Language Log on Inuits and snow. As you can see, it comes up often.
I recently went through a number of old-school horror stories on CD, and was left feeling alienated by a number of them. They didn't feel so much like stories as just retellings. Even in the ones where I didn't know what was coming (like House of Usher) there didn't seem to be anything to get spooked about. No anticipation, and very little compelling atmosphere.
I clearly need to branch out in my vocabulary a bit. Actual conversation with my mother last weekend:
Mom: Why don't you just get the grape jam?
Me: I don't like grape jam. I like grape jelly.
Mom: What's the difference?
Me: The jelly is more, well, jellied, and the jam is jamish.
t pause
I just don't like it.
"It Must be Jelly, 'Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That"
Jelly is kissing cousins with Jello, and jam is not. It is quite simple! Do we call it "Jamo"? No we do not.
Now I want a product named Jamo.
In reading that story, I also learned the word flaner,
Even better is Flaneur. That would be the particular type of person who strolls stylishly around the Boulevard.
"Plus bonus points for use of the word 'mosey'."
IJS.
Even better is Flaneur. That would be the particular type of person who strolls stylishly around the Boulevard.
Ahem. Flaneuse, in my case.
Ahem. Flaneuse, in my case.
Well, that would be a recent innovation. The heydey of the Flaneur was the 19th century, and women weren't Flaneuses so much back then, excepting perhaps George Sand. Though "streetwalker" and "Flaneur" describe the same activity, they don't describe the same thing.
If I'd lived in the 19th C., I so totally would have been a cross-dresser. Just to be able to go places without having a giant neon sign spelling GURL follow me everywhere!
I so totally would have been a cross-dresser.
You'd look hella good in a frock coat and a top hat.