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The giant glass slipper
Today’s Bizarro: Portmanteau of Godzilla and Cinderella. (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Don Piraro says there are 5 in this strip — see this Page.) xx
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Portmanteau pop music
Today’s Zippy, with a delightful musical nightmare: Note the title: “Shindigabaloo”, a portmanteau of the names of two American pop/rock music shows on television in the mid-60s, Shindig! and...
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-(a)ganza
Five years ago I took note of the Teapartyganza segments on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show in 2010 (there’s a set of videos of the shows here). At the time, I took the name to be a one-off playful...
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Narcissyphus
The title of an Art Spiegelman cartoon in the June 1st New Yorker: a portmanteau title (Narcissus + Sisyphus) with a visual realization: The woozy protagonist climbs out of his hole, admires himself in...
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Join in their penguin games
Advertised in several places (I saw it in the NYRB), a children’s game called Pengoloo (maybe a portmanteau of penguin and igloo, though there are no igloos in the game): From the makers, on...
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-valanche
And the libfixes pour in. From Joel Berson on ADS-L yesterday, a report of ashvalanche ‘avalanche of ash’ (for two types of ash, with avalanche understood metaphorically). And that leads to plenty more...
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Two for Thursday
In this morning’s crop of cartoons, a One Big Happy and a Bizarro: (#1) (#2) In #1, Ruthie once again fails, unsurprisingly, to cope with things in a language other than English, in this case the...
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shippo
Separate animals, sheep and hippo, together (the pair embraced in the portmanteau shippo): (#1) From an old friend (whose birthday is today). The hippo is William, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art,...
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findependence
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water — (#1) it was Shark Week again, and Findependence Day! (#2) (This year’s programs premiered on the Discovery Channel on the eight days from...
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Zippy and the Icon at the Bluebonnet
Today’s Zippy, which leads in several directions: (#1) Zippy at the Bluebonnet Diner in Northampton MA, trading warning signs at the counter with an icon representing a (generic) person. Stuff here:...
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Morning names: Vibrafoam, Vibram
Two similar brand names, both kinds of portmanteaus, but otherwise very different: acoustic insulation, sturdy soles for shoes. Vibrafoam. From the RubberGreen site: Vibrafoam is a range of vibrating...
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An appellmanteau
Frank Bruni in the NYT Sunday Review on the 19th, in “La Dolce Donald Trump”, beginning: In Rome about a dozen years ago, I had a long dinner with Donald Trump. Only his name was Silvio Berlusconi....
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Shirtless shark-fighting teens
(Not much on language, but entertaining nonetheless.) What unites SoCal teens, shirtless dancers, and fighters of flying sharks? Take a moment to think. Ian Ziering, that’s what. (#1) Yesterday I...
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Self-identification
An Emily Flake cartoon in the August 3rd New Yorker: There reference here is to people with transgender self-identification, though in fact pluots are biological hybrids, parallel to intersex people....
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Briefly: an excellent portmanteau
The NYT Book Review‘s interview on Sunday (the 2nd) was with the author Juan Gabriel Vásquez. Early on, we get: Who is your favorite novelist of all time? Yes, who indeed? The post of Favorite Novelist...
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Mant!
Caught yesterday on KFJC’s Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show: the audio of the trailer for the astounding movie Mant!, a tale of the horror caused when radiation from an atomic bomb affects both a...
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All things shark
Heavy advertisement on cable tv for the summer-end event Shweekend (Shark Weekend — somehow, sharks provoke portmanteaus) on the Discovery Channel. (#1) (The poster plays on the film title Sharknado 3:...
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TV series circuit party animals
Yesterday’s Zippy takes us through 15 television series, of an extraordinary variety: The strip ends with a cute POP (phrasal overlap portmanteau), Playboy After Dark + Dark Shadows. Two of these shows...
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The steely cruise of the Voltron Blaster
(Mostly about men’s bodies and sexuality. But there’s some language stuff too.) From Daily Jocks yesterday, a penetrating gaze: (#1) The accompanying copy (reproduced here without editing): Go...
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Two notes on Wondermark
The Wondermark of the 24th (Permalink here), with David Malki providing more sharp social / political commentary on attitudes about poverty, gender, and race: Two linguistic points: the portmanteau...
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