The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Sunday, November 23, 2008

Spong

While commenting on someone else's blog (Argentum's, of course), I became aware of the Word Verification's odd ability to come up with a nonsense word that almost makes sense, and often in the context of the theme of the article upon which I am commenting. Sorry about the convolution of that last sentence but it came out that way and I am leaving it in.

Just today, I was leaving a comment (again, on Argentum's) and I was offered a beautiful, almost magical verification word: "spong". It has taken root in my brain, pushed all other thoughts into some cubicle over there on the left side so I could play with it freely on my left.

Now, I must come up with some definition for the word. What is a "spong" anyway? It seems to be a sound or maybe some kind of coiled spring thingy or maybe something that almost soaks things up but not quite.

I definitely could use some help here.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good insult.

Oi - you spong! :-)

Michael said...

Wikipedia says: "Spong is a surname of Gaelic descent, and is an archaic term for a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides."

To me, 'Spong' sounds like a spoon with prongs. Although, we've coined the term, 'spork' to that thing.

Michael.

(Word verification is 'alcho'.)

Inspector Clouseau said...

What immediately came to mind for me was a ball of some sort, made of a material such that when the ball is bounced or hits a solid surface, make the sound "spong."

Unknown said...

I thought it sounded like some bacteria growing in the refrigerator ... like ... "Oh no, the leftover pasta has spong growing on it. How long has it been there anyway?"

BTW ... my word verification is "virldsac" ... hm!

Small Footprints
http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com

Douglas said...

Michael, I had no idea there might actually be a valid word involved. Checking that, I couldn't find it elsewhere, so I have to wonder. Sporks combined the worst of both utensils.

Jules: That's different. In a very weird sort of way.

Log, a picture of one of those cheap pink rubber balls I use to play stickball with came to mind, bouncing off a large aluminum sheet.

And Small: what do they call that stuff that builds up around the ketchup bottle neck? Anyway, not bad. Hadn't thought of a mold. Might have, my sis-in-law left a pair of banana bread muffins sitting around for a week, I kept wondering what the mold would look like.

Douglas said...

Wait! I think I've got it! The sound a slinky makes as it hits the next step on the stairs.

generic Brand said...

I can't believe everyone here has semi-intelligible words. Check out this blog entry of mine to see how absurd the ones I get are.

"trewea" is the one on here this time.

Anonymous said...

Douglas, I have commented on your comment on my posting on the said blog refering to spong...

I considered a verb, the past of sping, the past particple of which would naturally be spung.

So you would have your slinking spinging down the stairs, or in fact it sponged down the stairs yesterday...

All food for thought.

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/

verifaction - chinli

Douglas said...

What about spang? No room for that form?
I sping, you spong, he spang.

Anonymous said...

I was leaving room in case we had to conjugate speng at some stage, shouldn't put all our eggs in the one basket.

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/

verdify - debeeb

Anonymous said...

OMG, I've been debeebed!

Douglas said...

Eledundi, my friend, eledundi.

Michael said...

Wikipedia says: "Spong is a surname of Gaelic descent, and is an archaic term for a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides."

To me, 'Spong' sounds like a spoon with prongs. Although, we've coined the term, 'spork' to that thing.

Michael.

(Word verification is 'alcho'.)