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Wednesday puns
Two of today’s cartoons: a Dilbert and a Pearls Before Swine, both with elaborate puns: (#1) This turns on the verb weasel, plus the legal phrase (beyond a) reasonable doubt (plus the derivation of...
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Three more cartoons for Sunday
Following on a Zippy and a Mother Goose and Grimm, the day continues with three more cartoons: a Bizarro with sluggish portmanteaus (and a pop culture allusion); a Pearls Before Swine with a...
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Two punny moments
… in today’s cartoons: Mother Goose and Grimm, with a perfect pun; and Bizarro, with an imperfect pun (or perhaps a portmanteau): (#1) (#2) #1 plays on the ambiguity of beyond, as a preposition (in the...
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Another batmanteau
Posted by Hott Box on Facebook, and passed on to me by Mike Reaser: I see this as a portmanteau (of Batman and fan), but it could also be seen as an imperfect pun on Batman. The Batman theme...
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bat-, -mobile, and -man
It started with the Batmobile, Batman’s astounding car (which first appeared in 1966). Batmobile looks like a portmanteau of Batman and automobile, but both parts are more complex than that. A...
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More raw protein
Following up on steak tartare, finely chopped raw beef, I turn to the related case of carpaccio, very thinly sliced raw beef; and the fish correspondent to steak tartare, ceviche; and the pleasures of...
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Lee Lorenz, Matthew Barney, and more
In the New Yorker of 7/22/13 (p. 13 ), “Critics Notebook: Drawing Power” by Andrea K. Scott, beginning: Hanging right now at the Morgan Library is a Lee Lorenz cartoon, titled “Proust Orders from the...
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Odds and ends 8/18/13
An assortment of short items on various topics, beginning with three from the July 22nd New Yorker. Portmanteaus, New Jerseyization, oology, dago, killer whale, and Gail Collins on Bob Filner. 1....
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Five television hunks
(Not about language, except for a couple portmanteaus towards the end. The last image is not SFW.) Seeing James Marsden on the cover of the latest Out magazine and coming upon a Bones re-run with David...
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Brief mention: a genital portmanteau
Via Ellen Seebacher, a link to a HuffPo piece on Cliteracy 101: Artist Sophia Wallace Wants You To Know The Truth About The Clitoris Yes: clitoris + literacy. Sophia Wallace isn’t the first to coin the...
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frape
Steven Levine writes me about coming across the portmanteau frape on a recent visit to Ireland, heard from young Irish acquaintances: It refers to somebody getting hold of your Facebook access (I’m...
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Quisp and Quake
Reflecting on portmanteaus yesterday, I was reminded of the breakfast cereal Quisp, with a name that combines Quaker (Oats Co.) and crisp. Quisp was introduced with a companion cereal Quake, with a...
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Portmanteau fashion
Back in July Katy Steinmetz at TIME Magazine wrote me about portmanteaus and whether people are more prone to inventing them than they used to be. I had the impression that they are, but then I’m...
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disappoptimist
Today’s Pearls Before Swine, with an absurd portmanteau: That’s disappoint(ed) + optimist. Though (like Goat) I wonder how you could maintain optimism in the face of constant disappointment. Note that...
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Saturday morning showoff
The cover of the August/September 2013 Instinct magazine, with (as usual) male eye candy: (#1) Given the sexy photo, I expected the Putignano piece to be about so-called “sex addiction”, but in fact...
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Miscellany for 9/19/13
Twelve items that have come by me recently. 1. Today’s holiday. It’s (International) Talk Like a Pirate day today. Last posting on the holiday on this blog (with links): 9/10/11 “R!”. 2. On the spam...
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NCOD 2013
Today is National Coming Out Day. From Wikipedia: National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an internationally observed civil awareness day celebrating individuals who publicly identify as bisexual, gay,...
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Portmanteau news
Two portmanteaus that came past me recently, from several sources: racino and this year’s conjunct holiday (in the U.S.), Thanksgivukah. 1. racino. From Wikipedia: A racino is a combined race track and...
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Another animal portmanteau
In the Beautiful Farmyard postcard set, one for the Brahmousin: Hybrids of many kinds are named by portmanteaus; the names mirror the things. So it is with the Brahmousin. (Brahmousins are usually...
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Thanksgiving news
Two items for (U.S.) Thanksgiving: once more on Thanksgivuk(k)ah, and the entertaining tryptophantastic. 1. Thanksgivuk(k)ah again. The rare confluence of (U.S.) Thanksgiving and Hanukkah has been all...
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