunate sister." (True story involving my brother Daniel and my sister Michele, circa 1984.)
- "The thing that surprised me most about Florence was the number of mingent boys I spotted taking aim at old churches." (True story from my post-college tour of Europe. In truth, Florence smelled like one giant urinal.)
- "I smelled the mingent bum long before I passed him in the subway tunnel." (Made this one up, thank goodness.)
3. The Grammar Vandal
Finally, meet Kate McCulley, the self-proclaimed Grammar Vandal (aka "Boston's Grammar Vigilante"), who carries a sheet of comma stickers and a Sharpie with her wherever she goes. "If an error glares at me," she says, "I'm there to destroy it." The concept is pretty darn funny. My reasons for not linking her up permanently, even though she was featured in an MSN article ("Fastidious spelling snobs pushed over the edge"), are that she never posts pictures of her grammar vandalism and she doesn't update her blog very regularly. But it's definitely worth a one-time visit.
In closing, if you're in the market for a moderately funny and very nerdy grammar t-shirt, check out the "Bad grammar makes me [sic]" products here.
Lucas out.
