NTMP #34: Dorkcore
The reason for the beeson
Flying comma * Gorpcore * Bar-tailed godwit * Beeson * Nyquil chicken * Suspicious slime trail * GameStop Daycare * Flanderization * The apocalyptic sublime
The Phrases, With Context
This week we’re renaming punctuation marks, dressing like dorks, and admiring freakish feats of nature. I’m also celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary with a two-day jaunt into Chicago, where the weather promises to be not good. What a weird and wonderful milestone to feel ancient while beating the odds by not divorcing and marveling at a union forged almost entirely from Simpsons references. My advice? Marry someone who makes you laugh every day.
1. Flying comma
My friend Rebecca texted me this brilliant tweet:
The word ‘apostrophe’ is hereby dead to me.
2. Gorpcore
This isn’t a new word, but somehow I’d missed out on this descriptor for people who dress like they’re about to go on a hike (see: the entirety of Northern Colorado) and at one time it was 100% my aesthetic. Dorkcore is more my thing these days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3. Bar-tailed godwit
My friend Tonya texted me about this bird—a new-to-me bird with a delightful name that Audubon describes as “Big, noisy, and cinnamon-colored.”
Feel free to borrow that for your Twitter bio if applicable.
Per the NYT (gifted link): “The godwit’s epic flight — the longest nonstop migration of a land bird in the world — lasts from eight to 10 days and nights through pounding rain, high winds and other perils. It is so extreme, and so far beyond what researchers knew about long-distance bird migration, that it has required new investigations.
That last bit sounds like my friend Casey, who just finished the Berlin marathon today!
4. Beeson
My middle kid (who does not read this newsletter) likes coining new words. When I mentioned that September is bee season, this was his reply.
Therefore, it’s pronounced “beezon.” You’re welcome.
5. Nyquil chicken
“Let’s check out what the kids are up to on TikTok!”
“Oh. Oh no. Oh NO.”
6. Suspicious slime trail
They’re back: The Giant African Land Snails! (Not pictured because they wig me out.)
If you think I could resist a phrase like “suspicious slime trail,” then you don’t know me at all.
Important: If you click one link from this newsletter this week, let it be this one.
7. GameStop Daycare
According to this article on gaming site Kotaku (found via Morning Brew), parents leaving kids at GameStop to shop elsewhere is a thing.
8. Flanderization
Also via Morning Brew, this term is based on Ned Flanders from The Simpsons describes the unfortunate ways TV and literary characters can become caricatures over time.
Quasi-related: here’s a Flanders-related TikTok referencing one of my fave Simpsons bits:
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
I remember, @thetimberlinecowboy. I remember.
BTW that dude’s entire TikTok is just him in that red ski suit flipping the bird at the camera. It’s art, okay?
Recently my childhood pal Jeff asked me to send him the best photo I’d taken lately, and in response, I sent him that TikTok. Just in case you wanted to be friends with me and were wondering what’s involved in that deal.
9. The apocalyptic sublime
If you’d like an aggressively literary read about how people seem to enjoy watching things be destroyed and how that ties into capitalism, here you go.
Nerd alert: This phrase predates the context mentioned here, referencing a sub-genre of the Romantic art movement.
That’s it for this week! I’ve gotta go pack. Remember to stay curious and remain furious!
I was Dorkcore before it was cool! ;)
Yikes That’s not a link I should have clicked on. I thought that thing was a chihuahua. Or as Les Nessman would have said, “chi hua hua.”