Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Fun with words

I've always wanted to create a new saying. And I've decided 2006 is the year I'm going to do it.

Coining a new phrase isn't the hard part. The real challenge is to create a saying or word so pithy it becomes part of the pop culture lexicon. Like "off the hook" or "shits and giggles" or even "blog."

My friend Chach and I plan to spend the next 12 months collaborating* on this exciting project to keep the English language fresh and confusing. So far we've come up with absolutely nothing.

No, that's not exactly true. We were brainstorming at a New Year's party when celebrity blogger J. Kelly Nestruck (inventor of the wildly popular term "posting the cat") joined our conversation.

Kelly came up with the word "iPoodle" to describe someone who mindlessly jumps from trend to trend.

It was brilliant. It contained the right amount of pith and wit needed to become a legendary neologism like "soccer mom" or "couch potato."

Unfortunately, it was too good to be true. A quick Google search returned 360 hits for iPoodle. There's even an iPoodle t-shirt. So, back to the drawing board we go.

Once we coin a new saying, our mission is to spread it as far as possible. We'll start at the grassroots level by dropping it into as many conversations with friends, family, co-workers and strangers as possible.

Our ultimate goal is to have the word or phase written into an episode of Corner Gas. Just for shits and giggles.

* Feel free to join in on the fun! Email me your suggestions or leave them in the comments box below.

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