I have no defense for the the things that pop into my head. I like to say that we have no control over the thoughts that come knocking at our door, but we can choose which thoughts we invite to come in and stay for a while.
Having said that, I was thinking about warped words that we make part of our vocabulary. Often these are words that our children speak as toddlers and we find them so funny and cute that we ended up incorporating them into our adult vocabulary. An example is “b’sketti”. That was given to us by our oldest daughter, Becky, when she was excited to see a plate of those long skinny noodles set before her with meatballs and sauce.
Another word, passed on by my mother’s sister, Rose, is “allabodies”. I have to include here the context of her use of the word. Whenever anyone would gossip about other family members or get into a family feud and try to drag her into it, she’d say, “I love allabodies.” Some day I will write a blog about my Aunt Rose so you can get the full flavor of this really interesting woman.
Another word used to be bantered about by my daughter Kate and her friend, Penny, when they were teenagers. They’d say, “What a cowinkidink!”. It was used in place of “coincidence”, of course. I think I remember it because the two of them would laugh uncontrollably whenever one or the other said it. Someone told me recently that the word actually originated in a ’70’s movie, but I don’t really care. I just like saying it. I like the reaction of other people when they hear me say it. And I like it because, when I say it, I remember two teenage girls lost in sweet hilarity.