NTMP #40: Radar Love
Takin' care of seagull business
New-to-me Phrases, November 6, 2022
Hose of the Dragon * Cosmopolitan genus * Seagull business * Sequelae * Ham Yard * Radar dong * Succulent balls * Dirty Gourmet * Peanut Butter Warrior
The Phrases, With Context
It’s November somehow, and yet here we are with a fresh batch of phrases - the 40th edition, in fact. After being a lifelong “Christmas doesn’t start until the day after Thanksgiving!” person, one of my kids put up the tree and some lights around the windows the day after Halloween and I ain’t even mad. The last few years have been a century with a lot of suck contained therein; why not add a little joy a few weeks early?
On to the phrases! This week, we have beautiful typos, I dunk on Elon Musk (again; #cantstopwontstop), the usual array of bird stuff, pugilistic sandwich spreads, and more.
But first:
October Poll Results!
The winner of the fave phrase of October is . . .
Tied for second place were Dicktown, New York and Heckboy.
1. Hose of the Dragon
Who doesn’t love a good typo that manifests as a funny phrase? I (mis)typed the TV series title and now you know about it, too.
Did you watch House of the Dragon? My husband and I were into it. Like, “listening to podcasts about it” into it. Jason Concepcion is my fave analyst, by the way. Dude has two pods where he analyzes GoT/HOTD and a PhD-level knowledge about Westeros.
X-Ray Vision - a pod about nerd media
HOTD is much more female-centric, bringing the multiple harms of a patriarchal feudal society even more into stark relief. And dare I say it’s subtler than GoT? (I dare.) Funny what happens when you have female writers and directors on your crew. 🤔
I will say that seeing the 11th Doctor doing the nasty is sort of like seeing your brother going at it, and I suppose that’s apt. (I’ve waited weeks to make this joke.)
2. Cosmopolitan genus
I keep reading this phrase and seeing “cosmopolitan genius,” and then noting that Elon Musk is neither of those things. I call him “Tony Stark made manifest” and then go back to despairing about why such dumb uncharismatic cruel turds have so much money and therefore so much power when they could be doing so much good with both. That’s just not how dumb uncharismatic cruel turds operate.
ANYWAY, this phrase comes from the Wordle-adjacent Birdle game.
This week, one of the birds was the PIPIT (another new-to-me-bird, which I could make into an entirely other newsletter except I’m not going to do that).
LOOK AT THE CUTE. LOOK AT IT! LOOK AT THAT SATISFIED LOOKING LITTLE FACE. DO NOT COMMUNICATE WITH ME UNTIL YOU HAVE GAZED UPON THIS CUTENESS.
Wikipedia describes pipits as members of a cosmopolitan genus, which means they are distributed in most areas of the world, like house sparrows.
Have I mentioned that I am a minor taxonomy nerd—minor only because Latin does not compute in my brain? I think it hits a sweet spot between my urge to catalog things and my love of animals.
Side note with more fun words: cousins of pipits include wagtails and longclaws.
3. Seagull business
I live in a small town that’s semi-rural and semi-suburban. Ruburban? Subrural?
Anyway, we have a Farm and Fleet, if that tells you anything about the vibe here. For some reason, a flock of seagulls hangs out in the parking lot there despite a lack of a nearby body of water. (Obligatory “that’s a long way to fall from their ‘80s fame” joke.)
Maybe the seagulls like it because Farm and Fleet smells like poo? I’m probably not giving seagulls enough credit here.
These musings do have a point and it’s probably disappointing. One day last week while waiting in the Starbucks drive thru (see? we’re sub-rur-urban!) we noticed the gulls were gone. I wondered where they went and mused that perhaps they had important seagull business to attend to.
That’s it. That’s the phrase origin. My dumb brain bored in a Starbucks drive-thru. That’s exactly how a good 30% of the phrases I’ve collected happen, by the way. #yourewelcome
4. Sequelae
I’m not gonna dwell on the source for this one too much because, ugh, long COVID anxiety because we still know so little of its long-term effects and yet society has moved on to not giving a shit and just . . . Oops. I dwelt.
Anyway if you want to read about a long COVID study and the potential for this virus to wreak long-term havoc on our bodies, here you go. (That’s a WaPo link; I think they still keep their COVID coverage outside the paywall.)
While reading that delightful romp into “we’re fucked,” I had to look up the word sequelae, which is the plural of sequela, which Merriam Webster defines as “an aftereffect of a disease, condition, or injury.”
Fun!
5. Ham Yard
A funny name that also feels perfectly British for what looks like a grand place to stay in London.
6. Radar dong
The devotion to accidental radar dongs perpetuated by local TV weather anchors on Oklahoma City website The Lost Ogle is a vital public service. I found this phrase on Twitter back in 2019 (I didn’t note the source). I recommend both links if you like giggling at this sort of thing and the associated dad jokes that accompany them.
7. Succulent balls
Did nobody in this person’s orbit tell her about the awkwardness of this product name? At least their company name isn’t Ligma.
8. Dirty Gourmet
I love that this brand exists. Three outdoorsy women combined forces to create a site devoted to cooking well while playing outside. I’m into it.
9. Peanut Butter Warrior
Your new fave superhero or the name of a smoothie once offered at Just Salad? You decide.
That’s it for this week!
👀 Remember to stay curious and remain furious! 😡
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I have gazed upon that cute bird! It is very cute, and sounds delightful as well.
Speaking of ham, did you know there's a city in Michigan called Hamtramck? https://hamtramck.us
Keep up the good work! Was writing out FLOCK of seagulls (wrote Glock of seagulls by way of auto correct) and was thinking of my high school days😎