• Mangulating the English language — one word at a time

    My significant other and I have this thing that we do — we mispronounce words. On purpose. I like to think of it as mangulating the English language. 🙂

    It started innocently enough. My grandmother jokingly referred to this afghan that we brought her for Christmas one year as an “afrighan.” Then, I noticed that a coworker says “sammich” instead of sandwich. A coworker of my mom’s claimed that she had ESPN instead of ESP. And, here in the South, lots of folks say things like “Eye-talian” instead of Italian.

    And it just snowballed from there. Football is now “fooball.” If we’re going to get Mexican food, we’re really going to get “Mesican.” We “mangulate” and “strangulate” lots of other words.

    And we have an eye-rolling, groan-inducing good time doing it.

    What about you? What kind of in-jokes do you have with your significant other? Inquiring minds want to know …

  • I love my Heroes …

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    Watched the Heroes pilot last night. As a comic-book fan and writer, I was interested to see how and if it would work — and if it would be too much like X-Men. It did, and it wasn’t.

    It totally rocked.

    Dug the characters. Dug their conflicts. Dug their emerging powers. And wondered what it all meant and how they’ll come together. I especially loved the nerdy Japanese guy who so desperately wants to be special. Don’t we all?

    What about you? Are you feeling a little Heroes worship? Inquiring minds want to know …

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    Why bad guys are so good …

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    My perusal of new TV shows continues. Watched Smith last night. It’s on CBS and is about a crew of professional thieves. They knocked over an art museum. A woman got tasered. People died. Stuff blew up. And I liked it. 😉

    And the show made me think … why do we like to root for the bad guy? We all do it from time to time. C’mon. Admit it. There’s a villain out there somewhere that you secretly want to win. You want Mr. Bad Guy to kick the hero’s ass, thwart the authorities, and convince the heroine to ride off into the sunset with him.

    Sometimes, the villain is what really makes a story sing. Just look at the comics. Where would Batman be without the Joker? Or Professor X without Magneto? Or Spider-Man without Green Goblin? Snoresville, most likely.

    What about you? Do you want the bad guys to win sometimes? Inquiring minds want to know …

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    Studio 60 and dialogue

    Watched the premiere of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip last night. Really enjoyed it. Great cast, great concept, great execution.

    And really great dialogue.

    The intelligent, sharp, rat-a-tat exchanges between the characters were one of the best parts of the show. And one of the best parts of TV and movies in general.

    The truth is that you just can’t do that kind of rapid-fire dialogue in books. Oh, you can have great dialogue, no question, but you can’t go overboard with it the way you can in other mediums. After a couple of lines in a book or short story, people lose track of who’s talking. Without any visual aids to cue them in … well, it’s just not as thrilling as it is in the movies and on TV.

    What about you? Do you love great dialogue? Or does description make your heart sing? Inquiring minds want to know …