Repress - a new contranym?

I think I spotted a new contronym this morning.

Here's the definition of contranym and one of my favourite examples from Wiktionary:

A contranym or contronym is a word which has two or more generally accepted meanings in the English language that directly or generally contradict each other.

...

Sanction

"To permit"; or "to restrict" (as in "economic sanctions").

Wikipedia seems to prefer the term auto-antonym and says:

An auto-antonym or autantonym, also called a contronym or antagonym among other terms, is a word with multiple meanings (senses) of which one is the reverse of another. For example, the word cleave can mean "to cut apart" or "to bind together".

New example - Repress

For a moment, an email this morning from the indie pop band Lucius had me thinking their 2016 album Good Grief was being restrained, prevented or inhibited from being distributed. But then I realized that in fact, the album is to be reissued and given wider release:

Good Grief has just been repressed on limited edition blue wave swirl vinyl through the Minneapolis-based co. Bandbox. [bolding added]

I've done some checking and although I can't find a dictionary that talks about the reissuing of recordings,  people are using the word "repress" to refer to an album release from an original master recording. From Discogs Database Guidelines 6. Format:

...A repress must originate from the original master disc, and the term is only applied to formats that are stamped or pressed out, such as vinyl and CD. The 'Reissue' tag can be used in other circumstances, see the guideline for the correct usage of that tag. 'Reissue' and 'Repress' can be used together...

Other artists are using "repress" as well, like PJ Harvey:

IS THIS DESIRE? is repressed on vinyl. Out 29 January 2021 on UMC/ Island.

and the Skatalites:

REPRESSED: THE SKATALITES “Platinum Ska” LP vinyl includes 3 bonus dubs!

Jamaican ska legends’ latest album “Platinum Ska” finally repressed on vinyl with three bonus dubs.

What to do?

I really don't know what to do now. I feel too intimidated to email the experts at Language Log and adding a word to the lists on Wiktionary and Wikipeda goes way beyond the simple grammatical edits I've done before.  

I see that the Talk page for the Auto-Antonym page on Wikipedia has a heading labeled "oo got a new one". I'll try adding my discovery to that and see what happens.

Update - November 15, 2022

"Repress" won't be appearing in Wiktionary or Wikipedia. At least not this week.

My trial-run on the Auto-antonym Talk page on Wikipedia did not go over well. An editor named Meters didn't think "repress" is an auto-antonym and another editor named Sundayclose thought it is a questionable example and for Wikipedia "a reliable source that these words are auto-antonyms is required". 

I should have realized that Wikipedia would need a source. I've read about celebrities trying to fix mistakes on their Wikipedia pages and having their edits reverted because the mistakes had an internet source and the corrections were only the celebrity's unverified words.

If someone would like to take on a campaign to get a language maven to add "repress" to contranym lists, you have my full support.

But if I find time to put into changing the world, I think I should focus on something that is at least as important to our lives as getting elevator buttons fixed.

Pot-Pourri

I mispelled "embarrass" for many years. I thought it was "embarass" and I even had a mnemonic device for remembering that it was only one R: If you are bare assed you would be embarassed. Guess how I felt when WordPerfect's spell checker finally corrected me. That's right, I felt self-conscious and ill at ease.

Speaking of embarrassment, now everyone in our country has a reason to be embarrassed:

Earlier this week, while researching a legal issue, I came across a whole bunch of regulations under the Federal Financial Administration Act that I had never heard of including:

• Ballet Shoes Remission Order, [C.R.C., c. 743]
• Computer Generated Mailing List Remission Order, [C.R.C., c. 752]
• Pasta Remission Order 1988, [S.I./88-106]
• Spirit Destruction Remission Order, [C.R.C., c. 793]

John Stiles at the Manx

John Stiles gave a great reading at the Manx on Saturday. I enjoyed it so much that I bought his novel, Taking the Stairs and one of his poetry collections, Creamsicle Stick Shivs. I would have bought two of his short story collections but he'd only brought one copy of Scouts are Cancelled and David O'Meara had promised it to Andrew Farrell because Andrew's copy was "borrowed" and never returned.

Stiles told us during the reading that at his second last reading, his wife told him he'd read so much nobody needed to buy his novel. So at the reading he did in Ithaca on Friday night, he read much less. He clearly also read much less at our reading because a lot of us seemed to need copies of Taking the Stairs.

Nevertheless, I regret not being at the reading where he supposedly read too much because like him, his characters are often from the Annapolis Valley and it's great to hear them speak with the actual accent.

He told us that he'd been trying to sell his novel for ten years and part of his problem was he couldn't find a short description. "It's a love story" and "It's about a struggling writer" weren't capturing the publishers' attention. Finally after he sold it, his friend Corby told him the book was "desperation laced with hope". Stiles called Corby a nasty name and asked "Why couldn't he have come up with that ten years before?" But then he took it back. "Don't quote me on that" and explained that Corby is a great guy.

Links:

• Stiles on John W. MacDonald's Blog
• Stiles on Charles Earl's Through the Broken Viewfinder
• John Stiles on Wikipedia
• See and hear John Stiles

Referral to Zoom

I have not been blogging because I am having the kind of week that articling law students are supposed to have. If you've come here hoping to find something to divert yourself, I suggest you go to Zoom's blog and read Mock Spring claims a life.

With postings like these, Zoom reminds me that I could be doing much better work over here.

Language and Power Tips #1 - Starting Points and MSN

I have to admit that this was my favourite of the productivity blockers from a student in the Language and Power class I attended last week. I am a serious admirer of neat printing.

We didn't come up with much for #1 "Starting Point". People talked about doing your best to stick with your priorities, and thinking about long-term benefits.

But for #2, MSN^*, there was plenty to say.

"Turn it off," said somebody.

"Is that realistic?" I asked. "I don't use MSN, so I don't know. Can you turn off MSN?"

"No," said pretty much everyone, including, I believe the person who had suggested turning it off. "That would be rude!"

"I've got a real problem," said one of the young women. "My mom is IMing me all the time and I can't get her to understand that I've got work to do. She's like 'but wait, I've just found out how to change fonts and colours!"

It looked like we were going to have to throw our hands in the air. I shared my old-fashioned email technique of setting Outlook to only download emails every half hour, but that clearly was not an appropriate solution.

However, one of the students provided these tips:

1. He sets his status to busy.
2. He changes his screen name to "working on a paper".

"That way only people who really need to talk to me send messages, and if I need help with something, I can find someone."

________________

* Hi Mom, MSN Messenger is this instant messaging (IMing) software all the young folks use to communicate with the people they are not talking to on their cell phones.

I learned a new song from Jane

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes:

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes:

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes:

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody nerves....

Jane also taught Kathy A, who took to the song like a long lost sister and added an extra twist of giving two punches to the shoulder of the person next to her after the word "goes".

I can attest that because they know this song, Jane and Kathy do seem to know a song that gets on the nerves of anyone around who is not singing along.

Mr. T in my pocket

One of my best Christmas gifts this year was the always useful Mr. T in your pocket. (Thanks Dave T.) After a bit of practice I can now quickly choose the right button to have Mr. T say any of the following:

1. I pity the fool!
2. Don't make me mad, rrrrr!
3. Shut up, Fool!
4. Quit yo' jibba jibba!
5. Don't gimme no back talk, Sucka!
6. First name: 'Mister', middle name: 'Period', last name: 'T'.*

I haven't yet found an appropriate moment to use it in a courtroom setting. It seems the judges are already prepared to say similar things without the help of artificial aids.

However, it has come in handy around the office and when I've been out with friends.

I'm looking forward to using it the next time I have laryngitis. The only thing is that when I have laryngitis I won't really need four different ways to tell people to stop talking. It's too bad Mr. T wasn't also famous for saying something like "Explain yo'self, fool!" or "Say that again only make sense this time!"

I'm thinking I should develop a similar product called "Dave in your pocket." Here are some things it might say:

• Get out!
• Two beers please.
• How's it goin?
• Play something Irish!
• This bill is outrageous! I wouldn't pay it if I was you.
• There's only one thing worse than being witty...

Any ideas for other things it should say?

* The always not-subtle Kathy A loved pressing the button for this one over and over again.

Video Update

I've been going through the inbox and finally have posted Marcie's video of Jane teaching me Downtown Baby. Plus: from the DanceAbility Works in Progress show in December, Photos by Eric Mercier and Stephen Beaton now up on Webshots. Click here for the album, or here for a slide show.

Miss Mary

Here is another modern classic from Jane. I'm sorry, but I did not get the clapping instructions for it.

Miss Mary and her boyfriend are kissing in the D - A - R - K

Dark is like a movie A movie’s like a show A show is like a TV show That’s really all I know

I know I know my ma I know I know my pa I know I know my sister with the eighty-metre bra!

I saw her in the ocean I saw her in the sea I saw her in the washroom Oops, oh pardon me!

My mom’s Godzilla My dad’s King Kong and my brother is the weirdo who made up this silly song

While I imagine scholars of many discplines could write volumes on the significance of the "eighty-metre" bra size, I'm struck by the fact that this one starts out with "Miss Mary". I don't recall a Miss Mary kissing her boyfriend in the dark from my youth, but I do recall one who went to heaven while her steamboat went somewhere else.

Jane knows about this Miss Mary also. However, she is not clear on what happens after she threatens to kick the operator who might not connect her to #9.

Could it be because the reference to a piece of glass behind the iron curtain is too obscure? Probably not, because even forty years ago nobody asked an operator to connect them to #9.

Heck. I've just gone looking on the web for a definitive version of the Steamboat rhyme and I see there are many variations, so that I'll have to type out the version I remember from the late 1960s playground of Gladstone Public School in Cornwall, Ontario:

Mary had a steamboat her steamboat had a bell Mary went to Heaven Her steamboat went to...

Hello operator, please give me number nine and if you disconnect me I'll kick you in the...

Behind the iron curtain there is a piece of glass Mary sat upon it and hurt her little...

Ask me no more questions and I'll tell you no more lies Policemen in the corner Pulling up their...

Flies are a nuisance Mosquitos even worse And that is the end of my silly little verse.

Jokes from Jane and Liam

On Saturday night, Jane's older brother Liam took a break from playing Dragon Fable to tell me two jokes that he made up.

Q: What does a Ninja say to someone he doesn't know?

A: [in a high-pitched Karate voice] Hoo-ahhh-yuu!

and:

Q: What does a Ninja say to someone he does know? A: [in a high-pitched Karate voice] Hai! Yaa!

Liam is not the only joke writer in the family.

Jane: I made up a joke but it's really bad.

Dave: Okay tell me.

Jane: Okay, but it's really bad.

Dave: No problem go ahead.

Jane: I made it up.

Dave: Uh huh.

Jane: It's really bad.

Dave: Please tell me the joke.

Jane: Okay. What do you say to a computer nerd? A computer nerd is someone who spends lots of time on the computer.

Dave: It's okay I know about computer nerds... What do you say to a computer nerd?

Jane: I want to eat you.

Dave: [blank stare]

Jane: Because nerds are a kind of candy. [Wikipedia]

Dave: Ohhh....

Liam: That is really bad.

Jane: I know.

Culture Shock on a Saturday Night

Saturday night, I hit the town with a bright blue bandaid on my forehead.

First Stop - Reading at Venus Envy

Apparently some sour blogger out there has referred to Megan Butcher as a "sex fiend". Megan seems pleased by this and says she plans to get a t-shirt proclaiming it. (Apparently this blogger said something about Jennifer Whiteford liking children and small animals, but it didn't seem as likely that she'll be getting a t-shirt to advertise this.)

Megan gave a powerful reading, I managed to draw a picture that doesn't look much like her. Her reading was too short for me to try for another one that looked more like her.

"I don't normally write about sex, because, uh" said Jennifer before she read us the story of a teenage girl losing her virginity, "I'm a prude."

Given her apparent comfort reading aloud while in front of a display that contained bondage restraints, dildo harnesses and DVDs with titles like Spank Me; Jennifer's definition of "prude" is more inclusive than my definition might be.

I'm afraid I have no picture of Jennifer, because I just couldn't get anything remotely like her. I'm blaming my pen. I need just the right pen to draw pretty women.

I also failed with Jesse Dangerously. I'm not blaming the pen for my failure with him, I'm blaming him. He moved around too much for me to get one angle very long and he talks so fast when he's rapping that I had to put down my drawing stuff and focus all my attention on him to catch anything he said. Jesse is really likable and I liked his stuff even though I'm not into rap. I do have to admit though that listening so intently got tiring after forty-five minutes or so.

Getting back to the blue bandaid, I got some nice smiles from the people at Venus Envy.

Second Stop - Barrymores

The Million Dollar Marxists are really good at what they do. What they do is very loud and with a fast, hard-edged drum beat. Not really what my companions were into. "I'm glad I paid your cover charges," I said to them.

"So are we," they replied.

As for the bandaid, nobody at Barrymores seemed to even notice it.

Third Stop - the Lone Star

I don't get out to the St. Laurent Lone Star very often. I don't know what it's like every night, but I can report that although I saw lots of cowboy hats, I saw no line dancing this Saturday.

They had a band I really enjoyed (although I think their name, Table 69, is stupid.). All sorts of great '80s hits, like the Romantics - What I Like About You. Exactly the stuff I like to dance to. When the band took a break, the dj played the same dance music you'd hear on Elgin at Maxwell's or in Benalmadena, Spain at the Marina Beach disco.

In short, if you don't mind driving to the boonies, not a bad place to go to hear music you can dance to. However, don't wear a blue bandaid on your forehead. People openly stared. Several asked "what's that?"

"It's a bandaid," I replied (although technically it's a generic brand "adhesive bandage".) Many of the people who stared scowled when they realized what it was. Because half of these people were large men who seemed generally unhappy with the way their evenings were going (or something else, I don't know... life in general? the demise of line-dancing?... any guesses?), it felt like it might get ugly.

I checked with my companions and determined that my yellow belt in judo from grade six was the highest martial arts qualification we possessed between us. I pointed out the nearest exit. "That's the direction to head for. You run. I'll pull off the bandage, show them the stitches, and do my best to slow them down."

But I'm not going to go back to "flesh" coloured bandaids. It's not the most important battle out there, but you have to take a stand against racism when you can.

Links:

• Megan's blog and post that mentions me creating the drawing shown here
• Jennifer's blog and post that talks about the reading and is more favourable about the MDMs
• Jesse Dangerously
• Million Dollar Marxists
• the Lone Star - (never mind, their web site irritates me)
• the Romantics - What I Like About You

Perpetual Motion Roadshow #37 - Oct. 20 in Ottawa

I finally made it out to a Perpetual Motion Roadshow. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I'd have been happy to hear more from each of the people who performed, read, spoke or sang.

Luna Allison from Montreal gave us thoroughly engaging poems. I especially liked her love gone wrong pieces. Excerpts I jotted down:

Love is a project, and I'm a workaholic.

... as long as you're here, you're taking the place of someone who could actually love me.

Dave Fried from Chicago: punk, gay and funny. He brought the house down with his comparison of the naturalness of being gay compared to the artificial, not-what-God-intended, nature of flying in airplanes.

Ocho and his songs made a nice break. I also enjoyed his sound check. Instead of saying "check one two", he sang Bryan Adams Summer of '69.

[2025 edit:  A detailed interview from Voyage Minnesota: Meet Ocho]

Elliot Harmon does his research. I'd forgotten all about Joust, the arcade game from the early '80s. I wound up dreaming about playing Joust later that night (or early the next morning.)

 [2025 edit:  It seems that Elliot went on to have a powerful career with the fantastic Electronic Frontier Federation but sadly passed away in 2022. 

• Article with links to his work
  
• Honoring Elliot Harmon]

 

As an added bonus, I got to sit behind Megan, who was sitting with excellent, erect posture, and not leaning back against the backrest. [Because of this apparently.]

And I also had an excellent angle for drawing a profile of the famous Jenn Whiteford

Al Tuck at the Manx

Al Tuck from PEI played some nice music last night at the Manx.

Darren Arseneault happened to also be in town for the weekend and they ran into each other by chance earlier on Sunday, so Darren brought his banjo and joined in on a few songs.

Katrina Sturton also joined Al on a few, playing strong, confident harmonica lines.

Katrina is new to town and she just bought an accordion. We made sure that Katrina got Sally's contact info. Accordion players need to stick together.

[And if you're wondering about the drawing, this is what happens when I don't properly check my supplies when I go out. I had no black pen, and my only blank index card was one from an obsolete library catalogue.]

Words that embody their meaning: sesquipedalian, esoteric

I had to look up "sesquipedalion" while reading a case today. The judge could have used "wordy" instead, but I can understood how it would have been hard to resist going obscure on this one.

sesquipedalian (ses·qui·pe·da·lian)

NOUN:

• A long word.

ADJECTIVE:

• Given to the use of long words.
• Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

This reminded me of a joke that Barry Crimmins told at the Ding Ho Comedy Club back in 1980. "Funny thing about the word 'esoteric', not many people know what it means." Sue Strausman and I laughed. He pointed at us and said, "figures the ones who go to MIT are the only ones who get it."

esoteric (es·o·ter·ic)

ADJECTIVE:

1.

• Intended for or understood by only a particular group: an esoteric cult.
• Of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of people.

2.

• Confined to a small group: esoteric interests.
• Not publicly disclosed; confidential.

Blogs I Like: MatildaZine

Jennifer Whiteford's blog is a delight.

It's okay that she doesn't have an RSS feed, because she posts almost every day. She's funny and personal. I'm looking forward to reading her book even though it doesn't have space pirates. (I'm also not worried that her grandfather didn't like it and I'm probably not in her target demographic).

One of her readers ["bee"] left this comment for Jennifer recently and I concur:

i love the way you write, and always have. you're witty, and honest, and acerbic when it's right to be, and kind, and you love your friends a lot. i just appreciate what your blog adds to the blogosphere.

Names for Law-Nerd Rock Bands

If any of you law students need a name for a band, here are several suggestions:

The difference between the willies and the heebie-jeebies

At dance class tonight, Peter led us through a Japanese foot massage. At one point we were using our fingers to rotate individual toes in circles and I noticed Lainie making a face.

"Why are you grimacing?" I asked.

"This gives me the willies," she said.

"It gives me the heebie-jeebies," said Peter.

"Which is worse: the willies or the heebie-jeebies?" I asked.

Ian spoke up with a certainty that surprised me. "The heebie-jeebies."

"What's the difference?"

"You can run away from the willies, but the heebie-jeebies can follow you anywhere."

Stop cooking with cheese?

It's the first day of spring. I was cycling along Gladstone when the temperature had almost reached it's high point for today: -3°C.

For some reason, I started thinking about that annoying series of commercials where an old lady tells people "Can't get your kids out of the house? Stop cooking with cheese!"

I wondered, how many people cook with cheese? The Italians do and they have a reputation for kids staying at home into adulthood. But the Chinese don't cook with cheese, and they've got a reputation for kids staying at home also. And if the kids are such big freeloaders, wouldn't it be smarter to just stop cooking everything?

I hear "stop cooking with cheese" and I think maybe the old lady is right. Isn't cheese high in saturated fat?

I pondered what if they'd done the opposite campaign: something like "don't want your girlfriend to leave? start cooking with cheese!" Someone I know who cooked roughly five meals in the last five years just moved into his own place near his girlfriend's apartment and word is he's cooking meals more than weekly. With cheese, I think.

What's all this got to do with the picture I've got here? Just after thinking all this about the cheese I saw this chesterfield with a snow bank resting on it.

Can't get winter out of your town? Stop giving it sofas to relax in!

Links:

• The fake ghost commercial
• Anti-cheese website: "Don't Say Cheese!"
• Pro-cheese website: Cheese Facts and Fallacies
• For non-Canadians: definition of chesterfield

A letter to Darren Stevens

Darren, she could have given you the stars, and you put her in the kitchen.

"Magic is cheating," you said.

You ate meatloaf and macaroni when you could have dined on moonbeams.

Your work for Larry, it had to be your own. You could sell. You didn't need her help. Sure. Of course.

But think of the wonders you missed, the places you never saw, because you made her hide who she really was.

In the News

Home and Garden TV

I'll have to be brief this morning. I have a TV crew in the house. Okay, it's not so much as a "crew" as it is one guy from SewerMatic. He's down in the basement checking out my sewer pipe with a video camera on a long flexible wire. I've got some interesting root action going on. I'll show the tape at the next party.

On other blogs

My drawing of Michael Ball from Feb. 9 has been picked up by another blog - the Michael Ball (Only) Club. It's a blog dedicated to people named Michael Ball.

So far there hasn't been much interest in a blog dedicated to guys named David Scrimshaw. I was contacted several years ago by a David Scrimshaw who owned a power tool company in Australia. I'm hoping he's not the same guy who ran an internet service and skipped out on his customers. (The reason I suspect it could be the same guy is that Power Tool Dave asked if he could give ex-girlfriends my address and tell them that he'd moved to Canada.) The David Scrimshaw who runs an engineering company in England with a guy named David Taylor (I'm not making this up) never replied to my email. There's also a David Scrimshaw in Wales who does particularly well at cricket.

Dave Scrimshaw snaffled 7-20 off 10 overs as Denbigh pulled off a two-wicket win over Gwersyllt Park, dismissed for 90 (Jamie Griffiths 25). Denbigh hit 91-8 (Neil Pearson 3-28 off 13 overs) in a 20-3 result. [source]

At least, I assume he does well, they wouldn't mention his name if he was doing badly, right? Snaffling is good, right?

Scrimshaw at the Olympics

No, there isn't a David Scrimshaw at the Olympics, but there was a new use of my last name in this news item from MSNBC, subtitled Failing at the Olympics is forgivable, but getting fatter on beer is not:

If there has been a weaker performance by an American athlete on the international stage than that of Miller, I’m hard pressed to think of one. To hear Miller tell it, he spent more time in Sestriere’s nightclubs than he did in actual competition, which amounted to less than eight minutes. Miller’s final Olympic event, the slalom, lasted all of 16 seconds. He bulled out of the start house, did a couple of quick scrimshaw turns, and promptly straddled a gate.

I just checked with my avid skiing brothers, none of us has heard of a "scrimshaw turn". Steve suggests "Maybe it has to do with the turn being 'carved'". In any case, I'm going on the theory that Miller was doing well when he "bulled out of the start house" and "did a couple of quick scrimshaw turns", and only went wrong when he straddled the gate.