I thought this would be a good time for something lighthearted.
I have a pastime that makes me laugh. I go to Google and type in only the beginning of a question. I get a list of questions that Google thinks I will ask.
I find that a couple of suggested questions are normal, a couple are funny and one or two might have been sent from another planet. The questions never end in question marks, but I got over that. Also, for what follows, I tried to stick with language-related topics, but I strayed.
Here's what I mean. I typed Does the alphabet ...
My options were:
Does the alphabet need to be in order
Does the alphabet rhyme
Does the alphabet exist (?)
Next I typed, Do words ...
I saw:
Do words have power
Do words have meaning
Do words rhyme with themselves (If they don't, there's a problem.)
Knowing I would shudder, I typed, Do apostrophes ...
I read:
Do apostrophes matter in email addresses (No)
Do apostrophes go after the period (No)
Do apostrophes make nouns plural (Noooooo)
I started, Do consonants ...
These came up:
When do consonants double
Do consonants have long and short sounds
Do you pronounce consonants (!)
I typed, Does reading ...
I saw this:
Does reading make you a better writer
Does reading make you smarter
Does reading burn calories
I typed, Is writing ...
I read:
Is writing an art
Is writing fanfiction illegal (?)
Is writing on your skin bad (!)
Next, Why do men ...
My options were:
Why do men twitch in their sleep
Why do men lie
Why do men cry
I tried, Why do women ...
I read:
Why do woman live longer
Why do women complain so much
Why do women eat their placenta (!)
I queried, Why do babies ...
I saw:
Why do babies smile in their sleep
Why do babies spit up
Why do babies stare at me (this sounds a little neurotic)
I typed, When do eggs ...
I found:
When do eggs expire
When do eggs hatch
When do eggs hatch in pokemon sword (!)
I tried, Does anyone ...
I saw:
Does anyone live in Antarctica
Does anyone collect old emails
Does anyone deliver roosters (?)
I typed, Do I need to ...
I read:
Do I need to fast for bloodwork
Do I need to quarantine
Do I need to register my drone
I queried, Why do words ...
I read:
Why do words sound weird when repeated
Why do words have silent letters
Why do words exist (Um, for talking?)
I tried, Why don't I ...
I saw:
Why don't I like kissing
Why don't I remember my dreams
Why don't I get text notifications (Those three rounded out many of humankind's questions.)
I wrote, Who is ...
I read:
Who is the richest person in the world
Who is the president of the United States (!)
Who is Dora's boyfriend
I tried, Is my nose ...
I read:
Is my nose broken quiz
Is my nose too big
Is my nose ring too small (That sounds like a personal choice.)
I tried, My stomach ...
I saw:
My stomach keeps growing
My stomach burns
My stomach hurts in Spanish (Tell it to speak English!)
I tried, What country ...
I read:
What country has the most covid cases
What country is Melania Trump from
What country does eggnog come from
I tried, Does Congress ...
My options were:
Does Congress make laws
Does Congress include the House and Senate
Does Congress pick the president (!)
I typed, Is Alaska ...
Google suggested:
Is Alaska the biggest state
Is Alaska an island
Is Alaska a country (!)
I tried, Does the president ...
I read:
Does the president have to be born in the U.S.
Does the president get paid for life
Does the president sleep alone
I wondered, Is marriage ...
I saw:
Is marriage a right
Is marriage counseling covered by insurance
Is marriage always hard
I queried, My teenager ...
I saw:
My teenager refuses to eat what I cook
My teenager sleeps all day
My teenager hates me
I asked, Do I really ...
I read:
Do I really need a root canal
Do I really need an air fryer
Do I really love my boyfriend (How would the internet know?)
I wondered, How do I act ...
I saw:
How do I act my age
How do I act in a movie
How do I act cool (This is an age-old question.)
I typed, Where can I find ...
I read:
A Nintendo switch
My blood type
Hot chocolate bombs (I immediately clicked on that.)
I tried, How much time ...
Is left on my timer (?)
How much time until Christmas
How much time have I wasted on Fortnite (ha ha)
I tried, How many times ...
How many times is love mentioned in the Bible
How many times was 50 cent shot
How many times has goku died (I had to look up goku. He is a manga character.)
OK, this is weird. I tried, How old ...
And the first choice was How old is goku.
BOWLING
Just a random discussion here. When I was at my first newspaper, we had a bowling writer. I'm not sure how common that is these days. But the reporter would often get tired of using bowler and bowling again and again. He would instead use kegler and kegling, which always made me giggle.
Apparently, the words date back to medieval German, in a game that somehow tested one's faith and purity. Each kegel, or bowling pin, stood in for a heathen. People would try to knock down the pin with a round stone. If you could knock down a pin, that meant you were sin-free.
What a fun and completely logical game.
The German root contributed kegel, kegler and kegling to the English language. The dictionary noted that most writers today use the old-fashioned word comically.
Sources include Google and Merriam-Webster. Reach Bernadette at
bkwordmonger@gmail.com