Incognito

I saw an unmarked bus traveling by. They're usually marked. A big bus logo. Something pertaining to the famous passengers. Something about the team, in those cases.

This one was completely unmarked. It was the White Album of buses, definitely traveling incognito.

Barney Fife voice: "Nito, In-cog-nito."

'50s commercial voice: "Kids! It's Neato! In-cog-neato!"

Joe Friday: "My name is Nito, In-cog-Nito."

The Day The Earth Stood still: "Klaatu barada incognito."

Bad Puns (Or Something)

The Hisson Hearse Company.

Forensics - Four Insects.

The Yukon (a vehicle) is good for humorous people (yukkin').

Innernalia

It looks like this word (which I don't think really is a word) is a foreign word but not an English word.

I was thinking of it just before I went to sleep last night, so I messaged it to myself on my phone so I wouldn't forget it by morning.

It's kind of a mixture of paraphernalia and inner realities. The suffix of paraphernalia, meaning the things pertaining to something. Bacchanalia would be another good example.

I'm interested in my own innernalia. And my externalia as well. But that's getting a little personal!

The Secrets of Inner Beauty

What do I know about the secrets of inner beauty?

I think I know something about them. And whatever it is that I know, that I will delve into tomorrow on Grandma Slump. I'm getting strangely into a thematic approach.

I'm always a little freaked out by the word "delve." It's not a normal word, is it? I always picture sleazy guys saying it, "We're going to delve into the important lessons of life. Amen?"

And the word "glean" has to go with it. "Once we delve into the important lessons of life, Amen? Then we'll be able to glean from those lessons the things we need to know today."

Could someone shout hallelujah?

Pebbles, Nibbles, Troubbles, And Abbilities

Perhaps I will say a few things. It's not habit forming, they say. And anyway, I can quit anytime I want.

I'll just check in, then I'll be gone. Must exercise some discipline lest I waste my whole day. That won't happen.

Speaking of discipline, I must not eat too much for lunch. That's a terrible thing. Then I get very tired.

But that's a bridge I'll cross when it floats by. Until then, I have this other struggle, my reluctance to get out of this chair.

It doesn't matter, ultimately, if I sit here an extra five minutes. Or maybe it does. If every pebble in a pond changes the earth's course.

I could've spent the last hour reading. I should've. But don't beat yourself up all the time. Good grief. "Could've, would've, should've."

The little pebbles I throw in the pond don't seem to change the earth that much. Maybe I'm not throwing them hard enough.

Technically how big can a pebble be? That might be the problem. I need bigger pebbles.

Boulder-sized pebbles. I could do some real damage with those. Get me one of those medieval catapults, fend off the sheriff and police.

They're going, "We can't stop this guy. He has a year's worth of boulders lined up." What about when he sleeps? "Oh, yeah, that might work."

I must not let it go that far ... I'll just sit here, dangling my feet in the water, playing with this toaster ... throwing pebbles.

The word "nibble" and the word "pebble" are similar. Is there something about "bble" that means small?

If there is, and you have small trouble, it'd be "troubble." But if it's major, leave out a B.

I'm "abble" to do a particular task, but my "abbilities" are limited. I'm "able" to do a particular task if my "abilities" are great.

The more B's you put in, that's the degree that you are "abbbbbbble" or "able" to get the job done.

So a tiny bite when you're fishing is a "nibbbbbbbbble" and a normal one is a "nibble."

A little bit of talk is "babble." Just a nibbling of babbling would need a few more B's.

There's an argument to be made for it.

Punch Drunk

Have you ever been punch drunk? I'm sure I haven't been.

We hear of people spiking the punch. Which would be to pour something from a flask into it on the sly. I guess I hang out with a better crowd usually.

Other punches. Punch your ticket. That's the way we did lunch tickets when I was a kid. Get it punched. Now they probably scan a card like a debit card. The puncher manufacturer must've taken that like a punch to the gut.

A punch to the gut is a punch that might be hard to take. How about a left punch? From out of nowhere. A haymaker.

Punch the clock. I used to punch the clock. I got a job at a place and they had a big wall of places to put your punch card. I had the very last, literally the last possible slot next to the door. There were hundreds. I was 1600.

It's been a while. So I forget. But after me, they either moved to another wall or they had to fire a few people with numbers ahead of mine.

Don't forget to punch out or you might be one of the ones fired.

Kickbacks Miscellaneous

Don't kick against the pricks, they kick back. Some take kickbacks. No getyabacksies. No kickyasbacksies.

I've had the song "In The Navy" in my head today, with various lyrics. One was to sing about a local doctor, whose name I will replace with some generic name with the right number of syllables:

Doctor Robertson,
You can tell him how you feel.
Doctor Robertson,
You will get a better deal.
Doctor Robertson,
There's no charge if you don't heal.
Doctor Robertson, Doctor Robertson.

Head Pun

Don't lose your head. Keep your pate in place.

Back Up -- Beep Beep Beep

I've got my back up. And I'm not ready to back down.

They Can Decipher It In The Future

In my quest to digitize my life -- to put all my class notes, term papers, and incidental projects on my computer and get rid of the paper -- I came across this word. It was in the middle of a regular size notebook page. At first I just tossed it aside, but then I thought it might be significant someday. Maybe I would wonder what it said.

I couldn't read it at first because I thought it started with a V. I was just thinking maybe science someday would come up with a way of deciphering it. But then as soon as I thought that I was able to make it out. It's an R, and it says "ratrace."

So at one time, with that paper right before me, I wrote the word "ratrace." Which according to the spell checker here must be supposed to be two words, "rat race."

It's a good word for today, just as it was back then, which would have been sometime between 1990-1992. What a treasure.

When A Person Is Precious

I described someone today -- searching for the right word -- as "precious," and the woman I was talking to, the daughter of the person being described, said, that was "the right word" to describe her with. Which made me feel good. I had those few seconds and could have blown it royally.

What "precious" means in this case is almost an intuitive leap. Someone off the beaten path yet with enough remaining style and eclat (that's a word, I think) and approachability to be "dear," yet maybe not so much as to be universally acclaimed as such.

I myself don't volunteer too much, but I try to give bursts of that sort of thing. Just don't hang around more than 10 seconds or it will either evaporate or wear thin. I detect it in others, but seldom enough that it's worth a comment.