[Wonderful Labs] A WORD IN YOUR WONDER

[Wonderful Labs]

Dear Brainy McBrain,

	Did you know that the words ravel and unravel have the exact same
meaning?  What is up with that?

signed,
Dazed, Confused and Thirsty
________________
Dear William "Sippy" Safire,

	I don't think so.  Who would want to make love to Maurice Unravel's
"Unbolero"?  

	Think about it.  The music starts off really loud then grows steadily
softer?  Not sexy, Sexy.  You'd find yourself straining to catch the
notes and not paying attention to the task at mouth.  It would just get
silly.  Not that making love in a silly manner is strictly undesirable. 
Mister Wonderful once knew these twin limbo instructors in Maui who
owned a helium shop that sat over a novelty magic factory.  It was
*months* before I could listen to an Alvin and the Chipmunks album with
a straight pant leg.
	
	And consider this verbal vexation:  The opposite of "inflammable" is
"incombustible."  How do I know that?  Some joker whose name rhymes with
"Sister Snark" thought it would be funny to cut the helium shipments
with hydrogen.  On the night of the big indoor luau.

	We had to hold the luau indoors because otherwise the wind would have
blown away all our completely scientific drugs.  Not to mention the
trick juggling scarves, which is all the girls had on.


	The more I think about it, the more I am glad that the English language
has no designer, neither architects nor official rulers, and instead
relies on borrowing and convention.  It is an organic, living, changing
language with a rich vocabulary whose roots lie in many different
traditions.  And that makes it a lot easier to rattle off
foreign-sounding phrases when you're ducking onto a steamship disguised
as a Dutch joybuzzer salesman.
	

*****************
WONDERFUL LABS - Fair And Balanced Nonsense
*****************
Mister Wonderful Recommends:  Flooding the world with words, and playing
in the undersea library that is to come.  RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

-- 
Inside-outski, spin, invert, absorb and expel the Revolver

	"Jesus.  I open my mouth,
	the whole world turns smart."

		- Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman),
		"Miller's Crossing"

Where your twist flops
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