To anyone who would like some help getting a book published, an author friend is holding a writing workshop in central london on 19th May.
Maria McCarthy is an inspirational author/journalist/PR guru and regularly lectures on getting published at Bristol University. The event is on 19th May from 7 til 9 somewhere in Coptic St. For more info see her site…
A harmless bit of wordplay this fine thursday morn. Each year the Washington Post asks readers to take any word from the dictionary and alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter and then dreaming up a new definition. Perhaps you’ve seen these before but here are the highlights.
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who is both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
5.Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
6. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
7. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
8. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
9. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
Sarchasm has to be the best, doesn’t it?
If we’re honest, we think the Guardian’s Wyse Words are wittier. The words themselves are slightly more obscure, but the definitions are utter genius…
Horrigami – A point reached in certain activities – the folding of a map, the packing away of a tent or the untangling of a kite on a mercilessly cold and windy day – where it seems conceivable that you will be trying to accomplish this one task for the rest of your life on earth.
Queuthanasia – The sapping of life’s vital energy caused by lining up behind someone at a busy cash machine, railway ticket dispenser or supermarket till who begins the five-minute fumble for their bankcard only when the machine bleeps to request payment. Delay makes machine cancel. Process repeats.
Nibstery- Being convinced, by some sensory mischief between your mouth and your brain, that you still have one more bite left of the snack you have just been enjoying; except you can’t find it. You have either eaten it, or the morsel has slipped through to a high-calorie parallel universe made entirely from treats.
Newpid- A piece of expensive, once state-of-the-art technology that makes you feel slightly sick when you find it gathering dust in a drawer. You thought you needed it. You thought it would make you better. You played with it once and never touched it again. It is now obsolete.
Apolojeer- The art of saying sorry in a totally superior way. The trick is to sound racked with genuine concern, but subliminally convey a withering disdain for how pathetic the other person is for taking whatever you said to heart. Then get them to say sorry for getting you to say sorry.
Hoebylo- The telephone call you make purely to say goodbye to someone, having been cut off by the mobile network just before saying it at the end of the previous conversation. You then get voicemail, requiring the other party to call you back to say hello and confirm receipt of the goodbye.
Pfoffter-A kind of hollow laugh that flops lethargically out of the mouth and is delivered without a smile, used to acknowledge that in some situations or frames of mind, what the other person just said could be amusing to some people, but it doesn’t really work for you. Try it now.
Waitrogues-Vehicles that glide malevolently around supermarket car parks like sharks in a tank, and seem to follow you wherever you turn your trolley. Just when it begins to feel as if you are about to lose your life in the crossfire of a bungled kidnapping, you realise they are just fishing for your parking slot.
Selfilmportance- The forbiddingly cool atmosphere created by movie crews – via big lights, cranes and hazard tape – that makes you feel like a pointless twit for needing to get in your front door while they film in your street. They are actually deeply envious you can do that rather than babysit a smoke machine until 4am.
If anyone has any other gems, feel free to share.
Not a lot of people realise how much fun there is to be had with the humble out of office auto-reply. I (lol) was startingly reminded of what an unsung media space it is the other day when I wrote an email to my friend, copywriter and poet of adland, Rishi Dastidar. This bounced back into my inbox telling me he was away. I was about to delete it unread when the first line caught my eye, and I realised there was a lovely little poem inside, in place of the robotic missive you’re normally confronted with.
It was so charming I decided to share it. It’s not quite the same just repeated here, but try and imagine it ‘in situ’ if you will, in an email.
The paperclip told me
In a menacing way,
“You can’t just flee
Because it’s your birthday.
I solemnly propose
That you compose
A short, pithy note
Allowing you to gloat;
Then inform friends, colleagues
And those pesky bots
Who cannot stop,
That your absence will end
On Friday the 5th.
Do it now. Forthwith!”
LORELEI MATHIAS 