Funny words, just because

In checking the dictionary for a word, I discovered that waesucks is a word. Now, that is a cool word. It originated in Scotland and means 'alas!' So one might say, "Waesucks, he loves me not," or "Waesucks, we have no beer, we will have to drink water."

This discovery of waesucks follows Jeff Frantz and I chortling over the (proper, not joking) use of the word muumuu. He found that the NY Times mag did a story Sunday on the difficulty plus-sized women have in getting high fashion. It included this graph:

Given the fit challenges a plus-size customer faces, the shift to a virtual space where nothing can be tried on can seem alienating to her - a directive to wear a muumuu. She may not particularly like muumuus, and she doesn’t want to be regarded as someone for whom muumuus are a reasonable choice.

Three times in 54 words! That's fantastic.

That got Jeff and I thinking about a contest for best use of the word muumuu in a story. (I dare you to get 'waesucks' in outside of a quote ... although if you tracked down a Scotsman and got him to say that, you'd have to use it.)

 Or maybe there's another odd/weird/funny word we should find in a story and acknowledge the author somehow? What's your favorite? What's the best word like that you've ever actually seen in a story?

You know you know that guy

This is hilarious. A blogger (the blog's called "I want to go to the zoo with Roy Halladay") wrote character sketches for which Philadelphia Phillie is which player on your company softball team. For example: Ben Francisco -- "He wears all the latest Under Armour and Nike gear, is really fit, runs fast, has a strong arm, and it's evident that he goes to the gym regularly and can beat the crap out of you. But he sucks."

Even if you're not a Phillies fan (I'm not) and/or not a company softball-team player (I'm not) this is just flat-out good fun writing. And from my already-held impressions of Phillies' players, this blogger nailed it.

*Thanks to Pat Abdalla for flagging this one.

It is what it is: A columnist takes on idiots

For the 26th year, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Gene Collier awards the Trite Trophy for abuse of the English language, by sports writers, broadcasters, athletes and fans. His short list isn't very short, with many phrases in the discussion, but at the end of the day take a moment to read this absolute monster piece of writing.

As a writer, Collier clearly has a heck of a motor.

Effective use of quote marks

I read this story out loud to Wade last night. It's that funny.

And when I read it, I was sure to alert the listener to the existence of quote marks wherever the writer had them. They made it even more comical, something I hadn't thought possible.

This isn't narrative journalism by any stretch of the imagination, but this is clearly a case of a reporter realizing the hilarity of the story and playing it up.

The lede is pretty straight. The fun starts at paragraph No. 4:

DeWeese had some quirky demands, said Manzo and two other former staffers, Kevin Sidella and Scott Brubaker: His state-paid driver had to show up with the state car recently waxed; aides withdrew his money from ATM machines because he didn't know how to use them; and he'd ask for "a small coffee in a big cup," or "a sandwich cut in four" pieces, they said.

"Bill is obsessive. He has to have everybody around him doing something. He will hand you a cup and say, 'Get me 12 M&M's' — ridiculous requests," Sidella testified in June 2008.

Requests for such things as a "small salad in a big bowl" were part of what Brubaker in December 2008 called the "daily nuttiness that he put his immediate staff through."

There's more (near the end), so click on the story and read it.

A reader on twitter remarks: "This Tribune-Review story makes Bill DeWeese seem like Michael Scott."