Some Meanings of Made-up Words

From "Merry Andrew" (1958). Not everyone got the memo about driving on the left.

 You could of course argue all words are "made-up", but I wouldn't. I know too little about it, but I'm pretty sure the first language was a form of accounting, hence "subject verbs object". Language's first purpose was to describe interactions, not transmit the experience of solitude, which might explain why we're so often having to resort to the word "weird" when describing our current isolation. In other words, don't feel too bad about it. 

 Anyway, yes, made-up words: In today's episode of A Journal of the Plague Year posted below, Defoe's narrator fulminates against the selling of charms bearing the word "Abracadabra", which led me to investigate whether or not this was the word's earliest appearance in literature. In fact, its first recorded appearance is in the second century during the reign of Nero. However, nobody knew even then what it meant, only that one should tie it in a ribbon, and hang it round one's neck, preferably using the "lard of a lion".

 Which brings me, naturally, to the Steve Miller Band. 

 "Abra... Abra...cadabra... I wanna reach out and grab ya," they sang in 1982, so I don't know, maybe Rock 'n' Roll will die, but certainly, it gives no further clue as to what the word meant (although there is a lot going on in the video), but I remembered that the Steve Miller Band had quite a history with made-up words: Their 1973 hit The Joker sung of "the pompatus of love", so I decided to research the origin of that word instead and, uh, yeah, I hit gold. Horrible gold. According to Jon Cryer, star of the 1995 comedy The Pompatus of Love, the word is actually a corruption of a misheard Vernon Green lyric: "puppetutes of love", and puppetutes are... well, they're puppet prostitutes. So I learnt that today. Defoe talks however of the disappearance of "merry andrews" from the streets of London, and that's allowed me to sweeten today's post with the song at the top. I love Danny Kaye. Subject verbs object. Hope you're all tickety-boo. Here's episode 3:

Days of National Humiliation

"It's not the despair, Laura. I can stand the despair. It's the hope." Clockwise

 It's not really though, is it? As I write this, the polls are still open, but the Conservatives don't appear to be breaking a sweat, and the odd engagements I've had with Tory voters on twitter have given me very clear hints why Blair and co. thought it such a good idea to rename the party: for so many in Britain, the very word "Labour" is bafflingly, deafeningly toxic. Back at Tory HQ meanwhile, following the example of Trump, the Conservatives have learnt the best way to win at Democracy – as with Global Thermonuclear War – is simply not to play. Instead, attack human rights as enablers of terrorism, attack the judiciary as "enemies of the people" and, fuck it, attack the very principle of opposition as a tedious attempt to "frustrate the will of the people". I almost included attack the media as discredited pests, but of course both sides have done their share of that, with the odd honorable exception. And Christ, that clip was hard to find! Googling "Corbyn defends press" gets you three pages of Corbyn instead attacking it. Someone should write a strongly worded letter to Google's offices, that'll fix it. 

 I am voting Labour, you might not be surprised to read. I've even made the odd campaign contribution, although I actually left the party, almost a year ago, after it backed Brexit. Watching Corbyn's performance during this campaign, however, I get it now: voting is sacred to him. That's why he never stood down having won that vote, why he backs Brexit, why he rebelled so often while voting as a backbencher while producing such a coherent manifesto, and why he refuses to consider any further "deal-making" to form a coalition. He has clearly always believed that a vote is a genuine expression of the self, and that a democracy must honour those expressions. Well, good for him, I suppose. It's proved a pretty strong platform this past month. And we'll see. But the attempts at uniting a country have come and gone. Even the campaign slogan "For The Many, Not the Few" foreshadows, a little too strongly, some incoming civil war, and only the Right benefits from division. As I'm sure I wrote elsewhere – although I can't find that now either – I've always preferred the motto of the London Olympics' Opening Ceremony:

 And I remember* John Oliver once made this observation about the elections in Egypt: "Under a dictatorship you get used to a dictator kicking you in the balls. Under a democracy you have to get used to half your own population kicking you in the balls." I'm not sure it's google-able, you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm still in Frankfurt. I only know what happens on social media. I think my friend Gemma's in Stratford now. She's making a show about the Civil War. She's been researching it for years. Fun fact: one of Oliver Cromwell's big ideas once he came to power was to replace Holidays with "Days of National Humiliation". Nobody thought there'd be a civil war before then either, she told me. Sides just became too entrenched.

"Oh well..." a sign in Frankfurt.

* and, it turns out, have already blogged about...