Unfinished Business

Amy sent me a few more suggestions for clever group names:

A bouquet of florists
A yard of landscapers
A sextet of prostitutes (but why would they travel only in 6’s?)

She also favors “fathom” as the group name for philosophers.

Unlike the group name game, the best-and-worst Xmas song contest only got two entries – mine and my sister’s. Consequently, every category had either a unanimous winner or a 50-50 tie. Here they are:

Best Classic: Tie – “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “O Holy Night”
Worst Classic: Tie – “The 12 Days of Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
Best Modern: “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses
Worst Modern: “Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart” by Wham!

There were plenty of honorable mentions in the worst modern category, and I don’t want to leave them out: “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth,” Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmas Time,” and any Christmas song done by the Chipmunks.

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Word Repurposing

I can think of many nouns that have been verbed: "I tried to /knife/ the intruder," "Jones will /chair/ the meeting," etc. I can also think of many verbs that have been nouned: "Have a /go/ at solving the puzzle," "He made one /throw/ of the dice," etc. The transformation of one part of speech into another is a pretty common phenomenon in English. But I can think of only two nouns that have been adverbed, and both concern one's position in a moving vehicle. If you "ride /shotgun/" in a car, you ride in the front passenger seat; if you "ride /bitch/," you sit between the driver and the front passenger (or, sometimes, in the middle of the back seat). Can anyone out there think of other examples of nouns being used as adverbs? (To count, it must be possible to use the word as an adverb without any suffixes like "-ly" attached to change its form.)

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