I, Sandwich Dominatrix

(Alternate titles: "Pain In The Low Back" and "Better Than A Stick In The Eye-Dialect.")

I had a passing thought this morning about Geoffrey Nunberg, whose takes on the word "blog" I've enjoyed in the past (e.g., I Have Seen the Future, and It Blogs; Prefixed Out). My thought was that someone might want point Mr. Nunberg toward the recent flurry of pro-and-con discussion about the word "blawg." I've been paying scant attention to this discussion — certainly not enough to know what should be included in a collection of pertinent links, so my apologies for not including one. (You might check Technorati's "blawg" and "blawgs" references.) But several people now have pointed me toward Language Log, and related posts there by Mark Liberman (Who let the Blawgs Out?), and, most recently, Benjamim Zimmer (Blawgs, phonolawgically speaking). Since Mr. Nunberg is also one of Language Log's contributors, it would seem my passing thought has (wait for it...) actually come to pass.

I'm:

• FlabbergASSted (to use — or coin?? goodness, let's hope not — a sandwich word that refers to a sense of wonder and disbelief so profound it knocks you squarely on your hindquarters) at the volume of mental CPU cycles people can and will allocate to such issues;


• tickled at the synergy between bags, baggage, and portmanteaux;


• pleased to learn that while my coinage no doubt will continue to provoke and annoy, at least it will do so with some originality (quoth Mr. Zimmer, "I know of no other sandwich word so dominated by its filling");


• struck by the fact I've always been most partial to a sandwich's middle; and


• gratified to hear Mr. Zimmer doesn't consider use of "blawg" to be a cause for alarm. ("Surely context is key.")

If you are among the folks — linguists excluded; it's their job — who might be spending a little too much thought and energy on this borderline microbial issue, please consider channeling your efforts toward something of more tangible benefit to mankind. (Doorknob spam, anyone?)

[Technorati tags: blawg; blawgs; flabbergASSted; doorknob spam]