18 Comments
User's avatar
Author John G. Dyer's avatar

Witty zaparte goes here.

Andrew Smith's avatar

Zapatista + repartee?

Bill C. White's avatar

I just learned a similar sounding word "Rasputitsa":

Rasputitsa[1][2] is the mud season that occurs in various rural areas of Eastern Europe,[3] when the rapid snowmelt or thawing of frozen ground combined with wet weather in spring, or heavy rains in autumn[2][4] lead to muddy conditions that make travel on unpaved roads problematic and even treacherous

We had "mud season" in Vermont and it was a mess-- every year.

Bill C. White's avatar

I've become addicted to WWII videos ;-)

Author John G. Dyer's avatar

I eat a box of ice cream every 10 days.

Author John G. Dyer's avatar

Child of the '60s, I'm afraid. I was free-associating. Shoe salesman banter? Yes, that sounds about right.

Andrew Smith's avatar

Free-associate any time you want!

"Free associates" could be a really unenthusiastic chant heard outside a prison somewhere.

Author John G. Dyer's avatar

Or a great name for a rock band.

Andrew Smith's avatar

The T-shirts sell like hotcakes. They say "Free ass..."

Phoebe Howe's avatar

I adore it when words are spelt/spelled in the same way and have different meanings and uses and sometimes no difference at all (spelt/spelled one example!) there are one or two differences between English English and American English though, naturally!

Andrew Smith's avatar

Me too - very cool to zoom in on these and wonder why they are the way they are! There is always a story there.

Bill C. White's avatar

AI-produced YouTube narratives expose all sorts of idiosyncracies in our language.

Phoebe Howe's avatar

Some of my friends give me a blank look when I say that but thankfully not everyone!

Andrew Smith's avatar

I've learned to just write about them.

Phoebe Howe's avatar

That’s interesting, I simply read up about them.

Bill C. White's avatar

I learned it sep-a-rat. Not sure where I got that heuristic.

Andrew Smith's avatar

Hey, I’m pretty sure I did too! “There’s ‘a rat’ in separate” or something like that.

Bill C. White's avatar

That's the one!