My vocabulary is revealing my age, or at least the era I was born in. Many of the words, terms, and phrases that were common in my younger years have either disappeared or taken on totally different meanings - meanings that today will get you, at the very least, a sideways glance, snicker or outright guffaw.
For instance, no one - and I mean no one - uses the word "guffaw" any more. Other words that I just do not hear are fiddlesticks, humdinger (that one is even "old" for me), fussbudget, whippersnapper, folderol, just to name a few. I miss hearing and comfortably saying "guffaw" because I think it appropriately describes the sound that people make when they spontaneously laugh aloud. Depending on where you live, your age, and the circle you run in, "fiddlesticks" is most definitely a more polite and socially acceptable "f" word than the current, mostly socially abhorrent "f" word that some use like the words "the, and, it, that, an, a". At times, I feel the inspiration to purchase a case of thesauruses to carry around for dispersal to people who need to find alternative words for the "f-bomb".
However, I digress.
Another term that I use, but the current meaning of gets me into difficulty is "hooking up". Not all that many years ago, "hooking up" meant simply getting together - perhaps two women having coffee or a man and a woman making arrangements to sit down at some agreed location to discuss a business matter, NOT the twenty-first century "hooking up" connotation of a sexual liaison. Talk about provoking snickers (another seldom heard word), just try saying to another individual - in front of younger persons, "Let's hook up later."
Today's newspaper carried an article about "fracking" - an energy-related term or process that means extracting oil and natural gas from shale by fracturing underground rock formation with a high-pressure jolt of water, sand and chemicals. Depending on which side of the Environmental Fence you are seated, "fracking" can be a highly volatile subject. In my world of instrumental music, "fracking" is often associated with the awful, cracking sound one makes when either learning how to play the trombone or that one purposefully makes when attempting to "frack" into the ear of another - mostly an annoying tactic that never fails to garner the attention of either the band director, the "fracked-upon's" parent, or the "fracked-upon" him or herself, who will most definitely quickly tattle about the instrumental affrontal to whatever adult is available......unless it is a maneuver designed to get the attention of the opposite sex - something akin to pulling on the pigtails of the cute girl who sits in front of you in the classroom.
I note that since my last sentence was a run-on sentence of the first degree, it should be time for me to sign off Ancora Imparo.
In keeping with today's topic, I guess I should say, "Gotta go, Daddy-e-o".
Ancora imparo
