Wordplay Wednesday™ March 15, 2017 – Banjaxed

St. Paddy’s Day … after ... with Attitudes & Platitudes 

When it comes to slang, we all have our childhood telltale signs of origin. When you least expect it, a down-home expression creeps into your upper crust city talk, and your cover is blown.

Sometimes, though, you simply enjoying messing with your friends. Want to sound like you’re from Ireland the day after St. Patrick’s Day? 🍀

BANJAXED (banʹjaxt) vt. – not in the English dictionary (imagine that). It is, however, bandied about on the Emerald Isle. From an Irish-Information.com newsletter, “An oft-heard and seldom questioned word that is uttered throughout Ireland. It not only sounds great but can be applied to a number of situations! It essentially means broken, beyond repair, in a bad way.” [WW #103]

I laughed out loud when I read their first of four examples, “I'm banjaxed after last night! (After a few pints.)” Ah yes, the Irish bear a mostly exaggerated drunken stigma, though seriously, drinking has little to do with heritage. It has everything to do with attitude—now that we claim.

While everyone else laments they tied one on, were three sheets to the wind, snookered, toasted, hammered, mangled, drunk as a skunk, wankered, or wasted, you can be the cream of the after-party in your slurred Irish lilt with, “Man, I’m banjaxed today from last night’s partying … let’s have another go!”

A word to the wise who don’t drink and drive, or simply don’t drink, it’s easy to still be part of the day-after festivities. Dive into your best acting mode and put on a show worthy of banjaxed. If they weren’t with you the night before, they’ll never know and your party reputation is safe.

Whether you toast with ale or ade (Kool-Aid, Gatorade …) on St. Paddy’s Day, or any day, start with a few Irish toasts of wit and wisdom.

Selected toasts from IrishCentral.com:

May your giving hand never fail you.

May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.

Dung hills rise and castles fall, we are all equal one and all.

And in case you need a refresher course—it’s St. “Paddy’s” Day, not St. “Patty’s” Day. To get in the Irish mood, a couple of fun, fresh takes for a wee $1.23, of St. Patrick’s infamous snakes myth, by John F. Harnish. St. Paddy’s Request.

Word Challenge: BANJAXED. Irish or other, a twisted toast to your brother: Thank God Mother had another! Be creative and insert banjaxed into your week of drunken writings.

Write first for yourself … only then can you write for others.

A little Irish ditty for you!

GENTLEMAN GEORGE

So, Gentleman George

How are you today

Lickety-split

You’re on your way!

Goin’ to the market

Or off to the sea

Gentleman George

Would ya like some tea?

What’s the hurry

Stop for a while

Chat with your friends

And lend them a smile!

See the redhead

Pourin’ yer beer

Gentleman George

She’s callin’, ya hear?

Give ‘er a wink

Tell her a tale

Not a whopper, ya see

Not as big as a whale!

Oh, a wife ye got

And a kid or two

Oh, Gentleman George

Now, what’ll ya do?

Don’t listen, ya hear

To yer devil within

For ya’ll feel much better

When yer t’home, my friend!

Good man, Gentleman George!

© 2001, L.Rochelle

'Til next time ... Sláinte and enjoy a wonderful "wordful" week …

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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Wordplay Wednesday™ February 01, 2017 – Monocolor

Monocolor: color madness in a chaotic world  

On rare occasions I get on my soapbox—usually when the world’s news has exasperated me to distraction. My muse goes into overdrive and my mind slides into the computer. I can’t stop it!

I know my voice is a whisper on the wind, compared to those of the loudmouth know-it-all celebs and politicos. I’m just a nobody know-it-all.

But, I may as well share, since I spent so much time writing it … though someone will certainly misinterpret my words; blow them all out of proportion, and send me into permanent hibernation. Wait a minute—that isn’t such a bad idea …

You may think you know what this week’s word means. You might feel I oversimplify a complex issue. But let me put a different thought on it as we apply it to people …

MONOCHROME: (mänʹɘ krōmʹ) n. – 1) a painting, drawing, design, or photograph in black and white, or in shades of one color often with black or white;2) the art or process of making these; adj. – of or having to do with a single color … [the bolding and italics are mine, hint, hint; WW #97].

Black and White, White vs. Black—but as people, what are we, really? We’ve battled our differences since the beginning of time. To what end? Add a little brown, yellow … throw in some rainbow colors. Has no one thought to create a monochrome blend?

Black and White are supposed to describe certain ethnicities. But in this blended world I think we’ve outgrown those terms. They have become impossible definitions that we continue to chase around the globe. Again, for what purpose?

Hardly monochrome 

A Black person may seem relatively easy to define. Per Webster (in part): “designating or of any of the dark-skinned traditional inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, or Melanesia or their descendants in other parts of the world.”

While Whites—Caucasians—are more of an enigma now than ever, in the history of racial profiling. The dictionary states (in part): “a person with a light-colored skin; Caucasoid.” A tad on the ambiguous side don’t you think?

I am an admitted Caucasian—as dictated by our government—“White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as ‘White’ or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.”

We “Caucasians” have quietly accepted and used our official designation since the late 1700s. After just skimming the surface of this issue however, I’m objecting.

If you read the light exploration into “Caucasian race” on Wiki, you’ll find arguments abound and the definition across centuries and sciences is ill-defined. All ethnicities can have light-colored skin members; doesn’t that make the official definitions of all races erroneous from the get-go?

Even within the same family—my mother’s heritage is Irish and she had olive skin and black curly hair—I appeared with auburn hair and great skin that tans easily (thanks mom!). My dad was of Austrian/German descent. So what does that say about us?

And what of those folks who are lovely shades of brown, tan, or ivory—through natural evolution or enjoyable romps in the hay? Methinks we have diluted the melting pot.

Over the course of the past century, African Americans have eschewed the term Black. Are there anymore “Black” people, or have they all disappeared into the African American reference?

Even after millennia, we can’t agree on any true and definitive basis for “race discrimination”—why not celebrate monochrome and the diversities that brings in common understanding—rather than vilify each other for our differences?

Honestly, any nuances in any race are important only to those in that designation. The rest of us are busy with our own discrepancies.

If we were monochrome …