Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Here’s a new favorite quote (author unknown) that gives some insight:
Most people don’t know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don’t get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life.
Johann has inherited my love of words. He wonders about their origins and savors literature filled with words that paint pictures and appeal to the senses. Of course as a 6-year-old boy, lately he tends to be fascinated by gooey, gross words. His latest two favorites are “slurp” and “slime”. He likes to pronounce them as follows: When saying “slurp” imagine you are actually slurping something. Think about the sound you would be making and say the word to imitate that sound pattern, placing emphasis on the “ur”. Your voice should dip down in the middle and rise up at the end like a question. (Sl-ur-r-r-rp!) When saying “slime” pretend you are a jolly Igor. Emphasize the long “i” sound and repeat the word three times. Then repeat the sequence at least three times. As a wild card, for the last time you say “slime”, occassionally say it as if you are also laughing it (ha, ha, ha) when you get to the vowel. (Sli-i-ime! Sli-i-i-ime! Sla-ha-ha-hime!!!!!!!)
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Johann came to me completely puzzled the other day and asked me how you say “that word” from Mary Poppins. I asked him if he meant “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” He replied grimly, “Yeah. That’s the one.” The last time Johann asked me to teach him how to say it, it was too frustrating for him. This time he did a lot better. It came out, “Supercalifrackilickickickyackyocious!!!”
P.S. Did you realize “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is in Gmail’s spell checker?
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Johann: Daddy, what did you learn at school today?
Me: Mostly we learned about ocean sediments and sedimentary rocks.
Johann: What did you learn about sentamental ewoks?
Me & Tammy: …..snarfing and rolling on the floor laughing…
Another brief “word of the day” entry:
- Philopatry —
- The tendency of an individual to return to, or stay in, its home area or another adopted locality, as opposed to nonreturning roaming behavior or simple dispersal away from home areas. Most philopatry research has concentrated on the homing behavior of migratory birds, but it now appears that many animal species display some degree of philopatric behavior. Derived from the Greek for “home-loving.”
Word and definition found through a research paper by Dr R. E. Hueter and Dr. M. R. Heupel, marine scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research.
Courtesy of a 4 year old’s curiosity at the Aquarium yesterday comes the word of the day:
- Madreporite — măd-rә-pôr-īt
- A perforated plate in echinoderms (including starfish, sea cucumbers and urchins) through which water is filtered and admitted to the animal’s water vascular system — essentially a hydraulic system to control their feet. You can see the madreporite of the short-spined sea star, Pisaster brevispinus at the BioMedia Galleries. The term madreporite is a derivative of Madreporaria, the order (hard corals) which brain corals belong to. The madreporite of many sea stars resembles brain corals in miniature.
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
And now for the word of the day:
- Aprosexia —
- An abnormal inability to pay attention
from Weird and Wonderful Words
