Tuesday, July 22, 2003

INCREASE YOUR WORD POWER... The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners:  Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money in the first place.  Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.    Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.    Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.    Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.   Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.   Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.   Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.   Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)  Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.   Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. Glibido: All smooth talk and no action.  Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.   Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.   Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.   Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole. 5:10:17 PM    Mmm? [] TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG... There was a recent mini-debate on, I think, Maxine's weblog about the relative cultural credentials of Brits & Americans.  The view was advanced that, in a shoot-out, Brits would have the edge.  It's a common enough assumption. Indeed, to a high degree it underpins perceptions both of archetypal British cultural arrogance & American cultural low self-esteem. Certainly my recent forays into the cybernetic jungle of web-hosting facilities & webrings revealed nothing of the sort.  The tritest, blandest, most mind-numbingly dreary weblogs I came across (& I looked at scores of them) were almost universally British.  Many of the American ones were characterful, quirky & by far & away the best designed.  And (as I have declared before) nowhere did I locate a weblog community, British or American, that in any way matched Salon for variety, wit, intelligence, insight. Which is a great shame.  Frankly, if I could locate a British weblog enclave somewhere I'd be up, up & away.  Much as I enjoy my companion weblogs - & I look forward every morning to the 15 minutes or so that I set aside for a ramble through them - I still feel after some 5 months the stranger in a strange land that I reported myself as feeling myself to be back in March. I've made some valued contacts & received warm support & encouragement. But the lack of common political ground & shared cultural reference points evident in my weblog materials will keep my hits down to the 10 - 15 maximum that have remained pretty much constant since I started here. Which is understandable but a little dispiriting.  For me, with 5 months' momentum behind me now, blogging is all about interaction.  The dialogues that arise both from contentious postings & postings with which the reader identifies strongly are the essense of this strange private/public activity.  I would like to participate in them more & I shall continue to look (not very optimistically) for a forum within which such interaction seems a little more viable. 2:45:03 AM    Mmm? []

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