Most portmanteaus are blends of two words: slithy from slimy and lithe, brunch from breakfast and lunch. But every so often, and with great effort, someone creates a portmanteau from three or more words. These tripartite blends, overstuffed like a Thanksgiving turducken, are the subject of my September column for the Visual Thesaurus.
My columns are paywalled for three months. Here’s a slice to whet your appetite—some turduckenym examples from the world of branding and advertising:
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Most of the time, I enjoy learning new words. But every so often I come across a new-to-me word that I sort of wish I’d never seen. That’s the case with glowie, which popped up on Twitter a few days ago in a reference to a far-right rally planned for September 18 in Washington, DC. Now that I’ve learned about it, you’re going to learn about it too. Quit reading now if you’re easily offended by conspiracy theories or a spelled-out N-word.
The tweet pointed to “Let’s Talk About September 18,” posted on September 9, 2021, in Jared Holt’s Substack newsletter Sh!tpost. Holt is a reporter who covers the intersection of politics and technology, with an emphasis on domestic extremism. His take on the September 18 rally—which organizers say will “demand ‘justice’ for people arrested for participating” in the January 6 US Capitol riot—is that it’s been overhyped by conventional news media, and that “the overwhelming consensus in extremist communities is: Don’t go.”
Here’s why:
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“The Internet Is Rotting,” reads the headline, and it’s no overstatement. The article beneath the hed, published in The Atlantic on June 30, 2021, was written by Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of law and computer science at Harvard who has spent a lot of time thinking about the World Wide Web and its discontents. He’s worried, as we all should be, about the alarming impermanence of our digital artifacts. And he’s proposing solutions.
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My latest story for Medium is about language, identity, and what it means to be “Anglo-Saxon”—which is how I was labeled when I lived in Israel, despite having neither Angles nor Saxons anywhere in my family tree.
You can read it here: When I Was Anglo-Saxon.
Happy Labor Day and a sweet new year—5782 on the Jewish calendar—to those who celebrate.
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It’s Week Eleventy-Kajillion of the COVID pandemic and we’re headed into the long Labor Day weekend here, and then the Jewish New Year. I have no amusing stories about names and brands today; instead, here are a few things I’ve been reading (and stewing over) that you may find interesting.
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