I love to hear quips and colorful phrases. Not only are they often funny -- "rare as a hen's tooth" -- but they are clear evidence of past communication, living artifacts bequeathed from people living in past years or even generations, like relays. Sometimes phrases are modified, morphing due to changing context. A tinker's dam, for instance -- or is it "a tinker's damn?" What is a tinker, what is a dam? I've heard people in the 21st century refer to "tinkerers," but less often, "tinkers." A tinker is/was a repairer, a fixer of little items; a dam, as in dentistry or whatnot, a sort of plug or material stuck into something to prevent leaking and spillage.
Two questions for today's post.
1) What do you like to "tinker with?" and:
2) What is something that annoys or irritates you, or that you think is not worth a tinker's dam/damn?
As for me, I just acquired on the cheap a little microscope, and am enjoying tinkering with glass slides, looking at the patterns of salt crystals. Why? Fun to see patterns normally invisible to the naked eye, which is also a good metaphor.
Irritations? These include rude, aggressive and dangerous drivers; loud cellphone blathering in tightly enclosed social spaces, especially when compounded by rudeness to a worker, such as a postal clerk, while others are waiting in line. Why? Disruptive to serenity, and an assault on the social contract, not to mention a waste of everyone's time.
Today's Rune: Wholeness.
2 comments:
The living artifacts of language are indeed great fun. I hope the rise of mass and world media doesn't smooth all that away.
Erik-Up north we say that something is not worth a 'plugged nickel'. Explain that one!
I love to tinker with alcohol ink painting. It's total escapism. And I am totally irritated with screaming children in stores and restaurants. Completely ruins my experience!!!
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