Let's not go there

[rsc]

The Prestigious Universities from which jwg and I graduated send us frequent brochures for various exotic (and expensive) trips, which we always look at but never really seriously consider. Today we got one from MIT for a trip we've never seen before" "The Faces of Melanesia". a 19-day cruise that starts in Fiji and gradually works its way northwest to Papua New Guinea. It actually looks very interesting, but aside from being really expensive, it's right after a trip that we're already taking, so it would be a bit much.

But what inspired me to post was John's observation that "Melanesia" sounded like the condition of having forgotten that you had melanoma, although I claim that he was actually thinking of "melamnesia".

Comments

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

have you ever run across The Meaning of Liff, by Douglas Adams (who went on to write Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy)??

the premise behind Liff is that there are many place-name nouns that are not used much outside their own locality, and so could be given other part-time work. I think you'd enjoy the book.

(LIFF is a village in Angus, Scotland; and also the name of that sticker on overly-enthusiastic self-help books that reads This book will change your life!)

some of my favourites are:

BANFF (adj) - that peculiar facial expression only achieveable in passport photographs
PENGE (n) - the wooden hinge on which the cuckoo emerges from the top of the clock
PEEBLES (n) - a disease of sheep
TORONTO (n) - Generic term for anything which comes out of a gush despite all your careful efforts to let it out gently, eg flour into a white sauce, tomato ketchup on to fried fish, sperm into a human being, etc
WOKING (v, pr part) - the act of going into the kitchen and wondering what it was you were supposed to be doing there
and, perhaps most pertinent to your discussion
SILESIA (n) - medical term; the inability to remember, at the critical moment, which side of the boat it is safe to vomit from.

you can find a listing of other Liff terms here.

I actually use a significant number of them, particularly VANCOUVER

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I remember that book. It made the rounds of the office back in, oh early-to-mid 1980s sometime.