back to books Re: doublets / langue / traffic

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Annemehr" <annemehr at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie" 
> <sistermagpie@> wrote:
> >
> > > > Carol, not "getting" the Tom Swiftie is that's what "blandly" is
> > > 
> > > Geoff:
> > > Sorry, you'll have to explain this one; I'm left scratching my 
> head 
> > > in puzzlement.
> > 
> > Magpie:
> > I think Carol is saying that she doesn't understand the meaning 
> behind 
> > your use of the Tom Swiftie "blandly" in that sentence? Not sure if 
> > Swiftie confused you, but in case anybody else doesn't know the 
> word--a 
> > Swiftie or Tom Swiftie refers to an adverb being used after "said," 
> > usually a pun. Such as "He poked me!" he said pointedly. Or "But 
> who 
> > turned out the lights?" he said darkly.
> > 
> > I always tend to think of the word as applying to any far-out 
> adverb 
> > use, but I think that was the original joked. All coming from the 
> Tom 
> > Swift books where Tom could never just "say" anything.
> > 
> > -m (she said helpfully)
> >
> 
> Yeah, what Magpie said.
> 
> I didn't intend my original "innocently" as a Swiftie, and couldn't 
> see that Geoff's "blandly" was, either.  But when I said "bytingly," 
> of course that one was.
> 
> Annemehr

Geoff:
Right. Well, I hadn't the faintest who Tom Swift or Tom Swiftie is 
or was (I still haven't!), he says rather irritatedly.

I was responding to Annemehr's "innocently" by using "blandly" - 
which I don't consider far out BTW - in what I thought was the 
same fashion, i.e. rather tongue-in-cheek.

But I suppose we always run the risk of being misinterpreted 
and misunderstood using the written word, he says mournfully.