Made-up Words

There has been a small flame war on a board about using the word “frell”. Frell, as you may remember or may not, was the all-purpose swear word used in the TV series FarScape. One individual got bent out of shape and asked people please not to use made up words on the board. If one wanted to swear then swear. When it was pointed out to her that all words are made up, the board dissolved into flames with a lot of people saying “frell this”. I can remember when the word of choice was “Shazbot” or before that “Felgercarb”. There was a great issue of the comic book “Nodwick” in which one of the characters was trying out a new swear word “Krutz”. They found out that if the word was used a certain number of times, a great evil would be unleashed so they had to find a way to stop everyone from saying it. The solution was brilliant. In our school for some strange reason the word “boink” became a swear word as in “this boinks” not the sexual connotation which none of us knew at the time. All words are made up. We use them to express things. It is just easier when we all use the same words. I think using frell rather than some real swear is in the long run better. You can get the emotion out with the word but you are not stepping on social landmines. People just look at you funny.

Proud Mommy Moment (well for me it was)
Caroline has my old flip phone that was destroyed by water. She holds the phone with the bottom facing me and opens and closes it a little while saying “Rawr, Rawr, Rawr” as she opens and closes it. She turned the phone into a puppet. Sniff I am so proud. She then took the eyes from Ariel’s Mrs. Potatohead and put them in her fingers and pretended to be Oobie by having her hand talk to me. Then she wanted me to put the eyes between my fingers and be a hand puppet. Peter came in on the middle of this and said, “She’s your daughter.” Yes, she is and I am very proud of her.

I am grateful for my daughter’s expanding world.