It seems that we are looking for the next superlative. Not it seems.
And so, yes, there is this obsessive aspiration for someone who is better than the rest. But can’t we do better than all-time? There’s always Steve Martin’s bit, The Master All-Being of Time, Space and Dimension?
But less that. Obviously. The Essential? The Omni? The Fucking Fuck One? Or what about good old Prometheus. The Prom. Let’s bring it back to that.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, just the thing I already asked you.”
Communication companies are the worst at communication. Is that an irony, or laissez faire or another benchmark on our continual plummet?
On hold, callbacks, apps, pins, passwords, and the service rep who says, “How can I help?” when they mean “I don’t give a fuck.
I am still in recovery mode from reading bad sci-fi and think on ‘as’-prefix words today, ‘as’ meaning ‘with regard to’. Askance (a look of suspicion), Askew (not in a level position) & Asunder (apart).
Looking askance, askew on the heath, the lamb bleated not to be torn asunder.
It is odd how we use words as if they are the thing in itself – like “language” or “number” – when the word is only a reminder of what we want that thing to be.
William Cronon wrote an essay some years ago, redefining wilderness as as an “other that needs to be remembered and acknowledged.” In other words, wilderness is no longer as it is defined (an uncultivated, uninhabited and inhospitable region) but as something else; or more accurately, a tree is not a tree, but an other not with branches but more others and not leaves but more others still.
This rethinking has come heavily into our consciousness these days – rethinking everything from personal pronouns to the meaning of work – all of it with good intention. As stupid as it might sound, work is just that, work (an activity involving effort) and they is a plural; there is just no getting around any of this…if words are to remain words.
This trend of reevaluating words through posts and tags is a wilderness in itself with no one to curate but a group think ethos and whoever gets the most likes of all.
“Thanks much” or “Much thanks“? I go back and forth between what Tony would say. I am never happy with either and continue the fruitless search through “Many thanks”, “So Much Thanks”, “Thanks As Always” or even “Kind of you”, until I end up back where I started. “Thanks much”.
Tony says things to get attention and pretends that he doesn’t. He mutters and stutters, his face forward to be listened to and then acts as if he doesn’t want anyone to hear. It’s a question of not overdoing that about Tony. Too much it’s caricature; not enough it’s obtuse. I need the Goldilocks frequency for this phrase.
I push hard to get my point across and, to make that clear, write the thing again. I might write it in another way. Or maybe not. I repeat myself to make sure that my point is getting across. It is the point, as simple as that. And I have to make that clear.
This veers toward a tendency to overwrite, filling a cup well beyond its capacity, thus defeating the purpose. The trick is to find the right words and use only those.
The right words. That’s the rub.
Ubiquitous (appearing everywhere): “The ubiquitous masks and gloves in New York are a constant reminder of Covid-19”. Obsequious (attentive to servile degree): “The obsequious manner of the many homeless are an example of a failed society.”
The ubiquitously obsequious nature of the current White House staff indicates that none of this will end in the foreseeable future.
Definition: Amount of material or money supplied to an enterprise (originally a prospector for ore) in return for a share in the resulting profits.
As in: “The US government has decided to give two trillions dollars to corporate America as another grubstake for big business.”
A punchinello is a fat, short humpbacked clown or buffoon which appears in Italian puppet shows or, more recently, as President of the United States.
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