Word to CoSPers!

​I could barely sleep last night.  The excitement of going to Planet Word with my good friend Heather was too much to bear, particularly after my Saturday pandemic routine of jogging, biking, hiking, napping, playing with Chester, and take-out (which is actually a pretty fun routine).  But somehow I made it, and I made it to the museum.  Heather and I waited on a socially distanced line (and behind us was a woman named Sheila, who we found out later is a member of CoSP!  Small world!). 
 
After we got in, the first place we went to was this interesting word wall.  You could speak into a microphone, and you’d hear the stories of the origins of some of the words.  The wall opposite that had more origins.  Heather and I, both devoutly childfree people, spotted the words “infant,” “fabulous,” and “banal” and    “Infants are not fabulous; they’re banal.”  (No offense to our parent friends on here). 

​From there, we participated in a virtual interaction where we got to learn some words commonly used in other countries.  Apparently, kediler means “cats” in Turkish.  Heather and I both love our kediler!  We also got a cool picture of me being “mischievous” and Heather being “impish.”   And, of course, us holding cardboard cutouts of our favorite creatures: cats.

​Once in the room full of classic books, we separated for a bit.  I watched videos on the rhythm of poetry and was transported back to a course I took during my Master’s program at SUNY New Paltz with Dr. Robert Waugh where I learned all about poetic devices such as iambs, trochees, and dactyls (the latter of which are used in rap music).  Next up was a video on corpus analysis of text, which is why whenever I type the works “picks self up,” my phone automatically gives me the option of autoentering “from floor,” and then “wipes tear,” and finally, “from eye.”  Heather checked out the karaoke room starring Neil Diamond, which, as I type, I now regret not seeing.  But, hey, I can always go back. 
 
I made us a reservation at this lovely Mediterranean restaurant called Zaytinya, but we had more time than I thought we would before the reservation, so we walked around and talked.  At Heather’s encouragement, I continued to say, “Hellwoooo Chester” to every dog that passed (but not every baby; that would be banal).  Heather even said, “that’s a cute Chester,” about one dog, about which I commented on her use of metonymy.  She also informed me about “evil eyes,” which were on the restaurant’s website, and she texted me about them yesterday.  She had sent a picture of her cat/son Raven, so I thought she was referring to his eyes (Chester can also make some pretty intense eyes when he wants to).   Evil eyes; I’d love to be able to use it on a few people, but I digress.
 
We enjoyed some awesome cuisine.  Heather got the Falafael, while I sampled an omelette horitaki, and we split some Brunch Fries.  Mmmmmm… We talked words, people who will eat McChickens and hot dogs but won’t get the vaccine because they don’t know what’s in it, gas hoarders, people who need to get permission from their spouses to drink soda, old-world Jewish culture, and other fun topics.
 

​We parted ways at about 1, and when I got home, I sampled Smarties (not that tart candy, but a British version of M&Ms).  I dug ‘em, for sure.  Thanks, Heather!  And, as always, I enjoyed our banter.  Word to your Raven!