Mixological Balderdash

Amusing New Yorker talk of the town about made-up words in the dictionary; semantic spring guns set against lexicographic poachers. Who knew the fields of our language need to be mined with whimsy, to ensure profit to those who enclose it and mark its borders for profit? (via Languagehat.) Oddly, no mention of the game, Balderdash.

If asked to define 'esquivalience' - but no one ever asks me these things - it would have been more a mash-up of this and this. So 'esquivalience' would be something like a key technical term in a scientific theory of the basis of different reactions to space-age pop.

It's Saturday night, so here's a mixological balderdash variant. Zoë - in the course of telling me my bedtime story - invented a drink: the battleship swish. Some of the superheros in the story liked the drink, some didn't. Now what do you think the ingredients of a battleship swish must be? (Scott is obviously going to suggest: same as a zombie, with Jägermeister substituted for rum. Or something. Or maybe that would have to be a 'thanks but no thanks for not being a zombie'.)

There should also be a 'virgin battleship swish' for kids. That's only fair to the inventor.

I have no idea how Zoë figured out 'battleship swish' sounds vaguely like a mixed drink name. I drink beer, Belle drinks wine. Gee whiz, we don't take the kid to bars. Some sort of mixological deep grammar?

Comments

[Jeremy Osner]

I believe the game you are calling Balderdash is the same as the one that I call Dictionary; it is discussed extensively (or, "a bit") in comments to LH's post. Oh wait -- now I see you mean, odd that there is no mention of the game in the New Yorker article. Yeah, that's true.

[Matt]

John-
Zoe goes out to the bars on her own time. I mean really, who wants to have the folks cramping her style?

But, did you ever write up a post/review of _Waiting for the Barbarians_? If so, can you point me to it? I read it this summer and would be interested to hear your thoughts. Even though it was written years ago I had a hard time not reading it in light of current events in the US and feeling terribly depressed.

[jholbo]

I posted quite a long review-discussion at the Valve here. (Thanks for asking.)

[Matt]

Thanks for pointing me to it, John- it's a good review. (I hope you'll read disgrace, which is wonderful. I also read Elizabeth Costello this summer but feel less sure about it.) To my mind what was terrifying about _Barbarians_ was seeing the Magistrate in the position where crash between the rock and the hard place is coming, where he knows at some level that he should do something but hopes he won't have to, and can't decide yet how drastic of a thing he must do. The more common version of this problem is, for example, for a person caught by the cops, deciding when to stop stone-walling and go along. Here the problem is much harder. I'm sure it's one that many people faced in Germany in the 30's- when do you leave? When do you go underground? Do you join a resistance team? Do you just hope it will all pass? Very, very unpleasant. So I guess I liked the book a bit more than you, but I can't offer any deep analysis on it. I enjoyed the review, though.

[SamChevre]

A battleship swish would have to include rum, since that's the battleship drink. Maybe a naval version of a boilermaker--rum, beer, and lemon juice.