The Uncertain Dictionary VIII

Exasperation: maybe from "ex," as in "out of," plus maybe "asperation," maybe meaning"transformation into the form of an asp," maybe from "asperate," meaning maybe "to transform into an asp"; thus "exasperation" maybe means "transformation out of the form of an asp"? (Man, this dictionary-writing job is hard work -- you really gotta know your stuff!)

Present at the Moment of Conception?

A non-Catholic, hearing for the first time of the Catholic teaching on ensoulment at the moment of conception and relieved at not being Catholic, exclaims, "I'm sure glad I wasn't there when my parents conceived me!"

The Uncertain Dictionary VII

Reverberate: maybe "re" as in "repeat" and maybe meaning "repeat" (exactly as it did two days ago, maybe), plus maybe "verberate", which maybe means "to be changed" into a verb, such that "reverberate" maybe means "to be changed into a verb repeatedly."

Junichi Nakashima Found!

I found my old friend Junichi Nakashima through a poem he'd written at Baylor University way back in 1975/76. Junichi had posted the poem on YouTube on August 23, 2020, explaining the context of its writing. I found it yesterday and immediately left a comment (August 26, 2020):

Very nice poem, Junichi. I recall you writing it. You also showed me a long poem in free verse that you had written in Japanese and translated into English, a poem about how you overcame weakness. You told me of a fight with a motorcycle gang. I worked with you in Penland Cafeteria, and we had very many long discussions. When you left for Japan, I gave you a book of photographs. Perhaps you remember me?

Junichi found my comment and replied:

Omg! Jeffery! Is that you? Insanely great message. Surely I remember you as well as the days we worked in Penland Cafeteria. In addition, I still have the book of photographs you gave me. That's my precious treasure, you know. Where are you now?

I replied:

I'm in South Korea. I've been here twenty years, teaching various subjects. How I got here is a long story, but the short version is that I met a Korean woman in Germany in 1992 . . . on a train. After living in Europe, Jerusalem, and Australia, pursuing my scholarly interests, we ended up here, in Seoul. I've tried to find you these past twenty years, and I did find some things on the web about your life as an artist and actor, but the websites provided only shreds of information, so I'd reach a dead-end each time. Only this time did I strike oil, gold, or some even more valuable metaphor! I see that you have lived your life for art. Very admirable - and courageous! I don't recall if our cafeteria sessions included discussions of my long-term aims, but my freshman year at Baylor was when I learned that I had talent as a writer, and I always intended to write fiction one day. I first, however, needed to learn more knowledge, experience more life, and practice more writing. By about 2012, I was ready to start writing. I've published a Faustian tale as a novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, and a book of poems, Radiant Snow, both presented at Amazon with a look-inside-the-book function. The story is so far available only as an e-book, but I hope to get a hard copy ready soon. It has interesting illustrations by Terrance Lindall. I'm finishing a series of limericks and have another novella, The Uncanny Story, which is sort of available, but it's getting a re-editing.

I suggested that we switch to email contact, and I will perhaps report back when I hear more about his life since 1976.

The Uncertain Dictionary VI

Revision: maybe "re" as in "repeat" and maybe meaning "repeat," plus maybe "vision" as in "vision" and maybe meaning "vision," too, so the entire word "revision" maybe means to repeat the same vision a second time.

Junichi Nakashima: Poet, writer, actor and artist

I knew this man at Baylor, way back in 1975/76. I've occasionally tried to locate him, and I recently came across an announcement of an imminent performance of his that seems to be only of a few years ago, and it provided this bio:

Junichi Nakashima: Poet, writer, actor and artist. Born in Japan. Began to write poems early in his teens. Studied painting and printmaking at Baylor University in Waco, Texas as an exchange student. Back in Japan, he exhibited his drawings and paintings in several galleries in Tokyo. Awarded in several international art exhibitions, such as The Critic Prize in France-Japan Modern Art Exhibition Paris, The Excellence Prize in The Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition Barcelona, Prize of Art and culture of Marais Paris, the silver medal in Cannes International Grand Prix, the gold medal in Salon de Invierno Barcelona, the gold medal in Wine Label Festival Les Pervillon de Bercy Paris, Prize of Premium of Artistic Innovation of Italian Wine in Wine Label Festival Rome, Prize of Association des Amis Musee Picasso in International Art Exchange Exhibition Kobe. Published poems "The sea of glass", "Dreams of melancholy" and English poems "Alpha and Omega" and also collected essays "Dreams are your future memories", fiction "A calm kiss on Thursday", as an actor, starred in the independent film "Confined Room" in Japan. In addition, wrote 45 scripts for solo-performances and performed more than a thousand times throughout Japan.

He gave me his address in Japan, and I wrote him a letter, but it must not have reached him because I never received a reply. The cynical among my readers will say that he probably received my letter, but simply didn't reply. Possibly. But why then had he given me his address and urged me to write?

I don't suppose anyone here would know how to contact him.

Disturbed: Sound of Silence

 If you haven't yet seen Disturbed's cover of Paul Simon's "Sound of Silence," go here now.

The Uncertain Dictionary V

Lieutenant: lieu + tenant; "lieu" maybe means "loo," i.e., "toilet," and "tenant" maybe means "a person who rents your property" (as a place to live), and thus "lieutenant" maybe means "a person who rents your toilet" (as a place to live).

Octo-Emanations Now Available

Carter Kaplan announces that the eighth in the Emanations series, Octo-Emanations (paperback), is available now (as of August 19, 2020) through Amazon at the reasonable price of $13.45 for nearly 400 pages presenting the following:

The eighth volume of the critically acclaimed Emanations literary anthology series, Octo-Emanations presents stunning new art, illustrations, and writing from around the world. The forty-two contributors represent South Korea, Canada, India, Oman, Kenya, Nepal, France, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Morocco, Kosovo, Spain, the Philippines, Sweden, Japan, and the United States. Comprising a broad range of perspectives, this edition also includes a special new section featuring visual fine arts pieces with artists' statements, making it one of the most exciting projects of the International Authors publishing house to date.

For those interested in my poetry, some of it can be pre-viewed at the Amazon site by using a click-link there provided in the Table of Contents.

The Uncertain Dictionary IV

 Green: a really big grin, maybe.

The Uncertain Dictionary III

Identification: maybe  I + Dentification; The "I" is maybe the first person singular pronoun, and "Dentification" is maybe a reference to one's dental records, which can identify a dead person, no matter how dead, maybe.

The Uncertain Dictionary II

Transylvania: from the looks of it, this word might mean "Across the Forest," but wouldn't that be a ridiculous way to name a country?

The Uncertain Dictionary

Expunge: from the looks of it, possibly a former sponge.

Epistemological Distancing

Consider:

"Seeing is believing."

I don't see why this is true.

Compact Superstitions

Superstition - anything superior to a stition, which is a situation in which a stitch in time saves nine lives of a cat on a hot tin roof . . .

More Wishbone Magic

Suppose wishbone magic is real.

Suppose that if one receives a wishbone in a match, one must play that wishbone.

Suppose that I receive a wishbone in a match.

Suppose I wish that I had received no wishbone in this match.

Does this result in a paradox?

Look what they're teaching our kids!

Kevin Kim has drawn attention to an interview with an Aussie general who intends to sponsor some Boy Scouts on his base, where he is "going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery, and shooting." The interviewer expresses herself aghast that the Scouts will be taught shooting. Well, that rubbed my fur the wrong way! I therefore had my say:

I don't mind the shooting. It's the archery that kills me! No one should have the right to train young children in the adult art of arch remarks! Why, this will just lead kids to hate speech! Even worse, to free speech! People will start to think that they have the right to say any damn thing they please. Even insults! Well, those %&*@#!!! mother*+&%#$@s can just go *&#@$$% themselves! Pardon my language, but this is something up with which I will not put!

Let me know in the comments below if you agree with me. Or even if you don't, you little #@$&*@#!s.

Rod Serling presents . . .

Consider the following introduction as if given by The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling:

Imagine, if you will, a talented writer offered worldly success in return for a clever way of inserting 666 into his book's title, but with consequences he did not foresee. I give you The Bottomless Bottle of Beer . . .

The above is what Serling would state by way of introducing the story. Below is what Serling would know:

Imagine, if you will, a talented writer who is offered worldly success with the great American novel if he takes the title, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, abbreviates it as BBB, and subtly uses its italicized, small-lettered form bbb to remind readers of 666, thereby calling forth the devil into the world. I give you The Bottomless Bottle of Beer . . .

This tight summary is too much to say by way of introductory remarks, so Serling would always reduce a length such as this one to a length like that of the first indented remarks.

Notice, by the bye, that the latter indented remarks would give too much away. A few too many plot spoilers . . .

Update: Can't seem to fix this obvious problem, so I'll leave it as evidence of Beelzebub's presence.

Let's Play Infantilize the Idiom!

 It's raining kits and pups out there!

My first encounter . . .

 . . . with the sign that announces:

No Shirt!

No Shoes!

No Service!

I said, "Man, they don't have anything here!"

With men like Abolghasem Yaghoubi . . .

Abolghasem Yaghoubi, representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Khorasan Shomali province, said in a recent sermon that Allah has forbidden pork because:

"Pork contains a vitamin - a kind of microbe - that weakens the zeal of people who eat too much pork."

Modern scientists discovered this fact, and I have thereby learned that a vitamin is a microbe. We are indeed fortunate that such scientifically informed men are responsible for Iran's scientific prowess.

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work we go . . .

Heigh-ho, the wick is dead!

Wich old wick?

The wich-ed wick!

Heigh-ho, the wich-ed wick is dead!

Wasn't this song from the animated film "Bloody Lips and the Seven Vertically Challenged Individuals"?

Two Proverbs

Pride goeth before a fall.

Humility goeth before a spring.

New Word: Afterlifeless

To be read as meaning: afterlife less?

Or

 To be read as meaning: after lifeless?

BUILD BACK BETTER BIDEN!

Over at Kevin Kim's blog, Kevin criticizes the Biden campaign's slogan, which he quotes as:

BUILD BACK BETTER!

I tell him that he has misquoted. As one can see from the photo that Kevin provides, the slogan is actually:

BUILD BACK BETTER BIDEN!

The Biden campaign is currently deconstructing Biden. When finished with that, the campaign will build him back better than before. If this works and Biden wins the presidency, Biden's administration will attempt the same with America itself.

New Proverb!

The Devil finds work for idol hands.

Practicing opening lines . . .

Here's a sample: 

The Walker

The day is humid now, and the leaf-filtered light is green on the woodland path. I have been walking a long time, but I don't know how long. I do not recall beginning this walk. I recall becoming aware of myself walking.

Naked go I. I know that I am naked. I know what clothes are. Have I ever worn clothes? I do not know. How can I know so much and know so little? . . .

Enticing? But where do I go (so to speak) from here?Would third-person singular work better? And which gender, masculine or feminine?

The Bottomless Bottle of Beer

Gina Fields, one of my friends from my Baylor years, a woman with whom I worked in Collins Cafeteria those many years ago - over forty years now! - has just finished reading my first novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, and here is her brief but positive review:

Fun and thought-provoking . . . The lovely interweaving of classic fiction writers combined with Mr. Hodges' keen wit and imagination produced a story worth reading. This carefully crafted and entertaining novella can be read and appreciated on several levels. I highly recommend it.

You can go and take a look yourself, if interested (and even if not), but note that only the electronic version is available as yet. I hope to have a paperback edition ready soon.

I should note that lawyers in particular ought to take a special interest in this book, for a central issue concerns law. Perhaps the legal aspect appealed to Gina, for she herself is a lawyer. Maybe she'll add a comment here to let us know.

And all the boards did shrink . . .

Everyone has by now caught on to yesterday's joke and surely realizes that dihydrogen monoxide is really hydric acid.

Names Matter!

I have somewhere exposed the fact that hydrogen hydroxide is really just another name for dihydrogen monoxide, which should be banned!" Why, the very name itself runs chills down my spine!

A Tom Swifty?

"Yours is a biting remark!" she snapped at him for sharply lowering her grade.

Perhaps even a double Tom Swifty?