Most of us use the word cathartic when we refer to anything that causes relief. A “good cry,” or similar action is cathartic because, after we’ve done it, we just feel better, clearer headed or ready to move on, right? I used this word recently in reference to my weekend, during which I’d done a lot of thinking, planning, cleaning and more-or-less purging of old things and thoughts.

After I used the word I though to myself, as I often do, “was that the word I should’ve used?” I promptly looked it up just to make sure I didn’t sound like an idiot (like the time I confused incredible and incredulous — not their meanings, just their appropriate uses). As it turns out, I probably could’ve gotten away with catharsis but should have thought twice about cathartic. Here’s why:

Catharsis, a noun, mostly has to do with purging of unwanted emotions, leaving behind mysery or experiencing a kind of release. First used by Aristotle, catharsis  was once thought only to happen after viewing theater, and it certainly retains some relationship to the arts, but has lately expanded in meaning. Now, we can experience catharsis from reading, viewing art or just living, too.

While still not the best description of a weekend, it’s far better than cathartic which, despite some obvious connections to catharsis, is more often used to refer to “evacuation of the bowels.” To boot, cathartic is usually a noun. I shudder to think what the other half of this dialogue thought I did all weekend. Sure, it’s used to discuss emotional purging, too, but that didn’t start until the late 1800s.

The moral of the story is twofold: First, use cathartic when you mean to speak of a synonym for laxative, and second, think before you speak.

Cheers,

N

Hulu.com is a Web site that lets you watch TV shows, movies and clips from your computer. Hulu is a proper noun. I congratulate its founders (NBC, etc.) on their invention of a new word. Maybe someday soon people will say they “hulued” their favorite programs instead of saying “watched on Hulu,” a la the G word. As you might expect, I have some thoughts on the whole verbification of nouns, but I’ll save them for another time.

In the 14 months I’ve lived in my apartment, I have not had access to television. I have a TV and DVD player, so I’m not entirely out of the loop, but I decided against cable (or even “bunny ears”) because I know my own propensity toward laziness. I opted not to have Internet access, either, until very recently. For the record, I watch Mad Men, the one show I can’t live without, at a friend’s house.

So I’ve been reading, socializing, exercising, napping and conceptualizing a blog all this time. And then someone introduced me to Hulu, the most profoundly enjoyable time-suck of 2008 (well, next to Scrabulous, but that’s gone now). Now, I can proudly parrot Colbert and Stewart jokes, join in conversations about The Office and otherwise participate in the minutiae from which I was once ostracized. And that’s as good as it is bad; for socially awkward people, trivial references are invaluable in most contexts, at least much more so than literary ones.

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Have some fun with this one. I pulled it from Engrish Funny, a site that is as amusing as it is probably prejudicial. Peruse it out and tell me if you think the F word might have something to do with the produce aisle.

-Nicole

My second favorite punctuation mark, the interrobang, was first invented in 1962 by an advertising executive. I’m not sure how humanity existed so long without it. Nor can I figure out why it’s still so underused and undersupported (few font character palates offer it).  It’s the only single punctuation mark available for those times when you’re asking a question and making a passionate statement simultaneously. Isn’t that amazing ‽

For more on the history of the interrobang, I encourage you to visit this site.

Not only is it multifariously useful as a punctuation mark, it’s also a cool word, since it combines the Latin root for question (or the formal term for question mark — interrogative point) and the old-school proofreader’s/printer’s word for exclamation point — bang. (By the way, is anyone else interested in resurrecting the use of bang? I think it’s great.)

If you want to stop typing and endless string of “?!?!?!?!” and start using the interrobang in documents or on the Web, you have a few options:

• In HTML, type “&#8253 (that’s how I did it, above)
• Check your font’s character palate; you might get lucky
• Type Alt+8253 in MS Windows

If anyone knows of another way to easily make an interrobang, feel free to share. They’re not very easy to find.

Happy interrobanging!

-Nicole

From the Greek galaktinós, meaning milky, galactic is an adjective describing items related to the Milky Way (Late Latin galaxias) or, more recently/loosely, any galaxy in the universe. From those same milky roots come another definition of galactic: “pertaining to or stimulating the secretion of milk.”* Think lactate (v) or lactose (n).

Some time ago, I was in a Portland, Oregon bar discussing human cheese. The verdict (a few beers later) was that it didn’t sound so bad. But what would you call the company that makes human dairy products? Galactic, I said, because it sounds fancy and modern but it’s also more relevant than most people would realize. Gotta love a double entendre. So I left Oregon with a funny story, some thoughts about sustainable living and a cultural phobia to confront.

Lately, human milk is all over the news. The Wall Street Journal tells us many Chinese women are selling theirs, while PETA campaigns for Ben & Jerry’s to use human milk instead (Americone Dream, anyone?). Our nation’s reaction: disgust and uproar, almost exclusively. But what’s so bad about human milk? Why would we rather drink something designed for baby cows? And why, if breast milk is so repulsive, do some of us advocate its being fed to infants? Read more »