Let's jump into this Y Post and I have to tell you, like Certain Persons In The Politics, I have nothing prepared. I'm winging it, composing at the keyboard, hoping The Muse shows up as I go. The difference between us is, Oh hell. There are a ton of differences. Let's not, as they say, Go There.
Y1: Yvonne de Carlo, aka Lily Munster. Here is a photo, for your reference:
Now, for those of you who know/remember/imagine what I look like, just superimpose my face on there because that is exactly what my hair is starting to look like, much to my dismay. My grey is now appearing in huge swathes against my almost-black hair, which I am growing out because I have A) no regular stylist, and B) chronic indifference/sloth. Thank heavens that I do not wear pancake makeup, eye shadow, or lipstick, or it would be Halloween year 'round at the Dept., and you all know how I feel about that "holiday." Ugh.
Y2: Yarn. As in the stuff one knits with. I'm not going to bore all of you non-knitters, I promise. Just let me say that not one single Knitting Person warned me that, once I began knitting, a chemical receptor in my brain would be switched to the On position, and I would become almost pathological in my urge to amass yarn. I'm not even a Good knitter, mostly a Therapeutic one (for my hand arthritis), but I keep looking at and feeling the need to buy/acquire yarn. I have declared a Personal Yarn Moratorium until...Forever. Which is how long it will take me to use up what I now have.
Y3: Yardwork. I was at a party over the summer, and as part of an icebreaker game, we were asked to write one sentence about ourselves on a slip of paper. Each sentence would then be read aloud, and the guests would all guess at who wrote it. One person wrote I love yardwork. My first reaction was Holy Crap. What is wrong with that person? My second reaction was I have got to get the name of that person and see if he/she wants to come work in my yard! Because, honestly, the second part of the word yardwork is WORK. And, remember, I am retired. Yardwork, to me, sounds like something on a prison duty roster. "Okay, Detweiler, this week you've got yardwork. Make sure the inmates don't huddle up in groups larger than three, and watch out for contraband. And stay on top of the litter situation."
Y4: Yams VS. Sweet Potatoes. I still don't care about which is which, and I never ever will. I call them all sweet potatoes because I hate the word Yams. I hate to say it; I sound terrible saying it. Maybe it's what my late friend Ann from Orlando, Florida, called my flat NEO "accent", but when I say it, it sounds like I can't stop the vowel sound soon enough; like I'm trying to draw it out: Yaaaaaams. Let me assure you; I'm not. Besides, sweet potatoes sounds nicer.
Okay! I made it through. I'm back. And I can't wait to hear about your Y Words or your comments on mine.
lily image
y tiles
Y WORDS:
ReplyDeleteYOU: For some reason it annoys me when people pronounce this word as if it were a female sheep when expressing gratitude, i.e., “THANK EWE.” How dumb is that? Probably like your aversion to the sound of “yam.” (Which I don’t like, either.)
YEA vs. YAY: Which is it? I have always spelled it “yea” as in the opposite of “nay.” I am not referring to an affirmation, of course, just a ‘shout for joy.’ According to The Grammarist.com, I am wrong in asuming that the “yea” (the archaic form of “yes”) is also appropriate for expressing joy, which apparently should be “yay.”
Regarding your grey hair: mine started going grey in my early 30’s. When it became rather abundant, I started dying it. Once, in my early 40’s, I let it all grow out just to see how much grey was really there. I looked about 80, so I went back to dying it. Oh, well. I always used to think, though, that I would not have dyed it if I actually had natural black hair instead of mousy brown. I always loved the ‘salt & pepper’ look. But I get why you would be depressed if there has been a sudden onslaught of grey. Kind of like the day you look into the mirror and see the first really noticeable wrinkles in your neck and think “That is NOT me! Where did this come from?!!” Because these things truly just seem to appear from one day to the next.
Ortizzle--Come to NEO, where I have not yet heard the "You/Ewe" proclivity. Perhaps it is a sort of Southern Drawl thing (yes, I know TX is technically not a So-Called Southernish State, that they like to be more Westerny and Cowboyish).
DeleteYEA/YAY: Yep, you are incorrect. YAY is the joyful expression of celebration, whereas YEA is the olde timey version of YES. What really irritates me and offends my Inner Grammarian is when anyone writes YAH or YA for YEAH. It is right up there with AWE for AW, as in "Aw, look how cute that panda is!" BUT THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT THAT.
Hair: Sigh. Sigh. SIGH. I am too lazy to dye my hair. It is too much upkeep. And as far as neck wrinkles/wattle...I am too scared of HOSPITAL INFECTION to go under the knife.
But my Vanity is definitely intact.
Thanks for clearing up the "yay" thing. I'm guessing that the ALL CAPS on "this post is not about that" maybe means I screwed up somewhere, lol. Not O.K. to have a "Y" topic related to vocabulary gaffes? (Or I am just being incredibly dense about the interpretation!) Regardless, I, too, hate it when "yeah" is abused, and can't even fathom how people get "awe" mixed up with "aw," particularly when the word "awesome" is such a staple in the vernacular of the day.
DeleteVanity: As nice as it might be to look younger than I am, I most definitely could never go for botox or surgery. Too scary for the reasons you suggest and then some. Also: (1) Eventually the rest of your body catches up to you, so... (2) You are not fooling anyone, and (3) even with the money for surgery and botox + denial of the rest of your body... (4) you begin to look like a caricature of a human being. So one must find ways of growing old gracefully. And finding oodles of scarves for the neck. Until, eventually, it is possible to reconcile oneself with the fact that... 'you're no spring chicken, but you also have a lot of other really fab qualities for which you are valued and, YEA verily, even revered. Other minor consolation: those who rely 100% on their physical beauty... are so screwed when they get old. That, at least, is how I am dealing with it for now. It gets harder and harder as the years go by, though. :-D
Ortizzle2--You most certainly did NOT screw up. The all caps meant that I could go on and on and on about other Grammaresque Items that raise my ire that are right up there with AWE/AW, etc., but if I did, then Comments would turn into one big rant about Such Things, and This Post Is Not About That.
DeleteBut it is probably High Time I did a post about Such Things and let us all blow off some Grammar Steam and have some fun.
If there are other Vocab Gaffes related to Y, let's haul them out and let them see the light of day, by all means.
I am awarding you 200 Commenter Points for using Yea Verily. How perfectly gorgeous.
Oh, thank goodness! (re: the CAPS). And, yes, I would dearly love a nice round of DoN comments on grammar pet peeves! I love the convos that follow thoses posts, particularly as there is such a variety of input from different parts of the States.
DeleteAs for the Commenter Points, I am so honoured and flattered that I am going to have a little tipple of wine to celebrate!! I have been having a rather harrowing week, and this was quite the bright spot I sorely needed to put a smile on my face and create some badly needed perspective. Every little bit counts, and often, the little bits added up... are what count the most. XXOO :-D
P.S. Just checked out your new “clink the glass link.” Holy cow. Maybe I should say “holy Elephant.” The RNC must have the hardest job in the history of the party defending the Drumpfster Fire. And how can they possibly say that his apology was “heartfelt” when he was clearly reading a canned message composed for him by, likely, Kellyanne Conway, the Queen of Pivoting from Drump’s Dumbass remarks into How Horrible Hillary Is. Do you ever watch Samantha Bee’s program Full Frontal? I know you are not on cable TV anymore, but you can watch all of her shows on YouTube. She is now in the ranks, for me, with John Oliver and Bill Maher. Absolutely brilliant! If you have not discovered her wonderful, caustic wit, here is a link to the latest:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/zku244d
O'tizz--I. Know. I keep up with All Things Cable, thanks to my Political Mailing List Items and my DC Beltway Buddy Leanne. She emails me or sends me text messages anytime Bill Maher is completely brilliant with links to same. Samantha Bee is my hero.
DeleteY is an especially familiar letter for me as I grew up with a last name that started with Y. It was a difficult and not very pronounceable name, and wasn't spelled how it sounded. When I would give my last name and be asked how to spell it, I would start by saying "Y like the color yellow", and people would invariably write W. When I got married, my husband's last name was easy and common, so when that ended, I kept the last name. SO much easier.
ReplyDeleteYvonne:
I always think of The Munsters as the poor man's version of the Addams family. I always thought Lily's extreme gray was striking, but that doesn't mean I would like to have hair like it. My hair is very short, and I have a lot of UGLY yellow-ish gray in it now. Fortunately, I am quite fair, so I can get away with blond, so I keep the color very light. Even when the gray starts to show, it basically blends in with the blond, so I don't have to color it as often as some. I do it myself at home, as I never have time to go to the salon.
Yarn:
No real thoughts about yarn itself, but I do know about the acquiring gene being turned on. We're that way about bits, one of the pieces of horse equipment. We have WAY (and I mean WAY) too many, but fortunately they are small so they don't take up too much room.
Yardwork:
I have no yard, so I do no yardwork, but that kind of thing never appealed to me. If I'm outside, I love to look at the fruits of someone else's yardwork (flowers or vegetables or a lovely lawn), but I have no desire at all to do that work. My outside activities all revolve around horses. The end.
Yams vs sweet potatoes:
I agree with the consensus that the word YAM is icky. It sort of has a "white trash" feel about it. However, I do love sweet potatoes or yams in almost any form, regardless of the word of origin.
Politics:
I just can't bring myself to follow any of the political crap. Trump is a certifiable idiot, and it is astonishing that everyone doesn't automatically see that. It's frightening that he got this far...
LaFF--What an odd little anecdote re: people writing down a W when you used Yellow as the example for the Y word.
DeleteAnd I wonder if anyone really--beyond farmers and chefs--makes the distinction between yams and sweet potatoes outside of it being a regional dialect thing. I am interested enough to wonder but not interested enough to research it. (I told you that I am suffering from/embracing my chronic indifference/sloth.)
Thank goodness yarn (and bits!) takes up comparatively little room. You can at least hang up bits, and I imagine they wear out eventually. Hey! Can I knit you some? I can sense a way out of my Problem!
As far as The Politics, I completely understand. I am nowhere near as tuned in as I have been in the past, to which any of my Longtime Readers can attest. It's simply too frustrating and, to borrow your apt word, astonishing. And disappointing. It was tawdry and sad enough the last go-round when the teapartiers and their ilk trotted out their ignorance and pathetic, blatant horribleness. But this time, we have the Honey BooBoo/Duck Dynasty/Doomsday Prepper set in all their glory led by an overgrown toddler bully. The media created his candidacy; I hope they are happy.
I never understood how anyone got W out of yellow, but it happened all the time. Weird...
DeleteAs for yams and sweet potatoes, they are actually different. Yams are the orange ones, and sweet potatoes are much paler. Now you know the difference with no energy expended.
All our bits are in plastic containers/boxes, sorted by type, and stored out of sight. I don't have an area big enough to hang them all, as that might actually require a small room. In reality, they NEVER wear out, as they are almost all made with stainless steel, with some copper or hard plastic thrown in here and there on certain ones. I still have some that were purchased 30 or more years ago. DO NOT KNIT ME ANY.
LaFF--Darn it. And here I thought we were a match made in heaven. I even had a name ready for my New Business--Nance's Knit Bits. ;-)
Delete"Yam" makes me think of Popeye, "I yam what I yam". Been gray for awhile except for nose and ear hairs which have found a new aggressiveness.
ReplyDeleteSillyak--LOL on the Popeye reference. I am grateful to have greyed so slowly, but the sudden onslaught (as Ortizzle called it) is dismaying. Or..."new aggressiveness"! So far, no ear hairs, thank goodness, although I wonder if I'd see them.
DeleteSuch a cute a fun post! Happy Thursday ♥
ReplyDeleteSummer--Oh, thanks. Sometimes I have to lighten things up just a bit, or I start to lose my perspective, you know?
DeleteThree of my four favorite Y words are common in Appalachia. (There is NO LONG A in the pronunciation of that word.)
ReplyDeleteY1 - Yokel. A person not interested in culture. Of course the word might be derogatory coming from others, but it's quite acceptable for us to use the word about ourselves.
Y2 - Yahoo. See Y1
(Yahoo, not "YAHOO!" which is the website whose name is said to be an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle")
Y3 - Yonder. Distant but still within sight. We very commonly refer to an object as being "over yonder." It's up to the listener to determine just how far and in what direction over yonder might be.
Y4 - Yeshivah. An institute of learning focusing on the Torah and Talmud. I'm not Jewish. I just love the sound of that word and I don't often get to use it. Thank you for giving me an opportunity.
NCMountainwoman--I love the sound and meaning of a lot of Yiddish words. Many of them have such nuanced or specific meanings that perfectly capture ideas which, in English, take entire phrases. And, as you point out, so many have terrific sound to them as well.
DeleteWhen I'm using "yahoo" in a pejorative sense, I often pronounce it YAY-hoo to be really mean. As in, "These yahoos who support the republican nominee for president cannot be serious."
It also helps to distinguish it from the Online Presence. You know, for those who are easily confused.
Oh YARN! You may have placed a Moratorium on Further Acquisition, but that won't help. Yarn will find YOU. I had two giant tubs of genuine Irish wool yarn given to me by a lovely couple in my church (they used to run a little Irish shop). I didn't have the heart to refuse it (I prefer acrylic yarn because it's softer on the hands), but it was as if they were giving me one of their children. Of course I accepted it. And then a friend in Texas gave me a big box of yarn. If I ever finish the Year of the Blanket I'll have plenty of yarn for smallish projects.
ReplyDeleteThe only other "Y" word that's coming to mind is Yentl. Am I the only person who really enjoyed that movie?
Bug--Holy Crap, do you know that the FIRST THING I thought of when I read that you wanted to refuse that lovely Irish wool yarn was, "I'll take it!"? How terrifying is my Pathology?
Delete...but I do love to use woolen yarn...STOP ME PLEASE
Never saw Yentl and never wanted to. My parents saw it. Dad was a huge fan of Streisand's, and my mother will go to any movie any time.
You know, your Personal Yarn Moratorium could be lifted if you gave all your unwanted yarn to Goodwill, or such like, freeing you to buy. more. yarn. I'm with you on that sweet potato thing. The word "yam" immediately reminds of Popeye: "I yam what I yam." Never really grooved on Popeye, but anything with the word "sweet" attached to it, I like.
ReplyDeleteAlly Bean--But I do want all my yarn. I do. Sigh. It's a sickness. I want all the yarn, whether I do anything with it or not. I now understand some of the people on Hoarders so much better.
DeleteInteresting that you mention not ever really caring for Popeye. Me, either. I thought the cartoon wasn't funny or appealing in any way when I was a kid, and as an adult, I still find it goofy and annoying and not in an ironic way. I don't get it, I guess.
I was very sad and yet a bit relieved when our local yarn shop closed. Like you, I buy yarn because I like it. Not having a place where I can actually touch the yarn keeps me from buying more. Unless I venture out of our little town.
DeleteHere are the salient points: 1) Does buying yarn prohibit you buying things you need?
2) Is your house overflowing with yarn to an embarrassing degree? If you answer "no" then you are not hoarding and it's not a sickness. And in this election cycle, anything that brings you pleasure is darn well worth it. I have done more knitting this election year than ever before. I listen to an good book and knit my troubles away for a while.
NCm--Thank you for your reassurance. I can honestly answer "no" to both!
DeleteZ's always a tough one, but you're almost there! In fact, all the letters toward the end of the alphabet are super tough. I think that hairstyle is pretty darn awesome!
ReplyDeleteStephanie Faris--Hello, and welcome to the Dept. You know, the last alphabet letters really are challenging. It was the same way in my attendance/gradebook when I was teaching, too, with regard to student last names. Not too many in the UVWXYZ category, but way more at the top of the alphabet.
DeleteAnyway. My Lily Munster Locks (modified) and I appreciate your support.
Hmm, the first Y word that pops into my head?
ReplyDeleteYak.
Don't ask me why I'm thinking of giant musk oxen. I got nothin'.
Robert Bennett--Hello, and thanks for commenting here at the Dept. Yak, huh? They are awfully distinctive looking, that's for sure, and the word is nice and compact. To be completely forthcoming, I use it to name the wads of hairball and food that my cats regurgitate so thoughtfully every now and again. As in, "I stepped in cat yak this morning, barefoot of course, before I had my coffee." (Probably now, this is your last visit here at the Dept.! ;->)
DeleteYou aren't alone, I've heard that term before as well. My mother was partial to using it. Haha
DeleteActually, you've probably never eaten a yam!
ReplyDeleteI've had yam several times in Africa, as they're a staple in countries like Ghana. And they're completely different from what we commonly eat here. They're usually much bigger (though not always) and much blander than anything you may have bought that was (mis)labeled as a "yam" in the grocery store.
We grow two different types of sweet potatoes in the US, and grocery stores needed a way to differentiate between them, so they started calling one type "yams," despite the fact that they're not actually yams.
Click here to read more about the differences, if you're so inclined.
- Mikey G.
Mikey--I did read it, and felt mild outrage throughout. Lied to by the Giant Industrial Food Complex for no other reason than their own convenience. And now I've seen, read, and used the ugly little word yam far more often than it really deserves. At least I know I can move on from here and use the term Sweet Potato (which, come to think of it, is also starting to annoy me as well) with impunity.
DeleteYarn is my favorite Y word that is for sure. And Lily Munster, I just love her so much.
ReplyDeleteMereknits--I'm sure the quality of your Yarn is much more elite than mine. But you have been at fibercrafting far longer than I have and with much more passion. You make incredibly gorgeous things!
DeleteAs far as Yvonne de Carlo, I was unaware of her early film career before she became the fantastic Lily Munster. She was really a good actress and incredibly beautiful. She reminded me of Vivien Leigh, a big, big favorite of mine in the Old Silver Screen Days.
We don't have yams in the U.S. We have different varieties of sweet potatoes. Yams are in Africa, and the sweet potatoes here reminded the slaves of them, so they called them yams. So what we call yams are actually sweet potatoes. And as you don't like the word yam, that should be good news for you.
ReplyDeleteYvonne is my middle name. I was named for my great Aunt Julia, who never had children, but if she had had a daughter, wanted to name her Yvonne. She was SO important to my mom. But she died before I was born, so I never met her.
Yaz. Do you remember Yaz from the 80s? I loved them.
And now I read that Mikey G also told you about the yams. Rats. That might teach me to read the comments first.
DeleteJ@jj--LOL. I am a compulsive Comments Reader for just this reason.
DeleteI used to love the name Yvonne until I met a relatively odd girl from KY or WV who pronounced it WY-VONN. It was her middle name, too, and that was the way she pronounced it. Ever since then, I cannot stop reading it that way. Her sister's middle name was Yvette, and yep, she pronounced it WY-VETT. Sigh.
No memory of Yaz. Off to Google.
I'm not sure Yaz holds up well if you didn't hear them in the 80s, but gosh they were so fresh and wonderful to my little suburban ears...
DeleteYaz! Loved Yaz! The lead singer's voice is incredible, but yes, so very very 80's.
ReplyDeleteI have no Y words that come to mind other than Yearning. I yearn for things that will not be happening any time soon, which is really not healthy. To me, yearn connotes a desperation that simply "wishing" for doesn't quite cover. I would say, yes, I am somewhat desperate.
Thanks to genetics, I started going grey in my mid thirties, and now I would say that if I did not color my hair, it would most likely be 60/40 with gray in the lead. I hope that it is like my Dad's and grandfather's lovely, shiny silver, but I haven't let it grow long enough to find out.
I have zero affinity for yarn at this moment. Although I have seen beautifully colored skeins that if I were to knit, I would want.
I hope you are doing well, my dear.
Gina--Oh, I do so understand the Yearning. It was partly what drove me to take my Solo Jaunt. And every now and again, I have to work through bouts of it. I'm sure most of us do. Counting One's Blessings doesn't stop us from wanting things to be Better or Different. We are all human.
DeleteGrey hair is such a Symbol, and that's the problem. It definitely connotes Aging, and that's a big reality that we would rather not have to confront on a daily basis. Lost Youth, you know, and all that it represents. I am still a good 70-75% black-brown, thanks to the genes of my father (a really slow greyer), but the dramatic streaks and swathes are startling to me, especially since they seemed to appear overnight. They are mostly a whitish-grey. And a bit wiry.
As far as Yaz, I Googled and listened, and cannot recall ever hearing a song of theirs. Which is odd, because Cleveland is very wide-ranging in its music and its stations play everyone. And if the sound was 80s, I was all over it. I can only blame a faulty memory, unless for some reason Yaz stayed hyper-regional in California/Western US, and I can't imagine the latter.
I'm doing reasonably well; thank you for asking. As our weather keeps changing, my headaches are a plague, but Autumn is becoming beautiful. If you could get away for even a long weekend, you have a retreat in Ohio waiting for you.
I am fairly sure that Yaz made it to the national charts at some point. The lead singer, Alison Moyet, does a version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" that we played at our wedding.
DeleteI think I might be OK with the majority gray head of hair if I didn't have a 1st grader. If I only had my 14 year old, I wouldn't feel as bad. I'm already one of the oldest Moms in my daughter's class, and the last thing I need to do is call more attention to it!
A Retreat sounds lovely, as does the turning of the leaves, which we absolutely do not get here. If only! Thank you for your beautiful and kind offer, it really means a lot to me!
Gina--Okay, I've youtubed several Yaz/Yazoo songs, and I don't recognize any of them. Sigh. I guess Soft Cell was way out in front of them here in NEO, as I remember that duo far more.
DeleteThe offer is a standing one. Autumn is gorgeous here, and will be for a while yet. You can have the lakehouse all to yourself if you desire it.