neologisms

remember that newspaper guy who would conduct this event every-once-in-a-while where people would submit words which had new, and pretty funny, meanings? i saw one of those recently and tried to check up on it. as it turns out the guy was from the washington post and is no longer doing that thing. that's a shame as it was really entertaining.

there's a new person who's doing some similar stuff, called The Style Invitational. i couldn't find out anything about this woman, but her stuff is not funny. maybe it takes getting used to. maybe you need to be from the beltway. whatever the reason, from what i looked at, her stuff really sucks. or maybe it's just that the people who send things in are a different caliber of intellect. whatever. i miss the neologisms and i hadn't even realized they were gone.

here are a few from the e-mail which started this whole exploration:
coffee -- the person upon whom one coughs
flabbergasted -- appalled over how much weight you have gained
abdicate -- to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach
willy-nilly -- impotent
lymph -- to walk with a lisp
gargoyle -- olive-flavored mouthwash
balderdash -- a rapidly receding hairline
oyster -- a person who sprinkles his conversation with yiddishisms
frisbeetarianism -- the belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there

why do the good things go away and the horrible things last forever?