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"If you would like to grinch about the use of Movies in Fifteen Minutes to benefit a charity, please press 4."
"Grinch" as a verb? One in the lower case, even, which indicates it has forgotten its proper-noun heritage? (In one of the Red Dwarf novels, Lister turns on the shower and the water is described as having "Niagaraed" out of the tap. A verbing that won't appear in the OED, for sure, but it was evocative.*)
Oh, no; I am not complaining, if that's what you thought I was here to do (as well you might, since it is one of my favourite pastimes). I like it.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
digitalsidhe has pointed out to me before that English is hardly the only language that can bend itself around in a way Cirque du Soliel would envy, but it's the only language I know (aside from my very, very, very rusty Spanish, in which I was never so proficient as to write poetry or puns), so it's the only language I can really appreciate.
I enjoy swapping around the syntactic duties of strings of syllables in this fashion. It is an almost sensual pleasure to see what strange places the sounds will allow their meanings to be pushed into. (I also like a nice dangling participle. There's something to be said for a part which will either dangle obediently, or happily consent to be pushed up into the middle of things.) When you have used a word in an unusual way and succeeded, it's like the linguistic cat is arching its furry little bum up towards your stroke upon its back.
My advice to you is not to pull its tail, however.
* - Actually, Niagara Falls wasn't all that great. I mean, it was cool (literally: it was October, and it was very misty, gosh-I-wonder-why), and sho'nuff it was a lot of water, but the sheer size of it kind of overwhelms the mind, so it gets a little same-y after a few minutes, and then you get annoyed that the Little Caesars has closed and you can't get pizza. Now, Aragain Falls, on the other hand... (there I go making more Infocom jokes no one will understand.)
"Grinch" as a verb? One in the lower case, even, which indicates it has forgotten its proper-noun heritage? (In one of the Red Dwarf novels, Lister turns on the shower and the water is described as having "Niagaraed" out of the tap. A verbing that won't appear in the OED, for sure, but it was evocative.*)
Oh, no; I am not complaining, if that's what you thought I was here to do (as well you might, since it is one of my favourite pastimes). I like it.
digitalsidhe has pointed out to me before that English is hardly the only language that can bend itself around in a way Cirque du Soliel would envy, but it's the only language I know (aside from my very, very, very rusty Spanish, in which I was never so proficient as to write poetry or puns), so it's the only language I can really appreciate.I enjoy swapping around the syntactic duties of strings of syllables in this fashion. It is an almost sensual pleasure to see what strange places the sounds will allow their meanings to be pushed into. (I also like a nice dangling participle. There's something to be said for a part which will either dangle obediently, or happily consent to be pushed up into the middle of things.) When you have used a word in an unusual way and succeeded, it's like the linguistic cat is arching its furry little bum up towards your stroke upon its back.
My advice to you is not to pull its tail, however.
* - Actually, Niagara Falls wasn't all that great. I mean, it was cool (literally: it was October, and it was very misty, gosh-I-wonder-why), and sho'nuff it was a lot of water, but the sheer size of it kind of overwhelms the mind, so it gets a little same-y after a few minutes, and then you get annoyed that the Little Caesars has closed and you can't get pizza. Now, Aragain Falls, on the other hand... (there I go making more Infocom jokes no one will understand.)