Random Prompts

Yup, still sticking posts here, from time to time! This time, it’s a string of stuff that’s inspired by WordPress and its Daily Prompt idea, except some of the prompts I’ve been using at Meerkat Musings are of my own creation (what can I say, I’m a bit of a rebel).

Let’s examine a few of the highlights, and hopefully have some fun along the way!

Superhero Powers… with a Twist

I asked one of my colleagues for a prompt idea, and his suggestion was: You have the power to read minds, but only when you’re naked.

Now, I am not given to be nude. Sure, I undress to jump in the bath, but that’s about the only time I wear my birthday suit (it gets so wrinkly in the bath too). Therefore, access to this power would be very limited. My colleague clarified that my powers would have a range, and not reliant on line of sight, so I could read minds from the bath.

All this would allow for is reading the minds of my family and my neighbours. I’m not sure how useful any of the info I glean would prove to be. I mean, if I ever end up on a nudist beach, then sure, I could read a lot of minds, but I am not likely to set foot on such sands any time soon!

Blatherskite

I love this word. it’s no ‘tittynope‘, but it’s a good word all the same. It means ‘silly, babbling speech that doesn’t mean anything’. It can therefore be applied to a lot of politicians, but when I hear the word blatherskite, I immediately think of this fellow:

With the phrase ‘blathering blatherskites!’, meek wannabe scientist Fenton Crackshell becomes Gizmo Duck! His suit of armour holds many weird and wonderful (and often unreliable!) gadgets to thwart criminals and evildoers! What can I say, everything is better when filtered through DuckTales…

Tittynope

Tittynope. Despite coming up with a red line denoting a spelling mistake, it is actually a word, and no, it is nothing rude or untoward. Yes, I see you in the corner, sniggering. Control yourself.

Tittynope means ‘a small quantity of something left over’. It is often used in relation to food. ‘There is a tittynope of vegetables on your plate’. Imagine trying to use that expression and keeping a straight face. You’d be a tougher meerkat than I!

Tittynope (give me strength) is one of a number of old words, that seem, upon first viewing, to be quite dirty. There are expressions like ‘butt shaft’, that refer to blunt arrows, and ‘assart’, which isn’t posterior-developed painting, but instead, a reference to land primed for farming. Old ladies used to place ‘dick-pots’ under their petticoats to keep themselves warm…

I’m now considering how to use these expressions in day-to-day life, but I suspect I won’t have much cause to. I will however, definitely use tittynope, wherever and whenever I can.

Irregardless

You have probably encountered words like ‘irregardless’ or ‘pacifically’ before. These ‘words’ sit alongside strange grammatical errors like ‘to of’ instead of ‘to have’, or the transposing of the words ‘affect’ and ‘effect’.

How does this happen? I can sort of understand how two similar words can be mixed up, but a made-up word like ‘irregardless’? Is it a pronunciation thing? Is an attempt to sound clever, even though the word you’re using doesn’t actually exist in the English language? Does the English language itself make life difficult with some of its baffling rules?

Then you get regional spelling differences, which can create a hole knew level of confusion. Yes, I did that deliberately…

Consider the word ‘behaviour’. Notice the u in behaviour. That’s how we spell the word in the UK. In the USA, it would be spelled ‘behavior’. On my screen, this flags as a typo, yet it’s not technically wrong. It’s a regional difference, prompted by the divergent evolution of spelling and writing conventions across two different continents. I have to say, quite why we have the u in there is a bit of a mystery to me, but I am so used to spelling word with that u that I won’t stop now…

The eccentricates get worse. For example, the word ‘read’. Did you pronounce that as in ‘red’ or ‘reed’? There are many words like that. ‘Bread’ and ‘bred’ sound exactly the same, but carry two rather different meanings! It’s no wonder we end up with words that aren’t really words, considering how off the wall English can be. I mean, look at my earlier use of new and hole. There are many contexts where you don’t want to be confusing those…

It makes you wonder how anyone ever actually learns this crazy language.

Pwn

Earlier in the month, I scoped out Dictionary.com for possible prompt ideas, and noticed they do a ‘Word of the Day’. On the day of writing this, that word was ‘pwn’.

Pwn gets marked up as a typo by Chrome. That’s understandable. Pwn is not a good-looking word, from any perspective. There are a handful of words that work with no vowels, but pwn is not one of them. If we let that slide for a moment, what does it mean?

Well, it’s a verb. It means ‘to completely defeat or dominate someone at a computer or video game’. It’s basically geek-speak, and it’s crept its way into regular language, albeit not in a huge way (at least, not yet). I don’t know how the word came about, so shall we see if we can find out? The best I can learn is that it’s related to the word ‘own’. To own someone in a game is to have overcome them, beaten them, and pwn conveys a similar meaning. Maybe it also relates to overpowering an enemy? It’s all a bit weird to this old timer. I am struggling to think of an occasion where I’ve used this expression, and I would like to think that’s because I haven’t. Still, you never know…

Will I do another post along these lines? Will anyone else step in and throw down a metaphorical gauntlet of weirdness? Watch this space.

Farouche

Over on my personal blog, Meerkat Musings, I’ve been aiming to post at least once a day, every day, throughout 2023. So far, I’ve succeeded, but there is still a loooong way to go! I have been seeking inspiration for prompts, and one scheduled post will offer some personal thoughts on the brilliant word, farouche.

Farouche is a word that speaks to me. It means ‘to be sullenly unsociable or shy’. Shyness is not an affliction of mine, but that wish to be unsociable? You betcha. Being sociable means dealing with people, and people usually bring problems.

Humans are annoying. You just settle in, get comfortable in your skin, and suddenly you’re called to assist someone. You get back to what you were doing, but the flow has been disrupted. Good luck getting it back. You could find yourself travelling on a plane, and winding up next to some stranger who will not stop yapping at you, or you have the problem of the crying child, for the entirety of a five-hour flight (not had this, thankfully, though did experience it for an hour-long flight once). It’s no wonder that there are many scenarios where we want to crawl inside our own minds, and not come out until the world is a bit less peoplely.

Sometime we’re anti-social not because we are annoyed with people, but because we’re actually quite happy with our own company. I know I feel this way sometimes. I don’t want to go out, or interact with anybody, because I’ve got my books and games, and I am quite content with that. I work in retail, so I deal with people on a daily basis, and sometimes, I just don’t want to, so on a day off from work, I am not inclined to go anywhere or do anything. Sure, you make concessions for the ones you love, but equally, you kinda need those concessions to come your way too. After a long day at work, the last thing I need is to vault across to a supermarket and face still more people, but for the benefit of my loved ones, I’ll do it, just don’t be surprised if I treat myself to a glorious golden beer whilst I’m at it. That’s my price for having to be even remotely sociable.

Not Letting Go

Hold me!

Ahem, so, it’s been a minute since anyone posted here, on the Nudge Wink Report, and I refuse to let that stand. I have fresh(ish) art to inflict upon the masses, and a number of dad jokes to torment you with. Let’s start there.

If you have a helpful ant, is it your assist ant?

Have I told you my bad memory joke?

There are three types of people in this world. Those who can count, and those who can’t.

Bad spellers of the world, untie!

My wife is leaving me because I’m going bald. Oh well, hair loss.

Have I told you my bad memory joke?

Whilst I think of witty observations of recent events (recent events that somehow don’t set off an existential crisis in everyone), I will have to leave things there for now. Hopefully this can kickstart proceedings here, given them a Nudge (Wink Wink), and we can all Report in the right direction.