Random Caboodle #3
Disclaimer: My mind has been working in pictures rather than words of late, making it difficult to produce a blog post. But I do have a special one in the works for next week (if my words don’t jump into the creek out back and float down to the Huron River). So rather than posting nothing, I bring you another random caboodle.
Eggcorns
RobWords is a YouTube channel I enjoy because I love words and their etymology. Rob introduced me to a new term. I was (as you likely are) already very familiar with eggcorns themselves.
Rob’s video was inspired by a Bruce Liberman blog post that notes:
The word eggcorn was originally proposed in a LLOG post almost 20 years ago…And the word is now recognized by most current English dictionaries and other relevant sources…
The Oxford English Dictionary defines eggcorns as, "An alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements as a similar-sounding word." For example, eggcorn for acorn.
In my first Random Caboodle I confessed to two of my own eggcorns—catch for cadge (as in “cadge a ride”) and chew for Jew (as in the racist phrase “Jew him down” because I couldn’t imagine why someone would use an ethnic group in such a phrase). “Butt naked” was one of my sister Edie’s frequent eggcorns, despite my attempts to reform her habit and get her to say “buck naked” (which, I learned from Rob’s video, is also a racist term, so I’ll try to eliminate that one from my vocabulary). Edie cracked me up with her eggcorns all the time.
Retiring Work Habits
Friday was the one year anniversary of my last day working at the University. There was one “work habit” that took months to break.
I’d been working at home the two years before retiring. Every morning I’d rise, make coffee, and crack open the laptop when my mug was full. I’d log into the “virtual office” and get to work.
After retiring, I’d get up every morning, make coffee, and crack open the computer. My new Apple instead of my University’s computer, but…
I’d do my puzzles—Wordle, Quordle, Phrazle, & Spelling Bee—check my email and Instagram posts. I’d close the computer. But soon I was opening it again. Surely there was something in there needing my attention.
Opening the computer was not the habit I needed to retire. It was a subconscious feeling that work requiring my attention was in there. I’d spent my days responding to questions from faculty and administrators, reviewing my team’s work, creating presentations, etc.
Even though my conscious brain knew I didn’t have to do that anymore, my subconscious brain kept nagging me not to neglect my duties. I’d open the computer and feel this pull, like an ache. I’d close the computer. A little later, I’d open it again. For twenty years it had held things requiring my attention.
Funny now, how many months it took me to figure out what that ache was all about. Once I did, I could move on to other things (and I feel lucky I didn’t get sucked into doom scrolling during those months!).
Three Challenges of Dogdom
I won’t gross you out with the dirty details, but there’s been the need for antidiarrheals, probiotics, antibiotics, and carpet shampoo at our house of late. Within a week of each other, Henry and Freyja suffered different maladies. Freyja mistakenly got blamed for round two, for a day, before it became obvious that it was Henry who created the new messes. Note: No dog was punished for that beyond his or her control—I’m using the word “blame” loosely.
Freyja has decided that all indoor toys belong outside and all sticks should be torn to shreds indoors. While annoying to need to pick up squeaky, chew, and pull toys before mowing, and having to sweep up wood bits indoors that pales against the new version of the game. She has discovered the outdoor shoe storage. Now there’s nothing better than dashing off with a garden boot. Scolding and a stern directive to “leave it!” produce prancing glee. Sigh.
Good old Henry requires enticements to get him to eat. We boil chicken and hamburger. We add cottage or shredded cheese. We coat his medicine in butter and stick the cheese to it. For some reason, we are compelled to add goodies to Freyja’s food out of a weird sense of fairness. She doesn’t get as much, but some. The problem is, while Henry continues to get bonier, Freyja is getting plump, now that she’s reached adult size. I swear, she’s got labrador hidden in her DNA. She loves to eat like a lab. I fear a scolding from the vet awaits us.
That’s the kit and caboodle for today! See you next week.
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PHOTO CREDITS:
Computer photo by Andras Vas on Unsplash
Dog photos by me with phone
