Jan 2018

Eh-Deen!

That's the way Aussies say it.
The first part sounds like
That common Canadian punctuation word, Eh?
When I first moved to Oz
I thought it sounded funny, Eh?
But then my Texan ears adjusted
And after all these years
My now-Canadian eyes
Still pronounce it in Strine, Eh?
I am, after all, tri-lingual...
All in English.

Cogitating about this turn of words
And their sounds and comforts
Made me remember a prezzie from my mum
Circa 1968.
Twas a used book called
Ounce, Dice, Trice
Writ by Alistair Reid
And illustrated by my fave
Jewish artist, Ben Shahn...
Both who applied liberal slatherings
Of humour and whimsy...
Two of my favourite forms of nonsense.

You see, Mr. Reid, offers us alternative universes
Of real English words used in new and enchanting ways.
To count, from one to ten, he suggests:

1. Ounce
2. Dice
3. Trice
4. Quartz
5. Quince
6. Sago
7. Serpent
8. Oxygen
9. Nitrogen
10. Denim

I might add
Elephant and Twee
For an even dozen
And invite all of you to sing
The Twee Days of Christmas.
with me.

And I wonder:
What words would you choose
As counting words?
And more...
What words would you play with
In this New Year's
Eh-Deen different ways, Eh?

So I'm challenging youse all
To my
18 Days of Verbose Nonsense.

Click on the above image to get to my DropBox Nonsense folder.
if problems clicking, just copy and paste this link into your browser:http://bit.ly/2CkSNTQ
You don't have to have a DropBox account, but if you do, note: I'm not sharing the folder,
only giving you access, so it won't count against your memory. Inside you will find two more folders

1. My-Challenges
2. Your-Responses

Each day for 18 days, starting January 1st:

1. Pick up (download) each day's challenge sheet from the first folder listed above It's a PDF identified by the day's number.
2. Send me an email with your responses, each day at the address. which is listed on the challenge sheet.
3. Please put the day's number in your subject line.
4. I will assemble your responses ASAP and put them into another PDF... identifying each of you only by initials.  Then I’ll put these in the “Your-Responses” folder. You're welcome to download and peruse those at your leisure..
5. I'm asking you please to respond within a day or two of each challenge. so we can all feel the momentum.
6. At the end of the 18 days I'll make and share a PDF including all our Nonsense.
7. You don't have to participate every day, but I'm hoping many of you will want to.
8. Each day's challenge will be different and they'll each give you all plenty of scope for your silly creativity and imagination to run rampant.
9. A little lewd is OK, but not crude, please. I will, of course, reserve the right to decide what's lewd and/or crude.

Let's all have a silly 2018!

...
If this isn't nice, what is?
              ~ Kurt Vonnegut, of course